Well, about June. On the 4th I took the dreaded exam that I had been studying for over the last two months. I needed a 50% to pass, so on each question, I simply looked at the requirements and thought, "Can I get 50% of these points?". I haven't had the results yet as they said it would take 10 weeks to get them back, but if I pass it will be a close one. Suffice it to say that working full time and studying in all the other hours is not the easiest thing in the world, so we'll see. Either way, I couldn't have been happier when that test was finished! I felt free to only have work to worry about.
Also in June my flatmate and I, the girl who I had been getting along quite well with, had a major falling out. Basically she was quite rude about my friends from KC who were visiting, and my boyfriend. I haven't spoken to her since. I think what it all boils down to is that she doesn't like to have anyone in the flat other than the three who are paying to live there, and she refuses to talk to me about it until she blows up and makes a mess of everything (these are things our other flatmate, Andrea, had to tell me b/c she wouldn't). I had even given her a wide open chance to say something, when she and I went to a pub one night during the time when we still liked each other, and whilst there I asked if there was something bothering her about James (b/c she had always been a bit of a bitch to him). She just blew the whole thing off and kept telling me it was just bad timing when she was around him. Anyway the way she treated him made me feel like I had to choose between the two of them, and seeing as how I had only known her a whole two months longer and she was turning out to be quite a different person than I had thought, it was him. She treated my friends that came to visit the same way that she did James, just shutting herself in her room and refusing to make an effort. The whole thing culminated in a text message that was addressed to Andrea and mysteriously came to my phone instead. She was downright rude and calling my friends names and being equally nasty about James. She tried to apologise in another text, but it was completely qualified and just made excuses for herself. So that was that, and it is rather uncomfortable in my flat now. Andrea has tried to get us all together for a chat, but it just hasn't happened. We'll see where it all goes.
So that was a bad bit about June, but it was really a spectacular month b/c my grandma came to visit (the same one who was with me the first two weeks after moving) with a friend of hers! They were in Europe for a total of two weeks and did London, Ireland, and Paris. While they were in London we went to a church down the road from me which is a proper Church of England denomination (think catholic), but afterward they had a little picnic and it ended up being so fun! I met loads of people from my neighborhood, and there was so much good food and wine. The only downside was that most of the people were quite a bit older than me. I went back to the church though a couple of Sundays later and didn't see any of the people that I had met, so it was a bit disappointing. I also decided that the service was much too formal for my taste, having grown up in much more laid-back churches. So the search for a good church continues. During grandma's visit I took off a Friday and Monday and went to meet them in Paris for a long girls weekend. It was fantastic but fairly tiring, as I was the one who had been to Paris before I was kind of responsible for getting us around the city, and kind of planning a lot of the trip. But it was still great fun and nice to get away from work for a few days. While in London they of course met James for the first time, and grandma really liked him! She kept asking what he was doing everyday, and if he could come meet us.
One weekend in June when grandma wasn't here, James took me to Greenwich to meet up with some of his good friends. Greenwich is kind of a suburb of London, accessible on the tube but fairly far out. It's right on the river though so quite nice. And also the place where the Greenwich meridian is, although we didn't go to see it. There is a Saturday market there which has loads of good food and about anything else you could want. It was father's day and one of my brother's birthdays at the end of June, so I got a few cool London-y t-shirts for my brother and a puzzle of the Thames river for dad. Apparently my brother loves the shirts, he always asks my mom if she's done the laundry when they're dirty so that he can have them back to wear - result! Before the market we met one of James's friends for a curry buffet, and ate entirely too much. But we didn't stop there - we then made our way to a milkshake shop before heading to the market. After the market we went to Greenwich park and just hung out for a few hours in the rare British sunshine. It was sooo relaxing - I even fell asleep on James's lap for a while! We then headed to a pub, and then another all-you-can-eat buffet, this time Chinese, for another friend's birthday. I think I ate about a week's worth of calories in that one day... We went dancing for a bit to finish off the day, so kind of made up for it, right?
Hmm think that's about it for June, nearly caught up now! Oh also, the reason that I haven't been giving more "translations" is b/c I think I've done them all...I can't decide whether I've done them all or that I'm becoming so acclimatised to the British way of speaking that I can't think of the differences anymore! Need a holiday in America! :)
Cheers, miss you all everyday,
Heather xoxo
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
May 2009
Hello again! See, I said I would be a little more consistent from now on...
So about the month of May, even though it was ages ago now. In England, there aren't very many proper holidays - there is Christmas, New Year's, Easter, and then "bank holidays". How boring and so very English is that? Anyway in May there are two bank holidays - one at the end and one at the beginning to make for two nice long three day weekends. The first I didn't do much other than study - yes, the month of May was very consumed with work and studying, again. Don't I lead a super exciting life that's worth blogging about?
Well anyway work did actually lead to a rather exciting trip at the end of May - I went to Bulgaria for a few days as one of my clients owns some property there. I always love to see new places, so I was quite excited to go! We went to the capital, Sofia, and stayed in the Hilton which was...the same as every other Hilton. Sofia was interesting though - you can still definitely see the communist influences in the architecture and infrastructure, but there is a load of construction going on as well that seems to have a western influence too. A lot of the buildings were old and pretty dilapidated - chunks of the wall missing, paint peeling, etc., but then right next to these buildings would be a sparkling new high rise. The most startling thing to my spoiled American eyes was the "buses" - more like trams really, that literally looked like they had come straight out of 1945. Well, not straight b/c then they wouldn't have been in the state they were in. Here is a picture:
To be fair, here is a picture of the city, hopefully you can see how beautiful it is:
And for good measure, this is how you spell "McDonald's" in Bulgarian:
So that was Bulgaria. To back track a bit, in the middle of May I had my first official guest in my flat - my friend Lina came to visit from Sweden! She was only here for a short weekend, but it was still so good to have her. She had lived in London herself for a few years several years ago, so it was nice not to be obligated to do all the touristy stuff. We did go to Portobello Rd market (I've fallen in love with this street market, even though it's pretty touristy and extremely crowded, things I generally loathe, I love it. I love the things you can see and smell and hear. And buy, of course). On Saturday I also made American pancakes for breakfast, and then we had Swedish pancakes for dinner! It's a wonder I didn't gain ten pounds from that weekend, really. On Sunday we were low-key - a bit of shopping for clothes for her one-year-old daughter (I love to buy baby clothes so I spoil all of my friends' kids), and the baby to be (Lina is expecting her second in August). All in all a fantastic time and I was so sad to see her go. She also met James for the first time and gave her seal of approval, but I mean really, who wouldn't? He's perfect.
Also in May four girls from the States came to visit! Three of the girls (Meisel, Jenn, and Jenni) were close friends from my Kansas City office, and one of them brought a friend of theirs along that I had only met once. It was such an amazing time - they got here on a Friday morning and unfortunately I had to work until about 3 that day, but when I got home we immediately went to a pub and started drinking while we waited for James to arrive for dinner. The girls were being true Americans - a bit loud after a few drinks (uh, you know who I mean) - but I loved every second of it! It was good to be in the company of Americans again. They all loved James too and were quick to make fun of how ridiculously cheesy we are with each other.
Saturday we did the touristy thing but I turned it into a bit of a pub crawl as well - pub-site-pub-site, you get the picture. It was quite fun indeed. Sunday we did the British museum, Tower Bridge, oh, and a pub. I took them to all kinds of fun restaurants too - food you can't easily find in KC - Lebanese, Indian, Korean, etc. They went on to travel round Europe for the next few weeks, then came back through London for a night on their way back to the States. I had so much fun while they were here and it meant so much to me that they came - I know it's expensive to get over here but it was so nice to be with good friends. Especially since it's been a bit slow making friends in London. Well, other than James. So thanks girls for coming!! Here are some pics of their visit, and there are plenty more on facebook:
At Big Ben:
And on the London Eye:
Ok well that wraps up the month of May, but June will be coming soon! I miss everyone back home and I hope all is well!
Heather xoxo
So about the month of May, even though it was ages ago now. In England, there aren't very many proper holidays - there is Christmas, New Year's, Easter, and then "bank holidays". How boring and so very English is that? Anyway in May there are two bank holidays - one at the end and one at the beginning to make for two nice long three day weekends. The first I didn't do much other than study - yes, the month of May was very consumed with work and studying, again. Don't I lead a super exciting life that's worth blogging about?
Well anyway work did actually lead to a rather exciting trip at the end of May - I went to Bulgaria for a few days as one of my clients owns some property there. I always love to see new places, so I was quite excited to go! We went to the capital, Sofia, and stayed in the Hilton which was...the same as every other Hilton. Sofia was interesting though - you can still definitely see the communist influences in the architecture and infrastructure, but there is a load of construction going on as well that seems to have a western influence too. A lot of the buildings were old and pretty dilapidated - chunks of the wall missing, paint peeling, etc., but then right next to these buildings would be a sparkling new high rise. The most startling thing to my spoiled American eyes was the "buses" - more like trams really, that literally looked like they had come straight out of 1945. Well, not straight b/c then they wouldn't have been in the state they were in. Here is a picture:
To be fair, here is a picture of the city, hopefully you can see how beautiful it is:
And for good measure, this is how you spell "McDonald's" in Bulgarian:
So that was Bulgaria. To back track a bit, in the middle of May I had my first official guest in my flat - my friend Lina came to visit from Sweden! She was only here for a short weekend, but it was still so good to have her. She had lived in London herself for a few years several years ago, so it was nice not to be obligated to do all the touristy stuff. We did go to Portobello Rd market (I've fallen in love with this street market, even though it's pretty touristy and extremely crowded, things I generally loathe, I love it. I love the things you can see and smell and hear. And buy, of course). On Saturday I also made American pancakes for breakfast, and then we had Swedish pancakes for dinner! It's a wonder I didn't gain ten pounds from that weekend, really. On Sunday we were low-key - a bit of shopping for clothes for her one-year-old daughter (I love to buy baby clothes so I spoil all of my friends' kids), and the baby to be (Lina is expecting her second in August). All in all a fantastic time and I was so sad to see her go. She also met James for the first time and gave her seal of approval, but I mean really, who wouldn't? He's perfect.Also in May four girls from the States came to visit! Three of the girls (Meisel, Jenn, and Jenni) were close friends from my Kansas City office, and one of them brought a friend of theirs along that I had only met once. It was such an amazing time - they got here on a Friday morning and unfortunately I had to work until about 3 that day, but when I got home we immediately went to a pub and started drinking while we waited for James to arrive for dinner. The girls were being true Americans - a bit loud after a few drinks (uh, you know who I mean) - but I loved every second of it! It was good to be in the company of Americans again. They all loved James too and were quick to make fun of how ridiculously cheesy we are with each other.
Saturday we did the touristy thing but I turned it into a bit of a pub crawl as well - pub-site-pub-site, you get the picture. It was quite fun indeed. Sunday we did the British museum, Tower Bridge, oh, and a pub. I took them to all kinds of fun restaurants too - food you can't easily find in KC - Lebanese, Indian, Korean, etc. They went on to travel round Europe for the next few weeks, then came back through London for a night on their way back to the States. I had so much fun while they were here and it meant so much to me that they came - I know it's expensive to get over here but it was so nice to be with good friends. Especially since it's been a bit slow making friends in London. Well, other than James. So thanks girls for coming!! Here are some pics of their visit, and there are plenty more on facebook:
At Big Ben:
And on the London Eye:
Ok well that wraps up the month of May, but June will be coming soon! I miss everyone back home and I hope all is well!Heather xoxo
Sunday, July 5, 2009
April 2009
It's been ages and ages since I've written, and I'm sorry! I hope everyone hasn't given up on me. I've been horribly busy at work, and for April and May I was studying for an exam to get certified in international accounting standards so all of my time outside of work was taken up with studying. But anyway, enough excuses.
I went home for about a week and a half at the beginning of April - to KC for about two days then to Ohio for Easter and to just chill (well, unfortunately a larger proportion than I would have liked was spent studying). On the plane on the way to the US I sat next to a marine who had been in Iraq for four years and was returning to the States for good. He was a massive person - I'm not exaggerating when I say that his forearms were the size of my thighs. He was very nice though, and interesting to talk to. Once again, it was nice to be back in the States and surrounded by all of the American accents. I won't be home again until Christmas, mainly because most of my family is coming to Europe this summer to visit.
After my return from the States I dove right back into work and have been busy ever since. I haven't decided which is worse - to work longer hours but for a shorter period of time like in the US firm, or to continually work 45-50 hours for six months of the year, like in the UK firm. I won't lie, I'm weary of work.
Also in April James (MJ's real name - everyone knows about us in the office now) took me to his hometown of Harrogate, in north Yorkshire (a county in north-east England). Once again, I was completely enthralled by the quaintness of the English countryside, and Harrogate was lovely. His family has since moved elsewhere, but he still has quite a few friends there. Harrogate was discovered to have sulphur springs years ago, so back in the day it was the place that all the royals and posh folks went to have healing baths and such nonsense. James and I went through the little museum for the springs/Harrogate (extremely random and overpriced, but funny due to the randomness), and got to taste the sulphur water (disgusting - no idea how they used to drink it. I mean I'd have to be really bloody sick and think that it was going to work miracles to drink the stuff). We also went to a famous teahouse called Betty's and had a proper cream tea (tea with scones, jam, and clotted cream). Yummy! I bought some delicious tea there to fill out my collection that's growing in my cupboard - seriously I'm becoming a proper English tea-drinking girl!
We met up with James's friends from school (primary/high school) on the Saturday night and went to a few pubs/clubs. We were all pretty far from sober by the end of the night but it was a really good time and James's friends are lovely. We met up with them again the next night for curry for one of the girls's birthdays. On the way back from Harrogate we stopped in a town called Knaresborough with an idyllic view of a bridge high over a river, and a ruined castle high on the hill. So gorgeous. If you are on facebook, all of our photos are on James's page. We also stopped in York, the largest city in north Yorkshire, and went to see the cathedral there and had a few pints in a pub (of course).
Later in April we went to Burnham for James's granny's birthday, and I met the parents...gasp! It was fine though, his family was so nice and fun-loving. His aunt's house, where the birthday party was held, had the loveliest backyard ("garden" as they call it here, and a proper English garden at that) with amazing landscaping. I made beer bread - James was assigned to brings chips (crisps in England), but I couldn't 't show up with just a bag of chips to meet his parents for the first time - and it was such a hit! Now he gets to meet my parents at the end of July when they come to visit...
Well, unfortunately that's about it for April, what with the studying and working bits, but I won't bore you with that. I'll write May and June entries this week, I promise!
xoxo,
Heather
I went home for about a week and a half at the beginning of April - to KC for about two days then to Ohio for Easter and to just chill (well, unfortunately a larger proportion than I would have liked was spent studying). On the plane on the way to the US I sat next to a marine who had been in Iraq for four years and was returning to the States for good. He was a massive person - I'm not exaggerating when I say that his forearms were the size of my thighs. He was very nice though, and interesting to talk to. Once again, it was nice to be back in the States and surrounded by all of the American accents. I won't be home again until Christmas, mainly because most of my family is coming to Europe this summer to visit.
After my return from the States I dove right back into work and have been busy ever since. I haven't decided which is worse - to work longer hours but for a shorter period of time like in the US firm, or to continually work 45-50 hours for six months of the year, like in the UK firm. I won't lie, I'm weary of work.
Also in April James (MJ's real name - everyone knows about us in the office now) took me to his hometown of Harrogate, in north Yorkshire (a county in north-east England). Once again, I was completely enthralled by the quaintness of the English countryside, and Harrogate was lovely. His family has since moved elsewhere, but he still has quite a few friends there. Harrogate was discovered to have sulphur springs years ago, so back in the day it was the place that all the royals and posh folks went to have healing baths and such nonsense. James and I went through the little museum for the springs/Harrogate (extremely random and overpriced, but funny due to the randomness), and got to taste the sulphur water (disgusting - no idea how they used to drink it. I mean I'd have to be really bloody sick and think that it was going to work miracles to drink the stuff). We also went to a famous teahouse called Betty's and had a proper cream tea (tea with scones, jam, and clotted cream). Yummy! I bought some delicious tea there to fill out my collection that's growing in my cupboard - seriously I'm becoming a proper English tea-drinking girl!
We met up with James's friends from school (primary/high school) on the Saturday night and went to a few pubs/clubs. We were all pretty far from sober by the end of the night but it was a really good time and James's friends are lovely. We met up with them again the next night for curry for one of the girls's birthdays. On the way back from Harrogate we stopped in a town called Knaresborough with an idyllic view of a bridge high over a river, and a ruined castle high on the hill. So gorgeous. If you are on facebook, all of our photos are on James's page. We also stopped in York, the largest city in north Yorkshire, and went to see the cathedral there and had a few pints in a pub (of course).
Later in April we went to Burnham for James's granny's birthday, and I met the parents...gasp! It was fine though, his family was so nice and fun-loving. His aunt's house, where the birthday party was held, had the loveliest backyard ("garden" as they call it here, and a proper English garden at that) with amazing landscaping. I made beer bread - James was assigned to brings chips (crisps in England), but I couldn't 't show up with just a bag of chips to meet his parents for the first time - and it was such a hit! Now he gets to meet my parents at the end of July when they come to visit...
Well, unfortunately that's about it for April, what with the studying and working bits, but I won't bore you with that. I'll write May and June entries this week, I promise!
xoxo,
Heather
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