Awesome group = Awesome trip to Peru

It's usually not important where you are, but who you're with when you're there.

I loved being in Peru and I have some wonderful people to thank for that. It's hard to forget certain experiences on an adventure like this, especially when it's an experience like freeing a guinea pig whose about to be eaten, watching a baby alpaca fashion show on a train or learning how to say "no quiero sopa" when you just can't eat anymore "surprise ingredient" soup. Experiences are better remembered when they've been shared with amazing people. I'm glad I had this time to be with my family because I sure was missing them after being away on my study abroad. My brother Zach will be leaving soon on a mission and I have to make sure we have a lot of fun together before he leaves. How about petting a llama in Machu Picchu? That's pretty fun right?

Love Lyn

Clinic Time!

Now imagine if people here in America were lining up outside dental offices just waiting for their chance to get a tooth pulled or a cavity filled. Fun right? Now try to imagine if all of the doctors were trying to tell you to calm down in a different language and explaining that the sharp object entering your mouth is actually going to help you. Peruvians are so brave! We had little eight-year-olds coming in all by themselves telling us that they needed our help. Luckily we had some great kids in our group that were willing to entertain. My Mom and little sister Maddy don't speak a word of Spanish, but that didn't stop them. They were painting nails and giving out stickers to all these nervous kids. I loved this opportunity to meet some of the Peruvians. I'm sure they were just laughing inside when I tried to speak Spanish, but I did my best! The little kids were so cute and it was hard sometimes to sit there while they were on the verge of tears and not know how to comfort them. I need to learn Spanish...it's on my list of things to do. Luckily there were a few people with us to translate, but boy were they busy going back a forth. The first day at the clinic was so slow and not many people showed up. We were so worried that they just didn't hear about it so a few people went out on the streets to bring random people in. As the days went on it got more and more busy and I had a great time assisting my dad! It got a little boring at times when there was nothing to do so what did we do? Dance! Well at least I did...maybe that's why I got the "Boogie" award at the end of our trip. Hey, I may have made a fool of myself at times, but that's one of the best ways to have fun!

Love Lyn

Peru - The Journey There

My Friends,

Word of advice...If you're trying to get somewhere on a plane ride that is any longer than 9 hours, do yourself a favor and limit all luggage. Especially because you never know when your luck will go out and ever single time you land in a different country, people insist on going through all 11 bags your family has brought with them. I may be speaking from experience.

Also, don't assume that staying up all the night before means that you're just going to get a nice relaxing rest on your red eye flight. NOT HAPPENING. Unless you can ignore the 12-year-old girls who insist on attempting to woo your little brother the entire flight.

Last, but not least, try to put on a happy face no matter what. If you're complaining about a flight to Peru, you might as well just stick your lucky pencil up a monkey's nose because you just don't know how lucky you are!

Love Lyn

9 Days Left in Counting

Hard to believe that my adventures here in Europe are coming to an end. So much to do in such a short time. I still have museums to see, important places to visit, musicals to see, places to eat and so much more! London can't be fully appreciated in 6 weeks so I hope, more than anything, that fate will bring me back somehow. I think about what it would be like to live here. What if I wasn't going home? Would I like living here among the city life; among the craziness? My mom actually sent me this beautiful picture from outside my home in Lindon, Utah and I thought to myself...this is home for me...at least for now
Home is something different for everyone. The people here in London (that are actually Londoners - very few) know this as their home and when I look at this picture of snow on the mountains in June...I think that they must feel something similar as they walk through regents park or look out their flat to the busy streets. Missing home am I? well of course...but it's not so much a missing that makes me feel I need to return, it's more of a feeling of fondness. My home is mine, my family is mine and although I've gained so much from being here in London, I can never replace the love I have for Home...June 15th...don't come too fast!

Aye Can't beat the Scottish!

Scotland was by far one of my favorite places I've visited during this study abroad. The feeling there is something completely different from being in London. The people seem very laid back and open to talking to anyone! The place honestly made me feel like a character from Harry Potter living in a fantasy world. JK Rowling actually got her inspiration for the book sitting in a cafe called the Elephant House, which has a perfect view of the Edinburgh castle. I got to eat in this same cafe and visit a creepy graveyard just outside with Tom Riddle's grave in it. Harry Potter fans would eat this up like crazy. My favorite thing we did was an underground ghost tour. Not so much the ghost tour part, but just seeing the creepy tunnels and learning some history about Scotland. It helped that our tour guide was absolutely hysterical. Loved it in Scotland, but I'm, once again, home in London. How I missed it.

Just walking the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland! Saw everything
from dancing old men to a concrete heart shaped "spitting" stone (only
legal place to spit I guess).

Hood picture...it was super windy on our Lake District walk.

Beach walk around St. Andrews

St. Andrew's Old Course. I think my brothers are going to
kill me they'll be so jealous! The birthplace of GOLF!

Blogging Block

Blogging...it's fun right? Sure...but hard to do while I'm in a place like London! Why sit on a computer when I can be out experiencing the world! For this reason, I struggle with blogging. I do wish I had better internet at the BYU centre here and maybe it would be more appealing to upload photos. Instead of taking two hours to put two pictures up...maybe it would take about five minutes? I'll try to improve my blogging skills in the future, but for now, I'm going to squeeze every minute out of these days in London that I have left. Only two weeks left! I'm going to miss this place more than I can express in words! I will mostly miss the parks...we don't have a Regent's Park, Holland Park or Hyde Park in Provo. Running just won't be the same...

Going back to the Roman times and having a little "bath" of our own was absolutely brilliant! We found a spa in Bath and paid a few pounds to spend an hour and a half in this interesting little hot tub. When in Bath...do what the Romans do!

On our first little side trip away from London, I saw the prettiest landscapes ever! I don't know if anything will ever quite compare to the beautiful old towns that we ran into or the surrounding rolling hills. But as a side note, may I just mention that London feels a lot like home now...yes of course it's only been a short time, but I missed my London home all the same.

I have the best group of girls here with me!

Avebury...Our tour guide was determined in convincing us to like it more than Stonehenge...Avebury is older and "Fab" as our tour guide would say.

Stonehenge was SO amazing! Is it possible to live here? Because I think I've found the perfect secluded area and the only problem is that some super huge tourist site is right in the middle of it. No, but really there is nothing around for miles and I LOVED it! Who built Stonehenge? ...who knows...

"Come Together!"

Oh the famous Abbey road with it's zebra crossing. Problem is loves, this is a very busy road and in order to get a picture actually crossing the street...it's necessary to risk your life and the lives of others. We did get one, but it's lost somewhere amongst the multiple cameras we had there. So sad! We even got up around seven in the morning to get over there before the road was too crazy. Good memories though of dodging taxis and getting honked at. Loved it!

0 longitude...0 charge

Now this is actually quite funny. To stand on a cemented line? 10 pounds....to follow that line and take a picture where it also is? Free!!!!!! I mean prime meridian guys, how awesome is that? However, I still didn't see it being worth 10 pounds. I would rather buy three scrumptious cones & three savory scoops of gelato. hmmmm... so we created our own little prime meridian experience and folks...we beat the system and figured, with our smart little minds, that the prime meridian does, in fact, go all the way around. I must say that I stood on that line and it was great! 0 longitude was awesome everyone and Greenwich was beautiful, but it's pronounced Gren-ich everyone...don't mess that up:)

Fear of Heights?...maybe

Was I afraid of heights before climbing to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral? I don't really know, but after that experience of climbing 600 steps..I now am. It was beautiful don't get me wrong, there are three levels...the whispering gallery, the stone gallery, and the golden gallery. Very cool, very cool but hey...why make the stairs super small and spiraling and unstable looking on your way to the golden gallery? Is it for dramatic effect? Well it was very dramatic that's for sure...I could see through the steel stairs and felt like I was going to just slip right through one to my death below. Man I whine too much. I loved it guys really! The view was spectacular and coming down wasn't as bad. We went on a walk afterward and got just a little lost...no worries, I was the one with the map so that's why we got lost:) Someone very quickly took over and got us in the right direction, bless my heart. Just Lovin London!

Wedding...and other things

Wow what a couple of crazy days. Although I'm having a hard time falling asleep before three-0-clock in the morning, we've been getting so much done each day! I think all us students realize how soon this dream will end. It may have just begun, but I have to make sure to get everything in! We went to check out the Canals the other day and wow are they interesting. I would say it's London's idea of a Lake Powell experience...man I love that place. They have the right idea..living in boats for weeks at a time traveling around England. I wanted to hop on one right away and join in on that adventure! But, I came to my senses and remembered i can't leave on a boat now...I'm headed to Bath this next week! Can't wait for that! Anyway we checked out the Camden Markets that same day and they were crazy! You can find anything there! Although I wouldn't suggest taking food from everyone you see because a man handed me some meat/mushroom deal and it might have not done wonders for my stomach. So far...I've experienced a lot of wind and no rain in London, what's that all about? Bring on the rain London, I'm so ready! I've got my rain coat and everything. Oh the wedding was an adventure. We watched it on a big screen in hide park and had a blast! Kate's dress was beautiful in my opinion, but wow were there some strange hats. At times I was thinking to myself...that must be a joke, nah...they can't be serious. Oh let me tell you my friends...it was no joke. Hats make a statement for London women much like the statement men's cars can make. However fancy your hat is..the more you paid...the more you paid...the richer you must be. Tell me I'm wrong...also just for future notice, you press the button to open the door on the train or honey...it won't open. Bless our hearts this morning, we just may have missed our stop for that reason. Love you all!

WICKED!

Never have I seen a greater cast for this musical! Although I've only seen it twice. We had so much fun tonight, but man did I end up sitting behind the tallest man in London. Thank goodness I could switch seats at intermission. Although I should have stayed home reading for my class, boy am I glad i didn't miss out on this night. To top it off we got some cadbury mcflurry's from our good ol MickeyD's. Don't worry, we're not conforming to eating American foods...plus we don't have Cadburry mcflurry's in America. We should though...

Let the Traveling Begin

Oh London, how I love you already with your spectacular buildings, fashion, slang, and all that. Who knew I would be smack dab in the middle of a Victorian neighborhood? Everything is large, brick and beautiful. Not to mention we're so close to everything! Now my fellow Americans, why didn't anyone tell us we greet each other all wrong? Doesn't it make more sense to say something ridiculous like, "it's sunny outside" before even thinking about exchanging names? haha hilarious, I think, and don't you dare expect someone at the register to serve you right away, they have to do something meaningless like open and close the register before they look up at you...then you're allowed to buy your things. Now now don't be offended, London, by my harsh judgments of your social interactions, but honestly are there any toilets around? I don't believe you actually want people wetting themselves on your streets, but I can't really decide anymore. Alright enough negativity, I'm loving it here and was honored to watch the wedding of the wonderful royal couple today! Kate's dress was stunning and I feel safe in saying that London has style! I believe they may be a few years ahead of us America...but it's alright, we're doing our best. Seems that black tights with shorts are very in. I counted and lost track of how many girls in Hyde park were dressed like that. Follow the crowd Samantha? We'll see...not really a fan of following crowds. I did find an awesome invention in the markets. Ties, turned into necklaces. Can't really explain it, but I liked it! I'm doin alright here loves, but man does sleeping here bring the nightmares. Not sure why, maybe it's the weird smell and sleeping on a top bunk with my vintage looking linens. That's one thing I don't really want to be vintage. I've got to read a 200 something page book today. I've never been a fast reader so I got to go start. Wish me luck!