Skip to main content

London Living

I've learned a few things in the two days since I left the U.S. First of all, flying internationally is AWESOME. Going through customs, not so awesome but I'll get there. You're greeted at your seat by a pillow and blanket, you get served Indian food for dinner, and there's tons of T.V. shows and movies to watch. I didn't sleep much, and thus was a bit disoriented when we landed at 7 am London time, while my body was on Virginia time where it was the middle of the night. I completely forgot that my dad had told me that before you go through passport control, there's a landing form you have to fill out. When my half asleep half awake self handed the border patrol officer my passport I was met with a very dirty glare as he angrily asked where my landing form was. He handed me one after I explained that I had forgotten to grab one, but not without a bit of eye rolling. I frantically filled it out and made it through customs in one piece after being questioned about why I was entering the country and having to give him some proof. The border patrol officers don't exactly give you a warm welcome to the country. I met up with another girl from my program, and we got incredibly lost trying to find the flats where we're currently staying, but we made it! Yesterday afternoon was spent mostly getting the stuff we needed and doing a little bit of exploring! I am just in awe of how beautiful all of the buildings in London are! It's really like nowhere else in the world!

Today after classes, we decided to take a bus tour of London! The tour took us around to a lot of the classic tourist-y sites like Big Ben, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, etc etc. It was one of those hop on/hop off tours, but it was pouring rain so there wasn't much hopping off. We finished the tour around 5 pm and realized we hadn't eaten all day (thanks jet lag for messing with our bodies), and we felt that the rainy day called for some warm comfort food. It seemed like the perfect chance to experience a London favorite: fish and chips. My expectations were low I'll admit, but it was so delicious. Worth every penny. So basically, after two days I'm in love with this beautiful city and I can't wait to explore even more!

Here are the few pictures I took today, not the best quality because they were taken through a bus window, but I tried!


Got a picture of One Direction's favorite London restaurant for Jenn and Amy, even though Jenn informed me that they're on tour. 


























Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Journey to Self-Confidence

This is a picture of me almost exactly three years ago: And this is a picture of me now: Now, you might be thinking this is one of those stories that you see in Weight Watchers ads on T.V. endorsing a diet. I promise it's not. This journey was about so much more than a number on a scale. It was about working towards being able to recognize my divine nature as a daughter of God. I'll start at the beginning. When I started my freshman year at BYU, my self-confidence was at an all time low. I would try on about five outfits every morning, look in the mirror, and then immediately change. My low self-esteem was reflected in the way I talked to people, the way I dressed, and just the overall way that I carried myself. I compared myself to everyone else around me and was constantly tearing myself down. My lack of self-esteem seemed so obvious, yet it seemed like no one truly understood how I felt. I knew I needed to make some changes, but I just didn't know how. Af...

Shipps on a Ship Part 3: Thanksgiving on the Water

       After a gorgeous day at Castaway Cay, we got back on the ship to start sailing back towards America. We discovered when we got to dinner and were the only family not dressed in elaborate pirate costumes (I'm not exaggerating we really were the only ones), that Wednesday night on the ship was Pirate-themed. After dinner we popped into the movie theater to see Guardians of the Galaxy (a fantastic movie, highly recommend it if you're into the whole Marvel thing), and then headed up to Deck 11 for a pirate-themed show and fireworks. After the fireworks ended, a DJ started playing music and the Shipp cousins immediately became the life of the party! We laughed and danced and laughed at how ridiculous we looked dancing. It was one of those spontaneous moments where I wished I could slow down time and make it last a little longer! After the dance party, we headed over to the Cabanas where they were serving the strangest combination of food: tacos, crepes, cookies, an...

20 Days Until Provo!

                   I apologize in advance for the nostalgia of this blog post. In 20 days, I'll be leaving Virginia. IT is going to be SO weird, because I've lived here since I was 3 years old. Two different houses, but they are within 4 miles of each other. I've been so blessed to have so much family close by. My mom's sister and her family have lived down the street from us since I was about 8 years old. My grandparents live about 20 minutes away, and my Aunt Becky lives close by in Arlington. Our family has become really close as a whole for that reason, and I love that so much! In addition, as cliche as it sounds, I think NOVA is SO pretty! Provo has a lot to live up to, I really hope those mountains pull through! My friends and I like to joke about how I'm going to forget what a tree looks like! I'll Google them every day just in case. You never know, I may get to busy to stop and th...