Last Week!

I officially have one week left in England.

It's going to be a pretty good week :) Tomorrow I'm going out to dinner with lots of people, including Olga, our AMAZING institute teacher. Wednesday is THE DEEP, the only thing in Hull that's remotely cool. Thursday morning leaving for London to see the LSO, my life will be complete! Friday come back, finish packing and go to institute graduation. Saturday go to Manchester to stay with Marianne (woot) and maybe see Pemberley (double woot). Sunday go to church in Manchester, Monday go HOME. Feeling pretty good about everything, now I just need to fit everything into my suitcases....

At home? Look for a job! I have now been turned down an additional two or three times, won't be going to Arizona so you don't have to worry Charlie. I've also decided to take up cooking.

Also, my birthday is on Thursday and because my dad is SO amazing he sent me a birthday present..... new camera! And it's an amazing camera too! It's red and little and beautiful. It also has this "smart portrait" where it will automatically take a picture when you smile which rocks. I have all ready put it to good use but I'm extremely happy to have some pictures in London. Yay!

Slightly Bored....

So, I basically have nothing to do from now until the time I leave in three weeks. Really. I have a flute lesson, I'm playing my piece in front of people (a whole five minutes worth) and I'm conducting a song. That's IT! In the meantime, I have no idea what to do. I know, it's SUPER lame. I am in England.... I should do something! Unfortunately everyone's going home, they don't have money, yada yada yada.

I started reading a book but it's taking an awful long time to get going. I've read 70 pages and nothing has happened, really nothing. I've seen the movie and basically it's gotten past the first minute. It has to pick up sometime though.

Since I have nothing to do, it makes me think more which may not be the best thing. I have come to the conclusion that I have no idea what I'm doing. I was feeling pretty good about the looking for a job thing but not a whole lot has come up. Plus, do I want to teach elementary? Middle school? High School? Private? Public? Mainly theory and history? Just band? Whatever I can get? I'm not sure how much I really want to teach elementary... The only prospect at the moment is the one in Arizona which definitely sounds like an adventure. It is in Arizona though and I won't be teaching band. I'd have to REALLY want to do it. I do though, it sounds more appealing every time I think about it.

Then again, there's always the mission option. I have come to the conclusion that right now, however, I'm broke. I want to be able to pay for my mission if I go. I feel good about that.

There is also the going back to school option, which my friend Brandon so kindly pointed out. He's probably right, that would probably be the smartest thing to do. Plus, he's always right. I don't really want to though, I'm tired of school. Not to mention I'd have to decide which school I'd want to go to, and most of them had auditions and things in February and stuff.

So we're going with the job thing. Something will work out and it will rock.

I also wanted to point out one more thing. Here they don't have generals and they don't register for classes because everyone in your major (they just say what you're studying, not major) takes all the same classes. They do have one "free elective" however, but most people do something in the same department. You know... if they're in physics maybe they'll take an astronomy class, still in physics but not a required class.

I asked someone if they ever wanted to do anything else and they said something to the effect like no because if you really loved what you did, then that's all that you would do. If you want to do something else then that means you don't "love" it enough. I was quite sad to hear that. Here they start focusing much earlier on, they only study three subjects in high school (their college). Really. Sad.

So, maybe you have had more classes on one subject, but I seriously doubt that they are any better off. I could keep up in math class, and I've only taken one semester of math since my sophomore year of high school. I also think that it's kind of dumb that you should know so much about one subject and nothing about anything else. Maybe you can do a differential equation, but you have no idea why Louis XIV was amazing. I am definitely one to believe that you love something even more by doing different things. My math class made me love music all the more.... I wouldn't be surprised if it made me a better player. I heard this thing on the radio once about a musician who didn't think that you could make music unless you had lived, not just practiced your whole life. I'm sure it's like that for other things too.

That's my spiel about why some people are dumb, but it's probably not their fault. They haven't experienced the amazingness of being able to take kayaking and ballroom dancing. They're stuck in maths all day long.

Any ideas of what I should be doing, I'm totally up for them. I have thought about going to the London Symphony and maybe go to "Pemberley," it's by Manchester. Maybe I'll cook something. And maybe I'll make some more root beer.

Food Miracles

Two amazing things happened this week that involves food.

Firstly, my dad (bless him) spent $43.45 to send me a box full of donuts, home-made cookies, Wheaties and root beer flavoring. It took a while to get here, but these eleven-day-old donuts were better than anything that I've had while I've been here! Oh, I love Dunford donuts. Lucky for me, I'm from Sandy!

The cookies were amazing, no one really makes chocolate chip cookies here. You can't even really buy chocolate chips at the store.... well you can, but it's this tiny little pack that would make like four cookies. I don't know how people live, they just make ginger cookies. Definitely NOT as good. Wheaties are my favorite cereal and breakfast was basically like heaven this morning. I only like one cereal here, Special K. They have a lot of the "same" cereals but they put nasty stuff in them like barley so it just has less flavor and is nasty.

Root beer flavoring is also delightful. The past month I have been craving root beer but there is none to be found. Plus, if you did find it, it'd be nasty or really expensive for like 100 mL, not ideal. If you wanted to make root beer floats (especially with more than one person) it'd be a large ordeal. This way, I can make as much root beer as I want for almost nothing. All I need is sugar, water and carbonated water. Lucky for me, Europe is really big on "sparkling water." Super cheap. Love it. No root beer floats yet but the time will soon come.

The second food miracle happened yesterday. I was sitting at home and all my housemates were gone. The doorbell rings, it's the pizza man. Apparently some guy that I had never heard of ordered pizza for 101 Cranbrook (that's my flat) and it was pre-paid. I told the pizza guy I didn't order any pizza and I didn't know who the guy was and he says, "Hey, then you get free food." I took the pizza and waited awhile, maybe in case some guy showed up asking for his pizza. Melanie came home and we decided that we didn't want to waste it! Along with the pizza, there was also cookies with toffee and chocolate dipping sauce, chicken wings and coke (I don't drink it but Ina was excited for it). We had a lovely dinner and it was very delicious.

Job Hunting

I am officially in the process of looking for a job, exciting. My new career: music education.

Although I am quite excited about being able to teach, looking for a job is not the most fun thing I have ever done.... Most places I apply for I don't even land an interview, I guess that's what I get for being a first year teacher. I am starting to feel slightly frustrated at the whole situation, as I'm sure many of my fellow graduates can relate to.

The thing that bothers me the most though is that the whole thing feels like one giant game. It's not a question of whether or not you know what you're talking about or if you are a good teacher, it's a question of whether or not you know what five things should be on a lesson plan and give examples of good classroom management. I know that the schools hiring are only doing their best and the only thing that they know how to do, but I don't think an interview gives any indication of whether or not I can teach music. Sorry, just not happening.

I have started to broaden my horizons, however, and have been introduced into the world of boarding schools. It would be like camp all the time! Most of these programs are just looking for someone to teach kind of general music or theory, which is lame. I MISS GOOD BANDS! Almost to the point of screaming at times when all I hear are not-good bands.....

I have hope though, I just need to figure out the "right answers" and how I can really convince them that I am the best :) Or not, but at least make them think that. I was talking to one of my friends yesterday and he said, "Well, you can always get married." Ha. Ha ha. Even if that were an option at the moment, I would hope that I would be working with kids anyways. I miss them.

I also wish I were going to camp this summer. No Michigan..... or Idaho.... or Washington. I guess I have England :) Kid-less England though.

Who could ever tire of Bath?

Maybe my favorite place I've been in England has been Bath. It was extremely picturesque and what England should look like. The trip was kind of a spur of the moment decision.... we took the bus there which took about three hours. There was the Roman Bath there which is a natural hot spring that the Romans built a spa around. We drank the water which was completely disgusting but they told us that it's healthy for you. We even drank the whole glass.

We walked around a lot and it rained a lot (surprise, surprise). There were a lot of shops and lots of little streets. We went to the Assembly Room which are really big and have huge chandeliers in them and then we made one of the biggest mistakes of our trip by going to the Jane Austen Center. It was extremely funny and the lady giving us the little spiel was crazy! They told us about her life and it was in a flat down the street to the one that Jane Austen lived in. Basically the whole thing was "This was a dress that was used around the time Jane Austen was here in Bath," and "This is when she mentions Bath in her books Northanger Abbey and Persuasion." It was kind of fun as there was a poster of the "language of the fan" and we watched a horrible movie about Jane in Bath with a news anchor person that was extremely full of herself.

Definitely the highlight of our little daytrip was going on the Crescent which is the street that Anne Elliot chases Captain Wentworth at the end of the BBC version of Persuasion. Yes I know, amazing. This only happens in the movie though, not in the book. Still..... In the movie she also has this really awkward kiss that takes thirty seconds for her to finally kiss him (we timed it). Really awkward. Apparently there's a tear in her eye though so the director wanted to keep it. Makes me laugh.

Annemarie and I re-enacted the whole thing, without a Captain Wentworth of course. Annemarie recorded it on her camera and you can watch it! It's hilarious. My favorite is watching the other people watch us... ha ha. I couldn't stop laughing. At the end I was holding the camera for Annemarie for the awkward kiss but I couldn't handle it. I stopped recording and she said that it wasn't long enough so she just held the camera. I was laughing too hard.

We ate at a lovely little cafe where I had créme brulée, mmmm. Then we went to an organ concert in Bath Abbey that I loved. It was a pretty organ and we don't have enough abbeys in the states, I am completely convinced.

Food, Glorious Food

As promised to Charlie, I am going to update blogs. It seems like a very large task though as I just went on the longest holiday of my life and I LOVED it. I have decided to start on the food, as it was perhaps my favorite part.

Disclaimer is that I did lose my camera in Rome. Hopefully someone found it and is somehow converted because of our pictures in front of the chapel in France. I had hope right up til the end that we may find it but I've given up now. I am really sad not to have the pictures but, lucky for me, I can steal pictures.

The glorious food really started in France. England has good chocolate, but not a whole lot else. Yorkshire pudding is quite delightful, but none was partaken of in London. Plus, I totally forgot to find a Ben's Cookies so I didn't get any of that goodness either.

French food was delicious! The first day we were there we found this place that had the most delicious crepes I have ever eaten in my life coated with Nutella. Watching him make them made them even more delicious.

After obtaining our Nutella crepes, we went and ate them by the riverside where Gene Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant have been. Sigh.

No joke at all, we honestly lived off of baguettes and nutella for the majority of our meals. It never got old though, mmmm, baguettes. Not to mention they are super cheap! Nutella really has to be the best invention ever, it makes everything taste better. Baguettes and nutella is basically heaven.

We did eat out one night which was lovely. A little café that played "It's Raining Men" so we felt right at home. We had meat for the first time on our trip and authentic French onion soup, in France. I know.

Another delight in Paris was a little pastry shop by our hostel. They really had the best pastries I've ever had. We only discovered it our last day so I didn't get to partake as much as I would have liked but it was still glorious. They put chocolate on everything, chocolate on croissants is especially good.

Italian food was amazing. Every day we had gelato and spaghetti and pizza. Pizza is really thin there and one order is one pizza but oh so good. The gelato was exquisite, my favorites being mango, chocolate and caramel. I probably miss that the most about Italy.... there were so many gelato places too! We went to a different one every day. The best one was one in Venice that took us like an hour to find. The pasta was very good too. This is a picture of the first dinner we had (the place I lost my camera). Mmmmm.... pizza.

The best meal was the last one, it was the best spaghetti of my life. We also went to this amazing place in Venice that delicious. I don't know what I ate but John had lasagna.

To finish things off, I traveled on Swiss Air and they gave me free chocolate. Yay for Swiss chocolate!

St. Patrick's Day

So St. Patty's Day wasn't quite what I expected here, so close to Ireland. I was expecting some remark of wishing me a happy day or at least some green.... no no.

Here there is no pinching (which I learned after having pinched sadly enough), there are no leprechaun tales, no dying rivers green, no shamrocks, no potatoes (that's Irish), no nothing. The only thing different about today then every other day is a more reason to drink. What a shame. I happen to like St Patrick's Day!

I'm sure I will live, but most holidays here seem to be rather on the lame side. The holiday that sounds like a lot of fun though is bonfire day! It's sometime in the summer. Apparently once upon a time hundreds of years ago someone tried to bomb parliament but he got caught first and they burned him in a bonfire. They celebrate bonfire day every year as "the day parliament didn't get blown up." Isn't that every day? Oh well. It includes a big bonfire and bonfire candy and fireworks! Not quite the fourth of July and no corn but still joyous.

Spring Break

Spring break, woo!

This is going to be the BEST spring break I have ever had... by far. First Annemarie comes to visit. We are going to Stonehenge first then to Paris then back to London. On the list is the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, Versailles, Billy Elliot, Buckingham Palace, Westminister and whatever else we feel like. The best part about it? I'm done planning!!!!! I have booked all the tickets and train and hostels that I need to (I think). I am much relieved.... it is going to be great.

And what about when Annemarie leaves you ask? There's still another week of spring break. ROME! I'm flying out Monday and meeting John in Rome. From what I hear, we are going to also visit Florence and Switzerland. I am SO excited! The other amazing thing is that John is planning out the whole thing so all I need to do is to show up :)

This really is going to be incredible.

Feed the Birds....

I saw a pigeon lady, a real live one. She was sitting outside of Sainsbury's on Newcastle and the pigeons were flocking to her. She was feeding them bread.

I instantly started singing Mary Poppins and then awed in that pigeon ladies do really exist in England. I also found out a tuppence is like a penny :)

Gypsies also exist....

Newcastle

Yesterday I spent the day in Newcastle with the International Student Association. I got on the bus thinking that some of my friends were also coming, but they were no where to be found after the three hour bus ride. I then attached myself to three really sweet French girls and then this amazing Bulgarian girl named Asja. We had some bonding time and she told me all about Bulgaria.

Newcastle wasn't the most amazing place in the world but it was quite a bit better than Hull.... it was older and had so it felt more like Europe. We were also extremely lucky in that it was sunny! It's NEVER sunny here. And yes, I did take all of the pictures.

Charlie, this is mainly for you and your "Take pictures and put them on your blog" request because I love you.

Yay for bridges!!!!! There are THREE in this picture. My first picture of European bridges.

We laughed really hard at this one... It looks like he's smiling! This museum was probably the coolest thing on our little trip. A lot of the stuff though, like this skeleton, weren't real. They did have a real mummy unwrapped though! I didn't take a picture because it made me queasy.

This monument was really beautiful. You can't really tell that well but it's all these soldiers going for war and right in the center is a dad hugging his daughter. We really liked it.

I loved this because they actually named some stairs.... that's all there was here, just stairs. I wish that WE named stairs!

This makes me laugh. It's the nice, high class opera house in Newcastle. I think it's ugly and looks like a giant manatee. Inside wasn't very pretty either.... they did have a sign up that Imogen Heap performed there on Monday though! Missed it by five days.

This is the big "main attraction" in Newcastle. Type in "Newcastle" in google and this will be the first thing to pop up. It's the world's only tilting bridge. It is kind of cool and it's pretty, especially lit up at night. It was easy to make fun of though.... a pedestrian bridge being the coolest thing in the town. There was a plaque saying that the queen opened the bridge though.

Asja and me walking across the bridge.

CHARLIE!!!! I took this picture thinking of you and then explained the bridge book to those I was walking with. This should definitely be a new addition!

This was one of the first places we went and I thought it was very pretty. The best part about it though is the accordion player on the bottom right. While he was playing I felt like I was in France. Do they have accordion players in France?

This was a really pretty monument in the middle of the city. Smack in the middle. It's in this big square, really tall too.

I had a grand old time. The city isn't that big, we would walk from end to end and then say "that's it?" Some of the places were kind of lame but overall it's a nice little place. I am very happy that it felt like Europe and some parts were very pretty. Plus, what an awesome bridge :) It was a fun trip though.

Water

Out of all the things that are different about England I think the one that I miss most is drinking fountains. Everywhere I go, I am subconsciously looking for one. We walk to church and I'm parched but there are no drinking fountains to be found! I feel so dehydrated.... I'm going to have to start carrying around a water bottle. They don't know what they're missing out on!

Teddy Precious

I have a teddy bear and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I have had it since I was seven (I think) and it's name is Teddy Precious, or TP for short. It is dressed like a Native American and I dearly love it. I have always taken good care of it, I even cried when the tag came off. It now looks rather ragged though and I can't seem to recall it's original color as it is now turning rather gray.

I have taken TP with me everywhere, one time to Camp Crescendo in Idaho with relentless teasing from John. If I don't have TP with me when I go to bed, I have to make a make-shift teddy bear like a sweatshirt or blanket rolled up so that I can still hold onto something when I go to sleep.

I had a problem coming to England though. I only had one suitcase to fit EVERYTHING in and it had to be under 50 pounds (it was 50 pounds exactly actually....) There was no room for my poor little bear. Today, however, I got a package. A surprise. You'll never guess what it was!!!!! My life is complete, I feel so much better. Thank you John :)

Our Kitchen

For the past week our kitchen has been under construction. There was something wrong with the pipe so instead of ripping up the floor to fix the pipe, they moved our sink to the other side of the kitchen.

The best part about this was waking up in the morning with strange men in our kitchen tearing things up. They proved to be very congenial though and although we didn't have water or couldn't go in our kitchen and the power was turned off for part of it, it wasn't that bad.

I am happy to say that I am free to move about our kitchen and eat all my food now, including my newly bought jar of Nutella.

Welcome to Hull

I am in England! It is amazing, I love it. Today I had the most English moment.... I went to a bakery and got a meat pie and then it started raining on my way home so I got to use my umbrella. The whole experience was just exquisite, I love being English.

I have survived my first week, it's a miracle. The first couple days were mostly orientation stuff with a bunch of other international students. What's really exciting about that is that I now know people from all over the world! My roommates are from China, France and Germany and all wonderful people. I think that this is going to be a very happy semester. I am still the same, slightly anti-social, but I'm going to try and be a little more social. Here's to hoping.

The ward here is wonderful, although it takes a while to get to church. I have never done so much walking in my life and I'm afraid there will be LOTS more to come. The church is four miles away and we walk. I can't even imagine how many people in Utah would go inactive if they had to do that to get to church. There are a couple other students (three) that live only a half an hour away so I get to walk with them. It's not as bad as I thought it would though and the walks do tend to be quite charming. At least I know a couple of the streets now, wandering around in them so often. The other YSA live above a flower shop which is my new dream. It's an apartment that involves three different floors with a little space on each of them. All together it's basically a normal sized apartment... They have FHE at their house every Monday night (which I can't really go to anymore because I have a class) and then there's institute at the church every Wednesday which was great. Love it. The other members are also extremely nice. One family took me in on Sunday and took me home and fed me then took me to ward choir. The food was amazing and they taught me a little of how to be British. I had a very difficult time learning how to eat that way but I'm sure I'll get it in time. They also had their little grandkids over who were absolutely adorable. I have also never heard such an incredible six-year-old singer! She was singing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I think she should go on broadway!

My apartment is glorious and big, my room is all my own and quite large. I finally put up my Madame Butterfly poster today and I'm feeling very good about it. There are three rooms upstairs and two downstairs. The bathroom is a little strange and that's why I love it! There is one room that is just the toilet and the toilet is flushed by pulling on a chain. It's like out of movie or something. The other room has the sink and the shower. Downstairs also has the kitchen which is very large and has two fridges! It's a miracle. The washing machine is in the kitchen as well and looks like a dishwasher, I love it. We have no dryer but hang things up in the kitchen to dry. We also have a microwave, toaster, stove, oven, anything you could ever want in a kitchen. It's beautiful. Going out the back door there is a little path that goes straight onto University (people here call it "Uni") and I can literally get from my room to class in five minutes. There's a street not very far away with some shopping and then you can take the bus into town where's there's a ton of shopping including a mall.

My classes are all fine. I have a music class which consists of beginning conducting (whoop-dee-doo), two ensembles and lessons. My first lesson is in a week and I am very much looking forward to it. I also have a math/science class which is....fine. I've only been to the math part yet which is quite a bit like calculus but watered down a bit. Hopefully I survive without too much headache over it. Then I have an archaeology class which I love so far. The teacher is amazing and is very passionate about it. It should be great fun.

As to Hull, the city, there's not a whole lot to see. It's kind of like going to visit the city of Provo. There's some shopping and a university and I've heard this great aquarium. They also have a couple of museums in the "Old Town" which I will definitely visit. But it's a nice place. I have never feared for my life or even met any crazy people on the streets. There are quite a lot of pubs and everyone love football (soccer) and everyone is quite nice. Hopefully I'll get to travel around during my stay here.

The first week has been quite charming, I think I'm going to like it here.

My Kind of Town...Chicago is

This was written last week.... just got the internet today. Love it.

I am on the plane right now and it is quite exciting. I had my first online meal which consisted of a salad with ranch dressing, two slices of cucumber and a quarter a tomato, beef and pasta, apple cranberry juice and two Milano cookies. A notch under cafeteria food but still a notch above the expected. I have heard horror stories and this meal was not worthy of a horror story. I am also enjoying the privileges of new technology. They have a wide array of movies (like thirty!) and TV shows and music and even games that are at my fingertips. Six hours is just flying by! It’s going to be too short of a ride by the end. Too bad I’m going to be so dead tired by the time I get there…. Another amazing thing is that there is no one sitting next to me to I am free to sprawl and find comfortable positions. Yay! Maybe I will get some sleep.

Chicago was incredible, I am definitely a fan. I LOVED being with Jim, it’s so good to have a fellow flautist around. There’s a different language that only we speak. The food was delicious, the people incredible and the music exquisite.

Tuesday night we went to a concert of the top orchestra at DePaul and it was incredible! They have some amazing talent at DePaul. They played some beautiful pieces but what was really interesting was the conductor. I could not get over him, completely entranced. His technique was insane, I have never seen anything like it. It must have worked though to have an ensemble sounding like they did. I felt slightly guilty though. As I was wondering how in the world they followed the conductor, at the end of the piece I look around and people had been moved to tears. I feel like I’m almost immured to good music, which is why I’m going into my profession J What can you do? I’ll have to be more aware next time I go to a good concert. What I REALLY remember about that night though was how freezing it was waiting for the train. Wow, cold. Chicago is a cold place!

Wednesday was exciting. I got to listen to some rehearsals and Jim’s “studio” which is where all the flute players in his studio get together and play for each other. They were extremely good players, I was very impressed. They all love what they’re doing and I love being around people like that. I love passionate people, it doesn’t really matter what they’re passionate about either! They were incredible. I also got to sit in on a lesson which was much more exciting than one would think. His teacher is something else… she is very in your face and never afraid to tell you when you “suck.” That kind of person does everyone good, especially someone like Jim who takes criticism so graciously.

That night we got to meet up with one of my Blue Lake friends, Rob. He is the best. I love seeing people that live across the country who you always hope that you’ll see again but never really believe that you will. He is definitely one of those people. He’s doing well and we had a grand old time reminiscing about the past summer and we had some strange stories. I’m afraid those with us didn’t quite understand but Bernies will always have a special place.

That about sums it up! This morning Jim and I went to breakfast, I packed up and headed to the airport (have I ever mentioned that I HATE packing?) I loved Chicago and I love the whole feeling of Chicago. The person next to you whom you’ve never met before will talk to you if they have something to say. Everyone was always extremely nice to me and I had multiple people help me with my luggage as I was trying to lug it on the train to the airport. Everyone has an opinion about everything and yet they are willing to listen to your opinion as well. I loved it there and I am so lucky that I was able to go! Plus, Jim is great. Second flute domination!

On my way to the airport the train was delayed half an hour, my flight to New York was delayed three hours, and my flight to Manchester was delayed one hour. I’ve just been having a grand old time being delayed…I haven’t really minded though. This is it! England, here I come.

It Officially Begins....

I made it! I survived my five hours of packing Sunday night and the two plane rides here after getting up at 4:30 in the morning! I can’t even believe it, I’m in Chicago!

The last couple days at home were slightly crazy. I didn’t start packing until Sunday night, something that I swore I would not do. By the end I was yelling, “I hate packing!!!!” and my dad was trying his best to console. He suggested I give up traveling but not for this trip, it was too late to back out.

The plane rides were pretty uneventful. The most notable things being:

1. There was a fly on the plane. I decided if I wrote books I would write a book about that fly who traveled the country, or at least from Salt Lake City to Houston.

2. I got my first meal on a plane and it wasn’t bad. It consisted of a bowl of Total cereal, a banana and orange juice. I had never eaten Total before and I liked it, it reminds me of Wheaties, which is my favorite cereal.

3. One of the flight attendants totally looked like a mannequin. She had very white skin, was very skinny and wore bright red lipstick. I once saw a twilight episode where the girl was really a mannequin (Marcia…) and it reminded me of that.

4. I had really heavy bags which resulted in lots of people helping me put it into the overhead. It must have been near 40 pounds and included my scriptures and textbook and guidebook and Lydia, my flute.

5. I read over a hundred pages of Anne of Green Gables after deciding that the online movie wasn’t worth my time. I like the book, thank you Jenifer. I then started thinking like the book such as, “Wouldn’t that be quite lovely….?” and naming lots of things.

6. I slept in strange positions. I was having a hard time completely falling asleep but once I did and I couldn’t remember what was going on when I woke up.

So things went well. After flying into Chicago I then took the blue line train to connect with the brown line which was an elevated train and amazing to Jim’s place. Yay Jim! We have had so much fun so far. Mainly we’ve just been having flute talk but it’s the best. I feel like I’m a better player just by listening to him! He also made me get out my flute and gave me a lesson with the promise of one a day while I’m here. We also walked four blocks to get DEEP DISH PIZZA! The first thought Jim had when he first ate it was, “Wow, this is so much better than the pie.” There’s no words for it, nothing to even compare it to. Incredible. Life changing. Walking to get it was extremely cold although I was very happy to discover that Chicago isn’t a completely awful place. Apparently we are the safe part of town and it was quite pleasant. Lots of little restaurants around and cute little houses and nice people walking by. It was very cold though and windy.

Jim lives in a little studio apartment, which is so fun. Tiny, but amazing. He told me over spring break five people are coming to visit and we got a good laugh trying to imagine how’d they all fit. We blew up my air mattress with my blow dryer and it worked much better than either of us expected. I also got to work on my breath support as I manually blew up the last of it….. This morning Jim is in class, which let me sleep in and later we’re meeting up and I’m coming to his band rehearsal which has much promise of being amazing. I am very excited and tonight we’re going to a concert. Unfortunately the Chicago symphony isn’t playing while I’m here but the top orchestra at DePaul is performing tonight and that’s going to be incredible! I’m excited, it’ll be great. We are also going downtown sometime and we’re going to eat lots of good food. I am so glad that I came and I’m so proud to be the first person that Jim sees from Salt Lake in eight months. Yeah, I’m that cool.

And so it begins.....

While at Charlie's apartment yesterday we were watching Persuasion and I told her I wanted to go to Bath. She then decided I should blog in Bath....thus she then proceeded to make a blog for me and came up with the clever name, as I will be spending my next semester in Hull. Plus Charlie, you may be the only person reading this for a while so it's all for you, because I love you.... squirrel! And here is a picture of you so I everyone can see my inspiration.

After thinking about it, I have decided that if I'm every going to blog in my life, it should be while I'm having a grand old time in Europe. I officially leave in six days, spend four days in Chicago then continue to ENGLAND where I will stay until the middle of June. I'm going over to be part of a student exchange at the University of Hull and know very little about Hull. I do know that it doesn't seem to be the prettiest part of the country, people don't have straight teeth in England, their accent is hard to understand and everyone hangs out in pubs all the time. I am excited though and I know that it will be a good experience. I'll be taking three classes over there including archaeology, a science class and (drum roll) a performing ensemble! Yay! When I get there I'll be auditioning to be part of a group and I'm sure I'm really going to love that. I bet they have a completely different repertoire over there and maybe they even conduct differently. When I'm REALLY excited for is breves and semi-quaivers though.

With six days left I'm just trying to get everything together. Thankfully, Heidi is letting me take her computer over there with me and that will be wonderful. I also am prepared with my umbrella and power converters. I may want to start packing soon but that's another story.