Friday, April 4, 2008
WE'RE BACK!!! :)!
Well, we're back!! We had SUCH a fabulous time in England. *sigh* I want to go back already! You know, everyone always asks me what was the best thing that I loved about our trip. Of course the sights were stunning and the culture was fun, but honestly, the best thing about our trip was just spending 8 days straight with Sam. We've never spent that much time together. Our cell phones didn't work over there, we didn't have the internet, and we didn't know anyone in London. It truly was just the 2 of us together. Here are some things that I learned while we were on our trip.
1. If we ever lived in England, Marcie would be RAIL thin. Oh the food was TERRIBLE! It was so plain. The only decent food I had there was at a cute little Italian place...which obviously wasn't British food. Even the hamburgers weren't so good. They steam fry the hamburgers, so it's a weird consistency. In my McDonald's hamburger in the ketchup and mustard they added sugar to it! Weird! That's all I have to say! The scones, pastries, "biscuits" (aka cookies), and the ice cream were all good. That's about it!
2. I don't think Londoners actually know what the color of the sky is. It snowed for the first 3 days that we were there (and it was a CHILLY wet cold), and rained for the other 5, with small periods of partial sun. Talk about an adjustment, coming from Southern California.
3. Marcie CANNOT understand the British accent, especially when ordering food. I always made Sam order me food because the food stand people get annoyed with customers REALLY fast, so you have to order your food fast. So I always made Sam do it. Even the little kids have cute little accents. I always smiled when I'd hear a little 5 year old say "Mum". HOW CUTE!!
4. The British police don't carry guns with them! They carry their batons with them. It's illegal to carry a gun in England and it's an automatic 5 year sentence. The only people who have guns legally are the military and their SWAT teams.
5. I could NOT get use to the word "queue". People would ask if I was queueing, and I'd get all confused. BTW, it means "line". So when people would ask if I was in the queue, it meant in the line. Apparently, it's a French word.
6. The British are some of the nicest people. They were very friendly, especially because it was obvious with our accents that we were tourists.
7. It's very complicated trying to cross the street when you're use to the cars being on the opposite side of the street. We'd always look left, when we should've looked right. Luckily, on the streets they have painted to "look left" or "look right". Thank goodness! Otherwise I'm sure we would've gotten hit!
8. Riding the Tube (the subway) was pretty fun and reliable. Except one day there was an announcement on the Tube that there was going to be severe delays because a person was stuck under one of the trains! WHOA! TMI! And when you would get off the Tube, the announcer would say "Mind the gap"...meaning watch the gap between the train and the platform.
9. We don't do so well with LONG flights. Gosh the flight over there was miserable. It was VERY turbulent the whole way and our TV's in our seats didn't work. We flew a red eye flight so everything was dark outside, so obviously we couldn't see anything outside. By about the 6th hour, I was ready to jump out of the plane. Luckily it was MUCH better flying back. Maybe next time we go to England we'll fly 1st class. Hahahha
10. Jet lag is inevitable when flying from England. It was an 11 hour flight, plus a 7 hour time change. When we got back to Los Angeles on Saturday evening, it was 5PM California time, which was 12AM London time. By the time we got to our house, it was 3:30AM London time (8:30PM CA time). Then I was awake on Sunday at 11AM London time, 4AM CA time. Our body clocks have been off ALL week long. I think I'm going to need another week to recover.
All in all, we had SUCH a great time! We hope that we are able to go on many more trips throughout the years. I hope that everyone else had a great Spring Break!
BTW...we couldn't try on the Royal Crown Jewels....there were FAR too many guards! Perhaps next time! ;)
1. If we ever lived in England, Marcie would be RAIL thin. Oh the food was TERRIBLE! It was so plain. The only decent food I had there was at a cute little Italian place...which obviously wasn't British food. Even the hamburgers weren't so good. They steam fry the hamburgers, so it's a weird consistency. In my McDonald's hamburger in the ketchup and mustard they added sugar to it! Weird! That's all I have to say! The scones, pastries, "biscuits" (aka cookies), and the ice cream were all good. That's about it!
2. I don't think Londoners actually know what the color of the sky is. It snowed for the first 3 days that we were there (and it was a CHILLY wet cold), and rained for the other 5, with small periods of partial sun. Talk about an adjustment, coming from Southern California.
3. Marcie CANNOT understand the British accent, especially when ordering food. I always made Sam order me food because the food stand people get annoyed with customers REALLY fast, so you have to order your food fast. So I always made Sam do it. Even the little kids have cute little accents. I always smiled when I'd hear a little 5 year old say "Mum". HOW CUTE!!
4. The British police don't carry guns with them! They carry their batons with them. It's illegal to carry a gun in England and it's an automatic 5 year sentence. The only people who have guns legally are the military and their SWAT teams.
5. I could NOT get use to the word "queue". People would ask if I was queueing, and I'd get all confused. BTW, it means "line". So when people would ask if I was in the queue, it meant in the line. Apparently, it's a French word.
6. The British are some of the nicest people. They were very friendly, especially because it was obvious with our accents that we were tourists.
7. It's very complicated trying to cross the street when you're use to the cars being on the opposite side of the street. We'd always look left, when we should've looked right. Luckily, on the streets they have painted to "look left" or "look right". Thank goodness! Otherwise I'm sure we would've gotten hit!
8. Riding the Tube (the subway) was pretty fun and reliable. Except one day there was an announcement on the Tube that there was going to be severe delays because a person was stuck under one of the trains! WHOA! TMI! And when you would get off the Tube, the announcer would say "Mind the gap"...meaning watch the gap between the train and the platform.
9. We don't do so well with LONG flights. Gosh the flight over there was miserable. It was VERY turbulent the whole way and our TV's in our seats didn't work. We flew a red eye flight so everything was dark outside, so obviously we couldn't see anything outside. By about the 6th hour, I was ready to jump out of the plane. Luckily it was MUCH better flying back. Maybe next time we go to England we'll fly 1st class. Hahahha
10. Jet lag is inevitable when flying from England. It was an 11 hour flight, plus a 7 hour time change. When we got back to Los Angeles on Saturday evening, it was 5PM California time, which was 12AM London time. By the time we got to our house, it was 3:30AM London time (8:30PM CA time). Then I was awake on Sunday at 11AM London time, 4AM CA time. Our body clocks have been off ALL week long. I think I'm going to need another week to recover.
All in all, we had SUCH a great time! We hope that we are able to go on many more trips throughout the years. I hope that everyone else had a great Spring Break!
BTW...we couldn't try on the Royal Crown Jewels....there were FAR too many guards! Perhaps next time! ;)
Friday, March 21, 2008
Tis the Time!!
Sorry for the uncuteness of this posting...but we are on our way to London. We're leaving in about 10 minutes!!! I hope you all have a Happy and safe Easter. We'll talk to you all when we get back next week!!
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Happy Birthday to you! Cha-Cha-Cha!
Have you ever noticed that your family seems so much cooler when everyone's all grown up? Kyle and Emily both had birthdays this week and so I had to post embarassing pics of the both of them. I was thinking this week how awesome our family is. Sure we all have our downfalls, but that's what makes a family fun and unique.I guess it takes years and for everyone to move away to realize that. Anyway, happy birthday to you both! :)!
Saturday, March 15, 2008
California + Snow = Unhappy Marcie
Sam and I were TRYING to go to the temple on Saturday evening, when this is what we encountered. No the pictures aren't out of focus, it was SNOWING! GRRRR!!! Not only was it snowing, but it was like a blizzard. Oh it brought back memories of BYU-Idaho's winters. *Shiver*Snow belongs in Utah, NOTin SUNNY Southern California!
Sam was really happy to see the snow. . .
Marcie was not! (Great pic, eh?)
We eventually made it through all the snow and we had a good time at the temple. I actually ran into one of my friends from BYU-Idaho. I hadn't seen her in like 7 years! She lives close to us and so now we have another buddy! So it turned out ok in the end. . . minus the snow part.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
More of Our Fun Weekend
This past weekend our friends, Meredith and Andrew, and their 2 daughters, Elyce and Evelyn, came and visited us. On Saturday we went to the Long Beach Aquarium. It was WAY crowded, but we still had fun looking at all the fish, sea otters, sea lions, and sharks.
They even had a place where you can go and touch the sting rays. Yes, I did touch the sting ray, but I was extremely nervous! They feel very smooth! They also had a place where you can touch little sharks. Again I was pretty scared, but I touched the sharks. They're surprisingly rough feeling.
Later that evening, Meredith and I made my cranberry white chocolate chip cookies. Yum! Sam and Andrew ate like 2 dozen before the cookies were even cooled! It was fun to spend the weekend with such awesome friends. I only wish they lived closer so we can hang out more often!
They even had a place where you can go and touch the sting rays. Yes, I did touch the sting ray, but I was extremely nervous! They feel very smooth! They also had a place where you can touch little sharks. Again I was pretty scared, but I touched the sharks. They're surprisingly rough feeling.
Later that evening, Meredith and I made my cranberry white chocolate chip cookies. Yum! Sam and Andrew ate like 2 dozen before the cookies were even cooled! It was fun to spend the weekend with such awesome friends. I only wish they lived closer so we can hang out more often!
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