This is Why We're Hot

That is all. Goodnight.

Just S'more Pics n' Stuff

Proof that we're actually here. I realized we didn't have any pictures with US actually in them.

We wen't to the park again today. On the way we stopped by a bakery to see what they had. I got the caramel shortbread and Nathan got some sort of eclair-looking donut thing. Mine was delish! It was a bar of shortbread with caramel and chocolate on top, so a big less-crunchy Twix. Very yummy :) Nathan wasn't too terribly pleased with his choice. I agree, it looked better than it tasted. The cream (the most exciting looking part) tasted like nothing. Not sweet at all. I'm excited to try another bakery that we passed. It's like a delicious science experiment: to find the tastiest sweet in town!

So we took our tasty treats to the park and people watched a bit. We saw a crazy guy yelling at squirrels, that was funny. We also learned that Cabot Tower was being worked on, so we couldn't go up. Oooooh well. Nathan was tired of me dragging him all over creation because I'm getting a little stir crazy :P

We've been watching a lot of Smallville. We started from the beginning and we're working our way through all 10 seasons. This kind of thing reminds me of home: watching episode after episode of the TV show du jour.

Nathan went to his first class today! He said it looks like a piece of cake, but he's a genious so that's not saying much :) Apparently it's the general media-type class for all the media-type majors. The harder stuff comes tomorrow in his theory class.

What's for dinner tonight..... Spaghetti I think! The more spaghetti I make the less it smells like curry.

A Walk in the Park

Below is Cabot Tower. Apparently you can climb a staircase to the top, but we were pretty worn out just walking to the park that we just wanted to sit and admire the view. It's very up and down here. There's hardly any even walking surfaces. No matter what path we take to get back to our apartment, we wil have to walk at tleast part of the way uphill. There's no avoiding it. I think I've lost a million pounds already.

This was the view from our park bench! It was a gorgeous day, but the weather here is wacky. Sometimes I'll wake up in the night and it'll be pouring, then I'll wake up and it'll be sunny and I think it's all been a dream. Then 20 minutes later it'll be raining again. Then sunny. Then windy. Layers is the solution to the weather enigma. Dress in layers and you'll always be prepared. I still need to find a cute little umbrella to carry around for rainy occasions.

So we are very annoyed by our upstairs neighbors. It's two girls form India (their names escape me, but I remember that they were pretty names) that seem really nice and friendly.... but holy crap. They must have brought their elephant friends with them from India because all we hear all day long is thumping up and down the stairs and above our heads. This morning I woke up to them nonstop on the stairs. It's comical how lead-footed they are!!! Well it would be comical if it weren't so dang annoying. Seriously, dainty steps please ladies!

Fashion faux pas from yesterday: Pumpkin pants.... PUMKIN PANTS! They didn't look good on Henry VIII and they didn't look good on this chick. Someone needs to tell her that it's a male garment meant for Ren Faires and Ren Faires only (it's a bit harsh, but she really did look silly).

We haven't been able to contact the Bishop yet for church, which makes me sad because I was really looking forward to going this week. According to the Google map it look like it's in someone's home, so I really want to contact someone bafore we go in case the website hasn't been updated recently and it's in someone else's home... anywya hopefully they call us back and we get to go!

Have it Your Way

This is the front of our house! That's not our window, we're on the other side, but this is what you see from the street.

This is our walkway to get to our door. Yay! Now it's like you're here :)

We were getting a little homesick today, but we got Burger King and it felt like home. The ketchup is still too sweet for our taste, but I made some fry sauce (since they gave me mayo packets with my ketchup packets) and it wasn't half bad! I can't wait for the rest of our decoration stuff to arrive in the mail so we can make it a little more homey.

And I made delicious spaghetti!

Around Town

This is Bristol Cathedral! We walked by it yesterday just walking around. It's so beautiful! And we think that this is where we heard church bells on Sunday.

Here's another view of the cathedral with a statue of an Indian guy... I can't remember his name... but it's a cool statue :)

This is for Elizabeth! That's right, it's a library. Cooler than Provo, n'est pas?

This is also for Elizabeth (Popi too). He was peeking at me while we were in the check-out line at Sainsbury's. Nathan rolled his eyes, but I had to get it :) Love me some David Tennant.

Teehee Nobbling Niggles. British words. What does it mean? Who knows.

This is the view from my family room window. There's a squirrel that frequents the grassy area. We've named her Veruca, after the Veruca Salt in the new Willy Wonka movie that wants a squirrel.

So today we registered for health care and we both got Meningitis C shots. I think I might have already had the shot, but I wasn't sure. Did it matter? NO. It was FREE. Why is this not something we do in America? I don't want to start a political discussion, but it's pretty freaking sweet here. Except my arm's a little sore from the pokey needle. The guy who gave us all the information we needed, we'll call him Portly Eric Idle, was really funny. It was my first taste of dry English humer ("Where were you living before here?" "Utah" "Oh, awful place. So dusty.")

I made chili! It tastes a little different, I'm going to try different beans next time, but it totally tasted like home :)

Oh and by the way I'm not going to ramble on about how England's so much better or how America's so much better blah blah blah. I hope it never somes off like that... cause that would get annoying. I just want you guys to get the idea of how it is to live here.

On that note: English fashion statement of the day... I saw a super tough guy today wearing man-pris. You know, man capris. It made me laugh. We also got our daily dose of leggings. I can't tell whether they're ahead of the times or behind.... weren't leggings starting to be a thing when I was ending high school? I remember at BYU my freshman year they put up signs specifically forbidding leggings with short skirts. So maybe the Brits took an old trend and made it more edgy by removing the skirt. Anyways... There's this store called Uncle Sam's down the road. It advertises itself as an American vintage clothing store, but we'll have to check it out to see if it's legit.

Skyping has been fun!

Cheers!

Jolly Old England

We're here! Finally! It's been an interesting few days since we've arrived. Once we got off the plane there was a shuttle for Bristol University (Free!) that took us to our flat on 67 Woodland Road. It was previously owned by an Indian family and there's a lingering smell of curry, but it's not that bad. We just need to make some chili or tacos or spaghetti or something to make it smell more like home. :) We were so excited about how big it is!!!! Wymount was so teeny, our bedroom is a big as our old apartment! Here's some pics pre-decoration:

Dig the curtains? Yeah me neither... Needless to say they've already been replaced. I'm SO glad we decided to bring our own. Post-decoration pics will come later. Notice there is no picture of the bedroom... it was where we dropped all of our luggage and it was messy :)


























So we've done some exploring around the city and the biggest thing we've noticed is that... girls don't really wear pants here! Every other girl is in leggings or even JUST tights where you can see the undies right through! Other than that, it's just like any college town with 85% of the people in their 20's. It's very diverse here too, so we don't feel too out of place not being British.

There's some cool stuff nearby. We'll probably do most of our grocery shopping at Sainsbury's. It's about a 5 minute walk and it's the store that's opened the latest, 10 o'clock, because EVERYTHING CLOSES AT FIVE!!! That's annoying. But the chain restaurants like Subway and Burger King are open later.

About 15 minutes away (walking) is Broadmead where the mall and lots of outdoor shops are located. So far it's my favorite spot to go so far, but we haven't located the park yet, and I'm expecting that to be my favorite :)

Mommy! We got Weetabix! Remember Weetabix?? I thought of you when we saw it at the store so we got some :)

Our pilot light is currently out in our confusing heating/hot water system, so neither of us has showered in a couple of days... since everyone has moved in this past weekend the housing office is super busy. It's annoying waiting though. And it's pretty chilly. But we finally have the internet, so no big complaints.

Next projects: getting mobile phones and bus passes.

LOVE YOU!!

Me Love You LongTime

Hahahahahahaha so you HAVE to read my old posts, seriously, there's not too many, so do it. It just goes to show how long it's been since I've written. Wow. Especially that "I'm No Superman" that talks about how I'm never getting married. Har. I think I should erase some stuff that doesn't matter anymore, like boy stuff. How dramatic was I?
Anyway, this blogging is mainly for me to be able to stalk Cam and Rik again and because I like hearing myself talk.
Here some cool stuff I've been doing. I've been learning how to dye and paint fabric for a class.
This is th escarf I made. It turned out a little hippie-ish, and I'm not sure if I'll wear it, but it was neat to learn the skill.
I also learned how to silk-screen, so I chose the image of a key and a shoe (I couldn't decide which one to chose).
I'm also taking a puppetry class and this is my latest creation, Norma Desmond Jr. She's an eccentric silent movie actress from the movie/musical "Sunset Boulevard".
















So that's pretty much what I've been up to. I'm diving head-on into this Costume and Make-up design major, and soem of the people in the program are pretty intense and I feel super intimidated, but I've been learning A LOT.
So, I'll end this post with the cutest picture in THE WORLD. Why is it so cute when we see our husbands playing with babies? Maybe because we're envisioning their future father-ness? Anyway, here's Nathan playing with our niece Hadley.







Cute, no?