magic shows and ice cream

Happy Halloween! I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this Halloween. I ate pumpkin pie ice cream, babysat my little nephew Evan, laughed at a dumb scary movie, and hung out with Laura. It was a beautiful day.

Last night was pretty fantastic too. My roommates and I had a party which included eating a bunch of food at a barbecue place, going to the sister missionary mall, buying 4 cartons of ice cream for a dollar each, and eating ice cream while watching The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and then falling asleep.

Besides eating a lot of ice cream and watching Halloween movies, most of my life is full of classes, studying, lab reports, tests, homework, etc. Although I love it, it's getting kind of exhausting. I'm pretty excited for Thanksgiving break. I love both of my majors but I'm starting to think that I really am crazy for double majoring. But then I can't decide between the two. I thought chemistry until I had fun taking my last math test (sad, but true) and then I go back to chemistry when I remember the research I'm working on in atmospheric chemistry and how awesome it is. I love solving real problems. The project I'm starting in my research is about how radical self-reactions sometimes form harmful chemicals in our atmosphere (from the pollution we generate) or sometimes form a stable compound which then blows all over the world until it reaches the equator where it decomposes and forms the harmful chemicals there. I love that once we confirm that this is actually happening maybe we can find a solution and help improve the air for people all over the world.

Speaking of chemistry being awesome, last week was National Chemistry Week. We celebrated with spirit in the Benson building... complete with liquid nitrogen ice cream and magic shows. My niece and nephew, James and Ella, came to the magic show and James told me after that he wants to be a scientist and invent things. He was pretty impressed by the huge laser in my lab and later asked if I could build him a real lightsaber with it. I wish I could. That will be my next project...

Dear America, I am happy to be home.

I thought I'd write on my blog even though I'm no longer exploring another country. I apologize, but my blog is now going to be significantly less exciting and have significantly less pictures. So you all have permission to never read my blog again if you think that sounds boring.

I am back in Provo and loving it here. I have fallen in love with the mountains and trees and just in time for the most beautiful season of the year. The trees are changing and the weather is perfect and all I wish is that I had more time to be outside in it. But I have managed to get to the mountains a couple of times in the past month. I hiked Timp at midnight the first weekend I was home. Some of my friends from the Chemistry department organized it but I invited my friends Laura and Kate. Kate left a couple of days later for Jerusalem so it was wonderful to be with her before she left. Apparently hiking Timp at midnight the weekend before school starts is the thing to do because I ran into a bunch of people I knew up on top at sunrise.


That weekend I also moved into my new apartment. I moved out of Monticello into a new complex, Victoria Place II. I have fantastic roommates and I love our little apartment.

School has started and is keeping me really busy. I just found out that I got a research grant which is really exciting but it means I need to start working more. I'm doing research in an atmospheric chemistry lab studying gas phase kinetics. I am really excited to get working on this project even though I still don't really know what I'm doing.

Even though school is crazy, I'm still finding time to go outside occasionally. A couple of weekends ago, my roommate Jenny and our friend Brian went up to American Fork Canyon and hiked to Silver Lake. It was beautiful up there and it was so nice to be in the mountains and away from school for awhile.


Last weekend, I went with my roommates Alison and Jenny and our friend Ben to Provo Canyon to go rock climbing. I had never gone climbing outside before and I loved it. I regret not going before now.

Jenny and I

Me at the top.

So even though school is trying to take over most of my life, I'm not letting it win completely. I've loved seeing my family since I've been back, especially meeting my new nephew Evan. He's a cute little kid and I am so excited to live close enough to see him. I've also joined a Chemistry ultimate frisbee intramural team. We have 7 professors on the team and our team name is the Deprotonators. We even have awesome t-shirts that are the envy of the whole chemistry department (or at least we like to think so).


Okay so maybe that's just more evidence that school is taking over my life. Oh well. I'm enjoying it.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye.

I am back in the United States, sitting in JFK waiting for my connecting flight to Salt Lake. I've only been gone for 15 and a half hours and I already miss England so much. I'm glad I had a couple of days after the programme ended to say goodbye to Cambridge.

I'll start back with my second to last weekend here. It was our last weekend all together. On Saturday, Liz, from the ward in Cambridge, drove some BYU students to the London temple. It was really nice of her to organize the whole thing and it was so great to go to the temple. Brandi, Dani, Evan, Jeff and I went, along with Katrina, one of the young single adults in the ward. We drove there in the morning and then ate lunch in the temple. The food was delicious. Then we did a session of baptisms. The font was beautiful and it was such a wonderful experience. It felt so peaceful to be in the temple and feel the Spirit so strong. I miss being so close to the temple in Provo. After baptisms some of the group went to do an endowment session while Dani, Katrina, and I walked around the grounds. The temple grounds are beautiful and it was a great opportunity to walk and think and relax before a crazy last week.


Katrina, me, and Dani in front of the temple.

The next week I had a paper for my monsoon research, a homework assignment for fluid dynamics, and a paper and a final for my British sports class. So I spent a lot of time in my room and in the library but miraculously (though with very little sleep) I finished everything. It felt so good to have it all done.

This is where I worked on my monsoon research all summer. It was a nice little desk and computer. My supervisor, Peter Braesicke was fantastic. He is German and has an awesome accent. Sadly, he got sick my last week there and ended up in the hospital with appendicitis.

Thursday, after finals, we had the last formal of the programme and a farewell party. The formal was fun and the food was good. It's kind of sad I won't get to dress up and go to fancy dinners every week anymore.

Me, Dani, Brandi and Megan. Drinks on the lawn before the formal.

After the formal the TAs threw a farewell party, HMS PKP (PKP stands for Pembroke-King's Programme). One of the guys in charge, Joey had given a speech at orientation about how "This is not a cruise" and it became a theme for the summer. The party was fun, but after awhile the smell of alcohol everywhere I turned started giving me a headache so we left. All summer long we had walked by this building and wanted to climb and take pictures and so we did.


And then a bunch of BYU students took our last trip to the Trailer of Life. It's a trailer that sells chips and burgers and is the only food place open past 10 p.m. and therefore a place frequently visited by PKP students.

This is on the sidewalk in front of King's. I've always thought it was rather funny and quite descriptive of the life of a Cambridge student.

The next morning I said goodbye to my bedder, Jane. She is really cute and took care of me all summer. She was reluctant to let me take a picture of her but I think she looks very cute.


That morning we took Brandi to the train station and said goodbye. It was very sad to say goodbye but hopefully I'll make it to Switzerland soon to visit her.

Later that day we walked to Granchester. It's a small town about a half an hour walk from Cambridge. There is an orchard there where the Bloomsbury group (a group of mostly Cambridge students who all became famous writers and artists) met to drink tea and talk. It's a beautiful little town and I felt very British sitting in the Orchard and eating a scone.


That night, Dani and I walked around Cambridge for a bit to get gelato at our favorite gelato place. I got a burger at Gourmet Burger Kitchen. It was a bacon avocado burger and it was delicious--one of the best burgers I've ever had. And it was huge.


The next morning I took Dani to the bus stop and then took pictures of King's. It was early in the morning so it was quiet and a perfect morning to just walk around one of my favorite places in the world and take in how beautiful it all is.






Can you blame me for loving this place?

The signs I got to walk past every day. That is my room in the distance.

These sign welcome people to King's. Well if they get past the porters. I have to say, one of the highlights of being a student at King's was walking past all of the tourists who were begging the porters to let them in and having the porters smile and wave us in. Also notice the sign about keeping off the grass. Unlike the signs at BYU which everyone ignores, these signs are enforced by porters and, at least for the most part, obeyed.

I spent the rest of Saturday finishing things up and packing. That night I watched Chariots of Fire with some friends. It was fun watching it in Cambridge and recognizing where scenes were filmed (the scene where they race around the Trinity courtyard isn't actually at Trinity. The college wouldn't let them in to film it). Sunday, I went to church, finished packing, and said goodbye to Cambridge.

I ate in the dining hall for the last time,

walked down King's Parade,

sat in the fellow's garden,

went to Pembroke to pick up my supervision work,

and looked at the Corpus Christi clock on my way home.

I love Cambridge. I can't believe the summer is over. Goodbye dear, Cambridge. I will return someday.

Yea, I go to school here.

Mostly, my life isn't as exciting as seeing Wimbledon or Tour de France. Mostly I'm just here, at King's. Not to say that isn't pretty awesome. I seriously love every minute of my life here. I love how I always want to stop as I'm walking home and just look at all of the buildings that surround me and bask in the idea that I'm actually here. I've been here a month and a half and I still can't believe it. Here's a summary of my life here:

First, the reason I'm here: school.
For one of my supervisions, I'm doing analysis of monsoon data. We're trying to understand monsoon trends in strength and location. It's interesting and I enjoy having a place to go away from the college. It's my escape from the programme. And the guy who discovered the hole in the ozone works in my building. It's pretty fantastic.

For my other supervision, I'm doing the coursework for a fluid dynamics course that they teach undergraduate maths students here. It's really hard. I've never been so lost in a class before. I have yet to answer a question without significant prompting. Thankfully, my dad has helped me a lot. I've learned a lot but I'm going to be very relieved with it's over.

I'm also taking one class. It's about British sports. We talk a lot about the development of sport in Britain and the sporting culture including amateurism, heroism, media, etc. I've really enjoyed it so far. Today we learned about cricket. We have two professors and they aren't very organized which can be frustrating but I've enjoyed the discussions we've had. I wrote my first paper in a year and a half this past weekend. It was a good reminder why I'm in my major.

Sometimes, when I get stressed about school, I need comfort food. I've discovered a new favorite. Nutella. I eat it with a spoon from the jar. Sometimes I have bread too but I usually give up on it after a couple of pieces. I'm on my 5th jar since I got here.

When I'm not studying or eating Nutella, sometimes I go to formal halls. They're these big fancy dinners where we have to act all proper. I have memories of etiquette dinners running through my mind whenever I sit down and stare at the 3 forks, 3 knives, spoon, 3 glasses, etc. in front of me. Luckily I don't have to worry too much about the glasses besides trying to prevent people from pouring wine into them. It's fun to get all dressed up and talk to new people. But I've learned that I'm very impatient when I eat. I don't do well with waiting for different courses and waiting for the people around me to be served before I start eating. I guess I'm very American in that sense. Or just not refined.

Me and my friend Alex at a formal hall.

We have drinks on the lawn before dinner. Yea, it's a pretty big deal.

Megan and I waiting for dessert.

The last formal hall was a masquerade. (That's me and my friend Evan in case we're so disguised you can't tell)

One of the awesome things about living here is I look out my window or walk to class and see King's Chapel, a building which is shown in textbooks all the time for being "one of the finest examples of late Gothic architecture" (according to Wikipedia). One day we got to go up into the roof. We climbed up a long spiral staircase,


walked around above the fan vaulted ceiling and below the roof.


which is not very thick. In fact, there are holes through which you can look down into the chapel.

And then we walked down some long narrow corridors,


and looked down at King's Parade (the main street in front of King's College).


Then we went up some more steps and walked on the roof.


Sadly, it was raining when we went so we couldn't explore as much but it was still an incredible view. This view has remained almost unchanged since they were completing the roof in the early 1500s.


Afterward, my friend Chase and I walked around inside the chapel and looked at the stained glass windows.



Fan vaulting.

We went to Evensong a couple of times earlier in the term before it ended for the summer. The last time we went we got to sit in the college seats. They have candles and huge books that are hundreds of years old for us to read the psalms from and padded places to kneel for the prayers. And the King's choir is incredible. A couple of the students in the choir live in Bodley's court so we got to know them.

I got to sit in one of those seats during Evensong.

A couple of Sundays ago, the BYU group got to have a fireside in the King's Chapel. The Chaplain, Richard Morgan, organized the building for us. When we sang hymns they sounded a million times better as they echoed through the building. And then we had a testimony meeting. It was truly an incredible experience.

I love living here, but I'm excited to go back to Provo and have a bathroom in the same building that I live in. I used to, but then they decided to completely redo the plumbing in Bodley's Court which has turned into a summer-long project. Luckily I found a secret passageway right next to my door which leads to the next staircase and a bathroom. This was fantastic until it became the swine flu bathroom... twice. It is finally back to normal which makes me very happy especially because it means my friend Brandi is recovered. Yes, two of my really good friends have had swine flu. And no, luckily, as of yet, I have not gotten it. They've both gotten better and I don't thing there have been any more cases so hopefully our programme is done with it.

I love going to church at the Cambridge ward. I love being a part of a family ward and helping in Young Women's. The girls are awesome. There's a girl who has come the past couple of weeks who isn't a member but became interested in the Church when she starting dating an LDS guy. She said she wants to learn about the church because he is a really great guy and she wants to be like him. Last week she came all by herself and had to ride the bus for 40 minutes to come. And her parents don't want her to learn about the church but she is still determined to come. She is so amazing. Her simple faith and determination to learn for herself inspire me.

I love life here. It's hard but I've learned so much. I miss Provo though. And I can't wait to meet my new nephew Evan! I'm so grateful he is getting better. Even though I've been far away I'm grateful that I've been able to feel closer to my family through prayer. England is great, but I'm excited to be back with my family and friends in the U.S.

J'adore Paris!

Last Wednesday evening I was talking to my friend Dani. She mentioned that some of the girls in our programme had found a good deal to go to Paris on a night bus that weekend. (Yes, my first response to night bus was to think of the Knight Bus in Harry Potter). So I turned to her and said "We should go." So we did. We bought tickets and made hotel reservations Thursday and left on Friday. We left Cambridge at about 6:30 p.m. and took a bus to London.

We saw this double rainbow before leaving Cambridge. It was fantastic.

Once in London, we got on our next bus to Paris. Dani and I watched Breach on her iPhone and then tried to sleep. But our sleep was interrupted by having to get off the bus once we got on the ferry. So we wandered around the ferry, bought a big bag of m&m's and read random facts on her iPhone. And took a lot of pictures. There really isn't much else to do when you're stuck on a ferry at 3 a.m. Once we returned to the bus, we finally got some sleep. Once in Paris, we needed money so we went in search of a bank. I took French in middle school and high school and one semester in college, but conversation has always been the hardest part for me. So I was pretty proud of myself when I asked somewhere where a bank was and she answered and I understood. The next step was to find our hotel. So we bought metro passes and made our way to the hotel to check in.

Dani and I in the metro station.

Spending the night on a bus leaves you feeling pretty gross. So once we got to the hotel and could change, we all felt a lot better. We left the hotel to meet up with more people at the Louvre. On the metro, I bumped into a lady and said "Sorry." She thought it was the funniest thing in the world. She corrected me and said "Pardon" and then laughed for 5 minutes. I didn't think it was that funny that I spoke my native language, but apparently it was. We didn't go inside the Louvre, but we took our picture in front of it. Someday I will go back and actually go inside of it. Someday...

Dani and I in front of the Louvre.

Once we finally had everyone together, we went to find lunch. Dani and I had already eaten on our way to the hotel so while everyone else was getting lunch we went down the street to get crepes.

Nutella crepes. It doesn't get better than that.

After lunch, we split up and Dani, Megan, and I went to Montmartre and Sacre-Coeur. We went to the square there where artists gather and paint and sell their artwork.


And then walked around Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. It's beautiful and at the top of a hill overlooking the city.


Then we went to Champs-Elysees, the famous avenue in Paris. It's also where Le Tour de France ends every year. Le Tour de France ended on Sunday so it was all set up for the finish.


Then we walked up Champs-Elysees and saw L'Arc de Triomphe


And then went to the Eiffel Tour.



And decided we were hungry so we went to a grocery store and bought dinner and ate on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tour.

Ice cream and cookies.



We were all pretty exhausted at this point so we headed back to our hotel to sleep. And decided to sleep in until church the next morning.

Dani and I had baguettes for breakfast on Sunday.

After church, Dani and I decided to go explore the Tour de France craziness. We had heard mixed reports about when they would be riding through Paris so we figured we'd go early so we wouldn't miss them. Even though we were about 3 hours before the cyclists came through the metro and street were already pretty packed. We found a spot to stand on the side of the road and waited.... and took some pictures.

Dani and I bought Tour de France shirts.

So excited!

About an hour after Dani and I found our spot, Megan and Laura joined us.
Tour de France crew.

After more waiting, a parade of floats and cars advertising for the various sponsors, and more waiting, finally, the cyclists came. They loop through Paris eight times before finishing so we got to watch them ride by several times. It was pretty much incredible. We were standing right along the railing lining the street and the cyclists rode on our side of the road so they were about 4 or 5 feet away from us.


Here's a video of one of the times they came by.



So basically Le Tour de France was the highlight of the trip. It was so great to be there! After it was all over, Dani and I went to go see Notre Dame. We ate at a cafe near Notre Dame which was delicious. (Maybe partly because we were starving and had been standing in the heat for 4 hours). Then we walked around outside of Notre Dame; it was beautiful.



It always amazes me how beautiful the buildings are and how much time they must have put into building them and how smart they were to engineer them so they are still standing today.

After one last crepe, we headed to the bus station for a long ride back to home to Cambridge. I love saying that.