Don't Stop Me Now

Thursday (July 3, 2014)

I went to class in the morning, but it was miserable. I was very sick and I hadn't slept well AT ALL the night before. I was having weird feverish dreams about going to museums with nothing in them. Then I woke up in the morning drenched in sweat. It was all very stressful. But! I survived.

Then I went with a group to Baker Street. Yup, Baker Street! Like, Sherlock Holmes!
I have never been so geekily excited.

The first thing you see when you come out of the Tube Station at Baker Street.

Met the guys, solved a crime. (Sherlock Holmes Museum)

THE REAL THING

The museum I waited 1.5 hours to go inside of.

I was very excited

Then we headed to a street that is not Baker Street, but it contains a door that should be very familiar to fans of BBC's Sherlock: 

Martin Freeman came and joined us for a late lunch at Speedy's (this is not true).

I'm pretty sure I did something else on Thursday, but it must not have been very important because I can't remember what it was. Also I was still very sick. I do remember going to bed early.

Friday

Friday was the Fourth of July. The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday (followed by Halloween) and as excited as I've been to be in England, I was concerned about missing all the best Independence Day traditions. I can't quiiite compete with parades and fireworks, but I'm very happy with my Fourth of July here in England.

There wasn't anything planned by the directors for Friday so it became a "Choose your own Adventure" day. A large group went to Dover, others went to Oxford, and I went with a group to the beach at Brighton. I could tell it was going to be a good day because I woke up feeling amazing - my cold had almost completely disappeared. Yay!

We took a train through the country to Brighton and I enjoyed that part of the trip very much. The English country is incredibly beautiful!

Riding the train to Brighton! Julia, Me, Daniel, Ethan, Collin, Hayley

We were very surprised to find that this qualifies as a "beach"

Haha, in all honestly it wasn't so bad.

Walking on it hurt like a knife through the heart, but laying on it wasn't terrible.

Brighton

The ocean (English Channel?) wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be! I actually swam in it! We swam out and touched a buoy and I felt like a kid again because that was always a big accomplishment when I did it at Pineview Reservoir in Utah.

Friends on the beach.

More friends on the beach.

I wasn't going to let the rocks ruin my July Fourth beach fun.

Also, a hip British lady asked me where I got my swimsuit and I felt pretty good about that.

They had a beautiful pier in Brighton with a little amusement park and I didn't ride any of the rides but they were playing great music and it was fun just to walk around in the sunshine on the Fourth of July.

Friends on the Pier! 

Emily, Julia, Claire, Hayley, Brittany, Hannah, Ben, Daniel, Drew, Megan, Melissa, Lauren, Me, Collin, Ethan

We held Collin's phone while he rode through a Haunted House and we, uh, changed his wallpaper.

Melissa, Lauren, Megan, Julia, Drew, Hayley, Ethan, Hannah, Me, and Daniel at the front.

They had beachfront food stands that sold cheap fish and chips, hamburgers, things like that. I hadn't had fish and chips in England (or at all) yet, but it was America Day so I got a hamburger and some mint chocolate ice cream. Yummm. America!

Meg lost her credit card in the English Channel. Lauren got some fish and chips and was promptly attacked by a bunch of seagulls. She did not eat those fish and chips. I collected beach rocks.

In the train station there was a group of high-school aged kids playing steel drums. They were very talented.

I just love this picture so much.

Hannah, Ben, Me, Ethan, Collin, Drew, Julia, Hayley, Daniel, Meg, Melissa, Lauren

....most of us got very sunburned.

Saturday

After a good dose of Aloe Vera and a painkiller, I braved the sunburn and met with the group at The Royal Albert Hall. Our directors had planned for us to walk from there to St. Paul's Cathedral, and we did! It was about...four miles? It wasn't bad at all. It was mostly a good way to become oriented with how things are in relation to each after spending a week or so traveling beneath the city on the tube. I saw some things on the way!

I forget what this was called.

Buckingham Palace!

Me at Buckingham Palace!

Me at the Victoria Memorial!

On the steps of St. Paul's

Lauren, Jeremiah (J. Parkin's son), Emily, Hunter, Meg, Kari, Libby, Ethan, Jeff, Drew, Melissa, Me, Hannah

We stood around a while talking about getting breakfast somewhere. I wouldn't mention it except that it was happening for a good half hour...if not longer. Then! We finally went and got Dutch pancakes at somewhere and I got Nutella kind. They were very good.

Mirror selfie at the Dutch pancake place.

Peter, Caitlin, Kari, Me

Then the group caught a matinee of "A Small Family Business" at the National Theater. I quite enjoyed this play a lot. It was more-or-less a British play version of Arrested Development and...Clue? Not totally sure how to describe it, but it was very entertaining. The set was also cool. It was basically a giant doll house that could swivel around on the stage.

After the play, Alexis, Malori, and I washed our clothes in the bathroom sink. Because the washers and dryers here are extremely expensive. Also, it was my mother's birthday and I skyped with my parents! Yay!

Why so many potatoes? (I do not look good in this photo)

Then, because Alexis had whole bag of potatoes that were about to go bad, we decided to have a potato party. We made fries, mashed potatoes, and hash browns. Just before were able to eat them, however, a big group gathered outside and informed us they were going karaoke-ing.

I. love. karaoke.

So we left our potatoes behind and went out on the town.

We found this little one-room karaoke place that fit the 21 of us perfectly. It would have been free if we payed for drinks, but...Mormon? So we payed a flat rate. Almost everyone did a song or two and everyone ROCKED IT. Seriously, for a bunch of sober BYU kids, we were amazing. I caught the guy working the bar recording us a couple times. I did The Distance by Cake (blew everyone away) and then a duet to MJ's The Way You Make Me Feel with Peter (whipped out my moonwalk - also blew everyone away).

Go us.

We eventually ate our potatoes.

P.S. I titled this post "Don't Stop Me Now" and I there's a reason  for that that I would like to explain. First, somebody (Hunter, I think) did the Queen song at karaoke. Second, the fun in London just keeps coming. It cannot be stopped. Third, I keep getting sick and injured and crap, but it's not stopping me from having the time of my life!

See? Relevant!