Gus Gus...are you there?

In approximately 5 hours I will be waking up and leaving for our first extended trip…yay to going on a trip, boo to waking up in just a few short hours! I won’t be taking my laptop with me so I probably won’t write again until Friday or Saturday, but I thought that I would update you on the last couple of days before I left.

On Saturday, despite the rain and the nippy noodle weather, I went shopping bright and early! There is a road just a few blocks away from where we are staying called Portobello Road. Every Saturday the road is closed off and tons of little stands are set up along either side of the street. There are tents with jewelry, clothes, antiques, décor, food, shoes, food, hats, and did I mention food? It was such a neat experience. But boy am I glad I went early because by the time 11:00 hit, everybody and their dogs showed up (literally!). I left feeling pretty good about myself though because I got a watch! Surprising huh? I don’t even like watches that much (again, I hope you recognize the sarcasm)! And wait for it, it gets even better! It was originally 25 pounds but I bartered it down to 15—which if you know me, is a pretty big deal. I’m not exactly the most assertive girl in the world if you know what I mean! But yeah, Portobello road was super fun, I am excited to go back!

On Sunday we had our first day in our new wards. My ward, called the Clapham Commons ward meets at 10:30 and with a journey including bus and train rides, takes us just over an hour and a half to get there. Going to this ward was a very humbling experience and I am really excited to get to know the members. It is a small ward and it is extremely diverse but they were all so friendly and seemed genuinely excited to have us there. I got called to be a Young Women’s teacher and I am looking forward to preparing a few lessons with the hope that I can influence the girls as much as I know they will influence me.

Holy Hanna people, guess what happened? We saw a mouse in our room!!!! I think he must have been after my secret stash of chocolate…oh no, not the chocolate! The mouse has now been given the name Gus Gus (after the very famous mouse in “Cinderella”) and I must say he is doing a very good job of freaking everybody out, especially us bottom bunkers! We were given sticky traps to put in our room…I kind of had a hard time with that but I am sure that doesn’t surprise any of you. We made Gus Gus a facebook page so I made sure to warn him on facebook to avoid the sticky traps and to preferably slip out the front door. Well apparently Gus Gus is not too savvy with the whole facebook thing because he didn’t get my message. Poor Gus Gus got stuck this afternoon. Rest in Piece little mouse.

Aside from the traumatizing mouse experience today was a great day! I had class at 8:45 for an hour and half and then I got to go for a run through Hyde Park; then it was another hour and a half of class. After we finished class we got to go to the British Museum. Oh my goodness, what a cool museum! First off , it was ginormous…I am going to have to take 5 trips back just to make it through the whole thing. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the British Museum, it is home to remains of the Pantheon, the Rosetta Stone, thousands of Greek and Roman artifacts dating back to the second century, the Pantheon Marbles, the Warren Cup, the Portland Vase, Mummies, and so much more. It was so cool. And the architecture of the building was quite beautiful itself. The first room you walk in is completely made of white marble and the ceiling looks as though you are in a golf ball. It was gorgeous. I was pretty excited to see the Rosetta stone…and don’t worry, I took one look at it and suddenly I was fluent in all these languages! Haha, I wish. Tonight I went and saw “Iron Man 2” in theaters; and while we are on the subject can I please just say that Robert Downy Junior is the man?! You should all go see it…favorite quote: “I have successfully privatized world peace”…thank you Iron Man!

Chawton, Winchester, Bath, Wells, Glastonbury, and Tintagel are up next on the agenda. Wow, I still can’t believe I am here. I feel so lucky to be having this experience! I am excited for these next few days, and I will write when I return home (well, to the London center at least!) xoxo

Love, Brianna Jill