Last night, we had family home evening with lots of people in our ward. Most of the teens have never had FHE because they don't have parents who are active in the church or parents who aren't members. Also, a boy named Alex is getting baptized Saturday (btw, I have to play my violin at his baptism grrrr) and the missionaries wanted him to see what family home evening was like. SOOO 7 teenagers came, the sister missionaries, and a couple with a new born baby. It was a BLAST! For song, we sang "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" (a classic in my family) and, of course, my dad did Wadiliatchi. (For scouts who are reading this, you know what it is lol) It was extremely...embarrassing. The people here are very reserved, so because hyper and crazy was a bit ODD for them. For lesson, the sister missionaries TRIED to talk about the tree of life (to alex, mostly) but Sister Banister, being from Idaho (pretty much Utah) was too hyped up from Wadiliatchi that she just kept making jokes with Sister McGarvey. :) For activity, we played feather volleyball. For those of you who don't know what it is, it is played from hanging a long peice of string from one end of the room to the other. The teams are on both sides of the string, on their knees. The volleyball, is the feather. You try to get the feather to land on the ground on the opponents side, by blowing it over the string. :) It's very fun. We also played big booty. This game was even MORE odd for them to play because it's "improper" to play a game called Big Booty. :) But it was fun...for us at least...seeing them struggle to play Utah games. :)
Here is a video I took with everyone playing feather volleyball. For those of you who have read my last posts, about the sister missionaries, you all know how Sister McGarvey, the scotish one, can do a PERFECT imitation of an American accent by saying "Hi, I'm brook from the valley and it's really nice to be here...." I recorded her doing it! She says it around the middle of the video, so if you can, try to hear her talking in her scotish accent first before she does her american accent, so you can see the difference. She is in the left of the video, with a black shirt, black hair, and dark purple scarf. Sorry if you can't hear her doing her accent. Listen closely though! It's awesome!
Enjoy!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Skittles
My amaaaazing sister Liz sent me four medium pack sized skittles. Two original, two tropical. :) I ate one original and one tropical on the own.
Now, why did Liz send me skittles?
Because THE SKITTLES HERE ARE REVOLTING.
So, I told my friends at school how ashamed I was that their country did NOT have normal tasting skittles. Now having some amazing American skittles in my possession, I thought, "Hmmm...maybe if I bring some of my skittles to school and share it with my friends, then I'll be able to prove that it's better! Ha!"
When I got to school, I popped open a bag and told them that if they eat some of my skittles, they would NEVER want to eat another British skittle in their life. I gave each of my friends about 6-7 skittles, making sure they had at least one of each color, and watched with big eyes at their reactions...
THEY LOVED THEM!
Siufan="OMG!"
Charlotte="F***ing he** these are delicious!"
Nettie="Yummy!"
Hannah="I love these!"
Girl whose name I can't remember="These are lush!" **The british use the word LUSH a lot**
(Excuse their language. It's something the teens of England can't seem to contain.)
I also gave them some of the tropical kind, which they loved also. They are all anxiously awaiting for more people to send me skittles. *Hint hint* :)
Now, why am I posting this on my England blog and not my SKITTLES-R-YUMMY blog? Because here is something about the British:
Their food and sweets are extremely...blah. The meals don't have enough spices and they use different ingredients than we do. Their sweets don't have hardly any sugar in them because the people here are very careful about what goes in their bodies because they want to be careful that they don't "get fat like all the American's do who eat McDonald's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner." :P But, their chocolate is definately THE best chocolate I've ever had.
Now, why did Liz send me skittles?
Because THE SKITTLES HERE ARE REVOLTING.
So, I told my friends at school how ashamed I was that their country did NOT have normal tasting skittles. Now having some amazing American skittles in my possession, I thought, "Hmmm...maybe if I bring some of my skittles to school and share it with my friends, then I'll be able to prove that it's better! Ha!"
When I got to school, I popped open a bag and told them that if they eat some of my skittles, they would NEVER want to eat another British skittle in their life. I gave each of my friends about 6-7 skittles, making sure they had at least one of each color, and watched with big eyes at their reactions...
THEY LOVED THEM!
Siufan="OMG!"
Charlotte="F***ing he** these are delicious!"
Nettie="Yummy!"
Hannah="I love these!"
Girl whose name I can't remember="These are lush!" **The british use the word LUSH a lot**
(Excuse their language. It's something the teens of England can't seem to contain.)
I also gave them some of the tropical kind, which they loved also. They are all anxiously awaiting for more people to send me skittles. *Hint hint* :)
Now, why am I posting this on my England blog and not my SKITTLES-R-YUMMY blog? Because here is something about the British:
Their food and sweets are extremely...blah. The meals don't have enough spices and they use different ingredients than we do. Their sweets don't have hardly any sugar in them because the people here are very careful about what goes in their bodies because they want to be careful that they don't "get fat like all the American's do who eat McDonald's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner." :P But, their chocolate is definately THE best chocolate I've ever had.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
History Lesson
SURGERY IN THE EARLY 1800'S IN LONDON:
Surgery in the early 1800s was dangerous and painful. Surgeons had to work quickly. At the Battle of Borodino in 1812 Napoleon's surgeon, Dubois, amputated 200 limbs in 24 hours. There was no way of completely relieving the pain suffered by the patient, nor was it possible to replace blood by transfusion although blood vessels could be tied with ligatures to stop the bleeding.
Sometimes operations went dreadfully wrong. Robert Liston was a famous London surgeon who once amputated a leg in two-and-a-half minutes but worked so fast that he accidentally cut off his patient's testicles as well. During another high-speed amputation, Liston amputated the fingers of his assistance and slashed the coat of a spectato who, fearing that he had been stabbed, dropped dead with fright. Worse was to follow. Both the assistant and the patient died of infection caught during the operation or in the hospital ward.
Infection was the greatest danger to patients after an operation. Germs might enter the wound and cause blood poisoning. Almost half of all patients who had leg amputations died from blood poisoning. One famous surgeon, James Simpson, said that "the man laid out on the operating tables of our hospitals has more chances of death than the English soldier on the fields of Waterloo".
This is what I'm studying in History. The Victorian Medicine and Health times. I just thought it was interesting. Hope you all enjoy learning something new today! :)
Surgery in the early 1800s was dangerous and painful. Surgeons had to work quickly. At the Battle of Borodino in 1812 Napoleon's surgeon, Dubois, amputated 200 limbs in 24 hours. There was no way of completely relieving the pain suffered by the patient, nor was it possible to replace blood by transfusion although blood vessels could be tied with ligatures to stop the bleeding.
Sometimes operations went dreadfully wrong. Robert Liston was a famous London surgeon who once amputated a leg in two-and-a-half minutes but worked so fast that he accidentally cut off his patient's testicles as well. During another high-speed amputation, Liston amputated the fingers of his assistance and slashed the coat of a spectato who, fearing that he had been stabbed, dropped dead with fright. Worse was to follow. Both the assistant and the patient died of infection caught during the operation or in the hospital ward.
Infection was the greatest danger to patients after an operation. Germs might enter the wound and cause blood poisoning. Almost half of all patients who had leg amputations died from blood poisoning. One famous surgeon, James Simpson, said that "the man laid out on the operating tables of our hospitals has more chances of death than the English soldier on the fields of Waterloo".
This is what I'm studying in History. The Victorian Medicine and Health times. I just thought it was interesting. Hope you all enjoy learning something new today! :)
Monday, January 19, 2009
School
School isn't going as great as it used to. I really clash with the people there. Everyone is very polite, even the teenagers. (Although they do have a major problem with swearing) All of you who know me, know that I just blurt things out and never think about what I say so I'm not exactly a "polite" or "formal" person. Their sense of humor is different. They find sarcasm very funny and simple things funny too. In Utah, the sense of humor is different everywhere, but sarcasm is only funny to us if the person using sarcasm is funny already.
The guys:
The guys at school try to act TOUGH. They think they are "cool" and "macho" but really, they're not. Why? Here's why....
The guys will only be mean to girls when they are in a group.
When they are one-on-one with a girl, they are shy and awkward but nice.
The girls:
None of the girls are really close to each other. Yes, they are in their groups, but no one exactly has a "best friend." The teen girls here stick to really boring topics suchs as classes, school work, the weather, the teachers, family, pets, etc. There aren't exactly any "fun, hyper" girls here.
I can't wait to come back to Utah, that's for sure. I miss all of you guys a lot and I get homesick every day. I try really really REALLY hard to be like them, but it's not exactly working. When I'm myself, they get confused, haha. They don't understand anything I say because they don't understand WHY I even said it. So I usually only speak when spoken to. (By the way, if you ever meet the queen or king/prince, you only speak to them if you're spoken to.)
Anyways, there's an update on school.
Love you all!
P.S. It's not called "the bathroom." It's called "the toilets." Isn't that rather impolite for a polite society? :P
The guys:
The guys at school try to act TOUGH. They think they are "cool" and "macho" but really, they're not. Why? Here's why....
The guys will only be mean to girls when they are in a group.
When they are one-on-one with a girl, they are shy and awkward but nice.
The girls:
None of the girls are really close to each other. Yes, they are in their groups, but no one exactly has a "best friend." The teen girls here stick to really boring topics suchs as classes, school work, the weather, the teachers, family, pets, etc. There aren't exactly any "fun, hyper" girls here.
I can't wait to come back to Utah, that's for sure. I miss all of you guys a lot and I get homesick every day. I try really really REALLY hard to be like them, but it's not exactly working. When I'm myself, they get confused, haha. They don't understand anything I say because they don't understand WHY I even said it. So I usually only speak when spoken to. (By the way, if you ever meet the queen or king/prince, you only speak to them if you're spoken to.)
Anyways, there's an update on school.
Love you all!
P.S. It's not called "the bathroom." It's called "the toilets." Isn't that rather impolite for a polite society? :P
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Update on life
So I guess I've been posting a lot of pictures, but not been saying much! So here is a little update!
Yesterday, my family and I went to the London temple. It was very pretty. The temple was built about 60 years ago and it just BARELY started putting the angel Moroni on the top. Why? Well, we were talking to a temple worker and he told us about how they couldn't get permission from the city to put it up. They kept appealing and appealing but the city kept their answer a no. One day, one of the men on the city council pulled aside a man who wanted the angel Moroni put up. He said, "If you want them to say yes, here's what you do...." I don't know what he said to do, but the man appealed again and did as the man told him, and got permission to put it up. :)
Today after church, my family, the sister missionaries, mission president and his wife, and a boy named Alex who is 17 and is soon getting baptized, went to the bishops house for dinner. The sister missionaries are HILLARIOUS. Sister Bannister is from Idaho and is the type of person who will crank out Napoleon Dynamite quotes. (I laugh my head off because Napoleon Dynamite is THE funniest movie EVER.) Sister McGarvey is from Scotland and is a tough girl who is the wittiest person I've ever met. (Sorry Liz :P) She can immitate the American accent PERFECTLY. It's so funny because in a really girly voice she'll say, "Hi I'm Brook from the valley. I'm really enjoying my stay here and am looking forward to continue working as a missionary..." She and Sister Bannister both are experts in self defense. Sister Bannister has wrestled with sailors while Sister McGarvey has had a few fights with guys in Scotland and of course, beaten them. :) The two sister missionaries are have been teaching Alex for a few months and he is soon getting baptized at the end of this month.
The bishop of our ward created a Musical about two years ago. He directed it and composed all the music. He is sending it in to Salt Lake to see if it will be accepted to be performed at the Conference Center. It's about a handcart company who walked to Zion. (Sorry, I don't know much about it.)
School has been a bit of an...adventure haha. It's much different from LPA. They say the F word just like we would say "crap" or "stupid". I've talked to numerous people here and they said that in England, the F word isn't bad at all like it is in the states. I guess a really really really bad word here is "bugger." I have no idea what it means. I'm so sorry if any of you do and you're angry that I said it over my blog! But anyway, it's hard to understand the teachers before they talk so fast and I still haven't quite gotten used to the accent. We wear uniforms here, even though it's a public school. All public schools around here wear uniforms. We wear black pants, longs sleeve oxford shirt, black/navy sweatshirt, and a red tie. I hate it. We go to Kingshill which ranges from year 7-11. (Ages 12-16) When you finish year 11, you have a choice of continuing school or not. Finishing year 11 here is like finishing High School. Most kids start thinking seriously about their job when they are in year 10. I am in year 10 and Rachel is in year 9. The classes I am taking are Maths, History (which is European History which includes WWII and medicine and health of the victorian times), Music, Textiles, English, Science, and a free class period for me to do my Geometry.
I've made a few friends, not close friends though. I've noticed that not many kids at school have close friendships.
I can't think of anything else to say haha sorry but when I do, I'll write more.
Love you all!
Yesterday, my family and I went to the London temple. It was very pretty. The temple was built about 60 years ago and it just BARELY started putting the angel Moroni on the top. Why? Well, we were talking to a temple worker and he told us about how they couldn't get permission from the city to put it up. They kept appealing and appealing but the city kept their answer a no. One day, one of the men on the city council pulled aside a man who wanted the angel Moroni put up. He said, "If you want them to say yes, here's what you do...." I don't know what he said to do, but the man appealed again and did as the man told him, and got permission to put it up. :)
Today after church, my family, the sister missionaries, mission president and his wife, and a boy named Alex who is 17 and is soon getting baptized, went to the bishops house for dinner. The sister missionaries are HILLARIOUS. Sister Bannister is from Idaho and is the type of person who will crank out Napoleon Dynamite quotes. (I laugh my head off because Napoleon Dynamite is THE funniest movie EVER.) Sister McGarvey is from Scotland and is a tough girl who is the wittiest person I've ever met. (Sorry Liz :P) She can immitate the American accent PERFECTLY. It's so funny because in a really girly voice she'll say, "Hi I'm Brook from the valley. I'm really enjoying my stay here and am looking forward to continue working as a missionary..." She and Sister Bannister both are experts in self defense. Sister Bannister has wrestled with sailors while Sister McGarvey has had a few fights with guys in Scotland and of course, beaten them. :) The two sister missionaries are have been teaching Alex for a few months and he is soon getting baptized at the end of this month.
The bishop of our ward created a Musical about two years ago. He directed it and composed all the music. He is sending it in to Salt Lake to see if it will be accepted to be performed at the Conference Center. It's about a handcart company who walked to Zion. (Sorry, I don't know much about it.)
School has been a bit of an...adventure haha. It's much different from LPA. They say the F word just like we would say "crap" or "stupid". I've talked to numerous people here and they said that in England, the F word isn't bad at all like it is in the states. I guess a really really really bad word here is "bugger." I have no idea what it means. I'm so sorry if any of you do and you're angry that I said it over my blog! But anyway, it's hard to understand the teachers before they talk so fast and I still haven't quite gotten used to the accent. We wear uniforms here, even though it's a public school. All public schools around here wear uniforms. We wear black pants, longs sleeve oxford shirt, black/navy sweatshirt, and a red tie. I hate it. We go to Kingshill which ranges from year 7-11. (Ages 12-16) When you finish year 11, you have a choice of continuing school or not. Finishing year 11 here is like finishing High School. Most kids start thinking seriously about their job when they are in year 10. I am in year 10 and Rachel is in year 9. The classes I am taking are Maths, History (which is European History which includes WWII and medicine and health of the victorian times), Music, Textiles, English, Science, and a free class period for me to do my Geometry.
I've made a few friends, not close friends though. I've noticed that not many kids at school have close friendships.
I can't think of anything else to say haha sorry but when I do, I'll write more.
Love you all!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Permanent House
Sorry I haven't posted in a long time! We haven't had internet connection and still don't. I'm actually at McDonalds now cause they have free internet connection. :)
So this is our PERMANENT house. The one will stay in for the rest of the 6 months.
Master Bedroom (Mom's room)
Kitchen. You probably can't see it, but one of those cabinets at the bottom is the fridge! It's super small
Dining Room.
Living Room. (Ra is eating Yogurt. I HATE the couches.)
Front door. (The mail is put through that slot!!! Cool, huh? :D)
Bathroom (Me and Ra's)
Stairs (They aren't scary! Yay!)
Me and Ra's room. Sorry, it's very messy. My bed is the right one.
So this is our PERMANENT house. The one will stay in for the rest of the 6 months.
Master Bedroom (Mom's room)
Kitchen. You probably can't see it, but one of those cabinets at the bottom is the fridge! It's super small
Dining Room.
Living Room. (Ra is eating Yogurt. I HATE the couches.)
Front door. (The mail is put through that slot!!! Cool, huh? :D)
Bathroom (Me and Ra's)
Stairs (They aren't scary! Yay!)
Me and Ra's room. Sorry, it's very messy. My bed is the right one.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
School Uniforms
Go ahead and say it. "Anna, you look BULKY!" I HATE HATE HATE HATE my uniform! That's why I have a "snooty" look on my face. (Or so Liz likes to call it snooty) It's sooo uncomfortable and I am so bad at tieing ties that I just never re-tie my tie. HA! I'll update you all about school later.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
More Pics
We ate at a Cafe in Cirencester. This is the back of the Parish Church from the window of the Cafe.
The Parish Church
This is one of the streets in the Town Centre. All of the buildings are extremely old.
This is the beginning of the Town Centre.
This is a street on the way to Jacqui Webb's house. (She is a lady who has helped us a lot with moving here and with what cottage to move to)
Pictures from my walk in the neighborhood
Behind our cottage.
River and Lake Isis (top left hand corner) behind our cottage.
Another view of the river and Lake Isis.
I can't remember what lake this is, but it's near some other cottages. That's Ra on the bridge.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
NEWS!
As some of you know, we sold our house the day before we moved. But TODAY the people that were going to buy it, called us and backed out! I'm really happy I still have my house, but I feel bad because this puts my parents in a bad situation, because they did a lot of things concerning our house, thinking we wouldn't live it in again. :( They are so stressed. But I get to still in good old Fruit Heights! (That is, if we don't sell it while we're here in England)
Friday, January 2, 2009
Pics :)
Here are some pictures of our cottage area. I have more pics, but every time I upload them, it takes away some of my dad's internet speed and, of course, makes him a little tense. :P So I'll have to post more when he's relaxed. :)
This picture is the view from our front door. All of the other "cottages" are hooked together, kind of in a circle. I think the front is so so pretty.
This is our bathroom. On the left hand side, can you see that cord hanging from the ceiling? That's how you turn the light on. They do have switches, but most of the bathroom lights have cords.
This is the view from out back porch. You can see part of the porch. Above those steps is a tennis court and a playground. And Isis Lake. Isis Lake is a man-made lake. It's very pretty.
Another view from our back porch.
The Dining Room.
The living room/family room. Sorry it's so messy. But what do you expect when four people come to a place with eight suit cases and 4 carry ons, 3 laptops, and a violin? :)
Kitchen.Ooooo you can see the butter. We live off of toast. :)
Stairs.
Stairs.I hate them. I trip when I walk down them at night to go to the bathroom. (The upstairs bathroom never has toilet paper.)
This is the...enterway? IDK haha. This is just the area where the three bedrooms and bathroom come together.
Dad's room.
My new BESTEST friend! This is a box hooked on the wall in both bathrooms. You pull the chord, and TONS of heat comes out of it!!!! I love it!!!!! I will sometimes turn it on and just sit in the bathroom and read books. :)
Mom's room. (You can't tell, but the walls are light pink.)
This is Rachel's and my bedroom. Sorry it's messy. My bed is the left one. The stupid electric blanket doesn't work well. :( Ra's works fine though. :(
This is the...enterway? IDK haha. This is just the area where the three bedrooms and bathroom come together.
Dad's room.
My new BESTEST friend! This is a box hooked on the wall in both bathrooms. You pull the chord, and TONS of heat comes out of it!!!! I love it!!!!! I will sometimes turn it on and just sit in the bathroom and read books. :)
Mom's room. (You can't tell, but the walls are light pink.)
This is Rachel's and my bedroom. Sorry it's messy. My bed is the left one. The stupid electric blanket doesn't work well. :( Ra's works fine though. :(
Well, hope you all like the pictures! I'll post more when I can. :)
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Life in England
Well everyone, we're here. I have one thing to say. I never want to ride on a plane again. Ever. Try as you may to get me on a plane, but it won't work. The first plane ride was to Chicago. It was 2 hours. I had lots of things to keep me occupied on the plane in my carry-on. But...this stupid man that I now officially have a passion of hatred for wouldn't let us take it on the plane!!!! I was soo mad. So mad. I just sat there for the two hours doing nothing. When the plane ride finally ended, we got on the 8 hour plane ride to London.....that....was the longest...plane ride....ever. I watched Eagle Eye twice. That was the only part of the plane ride I enjoyed. I read a book, tried to sleep, listened to music, and ate food. Some of the food was good, but most of it was kinda gross.
When we landed, we showed this dude our passport then got our bags. A chauffer named Andy picked us up and our bags and took us to a rent-a-car plane. We rented a minivan. (Go figure) Then we drove to our "cottage" that we will be living in for about 8 more days. Then we're move into our permanent home. Sorry, I'll post pics of the house we're in as soon as I can.
It's extremely cold here. The humidity adds to the coldness, so it feels like the air is literally going through my bones. The heating here is different. It's not as warm as in America we like things to be. A bathroom in our house has a heater on the wall where you pull a chord and it gets really really warm. :) I love it. I've gone in there a few times and just sat on the ground, turned the heater on, and read a book.
I've got my hours mixed up. It's hard for me to sleep because of the time difference. Plus my family and I missed two days worth of sleep because of the plane and getting to bed very late the day before we moved.
The food....umm....a little gross. It's not very tasty. But my mom's meals are very good. :)
The accent is hard to get used to. To me, everyone seems overly formal. But oh well. The grass is very green but none of the trees have their leaves. The clouds are gray and it's always foggy. No one here wears bright colors. Mostly Earth tones. The style for girls is skinny jeans with high boots and wool coats. A lot of the guys wear sweaters and wool coats, too.
We say french fries, they say chips.
We say chips, they say crisps.
There are a lot of lakes around here. It's very pretty. The thing I hate most is how the roads are windy and the lanes are EXTREMELY narrow. Besides the fact that it's very confusing being on the left hand side, it's so scary how cars going in the opposite direction are almost touching your car when they pass. I'm not even exaggerating. I'm always scared some car will knock off one of the mirrors next to the door!
I'll update more about it here in England as soon as I can. Love you all! Thanks to all of you who came to the airport to say bye! It meant a lot to me.
When we landed, we showed this dude our passport then got our bags. A chauffer named Andy picked us up and our bags and took us to a rent-a-car plane. We rented a minivan. (Go figure) Then we drove to our "cottage" that we will be living in for about 8 more days. Then we're move into our permanent home. Sorry, I'll post pics of the house we're in as soon as I can.
It's extremely cold here. The humidity adds to the coldness, so it feels like the air is literally going through my bones. The heating here is different. It's not as warm as in America we like things to be. A bathroom in our house has a heater on the wall where you pull a chord and it gets really really warm. :) I love it. I've gone in there a few times and just sat on the ground, turned the heater on, and read a book.
I've got my hours mixed up. It's hard for me to sleep because of the time difference. Plus my family and I missed two days worth of sleep because of the plane and getting to bed very late the day before we moved.
The food....umm....a little gross. It's not very tasty. But my mom's meals are very good. :)
The accent is hard to get used to. To me, everyone seems overly formal. But oh well. The grass is very green but none of the trees have their leaves. The clouds are gray and it's always foggy. No one here wears bright colors. Mostly Earth tones. The style for girls is skinny jeans with high boots and wool coats. A lot of the guys wear sweaters and wool coats, too.
We say french fries, they say chips.
We say chips, they say crisps.
There are a lot of lakes around here. It's very pretty. The thing I hate most is how the roads are windy and the lanes are EXTREMELY narrow. Besides the fact that it's very confusing being on the left hand side, it's so scary how cars going in the opposite direction are almost touching your car when they pass. I'm not even exaggerating. I'm always scared some car will knock off one of the mirrors next to the door!
I'll update more about it here in England as soon as I can. Love you all! Thanks to all of you who came to the airport to say bye! It meant a lot to me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)