Celebrate Life!

Back from the dead and a new look

2011-06-13T00:34:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I actually was far from dead these past 18 months, but to many of you it may have seemed that way. I have been home from my mission now for about 3 1/2 months and have yet to revive my habit of blogging...but we are working on that. This is just the first step: letting you all get to hear my own voice again (through type, of course) and know that I, Carianne King, am still alive and fighting more than ever. I thank my wonderful sister, Michal, for taking over the blog updates while I was away.

On February 24, 2011 I returned from serving 18 months in the Honduras Tegucigalpa mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I absolutely loved my time and experience there and wouldn't take it back for the world! There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about it and miss it and the people I came to know, serve, and love. But I know that "to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." (Eccl. 3:1) I know that my time to serve a full-time mission has ended for now, and that now is my time to take what I have learned from it, go forward and put it to good use blessing my own life and the lives of others.

Thank you all for any letters, emails, or packages you sent me, or even your thoughts and prayers...I sure felt the support and it was greatly appreciated in any form!

My wonderful parents were able to come down to Honduras and spend a week and a half with me at the end of my mission and travel around, seeing the country and having fun, visiting the areas in which I had served, and getting to know a good portion of the people I love with so much of my heart! It was sweet to have my parents meet these Hondurans whom I love so much, put faces and personalities with names that had read so much about in letters, and understand me when I got home and was missing my Catrachos (Hondurans). If you would like to see pictures of this trip, I have an album on my facebook.

I came home to Colorado to spend a wonderfully exciting week with all my family (19 of us including Grandma Ihli!) and have a Christmas in February all together! My family decided to wait and save their Christmas vacation time to come out when I got home and have Christmas together then - I love my family! We also got to take a new family picture!

Don't I have the most beautiful family ever?!

I also came home to another surprise...realizing I do not have my perfect 20/20 vision anymore! I started noticing I cannot see clearly things that are far away (such as road signs when driving). Went in for an eye exam and...long story short, I now have these:

I don't have to wear them all the time, but am starting to like the option of wearing them now and then. I mean, since we were little, Michal and I have always wished we could wear glasses. :) But now that both of our blind brothers, Nathan and Jameson, have gotten lasik surgery, I am the only one! :)

2010-12-11T20:04:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I have been neglectful of my sista's blog. Having a baby, moving, husband getting a new job, husband being called as seminary teacher and I being called as primary president has really been keeping us busy.

But his blog isn't about me...

Thanksgiving when the elders cooked lunch for the zone...

As for my companion....I am training again! But this time, its a Gringa! :) Her name is Hna Hanvey from American Fork, Utah. She`s tall (like most northamericans ha ha), with beautiful red hair and glasses.
Let`s see, today we actually had a fun P-day. The whole zone went bowling....it felt a little wierd bcause I haven`t bowled in so long, but guess what? Out of 2 games, I won both games!!! ha ha The elders were dying of shame....ha ha! then we played some ping pong and went to eat pizza. It was nice to do something different.
what we found today on the street...

As y'all (this is a real word here in NC) can see, Hermana Carianne King is healthy and still beautiful, as always. She is still stealing the hearts of all those who come in contact with her. She's a magnet, I know. Don't forget how much she loves Christmas, send her a package!

We get to see her in person the end of February, I can't wait!!!

2010-06-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay, just had a baby so I am behind. Read her letter below- we all knew she was destined for great things. Her new "calling" is just one example of how much the Lord puts so much trust in her!

"So I have lots to tell...this week was full of big changes and things happening!

#1) I surprisingly had changes, not my companion. Sad to only have one change in San Luis...it was a good area with a lot of potential. I still didn´t get to see that couple married and baptized, but they are on the right path. We also had just found a few awesome families with a lot of potential!! It was hard to leave them all so suddenly and I don´t have any pictures with any of them!!!! Its sad....so needless to say, I did not sing in church, nor play the piano... I had changes for the city, I´m back in Teguc. It´s an area called La Joya and it used to be elders. They just switched it to hnas 2 changes ago and the members are LOVING having hnas! They work really well with the missionary work even though they are still growing! They are very well organized and it seems like an awesome ward! We live in a pretty nice house (for honduras and for the mission)...and it´s cool, because we live on a hill almost at the top of the hill, so looking out our window we have an awesome view of Tegucigalpa and its really pretty! I am with Hna Chen, from Guatemala and she is AMAZING!!! She came the same change as Hna Salgado (my daughter) so only has 3 changes in the mission, but is wonderful!! She is sweet and loving, fun and talkative, very easy to live with. She loves the work, and teaches with the spirit! I already love being with her! It will be a good change! She has a powerful testimony and is obedient. I already love her a lot! We have an awesome ward mission leader who has really great ideas and is very helpful!

#2) So our mission nurse, Hna Adams, was an older lady. She and her husband were here on a mission and she was full-time in the office. but her mission just ended this change and went home. And guess who is the new mission nurse? ....yep, your very own, HNA KING! Oh my gosh...what a surprise! I haven´t forgotten practically EVERYTHING (and I´m not exaggerating when I say that, for all of you who have gone on missions, remember how you forgot names of your favorite songs, names of some of your friends, imagine how much nursing knowledge I have already forgotten!) And I didn´t even get to talk to or get training from Hna Adams before she left. It is a big step up but I know that if the Lord is asking it of me, he will help me. I have some books and stuff, and also I can call the Doctor for central American missions (hes a north American who is in Guatemala) anytime to ask him questions. he helps a lot and is very kind! I am learning a lot already. I get my own cell phone with international calls...woot woot! So I can call you guys whenever i want now...ha ha if only! But I get calls from missionaries all morning, all during lunch hour, and all evening when we´re in the house. I feel a little overwhelmed but I think with time, I will get used to it and who knows....I feel a little bad for my companion, but we are working with how to make it more efficient, because I am still working full-time as a proselyting missionary too. I have to find a good balance and I hope the missionaries can recognize that too and not call me for things that aren´t really that big of a deal. Its all a learning and growing experience right?

#3) I have been hearing about the bishop in this ward in La Joya for some time, that he is amazing and works super well with the missionaries. He loves them greatly and loves the mission work. Hna Chen says that no one loved them like the bishop did and that he is the best bishop she´s ever seen (better than her´s at home)....but sadly I never got to meet him. We went to his house my first night here, but no one was home. She told me he had been sick and later we found out they had gone to the hospital. Changes were on Thursday (long story) and on Friday we found out he had Dengue hemorrhagic, and on Saturday morning we got a call early that he had passed away....super sad. He was only 27 and left a wife who is pregnant and 2 little girls. All day Saturday they had his body in the chapel and a service in the evening. Then yesterday for sacrament mtg. we had his funeral service (just one hour of church) and another short one at noon (Elder Falabella form the area presidency came) and then we took him to the cemetery. The saddest part is the family he left behind, they are very delicate, but we know they will be taken care of. Its kind of a sad way to come into a new area, but the members are wonderful and I know we will be able to work together to move forward. Just wish I could´ve known him....I am studying and learning more about personal conversion and how to make it happen in our own lives and then how to help others to find that conversion too. I love my study (which is shortening with this whole new nurse thing- they are always calling me!)...but I know that Heavenly Father will help me and make up the difference. I am excited for the changes, Heavenly Father knew I was needed a push to give him more, so he just pulled it out of me. :) I hope I can give all that he needs from me. Pray for the family of Bishop Archaga and his wife, Mabel and her children. We have some good investigators right now, and are finding some new families...pray for us that they can progress! Right now the investigators that I just tell names for you to pray for are Tania, Katia, and Benigno."

2010-05-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

"Wow, so I am so excited to tell you all about the Luau! It was AWESOME!!! Best activity Honduras has EVER SEEN!!! Ok, so when we had our district conference, we had about 245 people....yeah, this activity, we had 335!!!! AND, the surprising thing is, it was pouring all afternoon, like the hardest I have seen it rain in Honduras so far. All the missionaries were at our church decorating, setting up chairs, etc. And about 2 pm it started coming down. The activity was supposed to be outside so we were all setting up outside (on the basketball courts) and when it started raining we all started dancing one of the group dances in the rain, it was so fun! We got soaked! And at one point during the dance it was coming down so hard, I couldn´t hardly see!!! So we left to go home and shower and get some last minute things ready...and walking in the streets it was a complete river! When we got to the boulevard it was like a lake up to our knees!!! It was sooo fun! And of course all the Hondurans think those mormons are nuts for being outside when its raining...ha ha So we went home and prayed really hard that there would be some way we could still have the activity, and come 5:30 its just sprinkling, so we go around all the chairs and tip the swimming pools off of them, and when everyone arrives, its not raining at all. It was such a blessing!! God loves us!!! Of course there were some crazy things but overall it was awesome!!! Hermana Fuka and I danced one together (Hawaiian) that she taught me the night before! I love it! I can´t wait for you to see videos of it! then the girls in our ward did their number (hawaii) that we´ve been teaching them. THen I did a SOLO!!! (Samoa) that the Samoan elder in our ward taught me. It was 6 min long, but I love it! He told me he was so proud of me afterwards, and thank you for learning it. Fuka did a Tonga solo, and one with poi balls (new zealand), then we had a group one with all the youth from all the branches! It was awesome!!! Everyone loved it!!! Pres and Hna Chaverri and the APs came and said it was amazing! Oh I´m sure I´ll have more stories for you, but I´ll be talking to you in a week! woo hoo! "

The rain before the show...
We got to talk to Hermana King on Mother's Day- oh how sweat to hear her voice! You all know she has a good one too! She said that the Elder who taught her this dance practiced with her the whole time, and she did not realize until late in the game that is was actually a solo. But of course, like everything she does, it was wonderful and people are still talking about it even a few weeks later.

Her solo dance...

Her and her companion, Hermanda Fuka, and Elder Falesui, (the Polynesians)

"I had transfers...I am now in the south of Honduras, in a city called Choluteca. And guess what? IT IS SUPER HOTT!!! Wow, hotter than hotter than hot! I am telling you....I am just wet and sweaty and tired all the time. I wipe my face every 5 seconds and its just dripping. And dripping down my back...ooo yummy. :) We buy water to drink in between every cita practically. I am really tired all the time (as in sleepy), boy this sun sure takes everything out of you, but I hope that I will get used to the weather here. I am excited though, because I have a good companion, Hna Bala, from Guatemala. She only has 2 transfers in the mission but she is excited to work, and work hard! I think it will be a good change. We are working with a couple right now to get them married, and then they will be baptized to join their 3 kids that are already members (and 4 more little ones that aren´t old enough)"

"We have lots of little friends in our house...like geckos, TONS of mosquitos who have already taken plenty of bites out of me, huge flying cockroaches, lots of other little bugs everywhere that I don´t know the names of, and I keep hearing about tarantulas, but luckily haven´t seen one yet...ooo!"

2010-04-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long hiatus! Hermana King's email address has changed to: carianne.king@myldsmail.net

She was very excited to have a baptism this week:
"So guess what?! We had a baptism this week! Of Milagro! Finally!! I didn´t say anything last week, because I didn´t want to have to tell you that it didn´t go through like the week before. But it was great and we have great hope for her as she is getting well-involved with the young women. We did our baptism with the elders from another branch (because we are the only ones with a chapel so all from the zone come to our chapel for their baptisms). And this area that had a baptism is brand brand new and this was their very first baptism! It was exciting! But also....so of course they didn´t bring any members to the baptism (because they don´t have any), but they brought some investigators, and one of them i recognized. After the baptism, I saw her and said, are you Lydia? And she said yes, and said, YOU are the one that first invited me to church! (when we did the contacting activity in Yuscaran)...I remember meeting her in the street with 2 of her sons and we gave her a pamphlet, talked to her a little about the church and invited her. So at the baptism I asked her how she liked the baptism and she A LOT! I said, so when are YOU going to get baptized? And she said soon, soon. (after talking to the elder, he said, they just have to get married and then she will get baptized)....Oh what joy!!! It made me feel so wonderful!! I told the elder to be sure to tell me when she gets baptized because we are coming to her baptism! :) I LOVE this work and how the Lord has His hand in every aspect of it!"

She has been working very hard in her ward and sharing all her musical talents. She is teaching a piano class and is the sole piano player for the ward.

"We are helping several youth prepare their mission papers and all to leave on the mission. It is very exciting because here in the branch, there are 0 return missionaries, so they are trying to get this generation of youth to go as soon as they can (some already have the age, just need to get it all rolling) so that they can come back and strengthen the branch! One girl just put in her papers, and we are about to help another girl and boy fill out their papers...it is very exciting!"

She also got a new companion:
"SURPRISE!! We had changes! We totally didn't think we were going to have changes at all...but came the call, and Hna Salgado got transferred out to Choluteca (in the south, where its really HOT)....it was a big surprise, that I am staying here in the Villa....but oh so happy, because I did NOT want to leave. I feel content that we were good and all before she left...but I am also excited to be with my new companion....and here is another funny thing!!! My new companion is TONGAN!!! My 3rd Polynesian companion, out of 5! Her name is Hna Fuka and she is a cousin (2nd cousins I think) of Hna Naa....but Hna Fuka has lived most of her life in Utah. She has one transfer less than me in the mission. We are both excited to be together and I think we are going to be able to be really powerful together in this area. She struggles quite a bit with the language still but she has a desire to work hard and shares a strong testimony, so I think we are going to be just fine!"

We love her and know she is doing a great work!

2010-01-27T19:54:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, we got to church and the branch president asked me to play the piano (normally we don{t have anything, but this week they brought a keyboard) and everyone loved it...they loved having music to go along with their singing finally. And I will now be teaching a class on Saturdays to the members who want to learn how to play the piano. There are several that are SO excited to learn! It makes me excited for them, because then when I leave, hopefully one of them can take over and they won´t be without music again.

So in the fields surrounding the Villa, there are fields of sugar cane and they are harvesting right now, so that means they have to burn the cane, to make it easier to cut down or something. Then all the ashes go up in the sky, float over the town, and fall, almost constantly. So it´s like its raining ashes...lovely. Especially when the houses have roofs that don´t keep anything out, so we come home and we have ashes all over EVERYTHING!!!! and we usually have dishes in the sink because we don´t always have water to wash them with...we just have to wait until the water comes. oh the adventures of honduras... ha ha So guess what?!?! We went hiking in the mountains today for P-day! I was sooooooo happy and have been looking forward to it all week! We went with our zone of 10 missionaries and a bunch of the youth from our ward. We hiked for about 3-4 hours and got to some waterfalls….there were 3 different ones and the youth splashed us all until we were soaked….but it felt really good. I had my Chaco´s and it was perfect! Everyone was jealous of my ability to just walk in the water and not worry about my shoes…mwa ha ha It was such a fun day!! But I know I´m going to feel it tomorrow because I haven´t done anything for like 5 months!

Oh man, so this week I was leading the music in Sacrament Mtg and there is no piano so the person leading the music just gives the tone at the beginning (sing like the first line) and then everyone together. Well I went up there and they had picked a song I didn´t know!! I was like uh oh how am I going to give the tone?!?! I just made it up as well as I could looking at the notes, but wow…. Good thing we weren´t in the states because here nobody really has tone so I´m sure they didn´t mind, but it was still funny.

Baptism and New Area

2010-01-11T19:39:00.001-08:00

"our first one(baptism)! THere is a picture of it....Eliza, she is 9 and her whole family is members. She couldn´t get baptized when she was 8 because she had a surgery on her nose and couldn´t go under water until now. and since she is 9 she is considered a convert so we got to teach her all the lessons, etc. So not really a convert, but still it was exciting. They couldn´t do it on Saturday so we did it yesterday at 8am before church so she could be confirmed in church. She is really cute."

"So guess what?!? Ive been transferred! Hna Naa stayed in Palmira (for her last transfer) with Hna Dixon and I am out here in Villa de San Francisco, east of the city. I love it! Its a little farm town, there are just as many horses and donkeys walking around the streets as cars. We have a house and a front yard....not super nice but a lot bigger than our teeny little apt in Teguc. Its quiet and I can fall asleep to crickets and children laughing, then wake up to horse hooves on the cobblestone road. Most of the roads are just dirt, but there are a few with cobblestone. But it all makes me want to ride a horse again! We are in a valley with mountains around, its absolutely beautiful! This is the Honduras I was expecting! I do miss Hna Naa but I have a wonderful companion! Hna Lopez from Nicaragua. She only has about 2 and half months more than me but she is top quality and I know I will learn SO MUCH from her! She is a convert of 12 years and is very strong! I already like working with her! There is just a branch here, it is very small, but at least we have a church. Oh! And the cool part is, we are in a brand new zone! They just opened a new zone, called Valle Verde (Green Valley) and there are just 10 of us missionaries. We have 5 areas, and 2 of them are brand new, so we are having plenty of adventures. But I am excited, we have a bunch of awesome missionaries in our little zone. We are hoping to climb some mountains and fun stuff on P-days so it will be good! When we we came here with all my luggage, it was quite funny....we took a bus to a little town where the road for Villa de San Francisco splits off...then we took a little minibus (like a minivan stuffed full of people)....it was hilarious to try and fit all my stuff in and all the people. I was so embarrassed. Then when we got to town, we took a mototaxi (like a motorcycle thing with a bench in the back (3 wheels) and a little roof) to our house. It was a great start. I am really excited to be in this area with Hna Lopez...I think I am going to love it! I feel more content in my heart...just being out of the city."

"We didn{t do much for New Years, just had dinner at a recent converts house and went to bed, but got woken up by the music from the salon de baile thats just down the street and the fireworks at midnight."

"I am still LOVING it here in la Villa and we are working hard. I love the way Hna Lopez works, we are losing ourselves in the work and I think that is one reason I am so much happier here. This past week has brought us a cold front…which means perfect during the day, and a little chilly in the evenings, but yesterday was FREEZING! (ok, I know it’s still not as cold as it is there in Colorado and Utah, but its cold). There was a fierce wind and even with our sweaters it was soooo cold! I slept with 2 blankets and this morning, waiting for the bus at 6am was soooo cold! I have never experienced this much cold here in Honduras…in fact I never imagined it existed in Central America…ha ha.So some funny things about people here (I think its all of central America)….whenever they get sick…even just a cold (which they get sick often…I think it more a matter of the lack of cleanliness and never washing their hands), but they ALWAYS say its because of the change of weather. I don’t think they know what change in weather is really, because compared to the states, they have a very tempered climate here (its pretty much the same all year)…but they always attribute it to that. And I think its funny…but I don’t say anything…"

"I love this place! I just laugh every day when I hear donkeys….making the noise they make…I don’t know what its called….but its hilarious…its all over the place. Seeing the horses always makes me want to ride them….but sadly we’re not allowed to."

Have a Very Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T14:01:00.000-08:00

From Hermana King this week, I will post the pictures when I get home:

"SO we had a baptism yesterday...our first one! THere is a picture of it....Eliza, she is 9 and her whole family is members. She couldn´t get baptized when she was 8 because she had a surgery on her nose and couldn´t go under water until now. and since she is 9 she is considered a convert so we got to teach her all the lessons, etc. So not really a convert, but still it was exciting. They couldn´t do it on Saturday so we did it yesterday at 8am before church so she could be confirmed in church. She is really cute.So Hna Naa and I have both been sick all week with colds. We have still been working until yesterday....after church we came home and fell asleep until about 4 and decided to stay home. While I was sleeping though, I woke myself up about 10 times because I couldn´t breathe (congestion.)

So we had the Mission Christmas Party on Thrusday in the Hotel Marriott from 8am-4pm...it was fun! I got to see Hna Okura and that was wonderful!! We took a whole mission photo and each zone performed their drama-skits we´ve been preparing. Ours was a day in the MTC...it was kinda funny. THen we had lunch and went outside by the pool to do pinatas by zone. THen they gave everyone a zip up light jacket with the mission on the front. Then we went home so Hna Naa could pick what song she was going to dance to for the ward party that night at 6. She ended up picking the song that she taught me a couple weeks ago when we were stuck in the house...and somehow she talked me into to doing it with her! But it was really fun! We practiced a few times and went to the church. the activity was supposed to start at 6 but of course we are in Honduras, so it didn´t start until 7:30...oh boy. But we had about 8 investigators there and a tons of inactives. it actually turned out really well. And whne it was our turn, it was a surprise that I was dancing too...it was cool. Hna Naa started with an introduction call in Hawaiian, then they turned out the lights and started the music. We lit candles and carried them in then kneeled down and blew out the candles. THey turned on the ligths and we danced....everyone loved it!! I ahve a video that you will see someday! It was really fun!" After all the skits, performances, etc. we had a dinner. The Banegas loved it!"

Hope you enjoyed it and I hope you sent her a Christmas package, cause it won't make it by now!

Address Update

2009-12-16T12:23:00.000-08:00

Many of you have mentioned to Carianne that her addresses on the side bar were confusing. I have updated them in hopes that your plentiful letters and packages will make it their faster as well as your confidence in sending her even MORE!! This is the season for giving, so give her your love- send something to her!

Christmas is Almost here

2009-12-09T12:01:00.000-08:00

Just some words from Carianne. As you know she LOVES Christmas time.

"So last Monday, I got your package and went home and put on Grandpa Ihli´s old CHristmas music and decorated...it made me really happy. I LOVE IT!! And my comp really likes those CDs of Grandpas ;) We sleep with the christmas lights on (like i love to do at home) and I wake up really happy ;). Oh and finally Hna Naa danced for me! I have videos of it you will see someday!"

"SO yesterday we had our day in the house (due to elections.)CHurch was cancelled for all of Honduras and all the missionaries coúldn´t leave the house all day. We put our mattresses on the floor the night before and slept there (we have a bunkbed) I made a little fort over my mattress (ha ha!). It was kind of sad because I don´t have many resources but it was a fort nonetheless, and i was happy! Then Hna Naa taught me a hula! I have it on video too...but its not perfect. I just love learning Polynesian dance! She is going to teach me TOngan someday, she just needs to find music. Oh and everything went fine with the elections as far as we know. Hopefully this new president will do good here. My Thanksgiving was a interesting day. We had our district mtg and weekly planning. Our DL made us pancakes. THen we went went home for lunch and I was having a hard time because I was thinking of you all at home together. But once we went out to work, it got better. We had an awesome family home evening with Ana and her family. It was awesome because we brought a member couple in our ward and they were wonderful! Also, usually when we go there to teach, Marvin (one of their sons who is married also and has a little son), recently had surgery on his head and so has to stay in bed and we usually teach in his room with all of them there. But this night, we got there and they were all downstairs waiting for us (including Marvin). They always have really good questions and seem to really like it all. We talked about families and builing family relationships...they liked it a lot. And the best part was Marvin, who with a sincere look in his eyes, said, ÄS soon as I can, I am going to go to your church with my family.¨ You can tell he really feels the spirit of this message. It was so wonderful! Then on the way home, we stopped at Pizza Hut and I got a pizza and cheese bread and drinks for Hna Naa and I for my THanksgiving dinner...went home with it and ate it in out apt. It wasn´t quite TUrkey, jello, mashed potates, and chocolate pie, but it was good enough. And all of it for only 179 lempiras!!! ;) he he sounds like a lot eh? but really thats only $9."

We are excited to talk to her in just a few weeks.

2009-11-03T18:41:00.000-08:00

Hermana King and her companion Hermana Naa at a ward activity with some of the kids....Isn't she gorgeous! That must be what the spirit does to you. Here are some little things from her email this week...

something funny about Latinos…is that when they sing, they don´t have pitch at all. It was something I learned a little about in the CCM, but here in our ward, it´s even better. Its interesting to be in our ward during hymns, but you can still feel the spirit. OH what fun…

-pupusas = no its not with plaintains....it´s like a little pancake thing with cheese inside...really good!

-no, I don´t wear dangly earrings...i heard something got them ripped out of their ears here, so I only wear small ones and sometimes nothing at all...as people already think Gringos have ¨pisto¨ (lots of money).

So I gave a shot to one of our investigators this week!! Ha- I thought I would be leaving behind all my nursing staff. She needed it done, and they asked, so I did it. It was a ventrogluteal (I think…I can´t remember if that´s the right name – ha!)….I was a little nervous, but it was fine and she said she didn´t feel a thing. So we had 4 days this week with no water in our apt. GOod thing we have to buy our water to drink anyways...but we have a big trash can thing that we fill with water for times like this...

Graduated from the CCM

2009-10-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

Hermana King has officially graduated from the "Guatemalan MTC" and is about to start her third week in the field. She really misses all the wonderful times she had there but is excited to move forward. Please don't forget to email or write her, she could really use some uplifting encouragement!!!

Here are some great blips from her letters:

So I am right in the middle of Tegucigalpa in an area called Palmira. I´d rather be outside of the city (you know me) but I guess this is where the Lord needs me. My companion is Hna Naa from Tonga (another polynesian! :) ). She has 14 months in the mission. She speaks English but only speaks to me in spanish which is good for me. The weather here is nice because the city is surrounded my mtns so it is relatively cool. We hear in the south of the mission it is very hot but I would still rather be there. :)Our apt is teeny...but at least we have a real shower! :) I don´t have to heat up water in a pot to shower with, so that´s nice right. :) There are some awesome members in our area that I have already come to love very much. And most of the them haven´t been members that long...that are so kind and have strong testimonies even with very difficult trials.

So I get a lot of comments on my looks here...more so than I expected. They love my hair, and many cute little girls already love playing with my hair....which I´m totally fine with! :) They call me ¨barbie¨or ¨blancita¨(little white girl). They also always comment on my eyes. It´s funny because I do less to look nice here than usual. I think it´s just because I look different. There are only 2 other American Hermanas in the mission before we came and neither of them have ever served here. They´ve had American elders but not sisters. They are very complementary here. :)

Send her some food if you can, her comp hasn't taught her how to cook yet and doesn't do much eating herself. We have really enjoyed reading about her experiences and how her testimony has grown.

2009-09-09T10:14:00.000-07:00

An update on our little Carianne. She is enjoying being in the Guatemalan MTC. She says the rooms and the food are way nicer than the Provo MTC! Who would have known. She only has a few weeks left before she is shoved out the door into the field- the white field!!!

Her top reason for enjoying South America- Everyone is shorter than her!!! Literally. No, she is enjoying growing closer to her Father in Heaven, Learning more about the depth of our Saviors love and the atonement as well as working hard with help to make her weaknesses her strengths.

Hermana King always welcomes packages filled with candy and pantyhose. I have her dress size in case you want to send her some clothes! Other things she would like- Spanish/English pocket size dictionary and and English pocket size hymnal. I am sure she is bringing many smiles to the people through the spirit that she radiates.

Off to Guatemala

2009-08-18T20:31:00.000-07:00

I love my district, we are the only district in the whole MTC allowed to blog!!

Just Kidding, this is Michal, Carianne's sister updating you on what is happen'in in the BIG MTC!!!

So little sis is doing so awesome with her Spanish speaking skills that she was moved from the beginning to intermediate class. This meant she had to say adios (I am sure literally) to her district that she loved. She now has a great companion who is really pushing her.

BUT.... even bigger news

On Monday, Carianne will no longer be in Provo, she will be in Guatemala!! She was doing SO well that they just changed her mission all together. No really, she will be attending the MTC there. Her new address is posted on the side bar. This is NO excuse not to write her!!! NO EXCUSE!!! Keep the fan mail comin okay! She will be there for 6 weeks so that is 6 letters from all of you!

I know she loves all of you!

Old Nauvoo

2009-07-28T20:23:00.001-07:00

"Another trip?" you say...
"Of course!" says I...
But it's the last one before I leave on my mission....really, I promise. Would you like to hear a bit about it?
...
Well, too bad (or tad, as Jenae would say), cuz you're gonna! :)

After I drove home to beautiful, colorful Colorado, I had approximately 15 hours before I headed out once again in the car...this time, my parents and I were headed for NAUVOO, IL!!
There is a Nauvoo pageant every summer put on by the LDS church and my great uncle, David (well, he's not my great-uncle, but he is GREAT!), and 3 of my wonderful cousins, Sarah, Hollie, & Michael, were part of the cast - so we wanted to go out and see them perform!
On the drive we met up with my brother, Nate, and his family. Oh, and I found some interesting signs along the road...and I thought they only had cool signs in England! ;) I also learned that when you are driving on the freeway at night in the east, and a firefly happens to smash into your windshield, you will have a little blob of guts that glows for about 5 minutes...its pretty cool.

We then went to Carthage to see the Carthage Jail, where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred. What an amazing place!

We ate at a cute little pizza shop with homestyle cookin' and service, then headed up to Nauvoo. Just driving into that city is...well, magical. I loved the feeling! And you know what we did first thing?! Yep, we ran around catching fireflies! Boy, Morgan is a PRO at that! Aww, the little joys in life... :D

The next two days were filled with loads of pioneer fun - making a rope...learning how to make bricks (and learning the origin of the phrase, "you can't hack it!")... gunny sack races...stilt walking...
(and being the competitive King's we are, of course that was a race too)...
and seeing the sights and history of Nauvoo (including the cemetery where Joseph, Hyrum and Emma Smith (and many others) are buried).(me at the cemetery with my nephew (Morgan) and niece (Emma))

One day, Emma decided she didn't want to let me out of her sight, so instead of holding my hand, she just stuck her hand in my pocket all day... reminded me a bit of myself ;)

We also got to go to the beautiful Nauvoo temple!What a place! I just can't explain how wonderful it was!

And the reason that we went in the first place....
THE NAUVOO PAGEANT!
We got to see it both Friday and Saturday nights and it was absolutely amazing both times!
And my uncle got us front row seats! It was perfect! Besides getting to see my wonderful family as actors, I also got to see a friend from England that I met this spring. He was one of the main characters (professional actor) and performed amazingly! He played a Scottish man whose wife joined the LDS church and came over to Nauvoo, so he came with her...As he lives among the people and helps build the temple, he gains a testimony for himself of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. It was so fun to see you again, Darren!

(David, me, Hollie, Michael, Sarah, my mum, dad, & Darren in front)
WELL DONE to all! And thanks for letting us enjoy your performances!

I can't say exactly how much I enjoyed being able to take this trip before I leave on my mission - what a power and spirit is in that city! I feel my testimony of Joseph Smith and the faith of the early saints of the church strengthened so much! I feel closer to them and I gain strength from their legacy of faith.

Come to Zion, Come to Zion!

2009-07-21T21:10:00.001-07:00

Oh, my dear Zion...how I love thee! There are very few people in this world who will ever truly understand just how much I love this great place (Zion National Park)...

And what a way to spend my last week in Utah before my mission! I wanted to spend some time there by myself before some friends joined me, so I drove down by myself Wednesday morning. I went to some of my favorite spots and just soaked it all in!

I went up the Narrows and found a nice little hole in rock to sit and read for a bit near Mystery Falls. The people walking by either didn't even notice me, or were quite surprised to see me sitting there so peacefully, reading a book. Someone even asked to take a picture of me!

Oh, I can't even explain how wonderful it was to be there and enjoy Zion the way I like to...it really feeds my soul. I climbed up to the top of a huge rock mountain thing (I'm sure there's some geological name for those...) and watched the sunset. It was amazing...the sky was on fire!

Late that night, Cherise and John drove down and we camped out under the stars. On Thursday we hiked and explored in Hidden Canyon, while singing songs from musicals, talking in accents (well, John was doing a great job), and enjoying the beauty. Look at this awesome leaf we found!

Oh, the simple joys in life! That's why we celebrate life! ;) LOVE IT!

Then we went and played in a waterfall - which you will see later, as we went again on Saturday! As the evening was approaching, we decided to hike Angel's Landing, because John had never done it. And boy, that hike never gets old for me :) Bliss!

More friends joined us that night (Jenae, Amber, Troy) and we enjoyed another beautiful night under the Southern Utah sky. At 7:30am I was awakened by two more friends arriving who had driven all night (one from Rexburg, ID!) to come for the fun! For Friday, we split into 2 groups: Jenae, Troy, and Tyler hiked around in the park, and Amber, Cherise, Scott, and I went canyoneering in Mystery Canyon.

Here I am going down the first rappel

Amber rappelling down into Mystery Springs...this is one of the coolest rappels in the canyon: 120 ft off a traverse and straight into a fresh cool pool at the bottom!

Amber on the last rappel: Mystery Falls into the Narrows - look at the view of the Narrows behind her!
Scott heading down the last rappel over the waterfallSadly, no cool pictures of me on these last rappels - that's what you get for being the photographer ;) But I still had fun! On the last rappel, after I got past the rocky first part of the waterfall, I just sat down on the moss and slid down, letting the rope through my rappel device. What a ride!

The Chaco brigade ;)

On Saturday, Cherise left us to go home to AZ, and the rest of us hiked to Observation Point: my favorite view of Zion Canyon. You get to look down on Angel's Landing!

Which way do we go?

Eating lunch at the top...what a great view!

Pondering...
(and what a hairdo, eh?)

Then we headed over to "the great waterfall"...I love this place. It's a secluded little piece of paradise!

Tyler and I sliding down the waterfallWe ended the trip with a stop in at Pizza 'N Noodle in Springdale for their mouth-watering Thai pizza and drove home (but not before bailing Jenae's minivan out of the sand! woot woot!)

I sure hope that will fill up my Zion cup enough to last me 18 months! :)

Happy 4th! (...and 3rd)

2009-07-12T20:35:00.001-07:00

My 4th of July celebrations actually began on Friday, the 3rd. A friend of ours, Curtis, invited us to Deer Creek Reservoir to play on his family's wave runners. We spent the day taking turns on the wave runners, swimming in the water, playing frisbee, eating a picnic lunch,

playing this game (where you push each others' hands and try to make the other person take a step - oh, Jenae and I have so much fun acting like 5-year-olds),

chatting, and just enjoying the sunshine! What a beautiful day it was! Thanks Curtis!

That night Cherise and I went mission shopping for me at good ole Deseret Industries - woot woot! - and I actually found a bunch of good stuff! Then we went out to eat and had a sleepover in the living room.

The next morning, Independence Day, we went roller blading down the Provo River Trail in our usual 4th of July garb.

We went swimming at a pool, and that evening we got dressed up for our 4th of July festivities.While Cherise went to a friend's party, Jenae and Amber came with me to my brother and his wife's party. We jumped on the trampoline and helped my brother "barbeque" the hamburgers. Actually, the BBQ was out of propane, so we snuck inside and got the George Foreman, plugged it into the extension cord and hid it behind the BBQ...except I think everyone knew the whole time. We just thought we were being so sneaky! ;) We enjoyed an awesome meal and fun times together, then we headed back to Provo to watch the fireworks from Stadium of Fire. What a great weekend!

We are OH so blessed! And I think we forget that a lot...thank goodness for reminders :)
Happy Birthday America! Let Freedom Ring!

From the Mountains to the Desert

2009-07-07T08:54:00.001-07:00

Two weekends ago, Cherise and I met up with some other friends down in Moab for a few days. I was so happy to be back in my good ole Southern Utah! On Friday, we hiked to Corona Arch and I climbed up and set up a rappel. It was quite the climb to get up there, but well worth it. I loved just sitting up at the top of the arch, while everyone else rappelled down. Then last of all, it was my turn! Once I got to the free rappel part (no rock), I turned upside down and lowered myself down. One thing I did forget was that I had my nalgene water bottle in a mesh pocket on the outside of my backpack, so that came out when I flipped upside down. It fell about 80 feet then bounced back up about 12 ft and rolled quite a bit. But, it IS a nalgene, and besides a few scrapes and scuffs, it was in perfect condition! :)

Corona Arch is 140 ft tall, and is located near the Colorado River in between Arches and Canyonlands National Parks ( = FREE!). It was beautiful!

just hangin' around

After that, we hiked up a canyon and played in the water for a bit (while it was raining). The water was so warm; it was amazing!

Then we grabbed a bite to eat and tried to race the sun to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. We didn't quite get there for sunset, like we wanted, but it was almost better. We got there after the sun had sunk below the horizon, but there was still a glow in the sky, the moon was out, and not another soul was there! It was perfecto! (yes, I'm practicing my espanol)

We camped out under a beautiful clear sky of stars, and I woke everybody up at 5am to go see the sunrise at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park. We were the only ones there at first and just on top of the arch, watching the pink glow on the horizon grow. It was awe-inspiring! I love early mornings in God's creations!

This is us trying to pretend like we're fully awake :)

On top of Mesa Arch as the light builds

As soon as other people started arriving with big, fancy cameras, we decided to get off the arch since we figured they probably didn't want us in their pictures. And this is what we saw for the next half hour...

Me running across the arch

Next we drove a little further into Canyonlands out to Island in the Sky viewpoint...I love this place!

We went back to our campsite to eat breakfast and pack up, then we did a hike up Negro Bill Canyon to Morning Glory Natural Bridge. Its 243 ft long, the 6th longest in the United States!

We hiked back down, but instead of taking the trail which switchbacks across the river, we just walked down the river. It was great! Then we went swimming and sliding at a place where the rocks are all slippery. Then after some ice cream from McDonald's, we headed back up to Provo.

All over the Wasatch Range

2009-07-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

From the North to the South, I've covered a lot of the Wasatch Mountain Range this past month.

#1: Wasatch Back Relay
Logan to Park City, Utah
188 miles
12-person team
3 running legs each
Mountainous terrain
Start: Friday, June 19, 2009 1:30pm

Results:
Finish: Saturday, June 20, 2009 2:24pm
24 hrs 54 min 55 sec
13th place Coed overall (out of 424 teams)
7th place in Coed Open Division (out of 318 teams)

LOADS OF FUN!

This is me standing in the transition area, about the get the slap bracelet from my teammate on my 2nd run, in the middle of the night! Everyone has to wear a headlamp and reflective vest. Oh yeah, and check out my awesome outfit! :)

Trying to wake back up after only 2 1/2 hrs of sleep...gotta keep runnin'

At the finish: wearing our awesomely HUGE, orange medals, and holding our precious time card...Avg of under 8-minute miles! WOO HOO!

Trying to keep track on our Suburban window of all the teams we "toasted" along the way...but sadly, this is only about 1/3 of them :)

Thanks for all the fun, Team Fuego Brown! (its a long story)

#2: Hiking Mt. Nebo
Summit: 11,928 ft
Highest and southernmost mountain on the Wasatch Range
On June 30, I convinced my roommate, Jenae, to come climb Mt. Nebo with me...down by Nephi, Utah. And what a perfect day it was!!
the summit of Mt. Nebo behind us...almost there!

THE SUMMIT!!
I have never seen so many lady bugs in my life, as I did on the top of that mountain. It is like a lady bug breeding ground! My victory dance :)

It was actually a pretty steep hike. It wasn't that long mileage-wise, but definitely steep, almost the whole way. The top half is all shale on a ridge, sometimes requiring some scrambling. But that's what I like! ;)

On the hike back down, Jenae and I made up a song about our hike. We made a video of it, but it didn't want to upload, so if you have facebook, check it out there. And if you know anything about Jenae's creative mind, you know you want to watch this video :)
Enjoy!

And the day after...
My tan lines look like neopolitan ice cream (brown, pink, white), and Jenae was so burned she laid on the floor the next day wrapped in damp towels and applied aloe vera every 2 hours...poor girl :( But she is now molting, and will soon have a fresh coat of pure white skin! :)

I sure can't get enough of the Utah Mountains!

Being an aunt is great!

2009-07-05T16:09:00.000-07:00

On the way home from the UK, I got to stop in North Carolina for a few days to visit my older sister, Michal, and her family. I only got to be there for 3 days, but boy, was it a fun trip! So I love big family reunions, but I am a very selfish sister, sister-in-law, and aunt, and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed having my sister's family all to myself for a few days! After you look at the pictures of these cute kids, you will probably agree with me...you wouldn't want to share them :)

My cute 3-year-old niece, Ashlyn

16-month-old, Corbin - just helpin' out in the kitchen ;)

Dylan and Ashlyn begged me to teach them how to use my stethoscope - future healers in the making :)

And its quite impossible to go to the Thompson household and NOT wrestle...
Don't worry...I got 'em good. And, I got to listen to one of my favorite sounds in the whole world as I tickled them silly: Dylan and Ashlyn's laughter. Oh, that is bliss! You can't help but be so happy inside! I told Michal that all she had to give me for my mission was a recording of my niece and nephews' laughter :)

We played at the park, went running and biking on the trail, got very sweaty in the humidity (whew!), got pizza and went to the nature reserve (got to see fireflies!), found a really big, bright orange and yellow mushroom, and had lots of fun just hanging out together! My sister even took me mission shopping for my late birthday present. She's so sweet!

This is how my first day there went: went to the park, played tag with Dylan til he wore me out, came home, went running on the trail while pushing Ashlyn in the running stroller, came back, went on a bike ride with Dylan on the trail, his chain came off his bike (which is covered by plastic and cannot be removed without tools), walked all the way back home, fixed the bike, had lunch, and at Dylan's insistence, went back out on the bikes to do the whole trail. I finished off the day very hot, and very sweaty, but had so much fun with my nieces and nephews!

One day it was raining but we decided to go out an play in it anyhow! We went out and made a [very small] dam in the gutter, jumped in puddles, then got out the turtle-shaped kiddy pool.
(Ashlyn, Corbin, Dylan)
I love these guys!! I don't think I've ever been so sad to leave them as I was when Wednesday night came around! Good thing Ashlyn is a good hug-giver... She really makes you feel loved when she hugs you tight at the airport for 5 minutes straight.

And I really appreciated talking to Connor (brother-in-law) about mission preparation: we now have a challenge of who can read the most of Jesus, the Christ before my farewell. Thanks, Connor!

And of course, I absolutely LOVED getting to hang out with my only sister again. Even though she was going through her tonsillectomy recovery, she was still the perfect host! Thank you, Michal, for being my fun, silly, beautiful, selfless, tough, motivational, kind, righteous, loving sister! You are an amazing mother, wife, and sister! Thank you for your example! I love you!

Part Two: The Scottish Highlands

2009-07-01T11:10:00.001-07:00

And here's the fun part! MY kind of vacation ;)

After leaving Edinburgh, we went to Dumbarton (west of Glasgow) and got off the train to go visit the Dumbarton Castle. It's pretty cool...up on a hill with some 557 steps to get all around it. We went late afternoon, so nobody else was there...we had it all to ourselves!

Those mountains behind me are where we were headed next!

We got back on the train and rode up to Balloch, which is a little town on the south end of Loch Lomond. This was when we first got there...gosh, it was so beautiful!

The only hostel available near that town was located 2 miles down a busy road. We were both tired, and we had our backpacks, and it wasn't a very fun walk.

But then, we finally came around a corner and our hostel came into view...look at this place!

It was practically a castle we were staying in! This was our favorite hostel of the whole trip! (and not even that expensive) We just couldn't help ourselves...we were like little kids exploring "our castle" that night :)

The next morning we had breakfast out in the front yard, with a beautiful view of Loch Lomond. Then we checked out and walked back to Balloch. One of the very nice ladies that worked in the tourist information center let us leave our packs in her car for the day, while we explored the Loch. We met such kind people in the Highlands!

The day consisted of a half day biking around part of the loch (gorgeous!)...exploring the beautifully-kept grounds of the Balloch Castle (you can't go inside)...(I love these flowers...they look like fireworks!)

and eating Cherise's very first fish 'n chips on a bench by the loch. And this is where we had our first, and only experience with the "you won't be able to understand anything the Scottish say" warning. A man walked up to us and started talking to us, and I swear it wasn't english! We stared at him like deer in the headlights for a few seconds, before my mind could switch into full Scottish mode. I could only understand enough to answer back when he asked where we were from and what we were going to see while there, etc. He was very kind and friendly, but VERY Scottish! Boy, those rolling R's and long E's everywhere (and many other distinctions) sure make it hard to understand your own language. :) After talking to him for about 10 min. he went on his way, and I turned to Cherise, who hadn't spoken the entire conversation. I knew she hadn't understood anything he said, because for Cherise to be silent like that...well, if you know Cherise, that's strange. Oh boy, what a funny experience! I mean, it's been awhile since I've had to concentrate that hard! :)

After eating, we caught the bus back up to Glencoe (we stopped there briefly with my study abroad group), which was one of my favorite drives of the whole trip! This picture is from the bus window as we entered Glencoe.

We got dropped off in Glencoe Village, and had another 1 1/2 mile walk to our hostel. As we were walking along the road (which actually turned out to be the wrong road - ha!), a young, Swiss couple on holiday pulled over and offered to give us a ride to our hostel. They were so sweet! They even waited while we checked in to make sure our reservation was correct, etc. Oh, I love kind people!

Now this hostel was a little different than the others (especially the last one). It was up in the mountains, in the middle of nowhere practically, and was actually quite ghetto. But once we got settled in, took showers, and met some other people, we were feeling more at home.

The next morning, we hiked the Pap of Glencoe, which we were told has some of the best views in Glencoe. You could see Loch Linnhe and Loch Leven, all the way out to the Cuillin Mountains on the Isle of Skye, Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland), and just the great mountains of the Scotland Highlands! It was beautiful!

And I must tell you, there is a totally different language for the outdoors in Scotland. Somebody should write a book / dictionary:
Ben = mountain
Glen = valley
Inver = mouth of [river] (ex. Inverness is the city at the mouth of the Ness river)
Firth = where the ocean comes into a river
Loch = lake
Highlands = mountains
Lowlands = plains
Burn = stream

...and many more...

On the hike up, we met a couple from Holland who had just been married in December and were having a late honeymoon in Scotland. We hiked about half of it with them, and got to talk to them a lot - they were awesome! We also met a family of 3 from Canada who were on a 6 month trip (!!) and next they were headed to Iceland for 5 weeks for some backpacking, and relaxing in their many geo-thermal pools. I really wanted them to take me with them... :)

The top part of the hike was climbing up rocks for about 20 minutes, with no hint of a trail. It was great! :)

(this was half-way up the scrambling part)

We spent the evening wandering around Glencoe Village (yes, we wandered around the whole thing - it took about 10 min) and walked down by the Loch.

Then we went back to our hostel to make dinner and met 3 guys in the kitchen and ended up talking to them for the next 3 hours. They were older, experienced travelers - 1 from Australia, 1 from Ireland, and 1 from southern Scotland. It was fun to just hear about all their travels, talk about the differences and similarities between all of our countries, and what food we needed to try while in Scotland (ha ha!). I love meeting people - it just makes me realize how unique and fascinating each person is - that's what makes the world so interesting!

The next morning, we decided to hike a mountain called Bidean Nam Bian. About 30 min into the hike we ran into 4 older adults from England and ended up the hiking the whole rest of the day with them! They were really entertaining! They have a group of 11 that are all friends and they all go on hiking trips together (but the others were doing other stuff that day). They all seemed to be in their 30's and 40's, but were so young at heart. They were just like kids! It was great!

This is on the way to Bidean Nam Bian (you enter the Lost Valley - where a massacre took place during the Jacobite Rebellion - click here for the story).

It was the perfect day for hiking: clear skies, sunshine, and a light breeze...(that peak way in the back, on the left-ish (looks like half-dome) is Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland)

and these are our English friends - Geoff, Karen, Patrick and Leela

Cherise and I on top! (3773ft - yes, that sounds small, but coming from sea level...)

We were quite pooped when we finished, but still had to walk about 2 miles to our hostel and pick up our packs, and another 1 1/2 miles into town to our B&B. When we booked the hostel, we could only get 2 nights, as it was full for Friday night, so we found a cute little Scottish B&B for cheap, and decided to treat ourselves. :) Boy, was it nice to finally have a room to ourselves!

The next morning at breakfast, we met a grandma and her daughter from Edinburgh who were taking a 2-day holiday together. They could tell we loved being active and she started telling us about this book she's reading in her book club about an English lady, diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, who biked across America. She got it to show to us, and ended up giving it to us! She said she could get another one easily, and even signed our copy and gave us her address! They were so sweet - they just made our hearts happy :)

That Saturday was our only cloudy day in Scotland (it may have sprinkled for about 20 min), but it was still warm, and we still got to go kayaking on the loch. It was great! The colors were so vivid!

In the afternoon we went up to Fort William, ate lunch, did some last minute souvenir and food shopping (digestives and chocolate!) to bring home. Then we took a 4 hour train back to Edinburgh (once again, beautiful!), got my luggage back from Duncan, slept for about 4 hours, and went to the airport to fly home!

Here is just a collage of the unforgettable Glencoe!

Overall I was so grateful to have this adventure, to learn more about myself, to look at things with a different perspective, to expect the best from people, to see such beautiful country, and most importantly, to meet so many kind, funny, helpful, selfless, wonderful, beautiful people! (We made a list of all the people we met and its quite overwhelming!)

GOODBYE UNITED KINGDOM!

Part One: The City Life

2009-06-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

So my study abroad officially ended the night of June 4th, and the next day was my birthday! And guess what birthday present I got...

My very own, specially wrapped,
Cherise Burk!
Boy, did I feel special ;)

And here our adventures together begin!

LONDON
We checked into our hostel and put our luggage in their "luggage room" as you can't officially check in until the afternoon. It was our very first experience with hostels, and it was quite interesting. And this was no luggage room. This was a luggage closet about the size of a pantry. Here I am, trying to stuff my backpack in with all the other bags. What an adventure...

We walked around Kensington Gardens (where Princess Diana's memorial is) in the light rain, and went to the National Gallery to see some art. And see some art, we did! Boy, that place is huge! Being the art fanatics that we both are (not!), we ended up walking around, picking fun paintings, and making up interesting stories of what was happening in the picture.
Next we went to Westminster Abbey for evensong. Wow, was that amazing, or what?! You can get in for free (as it is a service), sit in the beautiful cathedral, and listen to the choir of men and young boys singing the most beautiful songs ever! The acoustics are fantastic! Cherise fell asleep on my lap, listening to the angelic sound - she was struggling to recover from jet lag. :) What a peaceful hour, compared to the stressful hustle and bustle of the streets of London...
We went out to dinner for my birthday and then headed home and went to bed early, as we were both quite exhausted.

On Saturday morning we decided to head down and enjoy the atmosphere and fun shopping of the Portobello Market.
Then just explored the sites of London some more...here is Big Ben again. :)
We even went back to Westminster Abbey for evensong again, because we loved it so much! I really needed to feel that peace because I was a little stressed with the planning of our trip (as Cherise can attest ;) ).

That night we got to go see Les Mis...still my favorite show of all time. What a powerful show!
"To love another person is to see the face of God"
Then Sunday morning came! We had the most amazing opportunity of getting to sit in the 6th row of the Hyde Park Chapel to see President Uchtdorf (leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) speak to the members of the UK & Ireland (it was broadcast from there). And we didn't even have tickets like you were supposed to! (What a tender mercy for us that the ushers were sympathetic to our lack of transportation and prior knowledge).

After church, we finally had a bit of sunshine, and relaxed in Hyde Park for lunch.We got to watch some very talented rollerbladers (zig-zagging backwards, on one foot, through cones), sat in cute old fashioned beach chairs that are set up all over the grass by the pond, and walked by Speakers' Corner - quite an interesting place with all the guys on boxes and groups of people around each one, usually in heated conversation - before we grabbed our bags from the "luggage room" of our hostel, walked back to the church for the Young Single Adult fireside with Pres. Uchtdorf, and ran to catch our train to Edinburgh! First-class baby!

EDINBURGH

Monday was spent in Edinburgh...We walked down the Royal Mile, bought some Scotland sweatshirts, went inside St. Giles' Cathedral, and found our ancestry in the clan books of Scotland! :)

Then my favorite part of the day - we hiked Arthur's Seat (as pointed out in the picture below).As a trash-picker-upper when I'm in the outdoors, I found us a great Pringles can to take on our adventure with us. They were even flavored "Texas BBQ Sauce" - it reminded us of home (well, at least close to home).(don't worry; there weren't really any pringles in it)
Arthur's seat is a big mound of volcanic rock right near Edinburgh, so you can hike up it and look down on the whole city, and the Firth of Forth (the ocean coming into the river Forth). It was beautiful up there!(my cookies (Digestives) were a little melted....but still just as tasty)

There were approximately 7.5 too many people up there, and if you know me at all, I like being in the middle of nowhere, so Cherise and I walked over to another little hill that was empty, and enjoyed our own personal view over Edinburgh and the ocean. ...where we proceeded to read a little together and take a nap in the squishy grass :) What bliss! The next morning we went for a run around the city, and packed up to go. We met up with my aunt's Scottish neighbor's nephew (ha ha, ya got that?), Duncan, because he was going to hold on to my suitcase for me while we backpacked through the Highlands of Scotland. What a nice guy! ...and a life-saver, I'll tell you what! It was great to get rid of that bag for a week!

We went to the train station to catch our train, but we had just missed it, and the next one didn't come for another 2 hours. But Cherise was positive and met some cool people from Syria, and I was able to use the time to book some more of our hostels for the rest of the week. We finally got on our train, and were headed off for the best part of the trip!

To be continued... ;)

Bashing around London

2009-06-27T22:35:00.001-07:00

Yep, welcome to London! Here are just a few highlights:
This building above (the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben) was my favorite-looking building in all of London.

You can't go to London without going to King's Cross train station to see Platform 9 3/4 :)
See ya, Mom & Dad! I'm goin' to Hogwarts!

We went to Greenwich - the beginning of time! (the Prime Meridian)

On a boat cruise down the Thames River with Big Ben in the background. What a sunny, beautiful day!

And of course, as we were on a nursing study abroad, we went to the Florence Nightingale Museum in London...loads of fun! ;)

(there were costumes you could try on throughout the museum, and on the bottom right is a dress made out of a maps!)

Our first night in London, we got tickets to see Wicked!

The famous Trafalgar Square...A view from the top walkway of Tower Bridge across the Thames
This was in the Tower Bridge engine room...ha ha

And Phantom the 2nd night!The last night of our study abroad Christina and I ran a 3.7 mile race for homelessness in London. This (running) is my way of seeing the city! :) It started and finished at St. Paul's cathedral, crossed the Thames several times, went by the Globe Theatre, the London Eye, the Tate Modern, and many other beautiful sites of London. It was really fun!Sorry it's just a smattering of pictures from London. Its a busy, bustling city, but just as London-y as you can imagine. We also went to Buckingham Palace, the Globe Theatre, St. Paul's Cathedral, and had plenty of tube rides stuffed to the rim (and then some!)! What an experience! :)

Edinburgh

2009-06-22T18:53:00.001-07:00

On our last Monday in Scotland, we once again had Bill for our tour guide. He took us to Stirling Castle and the William Wallace monument. He told us the "true" story of William Wallace. We drove down south and went to Hailes Castle. I loved it because it was in the middle of nowhere, it was free (I always like free!), and nobody else was there! It was great!

(just hangin' out)

Then we went to a city on the coast called North Berwick (said "North Berrick") and got to walk out to the edge of some rocks. It was SO BEAUTIFUL!

And then for the second half of the day, we got the chance to roam the great Edinburgh!

This is St. Giles' Cathedral

And of course, the Edinburgh Castle. It was fun, but I think we had just seen a few too many castles already, so it wasn't anything spectacular.

Although the Scottish guards in their cool uniforms were pretty awesome! :) And we got to hold an old sword...man, those things were HUGE! It came up to my nose, with the tip on the ground, and I couldn't imagine trying to swing that thing around and actually be agile with it.

We were sure to stop my the Elephant House, a cafe/pub where J.K. Rowling wrote some of the Harry Potter series.

We hurried back to Blackford to pack up our stuff, then caught the train to London at 11:45pm. But this was no average train....this was a sleeper train! I have to admit, I have always wanted to ride on a sleeper train, like in the old movies (specifically White Christmas). It was so much fun! You can ask the other girls; I was going nuts, I was so excited! Even when we woke up, I looked around for about 2 seconds, remembered I was on a sleeper train, and went nuts again! ha ha They came around and brought us orange juice about an hour before getting into London. Each berth had 2 beds that folded down from the wall. Candice and my room was next to Michelle and Heidi's, so we opened a little door in between our rooms. The berths were SO TEENY! We had the little beds, and a "hallway" next to the beds that was only about a foot wide, and that was it. Oh, and a little window to the outside. We had a little dance party before we went to sleep, complete with my headlight strobe feature, Candice's lovely beat-boxing and singing, and Heidi's sweet dance moves! :) Even going to the restroom on the train was quite the experience. I can finally check "ride on a sleeper train" off my list - yay! :)

Ooo...big, burly Scottish men in kilts!

2009-06-22T00:57:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the delay on updates, but I'm finally back in the states and am playing catch-up.

So, picking up where I left off 2 posts ago in Inverness... On Friday, Bill picked us up once more and was in charge of getting us from Inverness down to Blackford (our next stop), which is near Stirling. But the awesome guy that he is, he wanted to show us more of Scotland. So here was our wonderful itinerary for the day:

1) We drove west to Loch Carron - beautiful!

2) We kept driving west and took a pit stop at a cute little fishing town called Plockton (not pictured here). The town pretty much consisted of one street along the water and one row of buildings/houses along that street. It was so quaint and beautiful with all the sailboats sitting in the bay. Candice and I walked out in the water - which was ocean water! It felt so good!

(I have to tell a quick funny story Bill told us on the drive: So there are two football teams (soccer) there named Caledonia and the Celtics. They are big rivals, and they were playing once and it was a really close game. Just in the last few seconds, Caledonia (lovingly called Cale (like Cali)) won! But the best part was the newspaper headline the next day:
"Super Cale, Go Balistic, the Celtic are Atrocious!"
(ya get it?!)

3) And even more west, we got to the Isle of Skye. He let us out and we got to walk across the bridge to the Isle of Skye. It was so beautiful! (not to mention sunny!)

(a really cool lighthouse seen from the bridge)
4) Turned back southeast and stopped at the Eilean Donan castle - one of the most photographed castles in Scotland. This castle is located on a little island on a loch, with a stone bridge to get to it. I would have been totally okay with it if someone asked me to live there. ;) When we first got there, a high-school aged boy was playing his bagpipes to earn money. Oh, how I love the sound of bagpipes! I could seriously listen to it all day! We got to eat lunch and explore the castle for a few hours before heading off again.
5) Bill took us through Fort William and down through Glencoe - one of the most beautiful places (and great hiking spots!) in all of Scotland! And everything is SO GREEN there! (because usually it rains all the time; we were just very blessed that it was sunny the whole time we were in Scotland!)
(Oh, how I love Michelle!)
(it was super windy, if you couldn't tell!)
6) We drove into Blackford, Scotland, where we would be staying for the next 3 days at our instructor's sister's house. She and her husband, Alister, and their 1-year-old daughter, Isla, live in the old bank house. It was so cool! It is really tall and skinny, has 3 levels, a grand staircase, a "posh" sitting room, a dinner room with 2 different wallpapers, double front doors, a vault room (skeleton keys and all!), and 18 chimneys (yes, one fireplace in every room!). It was amazing! We each had our own room. Mine was one of the ones on the top floor, with a beautiful view out my window. This is the sunset from my window the night we got there (it probably set around 10:30pm). They even have a pet turkey in their backyard. His name is Dinner. ;)
Saturday morning we got up and went out to Alister's parent's farm, got on welly's (boots) and gloves and spent the morning putting tubes around the little trees that were growing to protect from the deer and other animals. It was really fun! (well, at least I thought so, but I may just be weird like that)

After we finished they took us on a walk by the river,and to the cave that Robert Louis Stevenson used for the cave in one of his books.
(yes, I brought the side pony to Scotland)

We got home, ate lunch, and got cleaned up just in time to go to the Blackford Highland Games!! This was one of my favorite activities of the whole time in Scotland! It was so cool! It's a way of celebrating Scottish and Celtic culture and heritage.

There are a ton of different events, kind of like a track & field meet. They had running races, and biking races; they had Scottish Highland Dancing (so cool! they did about 5 different dances, changing their outfit everytime, but this is the most traditional outfit);(and a video of it for your entertainment)

a tug-o-war (super intense! - they really have a technique for this, it's not just any tug-o-war); a bagpipe band that plays every once in a while;
and our favorite... the heavy weight competitions in the middle of the field:

Here you have a bunch of guys in kilts who do everything that involves picking up and throwing rediculously heavy items :)

- the "stone put" (like shot put),

-the Scottish Hammer Throw (I would explain it, but it makes more sense if you read more about these events here - it's really interesting!),

(the best part is the grunt!)

-the "weight throw" (again, read in above link)

-the "weight over the bar" (yes, I know, very creative)

-the "caber toss" (our favorite) - if you get a chance, seriously read the link above - it will give you a good explanation of the goal of each event.

Oh, what a day! We even had our 2 favorites to cheer for, Bruce Robb (doesn't that just fit?!), and Ryan Neighbors. It was so fun!

The next day was Sunday and we went to church in nearby Perth (where there was a total of 42 people there, including us! - but hey, that was pretty full compared to the 13 we heard were there the week before). After church they had a "Bite & Blether" - quite comparable to our "Munch & Mingle" or "Linger Longer." We got to meet the people and it was really fun to talk with them. We again met some of the young single adults (which just happened to be all male - hey, we're not complaining) and got to hang out with them for the afternoon. They took us to a place called the Hermitage, which was a beautiful hike (more like a walk) through the forest to a beautiful waterfall! Thanks Steven, Joe, Daniel, Robbie, and others for the fun and friendship!

Heading out on our adventure!

2009-06-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

So I don't have much time to update (and yes, I am way behind!), but I wanted to just say that Cherise and I are together again! She flew into London on my birthday...what a birthday present! We are now in Edinburgh, and tomorrow we head out into the Scottish Highlands for my favorite part! We will go to Loch Lomond, then up to Glencoe for a bunch of hiking, biking, kayaking (hopefully, if the weather is good). I will catch up on all the happenings of the last week or so, and this coming week - but it probably won't be until I get home. So yes, I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats, hoping to hear some more good stories from over here in Great Britain, but, alas, you will have to wait a little bit longer. :)

Pray for us, and if we don't come back in a week, head over here and start searching for us!

LOVE YOU!

Invernessie

2009-05-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

Boy, we have only been here a few days and I already LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Scotland! It may be that we have been having the most rare (for Scotland), but gorgeous weather = complete sunshine and hot! But this place is so beautiful!

We hired a driver/tour guide, Bill - who is awesome with his long hippie hair - to drive us from Huddersfield, England to Inverness, Scotland on Tuesday. We were in a mini van and he had set up a big speaker in between the 2 middle bucket seats so he could talk to us through his headset microphone during the drive. :) Along the way he played us sweet Scottish music. Some of it was traditional Scottish music (which I LOVE!), some was more modernized bagpipe and fiddle music (which I also LOVE!), and some was new music that we actually knew but didn't know they were Scottish artists - such as Snow Patrol, etc. He would also tell us stories about the history of Scotland - including the Jacobite rebellion and famous battles - legends, and perhaps some stuff he might have made up. :)This is our first night out exploring Inverness....what a beautiful city!

We stayed at a lovely little Bed & Breakfast in Inverness. Our hostess was the sweetest lady! She got me ice every night for my achilles tendon (or for you anatomy lovers = calcaneal tendon) that I hurt in England. For breakfast we had a choice between a full Scottish breakfast and a continental breakfast. Being the culture-curious people that we are, we opted for the full Scottish breakfast the first day... only to switch to the continental for the next two days. :) It wasn't horribly bad, but man, look at that black pudding (otherwise known as blood sausage). I don't know if I could look at that on my plate every morning. ;)Our first full day in Inverness was spent touring the main hospital (Raigmore) and a mental health hospital - both quite interesting. That evening, the really nice couple that set up our tours (with their super cute 9 y.o. son, Luke) picked us up in their two cars and drove us down to see Loch Ness, and Urquhart Castle on its shores. We watched and watched for Nessie, but she just didn't want to be seen. :( I was really hoping I might catch a glimpse of the real monster that inspired the name of our showerhead when I was growing up (it was red with eyes and the water came out the mouth) - we called it Nessie :)

Skipping rocks on the shores of Loch Ness while searching for Nessie
The Urquhart Castle has quite a fascinating history... it got blown up several times throughout the Jacobite rebellion, so it was mostly in ruins, but super cool!
I bet you know how sad this made me...
A trebuchet (catapult) at Urquhart Castle, which as our "tourguide Luke" told us, its only the medium size!this must be quite the popular place for women and children to visit since they have parking spots just for them! ;)

The next day we got to go out with district nurses (like home health nurses). While Heidi went to a town called Muir of Ord, and Christina went to Drumnadrochit, Candice, Michelle, and I went to the health centre in Dingwall. How would you like to say you're from Dingwall, Scotland?! :D We met up with our nurses there and left to do our visits. This is Candice and I really excited for the day!I went with my nurse to an even smaller town called Strathpeffer...yeah, say that 10 times fast! ;) She told me it was a real touristy place, but I don't know what she was talking about...it was a town of hardly any people!
I really enjoyed visiting these people in their homes and seeing the elderly Scottish population who live out in the ruralist of rural towns. What fun!
Our nurses were so sweet! We all met up for lunch at a market where farmers come to auction off their beef and lamb; we ate a yummy "Tattie soup," which they paid for!!! Here are our lovely nurses (mine is standing just to right of me).
We got off a little early, walked through the main street of Dingwall, then caught a bus back to Inverness. We went to the Inverness Castle for a bit, then out to dinner at an Italian restaurant.
We sure loved Inverness, but the best is yet to come!

Last day in Huddersfield

2009-05-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

Our last day in Huddersfield was a Monday, and it was a bank holiday. It was a wonderfully sunny day, so we went to the ward activity. We were all meeting at Castle Hill, so Heidi and I just ran there. But of course, we had to stop at the yellow field to take pictures in it.

And that took about 20 min, considering the 3 ft of stinging nettle all the way around the field that we had to figure out how to get through....and back. :)

Once at Castle Hill, the ward hiked over to a park (about an hour walk away). It was so fun to just walk and talk with ward members we have come to love so much! This is Bronte, the bishop's youngest daughter. She is adorable! ...and such a daddy's girl ;)

The wonderful Huddersfield ward

At the park, we ate lunch, and played games. There was a big football game (yes, soccer). We played baseball (known to them as "Rounders") with the little kids.

Then we taught them how to play ultimate frisbee and played as awesome game! It was super fun!

These are our friends, Luke and George...ha ha gotta love this pic! I feel like I'm taking a middle school sports picture. :) Oh, and George and I will be in the MTC together this summer - he's going to Albania!

Oh, what a great day! We didn't want to leave because we knew it was our last day with this great ward! But thank goodness for kind, good people in this world!

Goodbye Huddersfield!
(We were assured that Huddersfield is a great honeymoon spot if we ever want to come back ;))

Goodbye Royal Infirmary!

2009-05-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to have to play a little catch-up...

Last Thursday we finally got to go back to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary (hospital) to say goodbye to our wards and patients.This is my nurse, Claire....she was so sweet and so funny!

the nurses can choose to wear either shirt and pants, or a dress (and surprisingly most wore the dress - I liked it!)
our cute uniforms :)

Random tidbits from the hospital here in England:

-Patients here seem to trust their healthcare professionals more than in the states - I noticed that most of my patients just did whatever they were told, without question.

-It's all very Florence Nightingale-like nursing. Most of the hospital nurses don't even use stethoscopes for assessments - that's only for the doctors (I was talking to the nursing students about how we use stethoscopes all the time for listening to heart, lung, and bowel sounds (which nurses don't normally do here) and they were like, "Woah, so youget to wear your own stethoscope around your neck?!" and I said, "Yes." They were like, "COOL!!! It's like ER! And Scrubs!")
-One day, one of the ladies I have grown close with at the hospital, said something, then stopped and said, "Oh, your American accent is catching on!" Then she wanted me to try a Yorkshire accent....ha ha!
- One of my favorite patients (the one that calls me Pepper) said one day, "I'm sure going to miss you when you're gone. Can't you just take me with you?" :D

Oh, there are so many other stories, but I won't bore you...
These are just some pictures from the hospital:

(you're not allowed to wear long-sleeves - as a healthcare professional, anything below the elbow is prohibited)

and this one....well, its very motivational
They are obsessed with infection control here...this is our favorite hospital sign:

and this one....well, too late! ;)

the sun DOES shine in England!

2009-05-24T17:21:00.001-07:00

(Disclaimer: So this post is going to have a lot of pictures...it was already hard to narrow it down. Sorry! But they're AWESOME!)

So we had the best weekend yet! After that fun hike with Candice the day before, it only got better when we went to Lyme Park and Chatsworth House in Derbyshire on Saturday. The best part of the day was that the sun was shining!!! Blue skies, yellow sunshine, and pure joy! It really is amazing how much sunshine can do for the soul. :)

Our good friend, Phil, drove us once again. I think that was another reason it was such a great day - no public transportation! We got driven straight to Lyme Park, got picked up and driven straight to Chatsworth House, and taken straight home. It was bliss! Let me tell you!

So this post may speak a little better to those of you who are Jane Austen fans, but I hope the rest of you still enjoy it, because these places are beautiful! We first went to Lyme Park, which is an old English manor on extensive grounds, with exquisite gardens you can roam. This was where they filmed the Pemberley (Mr. Darcy's home) in the old Pride & Prejudice (A&E).

Michelle and I climbing the wall to Mr. Darcy ;)

I was really there!

This was where he ran out of the house buttoning his jacket to catch Elizabeth before she leaves with her aunt and uncle!

And these are the stairs they walk up together

Just a beautiful side view of the house

Lyme Park was nice because most people don't know about it so there was hardly anyone there. The grounds were smaller (ha ha - it's all relative) but very beautiful!

Next, Phil drove us to Chatsworth House, the Pemberley of the new Pride & Prejudice. Now this place was HUGE! - the grounds, the gardens, the house, everything! -

Can you see Keira Knightley - she pulls up in the carriage, looks at the house, and laughs at herself as she steps out.

The statue room...yes, all those statues were really there! It was super cool!

The doors were humongous!

The Mr. Darcy bust, and my favorite statue in the whole movie (on the right)!

Haven't you always wanted to dress like this? :)

An awesome book about elderly people we found in the gift shop

In the gardens, there is a massive waterfall and everyone had their shoes off, playing in it. Do you think I was just going to sit there and watch?! ;)

We bought these AMAZINGLY tasty ice cream cones and discovered that Michelle inhales ice cream and I'm apparently the only person in the whole world that licks my ice cream cone so it lasts longer. :) Boy, was it yummy!

While exploring the gardens, I found my perfect reading spot (isn't this tree awesome?!)

There was also a really cool maze we went through, but I don't have a good picture since we couldn't get above it. Just imagine a really cool corn maze at Halloween, but made out of hedges and in a beautiful garden!

I kept saying how much I would love to have grounds/gardens like that, but I would just put a little cottage on it. I don't need the big house, but I would take the land!! :) It was heavenly!

Oh, to be mistress of all this!

(if you can believe it - and would like to see more - there'll be more pictures on facebook!)

the perfect adventure

2009-05-24T08:47:00.001-07:00

On Friday, Candice and I were looking for an adventure and everyone else wanted to stay home and "get things done." I figured, I'm in England! I can get things done later! ;)
So Candice and I took a train ride to Hebden Bridge (free since it was close enough to be on our metro passes) and walked through town (which was very little) to the trailhead for Hardcastle Crags. We started out on a trail along a river in the woods. It was gorgeous!
And of course, I had to get in... :D

It was so beautiful; it was good for the soul...

It was a little cloudy, and misty on and off (but it wasn't cold). The droplets on the flowers and plants made everything look so cool!

One of the bridges we crossed

We found a sweet tree that I couldn't resist climbing!Then the trail turned up a hill and headed back the direction we came from, but ON TOP of the hill! We were walking amongst quaint little farms and sheep fields, on a road in what felt like the middle of nowhere, not sure exactly where we were going (but that was half the fun!), and had a view of the same on other hills around us! It was so awesome! I just kept saying to Candice, "I can't believe we're really here!" It was so cool; I can't even explain it! Man, Dad, you should have been raised on a farm here! ;)At one point I started talking to the sheep (yes, I was "baa"-ing) and one of the little lambs started talking back! ...or more like yelling back. :) Every time I would start walking away, he would look straight at me and yell over and over. It was so funny!We kept passing all these "public footpath" signs and would take one, just for kicks, but it would just go from the main road down to somebody's house...so much for a public footpath! :)

It was just such a great day! 1) It was just Candice and I, 2) we didn't know really where we were going most of the time, and 3) we got to see some of the most beautiful countryside ever! - yeah, you're never going to stop hearing about it ;)

It was quite the adventure! Probably the best one so far!

Finishing up clinical in Huddersfield

2009-05-20T15:45:00.001-07:00

So, as you know, we have not been allowed to work in the hospital any more. The University was able to find us some alternate experiences, which actually is helping us achieve our goal of coming here in the first place - to assess and analyze their healthcare system as a whole. So this is what our last week of clinical here in Huddersfield has looked like:

Monday
We woke up and spent a few hours preparing a presentation about our healthcare system and nursing education system in the states, and some comparisons with the UK healthcare system as we've seen it thus far. We went and met up with some people from the University to present to them. What was planned to be a 15 min presentation, turned into a 2 hr discussion! It was really interesting though - they had loads of questions and comments. They really like a lot of aspects of both our healthcare and nursing education systems and wanted a copy of our presentation. They then gave us a tour of the Calderdale hospital (way nicer than the Royal Infirmary we were at!). The part I liked the best was their labor & delivery units (or birth centres). Here they focus so much on natural birth and almost everyone uses midwives (in the hospital and at home). Their epidural rate here is only about 10% (!!!), as opposed to the almost 95% in Utah. Hmmm... I loved it! Because of their focus on natural childbirth, their intervention emphasizes alternative pain-relief measures, such as a birthing pool, birthing balls, room to move around and be in different positions, and so many others! I really would've loved to have even a one day rotation there, as this stuff fascinates me! I sure wish we could get our epidural rate down that low... (if you know me, I have my views about childbirth) :)

That night I was talking with a good friend online (so as not to disclose any names, we'll just call him Nate E....no, no, N. Evans) and I was doing a little bit of complaining about the frustrations I have with our clinical experience here. Being the kind and caring friend that he is, N. Evans gave me a little bit of awesome advice that really hit me, and I thought I'd share it with you all:

"sometimes the test is just what we do with our lives. the experiences don't matter that much...how we handle them does...that is what forms our character."

P.S. you should needlepoint this on a pillow - N. Evans will be widely quoted one day so you'll want to be ahead of the crowd!

Just in the few days since then, I have thought about this a lot and have really tried to change my attitude, just try to get the most out of whatever we get to do here.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning we met at the University once again for a lecture on diabetes and how it is managed here in the UK. We had lunch and went to tour their much-talked-about Podiatry clinic that they have at the University. It was actually really cool! Their podiatrists seem to have a larger role here in the UK and are used more widely. He showed us around and the last room we went into was a sports therapy room. They had all sorts of toys and machines, etc. He told us about all of them (but didn't demonstrate) and then was done. I was like, no way! I wanna see how this works! So I bravely asked if I could try one of them. That started us trying out all of them for like the next hour. He had been telling us about a group of children that had been through earlier and as I was standing on a machine and we looked over at the other girls hula hooping, I said, "And you thought you got rid of the kids..." :)It was fun - they had a HUGE treadmill (for big rugby players), hula hoops, weight machines, a machine that you stand on with one foot (the platform is wobbly) and you have a screen in front of you. The point is to balance and keep a little black dot on the screen in the middle of a target. It was quite hard! Then my favorite was a stationary road bike hooked up to a computer. It has a big screen in front of you that displays a course that you ride (with hills, etc.) and the computer makes the bike harder or easier to ride according to the course. We all tried it out on a short 2 min course, then the guy told me about a longer one they are using for a staff challenge. He said the fastest one was 6 min. Everyone told me I should try it, but not long after I started, I realized it would take me much longer than 6 min to complete. Man, that was a hilly course!!! I was in regular clothes and by the end I was so sweaty I was dripping on the floor!! Ha ha nasty, I know! Kind Candice was fanning me with paper napkins and as soon as I finished the guy laid a towel over my shoulders to wipe my face and Erin gave me her water bottle. Boy, were my legs wobbly after that! (I thought I should try the balance machine again... ha ha)The last appointment of the day was meeting with the community matron. It was interesting to learn about what her role is and how it is different from a district nurse or from a home health nurse. Once again, getting to know the way their healthcare system works as a whole!

Wednesday
Wednesday we went to a skills lab/lecture for 2 hours about assessing ABCDE, which we already knew. (Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability (Neuro), and Environment/Exposure (IV, catheter, dressing, wound drain, etc.)) It was a good review though, and we did really well in the simulation. Considering that we, as nursing students in the US, do more in an assessment than qualified nurses do here in the UK, she was very impressed with our knowledge. She said she wished she could have us do it in front of their nursing students! :)

Then we went to a GP clinic (like a family doctor) to meet up with a nurse in the ward here. She showed us around the clinic and talked about how they practice within the community environment, as opposed to the hospital. Once again, interesting to see all the pieces of the puzzle!

So overall, we are kind of considering it a blessing that we got kicked out the hospital, in order to have the opportunities to see the rest of the healthcare picture, as was our goal. It has given us a brand new perspective on their entire system.

Blast this wretched rain!

2009-05-20T09:22:00.001-07:00

If you were me right now, you'd be saying, "Don't say 'blast' and 'wretch'" (quote from Little Women). :)

So this weekend (Friday and Saturday) was supposed to be our trip to the Lake District and the plan was to stay in a hostel in Ambleside (on the north side of Windermere Lake). But, just our luck, we had the worst weather we've had since we've been here! It was a downpour of rain ALL DAY; the sun didn't peep out even once; and almost everything to do outside (kayaks, bikes, canoes, etc.) was closed because of the horrible weather. I would have loved to hike, but it was so foggy you wouldn't be able to see the views anyhow, and going up higher would have been even colder. We had lunch and took a bus up to Grasmere - which the famous poet, William Wordsworth, said was "the fairest place on earth" - and walked around a bit. We went to Wordsworth's Dove Cottage where he wrote many of his famous poems, and to his grave at a church nearby.
William Wordsworth lived his life in various places throughout the Lake District (of which, I am quite jealous) and wrote most of his poems about what he saw there. One of his most famous poems is called I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud.

Heidi and I trying to make the best of this rainy day

A few of the girls went up to a town called Keswick to go to a Motor Museum that had a lot of famous cars, including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the Batmobile, the car from Harry Potter, a James Bond car, The Delorean (from Back to The Future), Herbie, Mr. Bean's mini, the A-Team van, the Munsters Koach, and several others.Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

It was turning out to be a pretty rainy and cold day, and the weather forecast was the same for the next day, so we decided to cancel our hostel reservation and head back to Huddersfield that night. But...before that...we wanted to make the most of what time we did have there! A few of us walked down along the lake, and then we found a "public footpath" (what they call any trail here) that went up the hill away from the lake. We decided to explore. It was like walking up a stream! We finally came out into a field, and there were sheep everywhere! They were so cute! My favorites were the little ones with white bodies and black faces. We kept going a little more up the hill but had to turn around to get back to catch our bus in time. The view from there to the lake was beautiful!

Views of the Lake District and the sheep!

Just playing around

Even the trip home was an adventure. Some people had left earlier, but Michelle, Candice, and I wanted to stay a little longer, so we took the 8pm train from Windermere (with about 4 changes to get to Huddersfield) and got into the train station in ole Hud at 11:15. We still had to walk across town to the bust stop (for Storthes Hall) and the last bus of the night leaves at 11:20. We were booking it across town...good thing there were no people out; they were all in the pubs. :) We were running down the stairs, almost to the bus stop, as we watched the last bus of the night drive away.... baaaahhhh! We didn't quite know what to do.... Then out of nowhere a taxi pulled up to drop someone off! We jumped in - so lucky! I bet the taxi driver was surprised by our soberness...I don't think anyone gets a taxi home from town that late on a weekend night who isn't drunk out of their minds. We were just glad to have a lovely ride home!

Oh, and if you're sick of seeing me in pictures with my rain jacket on, then tell it to stop raining here! I'd be much obliged :)

The English are just GREAT!

2009-05-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we had another enjoyable day at church, then instead of catching our usual (and rushed) bus at 1:08 (church ends at 1:00), we stayed after to practice our song we are singing next week. We were just going to wait for the 2:08 bus, but it was raining, so we stayed inside the church building. We were sitting in the lobby with the bishop's wife and he came out ready to leave. The moment he saw us, he said, "Oh, you haven't offered to give the Americans a ride home, have you?" He was just joking of course, and ended up truly offering us a ride home. So all 6 of us + 2 of them (their kids were at her sister's house for the afternoon) scrunched into their teeny little car and we set off for home. In the car, the bishop then asked what we were doing for dinner. We explained that Candice was making us all dinner (we take turns) and then he said, "Well who wants to come over to our house for chicken, and who wants to stay home and eat dinner with Candice?" He is just SUCH a funny man and they are both so kind! We love them both to death!

scrunched in their little car (it doesn't look quite as scrunched as it really was)

Alas, we took them up on their dinner offer. It was fun to go into their home and be guests of such wonderful people! This is how we really get to see culture! We sat in their "sitting room" while they finished preparing the meal. The missionaries were also coming over for dinner that night, so they were feeding many mouths, none of which belonged to their children. :)
The dinner was absolutely delicious! We had chicken with a yummy white onion sauce, peas, carrots, corn, stuffing balls, the best roasted potatoes I've ever had (crispy on the outside), roasted parsnip, and yorkshire puddings (tastes kind of like fry bread (?) - see below), and everything smothered in gravy. They really like gravy here!!

We insisted on helping to wash dishes and prepare for dessert.For dessert, she had apple sponge cake (like apple cobbler) with vanilla custard on top and ice cream. Then she also wanted to make a chocolate sponge cake with chocolate custard on top. She said the cake would be super fast to make and Heidi and I offered to help. She got out the ingredients and then pulled out a scale with a bowl on top and you measure everything in ounces! I was like, how do I do this again?!? Well that whole thing is a funny story that I'm going to leave out, but you get the gist. She ended up taking over (kindly) because I was going too slow; then she just poured it in a little glass bowl, threw it in the microwave for 5 minutes and it came out a cake! It was amazing! Well, we of course had to try both apple and chocolate cakes/custards - and they were both SO GOOD!this is all of us (except Erin, who just loves taking the pictures) :)

Tonight, we got to go to the Preston, England LDS temple, which was, in all seriousness, just lovely! It was their ward temple night, and once again, the bishop was kind enough to arrange us all rides to get there. We went to the 8pm session, so by the time we got out of the temple, it was dark....but, beautiful! What a way to end the day! I'll say!

So, I think everyday we still pick up on new phrases and terms that they use here in England. Here are a few more that are either new to me or I forgot to put them in earlier. Enjoy! :)
"consultant" - doctor
"chips" = french fries
"crisps" = potato chips
"stone" = measurement of weight (=14lbs) - they really say things like, "Oh, he lost a good 8 stone after his gastric bypass surgery"
"lovey" = another common term of endearment ( i think i like this one more than "luv," especially in their accents - it sounds more like "lovay")
"pram" = stroller
"trolley" = shopping cart, tray cart at the hospital, luggage cart, etc.

Some VERY common names we hear all the time here:
-Fleur
-Fiona

And they tend to pronounce things differently too (even words we do know!). We've noticed it's usually placing the emphasis on the second syllable where we would place it on the first. Most of these are health care related, but they are pretty funny to us. I will try and put the English pronuniciation to the right of the word. Now you have to say them as you read them...
"respiratory" = res-PEER-ah-tree
"pulmonary" = pul-MON-ah-ree
"skeletal" (this is our favorite!) = skuh-LEE-tul (say it fast)
"capillary" = kuh-PILL-ee-air-ee (yes, they add a syllable)

Hope you enjoyed that as much as I always do! :)

Cheers luv, ta!
(that's what the train conductor says when he punches my ticket - like in the Polar Express!)

2009-05-14T14:10:00.000-07:00

ENGLAND'S MOST WANTED

Carianne King
Heidi Hafen
Michelle Aucoin
Christina Jemison
Candice Rountree

Aliases: "The Americans"
APPROACH WITH CAUTION

Sorry to leave you in suspense on that last post...ha ha, well, not really.
So, we aren't allowed to go observe/work in the hospital anymore, nor any place in "the trust" (any public health care). They are telling us we don't have the right visas, which is funny because before coming here our International Study Office at BYU assured us that we had the correct visas. They even confirmed with the British Consolate! Also, when we first got here, they had us register as students at Huddersfield University so we could use their placement program to work in the hospital. Well, apparently being registered at two universities (Huddersfield and BYU) is illegal. The ladies at the registration desk were freaking out, thinking they were going to go to jail for 6 months. (chuckle)

At first, they were so worked up about it, they said we couldn't step foot in the hospital, not even to say goodbye! I was actually pretty upset, because I was beginning to really love the patients and the people I was working with. I think I almost cried when Erin told us the news. I feel like I'm letting them down, just disappearing on them. The university has since calmed down and said we could go back to the hospital on Thursday to say thank you and goodbye, but I am worried that some of my patients will be gone by then - especially one of my favorites, in particular (the one who called me Pepper). Boy, it sure doesn't take long to come to love someone when you are taking care of them like I was (very personal things - bathing, toileting, etc.). I know that sounds slightly funny, but I am truly sad to not be in the hospital anymore. I never thought I'd say that when I first got here, seeing as how most of what I did was just CNA stuff. But I think the greatest thing I learned from it was that I do know for sure that nursing is what I want to do. I really do love taking care of people, and if I can love it when I am only doing simple CNA activities (which is sometimes taxing - I admire CNAs very much), then I know its for me. :) I love the interaction I get to have with people. I have the chance to learn something from every person I meet, and that will be a lot of people as a nurse! I am grateful for the blessing I have had to feel a portion of the love that Heavenly Father has for His children, and I hope I can feel it for every patient I ever have.

So, long story, short - the university is trying to come up with other opportunities for us to see/learn/observe other parts of the health care system in our last week here. Our main goal in coming here was to assess and learn about their health care system as a whole, so the private and community sectors are important to experience as well. Needless to say, we had today off, so we went to the Huddersfield Open Market to do a little shopping, then prepared for our trip to the Lake District tomorrow!

Church, Castle Hill, Cricket, and Craziness!

2009-05-14T01:11:00.000-07:00

We have now been to two weeks of church here in Huddersfield (actually the church is in nearby Halifax). This is us on our first Sunday at church. We got there about 20 min early because that was when the bus went. The ward is very kind and welcoming. We are pretty obvious here as the ward is kind of small. They just love having us participate (Erin, our instructor, plays the piano in RS)! Church ends at 1pm and the first Sunday here, we asked the elders (since they had ridden the bus with us) what time the bus left to take us back to Huddersfield, and they said 1:08. Well, it was 1:06, so we rushed out the door to catch the bus. Sadly, the bus stop we chose to wait at had a mysterious sign saying "BUS STOP NOT IN USE," but of course, we didn't see that until about 1:15. :) Luckily, some kind ward members offered us rides home. A couple of girls and I rode with our new friend, Luke, who we found out has a connection from his mission with a girl in our group (small world, even here in England!). He is really nice and gives us rides to any of the young single adult activities. This past Sunday he took us with him to the church to see the CES fireside (yes, rebroadcast a week later), and then on the way home, he took us to Castle Hill.

This is Heidi and Michelle with Luke on Castle Hill. It's beautiful up there; you can see 360 degrees around down on Huddersfield and beyond. The sun was just about to set, and it was gorgeous! But windy too! (as you can probably tell)

The view from Castle Hill

Wednesday was Michelle's birthday, so we went out to lunch at Nando's - where, as Luke says, all the girls go after they've been shopping, to talk about what they bought. :) It was pretty good!

The lovely birthday girl, Michelle :) HAPPY 22!
Then we went to an awesome game of Cricket. Our cool driver from the airport, Phil (the one without the tooth), took us with him to his 17-year-old son's game. He is the captain of the team and also their best bowler (pitcher). It was pretty chilly, but really fun!!
(Michelle and I very excited to watch a Cricket game)
Cricket is the official National Sport of England (even though most people think it should be football), and it was also invented here. Good thing we had Phil to explain the rules and what was going on. It's sort of like baseball but there are quite a few differences. Basically, the bowler (pitcher) throws it to the batter and they try to hit it. They can hit it in any direction; there are no fouls. Once they hit it, if it's not too close to them (their discretion) they run back and forth between the wickets (bases) and they count for points. There are actually two batters out there, one at each wicket, and they both run. The bowlers switch sides so each batter gets a chance to hit. If they get it to the edge of the field, it's automatically 4 or 6 points, depending on if it bounces (similar to a home run). There is more to it, but I won't bore you...They all wear white (both teams), with cute little sweaters or sweater vests. I love it! It's a gentleman's game, so there wasn't much cheering...just a bit of light clapping every once in a while.
(And yes, that's Castle Hill in the background)
A "bowl" (pitch) - Phil's son

And here's a short clip for you (sorry it's not long, my camera was dying) - this is a bowl, then a hit, and the batters running between wickets.

And last, but not least, MOVIE NIGHT! Michelle in her usual pirate garb (ha ha, not really usual)...and our popcorn! We have no living room, so we just gather in one room and watch it on a laptop.
We watched Elizabeth Gaskell's "Wives & Daughters." It's fun to watch those kind of movies (like Pride & Prejudice) now that we are here....it's totally what it looks like here!

Oh, and P.S. We have been banned from the hospital, not to step foot in there again!

My favorite signs

2009-05-13T15:37:00.000-07:00

It seems that there is never a day here in England when we don't find a new sign that we think is different, interesting, or just plain funny....I hope you enjoy these as much as we did. :)

This one was just interesting to me; it's taken on a door inside the women's restroom at the hospital. We asked someone what it was and they said it's a place for Muslims to ritually cleanse themselves before prayer. Cool, huh?

This one is on the road to Storthes Hall (where we live)...we think it is funny every time we pass it. Make sure you don't drive through this brick wall into the trickling stream on the other side!

Speed bumps...

Common sighting here in England (Queue = line). On one of our first days here, I had to stop and use an ATM. There were 2 of them, and all the other girls were just standing around waiting for me since they didn't need to use it. A woman came up and asked, "Are you queuin'? ("are ya 'q'-in'?") We were a little confused at first - like we always are when people here talk. ha ha :)

Another common sighting - instead of "for rent" they say "to let." It threw me off every time I saw it for quite a while...but I am finally used to it.

Yield

Ha ha!

This was found at the train station - I sure hope there are no plant movements!

Found this one in York...still don't really know what it means. Any one want to fill me in? I'd be much obliged. :)

We just really like this one...we see it all over!

Yet another great one

Their way of asking if you paid for parking and put your proof of payment in your window

And my personal favorite so far...

This was in the tower of the York Minster. Boy, I think I can honestly say, I've never seen a face quite like that on a public sign before! ha ha! :)

And a few more to add to the "British lingo" list:
"confectionary" = candy
"uni" (pronounced "you-nee") = university (they don't just say college, or school)
"Ta" = thanks, goodbye (kind of like "cheers;" I think it's pretty cute)
"skip" = dumpster (my nurse scraped the side of her car into one on her way home from work one day and took the door off her car - totalled her car! Sad!! - but a funny story!)

*They seem to dislike the word "the." It's always "I'm going to hospital," "She went to toilet," "I took shuttle bus," etc.
*Apparently "I" am plural! They like to switch "was" and "were" ALL THE TIME! "I were on the bus;" "It were brilliant;" - and you can go on and on!

I love how the fun never ends!

Fountains Abbey

2009-05-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

We had quite the adventure on Saturday.

I've heard so much about this Fountains Abbey, and seen pictures of it, that I knew it was a place I wanted to visit while I was here. So I spent quite some time looking up the public transportation to get us there (which, by the way, is quite the maze). I wrote it all down (walk to bus stop, bus to town, train to Leeds, walk from train station to bus station, bus to Ripon, bus to Fountains Abbey) so things would run smoothly. I even checked the weather forecast to make sure it would be nice and sure enough, it said warm and sunny, with only 10% chance of rain. We're set, right?

So what do you think happened?
Yep....trouble. :)We left our flat at 7:30am, and leaving out most of the details, got to Fountains Abbey at 2:08pm (even though in a car, it would've taken about an hour or a little more). None of the public transportation actually coincides with the schedules they put online. Oh, ha ha. We just had to laugh about it and make the best of it. The picture above is on a bus ride from Leeds to Ripon - some slept, some read for homework, and I just stared out the windows at the most beautiful countryside I've ever seen! I'm overwhelmed by it...everytime! I think it's definitely one of my favorite parts of England!

In Ripon we had to wait an unexpected 2 hours for our next bus to Fountains Abbey, so we walked around this small-town carnival/festival and went to lunch in a lovely pub called Ye Hornblower Tavern. As we were getting ready to leave, a ton of people started coming in to sit/stand at the bar. Then we realized a football (soccer) game was just about to begin! ;)

Once we got on our Little Red Bus to Fountains Abbey (we realized we should've just walked, because it was only 2 1/2 miles away), it took us another 45 min to get there because of the insane route the bus driver had to take before getting to Fountains Abbey. We were out in the middle of nowhere, hitting towns with about 5 buildings in them, driving what felt like 70 mph on pretty much a one-lane road, over huge bumps and around sharp curves. It was hilarious! But the countryside was, once again.....BEAUTIFUL! I swear there are more sheep in this country than people! We even passed the Studley Royal Cricket Club, playing Cricket out in their all white outfits - very cool!

We finally got to Fountains Abbey and had the treat of our lives! It was worth it all!!

This was a monastery built by 13 Cisterian monks in 1132 and eventually became one of the richest abbeys in Europe. It actually has a really interesting history - if you'd like to read more, click here.

This place was super cool!!Its hidden in the most perfect little valley with trees, so that you you can't see out of it, and you can't see the abbey until you're in the valley. Its a little paradise down there! Boy, I would become a monk (yes, a monk, not a nun) JUST TO LIVE THERE!And if the Abbey itself isn't enough, there is a river that runs through the valley and there are trails to walk that are uber gorgeous (forgive the German)!

Oh, and guess what? It rained on us! And it only rained the short time we were at the Abbey. It was never a full-out down-pour, and I didn't mind the rain, it was just another thing to laugh about! :) Yeah, 10% chance, huh? This was from a viewpoint on one of the trails, overlooking a bend in the river and the Abbey way in the distance.

Since we didn't get there until 2:08pm, and the last bus out of there left at 3:47pm, we kind of had to do it all in fast forward:

Ooo, aww... click(picture) ... run ... WOW! ... click...run...click...COOL!... click ... run ... click ... run, etc.

But it was still totally worth it! If anyone is planning a trip to England, I would definitely recommend this little piece of heaven! (Just don't take public transportation, and plan for several hours or more to enjoy it) I absolutely loved it!

I've never felt so "luved" in my life!

2009-05-08T10:11:00.001-07:00

So, as some of you may know, the reason for me being here in England is because I am on a BYU College of Nursing study abroad. The University of Huddersfield College of Nursing invited us to come here. During the week we are observing/working in the hospital (Huddersfield Royal Infirmary) 4 days/wk, 8 hrs/day. This week was interesting, learning the ropes of a totally different lingo, a totally different health care system (yes, they have universal health care), totally different technology, and a totally different set of policies and procedures than we're used to.Although some things are very different than we expected, it's still fun to experience. Here are some of the words/lingo that I am getting used to (and these aren't just used sometimes, it's the only word they use for that - it's standard!):
"lift" = elevator
"dinner" = lunch (throws me off every time)
"sluice room" = dirty utility room
"toilet" or "commode" or "loo" = bathroom (I don't think I've ever heard anyone hear say "bathroom" or "restroom")
"bowels open" = bowel movement (sorry, nurse-talk :) )
"wee" = pee or urine (even formally!)
"cannula" = IV catheter (I think of cannula as in nasal cannula (tube under your nose for oxygen))
"ward" = floor
"obs" = vital signs
"bleeper" = pager (to page the doctors)
"brilliant" or "brill" = amazing
"posh" & "fab" = used ALL the time
"cheeky" = smart alec
"knickers" = pants, shorts, underwear
"spend a penny" = go to the bathroom (that was funny the first time!)
"Y'alright?" = "How are ya?" "What's up?" "How's it going?" (this took a few times to get used to; the first time someone said it to me, "You alright?" I was surprised, thinking, yeah, do I look like something is wrong?)
"lovely" = I think you can figure it out
"Cheers" = hello, goodbye, thanks, you're welcome, pretty much whatever you want it to mean
And this is my favorite:
"piggy sniffles" = swine flu (well, okay, not everybody uses this, but we've heard it!)

I am on an Elderly ward (we are all on different floors in the hospital), which seems more like a nursing home than a hospital to me. So I don't get to practice my practical nursing skills very much, but I am enjoying the staff and patients very much. They are ALL so kind!! We are already fast friends. There are a few nursing students from the University of Huddersfield on the ward as well. We always have plenty to talk about in comparing education systems, health care systems, and just life! It's fun! Here are a few sample stories from the hospital so far:

- My first day on the ward, I gave a wash (sponge bath) to an older lady. The next day someone else washed her, and when I came in later that day, she said she had missed me! :) It's nice to be missed. Then today, when I was helping her wash and she said, "Now, I can't remember your name. Tell me again." So I told her, but as her hearing isn't top-notch, she thought I said, Cayenne, and she wanted to call me "Pepper." ha ha :) I corrected her, but told her she could still call me Pepper!

-They really DO have tea time here! And it's taken very seriously actually! I was changing linens on a patient's bed at 10am my first day on the ward when the nurse came in and told me to stop what I was doing and come for tea. I asked if I could finish first and she said, "No, it's alright, we'll finish after tea." So every day about 9:30 or 10am, we get a 10min. break. I just have apple juice and a piece of toast with jam, but it's a lovely break!

-Another old lady (sometimes all there, sometimes not so much) just makes me feel so loved. The other day, I was bored so I went in to spend time with the patients (they don't really do anything all day). When I come up to her bed, she just lights up (you can see it in her eyes and everything) and reaches for my hand with both of hers. I just hold her hands and smile at her and she says "lovely" over and over to me. She is so cute! And this morning, when I was feeding her yogurt for breakfast, I think she said thank you after every other bite. And it was so heartfelt. Once, she looked at me, and said, "Carolyn (I'm surprised she got that close!), I love you." It was such a precious moment. I love these old people; they make my heart happy! :)

-So when spelling words with a double letter, or giving a number with a double number, they always say, "double (#/letter)." One time one of the ladies from the University was giving us her phone number if we needed to get a hold of her, and she said, "one, seven, triple two, double two, five, zero, etc." We were all like, "HOW MANY two's was that?!" It was quite funny. Another time, a doctor was on the phone and for some reason he had to spell "arrow." This is what he said: "A, double R, O, double U" ha ha (I'm sure he said W, but it just fit and was hilarious!)

-Yet another older lady (sorry, trying not to use names) loves asking me questions about the U.S. and if I'm going to move to England to stay. ha ha I swear, after every single question, she says "luv." "So, you're from the states, then, luv?" "Do ya like it here, luv?" "Are you going ta stay in England, luv?" etc. People here use that pet name (luv) all the time, but she sure took it to the max! :) Once, again, I felt SO loved!

There are so many more, but I don't want to bore you. It's so fun to constantly be surprised by what everyone says to you, to have it be such a different language, and the same language (English) at the same time. They have such wonderful accents here, but sometimes it is surprisingly hard to understand. The first time I answered the phone on the ward, I couldn't understand at all what they said! I had to say, "what?" a couple times. I've heard them say that the Yorkshire (where we are) accent is one of the hardest to understand.

And the fun part is, I have an accent to them - and they LOVE it! They think my accent is "lovely," and I'm the talk of the ward! I walk into a patient's room whom I've never met, and they say, "Oh, YOU'RE the one from the states!" :) I feel so popular!

Well, it's been a long week on my feet - I had to get gel inserts because my feet were hurting so badly. I'm glad its Friday and we can play/relax this weekend....I'm sure you'll hear about it! :)

(Sorry, no real pictures yet...they will come - especially ones of our cute uniforms- ha ha)

Not-So-New York

2009-05-04T11:53:00.000-07:00

Today we ventured to the great, historic city of York.

On the train, we sat near a family with the cutest little boy. I swear little kids in England are the coolest! He kept saying funny phrases, like (imagine in a very English accent), "Naughty Daddy! You ate all my crisps!" (potato chips), and "You could work from home on your computa, and every Friday, you could take me swimmin'!" He was a crack-up. We also passed these AWESOMELY bright yellow fields.
Once in York, we headed straight for the York Minster. On our way, we found one of those sweet, red, classic telephone booths, so we decided to all cram in and take a picture. An older British man offered to take it for us, which turned out to be the funniest sight ever! He is standing in the middle of the street as cars are going around him, and he can't find us in the view-finder so he's moving the camera all around (like 90* away from us!). It was hilarious! Finally he found us, and clicked a picture. We proceeded to talk with him and his Welsh friend for the next half hour. They told us stories about the Clintons, etc. It was great; they were so cute.
The York Minster was AMAZING! We got to go up in the tower (2 hundred-some steps up a very tight spiral staircase), and then also down to the Undercroft (underground to the tombs and treasury).
(This is us at the top; we figured taking our own picture was cheaper than buying the shirts in the gift shop)

As we were walking out, we walked past a Vitamin Water truck with two guys handing out free orange Vitamin Waters. We walked up to get some and the guy gave us 4 and asked if he could take a picture of us jumping in the air. I had him take one with my camera as well, so look for this picture on a Vitamin Water ad...we could be famous someday!

We finally had our first experience with fish and chips, or "fish 'n chippies." (Chips are french fries). It was actually WAY good! I loved it! We got our food and were walking around, and came upon a guy doing some street entertainment. We stopped to watch and he did a whole show (getting himself out of chains, etc.), involving our friend, Candice, as one of his helpers. He was hilarious, but it was definitely British humor, if you know what I mean.

We then went to a place in town called "The Shambles" - see below. It's the ancient street of the Butchers of York.
There were some super fun shops there and I got a real crepe (HUGE!) with apples and cinnamon in them. It was delicious, and really fun to watch them make it.
We then went on a open-top double-decker bus tour of the historic sites in York (while it was raining, mind you - it was kind of fun though). Then we got to walk around about half of the city on the old Roman wall that surrounds it. York used to be a Roman city and a lot of the buildings, and the wall are still there. It's really cool! I loved this city!
Some of my favorite shops/signs from today are:
(You gotta click on this one to see it bigger)
Yes, they DO have Salvation Army in England! And the Whip Ma Whop Ma Gate = shortest street in York with the longest name.

But of course, this one beats them all :)It was a GREAT day in a GREAT city!!

Walking in a Pool of Livers

2009-05-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday: Train to Liverpool

Activities:
Walking

Trying on crazy sunglasses
(only 2 pounds each!)

More walking

International Slavery Museum
(with Heidi and Christina; the others went to the Beatles Museum)

(finding fun "finga puppets" in the gift shop)

More walking

Walking on the Docks
(Albert Dock with Christina and Heidi)

Even more walking

Lunch

Yet again, walking

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
Largest cathedral in the UK
10, 253 pipe organ
World's highest and widest Gothic arches
18,000 square feet of stained glass

Walking in St. James' Garden near Cathedral
EVERYTHING is SO green here!

Walking

Train back to Huddersfield

= Pooped
(Heidi & Christina asleep on the train - we actually ALL fell asleep on the train home, including our instructor)

...but a good pooped :)

Random side notes for the day:
- Stores close so early here (one grocery store we were at closed at 8pm)! The only things open late are the pubs.
- All the cars and road lanes are TEENY! (I've only seen like 2 cars total that were bigger than a compact car - besides buses) We even witnessed an accident today - a bus ran into the back of a little BMW...no one was hurt, but the poor BMW was, well, not lookin' too good.
- The stoplights turn yellow before they turn green!

Note: Thank you to those who graciously pointed out that you get your pound back when you return the grocery cart :) - it was very helpful this evening as we stopped to get food on our way home.

Safe and sound and VERY much in England

2009-05-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

So this is more of a "Yes, I got here safe and sound" post, to all those who were worrying. ;)

We are here in Huddersfield, England. We are staying in college dorms, but it is more like an apt. We each have our own bedroom and bathroom, then a shared kitchen. We have internet in our rooms, so I have pretty good access to the world. :)

After staying up all night before I left, flying to Chicago, having a 6hr layover, then flying almost 8 hrs to Manchester, and getting here at the very beginning of their day (7am), I feel like I haven't slept in like 2 1/2 days. It's a weird feeling, but I am trying not to sleep until tonight, so I can try and adjust. I slept a little on the plane, but nothing substantial. We got into Manchester, went through customs, and got picked up by our sweet driver, Phil - an older man with an AWESOME accent and a missing tooth in front (he said, "it was wobbly, and I sneezed it out"), who drove us through the beautiful English countryside (about 50 min) to Huddersfield. He took us to a grocery store so we could get some food for our kitchen and then on to our dorms. But first, I must tell you what we learned at the grocery store. 1) You have to pay to get a grocery cart. They are all locked together and only come apart when you put in a coin. Needless to say, we ended up using baskets and killing our arms. 2) There were about a million and two people in the store! Every 3 seconds, I was almost running into someone or saying sorry for being in the way. 3) They all bring their own reusable bags to the grocery store. I know the US is getting into that, but most people don't do that yet, but here, EVERYONE does it! We looked weird using the store bags! Oh, and you have to bag your own groceries. :)

After getting settled into our rooms, Heidi and I went for a run to explore and get out. I even took my camera. :) And thank goodness! Wow, it is SO beautiful!

We found ourselves exploring endless trails through the woods, with fields of Dandelions and lilac, stone fences and green rolling hills complete with sheep and cute brick homes.
Yep, those are sheep in the background. :) I felt like I was in a Jane Austen movie! I wanted to keep running forever! But at some point, we did have to turn around...and yes, we got lost on the way back. But we found these cute older ladies walking with their dogs and asked for directions back to the college. Can I just tell you, half the fun of being here is being surrounded by people with the coolest accents! It almost surprises me every time I speak to someone! I LOVE IT!

Boy, I can't wait to sleep tonight! I keep waiting for the sun to go down and it's only 3:30pm.

Well, I hope you are all doing well! I love and miss you already!