Mind the Gap!

As you look over the following list of our adventures in London and you start to scroll faster and faster wondering when you're going to reach the end, remember that we spent twice as much time here as anywhere else. Be patient. I'm only listing this for fear I'll receive threats of being kicked out of the family (like I did having not reported France) again if I don't. I'll write specific experience in detail as time permits, later on, probably once I get home. I'm categorizing these, rather than listing them chronologically as I did before, for clarity's sake.

Shows seen:

Les Mis

Phantom of the Opera

Oliver

Lion King

MacBeth (at the Globe)

39 Steps

Fantasticks

Wicked

Meetings attended (the "Study Abroad" part of this experience):

Conoco Phillips

KPMG

Deloitte

IASB

ICAEW

ACCA

Places eaten at:

Chando's (our favorite)

Pizza Hut (our other favorite)

Wagamama's

Pizza Express

Dutch Panacake

Horrible Italien Place

McDonalds

Sights Seen:

London Tower (Crown Jewels)

Changing of the Guard

Downing Street

Stonehenge

Windsor Castle

Bath (Jane Austin's house and the ancient Roman Baths)

Cambridge (went punting!)

Canterbury

Dover

Harrod's

Primark

National Gallery

British Museum

Hyde Park

Speaker's Corner

Trafalgar Square

St. Peter's

St. Paul's

Millenium Bridge

Globe Theatre

Tate Modern (gotta love the free museum policy in London)

That's all I can think of for now. I'll add more and pictures later.

France Update

Whoa! I miss out on a lot when I don't check my blog for a week! Thanks to all of you for your interest in my life :) Due to unforeseen internet complications (and frustrations) as well as my ipod freezing all the time for some reason, I haven't been able to access the internet frequently and even when I have, the time has had to be spent on doing stuff for PwC (love the firm, hate the red tape). Anyway...

Where to start? Well, I just feel like it's going to be so inadequate to try to tell you all about Paris because I can't possibly recreate my experience. I'll just say I had a phenominal experience in Paris. I absolutely loved it and fell in love with the city (nothing like Robyn's experience, for those of you who follow her blog too). Only by popular demand will I give a list of the majority of things we did in Paris (sadly there won't be any pictures).

*Walked the Champs Elysees
*Arc De Triumph- climbed up top
*The Louvre- Mona Lisa of course
*Musee L'Orangerie (my favorite museum- Monet's water lillies... rooms and rooms of them!)
*Musee D'Orsay (just for you Dad, because you said you love it so much. Saw a couple of original Van Goghs there, which was cool. I just loved seening the building though- it is a train station converted into a museum)
*The Tulleries Gardens (my ABSOLUTE favorite place in Paris)
*walking by the Seine- street painters, entertainers
*Notre Dame- mass on Sunday, fed the birds outside (or at least tried to), bread from the bread festival outside
*Crepes! Lots of crepes. We found the BEST crepe place on about the third day we were there and from that point on only ate there, no matter where in the city we were. They wer huge and so amazingly delicious. They didn't even compare to any of the other crepes in the city
*Versailles (unfortunately biking didn't work out Cam)- beautiful. I loved Marie Antoinette's village at the back- I could totally picture myself playing there with my sisters when we were little... or now :)
*Eiffel Tower- went to the top one night, and had a picnic below it the last night (cheese, bread, chocolate, sparkling cider)- it was the favorite experience for all of us
*Read in the park
*Attended the French ward
*Paris Opera House- beautiful... I want to see an Opera there someday
*Sacre Coure- also beautiful and also just for you Dad
*Saint Chappell- (stained glass windows of the entire Bible) half of it was under construction, but the rest was great
*Van Gogh's house
*Moulin Rouge
*Pantheon crypt- saw the resting place of Marie Curie, Victor Hugo, Dumas, Louis Braille
*Shakespeare Bookstore (oldest bookstore in the world... supposedly)- I purchased The Hunchback of Notre Dame - thought that was fitting :)
*rode the Chunnel to London- half our group missed it... that was exciting

That's all I can think of... I hope that satisfies and that I can stay part of the family!! I love you all!

Longing for blogging

Hello there. It's been a while. As you know I've been traveling the world for the past two weeks (ish) and haven't had a computer... well, haven't had a computer for most of that time. I'll confess, I've had Robyn's computer for the past three days and have yet to blog until now. I think there's something to be said for the mindset of the blogger, and without blogging for all that time, I started to lose my mindset as such, and thus am only now blogging again.

Part of me is afraid to write anything. You see, I know I cannot capture everything, not even a smidge, really, of everything I've experienced in the past 11 days (is that really how long it's been?). Sometimes it seems as though I was home only yesterday and the time has flown by, but more often than not it seems as though a lifetime has past, with a lifetime's worth of lessons learned in the process. So I've decided that completely relating my experience is not my intent. I will strive to capture merely a couple of my thoughts in my posts, rather than try (and undoubtably fail) to relate my experience here.

It's somewhat mind-boggling to look back on all that has happened during the past 11 days. That Wednesday morning that I left, I had doubts, not even sure if I wanted to embark on this seemingly crazy adventure with a bunch of people whom (for the most part) I didn't even know, leaving family and friends behind. Standing here now, looking back, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I have 18 new best friends, five of whom I know I will stay in touch with for the rest of my life. If only for that one blessing, my trip to Europe has been the trip of a lifetime. As was the toast on the lawn at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on our last night in Paris, "to good memories, good food, and good friends!" I'd like to add also, "to good conversation," which, with all of the bus-riding and walking we do, is a very prevalent and pleasant pastime of ours.

{Dave, Ben, Katie, Jordan, Lauren, Addi}

We started in Paris, five wonderful days in Paris, during which time we absolutely fell in love with the city, preferring to walk the streets as much as possible, simply to soak in as much of the "Paris experience" as possible. We've moved now to London, and with most of our time to date having been spent in meetings, have yet to fall in love with London like we did Paris, but have not given up hope that that will happen as we have more time to spend in the city this upcoming week. Meeting up with Robyn and touring her flat is probably the highlight of my time in London thus far. She is so happy here and it makes me so happy to see her that way. She showed me all around her town the first day, making for a perfect introduction to a beautiful, bustling city.

Well, I'm afraid I must call it a night for now, as my roommates are trying to sleep and are only being so kind as to ignore the clicking of my computer keys. Until tomorrow then. Cheerio!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow!

I love ya, tomorrow! You're only half an hour away!

Then... Paris!

This will be me in less than 24 hours:

I'll take a pic and see how close I can come :)

So... for those of you who don't know, I am leaving the country tomorrow and will be gone for just under a month (or three and a half weeks... it sounds shorter if I say it that way... actually I can't decide which way it sounds shorter or longer, so pick your pleasure). I am not taking my computer, so I won't be able to blog frequently about my adventures, but I will surely have access to computers intermittently and will post comprehensive entries when possible.

So, France tomorrow, London next week... I'll be with Robyn a week from today!

Until my next post, au revoir!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day

...especially to my Mother Dear!

My cute parents.

Mom with the kids and the beautiful two-layer cake that Carmen made.

Rob, we missed you.

Dad and his Mother.

We love you Grandma Webb!

Soccer Super Star

David Timmins. #15. Soccer Superstar!

I went to my little brother's soccer game today and was so impressed!

He's an awesome soccer player!

Here he is taking on the biggest guy on the other team like it's no big deal.

...But for him, it probably isn't.

He has sweet moves and faces I didn't even know he was capable of making.

Right after a header... probably his third one of the half.

Go Dave!!

Thoughts on a Friday Afternoon

The latest things in my life of note:

1. I am now officially IFRS Certified! This means that I now know all about the new accounting standards (International Financial Reporting Standards as opposed to the current GAAP standards) that most of the world has already switched to. The US is in the process of switching with the approximate date of full conversion sometime in 2015... or thereabouts... it changes. Anyway, this is the future of accounting. Instead of every country reporting in different ways, pretty soon it will all be standardized, which is great, except that it means everything I've learned (all in accordance with GAAP) will soon be obsolete. Good thing I'm now IFRS certified! We accountants always like to be on the cutting edge of things.

2. Next apparently anyone who is a registered student can park in graduate parking during the Spring and Summer terms. Seriously!?!?! This was just confirmed today by Dave who called BYU police. Who knew? All this time (ok, really only the past two weeks) I've walking, what, and extra 200 yards for nothing!?! Well, you can be sure I'm going to live it up in graduate parking for my last day of school on Monday.

3. Another fun fact about Provo regulations, or lack thereof I suppose is this. Apparently anyone can walk into a jewelry store and, if you know which name to say, can pick up any diamond ring they please. I was charged with the task of picking up Becky's diamond ring from the jewelers today after it had been cleaned to take it to Salt Lake tomorrow for her and I just walked right in, asked for Becky's ring, signed my name, and walked out. No questions asked! They didn't ask if I was her, much less if I even knew her! I could have walked out with any number of rings!

4. Last thought. There is a duck pond at the south end of campus that I've walked past many times, more than I can count. For a year of my BYU education it was part of my commute to school so I'd pass it at least twice a day. Somehow it's true that I've never actually stopped to feed the ducks... until this week! We fed the ducks yesterday! It was so much fun! It was so entertaining to watch!

We'd throw a piece of bread and one duckling would grab it and run away from everyone as fast as he could, not even taking the time to eat! This happened every time... probably 20 times in a row.