Sweeties, nickers, chips, and more!

Cheers from Britain!

After a long ride through the chunnel on Thursday, this study abroad group finally made it to London!

And we love it!

Right next to Hyde Park, BYU has this adorable five story centre with a common room, a dining room, a servery, a class room, a library, a kitchen, laundry facilities, and more! I'm on the first floor with a bunch of really great girls.  There are three other girls rooms and the boys are up in the attic.  I guess the boys counted how many steps there are up to their room, and it's 88!  Kind of wish I got a buns work out like that everyday...  But let me tell you, those steps are LOUD.  You cannot walk anywhere in this place without the entire house knowing (which kind of stinks for those of us that get up early).  On the upside, we finally figured out how to flush the toilets.  When we first arrived, no one could figure it out.  Those poor girls who scrambled to get the loo first.  Finally, Merritt got the toilets to flush (she had the "magic" touch), so we made her go around flushing everything.  Not sure if I'd want that talent.  But now we've all got "the touch", so problem solved!

27 Palace Court

Our humble abode!

So, for the first couple weeks in Europe, when we pretty much had to pay for all of our meals ourselves (expensive!), I was wondering where on earth all those program fees went.  Well, now I know.  They went to our amazing cook here in the center!  Gosh darn, we were planning on loosing all of our Paris pounds in nasty England.  No such luck.  Our first meal was a roast, garlic and parsley carrots, green salad, bread, cheese stuffed figs, and balsamic broccoli.  This woman's like gourmet and ridiculously talented.  Good thing I'll need a new wardrobe anyway when I get home, because I'm movin' up to XXL.

Don't judge.

On another London side note, the tube is way nicer than the Paris metro, but way more expensive (like everything else here..)!  The streets are way confusing as well.  If they have street signs at all, it's only after you've walked like 50 meters down the street and two stories up, the cars drive on the wrong side of the street which is terrifying, but Hyde Park is so much fun!  Running has never been better.

Friday, I pretty much just got lost with a friend all day, but during our rambles, we found a Ben's Cookies (highly recommended by my wonderful friend Kennedy).  YUM.  Until I dropped half of my cookie on the ground and the pidgins attacked.  Sooo scary!  If ever you look up on a walk in Hyde Park, hundreds of pidgins line the branches of the trees, staring menacingly at you as you skitter by, terrified- no exaggeration!

Saturday, we went and saw Richard III at the Globe Theatre!  It was so fun!  I know the actual Globe burned down in the London fire, but it was cool imagining Queen Elizabeth watching from the stands.  We got peasant seats, a.k.a. we had to stand for the whole three hours (A LOT harder than it sounds).  While it was a cool experience, the play would've been a lot more enjoyable had we had a seat.  I guess the man who played Richard III is a world renown actor, and I can see why.  He was hilarious!  But disgusting too.  All the women in the production were played by men and Richard kissed one!  Sick!  That was my favorite part, though (the women/men, not the kissing).  That and Shakespeare's insults.  Such a colorful vocabulary!  Here, let me exemplify:

"Thou lump of foul deformity!"

"A knot you are of damned bloodsuckers!" (pardon the language, it's not mine)

"There's no more faith in thee than a stewed prune"

"Thou poisonous bunch-back'd toad!"

To be further insulted Shakespeareanly, check out http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html?

After the play, we went and took touristy pictures at Big Ben (someone in our group didn't know what it was..) and then ate at Princess Diana Cafe.  Pretty good day!

 Richard III's mother AND Henry VII!

 Globe Theatre

Big Ben!

Today, Sunday, we went to church in our separate wards!  I'm in the Clapham ward (funny, I used to live on Clapham Ct. in Colorado), I think southeast of London?  I had this gut feeling that us BYU students would be called on to bear our testimonies or something, and what do you know, it was fast and testimony week and the Bishop called us up to be first.  Of course, I cried (gotta fix that before the mish), but it was a good experience.  I don't bare my testimony enough, but I think I'll try to more, now.  After sacrament meeting, the ward musical director came up and asked us to prepare a musical number for next month.  Well, since I have no other talent than playing the piano (which can hardly be called a talent.  Yes BYU, you have humbled me extremely), guess what I'll be doing!  During second hour, the bishop called us in to give us our callings.  Fun fact- our bishop, Bishop Cooke, is in a Mormon Message!  Check it out!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dNYpXZIN_c

Soooo, drum roll please....... I've been called to teach the 15-18 year old sunday school class!  I'm so excited and nervous!  It's funny, because I keep expecting the members here to be at the same level as the people in Belize, but they're not!  In class today, some of these 15 year old girls were sharing the most amazing insights in the Book of Mormon, and the faith and power in their comments was so inspiring.  The boys on the other hand... a lot of them are struggling with the decision to go on a mission, so pray that I'll be able to be an influence for good in that area!  I have such a testimony of missionary work, I hope the spirit will relate that to these young men through my lessons.

I'm so excited for these upcoming Sundays and for all the fun stuff we're doing this week!

Oh, and I just remembered, we went to a Hayden symphony Friday night.  Very beautiful, but I did fall asleep.  Classical music just does that to me.  Hopefully we'll get another opportunity to hear some more well known pieces sometime soon.

The Barbican Center

Cheerio!

"Just touched down in..."

Well hello!

So, nothing exciting much has happened here, except...

We're FINALLY in LONDON!  and it's my MOM'S BIRTHDAY!!

But let's start with London.

I ended my last blog in Amsterdam.  From Amsterdam we travelled back to Belgium!  Brussels to be exact.  And you know what that means... CHOCOLATE and more WAFFLES!!  Loaded up on these goodies for my fam and my future Chem tutor (yes, I will do ANYTHING to get a good grade in Chem).

Anyways, first we headed to the Atomium, which is a huge replica of an Atom that was made for the World Fair in 1958. We didn't spend much time there, really only to get a picture and head to Brussels.

oh and they had letters welcoming you to Belgium, and naturally we had to get a picture with them because we love letters. (amsterdam anyone?) ps. I always think of she's the man when the principle welcomes viola to Illyria.

We got to the big city of Brussels and went to yet again another museum. This one was way weird to me, it was Rene Magritte the surrealist...not digging his style. After we just explored the city a bit more. 

Brussels city scape

I have to admit, the past couple days haven't been fantastic for me, in spite of all the wonderful and fun things we've been doing.  I guess there's this bug going around our group and I'm pretty sure I've caught it.  I went running un Antwerp the other day, and my throat hurt so bad I could only go two miles before pooping out.  That's how I know something is severely wrong.  And Barkdulls never get sick, but when we do, we make a big deal out of it.  So there will definitely be more on this subject in later posts.

Today we FINALLY reached LONDON!  It was such a relief and shock to be able to ask people at the information desk where to go and actually understand what they're saying!  More on this, too, later.

Now...

Back to the MOST important topic of the day, my mom's BIRTHDAY!!

So, probably all of you know my mom, but if you don't, allow me to describe her to you:

My mother is probably the most dependable person in the world.  Except for the time in second grade when she promised to bring cupcakes to lunch for my birthday and forgot, I have never had reason to doubt that when she says she'll do something, she'll do it.  I love that no matter what the situation, I can always put my complete faith and trust in my mom.  

She's forever taking care of the little things that I hate to do, like folding my laundry, cutting my apples, calling about some financial thing that's over my head, organizing paper work for me so that all I have to do is sign, planning my packing lists, doing my taxes, and SOOOO much more!  99.9% of the time, it's not even stuff I've asked her to do, but I know it's her way of saying "I love you" (more often, though, I'm pretty sure it goes more like "I know you're too lazy to do it yourself, but it's got to be done, so I'll just do it for you."

Both of my parents, my whole life, have opened up a world of opportunity to me.  Just this past week, when I told them I wanted to go on a mission in April, I was expecting a counter plan from them, or at least some concerns.  Instead, they simply said "okay, if that's what you want to do".  Then, when stressing over the financial aspect of a mission and, ya know, being on study abroad and all, my dad just says, "Briana, do all you can do while you're in Europe.  Then when you get home, do all you can do to get ready for your mission, and we'll make up the rest."  Now, I know I already have heavenly parents that are perfect, but do these parents not sound like a close second?

What makes this aspect of my parents' love so important to me, though, is that even though they probably could pay for everything I want to do, they make me work my rear end off for it too.  I have been blessed with extremely supportive parents, but I've never been handed anything on a silver platter (except maybe my braces and back surgery.  thanks.) which is probably the best blessing of all.  In recent life experiences, I've met a lot of girls who have an allowance given to them every month, who get a new wardrobe every season, who have never learned how to scrub a toilet, and say they're independent when really they live in a Barbie world.  I'm so thankful for parents who expect me to pull my weight in the family, who have taught me to work hard for things I want, and yet are always there to "make up the difference".  The fact that because of them, I have the confidence to do anything I want to in life is the greatest gift they could have ever given me.

Mom, this was supposed to be a blog about all the reasons I love you, my gift to you on your birthday, but I guess it's kind of turned into a monologue about how awesome both you and Dad are.  Sorry.  I hope you know how much I love you, and that I don't take all little things and life changing things you've done for me for granted.  I thank Heavenly Father every day for being so blessed to have been sent to you and Dad for eternity.  Have a happy birthday Mom and know that I am thinking of you especially today all the way in London.

Love

Briana

P.S.  Clearly we need to take more pictures together because these are pretty much the only three of you and I that exist in our vast collection of family photos.

Back to the Present

Okay, so I know I said I was going catch up over the last couple weeks, but the past 5 days have just been so wonderful I want to get his down before I forget.

So on Thursday, we finally left France and headed to Belgium.  I loved being by the ocean in Normandy and especially the things we did there (which I will describe another day), but I was ready for a new scene.  Well, I guess in Europe, the scenery doesn't change too much (not like going from Kansas to Virginia) because Belgium looked the same but not.  We stayed in a town called... well, I don't remember what it was called but that doesn't matter because the real reason we were there was to visit Bruges.  Apparently, Bruges is a UNESCO world heritage site and there was something going on while we were there, so the closest hotel we could get was 45 minutes away.

My cutie friend Kaylin at a park in "that town"

After arriving in "that town" in the afternoon, we found out there was going to be a concert right outside of our hotel.  Whooo hooo!!

.....Not.

Forgot that EVERYONE in Europe smokes and the drinking age is way lower.  It was so weird seeing these 16 years olds downing beer after beer.  My friend Lauren's room had a balcony right above the concert, and that was as close as we wanted to get.  Nasty smells coming from that square...

The next day, we went to Bruges.  Bruges is famous for its lace, its chocolate, and most importantly, its WAFFLES!!!

OH MY GOSH!!!! I cannot even describe to you how AMAZING these waffles are!!  I told you nutella crepes were heaven?  Well baby, heaven's reached a whole new level.  Breakfast has never really been my thing, and waffles even less so.  When I saw the man take a pre made waffle and just re-heat it in the iron, I was not too excited.  Oh how ignorant I was!  I wish I'd taken a video of my face on that first bite because I just wanted to die.  I know, this is hard to believe.  You may think I'm exaggerating, but I promise you, I'm not!  It took all the will power I had not to buy 4 more.

Enough about food, though.

But who am I kidding, you can never have enough of food.  Check out the chocolate!

In Bruges, we visited the City Hall, Heilig-Bloedbasiliek (Basilica of the Holy Blood), and a nunnery!

1.  The nunnery- my favorite

I know it's weird, but in another life (if I didn't have the gospel), I would've loved to be a nun.  You don't even understand how beautiful and peaceful these chapels/cathedrals/basilicas are.  I especially loved this one because not only was a nun playing the organ (beautifully), but they were burning incense.  To me, incense smells like a mixture of love and Christmas.  I love it!  The stained glass windows create a beautiful atmosphere and depict so many stories of Christ.  What better place to hang out is there?  While I have the utmost respect for the Catholic religion and the faith and inspiration they must have had to create these wonderful monuments to Christ, it seems that wherever we go, it's always only the churches that have an entrance fee, a fee to go into the crypts, and a fee even to get a history pamphlet.  I'm glad we don't do that at our visitor centers.  Also, some of the practices I've witnessed have got me a liiiiiittle skeptical...  which brings me to our next adventure!

2.  Heilig-Bloedbasiliek, or Basilica of the Holy Blood-  Most unusual thing I've seen thus far..

Outside of Heilig-Bloedbasiliek

So, this is one of the oldest churches in Europe.  You can tell by its Romanesque architecture versus the more commonly seen Gothic structures.  Compare below:

Gothic architecture- huge, vaulted ceilings, stonework, ornate stained glass...

Annnd the Romanesque- brick, bland, dark.  Not a fan.

A lot of the European cathedrals and such contain holy relics, or religious "souvenir"-like objects from the past.  I think Notre Dame had the thorn crown that Christ wore on the cross, the Chartres cathedral we visited (and I have not yet told you about) had some of the cloth that Mary wore when Jesus was born.  This basilica "said" they had a vial of Christ's blood.  I will not comment on the truth of this statement.. because I can't.  I don't know.  But the whole process of viewing it was kind of weird.

After paying to get in, we went and sat down in front of another gorgeously elaborate altar.  Music was playing, incense was burning (loved it), and then this woman priest (I swear.  It was a woman.) and another woman walked up to the alter carrying a huge golden goblet looking thing.  Then the regularly dressed woman explained to us that in the goblet was the Holy Blood of Christ and asked us to form a line, say a prayer in front of the blood, and be sure to pay an offering to the church as we left the altar.  I really wanted to go up there and check it out, but I only had a ten and the creepy looking woman priest was collecting the money and I thought it might be sacrilegious since I'm of another faith.  I don't know, it was all just really weird, and it kind of felt like idol worship.. but that's their faith.

A relic holder/ container

Once we'd awkwardly escaped this scene, we headed over to City Hall and got an audio tour.  I took lots of pictures.... but honestly I don't remember any of it because I had to go to the bathroom so bad.  One thing that really stinks about Europe is that they have literally zero water fountains and hardly any bathrooms, and if they do, half the time you have to pay a euro to use them!  Excuse me, I'm a runner, I'll just go find a tree thank you.

Inside City Hall

Where... important stuff takes place...

Hey!  Who's that hottie standing outside of City Hall??

...

HA.

Of course, in between doing all of this, I got four Belgian truffles, Belgian hot chocolate, a Belgian waffle (oh my gosh), and the world renown frites, or fries (which honestly, I don't understand what the big deal is.  They taste pretty much like American fries.  It's the ketchup that's weird.  If you ever go to Belgium, stick with the waffles and chocolate).

Chillin' in Belgium.  I swear that's an apple in my pocket, not some weird growth.

Knit-bombing Bruges!

A great day overall.

Saturday Oct. 6th we went to Ghent to visit the Duke's castle and we saw the painting by the Van Eyck brothers' called Adoration of the Lamb.  I cannot express how detailed and ornate the mantel piece was, it was unbelievable how someone could paint that.  These panels are so important/famous/popular  that several of the panels have been stolen numerous times (once by the Nazis, ugh.) and one hasn't ever been recovered.  Quite the mystery.  If you're familiar with this painting, I guess there's some controversy over whether the top central figure is Christ or God.  I'll add my two cents:  I think it's God because Christ is already portrayed in the bottom scene as the lamb, the dove (or spirit of God) is painted above him, so it would only make sense to add God in there.  They say that John the Baptist (on the right) always points his finger to Christ, but Christ came to point the way to Heavenly Father, so technically...  Anyways, that's what I think.

Thank you Wikipedia!  Yeah, the nudity.  Beyond used to it by now.

Later we went to the Gravensteen castle with the weirdest audio guide I've ever had.  It was like a movie/soap opera where people acted out all the love drama of Count Philip of Alsace.  It was cool, though, seeing such a medieval castle and all the awful torture equipment they had.  Like seriously, so glad I don't live back then (ugghhh, thumb screws...).

Gravensteen Castle

View of the city scape from the top of the castle

Madame Guillotine introduced equality in executions.

Probably snuck another waffle in there somewhere.  YOLO!

From Belgium we traveled Leiden, the Netherlands!  Okay, so I've loved every where we've been, but I feel like the countries just keep getting better and better!  Nederlands (as the Dutch call it) is just so open and clean- I loved the place where we stayed.  There is literally a separate street lane for bikes, mopeds, and runners, and there's running paths everywhere!  Heaven!  I love it so much, but at the same time, it's terrifying to cross the street because even more than watching out for cars, you have to watch out for the bikes (death by bike- totes embarr).  And oooh the bikes!  There are so many types!  Literally everybody rides bikes.  It's not uncommon at all to see a guy riding a bike with his girlfriend just sitting on this platform behind him or a woman riding along with a wheelbarrow full of kids attached to the front!  It's crazy, and yet so clever!

Scaaaaaary!

First world problems..

The Netherlands has some really cool, modern and yet simple architecture

Netherlands windmill

One of the beautiful government buildings in the Netherlands

Okay, so at this point in our trip, we all logged onto the internet and were slammed with hundreds of statuses about the change in mission age.  WHAT A SHOCK!!  My roommate and I just looked at each other and started tearing up.  So many emotions!  Surprise, excitement, fear, love, anticipation, bewilderment... I couldn't handle it.  So I did what I always do when confronted with crazy situations.  I ran.  And I ran.  And I ran.  Thirteen miles!  The Netherlands is just so beautiful.  The stars came out, and running through those pastures, past the windmills, and across the canals, I was reminded of how much Heavenly Father loves each of us, and even though He's got a universe-wide agenda on His mind,  He's still mindful of me and my silly little struggles and fears of inadequacy.  And I was comforted.  I know Heavenly Father loves me and has a plan for me, and I'm excited to fulfill it!

The next day was great, just great.  We first visited Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam.  So inspiring.

"Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart."

-Anne Frank

Anne Frank Memorial 

                                               

 Outside of the building where the Franks and others hid

I'm reading two books right now- Sarah's Key and The Hiding Place- both of which I would highly recommend if you're interested in the Holocaust.  I can't imagine how an atrocity like this took place, but at the same time, after visiting Omaha beach and kneeling down at the graves of those brave soldiers who gave up their lives to fight Hitler's regime, I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who allows us agency, but who will never forsake us.  Corrie ten Boom, Nazi camp survivor and author of The Hiding Place said, "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still" and "Only heaven will reveal the top side of God's tapestry".

These "I amsterdam" things are everywhere!

After this we visited two art museums- Van Gogh's exhibit at The Hermitage and the Rijksmuseum.  I've never been a huge art lover, but on this trip, I think I've been converted.  I love Monet's fascination with nature, Rembrandt's skill in portraying the different shades of light, and Vermeer... well he's just Vermeer and I love him.  Impressionism- the rise and effects of it- is really a fascinating subject.

Anyways, today we did some pretty awesome stuff again (whatever), but I'll blog about it another day because I'm exhausted.

Love and miss everyone!

Tot ziens!

P.S.  This stinkin blog post took me stinkin 6 hours.  You gotta be kiddin' me!

Catch Up Part 1

Yeah, yeah I know, it's been like two weeks (at least) since I last posted anything.  Well, if anyone knows me at all, they know I'm horrible with communication, so YOU should have known better!

Since it's been so long and we literally do like one thousand things/ day, I'll just post some pics and leave it up to the captions to explain the happenins' in France right now.

 Sometime.. like two weeks ago.. my friends Demarie, Lauren, and I went to the Louvre!  Can you say cool?!  Behind us are the invisible pyramids you have to enter to get down into the museum because, guess what, the whole thing is underground! and HUGE.  After an entire week spending hours in museums, there was no way we physically could or even wanted to see everything in that place.  Three hours was plenty.  Below are some of my favorites  :)

I call this one Voldemort.  Who knew the Greeks were a part of the wizarding world too?

Look!  We found Katniss Everdeen!  Now where's Gale...

"Rameses, is number one.  His eyes, are number one.  His muscles, are number one." 

 Probably my favorite part about the Louvre was how they designed each display room in the style of the era the in which the art was made.  

 Winged Victory.  Wish I understood the symbolism behind art better..

 Hey look!  It's Mona!  I guess one of the girls in my group heard some Indian guys behind her ask, "Why is this painting this painting so famous??"  

"It's because she has no eyebrows."  

Hahahaha

 I LOVED this room.  I remember learning about all the different types of Roman columns in my 6th grade Humanities class.  As you can see in this picture, these are corinthian columns, after the city of Corinth.

 After our excursion at the Louvre, we headed over to the Champs Elysee to grab a bite to eat.  Here, you can see the golden gated entrance to Abercrombie and Fitch and to the right, the line to get in.  What you can't see is the overwhelming smell of Abercrombie Fierce that wafts all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe!

 Why get a meal when you can get dessert!  Lauren and I made a pit stop at Laduree's, France's famous macaroon shop.  I got this Ghana chocolate one and praline (Lauren said it tasted like nutella).  Not my fav, but still WAY good.

 Afterwards, we headed to Hotel de Ville to see the "Paris, as Seen by Hollywood".  It was all in French, but the movie clips were in English!  Finally, something I can understand!  and I got to see Audrey Hepburn's wardrobe!  LOVE.

 On Sunday, we went to stake conference in Versailles.  After a train mix up, we made it to the last half.  I don't know what people are talking about when they say the French are rude and stuck up because literally every single person I've met has been so nice!  Especially the Mormons, haha.  The old women (and especially the young men) love to come up and kiss you on each cheek, "biz biz" as the French would call it.  After church, we headed over to the actual chateau.  OH MY GOSH.  Like nothing can describe this place.  There's just gold and decadence everywhere!  This picture is of the front with its gold gates and the HUGE line we had to wait in.  Honestly, I can understand why the royalty lavished so much money on this place and forgot about the common people.  Oh, what I would give to live Marie Antoinette's life!  Only the good parts of course  :)

 The beautiful chapel of Versailles.

Oh, just a taste of the decadence of Versailles.  Pretty much all of the ceilings were this elaborate or more..

Just a bunch of friends taking pictures in the Hall of Mirrors.

The famous Hall of Mirrors.  So many amazing things happened here- the Treaty of Versailles was signed, Marie Antoinette tread where I tread, and so did Kirsten Dunst!

So, our little guide thing said there was supposed to be this water show with music while we were there.  So excited!  Turned out their "water show" was just turning on the fountains and playing some Bach.  Come Versailles.  Water World puts on a better show.

We rented a boat to row in Versailles for a half hour!  Definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far.  Whether it be Uncle Jim's boat or a boogie board, I LOVE being on the water!

View of Versailles from the lake.  Yeah, I could stay here a while.

Climbing on the fountains in the Versailles gardens.

At this point in my trip, Paris was starting to get to me.  Don't get me wrong, I adore Paris, but it's really dirty and crowded and EVERYONE smokes constantly!  I guess at heart, I'm more of a country (actually suburb) girl, so Versailles was a nice break.