well i dont know that theres much to update about... : ) lets see... i watched schindlers list last night for the first time, it was really good. i cried at the end. but i must say i like life is beautiful a lot more. so anyways i have been eating nonstop all day... anything and everything. good thing me and sarah bought about 100 dollars worth of food at the grocery store the other day. so right now we are just cracking up in the computer lab. good times : ) gtg, talking to too many people at once. love ya! ~jen

so we just got back from france and it was fabulous!!! so let me try to remember everything from the beginning... we left wednesday morning at 6am and took a private coach to london, where we caught the chunnel to paris. the ride wasnt too bad, about three hours. then we arrived in paris and waited a long time while everyone exchanged their pounds for euros(which is a much better rate for us americans!). then we took the metro(subway) to our hotel, which was on a canal. but it was on the "bad" part of town... after we dropped our luggage at the hotel, we went to see sacre coeur which is a huge white cathedral, it was cool. then we decided to eat at this little place across the street and unfortunately got ripped off, everything was extra cost but our waiter decided to not tell us that... then we walked down to the moulin rouge.... YIKES!!! that was just about the most uncomfortable i think i have ever been! pictures of naked women everywhere and sex shops galore. we took some pictures and then decided to go get dessert somewhere near our hotel. well we got lost. we walked around for about two hours, asking millions of people for directions, none of which were right... but we finally got back and completely crashed. then on thursday morning we were out of paris, on a bus to caen, at 7am. at caen we visited the WW II museum which was really neat. it was all about d-day, but we were all so exhausted from the day before and from not getting much sleep. so after spending about three hours there we got back on the bus to go to bayeaux which is on the north coast of france and where our hostel was for the next two nights. after we left our luggage there, we all went to see the bayeaux tapestry which is 70 meters long and depicts the story of how william the conqueror took over the throne of england. it was cool to see because we have been talking about it in my oxford thru the ages class. then after that we went to see the bayeaux cathderal which was ok. once you see a few cathedrals, youve just about seen them all... then we went to dinner at this little cafe/bar and had some pizza... it was interesting. i have definitely become a lot less picky when it comes to eating : ) after that we went back to the hostel and played mafia(a game where people get "killed" and you try to figure out whos in the mafia) with a big group of us. this is where the night gets interesting... and somewhat scary. so we were playing mafia in this stone room below ground thats sort of a commons room for all the guests. then about half way through a bunch of sixteen year old drunk high french guys come down... well one thing you have to know is that just making eye contact with frenchmen is considered major flirting... so we didnt look at them and kept playing the game. well they came over and tried talking to us, acting crazy and so dustin told everyone we should go. so as we are getting up to leave, sorta jogging towards the stairs, someone grabbed my arm. well i thought it was a girl in our group but when i turned around there was a french boys face. so i sorta got scared but told myself it was just someone in our group bc dustin and someone else were behind me. i grabbed kellys arm as we sprinted up the stairs. we were all kind of laughing, i think bc we were nervous. well kelly had a little accident. so the rest of the girls were on the opposite side of the hostel as me and kelly. so i was making sure i stayed with kelly so i didnt get caught by myself. she ran into the bathroom on the opposite side of our room and i screamed at her not to leave me so she told me to come in. well we heard the boys coming as i ducked into the bathroom and the other six or so girls decided the bathroom was a closer and therefore safer place so they ran in too. now this bathroom is really really tiny, enough room for a sink and a toilet. so kelly decides to go to the bathroom so it doesnt get worse even though we are all in there. well lara was trying to lock the door when we hear someone outside the door and then the door flings open and a french boy shoves his head in. all girls scream and smush themselves into the farthest corner which happens to be where kelly and the toilet are. i was scared out of my mind!! so the boys finally leave but a minute later we hear a knock on the door and our reaction was to scream. but it was only dustin and nathan, there to take us to our rooms. well me and kelly went with the rest of the girls up to their side of the hostel along with the guys as our protectors. kelly went into the other girls room but i was the last one and i didnt know where to go bc i couldnt see where they had gone. so i went with dustin and nathan into their room bc it was close. then brent came down with kelly and all three guys walked me and kelly back to our room-such sweethearts. then later they walked denyce over so she could shower in our shower(otherwise she would have had to shower far away, possbly by the french boys). thats when me and kelly heard what had gone on while we were in our room. well first i found out that some french guy had grabbed my arm and dustin got mad and told him to stop and the guy asked if he wanted to fight and dustin just said no and went to find us. that freaked me out!! but i definitely thanked God for dustin a million times that night!!!!! then after me and kelly were in our room, the french boys went up to jordan and jennas room, which was not locked. they said "the pretty french boys are here" and opened the door. jordan ran and slammed the door shut and told jenna who had ear plugs in to scream. so jenna screams bloody murder and dr morgan who was in the room right next door comes out and talks to them and tells them to leave them alone. well then they they went down and knocked on dustin, brent and nathans room wanting to know where the girl was(me!). dustin decided to just talk to them so they would calm down, they kept asking for beer and weed and wanted to go dancing with american girls. so after they taught dustin some french words all was well. so then the next morning we got up and went on a guided tour of d-day all over normandy. it was probably one of my favorite things on the trip. i love history but our guide was really awesome. he was a good storyteller and he not only told us about what happened in the big picture, he also shared personal stories which made it much more meaningful. so we did that for about seven hours. we went to utah, omaha and gold beach, plus a few small towns. then we ended the tour at the american cemetary. the whole experience was just amazing! then after we got back to our hostel me and sarah and denyce went shopping in bayeux. i bought a few things and then we went back to the hostel to eat a free three course meal. it was pretty good, some weird stuff but i actually liked it! like i said im much less picky!! : ) then after dinner a big group of us went to a bar and had drinks(i didnt get anything) and hung out there for about an hour. on our way out we somehow started talking to some american army guys(it wasnt me, i dont talk to strangers!) they seemed pretty nice. well after we left one of the guys noticed that the army guys were following us... so the guys were walking behind us girls and they hatched a secret plan that was supposed to be unknown to us girls, but i knew bc i was at the back of the clump of girls and right in front of the guys, they were so funny. its nice to see the warrior come out in guys when they know they have to protect girls : ) well all that planning was for nothing bc the army guys turned down some road right before we turned down the street to go to our hostel. but some of the guys still stayed behind on the corner to "make sure" : ) so thus concluded our friday night in bayeaux. saturday morning me and sarah and denyce and beth ann and erin got up and went to the market a few blocks down. it was cool, we got some really good fruit. then i bought the two yummiest croissants in a nearby bakery. they were heavenly!! then we loaded up our luggage onto the private coach and traveled about twenty minutes to arromanche which is on gold beach(d-day british beach) and spent about three hours there. its so pretty! but it didnt smell so great... we walked on the beach for awhile and then we shopped in the little stores and ate some lunch. then we hiked up to a cliff that overlooked both gold and juno beaches and it was so pretty!! i got pictures but who knows when i will actually find time and effort to put them on here... sorry! so then we got back on the private coach and headed back to paris. but this time we stayed in a much much nicer part of town. once we got there we left our luggage and went to free dinner at a "sister" hostel. it was pretty bad... i ate barley with alot of salt and some spinach and cheese quiche... then me and sarah and beth ann and denyce and lisa went to the eiffel tower!!!!! it was so awesome!!!! we met two au pairs that were about our age, one was from australia and the other one was from austria and they had been in paris for about four weeks. we didnt know which metro to take and they were going to the eiffel tower too so we just followed them. it was about 9:30pm when we got there and the lights lit up on the tower every hour for about twenty minutes. we went all the way up to the top and got to see the entire city, it was so cool. then it took forever to get back to our hostel because we went to the wrong metro station and had to do all kinds of crazy stuff to get back. we ended up hopping over a few ticket turn stiles... we were so tired!! then sunday morning we got up at 7am(having only five hours of sleep.... on top of not getting sleep in general the entire trip) and went to mass at notre dame. it was pretty cool. of course it was catholic and in french. then after that we went to a market that was sorta far away but totally worth it. we had some really good potatoes and bought some fabulous chocolate thats from brussels(i want to go to belgium just so i can get some chocolate!). then about noon me and sarah and kristin and hannah and rachel and amanda and shelbi and brian and todd went out to versailles. it is HUGE!!!!!!!!! and the gardens are even BIGGER!!!!!! we split up once we got there-me and sarah and rachel went to the royal bedrooms, the state rooms, the hall of mirrors(only part of it though because they are working on it) and some other rooms in the house. (everyone but us three went back earlier to meet people for dinner) on the train back though we met some girls from the design school in ft lauderdale, they were really nice. then rachel made friends with a little four year old girl that was sitting across from us. she was so cute! then we went back to our hostel and me and sarah decided to go out to champs de elysee(a ritzy street with ritzy stores that has the arc de triumphe at the end). almost all the stores were closed even though it was only eight oclock. we bought some stuff at sephora and then we went to mcdonalds to get something to eat really fast. we were planning on going on a boat ride down the seine river before we met lisa and beth ann and denyce to go get some drinks. well we ended up talking to a french man named louie. he was very sweet, about 22, studying to be a lawyer. he ended up sitting at a table with us bc the only table left for me and sarah to sit at had six chairs so when he got his food after us, the only open seats were at our table. so we talked to him for a good thirty minutes. it was really cool. then we got on the metro and met the girls at the hostel to go out. we decided to go to a bar with salsa dancing that was over by notre dame that the girls had seen before they had gone back to the hostel and on our way there we ran into brent, kyle, lara, kathryn, susan and lael and they decided to come with us. so the place was pretty small and we had to squeeze into this small corner booth. but it was SO much fun! they actually had margaritas and i tried sarahs sex on the beach and it was really good too! and our waiter was awesome! denyce taught me how to salsa and we just had a good time shaking it on the dance floor : ) but it was scary bc there were a few old creepy men... we ended up saving each other more than once! ; ) after about an hour there we went back to the hostel so we wouldnt be locked out and bc we were SO exhausted!! then monday morning me and lisa and sarah got up to go to the louvre(im not much of an art person but i figured it would be cool to see the mona lisa and stuff). on the way i got two crepes with butter and sugar in them-they were SO good!!! then we stopped at a little store and we all bought a cute purse : ) mines a little clutch with a brown sequin background and varied colors of purple sequined flowers-so so cute! then we finally got to the louvre-it is SO huge!!!!!!!! we saw the mona lisa(you arent allowed to take pictures but sarah snapped a shot without getting caught) and the statue of nike and the statue of venus de milo and alot of other famous paintings that i actaully recognized. we just hit some major points and only stayed for an hour and a half but i really enjoyed it. i definitely appreciate all those pieces after seeing the real thing, it was really amazing!! then we walked down the street and went shopping! oh but before that we stopped at mcdonalds and grabbed something to eat real fast. so we went to h&m and zara. i didnt get anything a zara although i saw a ton of cute things. but at h&m i got a thing of ten eyeshadows for only 6 euros which is still about 6 dollars and a pair of huge earrings that are grayish purple and gold and a matching hair thing. im just not sure what to wear them with... probably black shirt, jeans and black heels-the old stand by : ) anyways then we went back to the hostel to get our luggage so we could leave for the metro. then after taking the metro a little bit we got off to get on the chunnel. the chunnel ride was fine, slept a little, talked to dr and mrs morgan a bit. then we got to london and took a private coach to oxford-that was pretty relaxing, i sat by myself and just listened to music. then once we got home i got online.. and thats about it. now me and sarah and kristin and denyce have to plan our trip to spain which is in about two weeks. and this weekend we are all going to greenwich and i think most of us are staying there for the evening too-texas embassy and good margaritas here we come!! : ) and i think some people are talking about going salsa dancing!!!!!!!!! im so excited!!! i love it here! we are always doing something fun and exciting! and i have really grown in so many ways!! for one thing i eat alot more stuff than i used to, which everyone will be happy about : ) i cant wait to go back a different person-traveled and experienced. well i better go... so much to do! love you all!! ~jen

alright so i shouldnt be here blogging right now... i should be praying for 45 minutes or reading a long article about power and writing a paper on it or doing my wash... oh well. theres always later or tomorrow. so last night a bunch of us went to see pride and prejudice(i love that book!!) and it was SO good!! it was so cute, the guys that went with us got all dressed up in suits and stuff : ) lisa took a picture, i will have to get it from her later and put it on here. anyways then after that we stopped by g&d's so kyle could get ice cream, and me and lisa were planning on getting some too but we only had our debit cards. so we all went back to the house and me and lisa and lael decided that we wanted to do something bc it was only 11:50. so we found out that g&d's does take cards and decided that we were going to run there to get ice cream before they closed at midnight... so we ran and got there in five minutes. (i have become more "athletic" since i have been here, feel my calf muscles and you will know lol). so lael goes to pull the door open and it wont budge. we were so mad! we were knocking on the door and all kinds of stuff(but not being obnoxious lol) but they wouldnt pay any attention to us. so we were about to walk back when lael leaned on the door and it flew open! the door said "push" and she had pulled lol so yeah we got ice cream and it was so good! i had belgian chocolate with belgian chocolate shavings-yummy!!! after we got back me and sarah read our old testament assignment, that was fun let me tell ya... epsecially at like one in the morning. then today we went to iffley church for our oxford through the ages class. it was alright. then we were supposed to go to christ church(where alot of harry potter was filmed) but it was about to close because they were having a wedding there. so me and lisa and sarah and beth ann went to eat at this little restuarant on the river called the river head. it was actually really good. then we walked back here and i have just been on the computer and talking to people. probably gonna get ice cream sometime later. should go do something productive... but im so so tired... love ya! ~jennifer

hey everybody! well today was alright... i was so exhausted from this weekend! i took a two hour nap and was still tired this afternoon. christian worhsip class was good, we get tea in there everyday so i like it even better : ) i have plans to go buy a mug at starbucks that says england on it. lisa got one and its so cute! plus we always have to byoc(bring your own cup) to worship class and all the ones in the kitchen are kinda sketchy... so im going to get my own. plus when i get back to the states it will be a good mug to put ice cream it : ) lol so today i wore my glasses(which rarely happens) and threw on my light tan shirt from gap(that i bought here that cost me less than six bucks!) and my black cardigan and my new cute jeans and my little sequined black shoes. i felt like crap and was totally not concerned with my appearance. but guess what? lol dustin and brent said my glasses looked good and both kelly and lisa told me i looked like a model... what the flip?!?! guess i should look like that more often lol oh gtg dustins here to kick us out of the lab.... love ya! ~jen

hi everybody!! well i have so much to tell you! so we went to snowdonia and it was a fun trip. we left after class on thursday around 3:45pm to go to the bus station and it was such a far walk, especially since we had to carry our luggage. but it was definitely preparation for this weekend... so we were on the train from 4:30 til 11pm. but we had fun singing and playing cards and talking on the way. then when we finally got to the last station carl(the guy who runs the hostel we were staying at) was there with his land rover to pick us and our luggage up and take us to the hostel. very nice of him but kinda scary. so then we got to the hostel and it was way cool! it was better than the houses we are staying at here. free breakfast every morning til 9:30 and a movie room and movies to rent for a pound and a bar room(that we never used) and hot showers! the room we stayed in had eight beds in one room and a sink and there were six of us. and we were by ourselves for the first two nights. ok so thursday night we went straight to sleep(well after talking for quite awhile). then on friday morning we got up early, ate breakfast and got on a bus to climb mount snowdon. yeah i know, you all think im lying lol i thought kelly was joking when she said we were going to climb a mountain. i thought yeah climb a mountain lol thats cool. but i knew it was serious when we got to the hostel and started talking about what we were going to do the next day... but i had a positive attitude, thought it would be cool to say that i had climbed a mountain. so we rode the bus up to the base of the mountain. that was an adventure in itself! the guy was going at least 70mph and at most points the two lane two way rode turned into only one lane so if two cars happened to be going opposite directions and met each other on the one lane one car/bus would have to back up until it was two lanes again and let the other car pass. plus there were parts where the rode was on the side of the mountain with only a small rail to keep you "safe". so we reached the base of the mountain and it started to lightly drizzle. after the warden gave us advice on what paths to take to the top we were on our way. i was totally pumped! so i had thought this mountain would have alot of trees and dirt paths... yeah so not the case... it had sheep in the grass and all the paths were rocky. and if you know anything about climbing rocks and wetness is NOT GOOD!! but we are college kids and decided to go for it anway. the hike up took us two and a half hours and was really hard on my lower body seeing as how i dont exercise ever. i was so exhausted by the time we reached the summit. the top of the moutain was cold and since we were "walking in the clouds" we were picking up all the precipitation so our clothes and hair began to get wet. we ate our peanut butter sandwiches and digestives(these yummy cookies that are essentially a round graham cracker with chocolate on top) and rested for about thirty minutes before beginning our climb down. me and sarah really wanted to take the train down but it left before we could get on. so the climb down was easier and harder than the climb down... going up really wears you out, we had to keep taking breaks. but the climb down is easier on your body(although it works different muscles) but its more dangerous because its easier to slip and fall. i fell on my butt a few times, but nothing bad. kelly slipped and fell on the way up when we stopped by this little stream. she went to touch the water and slipped and busted her chin and scraped her knee. it was so bad, but she claimed she was fine. so on the way down we got completely soaked because it started raining. i mean to the bone. i HATE being wet, well i take showers whatever lol but i dont like getting caught in the rain and whatnot. i freak out. but i was totally fine with being wet on the way down. of course i was probably the most uncomfortable i have ever been in my life and i was not too happy to have to remain wet til we got back to our hostel which was about three hours after we were done climbing the mountain. and i said i did not want to see another rock for the rest of my life!! lol so the bus we had to take back to our hostel wasnt coming for another two and a half hours. so we decided to take another bus that was coming in thirty minutes but was going in the direction opposite of our hostel. the plan was to then take another bus to our hostel. we would be getting there about the same time as the other bus that was leaving much later. but we preferred to be doing something instead of just sitting at the base of the mountain in the cold rain. so we took the bus soaking wet and got off at the stop and ate at this little cafe. i got a bacon, avocado, mozarella cheese toasted sandwich. sounds kinda good right? well it was sorta weird... i took off the "bacon" because it was really slabs of ham, gross! but i was so hungry i ate the rest of it. plus i had chocolate fudge coffee-it was really good after i added a large amount of sugar : ) then we caught our other bus that took us back to our hostel. when we got back we all showered(which was WONDERFUL!!!!!) and then we decided to put our soaked clothes and shoes in the "drying" room. sounds smart right?? NO! BAD IDEA!!!!!!! we figured out the hard way that the drying room is really the keep wet room. it was so humid in there that everything just retained its moisture... stupid! so anyways we watched good will hunting in the cool lounge room, i had never seen that movie. it was SO good!!! well it kinda helped that both matt damon and ben affleck were in it ; ) so i discovered the next morning that both my shoes and my only pair of jeans were still half way soaked. sucky! brent had the same problem so we ended up sitting on the floor of our hostel room using the blow dryer to get our pants to a wearable state. it was SO ridiculous!! so then once we were ready we went down to the tourist information center to get directions on how to get to black rock sands beach and the castle in criccieth. once we had them we set out on the longest journey of my life! the first part of it was okay except for the fact that the directions werent very clear and we walked an unnecessary amount of time. but once we reached the beach it was so wonderful! the sun was shining and there was a bit of a breeze. we sat on the rocks and ate the sandwiches we had bought at this little cafe. me being plain jane got turkey, lettuce and cheese on a baguette and i ended up splitting it with brent because he ordered some nasty sandwich. it was mexican chicken and he asked for pickles on it which turned out to be not pickles at all, but rather a purple looking jam. needless to say it was disgusting! not even josh would eat it which says alot! so then we decided to go on a trail up over the rocks to another part of the beach. and there we got to walk out on a sand bar-the water was SO cold but felt good once we got used to it : ) it was so beautiful! then we followed lisa and kelly up over some rocks to another part of the beach where we could see the castle we were planning on seeing. so from there we decided to walk to the town of criccieth to see the castle because it SEEMED close... thus begins the journey of hell... no joke! so we walked along the beach, towards the castle, for about a mile. it was alright except that my hip began hurting(it has started to do that lately when we walk alot... oh well). so because of my hip and the fact that i was so sick of walking, i remained about twenty or thirty yards behind everyone else. i felt so bad because they kept stopping for me to catch up. so then once we had reached the end of that part of the beach it was time for us to begin walking towards the land so we could go over the cliff that was blocking our walk along on the beach. but not before stopping to check out some caves near the cliff. they werent anything to talk about, in fact they smelled pretty bad. so then we walked through a campsite and had to jump a barb wire fence to get to the road that would supposedly take us to the castle. well we obviously got lost because we ended up at a dead end near a bunch of farm houses. so josh stopped and asked a welsh farm boy how to get to the castle. after he nicely told us where to go we began the worst part of the journey. the boys directions took us down a steep and rocky trail that was covered in mud. once we had made our way through that we reached the beach on the other side of the cliff that had previously thwarted our beach walk. well this beach was hell! it was covered, and i mean COVERED! there was no sand in sight, in mulitcolored rocks about the size of my fist. and this stretch of beach that we had to walk down was probably two miles long(of course im a bad estimator AND an exaggerator... lol). and on top of that the castle still seemed as far away as ever. i was seriously on the verge of tears. my hip was hurting so bad and we had been walking a total of about three hours. like i said... the journey of hell! i cant even put into words my feelings of despair at that time... i had said i never wanted to see another rock in my life and i made sure to remind God that this was not a funny joke... so anyways we finally reached the edge of the town of criccieth and found out when the buses back to our hostel were coming because there was no way we were walking back! so then we were on our way to the castle but all of us were famished so we decided to stop at this little tea room that was close by. it was exaclty what i needed! i got a small pot of tea, a piece of chocolate cake and a scone with butter. plus i ate the peanut butter sandwich sarah had made for me that morning. i was feeling much better after that. plus brent retold our journey in a humurous way so that we could laugh about it-it was the only healthy way of dealing with it. when we left the tea room it was about 5:30pm. so we headed for the castle and when we got there the lady told us that we only had thirty minutes to go around the castle which wasnt enough time and we still would have to pay full price. so we bought some things in the gift shop and left... so then we hopped on the bus back to our hostel and were so thankful to be "home." we took showers and then me and sarah and kelly went just down the street to this fish and chips place to get some dinner. i got a chicken and vegetable pie and chips. the lady asked me if i wanted gravy and i told her on the side and do you know what she did? she poured it on the chips which were to the side of my pie lol ...on the side... anyways i was kinda nervous about this pie bc i am such a picky eater but it was just about the best thing i have ever eaten!! i was very surprised and so happy to eat a good meal. then after dinner we all watched the green mile. that movie is so good but it scares me SO bad!!!! lol and ive seen it like three times. plus i cried at the end, its so sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! me and josh were the only ones in the group that had seen it before. kelly was bawling! she started when percy kills mr jingles and i dont think she ever really stopped. so then we went to bed and the next morning we got up and walked around the shops and bought some lunch at tesco which is like wal mart. my lunch consisted of a bag of potato chips, strawberries, raspberries and a bottle of water. lol needless to say i was HUNGRY by the time we got off the train in oxford at 5:30pm. i was so glad to be "home!" so i took a shower and got ready for nine at nine(our sunday night worship time at nine oclock in house nine) and unpacked my bags. then me and sarah made some dinner and went to house nine. it was so good tonight! i was crying the whole time!! brent was part of the group that was leading it and he talked about how abraham had prayed for so long for isaac and then God asked him to sacrifice isaac but that God had provided an offering. and how that story related to his relationships back home, that he had finally found friends that he really trusted and then he had to leave for oxford which is where he knew God was leading him but that bc of that he had to "sacrifice" those relationships to God but that he knew God would provide. and i started bawling! thats exactly where im at right now! i know im supposed to be here and i love being here. but there are people back in the states that i have left behind, people that i finally found that i had been waiting for and now i have to leave them. and i know that its all Gods plan and timing and im cool with that but brent put all of that into words and it really hit me hard. and then we stayed an extra hour and just prayed and i started crying again when we were taking praying requests because there are so many people here that are going through some hard times and it just tugged at my heart... hard. but it was good : ) so i think thats about it for this weekend... love ya! ~jen

ok so me and sarah and lisa and kelly and josh and brent are leaving for snowdonia in about 15 minutes! snowdonia is in wales, and supposedly its more of a "nature" trip so it should be very interesting because im not much of a nature person... i dont do mountain climbing and whatnot but our group is really fun so im excited! we are staying til sunday night so i will try to update when we get back and tell you about my fabulous adventure!! : ) much love! ~jen

oh man! i was just telling carino in an email that i cannot resist guys who smell good!! there have been quite a few guys who walk past us on the street and as they pass, you can smell them and they smell SO good!!! lol i told her that im pretty sure about 50 percent of my attraction to a guy is how good he smells : ) lol it sounds so silly but its the truth. and when a guy smells good, all i want is for him to hug me so i can bury my head is in chest. ok anyways no more of that.... lol so friday night me and sarah and lisa and brent and kelly and kathryn and susan all went to see the importance of being earnest(one of my favorite plays, we read it my senior year of high school). and it was only 7 pounds(abut 13 dollars). needless to say that play was wonderful and the actors and actresses were fabulous! but on the way there, me and brent were walking behind everybody and after we passed this little resstaurant where people were eating outside, brent turns to me and says "you just got checked out twice... and once was by a girl." ewwwwwww!!!!! ewwww!!!!!!! ewwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!! all i could do was scream!!!!!!!!!!!!! i mean of course i was laughing as well because i alway laugh but i was SO grossed out!!!!!!!!!!!! so then after the play we went to g&d's to get some ice cream and it was fabulously delicious as usual : ) then saturday sarah and lisa and i went to LONDON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was so amazing!!!!!!!!!!!! i had the most fabulous time EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so we left the house at the insane hour of eight and were at the bus station at eight thirty. then we bought a pack of twelve tickets and went to board the bus. well the driver was in a very grumpy mood. sarah put the ticket in the wrong way and it spit it back out at her and she couldnt figure out how to do it, so the driver yelled "bloody rubbish! just get on!" so the bus ride was about an hour and a half and some alarm resounded throughout the bus for about half that time... good thing i was asleep! : ) so once we got off the bus we headed straight for buckingham palace. its so HUGE!!! we were really looking forward to seeing the changing of the guards but it turns out that in september they only change every other day and we happened to be there on an off day... oh well, we will save that for another time. took a tour of the states rooms which was really cool. we got a free audio tour which was nice because you can go at your own pace and you dont have to listen to it if you dont want to. that took about an hour and a half. then after that we went to the gift shop and i bought presents for my family. i cant wait to show them!! and i bought myself a little girls shirt thats light pink and in sliver glitter it says "pussy cat pussy cat where have you been?" on the front and then on the back it says "ive been to london to see the queen" its really cute : ) so then we bought a day pass at the subway station and headed to leicester square to buy discount tickets to see chicago on broadway!! : ) and we got a good deal, 21.50 per person. so then we walked around leicester square a bit and then got back on the subway to go to picadilly circus. that was pretty cool, its where they have that huge billboard i guess you could say, with mcdonalds signs and such. and we bought souvenir stuff at this little shop called fancy that. then we got back on the subway and headed to trafalgar square, where we took pictures at the fountain. but they had a concert and art tent and a bunch of stuff set up. then we realized that big ben and westminster abbey were right down the road. so we went to see them, and houses of parliament and the london eye(a big ferris wheel by the thames river), and take pictures. we wanted to take the tours but it was too late. so we are going to save that for another time. then we headed back to tralfagar square to eat dinner at the texas embassy cantina. it was SO good!!!! we had margaritas(YUMMY!!!!!!!!-i finally found an alcoholic drink that i like) and mexican food!!!!! it was SO SO SO good!!!!!!!!!!! then after that we walked around a bit more and realized that we could have walked everywhere instead of taking the subway. but now we are subway experts and it was fun : ) so then we headed to adelphi theatre for the show. we supposedly had "bad" seats but we could see the stage and the actors/actresses really well. but we moved down a few rows after the first act because there were alot of open seats. then after the show(which was SO FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) then we headed back to the subway station but decided to go see the thames at night because it was just on the other side of the station. it was really pretty! then we got on the subway and went to our bus stop and talked to two guys there. one really hated america and especially texas and george bush. he was hilarious! but his friend said he liked texas, but he was from sydney australia. so then we thought our bus had arrived but when we went to get on he said that the pickup stop was down the road and something something something, who knows why we couldnt have just gotten on there.... so we waited a few more minutes and another bus came by and we asked him where the stop was we were supposed to be at and he told us to get on and that he would take us there, he was very nice. so then we got on the right bus and it was the driver that left us at the stop was there along with another guy, who turned out to be our driver. so we talked to them for a while because we were the first ones on the bus and they were SO funny!!!!!! then we had an hour and a half trip back home on that bus. we were so exhausted by the time we got to oxford. and my feet were so dirty! it was disgusting!! i was planning on wearing my tennis shoes but i got "wounds" on my feet from walking in a new pair of shoes for too long and when i put my tennis shoes on that morning they were rubbing right where my "wounds" were and i wasnt even walking yet. so i had no choice but to wear my flip flops. they were comfortable but my feet just got really dirty... sickness!!!!!!! so anyways yeah london was a BLAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! then on sunday i didnt do anything... slept til 1:30pm and then did a little homework and went to "nine at nine" and after that i called my grandmas house to talk to all of my family(we go over there every sunday after church). so then today was alright... class. then me and sarah and kelly and brent and josh went to the train station to buy tickets for our trip to snowdonia this weekend. that was an interesting excursion... the train man was very mean but he said "cheers" after every sentence, it was SO annoying!!! anyways so then we had to get a rail pass so we could get a third off and to get that pass we had to have a passport size picture... yeah like i keep those in my back pocket... so they had this convenient little booth right there for people like us. well it cost 3.50 and it took four pictures so since there were six of us we jumped in one right after the other. you are supposed to sit there and get four pics taken but we had four ppl share one roll. so we had this little jump in jump out act lol everyone in the train station was staring at us. it was SO funny!!!!!! so i think thats about it.... theres a fair here in oxford that most people are at. me and sarah didnt go, im not much of a fair person. plus i really should be working on my homework... oh well. so im gonna go try to load all my pictures onto a website so all yall can see them!! ~jen

from the mouth of courtney:" i am getting tired of her telling me what to do ...squash, whatever like its a vegetable anyway" only a few people on this trip, or those that know the british language, will get this : )

well im bored... and trying to evade the long list of things i have to do... so i dont have much to blog but i can relate my happenings last night and this morning : ) so me and lisa and sarah and erin and brian and kyle and todd went to get ice cream and let me tell ya... those boys are useless! we invited them so we would be safe walking the streets around midnight but they decided they were going to run to g&d's(the ice cream place we have come to love) and leave us behind... lol but we love em anyway : ) they did wait for us to walk back, and todd "stopped traffic" so we could cross the street so he earned a point ; ) then i got back, got on the computer for a few minutes before the lab closed, read for some of my classes, tanned myself and then went to bed. then this morning i woke up late yet again... but this time i was like five or ten minutes late... ughhhhh. i can not get in the habit of being late to class!!! i need to work on my punctuality BIG TIME!!!!!!! so we had old testament which ended at 10:30 and then i dont have my other class(wisdom literature and devotion-one of my favorites!) til 1pm. so i guess i will be a good little student and get some homework done before the weekend starts since we are going to london all day saturday(more about that later!!!) gtg, kristin tells me she left a comment and i must read it!!! : ) ~jen

hi everyone! well i dont feel like blogging much... kristin is not here in the computer lab bugging me about posting lol love you kristin!! so me and lisa are about to get some ice cream... if we ever get off the computer : ) we are the last ones in here every night!! but we are not lame! oh and i think i need to clear up a misconception regarding an earlier post : ) one i do not have a thing for butts, seriously! two i dont have a thing for brian, seriously! me and lisa have an inside joke about slapping butts and while in the lab, she chose the guy sitting closest to me... which just HAPPENED to be brian. so now we are all clear... i hope! : ) so i think me and lisa are about to leave... oh wait... some guy lisa is talking to is saying stuff about me and i dont even know him and i am blushing... not good! ill post later, promise! love ya!!!! ~jen

hello! well today has been alright... i started off a little on the wrong foot by waking up thirty minutes before class... and i had to take a shower! but amazingly i made it there just one minute late! so i had old testament with dr willis and then dr morgan decided it would be a good idea to have our oxford thru the ages class in the backyard... yuck! i mean it was a nice day and everything but i never realized how many bugs are out there! it was seriously nasty!! so after that me and sarah and a bunch of other people went to the open market near the center of town. it was SO much fun!! theres a bunch of stands set up in this small space and the vendors yell really loud stuff like "four mango now one pound" over and over. but there is so much fruit and vegetables and meat its crazy! and its all very very fresh and quite cheap too. theres also people selling crafts(my favorite lol) and clothes and coloring books and all sorts of things. but the food is the reason we were all there. so me and sarah bought a thing of strawberries, a thing of raspberries, two cucumbers, two avocados, ten nectarines, ten tangerines, and some feta cheese. all for six pounds, which is under twelve dollars. anyways so im sure you all were dying to know my grocery shopping habits.... anyways then we came back and i got online... one of my bad habits here... that and not being able to control my laughter... oh well. then it was off to our international studies class about great britain. i officially HATE that class!!!! a NINE page paper... what the crap?!?!?! plus journals and news articles and 20 hours of community service and a few more papers, all about three pages each. i seriously think im going to die!!!!!! if i was in abilene taking like 24 hours i would have less work than i do here... not even joking!!! but everyone here is in the same boat so at least im not alone... so after we sat in class for two and a half hours(thank goodness i had courtney sitting next to me to entertain me!!) me and lisa and sarah and courtney went to eat dinner at pizza express. and i discovered that all the cute british boys(whom i thought did not exist) eat there : ) our waiter was wonderful, i dont know his name bc they dont believe in nametags here or something, but he gave us ice in our water pitcher(the british dont put ice in their drinks at all) and had the chef cut our pizza into slices(everyone around us had whole pizzas and were cutting them with knives and eating the pieces with forks...). he must have known we were americans : ) he was pretty cute but just a little too old for me... i told lisa i would totally date him if he were a bit younger : ) so then we walked back in the drizzle and about half way home this lady was sitting on the sidewalk(just so you know there was no one on the streets) and she had a cup in front of her. and as we passed she said "any spare change?" and courtney politely said "no we arent from around here..." and the lady yells back "what does that matter? people are homeless all over the world!!" it was the most frightening experience i have had so far here. actually i take that back. the most frightening experience was when we were waiting for the train from warwick back to oxford. me and lisa and sarah and nathan and josh and courtney were all standing in a circle by the tracks, me and lisa had our backs to the tracks. and as we were talking, and as i was not paying attention to the train station, this train comes speeding by. and i mean SPEEDING!!!!! and i didnt even know it was there til i felt the effect of the wind rushing by long after the front end of the train had passed us. it was so strong!!!! i stepped forward, screaming, as the wind blew all of my hair to right side of my head. lisa had the same reaction! it was SO scary!!! its kinda like getting an injury and you dont start crying til you see the blood... so yeah... i think thats about all for today. many are sitting on the computer waiting for me to post my blog... lol so to save them from their boredom i will publish this : ) love you all!!!! ~jen