Heidi

SANTORINI

2009-08-11T17:17:00.010-06:00

We took a ferry from Athens to Santorini, which was pretty cool. We were on the top deck and it got kind of windy at times. It was fun to be on a big boat in the ocean water :) Our hotel was about a 30 second walk to the black sand beach which was AWESOME! We loved the beach, but beware of nude women if you go there. They don't care one bit. It was so relaxing to be in Santorini. It was the end of our trip and we loved to just chill, read, go to the beach, and do whatever we wanted!

On the ferry :)

Our second day there we booked a boat tour. It was really sweet! We went to the Burnt Island which is a volcano that we hiked up. There is hot smelly sulfur that still leaks out... We went to a warm spring. We had to jump from our tour boat and swim to it, so it was really cold water until we got to where it was warm! Our last stop was at Oia which was the other side of Santorini. This is where Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed for all you fans! It almost seemed fake to be there! It was soo much fun! This is a famous sunset viewing place, and it was beautiful! I posted some pictures of the sunset earlier.

The Burnt Island

This is a picture of our tour boat

Oia behind us

I'm sorry, but this is AMAZING!

I was in love with this little house! You can't even see it that good, but it is sooo CUTE!

Watching the sunset...

The next day we rented 4-wheelers for 24 hours and drove all around the island! This was definitely a good move on our part! It was so cool to see the island like this!

The Red Beach

The highest point of the island

Just riding along the beach :)

We love our gyros! These ones were HUGE!

I'm standing at the very tip of the island

Random swing that looked out in to the water- beautiful view

This was so much FUN!

At the end of the day we drove along the Black Beach by our hotel and stopped for a treat. I am eating a white chocolate ice cream bar which is delicious!

Sitting at the poolside at our hotel

This is on our deck of the hotel room- you can see the beach behind me!!

SUNSET

Well this is the end of my trip... It was absolutely incredible and even more than I ever expected. I loved it!!

ATHENS

2009-08-07T10:26:00.013-06:00

Athens was such a good time! Our first night we got suckered into eating at the first restaurant we came too. My meal was delicious, but I regretted it the next day... Totally got food poisoning and was so sick. I actually didnt feel so hot the next few days, but I still enjoyed my time in Athens.

This was my meal. It is chicken souvlaki (it's like a kabob). It tasted so good, but it didn't treat me very well...

Our second day we signed up for a walking tour through our hostel. We ended up being the only people, so it was a sweet private tour just for us! We loved our tour guide, Michelle, and she taught us a lot of things about the city. Here are pictures of all the places we visited...

Hadrian's Arch

Temple of Zeus

Agora with the Acropolis in the background

Temple of Hephaistos

We walked by the President's house and watched the changing of the guard. It was VERY interesting... I would like to put up a video of them marching, but I have tried to put up a video before and it won't work for me. If anyone can tell me what to do let me know!

ok here is a video, i have a way better one but it's too long and it won't upload

These next pictures are at the Acropolis

The Parthenon- too bad it was covered in scaffolding, we tried to get the best angle possible

View of the city from on top- look to the right and you can see the Temple of Zeus

Porch of the Carytiatids, part of the Erechtheum

The Propylaea

Theatre of Dionysus

Temple of Athena Nike

Try and read that!

That night we went to a garden rooftop cinema, which was awesome. It was on top of a building right by our hostel and the acropolis is in full view when we look to the side! We saw Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. It was ok, but it was the atmosphere that was so much fun!

Here we are at the movie!

Here is Michelle eating a gyro. We LOVE these!! They are so yummy! This was our lunch and dinner for the remainder of our time in Athens. They were cheap and delicious and didn't make us sick.

Stray dogs are EVERYWHERE!!

Michelle and I went to a market the next morning and did a little shopping which was fun. The men loved us everywhere we went! haha It was most apparent in Paris and Athens. It was funny to hear what people would say to us, especially when they wanted us to buy something from them! We had people call us beautiful, pretty, girlfriend, they would tell us they loved us, they would chase us (kinda creepy), etc.

Here is me in the streets of Athens with some merchandise

This is the view from our hostel room balcony

These are pictures from sunsets in Athens and Santorini

Here are our feet all over Greece!

ROMA

2009-07-29T15:13:00.011-06:00

After the wretched suffering of the sleeper train we finally arrived at the Termini train station in Rome. We found our hostel, the Sandy Hostel. It seemed a little sketchy at first. We walked in a big blueish door and up it seemed like a million flights of stairs. But it actually turned out to be pretty good. The first night I was in a room without Candice and Michelle, with 3 strangers. I met the boy first, he was about my age and with him was his mom and sister. So that turned out good! I was grateful it wasn't some crazies!! They were so nice to me and they gave us their tour bus passes to use the next day because they were leaving.

The first site in Rome we saw was the Pantheon. It was pretty darn cool. Before we went in we had our first gelato, and it was AMAZING!! It was actually the best we had in all our time spent in Rome.

Eating delicious gelato outside the Pantheon. I had pistachio and hazlenut... mmm heavenly :)

Michelle and I in front of the Pantheon

We had time and some energy for one more event that night, so we went to the Museo Nazionale Romano....LAME. It really wasn't that cool. The cool stuff it did have was fake, they had copies of all the famous works.

We went around finding funny things to make up for the lameness and wasted money

We had a really good dinner. We ate outside and listened to accordian players (they are EVERYWHERE), and our waiter was awesome.

This was our appetizer, caprese, and it was soo yummy!

DAY 2
We got up bright and early to go to Vatican City. We saw it all... the museum, sistine chapel, St. Peters Basilica, and we picked the day of the big mass so we saw the Pope! We were waiting in line for St. Peters Basilica and we met a girl, Liz, from east LA who was there by herself and she became our friend!

The Pope!

Inside the basilica- it was so huge and beautiful

The dome of the basilica is behind us

We hiked to the top of the basilica, the Vatican city is behind me. It was a pretty cool view.

When we were through at the Vatican, we took our free tour bus passes and rode the bus for 2 1/2 hours. It was a pretty cool way to see a lot of things.

We went to the Spanish Steps, and I kinda think they are overrated... We got there and then left because it wasn't much to see. I know we did miss the month of may when all the beautiful flowers are there, so maybe that's why. Our new roommate, Giovanni from South Africa, wanted us to go with him to check out the night life at the Spanish steps... we didn't take the invite. So maybe that's cooler...haha!

The Spanish Steps are behind us...not much to see hu?

The Trevi Fountains were pretty dang cool to see

DAY 3
We went to the Coloseum which was AWESOME! We took about a billion pictures! We also went to the Roman Forum. We totally spotted a mormon family there! We kinda stalked them to try to find out! haha There were 2 boys that looked about our age and their parents. We found out that they are from Utah and just picked up their twin boys from their missions! They picked up one from France and then came to Rome and picked up the other one.

Part of the Roman Forum

We went to the San Callisto Catacombs which were really cool! We didn't really know exactly where we were going, but we met a family who was going to the same place and also didn't really know the way either! So the blind was leading the blind! But we made it!! Yay! We couldn't take pictures in the catacombs which was a bummer, so we just got outside pics. After the catacombs we waited for quite a while for the bus on the Appian Way- one of the earliest important roads in Rome.

Beautiful scenery outside the catacombs

Just chillin on the Appian Way...

We loved all of the columns everywhere we went!

1...2...3... JUMP

Top left, bottom middle, and right middle: Santorini Sunset
Bottom left: Base of Eiffel Tower
Top middle: Roman Forum
Top right: Colosseum
Bottom right: Highest point in Santorini

Paris- 2nd half

2009-07-18T16:18:00.008-06:00

Our last 2 days were just as exciting and full as the first 2! We went to a farmers market that was so cool! It was like all local people there. It's definitely not a tourist trap which was awesome. I bought a purse here and we bought some lunch here- fruit and baguettes! YUMMY! After the market we visited Versailles. The Château de Versailles is pretty incredible! The grounds were so beautiful too.

All sorts of bread at the market...

Our fun purses :)

The golden gate outside the Chateau de Versailles

The Hall of Mirrors

The grounds

More grounds. It was really windy!!

The outside of the Chateau

Our last day in Paris we went to the Louvre, went to a delicious bakery called Laduree, walked a lot all day, and got on our sleeper train to Rome. The sleeper train was MISERABLE!!! I will NEVER do that again!! It was hot and stinky and I started to get clostrophobic in the small space. We shared a 6 man cabin with a nice French couple and a Nigerian woman who, no offence, smelled and took up so much room.

The Louvre

Me and Mona, no biggie

So I thought this only happened in movies, but we went to the laundromat and someone put too much soap in the washer and it kept getting closer, and closer, and closer... haha

It was almost too pretty to eat!

This is a picture of our cabin...there are 2 beds on top that you can't see in the picture

This basically sums up what I felt like for 14 hours of misery!

PARIS

2009-07-12T18:38:00.010-06:00

We left London to go to Paris at 5:30 AM. When we arrived we were so dead tired and everything was so foreign and people were speaking French all around us and we had no clue where we were at and needless to say we were pretty frustrated. It took us a while to find our hostel, which was called the 'Perfect Hostel.' Once we got to the hostel we took a 2 hour nap!

After we were rejuvenated we visited the Arc de Triomphe. We hiked to the top and it was an incredible view of Paris. We liked this place so much that we came back another night to see the night view of Paris. It was beautiful!

Most people we asked to take a picture of the 3 of us took a horrible picture. We call this our "money shot" because the nice man from Chicago took a SWEET pic of us in front of theArc.

This is on top of the Arc with the Eiffel Tower behind me!

We also went to the Eiffel Tower a couple of times. Here is a collage of pics.

I don't know if you can tell, but the bottom right picture is us jumping at the base of the Eiffel Tower.

My absolute favorite view of Paris was from the Sacre Coeur (translation: Sacred Heart). It is a Roman Catholic basilica dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is kind of up on a hill, so you climb stairs to the basilica and it's a great view from there. The view was so awesome because it's a huge panoramic view with nothing like bars in your way. Then we also hiked to the top of the basilica and that was a great view too.

This is the view standing at the bottom of the Sacre Coeur.

Here is the view once we got to the top of the stairs- at the entrance of the basilica.

This is at the top of the basilica. You can see the Eiffel Tower behind us- it looks so small!!

St. Chapelle is absolutely beautiful. The stained glass inside is just breath taking. Picutres don't do justice! They don't really do justice for antying really!

Outside St. Chapelle

The pretty stained glass

We had to visit Notre Dame!

We were trying to find our way to the Pantheon, and we got a little lost (not unusual) and we found these beautiful gardens. We don't even know what they are or anything, but we browsed around and loved it there! I loved the pretty flowers. We also found a huge golden head...

We visited the Pantheon. It was built after the Pantheon in Rome. It was pretty sweet.

We went to Musee d'orsay and it was awesome! There was Monet, Manet, Degas, Whistler, and much more!! Here are some of the famous works...

These are all things we crammed within the the first 2 days we were in Paris. There is more to come!

LONDON TOWN

2009-07-07T15:27:00.012-06:00

We made it to London and it seems like a blur to me! It went by so fast! London was pretty awesome. We stayed in the Mowbray Court Hotel where apparently lots of BYU students stay while staying in London. It was a pretty good location. The tube station was just around the corner and we could get to the main sites pretty quick.

Candice and I in front of our hotel

Day 1... We went to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. We were there about an hour early waiting, it was really crowded, so HOT, and not very exciting....kind of a disappointment. I know a lot of people think it's awesome, but I wasn't super impressed.

I don't know how they didn't have heat strokes with those outfits on!

We took a boat city cruise down the Thames River, which was pretty sweet. It took us from Westminster to Greenwich. We saw a lot of the sites along the river.

After the cruise we went home and got ready for...WICKED!! It was sooooo good!! I have been wanting to see this for so long and I finally did. I love the music and the performers were incredible! Loved it :)

This is us so excited to go see Wicked!

Day 2.... First we went to the Globe Theatre and took a tour. It was pretty interesting. It is set up like Shakespear's original theatre.

I found this stone on the ground outside at the Globe Theatre!

We were able to see some of the actors rehearsing

We walked over to St. Paul's Cathedral. I love all the cathedral's we have been to. We went up to the tower and down to the crypt's.

I'm walking across the Tower Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral is behind me.

This is on top of St. Paul's Cathedral. You can see the London Eye between the bars :)

We of course HAD to visit the Florence Nightingale Museum. She was a wonderful and inspiring woman!

This night we went and saw PHANTOM OF THE OPERA!! It was really good!

Michelle and I after Phantom! AMAZING!

Day 3.... This morning we got up and gave presentations on nurses that we had researched. Carianne and I presented on Mary Breckenridge who was an outstanding nurse in her time. We visited the Tower of London and saw the crown jewels, torture chambers, and much more!

Michelle and I in front of the Tower of London

The guards

We are at the Tower of London with the Tower Bridge behind us, look close...the bridge is opening for a big boat coming through!

We also visited the Tower Bridge. We hiked to the top and then down to the engine room.

We had our last lunch together at Hornimans on the Hays. It was pretty yummy! After lunch we went to King's Cross train station and went to Platform 9 3/4!!

Hogwarts here I come!!!

This is one of my favorite pictures! Big Ben is behind me! Big Ben is actually the bell inside the tower, not the clock...did you know that? I didn't. I think this building is beautiful.

This night some of us went to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall. It was an absolute amazing performance. Nicola Bandetti was a guest violin soloist and she is UNBELIEVABLE! I am so glad I got to hear her perform live.

In front of Royal Albert Hall before the concert

Inside the concert hall. We had great seats right behind the orchestra!

After we got home I packed my backpacking backpack to get ready for Paris! We left at 4:30AM the next morning...

Edinburgh

2009-07-02T16:20:00.007-06:00

Our last day in Scotland (sad) we went to Edinburgh. We made a couple stops on the way there. Bill took us again. First we went to the Stirling Castle and the William Wallace monument. We didn't actually go in, just a stop and look because it wasn't opened. After that we went to Hailes Castle, then to a beach at North Berwick. Our last stop was Edinburgh. We walked part of the Royal Mile, saw the castle and the crown jewels, shopped, saw the Elephant Cafe where J.K. Rowling worked and started her Harry Potter books, and just checked out the town a little. That night we left Blackford and took a sleeper train to LONDON.

The William Wallace Monument is behind me

Sitting in the back of Hailes Castle

The front entrance of Hailes Castle

Hailes Castle

Michelle and I at North Berwich

Edinburgh Castle

I love St George!!

Elephant Cafe. I bet J.K. Rowling has sat in this chair before :)

We had a lot of fun on our sleeper train! Michelle and I shared a room and there was a door between our room and Candice and Carianne's room so we obviously loved that! We laughed, had dance parties, and had so much fun!!

Even more Scotland

2009-07-01T09:21:00.006-06:00

Scotland was definitely a favorite. Everything was BEAUTIFUL and I loved the people there. Everyone was so friendly and kind to us. I would for sure go back to Scotland!

We did a little service project on Alistar's (Kenna's husband) farm. We tubed trees. We took old tubes off and put new ones on. This prevents the deer from ruining the young tender trees. After the service project we walked around the farm land and saw the inspirational cave of Robert Louis Stevenson. We went home and got cleaned up to attend the Highland Games, which were just great:) Kinda funny too... no offense. They had races, dancers, shotputs, and other events.

Tubing trees!

Ready to work!

The finished product :)

Candice and I at the games

The big burly men in their kilts. The far left one was my fave:)

On Sunday we went to a ward in Perth. It was about a 20 minute drive. The branch was soo small! Lucky for us, the branch was having a 'bite & blether' after church and we were invited! They had tomato soup, sandwhiches, cookies, and drinks and we met some people and had fun with everyone there! We were planning on checking out the town afterwords and getting around ourselves, but luckily some guys in the ward offered to show us around:) They called a few friends and we all went to a place called Hermitage. They were all so much fun and we had a blast! There were beautiful waterfalls and it was just a very pretty place. Robbie had 2 huskies there that pulled me on his mountain board! It was sooo FUN!

Loved this!!!

Scotland continued...

2009-06-30T23:40:00.007-06:00

WOW! I can't believe that I am home and everything is OVER! I still want to blog about where I went and what I did. I think it will take me a while though. So back to Scotland...

Bill, our awesome driver, took us from Inverness down to Blackford. We had a wonderful drive and stopped at some gorgeous places. The thing I loved about having Bill as our driver and tour guide was that he knew about EVERYTHING! He answered every question we had. He also took us to the coolest places that no one really knows about. They are not just the touristy areas, they are the small towns and the little things, and I love that. We of course did the touristy sites as well, but we got the best of both worlds!
We stayed in Blackford for a few days at Kenna's (Erin's sister). It was soo nice of her and her husband to let us come and stay. Their home used be the the bank and it's a pretty SWEET house. It is very big and such a fun place!

Our drive to Blackford...

We made a stop at a beautiful lookout point over Loch Carron

This is us with our coolest driver ever, Bill. We love him!

We stopped at a cute fisherman's town called Plockton. It was a very small town with one main street with little shops. It had many fishing boats, you can see some in this picture

Michelle and I looking out into the water :)

The main street is behind us...ya it was small!

We walked over the bridge to Isle of Skye

The bridge is behind me. It was a bit of a walk :)

ME at the top of the bridge!

We made it!!

We stopped at the Ilean Donan castle (one of the most photographed castles). There was a bagpiper out in front and it was so cool! Oh, and they had fabulous carrot cake!

Bagpiper (he is playing as we take the pic) and the Ilean Donan castle in the background

Another stop along the way was a beautiful mountainas area (that's basically all of Scotland!) called Glencoe. We didn't stop for long, just enough time to eat some dry frosted flakes and stretch from being in the car so long.

At the end of this day we arrived at Kennas to a delicious BBQ :)

On to Scotland

2009-05-30T15:23:00.013-06:00

Inverness is such a gorgeous place and part of me really would love to live there! We stayed here for 2 nights in a bed and breakfast. We had the opportunity to tour 2 hospitals and spend a day with district nurses. A district nurse is someone who makes visits to people in the community. I was with a CPN (community psychiatric nurse). I only went on one visit with her, but it was really interesting and somehting that maybe the U.S. could adopt and could be beneficial. I loved the nurse I was with and it was a very good day. I spent the morning at the office listening to reports on patients, learned about behavioral family therapy, and listened to a drug rep and ate free lunch from him :) Tom and Anne are a couple who have helped us out so much here in Scotland. They are friends of Erin's sister who set up the clinical experiences for us in Inverness and they took us to see Loch Ness and the Urquhart Castle. They have been so nice to us and made this experience such a great one!

Scottish Lingo
Inver = mouth of
Loch = Lake
Ben = Mountain
Glen = Valley

We visited a castle in Inverness, Loch Ness, and Urquart castle.

Inverness

Walkin the streets of Inverness

A wobbly bridge in Inverness

Our bed & breakfast- Pine Guest House

Inverness Castle
Inverness Castle

View from Inverness Castle

Another view of Inverness from the castle (behind me is the white wobbly bridge)

Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness

Urquhart Castle- on the banks of Loch Ness

Michelle and I with Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle behind us

Urquhart Castle again

Loch Ness

Skipping rocks on Loch Ness and trying to rustle Nessie :)

Searching for Nessie (the LOCH NESS MONSTER) I may or may not have seen her...

Uniforms

2009-05-30T15:07:00.004-06:00

These are our very flattering uniforms we had to wear to the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary for clinical... I don't think they look as bad as they were. The pants were very "mom jean-ish" and not the most comfortable things to wear, especially compared to scrubs.

Perfect Ending

2009-05-30T13:36:00.009-06:00

Our very last day in Huddersfield was such a good day. We had a ward hike/walk. This is an annual ward tradition that they have. We all met at Castle Hill to begin. Carianne and I ran there to get some exercise and to see Huddersfield's beauty one last time while running. The walk was so fun with all of the kids from the ward. They are all so cute! We got to our destination, a park, and we ate lunch, played games, and had so much fun! We had gorgeous weather. The sun was shining, I even got a sunburn. It really was a perfect ending to our time in Huddersfield.

Carianne and I HAD to stop and take pictures in this field :)

I just decided to uproot this tree. No big deal.

This is our ward that I love and miss so much!

Me and Christina on the hike

Me and Bronte- she is the bishops daughter and so dang cute!

Some of the cute kids in the ward

I guess it's tradition that all the boys/men play a rugged game of football (our soccer). It was pretty entertaining to watch, the little ones are quite talented!

We played a game of rounders with the little kids. Its a very simplified baseball when the kids basically hit the ball and just run around

1...2...3... JUMP!

We played a great game of ultimate. I haven't played for a long time and it was so fun, and a good workout!

Oh, just one of the street names

Goodbye Huddersfield!

2009-05-25T13:42:00.005-06:00

Yesterday was our last Sunday in this ward! We are so sad to leave them!! Everyone has been so good to us. We love the bishop and his family and everyone in the ward. We sang Lord, I would Follow Thee in sacrament meeting. That is the BYU College of Nursing theme song because of the 3rd verse about the healers art. I'm glad we did it, even though we aren't the best singers :) Here we are outside of the church building.

We were able to go to the Preston temple with the ward this past week. It is about a 45 minute drive from Huddersfield. I am so glad that I was able to do baptisms there. I forgot my temple recommend, but my bishop from Provo called the temple and everything worked out great. It is a very beautiful temple.

Clinical

2009-05-25T10:56:00.008-06:00

Our last week of clinical provided us the opportunity to learn a broader view of the health care system here. We listened to a couple of lectures and took a few tours. One day we toured the podiatry clinic at the University and it was pretty awesome. It was a really nice facility. After our tour we played with some of the equipment there. It was a lot of fun and really interesting. Helen Fahey, a very nice lady in our ward took us on a tour of the GP clinic that she works at and taught us about some aspects of the health care system. Even though we didn't get to spend more time in the hospital, it was a good thing so we could learn more.

This is some equipment that we tried out. The bike was really fun! It had a screen in front that shows the course and it would change the rate if you were going up or down hill etc. The one in the middle moves around to check your balance and to align your hips, legs, and feet. The bottom left picture is a HUGE treadmill! It was so huge!

The University people in charge let us go back to the hospital to say goodbye to the wards we were on. Here are some pictures from the hospital.

Here is the lovely hospital we worked at :)

This is in front of the operating theatres (OR).

These are Carianne's and Michelle's nurses. Their uniforms are dresses, I wish you could see them better!

How many INFECTION CONTROL signs can you find???

This is how many I found!

Jane Austen fans, anyone??

2009-05-24T18:39:00.010-06:00

We had a wonderful weekend! The weather here has been gorgeous. It has been so nice to see the SUN here, especially for our last weekend in Huddersfield. I can't believe our time here has already come and gone! I still sometimes find it hard to believe that I am actually here. I forget! Anyways, on Saturday we went to Lyme Park and to Chatsworth. These are the places where the old and new Pride and Prejudice homes are located. I have to admit I'm not really the biggest Jane Austen fan, but it was a great place to visit. It kinda makes me want to watch the movies and see where I visited! I know there are going to be so MANY pictures, but it's hard to pick!

Lyme Park
(The house from the old movie)

This is the front of the house

This is a little well inside the house
(The top right picture is actually at Chatsworth)

I guess this is somewhat of a significant part in the movie. If you have seen it you I'm sure you would probably recognize it :)

The back of the house

Chatsworth House
The house from the new movie

Chatsworth House

A few pics inside the house. The lighting was bad so it was hard to get good ones

The water got to 200 FEET high!!

There were costumes in the house. We obviously had to try them on!

~Masquerade~

There was a lot of beautiful scenery surrounding the house

The house from another angle

This is us with Phil, our driver. He also picked us up from the airport when we first arrived here in England. He is also the one who took us to his son's cricket game. We love Phil!! It was sooo nice not to have to deal with public transportation. That is another thing that made our day so great :)

2009-05-19T09:49:00.004-06:00

Clinical Alternative

On Monday we had a presentation to give to the people who are in charge of our placement here. They are faculty from the University of Huddersfield (Lauren and Bev). We presented on the health care system in the U.S. and on our nursing education and role. We discussed similarities and differences between the U.S. and the U.K. We had probably about a 15-20 minute presentation prepared that turned in to about 2 hours! They were very interested and had questions for us and input. So it turned out pretty well! Before and after our presentation, we had a tour of the Calderdale hospital. It is a much nicer and newer facility than the one we were in for the first 2 weeks. Hopefully if students come back here, they can have clinical time in this hospital. They had a great labor and delivery unit that we visited.

They are literally obsessed with infection control. They have these stop signs and "Stop. Gel. Go." signs all over the place! Don't mess with the matron!
Please note the seriousness in our faces regarding this matter.

Dressed up in our polos and khaki's ready to give our presentation

Each of our interpretations of khaki...

These are offices in the hospital. Not too organized.

2009-05-17T07:44:00.019-06:00

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Friday, we headed north to visit the beautiful Lake District. We had a hostel booked and were planning to spend the night and spend 2 whole days there. But it was raining and so cold!!! My jeans were soaked up to my calves by the end of the day and it was just not going the way we wanted it to. Most everything we wanted to do was closed on account of the rain. Erin, Christina, and I decided we weren't going to stay the night (Erin never was going to). I just thought it wasn't worth it to be wet, cold, and miserable and spend the money. We did go see where William Wordsworth lived and where he was buried. We headed home after that. Christina and I left together and we barely missed the 4:00 train so we had to wait another hour to get out of there. We just killed time in a grocery store. We got on the train and ended up waiting a whole hour more because the train in front of us was broken down. When we finally got back to Huddersfield we missed the bus so we had to wait another 40 minutes for the bus. Just not really our day!!! What we did see of the lake district was really pretty though :)

Reading our books in the train on the way to the Lake District

Leprechaun leaps!

Standing in front of William Wordsworth's home

Rare and out-of-print books displayed at the William Wordsworth gift shop

Quaint river lined with cafe's and shops

Christina being cute!

Carianne being funny!

Can I live here some day??? But without the rain please. Thanks.

Table Table

So on Saturday (the day we were supposed to spend at the Lake District) was just a day of relaxation. I slept in, went running with Carianne, read a little, talked to my family on skype, talked to Ash Hill Bri Kyler and Ashlee's fam on skype, and went out to eat at a place called The Aspley Table Table. It was good food and a good time!

Boots and Belts

Our daily bus ride!

Lovely Sunday

Yesterday (Sunday) we stayed after church to practice our song we are singing in sacrament meeting next Sunday. So we were waiting for the bus inside (because it was raining) and it only comes once an hour. The bishop and his wife were leaving and offered us a ride home. We squeezed into their car and on the way home they invited us over for dinner. They are the nicest people! We love them so much!! They are so good to us. We had a delicious dinner. We had chicken with onion sauce, yorshire pudding, potatoes, corn, peas, parsnips, stuffing balls, and gravy that you put on everything. We had 3 different desserts! They also had the elders over so we had a lot of people there eating.

This is us smashed in their car!

We were killing time waiting for Bishop McEwan (have no clue what the spelling is) to come pick us up for dinner.

Us girls, Bishop and his wife, and the Elders

Dinner clean up

This is us on our very first Sunday in Huddersfield. We get there about 20 minutes early because of the bus system set up. We were DEAD tired from the jet lag. It was about 3AM Utah time when we were sitting here!

2009-05-14T10:12:00.011-06:00

GREAT BRITAIN'S MOST WANTED

Heidi Hafen
Michelle Aucoin
Christina Jemison
Carianne King
Candice Rountree

So we have run in to some trouble here in Huddersfield, England. Our instructor met with the people in charge of us being here and they have been very worried that they will be put in jail because of us. They think we need a working visa, but we had this all figured out with the British Consolate before we came. We had letters of approval and everything when we entered the country. The other problem lies within registration. We are registered through BYU's London center and here at Huddersfield as students, and I guess it's against the law to be registered in two places at once. So consequently, we are not allowed to step foot again into the Royal Infirmary Hospital or any health care setting that has to do with the 'trust.' We have been laughing our heads off at this whole mess!!! We had to turn in our ID cards and they wouldn't even let us go say good bye to the people we have been working with. We can't even go as visitors!!! Since it has calmed down a little bit, they agreed to let us go next Thursday to say thank you and good bye. We have been trying to set up some things for next week that are in the community, and possibly some private hospital tours or something. It was all so sudden and crazy and serious! So we took advantage and went shopping all day today!

Yesterday was Michelle's birthday!! Yay! We celebrated and ate at Nando's. When I originally thought I was going to Australia, my friend Jase (he went on his mission to Australia) recommended Nando's to me. They have it here too! So we thought we would try it out. It was definitely a hit with us girls! We went shopping for a little while after we ate and we met a girl working at one of the stores who was from Chicago. She has lived over here for 2 1/2 years. She married an Englishman and they ended up here. She told us her very negative feelings about the health care system here. We were glad to know that we arent the only ones who don't think very highly of it. She was very friendly and we enjoyed talking to her.
Last night we went to a cricket game. It was our driver, Phil's, son who was playing. It was interesting and I'm glad we went but it was FREEZING cold and I didn't know really what was going on and it got a little old kinda quick... but here are some pics from the day.
NANDO'S

BIRTHDAY GIRL!!

They had quite the collection of yummy sauces

Erin, Carianne, Candice

Michelle, Heidi, Christina

A little shopping after lunch :)

Cricket game. See how cold I was with my scarf wrapped around my head?!?!
(Castle Hill is right above where they played. You can see it in the bottom right picture.)

2009-05-12T09:47:00.006-06:00

New Jargon

A&E (Accidents and Emergency) = ER (Emergency Room)
Bits = parts (of anything)
Theatre = (OR) Operating Room
Ta = thanks, hello, goodbye (kind of like cheers!)
Loads = lots, many
Holiday = vacation
Spirals = curly fries

There have been two things that I totally take for granted in the US

1. Drinking Fountains: they are everywhere in the US!! Any building you go in to and even outside at places you go they have them all over the place. England has to be a dehydrated country!! Drinking fountains are no where to be found. I definitely do not get enough to drink. Good drinking water is hard to come by unless you just buy it.
2. Garbage cans: these seem to dot the US as well, but not here!

We met a kid at church who is very kind to us. He gives us rides and invites us to things, and he is just nice. He served his mission with Nate Bybee and Nick Demille, so I thought that was pretty cool!! I love the small world and the connections in the church!!! He was driving a few of us back from a fireside (which we were half the congregation, only 7 people showed up!!!) and he took us on a detour to Castle Hill. It is soo cool up there! It's this little castle thing on a hill that you can see all of Huddersfield in a 360 degree circle. It is really cool. It's pretty close to where we live. Me and Carianne wanted to run there yesterday and we thought it was only about 2 1/2 miles there, but we misjudged a little... We are guessing it was at least 7 miles round trip. My legs are pretty sore today. We got a couple pictures from Sunday, but not from our run.

Fountains Abbey

2009-05-09T15:35:00.012-06:00

So today we started off our day with bus trouble... We thought there was a bus coming near us but there wasn't so be ended up flagging another bus down! We didn't think he was going to let us on because he was just shaking his head and wouldn't open the door for a minute!!! It was hilarious! This is the second time we have had to do it in one week!!! So we kind of just make our own bus stops. We treked to Fountains Abbey today. It's not way far away but the whole transportation thing was a mess so it took us FOREVER to get there. We ended up spending some time in Ripon waiting for another bus, but that turned out to be fun too. We just had to laugh at the unfortunate events that occurred today (waving the bus down, frustrating bus schedules, it rained on us at Fountains Abbey). We ate at a pub in Ripon, which was actually pretty good food. There was a football (soccer) game on and people started flooding in and it was getting so packed! There was also some kind of world war II something or other going on in the middle of town so we went there to check it out. They had a plane there and old cars and old music playing. There were other stands set up too.

We only had 1 1/2 hours to spend at Fountains Abbey because of the way the buses worked out, so we were a little rushed. It was so cool and so pretty! We tried to take a lot of pics, but there was a time crunch too so we had to be careful. Fountains Abbey is an old monestary. In 1132 thirteen monks came to this valley and founded this abbey, which became one of the richest in Europe. At the other end of the valley there is a water garden created in the 1700's called the Studley Royal.

This is the pub where we ate "ye Hornblower Tavern"

Me and Michelle inside the pub with our bucket of spicy chicken and chips. Notice the football fans behind us.

We found more telephone booths :)

This is the world war II plane on display in Ripon

This is what the view we had when we first walked in to the valley

The next few pictures are inside the Monestary

Beautiful shots surrounding the monestary

Christina and I inside a tunnel

Behind me is the water gardens (Studley Royal)

2009-05-08T16:05:00.007-06:00

England LINGO

So it's been pretty funny to hear the different words they use here. These are some examples:

Smashing/Fab/Bril = Awesome, great, etc.
Migens = bugs
Dinner = lunch
Rubbish = garbage
Bin = trash can
Lift = elevator
Wee = pee
Ward = hospital unit
y'alright? = How are you?
Love/lova = thats just what they call everyone! ALL DAY LONG!
Cheers = hello, goodbye, thanks, really whatever you want it to mean!!
Knickers = underwear
Que/ q-in = wait/line/waiting
Pot = cup
Obs = vital signs
Bleep/bleeper = page/pager
Pinch = take or steal
What are you called? = What is your name?

It's just so interesting to hear all these terms! It's pretty entertaining to us!

Cheers, loves :)

YORK

2009-05-06T12:38:00.011-06:00

York was a very fun place to visit. First, we walked up to the York Minster. On our way there we met a nice Englishman and his quite racist Welsh friend!! They loved us! We had them take a picture of us and then we got one with him :)

The York Minster was SO beautiful!! And so big!! We were able to walk up a lot of narrow, winding stairs to the tower and look at the beautiful city from the top. It was awesome! We also went to the undercrofts underneath the cathedral. It was pretty cool down there too. They didn't allow photography though :(

We ate our first fish and chippies (fries)!! And I loved it! We watched a street performer while we ate, and Candice was picked to be in the show! It was absolutely HILARIOUS!!! He was a really really funny guy!

Christina, Michelle, and I went to the York Dungeons. It was so funny and fun! It is like a haunted house that goes on all year. It is about old horror stories that happened in York many years ago... It was a good experience

Towards the end we just walked around and looked in the fun shops. We listened to a band playing on the streets, and we walked along and on the old wall that surrounds the city.

More signs...

We don't know what this one means

This is an exit sign

Construction

More of York

My feet on the cobble stone road

A guy stopped us and asked us to hold the vitamin waters and jump in the air for a picture. He loved the pic and said it was the best one yet! Watch for us in a vitamin water ad!! (probably not in the US though haha)

Forgotten pictures

2009-05-03T08:44:00.006-06:00

I just realized that I never posted these pictures. They are of us anticipating our arrival in England. The top right picture is of all of us on campus the day before we left. The 3 on the left side are of us waiting in airports, and the bottom middle pic is us getting close to landing in England!! We love it here!

Liverpool

2009-05-02T16:47:00.016-06:00

Wow, today was a great day! We spent the day in Liverpool, and it was so much fun!! We took the train from Huddersfield to Manchester Piccadelly then to Liverpool. It was about 1 1/2 hours.

Christina and I were very tired...

Me and Carianne

We had to get pics at the Manchester Piccadilly train station :)

We arrived at Liverpool and split up for the first little bit at Albert Dock. Michelle, Candice, and Erin went to the Beatles Museum. Carianne, Christina, and I went to the International Slavery Museum and to the Merseyside Maritime Museum. It was interesting and very humbling. The slave trade is such a sad thing, it's hard to even learn about. But I do know that it is important and those who suffered should not be forgotten. The Merseyside Maritime Museum had information and artifacts from Titanic, Lucitania, and the Empress. I learned a lot from that too.

This was a quote on the wall right as you walk in to the museum

Us at the International Savery Museum

Us in front of the Liver Building

Albert Dock

After we spent some time at the Albert Dock Museums, we went to th Liverpool Cathedral. It is absolutely beautiful! It is Britain's largest cathedral. It was breathtaking walking in to the giganticness!! The stained glass windows were gorgeous and massive. The intricate detail in everything was just amazing.

Christina, Candice, Michelle, Heidi, Carianne

This was written by a prayer candle set up and I thought it was pretty neat

A man working at the Cathedral started talking to some of the girls and he told them about a Florence Nightingale monument nearby, so we went to check that out. It was where a hospital used to be, but they have now turned it in to a hostel.

Florence Nightingale Monument

Nightingale house

Just having fun walking the streets of Liverpool :)

Cute little green car!

Seeing the picture of this car reminded me... EVERYONE has such small cars!! I have seen 2 kind of bigger cars. The only large thing that drives is the bus. The roads are so narrow and it's just kinda crazy! We did see an accident today. A big bus ran in to the back of a small black BMW. No one was hurt, but there was definitely damage to the car and even to the bus.

Another grocery store incident... So we decided to get groceries after we got back from Liverpool. We got there around 7:50. After we had been there about 5 minutes someone got on the loud speaker and said..."We will be closing in 5 minutes so please come to the front to buy your items." We were laughing! Everything closes sooo early here! Eight o clock!!! We found one that was opened til 10. So we go in that one and get our groceries and I was checking out. The checker asked me something and I had to say "what" 3 times! I hate it when I can't understand them! I feel so dumb! He asked if I was American. Hahaha! He then asked "Why would you ever want to move from America to here?" Haha I told him why I was here. People bag their own groceries here, and I am soo dang slow at it! People have to sit and wait for me. The checker finally asked if he could help me! hahaha! Hopefully I will get better skilled at bagging...

Other funny things:

Someone asked us if we were "Q-in" today (think of the accent), that means waiting
The traffic lights turn yellow before it turns red (like the US) and it also turns yellow before it turns green
Everyone is "love"
"Cheers" is used a lot
Drivers and driving is on the opposite side that the US
They have funny signs all over the place

(Yield)

This is a reminder to pay to park and to put your proof of payment in your car window

(Speed bumps)

I Made It

2009-05-01T11:37:00.009-06:00

I can't believe I am actually here in England!! I really am going to use this blog as a journal, so there will be lots of detail that you may not care about so.... welcome to my very personal life :)

I left Provo at 4AM for my 7AM flight in Salt Lake City. We had to sit on the plane for about an hour because of rainy weather in Chicago. We flew to Chicago and had a 6 hour lay over, plus we boarded late and we ended up sitting on the plane for over an hour again waiting to take off. The flight from Chicago to Manchester was about 7.5 hours. The travel time was very long, but we made it! Yay! We arrived here at about 8AM (Manchester time) so we had a whole day ahead of us still! I'm doing my best to get my sleeping cycle in sync with the time, but I'm soooo tired! That is one reason I am doing this now, to keep me busy so I don't fall asleep!! I haven't even been here 24 hours and I feel like so much has happened!

It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL here. Everything is so lush and green and so pretty to look at. We are pretty lucky because we are staying in campus housing, but it's about 10 minutes away from the city and it looks and feels like we are living in the country side. We actually have an entire building of apartments to ourselves that aren't being used for just the 6 of us. Unfortunately, one girl had to drop out because of health reasons, so it is 5 student plus our instructor.

We took a trip to the grocery store and something kinda funny happened. We were trying to get a grocery cart and they were all hooked to eachother. We kept trying to unhook them and push buttons to get one, but we couldn't figure it out!! So a man came up and took one with no problem and we realized you have to pay to get one! Who would have thought you have to PAY to use a grocery cart?!?! It's only like one pence or something, I don't know. We ended up using the small crates that you carry.

After we got all of our groceries, we came to get settled in to our apartments. Our building is called Boothroyd. Then I decided to go running with Carianne. We found the coolest trails and we were running through the green beautiful forest and it was so fun!! Of course we made stops along the way to take some great pictures! There were so many people walking with their dogs through as we were running. The weather has been so perfect today and so nice.

Other than that I have just been figuring things out and trying to get settled in. We will be going to the hospital starting Tuesday. I am so ecxited for the next little while that I have to be here in England. I know it's going to be so much fun and an awesome learning experience!!

My room

Our apartment building, Boothroyd

Me and Carianne :)

Running in the beautiful tree forest!!

Isn't everything so dang pretty??!!

About A Boy

2009-04-19T15:32:00.007-06:00

So for our England culture class we each had to pick a modern movie or TV show to watch to help us prepare for living in England and becoming familiar with cultural aspects. This is the movie I picked. I had never heard of it and I really liked it! I thought it was a pretty cute movie. Sometimes I had to really listen close to understand the accent! I think I missed a few jokes... something I will definitely have to get used to! I leave in 10 days and I'm getting very excited!!!

ENGLAND!!!

2009-04-04T21:28:00.001-06:00

My awesome friend Hillary gave me the brilliant idea to start a blog for when I go to England. I am going to England with BYU's nursing program for our global nursing course. We will be working in a hospital in Huddersfield and also in the community. I am so excited to go and learn and have fun!! I leave on April 30th and will be back in the middle of June. It will be such a great learning experience for me!!! Thanks for being genius Hill :)