People Person

I have always been a people person. I would much rather be surrounded by people than by myself. Even if we are in the same room, reading two different books, not even acknowledging each other, I would rather have someone there than be by myself. I am an extrovert in that way; I gain energy from people.

I love taking pictures. The pictures here are not even 1/5 of what I actually take. It is easy to take pictures of objects and nature; things. I think things are beautiful and I love capturing them. BUT, there is something about pictures of people. Most pictures I post will have people in them because I feel like they are the most meaningful. I love people, their stories and the memories I have with them. So here are more pictures of things, but mostly people in front of those things

We officially hit our one month mark on the 7th and are going strong. Earlier in the week I got to go see The Lion King! The singing wasn't my favorite but man it was amazing how they turn people into animals and the special effects were phenomenal.

Tori, Gabe, me and Lacey before the show

For our day trip this week we went to Warwick Castle and Worcester. We basically got blown off the top of the Castle, but so is England: rainy, cloudy and windy. In Worcester we went to The Commandery which served many purposes but most famously was one of the last strongholds for the royalists during the English Civil War. We also went to the Cathedral there. 

SO. MUCH. WIND.

Glamping: Glamorous Camping

Photoboming the wax Daisy figure

On top of the castle

Worcester Cathedral

King John's tomb (The brother of Richard, you know in Robin Hood)

Prince Arthur's tomb (Son of Henry VII, older brother of Henry VIII, would have been king)

That week a few of us decided to head to the Science Museum. I wish I had taken more pictures because it was seriously amazing. Every museum is so big. It is impossible to see it all

Infrared Camera

Trying to connect the right circuits

The flight exhibit

For our London trip this week we got to tour Kensington Palace. Unfortunatley there is an entirely seprate wing where Will, Kate and baby George live, but it was still a really cool experience. There were four sections in the Palace you could visit: The story of Queen Victoria, the King's chambers, a royal fashion through the ages exhibit (this had dresses worn by Di, Margaret, Elizabeth and more) and the Queen's chambers. When we finished at Kensington we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. This place is HUGE. We were there for 2 hours and only saw two different exhibits. I will definitely be making multiple trips back. 

Mementos from Victoria and Albert's absolutely precious love story

My directors son. Sooooo cute.

Chilling on the giant couch thing in Kensington Palace with my girl Hali

The King's gallery

The King's Drawing Room. We Christiansens love to play cards

One of the many beautiful royal gowns

Pillows of royals through the ages that lived at Kensington

Each of the 16 chairs are for one of Queen Anne's children that she lost

Victoria and Albert Museum...

The Ware bed. Super famous back in the day. One of the biggest ever made.

My coat of arms. "Neither Covet nor Fear"

A beautiful uprooted music room that Jillian and I waltzed in

A cast of Trajan's column. Literally in awe. Hope one day I can see the real one

On Saturday we decided to go see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, but apparently so did every other person in London. People were lining the streets and the fence of the palace. I am not sure how but we ended up getting right next to the fence and really enjoyed ourselves. They played some music and marched around. You may ask why they aren't the classic British soldiers in redcoats? Well that's because it is winter, so they are wearing grey. Disappointing.

Andrew trying to lift Jill and Mads so they could see

The gates to Buckingham Palace

Marching to the palace

Hoards of people gathered

The brave one who made it to the front. Hali, Hannah, Mads and Me

Buckingham Palace

After the palace we went to a glass blowing exhibit by Dale Chihuly. He is amazing and his work is all over the world.

This week my heart has been aching for Ghana. For those of you who don't know, I did a study abroad last summer in Ghana. It was short, only three weeks, but part of my heart is still in Africa. We went to a bead store here in London and I was shot back to the homemade beads I saw everywhere in Ghana. Every week I am surrounded by Ghanaians here in London. Over half of my ward is from Ghana. I have been thinking about it a lot lately so I decided to go down memory lane for a minute. My mom told me that soon I will feel about London the way I am feeling about Ghana right now. She's right. I am so blessed.

Pictures from Ghana....

To end, here's a lovely gem of us stalking people outside the front window of our flat. This week we also moved all the couches in our living room and had a dance party. I unfortunately have no video or pictures of the event but it was sensational.