Home Sweet Home :)

7 August 2012

Today is my first official day being home, and it’s great! I slept in until eleven this morning and enjoyed every minute of it! It’s a little weird to be home but not really. I’m surprised how fast I’ve already adjusted. And it’s been great to get back to things I’ve missed. I made a list while I was gone of things I missed about the States, and this is what I came up with:

• Unlimited free wifi
• Fast-moving elevators (or lifts, as the UK would say)
• Working toilets (you had to flush three times before it worked)
• Outlets in the bathroom (I never saw an outlet in the bathroom. Not once. How do they expect me to do my hair?)
• Light switches inside the bathroom (they were always outside)
• Free public toilets (should that be legal to charge for something like that? No wonder Paris is so gross.)
• Smoking laws (I added this one after waiting in line for Notre Dame behind a man who was smoking right into our faces. That would never be allowed here.)
• Cold milk!
• Street signs (the lack of these made it a lot easier to get lost…)

Anyway, it was an AMAZING experience, but I’m glad to be home. This concludes my posts on this blog. I hope you all have enjoyed reading it, and I appreciate the support you’ve all given me! And if anyone’s thinking about going on a study abroad, my advice is go for it! Do whatever it takes to get out there because you will never have another chance to do something like it. This is one decision that I am sure I will never regret. :)

I'm Coming Home! :)

5 August 2012

Today, we got to go to church in Edinburgh. That was a really cool ward. I liked them a lot. They actually had a young single adult class for Sunday School, which I didn’t expect to find over here. It was nice because it made me feel a little bit like I was back in my singles ward (but only a little bit…no one can compare to my ward!).

After church, we started driving to Glasgow. On the way, we stopped at Loch Lomond. We mostly just stopped since it’s one of the most famous lochs. It was cool, but I thought that Loch Ness was prettier. But maybe that’s just me.

Loch Lomond

After we got to Glasgow and checked into our hotel, Molly and I decided to try to find the property where Pollok Castle used to be (it was built by my ancestors). But it was harder than we thought it would be. We never did find it, which was a little disappointing. But then again, the only thing that’s left is part of a wall, and I did get to walk through the same area as my ancestors, so that’s got to count for something. Oh, and I found Pollokshaws Road, so that was pretty great!

When we got back to the hotel, we decided that we should probably start organizing our bags for our flight tomorrow. But instead, I Skyped my sister and brother-in-law. And then I got to Skype my five-day-old nephew, Matthew! He didn’t say much, but he is adorable. It was so cool to be able to see him moving around. I can’t wait to see him for real!

Later, Molly came to my room, and we ended up talking for a few hours, which was awesome. And we decided to just pull an all-nighter since we had to leave for the airport at 4:30 in the morning. When it got to be around 1:00, we were afraid that if we fell asleep, we wouldn’t wake back up! Also, if we stayed up all night, we would be able to sleep on our ten-hour flight and adjust better to Utah time. I did fall asleep for fifteen minutes and Molly fell asleep for twenty, but that was all. The rest of the time, we made sure to stay awake.

6 August 2012

At 4:30 this morning, we said goodbye to one of our directors and then loaded onto the bus and headed to the airport. It was sad to say goodbye to so many of the people in my group, including the director. We had done and learned so much together, and it’s weird to think about not seeing them every day.

Anyway, I got onto my first flight with no problems. That was a short flight because we were just going to London. When we got there, we ran into some new missionaries on their way to the Provo MTC, so that was fun to talk to them for a little while.

My next flight was the ten-hour one. It was SO long! But the thing is, I could NOT fall asleep to save my life. I was ridiculously tired (remember how I pulled an all-nighter?), but that didn’t matter. Luckily, I had a personal tv, so instead of sleeping, I watched The Hunger Games, The Avengers, The Lucky One, and an episode of Friends. That’s a lot of television, but I didn’t know what else to do.

When I finally got to Dallas, I had to go through customs. That wasn’t too bad, just annoying. But then I got to my gate, pulled out my cell phone, and called my mom. It was a little weird using a phone again, but it wasn’t too hard to adjust. ;)

While I was waiting for my last flight, the gate changed three times. That was really irritating. And then we left two hours later than we were supposed to! So instead of getting to Salt Lake at 8:45 PM, I got there at 10:45 PM. Not so fun. And the whole flight, I was just super antsy. I was sick of being on a plane, and I just wanted to be home already.

Finally, we got to the airport and I walked to the baggage claim, where almost my ENTIRE family was waiting for me. It was awesome! The only ones who weren’t there were my sister who just had a baby and her husband (and their baby, obviously). It was so great to see them all. My oldest nephew seemed a little confused at first (probably because I was wearing a hat), but he warmed up pretty quickly.

By the time I got home, it was about midnight, and I had been awake for almost exactly 48 hours since I had slept. So I went to bed. In my own room. :)

Edinburgh

3 August 2012

This morning, the girls and I went to a kilt store and walked through an exhibit there. We got to see the kilt that Mel Gibson wore in Braveheart and the kilt that Liam Neeson wore in Rob Roy, so that was pretty great. We also watched this super awesome video about…well, I’m not really sure what it was about. It was pretty strange. We were laughing the entire time. I recorded part of it on my camera, but my blog doesn’t like it enough to let me post it.

Later, the group drove to Edinburgh. The rest of the night, we just walked down the street where the Fringe was going on. So we got to see a lot of street performers, and that was a lot of fun! I also tried to look for Pollock souvenirs, but I couldn’t find anything. Sad day.

That was basically the entire day. It was fun; there’s just not a lot to say about it.

This guy was playing on a saw!

I loved this group!

Here's an idea of what it looked like

4 August 2012

Today, we got to sleep in! I’m pretty sure that’s the only time I’ve done that on this trip. So of course, it was really loud outside our hostel, making it extremely difficult for me to actually sleep. But that’s okay.

We did basically the same thing that we did yesterday. We walked along the street and enjoyed the Fringe. And it was awesome because we could walk down one way and then turn right back around to find completely new entertainment since the people are constantly changing! We also went to a comedy show, and that was great! Plus, it was free, so that’s always nice.

Later that night, we got to go to the Military Tattoo. It was AMAZING! I absolutely loved it! It was so fun to see all of the different bands come out and represent their countries. I especially liked Australia’s performance. They had the entire audience join them in a dance party. It was so awesome!

There were a lot of other cool things, but I’ll just show you the pictures since that will explain it better than I can:

In front of Edinburgh Castle

This was the Australian dance party :)

They used a projector to put things on the castle, and this was
one they used for the US Navy (they played a bunch of superhero
theme songs to show that soldiers are superheroes too).

And, of course, they topped it all off with some
fireworks above the castle at the end!

We got back to our hostel pretty late, but it was definitely worth losing sleep over. Such a good night! :)

Inverness

1 August 2012

Well today, I don’t have a whole lot to write about. Most of my day was spent in a bus. We left Stirling today and drove for nine hours to get to Inverness. On our way out, we were supposed to stop at the William Wallace monument (which I was extremely excited for, by the way), but for some reason we didn’t. I was not very happy about that. I came all the way to Scotland and didn’t go see the monument built for arguably the most influential man in Scottish history. No big deal.

We did stop at the Commando Memorial, which pays tribute to all the Commandos who lost their lives during World War II. So that was neat but still not as cool as William Wallace. We also stopped at what’s called the Neptune Staircase. It’s a waterway that boats take to get out to the ocean. They enter into one step of the “staircase,” letting the water rise around them until they enter into the next step.

Commando Memorial

Neptune Staircase

The best stop we made was at Loch Ness. We got pictures with Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, and we got to touch the water where she lives (don’t worry, she didn’t get me!).

That took up the bulk of my day. I had a headache through most of it because of the long drive (the winding highland roads didn’t help). But we finally made it to Inverness and checked into our hotel.

As soon as we had checked into our rooms, my friends and I left again to go get dinner. We found a great place that had good food for less than five pounds. Not bad! After dinner, we just walked around town looking at shops. Then we hung out on the bridge until we went in for the night. This city is beautiful, especially at night. I loved being on the bridge! I got some good pictures out of it:

2 August 2012

We’re still in Inverness today, but our group had a few scheduled things. First, we went to the Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre. Culloden Battle was a critical turning point for the Scottish. It’s a battle that they lost to the English, but if they had won, the Scottish people today probably wouldn’t be speaking English; they’d be speaking something more similar to their ancient Celtic language. It was similar to visiting the site of the Battle of Hastings in England.

We went through a museum first and watched a video. The video was projected onto four walls so that it felt like you were in the middle of everything. And it was a little graphic, so it was kind of intense. For example, it actually showed one guy being shot in the eye. So it shook me up a bit, but it was also really cool the way they set it all up.

After the museum part of it, we got to go outside and walk through the actual battlefield and learn more about the battle itself. Unfortunately, we were running out of time so we had to rush a little, but it was still really neat.

When we left the battlefield, we went higher into the mountains and got to hike the Cairngorms. It was such a cool hike! It was absolutely beautiful. And it was really cloudy, so we were walking through fog. The scenery was wonderful. There was stone everywhere and a river randomly in the middle of our trail. It was awesome.

After our hike, we went to a sheep farm. We got to watch the sheep herder explain and demonstrate how every one of his dogs has his own set of commands so that he always knows when he’s being spoken to. It was incredible to see how well trained they were! He would yell a certain word or do a certain whistle, and one dog would stop mid-stride and lie down. It was so cool. The sheep were funny to watch too because they would try to escape the herd or try to get in the middle to get away from the dogs.

After the demonstration, the sheep herder pulled out a bunch of bottles so people could feed the lambs. There were too many people and too few bottles, so I didn’t actually get to feed one. But here's a picture of a sheep trying to escape into this barn:

But I got distracted as soon as I saw the puppies. They were SO adorable! I wish I could bring one of them home as a souvenir. I don’t think that customs would approve though. But I have officially decided that I want a black and white border collie when I’m older.

The rest of the day was free time, and we spent it going through more shops and hanging out in town. We ate dinner at the same place we ate last night (and again, it was delicious!). Then we decided we better get our last interview for class done. So we approached a man and three women. They turned out to be from New Zealand, so not Scottish like we had hoped, but they were still awesome. They were hilarious! I’m really glad we talked to them.

After that, we just hung out on the bridge again until it was time to go back to the hotel. It’s weird, though, because at ten o’clock at night, it’s still light out. It’s kind of weird.

When I got back to my hotel tonight, I checked Facebook and found out that I have a new nephew! Benjamin Matthew Stutz was born yesterday on his dad's birthday at 3:05 PM. I told my sister so many times to wait until I got home to have her baby, but I guess little Matthew had other plans. I can't wait to meet him when I get home!

Tomorrow we’ll be going to Edinburgh, and I’m excited for that. They’re in the middle of some huge annual festival right now, so that will be awesome! I’ll let you know how it goes.

I Made It to Scotland! Sterling to Be Exact.

31 July 2012

We left England today and made our way to Scotland. It was a four-hour drive, but it wasn’t bad at all, thanks to a good book.

Our first stop in Scotland was Stirling Castle. That was pretty neat. First of all, our guide was awesome. All the guides had to wear tartan pants—sorry, trousers—and a matching tie. It was sweet. Here’s a picture of him:

He told us about William Wallace and some of the history of the castle. It was a really important castle because, as people used to say, if you have Stirling, you have Scotland. So it was attacked a lot back in the day.

This is the view from the Ladies' Lookout in Sterling Castle

After the tour, Kylee and I went around trying to find out more information about her ancestor, George Buchanan. He was a tutor to James VI and supposedly the best teacher in Scotland. Not bad, huh?

I looked in the shops by the castle to look for some souvenirs having to do with the Pollock clan (my mom’s family), but they didn’t have ANYTHING! I wasn’t very happy about that, but I think that there will be more in real clan stores, especially in Glasgow. That’s where my family is actually from.

After we left the castle, we checked into the dorms at the University of Stirling. And this time, we all get our own rooms! Not that I don’t love the girls in my group (because trust me, I do!), but it’s actually kind of nice to have some alone time. I haven’t really had any of that for the last six weeks.

For the next little while, I tried looking up more information about the Pollock’s and about their castle that used to be in Glasgow. There should still be some ruins there, and I’m hoping that I can go find them while I’m there on Sunday. I did find the email address of the man who owns the house that now sits on that land. So I emailed him to see whether or not I could visit the grounds and such. Hopefully, he says yes!

Later, we went to see the Falkirk Wheel. It’s a giant wheel that moves boats from the canal. It wasn’t originally on our schedule, but our bus driver suggested it. It was all right, but it mostly just something to do.

When we got back from that, some of us ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and watched the Olympics. So we got to see Michael Phelps and the other U.S. swimmers win the relay!

After that, I just went back to my room and Skyped my family. And that was fun. I can’t wait to see them when I get home next week!

As for the accent here in Scotland, it really hasn’t been hard at all to understand—no more than the other dialects I’ve encountered. But then again, I’ve really only talked to the guides at Stirling Castle who are used to speaking to foreigners. It could be different among people who aren’t in the tourism business. I’ve had a ton of people, both American and English, tell me that Scottish English is ridiculously hard to understand. So we’ll see if it’s true when I get out and talk to more people.

Ambleside

30 July 2012

Today, we went to the homes of William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter. I wasn’t crazy about it, but it was still fun. It was cool to see what kinds of conditions they lived in and imagine how much the landscaping around them inspired their work.

When we got back from that, the girls and I decided to finally use the swimsuits that we all brought and jump into the lake by our hotel. The water was freezing, but we all waded in just to say that we had been swimming in a lake in the Lake District.

Later, we went to get dinner and ate on the rocks again. We just really like that spot. Then I went back to the hotel, and I’ve been working on emails and blog posts ever since. My laptop charger died the other day, so I’ve been having issues. Luckily, Shayla’s charger works with my laptop, and she’s been nice enough to let me borrow it.

Anyway, we leave for Scotland tomorrow, and I am super excited for that! And after six days there, I’ll be on my way home to Orem, Utah! :)

Preston: Home of the British Mormons

28 July 2012

Today, we didn’t have to be ready until noon, so I actually got to sleep in! That is the one and only time since I’ve been out here that I’ve gotten to do that, and it was absolutely fantastic!

After we checked out of our hotel, we still had a couple of hours until we had to leave for Preston, so we just wandered for a while. When we actually got to Preston, we just checked into our hotel before going to a neighboring town, Blackpool. It’s right next to the ocean and it has a lot of carnival rides and booths and stuff. It’s kind of like Coney Island. It was pretty fun. We didn’t go on any rides because it was really expensive, but it was fun to walk around the pier and on the shore.

We also talked to some people from Birmingham while we were there. A couple of them seemed pretty drunk, so we didn’t talk to them for very long, but it was still fun. Plus, it gave me something to write about for my homework assignment.

That was basically my entire day. I went to bed almost as soon as I got home.

29 July 2012

This morning, we went to church in Preston, and that was pretty cool. My group sang a musical number for the ward there, and they really liked it. After Sacrament meeting, a man from Zimbabwe, Stanley, came up and told us that it sounded like the Tabernacle Choir. Haha. He was really awesome. I loved talking to him.

After church, we went to the Preston Temple (which is actually in the neighboring town of Chorley). The grounds weren’t open, so we couldn’t go in, but it was still cool.

We also went on a church history tour with the architect of the temple. That was really cool. He took us to President Hinckley’s flat that he stayed in as a missionary (the same one where he read the letter from his dad about forgetting himself). So that was really neat.

Our guide also told us about how miraculous it was getting the temple built. There was a lot of opposition among the city council, but thanks to a stake-wide fast and some hard-working members, the temple was approved and built.

Another place he took us to was the river where the first Preston members were baptized, so that was pretty cool.

After our tour, we got back on the coach and drove to the Ambleside in the Lake District. It is SO pretty here! Absolutely gorgeous. It looks a lot different from the other parts of England that I’ve seen (not that those parts aren’t pretty…haha).

After we checked into our rooms, we went to the center of town to get some dinner. We ate it on some rocks by the lake and then went out onto the dock for a little while. It was a really great night. :)

We didn’t do much else. We just went to bed after that.

Hey Guess What? I'm Twenty-One!

27 July 2012

While I was getting ready this morning, Palmer made me hot chocolate with the powder that the hotel puts in each room. She even put it on the tray and included the cookies that the hotel gave us. Haha. It was awesome.

Then when we walked out to go eat breakfast, I found a bunch of balloon taped together with a happy birthday sign. I knew immediately that they were from Molly and Kylee. My friends are awesome!

After breakfast, my group and I loaded the bus for Liverpool. So I had to spend three and a half hours of my twenty-first birthday riding in a bus, but that’s okay. Two of them were spent watching She’s the Man, in honor of the play we went to last night. I love that movie!

When we got to Liverpool, we went to a museum about some major ship wrecks that are associated with Liverpool, including the Titanic. That was a neat exhibit. But the next museum was my favorite: The Beatles Story.

I loved going through that museum and reading all about the Beatles and how they formed. And I love the Beatles, so it was a great way to celebrate my birthday!

Inside the Yellow Submarine

John Lennon's glasses

Afterward, Molly, Kylee, Palmer, and I went to the Ferris Wheel there. Molly paid for me to go, and we listened to Beatles songs the whole time. And of course, we sang along. Then we went back to the hotel and had a little dance party until it was time to go to dinner.

Me and Molly on the Ferris Wheel

It just so happened that my directors had decided to take the group out for dinner tonight. That was a lot of fun to be with everyone. And one of the girls in my group mentioned to the waitress that it was my birthday, so she brought out a piece of cake, and everyone sang to me. It was so nice! I love my group. I’m so lucky to be out here with such awesome people.

After dinner, we all went back to the hotel to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. They were so cool! I loved it. Especially the part where James Bond picked up the queen. Haha. That was awesome. We were all getting so excited!

While all of the athletes were being introduced, a bunch of the girls and I had a dance party in honor of my birthday. And we may or may not have dressed up a little bit. We had a blast! We did that until the American athletes came on (their outfits were lame, by the way).

I was exhausted after such a long and awesome day, so I went to bed after that. But it was an awesome twenty-first birthday! I only wish I would have been able to talk to my family, but we didn’t have internet access. But that’s okay because I’ll be home in about a week! :)

Stratford-Upon-Avon

26 July 2012

We left Oxford this morning and went to Stratford-upon-Avon, the hometown of William Shakespeare. Once we were there, we went to the cottage of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife. The gardens there were really pretty and the house was pretty cool. There’s a bench there that the tour guide said William and Anne probably sat on while they were courting. So that’s pretty neat.

Next we got to go to Shakespeare’s birthplace. It was about the same as Anne Hathaway’s cottage but still cool. My favorite part about it was the live performances. There were two actors out back doing scenes from Shakespeare plays, and they were so good! I watched them do a few scenes, but I could have sat there for hours just watching them. They performed scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, MacBeth, and Much Ado about Nothing.

This is them doing A Midsummer Night's Dream

After we left the birthplace, we were let go to wander the town. Kylee, Palmer, and I found a bookstore that sells old, used books. We went inside, and I found a copy of Charles Dickens’s The Chimes from 1886 for four pound fifty. Of course, I bought it. Thanks to this trip, I’ve got the start of a good library!

Later that night, my group and I went to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre to watch Twefth Night. It was so awesome and so funny! I absolutely loved it. It was set in more modern times—not a specific time period, just more modern than the 1600s. I loved it. Plus, the guy who played Sebastian was very attractive, and we quite enjoyed that. Haha.

After the play, we all just went back to our hotel for bed. But Palmer and I stayed up until two just talking. That was fun. :) So she was the first one to tell me happy birthday.

Oxford University

25 July 2012

I had to wake up at 7:45 this morning, so I only got three hours of sleep. That was definitely not enough. I was exhausted all day, and my stomach felt a little weird. But I wasn’t the only one. Some girls didn’t go to sleep until 6 or 6:30!

Leaving London was sad. I fell in love with that city, and I really hope that I can go back someday. But until then, I might as well enjoy the rest of England, right?

Our first destination was Oxford. We got to go to Oxford University Press and learn about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary (which is exciting for a bunch of editing students, which many of us are). So that was pretty neat.

Next, we went on a walking tour and we got to see inside some of the buildings. We went to this courtyard that is apparently in the Harry Potter movies, so that was fun. And the dining halls in the colleges are what the Great Hall is patterned after. I love Harry Potter, so that was kind of fun. But like I said, I was exhausted (and so was everyone else), so it was a little hard to stay completely interested and upbeat. I was grateful to get to the dorms where we would be staying.

Look familiar?

This is the tree where Mad-Eye Moody turns Malfoy into a ferret

Yes, we got to stay in Oxford dorms. That was so awesome. The rooms themselves weren’t cool at all, but can you imagine having these kinds of buildings all over your university campus?

That night, a bunch of the girls and I just sat outside on the lawn, relaxing and talking. It was a lot of fun hanging out together and telling stories and laughing. After a while, though, we all just went to bed since we were so ridiculously exhausted.