Gardens, Snipers, and studying!

Wow, what a fun last couple of days I have had…though they are kind of a blur. No sleep + a hectic schedule = a confused Brianna! I think I last left off at the Kew Gardens, so I guess I will take it from there. On Friday after class we went to Kew Gardens. The Kew Gardens are the Royal Botanic Gardens in England. The grounds are filled with glass houses containing all sorts of unique plants found in various locations throughout the world. There are lots of other sites to see within the Gardens as well. It was so nice to go and spend an afternoon outside in a quiet, peaceful area. And when I say peaceful, that is minus the peacock that tried to attack me, the rambunctious friends I was with, and the bees that seemed to follow me everywhere. After Kew Gardens we caught a train back home and made it just in time to see the Broadway production of Sister Act! All in all, a successful day :)



Saturday was the Trooping of the Colors (aka a parade for the Queen’s birthday). I got to see the Queen! And let me tell you, she has the finest back of a head that I have ever seen. Confession: That is the only part of the queen I saw! Oh well, it was still fun to be there! The coolest part of it all I would have to say were the Snipers stationed atop Buckingham Palace, ready to nail anyone at any moment. Talk about intense.

Unfortunately the rest of Saturday was spent studying. For all those who think the London Study Abroad is all fun and games…think again, because it is most definitely not! Classes are beastly and there is always homework and studying to be done! So as many of you know, I never stress. So naturally, I wasn’t worrying about finals at all. Translation: I was freaking out!!! I stayed up super late on Saturday trying to get some good studying in, and had to spend any free moment on Sunday studying because finals were on Monday. Before I get to finals though I will tell you about Sunday. It was such an awesome day. I went to my ward for the last time…It’s so weird how attached you can get to some people in such a short amount of time. The members of my ward are all pretty recent converts but they are so faithful and have such pure testimonies. I learned so much from them in the 5 Sundays I had with them. I was pretty sad to say bye to my Young Women. They are the sweetest girls and we had so much fun together…if I am ever back in London I am most definitely paying them a visit. After church I studied for a few hours but then it was devotional, dinner time, and fireside. For the fireside we just had a testimony meeting. Haha, I felt sorry for the 6 guys in our study abroad, there was way too much estrogen in one room, and more than a few tears were shed, to say the least. But it was such an awesome night and everyone felt the spirit so strongly.



So today (Monday) was a stressful day. My first final went from 9-11, and my second went from 3-5. So my day consisted of hard core studying and test taking. Sounds like fun right?! But I made it through alive! I have no idea what my grades are going to be, so keep your fingers crossed! To finish the day off though we had a pizza party, Bens cookies for dessert, and went and saw the movie Letters to Juliet. For such a long stressful day, I’d say it was finished off quite nicely!