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.