Here it is, 27 Palace Court -- the BYU London Centre. There are 40 girls living here, so I perfectly understand the girl, whoever she is, that wrote on the bottom of my bed: "Find a fortress of solitude...and use it often." With so many girls packed into one place it's definitely hard to be alone, but it's also hard to get bored. We have class on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Wednesdays are our
day trips, and weekends we just play. Actually...we kind of just play everyday. It's a sort of cleansing experience here for all of us -- no jobs, no boys, no phones, no keys (thank goodness for doors with codes, losing my keys is one of the things I definitely haven't missed yet). It's definitely a unique living situation, but we're all loving it. We eat breakfast everyday at 7:30, then meet together each night at 4:45 for Evensong. This is where our professors give us announcements, someone gives a mini-devotional, we pray, and sing our Evensong that Dr. Durham (our Fine Arts professor)
wrote for us. I'm loving it here, even with the random mice-sightings (ew) and the overstock of Nutella. Our classroom is right below our dorms, so it's nice to just wake up and go to class. I guess it's the closest I'll ever get to experiencing homeschool. The only downside was the day when London got some crazy snow, so everything shut down, including the schools -- but our professors didn't really agree with us when we felt like we should have a snow day, too. Our 3 professors live in the flat next door to us, which is connected to ours. Downstairs we have a servery, a dining
room, a drawing room and a library. I'll let you guess which one is empty the most. There are books in the drawing room with pictures of all the London groups that have come to the centre since it opened, and girls have had fun showing each other friends, siblings and even parents that have studied here at the London Centre at one time or another. There are some days when it feels like we've lived here forever, or days when I wonder what it felt like to live in a room by myself instead of with 13 other girls...but mostly, there are just days when I still can't believe I'm here.
Here it is, 27 Palace Court -- the BYU London Centre. There are 40 girls living here, so I perfectly understand the girl, whoever she is, that wrote on the bottom of my bed: "Find a fortress of solitude...and use it often." With so many girls packed into one place it's definitely hard to be alone, but it's also hard to get bored. We have class on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Wednesdays are our
day trips, and weekends we just play. Actually...we kind of just play everyday. It's a sort of cleansing experience here for all of us -- no jobs, no boys, no phones, no keys (thank goodness for doors with codes, losing my keys is one of the things I definitely haven't missed yet). It's definitely a unique living situation, but we're all loving it. We eat breakfast everyday at 7:30, then meet together each night at 4:45 for Evensong. This is where our professors give us announcements, someone gives a mini-devotional, we pray, and sing our Evensong that Dr. Durham (our Fine Arts professor) 
wrote for us. I'm loving it here, even with the random mice-sightings (ew) and the overstock of Nutella. Our classroom is right below our dorms, so it's nice to just wake up and go to class. I guess it's the closest I'll ever get to experiencing homeschool. The only downside was the day when London got some crazy snow, so everything shut down, including the schools -- but our professors didn't really agree with us when we felt like we should have a snow day, too. Our 3 professors live in the flat next door to us, which is connected to ours. Downstairs we have a servery, a dining 
room, a drawing room and a library. I'll let you guess which one is empty the most. There are books in the drawing room with pictures of all the London groups that have come to the centre since it opened, and girls have had fun showing each other friends, siblings and even parents that have studied here at the London Centre at one time or another. There are some days when it feels like we've lived here forever, or days when I wonder what it felt like to live in a room by myself instead of with 13 other girls...but mostly, there are just days when I still can't believe I'm here.
Maddie! I can't believe how much fun you're having! I'm totally jealous! :) I'm excited that you have a blog so I can keep track of you better. Love ya!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting these pictures! I'm heading to London for BYU's summer term so I've been trying to figure out what to expect. I ran across your blog through google, so thanks for keeping things updated!
ReplyDeleteI am obsessed with you. Why do you get to do all these great things? I just love love love you and can not wait for you to get back! Bah!
ReplyDeleteJust found your blog - I spent a fall semester there with BYU (way too many years ago to mention) and I still get heartsick missing London. Fun to hear you've found the messages under beds (have you checked under the desk in the library? If the same one is even still there.) Hope you don't mind me looking at all your great pictures - I feel like I was able to "re-do" a little of my study (um, shopping) abroad tonight!
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