Not So Good At Blogging Anymore

Ah well.

Friday we all went to Hampstead.  We started out at John Keats' house.  Since I love his poetry I was pretty excited to go visit.  I think I'm pretty tired of museums and dead people's houses so it wasn't quite as exciting as others but still neat to see.  From there, I went with Kaylee, Christi, and Abby up to Parliament Hill to look out over the city.  The Heath is confusing place to walk through but after asking a few people for directions we managed to find it.  We then went to walk down Hampstead High Street where we stopped for lunch at Pizza Express.  While we were eating the Mason clan passed us.  We waved, but only Nick's youngest saw us and waved back.  We caught up to them later while they were waiting for the bus so we ran across the street to join them.  We're so glad we did because it would have been a very long walk!  We toured Kenwood House and then came home.  We just hung out at the Centre after that but we did have an 8:30 snack that was fun.  For a long time here I wasn't sure that I wanted to put effort into becoming friends with people because I know that there's a good chance I won't talk to most of them after we go home.  After a series of unexpected events, including a letter from someone I knew way back in seventh grade, I'm not quite so scared anymore.  I'm finally loosening up and being more willing to do stuff with people.  Hooray!  It's actually a lot of fun.

Yesterday we started off the day by touring the Houses of Parliament. We had to go through some crazy security, including getting our picture taken.  Mine made me look like a terrorist.  I've made a commitment to smile more.  Do I really look that scary?  Anyway.  Our tour guide was quite possibly the best tour guide ever.  I have some quotes from him I need to add up later.  My favorite part was when he was telling us about various things like William the Conquerer or Edward the Confessor, I already knew who they were and what they did.  Hooray for history classes!  After we finished the tour I went with the same group of people that I'd been with on Friday plus Cami to Camden Market.  So fun!  I love markets.  Camden is kind of in a sketchy part of town and sometimes I had both hands on my purse and stuck very close to the group but it was also so fun.  The best part is the food.  They're all in competition so everything is very inexpensive but so good.  One guy had us sample Chinese bang bang chicken and it was so good.  We ate there but I want to go back and get lots more of the food.  There was a lot more than just food, though.  My favorite part was the multicultural area where there were stalls with people selling things from Egypt, India, China, Thailand, and a whole bunch of others. I didn't take pictures because it really is impossible to capture the feeling of markets in a photo.  It was so fun though!

Good Stuff:
1. While waiting for the bus on Friday, Nick was trying to convince his son to shave.  He was teasing him about which girl he wanted to get with that.  Matt proceeded to say that he shaves while reading his Book of Mormon and he knows it's time to switch to the other side of his face when he's halfway through the chapter.  Nick told him that that was the most bizarre thing he'd ever heard.  I was trying very valiantly not to burst into laughter.

2. I skyped with one of my trombone boys, Tyson, last night!  It was so fun to see his face and hear his voice!

Um... lots of good stuff happened but I don't remember.  This is why I'm supposed to blog every day.