The road goes ever on and on...

This trip is beginning in the best way I can think of: with a Tolkien quote!
Obviously I made it safely to London. The instructors, John and Peter, have called this "boot camp week," and for good reason. I feel like I hit the ground running and haven't slowed down until this evening.

I left the U.S. from Boston Intl Airport. It's a beautiful irony--I was born there, so it was fun to start another epic journey from that beautiful city. The flight, however, was even more unpleasant than I had expected. I planned to get to my seat, eat dinner, and sleep until we landed, for a total of four sleeping hours on the five-hour flight. Well, dinner wasn't served until two hours in (and of course I didn't sleep, because I didn't want to have to wake up for dinner right when I finally drifted off). Then someone got sick so the lights in the cabin didn't get turned off for another hour. I tossed and turned until the cabin lights finally went down. Breakfast was served an hour later, which I wasn't happy about. Keep your frozen OJ and weird muffin and let me sleep!!

Thankfully I ran into two other BYU students in the line at customs. We caught a taxi together and headed for the London Center. As the cabbie said, we "live in a pretty posh place!"

Pretend there's a picture here. I forgot to take one and can't now that it's dark outside.

Here I am at the British Museum, waiting for my group
to show up. See how tired I am?

I got sheets, found my flat, and passed out on my bed for an hour and a half. Then it was time to get up and get ready to go walk London! It was maybe 1 p.m. London time, but that's 6 a.m. local and I hadn't really slept, so I probably would have nodded off if we hadn't been walking.

Oh, the walking. We walk everywhere! Well, not really; we mostly ride the Tube to the middle of London, walk around the city until we find a specific museum, find a different Tube station, and head home. This hasn't gone without mishaps. A pair of my wool socks gave me a major allergic reaction yesterday (Axel, Kairi, in case you're wondering!!), which was far from pleasant. Luckily I figured out what was going on and found an antihistamine cream (even if it took me 15 minutes to find because apparently that stuff just isn't marketed here).

Still, I've been a ton of cool places! I haven't taken many pictures since I've been running everywhere, but I hope to get more soon when I go back. I also don't have time to put all my adventures in this one post (and I   don't want to cause a pic overload), so here are a few highlights. I'm not posting anything from the museums. Yet.

I wish I could see this!! Too bad it closes tomorrow and tickets

sold out when it first opened. Oh well, I get to see the same play

in the Globe, which is even better than seeing it with DT and CT!

ooo! Guess where I am, guess where I am?!

This one is in (the tower that houses) Big Ben.

Another clock, this time on the church at St. Peter's

I'm not sure what the Bracken House is, but that zodiac
clock is gorgeous!

A ship on the steeple. Almost as cool as the angel Moroni!