Lost Camera and Little Miracles

Okay so to begin...I went to the temple last Saturday and lost my camera. Therefore, my posts have been lacking of pictures which is a shame because I've seen some pretty cool stuff and would love to show it to you. Things like standing on top of King's Cathedral, going to Norwich and the Coast but alas I will wait to blog about these until I borrow my friends' pictures who generously took pictures for me :) And all is well now because my camera is back! So let me tell you the story of the temple...

Last Saturday a couple of us girls were able to go to the temple with the Relief Society sisters. I had a hard time deciding to go because we weren't going to be able to do baptisms and it's an hour and half drive to the temple. I went anyway and on the ride there I got uber car sick, I was so sick it was not fun and I was slightly regretting my decision. That all changed though when we got there. The grounds the temple is on is beautiful grounds and there were a lot of families out having a picnic so we joined the rest of ladies from our ward and laid out a blanket and had a great picnic, the English sure know how to have a picnic and it's was a beautiful day. So when everyone went in for their session only Megan and I were left so we went in the temple to just see if we could see the font and they were gracious enough to let us tag on the end of the group there and do baptisms! It was such a blessing, we told the relief society ladies when we were finished and they said that never happens and they usually stop doing baptisms long before we got there so it was a little miracle. So we stayed the whole day and then we drove home and I loved conversing with the Relief Society ladies. What did we talk about you might ask? Well, and I quote "sex, violence, and drugs" oh it was such a funny conversation, they all got so animated and they were teasing each other and I have never laughed so hard. The day was completely worth it and I'm so glad I went. Of course it wasn't until we got all the way home that I discovered I had left my camera there and the temple was closed until Monday! Surprisingly I didn't panic until I had to tell my mom that I had lost their camera. However, thanks to gracious security gaurds who put up signs, my camera was found of all places in a tree! I think I left it by a bench and somebody saw it and moved it closer to the temple where it would hopefully be found. It's things like that that make you appreciate the members of the church and good, honest people and my heart swelled with gratitude. Still more miraculous, the Bishop went to the temple this week so he was able to pick it up for me, it couldn't have been more perfect. So there's my little miracle of the week. I definitely know Heavenly Father is watching out for me and if that's true then what else is there to fear? Well TTFN, ta ta for now and I promise more posts to come as soon as I get pictures.

I've finally recieved my Hogwarts letter

Christina and I about to eat the deserts that we don't know if they were alcoholic or not :) JK we were told there wasn't any alcohol but still skeptical....

Nothing like a high wasted skirt and good pair of heels... :)

Oh yes all of us with our millionare faces haha maybe one day...

Today I entered the world of Hogwarts where there are fancy dinners in great halls and amazing food appears on plates in front of you. This would otherwise be known as a formal hall held at Pembroke College and what a wonderful night it was! Formal hall is basically a very nice dinner where everyone dresses "smart," aka handsome in American English, and you are served very nice food and it's a chance to intermingle with the professors and fellows of the college. Can I just say I love this kind of thing? Having a good excuse to really dress up, eating proper and having dinner served to you. I told the people I was sitting next to that maybe I should marry a someone like a politician so I can go to fancy dinners and dress up more often, I don't know I think I'd make a good senator's wife, don't you? haha no but it was a blast. I was at the end of the table and we just had a great time taking pictures and enjoyed all our food including Cod, Chicken, and then a good apple donut and creme desert, mmmmmm.

Weekend 2 Part one

Tea at Granchester with Zina and Drew plus lots of others not featured in this picture

Fireworks for some kind of weekend festival... who knew?

Punting on the River Cam after a wonderful American BBQ, P.S. I don't like this pic of me but there you go.

This would be our Italian singer punter who also models while punting, oh gotta love it! Picture would be curtesy of Camille, Thanks Camille!

SO I've been a slacker on blogging lately so I have a lot to say as always. The weekend for me started on Thursday and besides an American BBQ, it was actually very English :) So on Thursday we had a late fourth of July party on Darwin Island in Darwin College, very beautiful. We had hamburgers and even doritos and rootbeer which the English says tastes like cough syrup and I must disagree! Thanks to good leaders we had boats to go punting in on the river Cam which runs behind all the colleges of Cambridge. So for those who don't know what punting is, because I definitely didn't before I came here, you get in little boats and then one person stands up and propells the boat with a pole so kind of like what I imagine Italy would be like. Our boat included me, Jen and Derek- the married couple- Camille, Christina, Megan and Jared so we had a really great crew. Despite loosing the pole a couple of times and running into people we had a pretty smooth ride thanks to Derek and Jared. The guy featured above would be Jared who serenaded us in Italian while he punted, it just doesn't get any better than that :) and then we went through some willow trees in which the girls all broke out in "kiss the girl" from the Little Mermaid because that's what it felt like. All in all super fun and I want to go again when there are less people on the river.

Friday was good, had a classic BYU party including card games. Afterwards we went and watched fireworks which made up for the ones I missed in the states of the fourth. Definitely a lot less grand but hey, you can't be too picky right? They were still pretty good. Saw some great things at the carnival there including a guy dressed in an astrounaut suit claiming the Martians are coming, one of the funniest things I've seen!

Saturday then was tea at Granchester. It was about a 45 minute walk away to this field that followed the river. It was great seeing people sprawled out by the river, it pretty much looked like a beach! We even saw a couple who had just been married and their reception was being set up and there were ladies in big hats and the dainty umbrellas and the whole get out which was a perfect setting because it just felt like the bride belonged there so that was cute. Then we arrived at this area where chairs and tables are set out in circles and you can buy tea and scones and cakes. It was so nice, I got a scone with apricot jam and we just sat in a circle and drank our tea and ate and enjoyed the nice afternoon. I felt very English, ahhhh so nice. There are just old traditions here that the states definitely don't have which is too bad.

Happy Birthday America! From Scotland

Fountain's Abbey

Drew, Me, Sara, And Jared in front of Edinburough Castle

View from the top of the Trussachs.

The view of Edinburough from King Arthur's Seat

The Castle

This weekend was a trip to Scotland and wow, it was amazing! I don't even know where to begin. The whole program went on a 8 hour bus ride (not too fun) up to Scotland for the weekend. On the way up we stopped in I think Richmond and saw an ancient castle that was built in the 1100's. There was only one tower still in contact and the rest is just ruins but still super cool. I felt like a child on a playground climbing the castle. It was in a charming city as well so we got to peruse the shops and I found a great little antique store and enjoyed all the cottages. The drive up was beautiful, with rolling hills and the cutest little cottages and houses. When we passed the English border, our bus driver let us get out and take pictures and there was a bagpiper next to the sign that said "Welcome to Scotland" and I knew this would be a great trip. So we arrived in Scotalnd Friday night and we hiked up King Arthur's Seat wheich gave us a beautiful view of the city and the Ocean. We looked out and it was so cool because you could see the old castle and ancient spires poking out and it was enchanting.

So Saturday was an all day trip to the Trussachs or Mini Highlands. Basically we hiked two miles in rain and mud through foilage, it wasn't even really a trail, to the top of this "mountain" to see a majestic view of the highlands and a couple lakes. No, I am not a huge fan of hiking but this was gorgeous and I'd do it again in a heart beat. There definitely is no place like that in America. Saturday night we had a fourth of July party where we did Scottish dancing and that was very amusing. Of course drinks were provided so only the BYU kids were the sober ones so it was funny to watch everyone else. Basically the dancing was like line dancing and square dancing only to Scottish music. Unfortunately there were no fireworks but we still had a blast dancing the night away. Oh and some of the guys from BYU bought full on kilts and wow was that entertaining to see :)

Sunday included running around the city almost literally. We went to St. Giles catherdral for a Presbyterian service in the morning which was really interesting. It's sad to see how misguided they are about principles and how lost it seems but it is also really neat to see that people still believe in God and have a desire to worship him. They prayed for America in the service thanking them for their ingenuity and what has come out from Scotland and then they prayed that America would use it's power wisely and properly. It was very touching. I don't think prayers are said enough like that in America. So after the service we tried to find our own church building to go to but we failed. We got five different directions and then we missed it so we just gave up. It wasn't for a loss though because I got to see a different side of the city of Edinburough which I wouldn't have gotten and then I got to see the residential side of Scotland so it was neat to see how people live. SO afterwards we came back into the city and went to the National Gallery which was beautiful, I love looking at the art and they had a lot of pieces that I had studied in my classes last year from Italy so that was cool. Then we went to the "Elephant House Cafe" where J.K. Rowling started the Harry Potter series. I can definitely see the inspiration as there's a beautiful view of the Edinburough castle through that cafe. Then we went to another museum, went to the castle, and went souvenier shopping. Finally we went back to our living quarters and I was able to change into some dry clothes and pants! It had been raining and windy off and on all day and I had been in a white flowy skirt all day....not a good combination! I basically had to hold down my skirt all day and it was drenched for most of the morning haha so pants were a beautiful thing that night. Then that night we found a kabob house and had wonderful middle eastern food and we just sat and talked for a long time. This trip was wonderful because I got to know everyone so much better.

Anyway so today (Monday) we came "home" to Cambridge. It's so cool that I can call Cambridge home! On our way home though we stopped and saw Fountain's Abbey which was like a nun/priest school. It was started in the 1100's and it's actually pretty well preserved. We had a great time climbing through all the ruins nad it's so fun to see places are that old! Anyway so in a nutshell that was my weekend. Sorry that was probably a lot more than you wanted to know but I still could write so much more! Anyway, now it's back to the books....

Today was a Fairytale

"Willy Wonka candy factory"... seriously, they were playing the music and everything!
This is part of the view from my desk window. You can see people punting down the river Cam, it's a beautiful view.
This my living room which I have in addition to my bedroom. Notice the piano :)
Me eating a FREE piece of cake and in the backgroud is King's college which is where I eat, sleep, study, all that good stuff, who ever thought I'd live in an acutal castle?
One of the many cool buildings and architecture at one of the colleges in Cambridge. This is so beautiful.


Greetings from Cambridge, England! One 9 hour plane ride, a 2 1/2 hour bus ride and a couple of layovers and a hot and sweaty ten minute walk later I finally arrived at King's College, Cambridge. I haven't seen London yet but the country here is beautiful, just like the movies. Lots of rolling hills and little cottages that Sleeping Beauty could live in. Then I arrive in this castle which is where I will be spending most of my time for the next 8 weeks. I really feel like I went to sleep and woke up in a storybook, it's awesome. So some of the wierd things, England doesn't believe in aircoditioning and they also don't believe puting the toilets with the showers. The showers are on one floor and the "toilet" is two floors down. They also, at least in Cambridge, don't believe in walking on the grass. Besides that though, Cambridge is pretty cool and I live quite high class. Everyone is super polite here and they are really good about making you feel at home and giving you everything you need. So what I've experienced so far I love and I can tell you it will be impossibly hard to go back to Provo for school. If this was closer to home, I think I would definitely go here, I love living in a fairy tale story book.

Packing Again

I'm back again. For some reason when I got back from D.C. I lost the motivation to write, I'm not sure why. So let me catch you up on the last couple of months...First coming home from D.C. was hard. I learned so much in D.C. that by the end it felt more like home then Utah did, I never thought that would happen. I can honestly say that I was not excited to be back in Utah and when the plane flew in I was homesick for D.C. The only think that got me off the plane was my sister and brother waiting for me. It was wierd being back in Utah with a new perspective on life. D.C. taught me how to have fun, how to participate in the community, I learned to be a lot less scared of the world and a lot more sure of myself. I still miss just about everything about D.C. and yes, I would love to end up back there at some point. That being said, I have had a wonderful couple of months at home. All my family is home and there's no replacement for quality time with family memebers and building relationships that will last a life time. I was able to nanny for a family and clean houses to make some money and let me tell you there's nothing like hearing my name "nadawie" said by a two year old boy. There is so much to learn from kids and I learned a lot. The summer also included a wonderful trip to Florida which was so nice and warm and fun. So that's a quick 411 on my life for the last couple months.

As you can see from the picture I am now packing for my next adventure in England! I'm studying abroad, taking three classes on history. Right now I am slightly nervous and very excited. Never having been out of the country this will be an adventure of a life time. I promise to keep this blog up as much as I can and post lots of pictures! Now I have to go finish packing...

Popcorn popping

Oh what a glorious weekend it was. The trees were in full bloom and it looks like snow it's gorgeous. Washington really goes all out for the Cherry tree festival with fireworks, lanterns, parades, it's all so beautiful but there are thousands of tourists. Friday we didn't have class so we went to Mount Vernon. It was beautiful, I never realized how big Washington's estate was, I got the sense that he was an amazing and stately man. His giant estate looked out over the Potomac and it covered a lot of acres. I definitely would love to live there. That night we went to Pizza Paradisio and gelato it was great. Saturday involved a trip to the Eastern market and conference of course and then girls night around the Potomac watching the fireworks. Sunday of course was Easter and it couldn't have been more perfect. Conference was wonderful. I have been overwhelmingly happy all day. I organized Easter dinner for the Barlow group and thanks to everyone's efforts it turned out wonderfully. It was the perfect end to a wonderful session of conference. It felt like family sitting around a table and telling all of our favorite memories about the semester. I am so blessed with so many good friends.