miss emma.

i have so many words for our adventures this week. 

we left early on monday morning and to our dismay, we found out that our bus driver for the week was tony. we have had tony as our driver on previous day trips, so we know that he absolutely loves talking on the loud speaker as much as possible. and when it's six am, you're a tired college student, and you're on a bus for three hours, the last thing you want in the world is to listen to an obnoxious man tell you pointless things. anyway, tony was our driver, and in true tony fashion, he kept his comments coming the whole week. it got to the point when the back of the bus (aka me, audrey, caitlin, britin, katie, brittany and kira) were yelling at him to shut up. i would usually frown upon this kind of emotional outburst, but when you put 40 girls on a bus for five days, things get out of control.

my highlights of the north trip were:

seeing pride and prejudice for the first time.

sleeping with my neck pillow.

napping in the empty, silent castle...being by myself for more than thirty minutes for the first time in 3 and a half months.

bread pudding in york.

the weird lady who followed our tour in york and then called us disinterested and then got an earful from me. 

the chris brown video.

audrey and i refusing to go on the snowy hike and instead sitting in the gift shop.

getting back on the bus and hearing how everyone hated the snowy hike and half the bus slipped and fell in the mud and had to wear wet boots all day.

tony deciding to not drive us to beatrix potter's farm and roger hiring a shuttle for me and three other girls because we didn't want to walk, using tony's tip money to pay.

gourmet burger kitchen in liverpool.

ben and jerry's in liverpool.

not washing my hair and rocking the messy bun for four days straight.

breakfast at the hotel ibis. rice krispies and nutella croissants.

overall, the north trip can be described in one photo, taken from the mores at the bronte house:

and now that i've said that, i'm going to apologize for being a diva. not really, but i'm sorry if you were offended by my diva-ness. because this is just who i am. it got to the point this week where my filter between my brain and my mouth disintegrated. maybe it's because i was pre-period sassy, or maybe it's because i just don't care about trying to be nice anymore. sorry if any of you innocent bystanders think i'm a brat. it's true, i am, but i think that when your parents pay eleven thousand dollars for you to go somewhere, it's okay for you to be a brat. maybe that's just me. and maybe i don't care.

so we flew to ireland on friday afternoon after seeing the slavery museum, visiting the beatles museum gift shop and enjoying a delicious meal at wagamama. we flew ryanair, which is the cheapest little european carrier but i don't recommend it because it's terrible and loud and ghetto. sometimes i like to think about what my mother would say/think if she could see what i was doing. like when we slept in a hostel on the north trip and when we slept on the tile floor of the airport going to rome and when i fly on rickety airplanes, i just wish i could see her reaction. but that's off topic. point is, i hate ryanair. not only are the flight attendants really snippy and the plane was smelly, but they made us take out our headphones a half hour before we landed! ridiculous. 

we landed and it was an easter miracle and then we got a cab who proceeded to rip us off by taking a bunch of random side streets and then drop us off at the wrong hotel. we figured out what a crook he was, walked to our real hotel, dropped off our bags and explored dublin. we had dinner and wanted to go on a pub crawl, but it was good friday and none of the dublin establishments were serving alcohol, which meant that the city was dead. so we walked around some more and ended up going to bed fairly early.

the next morning we booked a tour, and then had breakfast and the yummiest cafe/bakery i think i have ever been to, and trust me, i've been to some good ones. it's called queen of tarts. i had a chocolate chip scone and an orange juice that puts jamba to shame. it was like drinking a magic orange out of william lyon's coto de caza orchard. after breakfast we got on our tour bus and went to a lovely irish castle (our experience was tainted by a little scaffolding but what's new) and then we saw the irish coast which was breathtaking. we live in a beautiful world. it's true. i hope you get to see it. 

we then went to penney's, which is a sister company of primark, which is the forever21 of england except five times as big and cheaper. it's basically my paradise. i bought a really cute little nightie with pink ruffles for only seven euros. and good thing too because i forgot to pack pajamas and i was getting really sick of sleeping in jeans. we stopped at trinity college for a minute and then it started pouring rain so we went back to our hotel, had a little rest, i read an article on how sleezy tiger woods is, and then we got ready for dinner. we went to gourmet burger kitchen again just because it is that good. we sat and talked for a long time about marriage. it's cliche for byu students, i know, but i wish every girl had my perspective. i know this is sounding really elitist right now, but i honestly think i have a real life perception of marriage. i don't think it's a fairytale, i know that it's hard and it takes constant work, and i feel sorry for people who think that it's all about carefree love and butterflies and those girls who get  married at eighteen with no careers or life experience or education. if you're one of those girls, and it works for you, hey, i'm not about to judge you. i just wish you the best when you wake up and realize that you are not a disney princess. 

okay, i'm going to get off my soap box now. thanks for letting me vent. 

soo after dinner we went to a pub and got bread pudding. as we were walking there, this man came up to me and asked me if i had a spare condom. that basically describes my night life experience in dublin. i of course gave him an abrupt NO and then he asked me if i was sure. YES I AM SURE i said and i walked away really fast and he followed for a good three minutes. it's a good thing he decided i wasn't going to give in to his wooing, because i had a lot of pent up aggression and i could've done some damage if provoked. it didn't take me long to decide that i do not belong in dublin. i don't get drunk, i'm not into hooking up with drunk irish men, and i don't think teasing my hair eight inches high and wearing five inch heels with a stretchy mini skirt is attractive. i did not fit in, and i was so glad. 

after our bread pudding we went back to our hotel to watch a live irish dance show. there was this horrendously awkward skinny red headed dancer who was very focused on involving the crowd and his legs were so skinny that he looked ridiculous irish dancing. i should post the video. maybe i will. after the show we ended up going to a bar to see a live irish band and the same red headed boy was playing the drums in it. turns out his name is tom. the band was so good and they played so many classic sing alongs like "man in the mirror" and "wonderwall". everyone was still really drunk and i still felt very out of place, but i definitely got to experience irish culture. and that's what i was there for. 

we wanted to go to queen of tarts again this morning but they didn't open til ten on sundays and we had to leave for the airport at nine forty-five, so we went to starbucks. starbucks is so reliable. i got a skinny hot chocolate with sugar free hazlenut. delicious as always. we scored a much better taxi driver who did not rip us off. we flew ryanair. it was unpleasant. 

we got back to london and it was like a breath of fresh air. london has turned into my home. we took some trains, arrived at queensway and then walked to twenty-seven palace court where a lovely easter package was waiting for me. my mom is the best mom ever. i have enough chocolate to feed an army. 

so in short, my day was lovely. 

i am safe in london, i love easter and rebirth, and i love conference. 

the church is true.