Sweden Trip 2015

One night while Amanda was here (November), we went to Institute and found out about a YSA Conference that was taking place just outside of Stockholm the next weekend, called SoulNite. Since Amanda is awesome, we decided to go! That same night, we got back to my apartment, booked flights and rented a car for the following weekend. The ultimate YOLO! 

Early Friday morning, Amanda and I grabbed our bags and went to catch the tube. We arrived at the tube station and found out that the earliest tube didn't leave for another hour...the website lied to me!! I couldn't believe this was happening to us again...

We started walking to find a night bus but realised we had no idea what the bus schedule or where the routes were going so we ended up just hailing a cab at 4:30 in the morning. We made it to the station we needed to catch the train to the airport. From Liverpool Street Station, it is about a 50 minute train ride to the airport. We had a snack, I started out studying but decided to sleep instead, and Amanda played on her phone for the ride. We make it to the airport and fly with no other issues to Stockholm.

Getting ready for take off. The plane ended up
being fairly empty! I got put in the emergency row with nobody else.
I had Amanda move up with me, so she could have the window
and I sat on the aisle. We were both happy and we had
extra leg room! Fabulous!

We made it! Touch down to Stockholm! We were actually South of
Stockholm. We had about an hour long drive ahead of us.

We picked up our small car. 

And we hit the road heading north to Stockholm

We listened to some Abba in the car. There was a lot
of country side and forest area. It was very very green!

We made it to the city of Stockholm. This beautiful bay was there
to greet us! Lots of boats and water! 

At the same bay. It was freezing cold though and pretty windy.

We made it to Stockholm and had a few hours before we needed to get to our conference to check in. We drove around the city a bit and got ourselves ready (there were going to be men at this YSA Convention after all...we couldn't arrive looking like we had just gotten off the plan....although, I pretty much did! haha Amanda was the one who mostly got ready-I just changed my shirt).

The city was beautiful!! I can't wait to go back and spend some more time in the city. There was amazing architecture-both modern and historical. There was also a lot of traffic though too...not the most fun to drive in-especially when you haven't driven stick for a very very long time! But we go used to it pretty quickly.

We had about a 20 minute drive outside the main city to a school where the convention was being held. We found a little grocery store there to get ourselves some food for dinner and ended up coming out with donuts...and that was all! They were quite delicious. The school was just a couple minutes away from the store. We got checked in and found a room to sleep in. That night there was a dance. We met the other girls in our room and then just hung out and danced for the evening.

Donuts for dinner!

The Convention: SoulNite

On Saturday, we had a temple trip. We went to the Stockholm temple. I wasn't able to attend the session but I enjoyed the scenery. I took some pictures and then explored the little town we were in while Amanda completed the session. I found a little church with a cemetery to explore: it was beautiful and quite peaceful. There were lanterns on most of the graves. I was wondering if that was a  seasonal thing or something that was always done. I researched a little and found that they do it to honour All Saints' Day at the beginning of November.

"In the year 731 AD, 1 November was designated a day of remembrance for saints of the church who had no days of their own. From the 11th century, 2 November was dedicated to all the dead, of whatever standing, and was called All Souls’ Day. It was widely observed by the populace, with requiems and bell-ringing, but was abolished with the arrival of the Reformation. In 1772, All Saints’ Day in Sweden was moved to the first Sunday in November and in 1953 to the Saturday between 31 October and 6 November.

In the 1900s, however, people began putting lighted candles on the graves of the departed on All Saints’ Day. This custom originated with wealthy families in towns and cities. But after the World War II, it spread throughout the country. Churches also began holding services of light to mark the day." (https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/all-saints-day/)

That was cool to learn about. I kept driving around but found there wasn't much else to this little town...I drove out a little and found some beautiful country side. Then just waited at the temple for Amanda to finish. It was really nice to have some quite time to myself to ponder and enjoy the peace of the religious places (church/cemetery/temple) where I spent some time.

LDS Stockholm Temple

Church with Cemetery

After the temple trip, we went back to the school and there were three different classes we could attend for the afternoon. I went to two of them: Joy Through Social Media and Balance in Life.

Joy Through Social Media:
This was so interesting to me especially because it crossed over into some of the stuff I'm learning in my grad program right now. Here are some highlights for you:

• Don't judge a media platform by its content (platform = Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
• If you don't like what you are seeing on your pages, change it=you have become friends with these people or followed these people. If you are only seeing posts about babies and shoes and that bores you, then get new friends or delete old friends
• We are the creators of the content on social media
• Facebook can be a useful platform if we fill it with useful and fulfilling things
• Since we create the content of these platforms:
• Be aware of what we are sharing
• Am I portraying myself one dimensionally? (BAD)
• Am I sharing all of me in moderation? (GOOD)
• Am I sharing worthwhile things?
• Can my message impact the world?
• Ask yourself this question before you post anything:
• Am I ready to back it up if it is reached by more people than normal/expected?
• Dallin H Oaks: Loving Others and Living with Differences (Oct 2014 General Conference)
• "On the subject of public discourse, we should all follow the gospel teachings to love our neighbour and avoid contention. Followers of Christ should be examples of civility. We should love all people, be good listeners, and show concern for their sincere beliefs. Though we may disagree, we should be disagreeable. Our stands and communications on controversial topics should not be contentious. We should be wise in explaining and pursuing our positions and in exercising our influence. In doing so, we ask that others not be offended by our sincere religious beliefs and the free exercise of our religion. We encourage  all of us to practice the Saviour's Golden Rule: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them" (Matthew 7:12).
• The more we embrace and post on social media-the more important it becomes

Balance in Life:

This is amazing! Here are some of my notes from this class:

• Vision-Goal-Thought-Habit
• This is the overall process
• Do you have a vision/action plan of how to get back to Christ? Or any other goal?
• If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!
• It takes 21 days to create a new habit
• Create a Clear Action Plan/Vision
• Create a mantra/have affirmations/motto to say each day. You should have 5-10 affirmations to say each day
• Say in front of the mirror and be positive and excited about it every time
• Visual Practice:
• Close Your Eyes-totally relax and take 4 deep breaths (in for 4; out for 4)
• Picture yourself holding stones. Each stones represents an obstacle to obtaining your goal.
• What is your first obstacle? Second? Third? Fourth? Fifth?
• How do these stones feel? Can you feel how heavy they are?
• Now drop these stones. Feel how you are gaining control/freedom and you don't feel weighed down anymore. You feel light.
• What did you do to let go of each stone? First? Second? Third? Fourth? Fifth?
• Now imagine yourself 5 years later: you've been able to let go of these obstacles. From this vision, create your action plan
• Practical Application-this is what I actually did during our practice
• My Goal: Lose Weigh
• Obstacles (Stones): 
• Healthy Eating Habits
• Society's View on Weight and image of woman
• My Self-Esteem
• Time to Prep Healthy Food
• Attend Gym
• How to Overcome Obstacles (Dropping the Stones):
• Create a menu and shopping list each week
• Remember God's image of me and that man's opinion doesn't matter
• I just need to feel good; say mantra each day; use meditation
• Follow menu and cook food in advance when I do have time
• Create workout plan, set small goals with rewards for attending gym 3x per week
• Vision: 5 years was too far for me too look-I look ahead 9 months
• My goal is to be at 150 lbs
• I have set all my exercise goals to accomplish that goal
• "I am willing to give my all (100%) to lose weight and reach my goal of 150 lbs. I will follow the guidelines I set in overcoming my obstacles to achieve this goal"

I am actually still using that right now...I am down weight still since I moved to London. I don't know if I will reach my goal of 150 by the end of March but I am still working hard to reach that goal. If you have goals you are working towards...I would encourage you to try this :) 

After our classes, we had dinner and then another dance. Now, I am really not a fan of these dances. I was never a fan of the stake dances we had in youth groups and such...and this was pretty much just a big one....but I tried to be more social than the night before. I had a decent time in the beginning but then just didn't really want to be there. I went for a walk in the cold and then ended up going to bed early, which was fine with me because I was soooooo tired!! 

Ready for the 2nd Dance...I guess!

Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast, and then had a testimony meeting. After the meeting, we all helped to clean up the school. Amanda and I went back to Stockholm for the rest of Sunday. We went to the Vasa Museum which is a must see!!! We loved it! The Vasa is a 17th Century ship that sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628. Since then, she has been salvaged and preserved. The ship is massive and beautiful. The museum was great and shared the history and how they preserve her very well. I would go back to Stockholm just to see that museum again...

The Vasa

Anchors...that smallest one is about my height, maybe 6'

Aft (Back) of the ship..such intricate carvings!

 After the Vasa museum, we just explored the town a bit more. We went to Old Town and walked around the Royal palace, again saw the switching of the guards (because we have great timing like that), and looked at a bunch of shops. I bought some marmalade for my family for Christmas. I also got a sweatshirt, partly because I was freezing, also because I love sweatshirts.

Then we went for dinner. We found a place to have Swedish meatballs!! We were so excited. Then we were looking at the menu and it said they only served them during lunch. Amanda and I really wanted them so we begged the waiter to convince the chef to make them for us for dinner. They graciously obliged. Although when I didn't eat every bite of my salad, the waiter gave me hard time. I told him I was so full I couldn't eat any more: I was totally full on the meatballs. He just gave me a disappointed look; then asked if I wanted dessert...I just laughed at him and told him I wasn't joking about being completely full.

Swedish Meatballs!

We originally planned on sleeping in the car for Sunday night-our flight was early Monday morning. But we realised how cold it was and me could possible freeze to death in the car plus it would be totally uncomfortable. So we drove to the airport Sunday night instead and just hung out in the food court area until security opened. I studied for most of the night, while Amanda slept. Then I slept on the plane. We made it home with little trouble.

Stockholm=success! Definitely on my return to list and would recommend it to anyone.

This chocolate bar was recommended to me by a local as
the best chocolate. It was quite amazing!!
Note: USA has no idea what chocolate is...

Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge

In November, Amanda and I took a one day tour to see Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge. Now I'm highly against these organised tours because you have to rush through everything and you usually pay way too much! BUT Amanda was here for a limited time and wanted to see as much as possible and we got a reasonable price for the day. 

So we got up that Friday morning and were supposed to meet at the Strand Hotel for the shuttle to pick us up. Some mishaps with alarms and getting ready made it so we arrived right when the shuttle was to be picking us up...little did we know we were supposed to be there 15 minutes before our "pick up time." We missed our shuttle. I was annoyed because we had not been told to meet early. We the concierges what our options were, they hailed us a taxi (which was the most expensive part of our trip haha) and we were taken to the final pick up destination. Once we were at the final pick up destination, we calmed ourselves down. We had been rushing all morning and were tired but we made it and were sooooo excited for our day!

The nice thing about our tour was that we got to explore each area on our own, we just had to be back to the bus at a certain time, so we still had some say in what we saw at each area. 

We got on the big shuttle bus and our first destination was Windsor Castle. 

Windsor Castle is the largest and oldest castle in the world that is still in use! I was told that the Queen spends most weekends there and during Easter Court which is for the month of March. 

We walked in the main gates and listened a little to our audio guide. Everything was beautiful. You can see my pictures below and their captions. Since we were on the tour we had VERY little time here. We chose a few places we wanted to see. Mostly we wandered at first then the main place we wanted to see was St. George's chapel. It was beautiful. It compares in majesty to a lot of cathedrals I've seen. You are not supposed to take pictures inside but Amanda and I may have captured a few...

This is a panoramic outside of the main gate to enter the
Castle grounds.

Just inside the main gates. Behind and
below me is a nice garden area with fountains.

To the left of the frame is St. George's Chapel. The rest is the
square just outside of it. From where we were, there
were a bunch of guards lined up and we got to watch the changing of the guards.

This is one of the pictures from inside the chapel..shhh

After rushing back to the bus (which is a common occurrence because we like to stay at each area until the last moment)....we had a longer drive as made our way to Stonehenge. We had a lot of countryside that we covered and it was beautiful!! It rained off and on during our drives. Here are a few pictures of the country side.

We finally made it to Stonehenge and rode another little shuttle up to the site.
It was pretty cool to see. We took some pictures of the site and I just took in the fact that we were in the country and weren't surrounded by thousands of people. There wasn't that much to do...so we didn't have to spend too much time there. We made our way back to the gift shop area, looked around, had a small snack, and then went into the museum. That was pretty cool. I wish we had a little bit more time to spend in the museum. There were replicas of what it looked like in the beginning and showed how the rocks had deteriorated. If I were to go back, I would try to arrange so that I could go inside the circle of rocks...this is very hard and you have to plan way in advance though. Otherwise, I don't think that Stonehenge is a must see. If you have seen pictures, you have seen it...but it was still cool.

After Stonehenge we drove through more countryside to the village of Lacock for lunch. I, of course, had to try the fish n' chips to see where they were on the scale of amazingness...they were good but I've had better in my trials.

Lacock is a little village filled with lots of surprises!! It is kept in it's original state since it was created. So this village is featured in many movies including but not limited to Harry Potter, Pride and Prejudice, and Larkrise to Candleford. It was fun to walk around because it is like nothing else in England or the world really.

Another phone booth....just because they are everywhere

The George Inn Pub-where we ate lunch

Fish n' Chips-decent 7/10

On our way to Bath

Coming over the bridge in Bath to the
city centre. The bridge you see down the River
Avon a bit is the Pulteney Bridge. 

After eating a late lunch, we were on to Bath. We again didn't have too much time but decided to tour the Roman Baths. It was kind of surreal. We used some audio guides to tell us about different areas of the baths. They had areas inside with different artefacts as well. It is hard to tell about it over a blog because I can't do it justice.

Inside, near one of the main and largest baths

This is a view of the top of Bath Abbey
from inside the Roman Baths.

At the end of the baths in the gift shop...how can we resist
these sexy helmets?! There were swords too!

After seeing the Roman Baths, we still had some time to explore the city centre some more. We found a fudge shop and couldn't resist. We walked in and there was so much chocolate and lots of other treats as well. We each bought some fudge and I also bought some caramels, like those homemade ones that people make at Christmas time. We went back to the bridge that we drove over in the beginning on N. Parade Road overlooking the River Avon. 

Bridge overlooking River Avon, also looking
at the Pulteney Bridge

Bath ended up being my favourite part of this trip and has been my favourite place in England so far. I would like to come back and maybe spend a weekend here to explore more. It was so charming.

The entire day of exploring wore us out but we enjoyed it thoroughly!! Put these places on your to do list (maybe not Stonehenge..depends on your interests) if you are coming to England :)

Sight-Seeing in London 2015

Throughout my first term of grad school I didn't do tons of sight-seeing because school got a bit hectic but I did try to see a little bit. Let's take a look at some of what I've experienced in London so far (that weren't part of some other trip)!!

Horse Guards Parade:

The Queen's Life Guard is the mounted guard on the right.

The Queen's Life Guard is the mounted guard at the entrance to Horse Guards. The Horse Guards is the official main entrance to St. James' Palace and Buckingham Palace but now isn't used as the main entrance.

As you go through the gates there are other guards and then you walk through a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel is a large dirt area. This is where the Horse Guards Parade takes place as well as other ceremonies for the Royal Family.

This is me at the opposite end of the dirt field.
You can see the entrance behind me.

After you've walked through the tunnel, you see other royal houses and palaces all around the court yard. The picture to the right is an example.

The guard is on horseback for most of daylight and they change sentries every hour. You can click on the video below to see one of the guard changes. It was interesting to watch because it was very militant, even with the horses. You'll see what I mean as you watch. Every step is very precise.

Changing of the Guard

St. James Park

After you walk through the court yard mentioned above, you can come to St. James Park. It was one of my favourite parks (along with Regent's Park-see below). There is a big fountain and river that runs through it. All of it was built for different royalty throughout the years. There isn't tons to say about it except that it is beyond beautiful!! I think it is a must see, even just a quick walk through while you are near the Parliamentary areas of London.

That main whitish building you see in the background is
the Horse Guard's Parade

Big Ben..again

This area is so close to me that I am sure this is not my last time coming here either. This time instead of walking around and seeing, I sat on the grass across from Ben Ben and Westminster Abbey. I listened to this bag pipe player and thought of my Uncle Gregg. It was a tender moment for me. Those who were close to him, will understand. I also posted this video on my Facebook page back in October in his memory but I wanted to post it here again. Also while listening to the bagpipe, Westminster Abbey had her bells going at one point. And I just sat and observed people, one of my favourite pass-times. I admired the amazing architecture surrounding me. And I just took it in. It was wonderful.


























Camden Market

The Camden Market was a fun place to go shopping. There are massive amounts of booths with people selling all types of clothes, jewelry, knick-knacks, everything really!! You can haggle a little bit and get decent prices. I ended up buying a cute owl sweater and a turquoise ring at the first area. I was starting to get hungry....there was a chineese booth right outside of the area I was in. They handed out some free samples and what I tasted was good but not was I was in the mood for, so I ordered two different things to fill my bowl...I started walking away and was sadly disappointed. That food was sooooo gross!! I went and found some pizza and was a happy girl. That was the first piece of pizza I had while in Europe.

I kept walking and there were tons of sections just like the one I had been through with tons of booths selling everything. I made it to an area where there were a lot more food options...it looked like a lot better quality and it was way cheaper. I bought myself some fresh squeezed lemonade and wandered to some stores. **I'd recommend not eating right at the "front" of Camden market. Walk down the street further and there will be lots more options on the left side of the road. I ended up finding a very fabulous hat (which I was actually searching for) for about 6 pounds.

Overall, it was a fun place to walk around. I did find that after a while a lot of places tend to have the same type of things though. So I'd walk around a bit first and see what the prices are and then go back to the cheapest and talk them down a few more pounds.

Lunch: Take 1: FAIL

Lunch: Take 2: Success

Regent's Park

My first view of the park!

After walking around Camden Town/Market for the morning, I went over to Regent's Park. This park was a) Massive and b) Beautiful!! The leaves were turning fall colours and it wasn't very busy-it had been raining so there weren't masses of people crowding the park.

I got some great pictures of the falling leaves and the changing colours.

I found this little area with a bunch of wooden beams, I'm sure it is used for some type of fitness routine. So I walked over and started playing with some of the leaves and enjoyed the crisp fall air. Nobody was around me so I just hung out. That is one of my favourite things: finding somewhere quite in London and just enjoying it. There aren't too many quite, uninhabited places in London. Everywhere is usually very busy and chaotic.

My new hat bought at Camden Market with the fall leaves.

After I enjoyed the quiet and took in the colours for a bit, I decided to keep exploring the park. I did not realise how massive, massive was.

I came to an area and it was a "fountain" park within the park. There were tons of fountains and beautiful flowers everywhere. I walked through part of it and found that it lead to a sculpture/statue park...I really wanted to walk through it but I was getting pretty worn out by that point. My body can only handle so much in a day. So I finished enjoying the fountains as I made my way to the Tube station. I have made a resolve to go back and see the other areas of the park. There is still so much more to see, including Queen Mary's Gardens. I am sure that is just gorgeous. I'll probably go in spring time when more is growing.

Fountain in Regent's Park

Oxford Street/Primark

Oxford Street has fabulous shopping. One of my favourite stores would be Primark at this point. I will share more about this trip in a different post because it leads to my first ride in an ambulance and my first time in a London hospital!! Wahoo! :) My life is always exciting. So stay tuned for more on this later.

Trafalgar Square

I have actually been to Trafalgar Square a few times BUT it was on a Saturday each time and there were always some huge event going on and there were way too many people. I was able to come during the week and it was much less crowded.

Piccadilly Circus

When my friend Amanda was here visiting, we had some spare time and explored a bit of Piccadilly Circus I have heard it compared to Times Square in New York, I haven't been there, so I can't confirm that. There were lots of lights and shops! And it was in November, so things were starting to get decorated for Christmas. 

We hit the M&M Store and there was Abbey Road! How
could I not "walk" with the M&M's especially since
my shirt was the same color as one of them!

We got a little bit bored....and we ended up walking right into the Mocking Jay Pt 2 London Premier. I saw "President Snow" being interviewed and explained to Amanda was was going on...then on the screen was Katniss! I realised that these people were really close to us...I tried to figure out if we could get close but realised it probably wasn't going to happen. We decided to continue walking around the area but found that another section was closed off and I heard tons of screaming...I told Amanda that where there is screaming, there is someone famous. So we decided to become maniac fans and try to see who was being fussed about. At first it was Natalie Dormer who plays Cressida, the film director. We couldn't really get a good photo but I didn't really care. It was kind of fun though to see someone famous so close...then all of a sudden...there he was Liam Hemsworth!! I became one of those screaming little school girls with a crazy crush. I was literally 5 feet away from him!! I sat and stared for a few seconds, not believing my eyes. Then I realised I wanted a picture of this amazing moment but I couldn't get a good photo, luckily Amanda did. Thanks girl!!

Once we got that photo, we didn't care what happened the rest of the night. We were star-struck! haha It was fabulous.

Those are most of my main "sight-seeing" events of last term. There are some others that were part of trips that I will do a specific post on.

Future Posts Coming:
   -Schooling in London
   -Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge
   -My Stories about Men of Europe
   -Sweden
   -Italy
   -Christmas in London
   -Bringing in 2016


I can't wait to share all of them with you  :) Have a great weekend!!