65

That is the number of days until I get on a plane and go to Europe for 2 and a half weeks.  Here is the itinerary so far...


Leave from LAX 5/25 7:40-switch in London- Arrive in Glasgow 5/26

Wednesday 5/26:

-Dinner somewhere in Glasgow.

-Go to the pub for some folk music

Thursday 5/27:

Stirling: 

- Castle

-Wallace Monument

- Doune Castle (where they shot Monty Python and Holy Grail!)

Friday 5/28:

Edinburgh:

-Castle & Royal Mile

-Rosslyn Chapel,

-Arthur's Seat

Saturday 5/29:

-St. Andrews,

-Inveraray

-more exploring in Edinburgh

Sunday 5/30:

-Glasgow's Necropolis and Botanic Gardens.

Glasgow to Paris 5/30

Flight 4:15PM-6:45PM and take shuttle into Paris

Le Village Hostel

Sunday 5/30 (If there is time, if not our hostel is IN Montmartre)

Montmartre:

-Sacre Coeur, (6-10:30, last visit at 10:15, top of dome 9-7)

-Moulin Rouge

Monday 5/31:

-L’arc de Triomphe (10AM- 11PM)

-Tour Eiffel (9:30-11, last lift to top at 10:30)

-Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise (8-6)

Tuesday 6/1 :

-Notre Dame (8-6:45)

-Latin Quarter: Pantheon (10-6) & Luxembourg Palace

-Catacombs (10-5 last admission at 4 but there can be long lines)

Wednesday 6/2:

-Versailles (open 9-6)

-Louvre (9-10 start closing at 9:30) and & Place De La Concorde (just outside the museum)

Thursday 6/3: get on Eurostar to London at 10:13AM

Paris to London 6/3

Eurostar to London at 10:13AM-11:28AM

Check with travelshop at Clink Hostel about getting tickets to a show at the West End

Thursday 6/3:

-Tower of London (9-5:30, last admission at 5)

-Big Ben

-Buckingham Palace

-St. James Park

Friday 6/4:

-London Bridge

-Day trip to Bath/Stonehenge

Saturday 6/5:

-London eye

-Madame Tussauds (buy combinded ticket save 20% on Eye Website)

-John Snow Water Pump (Corner of Broadwick St. & Ingestre Pl in Soho)

Sunday 6/6:,

-Portobello Road

-Notting Hill

-Abbey Road

-Hyde Park

Monday 6/7:

-Thames

-Globe Theater

-Natural History Museum

-Jack the Ripper Walking Tour

Tuesday 6/8: 

-Whatever looks interesting

-London Temple

Wednesday 6/9: Leave for Home from Heathrow at 4:45, Arrive at LAX 6/10 10AM

I think that covers everything...anything absolutely important that I am missing? lemme know! Paris is gonna be pretty cramped on time but I think we can do it.  We'll have time to breathe in London.

:D

Terrified

Jordan emailed home today, he was a couple days late but I wasn't entirely worried...Until I went home and checked where his address is on Google Maps... He is 4 miles away from the Mexican border.  Juarez to be exact.  You know what else google told me about El Paso/Juarez?

NOTHING GOOD, THAT'S FOR SURE!

Apparently there are two warring drug cartels who have horrendously murdered 500 people since the beginning of the year...AND their entire families.  I do not like this at all.  But WAIT , it gets better...

I turn on the TV and an episode of Medium is on...guess what it is about? Oh, that's right warring drug cartels in Mexico killing entire families in Arizona and, thats right, El Paso.  

There is no way I'm falling asleep now, I'm a wreck.

Happiness is...

People are strange...Just ask Jim Morrison, he knew it all too well.  What I am starting to realize is that, for the most part, people are a lot alike.  We have different ideas about what happiness is and therefore our motivations to get that happiness vary, but I think in studying our differences we have forgotten the thing that ties us all together: Everyone just wants to be happy.

Now I'm not going to go into the deep philosophical things that make people happy, because I believe that deep down the same things create true lasting happiness.  However, it seems that most people want to put roadblocks in front of their happiness; As if it is some sacred treasure or Grandma's fancy china that you can only use for VERY special occasions...then the whole time you use it you're having a panic attack about breaking it because you know, statistically, fancy china doesn't last forever.  Happiness has become this elusive, abstract word with a long lost meaning that no one fully understands anymore.  "When I'm 30 pounds lighter, I can be happy", "When I graduate, I can be happy",  "When I get married, I can be happy", "When I buy a house, I can be happy"....It goes on and on until you are suddenly on your death bed and realize that YOU are the only thing that has kept yourself from being happy.

We chain up our spirits and refuse to allow ourselves to experience joy because we somehow believe we don't deserve it.  The truth is that everyone deserves to be happy the way they are, without caveats or conditions.  Happiness that is contingent upon specifics and delicately balanced atop achievements and unattainable goals will never sustain itself.  Yet we do it.  All of us to some extent or another.  What is it about being happy that so terrifies the human race?  When did "Happiness" become yet another thing we impose upon ourselves as a chore, something that we have to work for and toil to get?  Yet another thing for us to fall short and feel bad about not having?  I'm not sure that is the point. I'm pretty sure that sometimes, happiness really is "finding a pencil" not "practically perfect in every way"...Though that WOULD be pretty awesome.

No One Has Blogged in Forever...

 Including me.

Mostly because I have been so dang busy doing NOTHING...Mostly because I have been feeling silly and just so small and dumb recently. So in order to remember who I am and all the things I have learned in this life I have compiled a list of what being on Earth has meant to me.

20 Truths I have learned:

1. God is perfect, and as such he will be perfectly just and perfectly dole out to me what I deserve
2. I will never fully understand WHY things happen
3. But I am in total control of HOW I react to them 
4. Time is definitely a man-made thing, not an eternal thing
5. I will always have at least one friend at any given time who will be what I need at that time
6. Miracles happen all the time
7. That I am capable of more than what I can see right in front of my face
8. No matter how ugly this patch is, the whole picture will end up beautiful
9. I am so totally NOT in control of anything
10. If I pay my tithing, I will never want for anything materially (not REALLY)
11. As compared to my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ I am a dumb dumby McDumberson from Dumb-Ville so I should just listen to them already.
12. Sometimes, love for someone else is what keeps you going when nothing else can get you out of bed
13. Sometimes, happiness is a warm puppy
14. People are different...and if I want to stay a part of society, I should try to love them anyway...or at least stay away from them so I don't spew hate all over the place and everyone around me who may actually stand a chance at loving them.
15. Every experience, good or bad, has the ability to make me a better person or a worse person and it is up to me choose which.
16. The scriptures really DO have an answer for everything
17. The temple is absolutely a sacred place
18. Mental and emotional strength are just like any other muscle...in order to become stronger you have to exercise them and push them beyond what you think their limits are...often.
19. "Stressed out" and "Overwhelmed" are states of mind, not states of being.
20. I am 23.  My life isn't over yet, and really it wont ever be so I should stop counting down.

Love This Song

Hello, my name is Hope

I've lived forever

And I have made many smile

Now they have tried

To keep me silent

They've sent rain and they've sent fire

But I am strong and enduring

I am eternal

They'll never stop me from singing

I know it's hard

to believe in something

when it cannot be seen

But my name is hope

And if you're listening

Then you will hear me singing

I've held the hands of children

I give them reason to survive

I can heal the wounds of affliction

Just open your heart, let me come in

Hello, my name is Hope

I spring eternal

Hello my name is Hope

I'll help you move mountains

If you'll only believe

For with your prayers,

And Father willing,

Then we will keep on singing

World Record Letter

Well he wasn't lying.  I went to lunch a little late today on purpose so that I'd be home when the mail came.  On my way back to work there it was! A TEN PAGE letter. Front and back. Thats like 20 pages...well 19 cuz the last page is only a front side but anyway...

Turns out his companion barely even writes his weekly email home let alone actually putting pen to paper and writing someone at home which makes things difficult when you are required to be with that person 24/7

Not much else to say except I'm happy.  I have 10 (really 19) pages of happiness to peruse while I hope he figures out how to write me semi-regularly. 

P.S.  As of today: 600 more days

*Happy Dance*

Milestone #2: Spritual Awakenings...FINALLY!

I just read the Book of Mormon straight through from beginning to end for the first time.

And may I say, Moroni is a stud =)