Livin' in London...

So I've been in London now for 4 days now, and in England for 2 and a half weeks. Jana and I had quite the whirlwind of a trip, which I enjoyed very much. I did well at tiring Jana out, that's for sure. I'll have to post pictures another time, though, because I've had a few delays getting connected to the internet -- they charge extra at the hotel, you see, and I'm still getting all set up at work -- I'm at an internet cafe at the moment.

Speaking of work, I've finally gotten started after a 2 day delay. The scanner, which was supposed to arrive last Friday so I could start on Monday, didn't arrive until yesterday afternoon. I still went in briefly on Monday to meet Richard, my contact at the library, but that only took about 45 min. Otherwise, I had the rest of Monday and all day yesterday to do extra sightseeing (again, I'll have to post pictures later). Monday I spent about 4 hours going around the British Museum -- very cool place...and free. Yesterday I got a bit of a treat. Not only was it the most clear and sunny of all days I've had here yet, but it was the State Opening of Parliament here in London and I had the luck of being able to see the Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, riding in their very posh royal carriage, flanked by horsemen and armed guards, both to and from the Houses of Parliament. After that display of pomp and circumstance, I took advantage of the nice weather and walked around a bit. I went to St. Paul's cathedral, Oxford Street (London's equivalent of NY's 5th Ave.) and attended Evensong at Westminster Abbey (my way of getting to see inside the Abbey without having to pay the £10 entrance fee!).

So today it was straight to work so I'll have to wait till this weekend to do much more sightseeing. I'll keep you posted...

Milestones and Circuses

So I thought I should probably catch up a bit before I actually leave the country and start posting pictures from England here... A few weeks ago my car hit a milestone...100,000 miles to be exact. I made sure to catch this one on film...or in picture rather:


I marked this occasion while I was on my way to meet up with Tommy and Heather to go to the circus. Yes, that's the real Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey circus...my first real circus in the U.S. (The one I went to in Russia was cool but a bit sad). The RB & BB circus was quite exciting!

Heather and I enjoyed the zebras. They brought back fond memories....

And the clowns were very entertaining...even the ones that were really elephants...

Here we are at intermission:

And they really truly shot a couple of people from a cannon! Impressive! (They also had tightrope walkers and trapeze people, even trained tigers and poodles (particularly amusing!))

Off to England....

So, wow, time is flying and my and Jana's trip to England is now only 2 days away! I have been crazy busy trying to pull everything to together for that...and then I found out last week that my company wants me to do a project at University College London for 5 weeks! So the prospect of staying in England for 7 weeks as opposed to 2 has made this past week even more crazy...but, hey, I'll take it! I can hardly believe that I'll get to spend so much time there! And it all worked out so perfectly....I applied for the London position making the project manager aware that I would be on vacation and should the project start while I'm away would obviously mean I couldn't do it. But lo and behold, by the grace of a higher power, the project was set to start the day after Jana and I would fly back home. So instead of flying home with Jana on Nov. 4th, I'll be dropping her off at the airport and then taking a train down to London to start work on the 5th. I've rearranged my flight and will now fly home December 10th...Hurray for England!!

Kim's wedding

Well, Kim's wedding was this past Thursday. This summer the only time I've seen my former roommates and great friends have been at weddings: Joni's, Emily's and Kim's. Having those three now married puts a bit of pressure on the few of us still left single ... okay it doesn't too much, it just means our group of friends is expanding! Those three have married great guys!

Jana and Heather

The happy couple, Kim and Roland, hanging out before cutting the cake

Michael Buble

So I went to see Michael Buble with my roommates, Jana and Annalea a few weeks ago. It was a fabulous concert, as it was before!

Emily's wedding

So it's been a few weeks since Emily got married and I'm only now posting pictures. It was such a beautiful day for a wedding! Okay, it could have been a little bit cooler, but it was sunny and gorgeous! And Emily and John looked so happy! They are going to have a wonderful life together!

Here're Heather, Christine and I on our way to their sealing

Emily and John as they came out of the Bountiful Temple

Heather, me, Emily, Audrey and Christine outside the temple

The roomies with Emily at the reception (it was held at the Brigham Young farmhouse)
Cutting the cake
Emily and John leaving the reception

My last few weeks in NYC

So it's taken me a few weeks, but I've finally put up some photos from my wanderings around the city during my last few weeks there. With the weather being nicer than my previous several months, I was able to see quite a lot (although the humidity nearly killed me at times, but I survived to tell the tale!). So here're some of my adventures:

A view of the Empire State Building from Midtown East (I took this on my way back from seeing a film at the Tribeca Film Festival)

This was a Sunday in Central Park one of the first weekends in May. The church is only a block from the park and I decided to on this beautiful Sunday to walk home via the park. This is Sheep Meadow. You can see how full the park gets on a nice weekend day!
the Bethesda Angel fountain
View of the upper west side from across the Onassis Reservoir
Midtown from across the Onassis Reservoir

The following weekend I took a day and visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I sure did a lot of walking that day! The following picture is at the branch of the Met called "The Cloisters." It's located clear North on Manhattan Island - at about 195th St. A bit far seeing as my apartment was on 100th St. But the Cloisters was a beautiful little museum dedicated to 14th-16th century churches and cloisters, hence the name, from Europe. What was really impressive was the museum was built with actual remnants of cloisters. So take the following picture: some of the columns are originals and the rest are replicas. Together they create the original. Quite fascinating, and very beautiful. I felt like I was back in some of the English cathedrals and churches. I thought it was very well built.
These next few are from the actual Met Museum itself. This is a Temple in their Egyptian section.

This bust seemed very interesting to me. I wonder what made the sculptor carve him that way..
Section of a temple from the Ancient Near East section

I also spent some time walking around the old city and various neighborhoods downtown.

This is near City Hall.

This is the county court house (I think it's the one they always walk out of on Law and Order)

Statue of Confucious in Chinatown
Large street in Chinatown

Mulberry St. in Little Italy (every Sat. was a street fair/summer festival)
Monument at Washington Square park

I also spent a day around Brooklyn. The next few pictures are from the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. It was absolutely beautiful there!

I walked past this fire station as I was making my way from the Brooklyn Promenade to the Brooklyn Bridge. I had already walked across it before, but I wanted to once more before I left.

I just love the mural on the door.

I walked past this church everyday on my way to work...
...and went past this statue the days I walked or rode the bus.

St. James Church, also on the way to work

This statue is next to the Columbia Law school, which is next to the building that housed the library I worked in. I never quite figured out what it was supposed to be...

And not far from Columbia University was this building: Grant's tomb. Do you know who's buried there??

The outside of my apartment building. My apt. was on the top floor a couple windows left of center (the center being the balconies)

My last weekend in the city, Christine came down from Connecticut and we had a fabulous afternoon and evening. She brought me to this place, the Shake Shack, and then we went and saw "Chicago" on Broadway.

And these final ones were taken my last day in Manhattan. This is the Low Library at Columbia.

And this is me. Behind me is the Butler Library. The librarians I worked with at Columbia all had their offices in this building.

And the view from my apartment shortly before I said goodbye...Quite a contrast from the way it looked in January. I love the city in bloom (who wouldn't like green over the barrenness of winter!)

I've been back in Utah for nearly a month now - how quickly time flies. I miss being able to walk around and explore the city on the weekends. There's not much around me in walking distance now except pastures and housing developments, but having said that, I love the beauty of the mountains. So you could say it's a bit bittersweet...