MORE HALLOWEEN PICS>

Superman and a Beauty Queen... I thought it was quite indicative of our personalities...
Mandy, Mallory, Myself, and Aubrey ... or... 80's queen, jeanie, beauty queen and a cowgirl
At the end of the night Jeff put on my roomates hot dog costume... enjoy this and never tell him that I put it up here OK!

I Figure that no one really has time to sit here and read much about a silly halloween ward dance that we went to last night, instead I'll just post the pictures and let you enjoy those (we all know that that is all Brittanie looks at anyway...)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

What Halloween would be complete without carving a few pumpkins?...

Ladies Trip!

I realize that I am the worst blogger right now, but in my defense I am a single girl in college with nothing that exciting going on. Instead I will go back in time a bit and talk about the last girls trip I took in August with my three best friends! Just before Chels got married we had a short weekend in Vegas... short that is because of all the travel interruptions! Firstly, the Jetta gave out on us as we pulled into St. George. Luckily we were saved by a tow truck driver named Sterling (whom we now call the car after) and he drove us all the way to Vegas! It was quite the adventure sitting in the cab of his truck just chatting away like nothing had interrupted our fun... except now sterling's booming laughter at our mindless stories along with us girls! All in all though, it was a great trip... we even went to a DAUGHTRY concert! Much to Mallory's pleasure!!!

ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID!!!

Watching the happy couple leave the reception!
Their first dance together!

Her cake was real pretty... the flowers were the same in the bouquets!
Lauren, Kelsi, Becca, and myself
This is Nat and Zuriel leaving the reception
Guess who caught the bouquet!

Well Wedding number 2 of one of my close friends that I had the priviledge of being a bridesmaid of! Natalie Rascon got married last Saturday August 30, and had a beautiful reception at Le Jardin in Sandy. Hope you enjoy the pics from the reception!

Chelsea's Wedding!

All us girls waiting outside the temple! Britten posing with all of the Bridesmaids All our friends at the temple ....(my dress kept flying up Marilyn Monroe style)

On August 21, Chelsea Allred my best friend since before t

ime began got married! She was the first of our high school girlfriends to tie the knot and since most of us will be graduating college this year we are hoping she has started a trend!!! I am so excited for her and Britten and their life together! They had a beautiful sealing I was told by all, and their reception seemed to go flawlessly with so many friends and family there to wish them well! Just wanted to post a few pictures for everyone to see! 

I caught one leaf out of the bouquet!... Mallory tackled us all for the rest!

BACK TO THE US OF A

I have returned to the United States! I will be here to visit the family for a bit before returning to the depressing land of Provo (no offense to all its residence). I just thought it would be better to ease my way back into American life by starting out in the Woodlands! And Indie is absolutely adorable! I missed her funny faces and laughing at her sound effects! 

A brief update!

I know it has been forever since i updated this thing; but yes i am still alive and in Europe! after leaving siena i stayed in roma for 4 days and then made my way to paris! the city never disappoints and i had a great few days there and then came to the beautiful town of marseille in the south of france! i have had so many adventures while here: too many to type on this french keyboard! but tomorrow we head off to london! i am so excited to be going back to england; it was about 1.5 years ago that i was living there and i can not wait to get back! this is all i have time to share right now; and sorry i cant upload any pics this time; but just know i am still alive and well! ciao! mandy!

Last Days in Siena!

Well my classes ended on Friday and by Saturday morning we were heading to Rome! I will miss Siena so much! I have had such a great experience there in both taking classes at Dante Alighieri and getting to meet so many amazing people! On our last day there we did the most touristy thing possible to celebrate our going away) that was to clim to the top of the clock tower in the main square Piazza del Campo, and it was beautiful! here are some pictures from up top of Siena!

bellissimo lacqua!
our first dip in the Meditteranean was cold!

Yesterday we went to the closest beach to Siena = Castiglione della Pescaia! It was so beautiful and we spent the entire day there just enjoying the sun and the people and the gelato of course! Unfortunately i came home with what feel like third degree burns that cover the entire front of my body... apparently the sun is more powerful in Italy than in the US .. it hurts, but it was still a good day!

Scuola

some of the girls in piazza del Campo
La Catedrale di Assisi
I am getting so sad thinking that my italian classes are coming to a close soon... they have been very challenging but i have loved them so much that i honestly would stay for months if i could! I thought id talk a little about the school and how it works! so my class is very small, just five of us now (four students left last week) There are people from all over the world that attend the Dante Alighieri so there are many cultures and languages to learn about within the school. One of my favorite people I have met is Vanessa, she is from China and obviously speaks Chinese. It is so funny that we can communicate and be friends through our Italian that we both struggle to speak! There are also many people from places around Europe- Switzerland, Norway, England, France, Japan, China, and a few other countries are represented in school and it has been an amazing experience to get to know all of these people! I hope i can stay in contact with them even when i return to the US of A!

Cooking Class!

Last Thursday we got to take a three hour Italian cooking class! it was so much fun, we did everything you would do for a traditional italian meal (about 4 or 5 courses!) We hand rolled pasta, learned how to make the most amazing chicken sauce thing and the dessert wow! so i am offering to share my newfound talent for italian cooking with all you women when i return!!! we will have an italian food night!

San Gimignano

Monday was a holiday for us italians... The day that Italy became a Republic! To celebrate this joyous day me and my friends Sabrina and Christine went to a neighboring town of San Gimignano! This is one of the oldest towns in tuscany and was the first town to have towers inside the wall! We had a great time walking around even though it rained for the mojurity of the afternoon (Italy has the craziest weather, it was 90 one day and then raining and about 50 the next)... it is a big tourist trap basically but we still had fun walking in all of the antique shops and visiting the Gellateria the won best taste three years running! io amo gelato!

Fulminare

Well I learned a new Italian word yesterday: Fulminare, which literally means electrocute! I suppose the story all started about a few centuries ago when Italy was creating its electricity system for the country. Things didnt work flawlessly so a few decades ago they changed the plugs in the walls from two small parallel circles, to two very small parallel circles, to fit in with the rest of Europe. This doesnt seem too problematic except for the fact that most homes in Siena have both kinds of outlet still installed inside their homes! To make this long story shorter, my European blowdryer needs to be plugged into an old school Italian outlet to make it work. And yesterday i had the pleasure of grabbing the plug out of the wall while the light that allows the electricity to flow freely was still on. It was my first experience being electrocuted, and hopefully my last... my arm went numb for a bit and a few tears escaped my eyes but by lunch time I was finally able to feel my fingers again! ha! All is fine now, i dont think that i lost too many brain cells in the electric current that surged through my body, but one never knows...

l'apartamento

Just a brief note about where i live in Siena!
me and my roomate Christine hit the jackpot as it were with our housing assignment! we live in the bottom floor of a house that is so cute and outside of the city about 15 minutes (on foot of course). Our landlady lives upstairs with her husband and one daughter. She is so cute but they speak little to no english so whenever there is a problem we get to have a great conversation over the speaker phone trying to look up words as fast as possible! but our bedrooms are spacious, the amount of bugs inside is very minute compared to other apartments and everything works properly in the kitchen! what more could a girl living in italy ask for?

Pisa!

So yesterday we took our first trip outside of Siena, and went to Pisa! Pisa is a smaller town, about the size of Siena i think and of course it is famous for the leaning Tower! It was so fun to go there, about nine girls from my group came and we had a blast! We had to take two trains to get there, so although it would normally take about 1.5 hours to get there, it ended up taking us three! All was fine though, and we arrived in Pisa just in time for lunch! we ate at a Pizzeria hidden in a cute alleyway and made a few random friends while there. Their names were Dario and Salvador, and although they may sound strange man were they authentic Italian boys! they both are in the Italian marine core and live in a small town called Livorno just north of Pisa. They decided to accompany us to the tower since they were conveniently heading there as well. I learned all of this through italian because neither one of them spoke any English, and I was the most advanced of the group who went so I became the translator! Hah! I am not sure which was more entertaining getting to see the leaning tower of Pisa or playing charades and guessing what two random italians were thinking all day! it was quite eventful! well that is all i have got for now, Ciao!

Well i have dropped down on the list of bloggers from entertaining muser to scarecly breathing, but i will try to improve those skills over the next six weeks! So i have finally made it to Siena, Italy where I am attending the Dante Alighieri school for Italian! Classes started yesterday and are very intense, no English is allowed to be spoken while in class so you can imagine that there is a certain level of stress that accompanies me for those five hours a day! But i am learning so much, already we have been in Siena for three days and I feel like I can always communicate what I need to say strictly in Italian! The city is beautiful, it is in Tuscany so there is green everywhere you turn, but it is incredibly old so the building are gorgeous to look at! I love the people here, they are so Italian... the classic laundry hanging out the windows, the old men smoking their cigarettes and drinking cappuccinos, and everyone eating gelato! Well thats all the time I have for now, Italy is incredible and I never want to come home (except to see all of you fine people whom I miss dearly!) Ciao, mandy

Europe Tour 2008

Well here I go again, on my way to foreign lands and foreign tongues! I will be much better this trip about keeping my blog updated with excited news (hopefully not too exciting right Holly...) Well I leave tomorrow morning bright and early and I'll arrive many many hours later in Munich, Germany! The plan is to travel around with my Grandparents for about two weeks and then meet up with my group from the University of Utah in Rome! We will spend a few days there before moving into our new apartments in Siena, Italy! I realize it's not very fun to read about future events, so I will stop this musing and commence when I have something of importance to say! 

Ciao-

Summer Vacations!

This summer was so much fun. Firstly, the fam was in Utah most of the summer which was unfortunate for them but very exciting for me and Britt! We had a great time lounging about the pool, loving Baby Indie, and of course taking our usual trip to California. Some unexpected goodness however, came from my trip with Danen to Lake Powell and our joint family vacation with the Jones's to Maui!
Lake Powell was so exciting for me because I had never been there before! Danen's family has a house boat and they go there for about a week every summer, so I was lucky enough to join the Radman's and tag along to the lake. We slept on a house boat and for three days did nothing but play in the water, attempt to skii, and get nice and tan! It was so relaxing and such a fun trip that I didn't want to come home. Fortunately for us, we weren't going home- we were heading to California to meet up with Holly and the gang!
Cali was fun as usual... it never dissapoints! We took Danen to all of our favorite places to eat: Ruby's, Coco's, Conca'Dora and other such treasures. We went to Disneyland one day, and had a great time there surprisingly the lines weren't too bad even though it was the middle of summer! And on Danen's 24th b-day we went to the beach to lounge about, and eat greasy corn dogs! It was a fabulous week!
Oh, Hawaii! How I love thee! We were in Maui for one week and it didn't seem like long enough. We sat at the pool every morning (well after mom and shelly had made us excercise!) We would walk down the beach to get a Haagen Daaz, possibly eat at Hula Grill, or Leilani's and then head back to the pool. What a week! The kids even took surfing lessons, and they did great at it! Dad, Gregory, Chloe and Me went Scuba Diving! It was so neat to go in the ocean... we saw crabs, giant sea turtles, all kinds of fish, and coral! I definitely was sad to come home from that trip, especially since I had to start school the very next day! But oh well, life goes on. Well that was the highlights of my summer vacations!

Paris!

Well I have just returned from my 6 day stay in the most amazing city North of Rome, that would be Paris! We had the greatest time in France it was such an amazing trip. I feel like we had so much time there that I was able to see everything that I wanted to. And I got to experience the true French culture and way of life. And while we're on that note I decided that not all of the French hate Americans. And that if you at least attempt to speak French to them they are much more willing to help you find whatever you are looking for. By the middle of the week I got very good at a select few phrases. These basically included: Where is the bathroom? Excuse Me! I want one Chocolate Croissant! Can you give me directions to the Metro? and Do you speak any English!...so pretty much only the essentials! haha- but seriously I had such an amazing time I absolutely loved Paris!
So we started off our first day by going to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery! Sounds weird and creepy to go to a graveyard as our first site in Paris but in reality this place is awesome! It is the most famous of cemetaries in all of France. People such as Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Jim Morrison, and Izadorra Duncan are buried there. So after spending a few hours walking around Pere Lachaise we headed over to Notre Dame Cathedral! It was by my favorite Cathedral we have seen since arriving in Europe. It was so ornate and not to mention massive! The glass windows inside of it were the most amazing that I have ever seen and it was really neat to read about the history behind the Cathedral. (And all of the gargoyles were prett awesome too!) Those two things were the main events of the day- however we couldn't retire to our hotel until we had seen the Eiffel Tour! It was perfect timing because right as we came out of the Metro stop at the tower it had began to sparkle... it lights up all sparkly for about 10 minutes every hour! So it was perfect timing and we saw the tour at its best!
The next day was a very long one for us. We started out at the Musee D'Orsay which was an incredible Museum that housed two of my favorite works of Art! The original Degas portrait of the Ballerinas in Dance Class and the Monet water Lillies painting! We spent alot of time in this museum before moving on to the Sacraceaux... (sounds like sock-ray-ker) So we walked about eight miles up hill to see this church that sat atop a hill in Montmarte! It was a beautiful walk although farther than we had originally anticipated it being! This church was gorgeous and located just up the street from the Moulin Rouge which was fun to see! But the day was long and we retired early in preparation for the fantastic Wednesday we had planned!
We woke up early and all met in the front of the Musee de Louvre!!! First off we went straight for the Louvre's most famous resident The Mona Lisa! I have heard people say that it is overrated but I absolutely loved her! The painting was small but it was so incredible to get to see in the flesh! Well what is there really to say about the Louvre- it was incredible!!! I saw so many things that I have studied about in art classes and I was so excited that it was hard to take it all in at once. So we just picked a list of ten major pieces that we wanted to see and focused on those. These included some Greek Statues such as The Venus de Milo, and paintings such as the Virgin on the Rocks! I won't bore you all with these details of art that you don't care about... Lets just say it was sufficiently the best morning of my life. So later we walked past the Royal Opera House where the story of the Phantom of the Opera stems from! And we went to the Rodin Museum... it was so nice to come to this place because it was very low key. Located in the heart of Paris, however it was serenely peaceful. It was in Rodin's estate and the grounds were beautifully kept with his bronze version of The Thinker right in the backyard!
Thursday was a more relaxed day... we went to the top of Notre Dame and got a great view of the city, and we did alot of window shopping! Walked down the Champs de Ellyses and basically wanted to cry at how beautiful all of the stores were! We ate better food than we have had in the last three months combined! I ate more pastries than anyone needs... but I figure it was fine because I was only in Paris once right!!!
Friday was a day for the kids in me and Amanda! We went to Disneyland Paris! And it was awesome! Actually to be perfectly honest in comparrison to California the park was tiny and kinda lacking in the rides... but we had such a fantastic time nonetheless!!! And the funniest thing was going on a ride such as Peter Pan and having Peter yelling in French at Captain Hook! Ha- good times! good times! So most of it was in both english and french but yeah it was just really funny! Well that brings us to saturday where we spent the whole day traveling back to London! And now I am sitting on my bed just reliving the whole week and kinda wishing that I was back in Gay old Paris! It was so incredible and I even picked up some French!!!

My Own Canterbury Tale

This last weekend was our designated "live-in" weekend. Basically everyone from the program leaves London from Thursday to Monday, going in groups of two, and lives with an English family for a few days. Our group was spread out all up and down England, while some even ventured into Ireland and Scotland. Mallory and I were heading off to Canterbury and the small town of Herne Bay.
When we arrived on Thursday evening we were picked up at the train station by our host woman Carly and her two year old son Joshua. She was friendly enough, and what could have been a horribly awkward car ride back to the house with a complete stranger turned out to be only mildly uncomfortable. I was just beginning to think that our weekend would be one of the more pleasant experiences when we arrived at the house, and walked through the front door only to see two obese cats gazing upwards at me. I subconsciously covered my throat to make sure it wasn't exposed to the horrible demons on the floor. You know they say that animals can sense fear... that's pretty much what was going through my head at the moment.
We got settled into our room and I decided to just try and stick it out at the allergy centralized home for the weekend. This family had invited two strange Americans to stay with them and I didn't want to seem rude or ungrateful. So we basically stayed away from the house as much as possible the next day. We went into Canterbury in the morning and stayed until almost midnight. It really was a beautiful place. There was adorable little neighborhoods with quaint looking homes that had been there for decades. And we had a good time seeing the Cathedral and all of the religious sites surrounding it. Also we did some shopping (naturally) and spent alot of time walking up and down High Street, going in little boutiques and walking round the market. That night we didn't want to go back to the cat house too early so we were wandering and just happened to come upon a local theatre house. And just our luck there happened to be student tickets available for that nights showing of To Kill A Mockingbird. And for only 5GBP! Wow, that's a steal of a deal! So we decided to brave the local thesbians and see the play.
Funny thing about To Kill A Mockingbird, it is set in the Deep South in America. Well being in a small town in Brittain we were shocked almost to tears and laughter when the show began and we were hit with a mixture of an English, southern accent. And at times it sounded extremely Australian... it was interesting to say the least. And I suppose it was good acting by most in the cast to be able to pull off the accents. However, for the unlucky actors that couldn't afford a speech coach they made immense fools of themselves!
We got back to the house and I knew the second we walked in doors that it was going to be a rough night. My allergies had escalated immensly and to make a long story short I had a wicked asthma attack in the middle of the night. My lack of breathing got so bad in fact that I stuck my head out of our bedroom window for about a half hour. Which would've been no problem if there didn't happen to be a crazy wind and rain storm raging about. It's safe to say that I didnt get much sleep that night. So to sum up me and Mallory came back to London Saturday morning.
So here I sit on this Sunday night, with only two girls in my dormroom instead of the usual twelve. And I think I have almost forgotten what silence sounds like. It is very nice and relaxing to have a bit of alone time!
I'll finish this story with the most exciting of news! Just as a little back up for those who don't know... me and Sam have "reconnecting" if you will, since I've come out to London. We e-mail and keep eachother up to date on whats new in our lives. So the other day he called me to say that at work he saw on the internet some incredibly cheap tickets to London and simply couldn't pass them up! So Sam will be coming out here at the end of March!!! Yeah!!! I can't wait for him to come see my new lifestyle in this incredible city! Well I posted some new pictures for you guys to see... I'll try and update them a litte more frequently this week! And that's about it for my Canterbury Tale.