Best way to end the semester

Today was the end of classes for this semester. To celebrate, darling Andrea threw an "official" London reunion and we all love any excuse to get together! Andrea provided delicious Slab pizza and magnum bars. If you have never had slab pizza you need to go get some, I never would have thought that pulled pork pizza could be good but it's delicious. Of course we all sat around and talked for hours. Oh how I love seeing all my London friends and could not think of a better way to end the semester. 

Also, Ben finally gave us copies of the London slideshow he put together. As soon as I got home I put it in and watched it...and cried! I loved every minute of it and Ben sure did an incredible job on it. 

Cheers!

Anthem

In London the girls of 27 Palace Court fell in love with a song that described how we were all feeling. For four months I "Woke up in London yesterday, found myself in the city near Piccadilly."  Recently this song has begun to play on the radio and every time I hear this song I begin to yell and scream with excitement. This was and is our anthem. I cannot hear this song with out thinking of the wonderful girls I shared so many life changing experiences with. I love you all. This truly is the Good Life.

Cheers.

Last Days in London

Turns out I had a kidney stone which led to NASTY kidney infection, a lovely 5 day stay in the Princess Grace Hospital in London and a nephrostomy (a tube through my back and into my kidney). Thankfully I had incredible professors, friends and an amazing sister who was willing to come to London.
Raye Ann flew over to London by herself on Thanksgiving so she could be with me! I was so grateful to have her there with me in the hospital.

The awesome thing about London hospitals is that I had doctors/nurses from literally all over the world.   I remember at one point of my stay I woke up in a morphine fog to hear my professor's wife talking to my doctor from Egypt in Arabic. That was pretty trippy and I was sooooo confused. I was also in the hospital over Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving dinner was a Caesar salad and a baked potato....not my most favorite Thanksgiving dinner ever.

My last week and a half in London was the best and worst of my life. I was exhausted and extremely weak after getting out of the hospital. While in the hospital, I had missed a week of classes so obviously I was behind in all of them but all  I wanted to do was go out and see and do everything around London. On top of my desire to see the rest of London, Raye Ann was with me so I wanted to show her EVERYTHING that I loved about London. It was hard to balance everything but we definitely had a lot of fun and a memorable last few days in the greatest city in the world!!!

Highlights from the last few days in London: (besides Finals of course)
- Front row tickets to Wicked
- 2nd row tickets to Oliver
- Harry Potter 7 at the Odeon Theatre (where the actually premiere was)
- High Tea at the Orangerie at Kensington Palace
- Handel's Messiah performance at Handel's Church
- Changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace
- Shopping, shopping and more shopping
- Eating at my favorite restaurants including Tuk Tuk, Zizzi's, Nando's and Ye Old Chesire Cheese
- Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park
- London Eye
- Portobello Market
- All my favorite museums again, and again, and again


Here is a lovely collage of pictures from the last two weeks!!!!

National Gallery

SHOPPING

Oliver

Wicked

Handel's Messiah

Changing of the Guard

Portobello Road Market

Christmas lights at Salone Square

Part of the Berlin Wall at the Imperial War Museum

Last night in London, on the London Eye

Best pub/tavern in town

My message to the next girls...." Drink lots of water! You DON't want a kidney stone..... trust me!"

Hyde Park

Leaving the Center :(

I had an amazing few months in London but now I am home! I will forever remember the memories I made in this incredible city and am so grateful for the experiences I had. London will always hold a special place in my heart!

Cheers!

Reoccurring nightmare

3 more sleepless nights in pain........countless number of times vomiting............3 days in bed............7 episodes of Life Unexpected...........6 episodes of Glee.............2 Episodes of Grey's Anatomy............5 movies...............facebook stalking pretty much all my friends : )......

I thought I was getting better, but it seems as though the doctors have no idea what they are talking about or what is wrong with me.

The pain seems to only come at night when I lay down. Hence why it's a reoccurring nightmare. I now have a fear of going to sleep because I have no desire to wake up in pain in the middle of the night. I have resulted to sleeping sitting up which is not fun but it doesn't bring on the pain in my back!

I only have a few weeks left in London and many things to check off the list still. This is not how I want to be spending my time. I guess I should try to be productive and get some homework done so I don't have to worry about it when I feel better. Easier said than done. Hopefully I get better soon.

Cheers.

This too shall pass....like a kidney stone.

The past few days have probably been my most favorite days while here in London..... NOT!

What did I do??...... I learned all about the health care system here in London.

3 sleepless nights filled with excruciating pain.....vomited about 100 times......3 trips to the hospital....1 hour and 45 minutes being hooked up to an IV.........2 doctors visits......3 prescriptions........1 X-Ray........1 ultrasound.....1 CT Scan.....2 blood tests......lots of pain meds....and 1 kidney stone!


Sounds like fun right?
Yeah it wasn't.


Thankfully I have a houseful of wonderful girls that helped me when I needed them the most! :) And Anne is amazing!!!


Yay for taking pictures with my IV.

Lovely Anne who waited patiently with me the whole time :)

Dooped up on pain meds and and IV

Checking out my x-ray

Sadly due to the trip to the Emergency Room, Anne and I missed out on going to the opera with the rest of the program.

Thankfully I am better now....... apart from my desperate need for food and sleep.

Cheers

Was I even awake for this?!?!

Going to the Harry Potter Premiere definitely had it's consequences....like being totally exhausted for several days after. So I know I did a lot of really cool thinks the past few days but I'm pretty sure I was half asleep for all of it.Thankfully I took pictures to remind me what I did.

Friday was a catch up day with classes, shopping, and running errands.

Saturday the group went on a tour of the Houses of Parliament. That was really cool and interesting but getting up at 7 am on a Saturday to tour Parliament was not my idea of fun.

After the tour Lisa and I headed to St. Paul's to see the Lord Mayor's Show. This is a big parade that the mayor of London puts on every year.

The Lord Mayor himself

Saturday night a bunch of the girls and I watched What A Girl Wants. I love that movie and the fact that we went to Parliament that day made it so much cooler. I actually understood all the Lords, Commons and all the other parliament lingo that is in the movie.


Monday:
PLATFORM 9 3/4!!!!!!!!!!!!
In honor of the Harry Potter Premiere last week and the movie premiere this week, the girls at 27 Palace Court are on a POTTER PILGRIMAGE!!! Monday's Potter adventure was to see Platform 9 3/4.

I then went and did a bunch of random touristy things like the British Library, British Museum, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus and went to see Mamma Mia.

Tuesday was a day trip to Cambridge American Cemetery and  Cambridge University. This was filled with seeing cool old buildings, punting on the Cam River, shopping and Evensong at the King's College Chapel.

Shopping included buying matching Cambridge sweatshirts with Anne and THE ENTIRE HARRY POTTER  BOOK SERIES!!!!!!! I even got them shipped to the good ol' USA! I am so excited to have the entire British series.

Cheers!

HARRY POTTER 7 pt. 1 WORLD PREMIERE!!!!!!!!

MOST EPIC NIGHT OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!
My childhood is now complete and I can die happy.

Do you realize that the first Harry Potter book came out in 1998 when I was 7? I grew up with Harry Potter!!! I have grown up with the stars of Harry Potter. I have now been within 3 feet of almost the entire Harry Potter cast.

Some may ask, Was it worth the 2 hours of sleep and the 17 hours of waiting in the freezing pouring rain?! Yes, YES IT WAS!!!!! I have never been so physically, mentally or emotionally exhausted in my life. But the stars of Harry Potter were worth every minute.

A few of us headed over to Leicester Square to scout out what was going on around 10 pm on the 10th. There was already a line of about 150 people camping out. We meet some girls, took a picture with them and that picture made it into the Daily Mail. The group of us study abroad girls are in the back right corner of the picture.

At 3:15 AM 19 BYU girls left the centre looking our finest!

After 15 hours of waiting, this is what we saw...

J.K. Rowling's autograph

"You made our childhoods magical Jo!" - It's so true!

We ended up stealing one of the World Premiere posters and a part of the red carpet!
What an incredible day!

Cheers