It's A Small World After All

I am becoming much more comfortable with a lot of things in London lately.  I am also making more friends and starting to pick out the visitors in a crowd of the regulars in my ward.  Last week, I went to FHE (refer to past blog called "All By Myself" if you don't know what that means) and started talking to people I didn't know.  

There were 2 American guys that were visiting London for the week.  They go to the military school West Point,  in New York.  I saw them again on Thursday at Institute (Institute is a religion class that we have once a week in the evening) and they invited me to go on a day trip to Oxford with them on Saturday.  We met at the train station and explored Oxford all day.  I frolicked through a meadow (literally- I was so excited to see a real meadow!), saw many different colleges of the Oxford campus, ate some amazing mango ice cream on a lawn in an alley (weird), explored random tiny shops (which is where I tried on the sweet hat), and generally just enjoyed my time out of the city.  Oxford was very chill and great to wander around in.  We didn't even really use a map... we just wandered.  

Jake and Tyler were remarkable guys.  They are in the Army and are finishing their schooling so they can be officers.  They were proper gentlemen, educated, and ambitious.  It was great to meet people my age that believe in themselves enough to COMPLETELY give up their lives for the next few years to help others and affect change.   Tyler flew to the Ukraine to study for the next semester.  Jake went to Chile for awhile before he heads to Jordan to also study abroad for the semester.  

They had dinner with my roommates and I on Saturday and Sunday (as the place they were staying at wasn't very suitable) and we all felt like they were outstanding human beings.  It's odd because I don't know if I'll ever see those boys again in my life but they were inspiring.  It's amazing how your world can be shaped by good people.

Random story:  I was sitting in church on Sunday and I saw a girl walk down the isle.  For some reason she seemed familiar.  She had long platinum blonde hair and tan.  I thought, nah, she looks American so that's probably why I think I know her.  When I was walking out of the chapel she pointed at me and said, "Dude!  I totally know you!"  It was a Gina Packer.  The last time I saw her was probably 4 years ago and the last time I had heard of her was about 2 years ago.  She was studying abroad and stopped through London just for 2 weeks.  I couldn't believe it.  A random Las Vegas girl in London... very cool.

Since I've been in London I've had to do some really cool sight seeing on my own.  My roommates are either from here or have been here long enough to where they don't want to be a tourist.  On Monday, Jake's flight left in the evening so decided to see the sights.  We saw Abbey Road Studios and wrote on the wall like thousands of other fans.  I tried to get a picture on the Beatles crosswalk but it looks more like I'm dodging cars.... which is what I was doing.  I'm not so ashamed to be a stupid American tourist when I have another fellow American willing to take pictures of me being dumb.  That joyful experience happened while we were in Trafalgar Square... I still can't pronounce it like the English can... they say it funny.  Tra-fall-ga.  Weird.