November 2009

I am a bit late, I know. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would really only write once a month, the topic being the previous month. Clearly I have not been so timely with November. Not to say that I don't like writing this blog, I love it. So much in fact that every time I sit down to write an entry I tend to get carried away and two hours or more goes by before I'm done. Probably says something about my typing skills as well...

Anyway November was amazing. Work was good again as I wasn't doing audits, and it wasn't too busy so I actually was able to make it home before 7 pm on some nights. What a luxury this is when you aren't used to it! It's like back in the States when the end of busy season would come and you would spend your first Saturday at home, not working, when the past few month's worth had been spent in the office. I was able to catch up on so many things that I had been neglecting. And also yoga - hooray!

But first, Halloween! James and I went to one of his friend's (if you have noticed that I always say "his friends", it's b/c I still have very few in London. Beginning to feel like a bit of a social reject. Probably it's the accent) house party in what seemed like a very distant suburb of London after the train journey to get there. It was a costume party, and James and I procrastinated until Halloween day to get costumes. There was a line out the door of the costume shop when we got there! We tried to find things as quickly as possible since it was so crowded, so James settled on a Hannibal Lecter mask and chainsaw and I went for an alien. James would not let me be anything that wasn't "spooky Halloween", b/c in Britain they do not have as much fun with the holiday as we do in America, as I'm sure I mentioned in last year's entry. They do not understand why Americans dress up as things like ice skaters for Halloween and not just witches and goblins. Sigh...Halloween is so much more fun in the States. But the party itself was fun nonetheless, and it literally took us hours to get home b/c we left after the tube closed. Boo. There are pictures on facebook of Halloween if you'd like to look.

Just after I had written my last blog I started working for another department in the firm, and I was sent to San Francisco for a week on business! It was such a blessing, and not just the flying business class part. My dad's side of the family is mostly around the bay area, and I was able to see my grandma and one of my aunts and uncles. We had dinner at a Mexican place, of course (I had also had Mexican for lunch that day). And my grandma was very sweet and gave me an early birthday present of a fancy and beautiful tennis bracelet. Awesome!

Upon arrival in San Francisco, there was one thing I noticed which is distinctly lacking in Britain that I had not previously noticed. Toilet seat covers. I nearly audibly rejoiced when I entered a stall in a San Francisco airport bathroom and found the toilet seat covers tacked to the wall. Women everywhere will know why I feel this way. It is not nice to squat when you pee, nor is it nice to sit in someone else's urine which is covering the seat when you pee. In Britain I sometimes spend a stupid amount of time making my own cover out of toilet paper if I can be bothered. Hence, toilet seat covers are a lovely and much appreciated manifestation of American excess. Or perhaps it is just American convenience and resourcefulness. Either way, every time I walk into a stall in either America or Britain I am now usually aware of the presence or lack of toilet seat covers. Another random thing that I miss about America is Q-tips. The Q-tip brand, which I cannot find in Britain. The best they have there just doesn't cut it. It is a weird thing to notice, I know, but I am picky about how clean and dry my ears are, and Q-tips do the best job.

Speaking of American excess, when I walked into my giant hotel room I gave an appreciative sigh of recognition. Hotel rooms are generally much bigger in the States than in the UK, and I love it. Mine had a king-sized bed, a large desk, a sofa, and two TVs (yes two - so that if you were sitting on the sofa or the bed, which were on opposite sides of the room, you could have a TV in front of you), with of course the bathroom, all just for me. Brilliant. I admit the two TVs was pretty ridiculous though.

One more funny side note about the trip to SF - the building that we worked in was used for medical research, and the sign on the door that we walked through everyday read as follows: "Warning: This area contains one or more chemicals which are known by the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm." Awesome.

On the way back across the States I stopped in Ohio for a nice three day weekend with the family. It was very good to see them so unexpectedly and they managed to throw together my birthday in just a week (this is how much notice they had - I had two days notice, but any trip to the States is good news to me), and had a delicious home-cooked meal (as well as my fill of cheez-its!) and birthday cake and presents. My grandma had made her famous made-from-scratch noodles with chicken in her brand new kitchen. All summer she had been renovating her kitchen - torn down a wall and re-done everything new. It looks amazing, like something that was designed by a professional interior designer and that belongs in a magazine. There were a lot of candles on this cake - 28! I am now officially in my late twenties, but looking forward to the rest of life, it's been pretty swell so far. Especially now that James is in my life, it will be a fantastic adventure.

I was also able to meet Clemens, my family's foreign exchange student from Austria, while I was home. He's just a few months younger than David and very sweet and talkative. He fits in just perfectly with my family.

As I mentioned in my last entry James and I had a joint birthday party on the 14th, Top Gun theme. James' was the best costume, as he randomly had a proper flight suit and aviators. He looked smashing! I ended up wearing jeans, a white t-shirt, aviators, and dog tags and a pilot's hat I found at a costume shop (the same one with the queue out the door on Halloween, fortunately not so crowded this time). A few other people made the effort as well and did leather jackets or Top Gun t-shirts. We started with curry on Brick Lane just down the street from me, then moved on to drinks at a pub close by. The highlight of the night for me was when I got James to stand up on his chair and we all sang happy birthday to him. Afterwards we started chanting "speech, speech, speech", and one of his friends next to him whispered, "do the joke!". So James said, "What kind of bees produce milk? Boo-bies!" and sat down. Hilarious!! Obviously he had had quite a bit to drink at this point. It was a very fun evening and I spent most of the following day recovering from all of that fun. Pictures on facebook as well (not of the recovery, of the birthday party).

The following weekend we went to Egypt, and spent the final week of November soaking up the sun and doing a lot of nothing. But I will write more about the nothing that we did in the next entry...it has only taken me an hour and a half to write this time, but it is still late and I want to sleep. The Egypt entry will be soon though, I promise! Oh, and pictures are on facebook if you'd like to look.

Love to all and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Heather xoxo

September and October 2009

For the most part, September and October were quieter months both at work and at home, but it was very welcome. The horrible audit that I had been tortured with since March finally - somehow - ended, and I was able to return to the consulting work that I had done when I first arrived in London, and enjoy much more. Half of our consulting group left though - one on a four month sabbatical, and the other was made redundant ("fired" in 'American'), so now there are just two of us and the partner who heads the group.

The first weekend in September James and I went back to Harrogate (the smallish town in Yorkshire (Northern England) where he grew up) for one of his friends' birthdays. We stayed at a hotel that looked rather swanky from the outside but inside was boring and, well, not swanky. But it was fairly cheap, which was all we were going for really. We went up on the Saturday morning, had dinner with the friends at a new Chinese restaurant that had been built within the old royal baths, then went out to a few bars/clubs. The best bit about our hotel was that it ended up being super close to where we went out so we could stumble back at the end of the night. There are photos from the weekend on facebook if you're so inclined...

The next weekend we went back up north, this time to a town just outside of Manchester, for another of James' friends weddings. My first English wedding! I was keen to know what/if there were any differences, but it turns out not many really. Apparently it is quite the tradition in England for women to wear hats at weddings, but mostly it's the older women who wear the full-blown hat (think of a color-matches-the-outfit, maybe some feathers and flowers monstrosity), and the young-ish women wear head pieces, which really don't look any better. Let's just say I'm happy this is NOT a tradition in America.

The wedding parties are not as big as they are in the States, there are generally just the best man, 1-2 ushers, and 1-2 bridesmaids, including the 'chief bridesmaid'. I showed James a picture of one of my friends' American wedding parties and his eyes almost popped out of his head. The last thing that I noticed as different was that the people who give speeches at the reception is a bit different. At an English wedding, it is always the best man, the bride's father, and the groom. Nothing less, nothing more. And none of the girls get to give a speech, how lame! Other than those few things the whole thing seemed very similar, the ceremony was just like other ceremonies, the dress was similar, etc. Oh, but the men in the wedding party do wear morning suits, which have a longer jacket and top hats. Definitely not the same as the States. Also pics from the wedding on facebook...

The end of September was completely dominated by looking for a new flat. Our lease was up at the old place on 18 September, but we had til the 10th of October to find a new place and move. Dasha had decided to go traveling for a few months from November, so Andrea and I started to look for a place together. Finding a flat is so stressful in London! The market moves so quickly that places will literally go on and off the market in a day, and then flats are either in a nice neighbourhood but are not nice themselves, or vice versa. It's very frustrating. But, we finally ended up finding one in an area called Shoreditch in east London. It's a very different area than St. John's Wood as it's edgy and fun and - ok I'll admit it - a bit dodgy, but we love it. St John's Wood was nice and posh but very boring, and Shoreditch has loads of shops (that I can actually afford) and bars and restaurants. I really really like it. I live just off a street called Brick Lane which is kind of the mecca for curry houses, so James loves it as it's his favourite food. So far we've discovered vintage shops, a fantastic music store, a bowling alley (awesome!), and loads of little independent art galleries. My favourite has been this jewelry shop called @Work which only has collections from local artists and they are all AMAZING. I could have stayed in the store for hours. There are also several street markets around, including a big one on Sunday which actually isn't that cool - a lot of it looks like people literally just dumped out their rubbish bin on a sheet and are trying to peddle it. Crazy, although I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure, right? I have yet to consider someone's used shoes from Aldo treasure though.

We moved in on the 10th of October, so have been here about two weeks so far. It's been hectic though, trying to get settled, finding a new way to get to work and the closest grocery store and all that. But it's getting more comfortable by the day. My new room is very small, much smaller than the old place, but I let Andrea have the bigger room since he's in law school and needs a place for his desk and somewhere to shut himself away to study sometimes. But he did let me have some space in him closet for my off-season clothes (obviously a necessity for an American girl!), so it works out.

A few weekends ago James and I went to Oxford for lunch at his sister's to celebrate his mum's and his birthdays (they left last Thursday for their "summer home" in New Zealand and won't return til April). And they were so sweet - they had brought a present for me too! It was a lovely scarf. James and I got his mum a necklace from the place called @Work that I mentioned above, a little gold butterfly, it was so pretty I wanted it for myself! I think James' mum liked it though, so mission accomplished.

James and my birthdays are in November, nine days apart, so we have decided to do a joint bday party. The theme is going to be Top Gun and we're dressing the part (along with the guests), as much as we can at least. I wish I could throw a rope over the States and pull it next to Britain so all of you could come along! I've really been missing all of my friends in the States lately. :( Anyway James and I also planned a trip to Egypt for our birthdays, we'll be there a week in November when the weather should be about 80 all week! I'm so excited to get away for a little sun and sand in the middle of the dreary British winter. And Egypt sounds so exotic, it's one of those places I've only ever dreamed of going! To everyone here it's like going to Florida though...they're so jaded. Weirdly enough, I think going to Florida is slightly exotic to them. Not how I would describe it myself, but hey, to each his own.

Last week I participated in my very first pub quiz. This is a rather odd but quite fun British tradition in which a large group of people take a quiz...in a pub. The first time I witnessed this I had only been in London for a few weeks and I was very confused to say the least. The questions are usually general information like music and films and history, but can also be pictures or questions about the participants, or anything really. For this one there were ten rounds, and one of them was a picture of the States with arrows to ten of the states that we had to name - I was all over it! Was glad to make a contribution to my team b/c I'm still pretty rubbish at the British culture, and especially the British history. In the end, my team won! Probably just beginner's luck, but I'll take it.

Hmm...have noticed that this entry is really rather boring. Oh well, maybe that just means I'm really starting to settle in and become a sloth. :)

Love to all,
Heather

Photos from the Family Holiday

Hey all, I forgot to add some pictures from the trip that my family and I took in August, so here's a little selection...
The family on the streets of Rome - David had a broken arm and had chosen a bright pink cast - it is conspicuous throughout the photos

The family in the Pantheon, looking very American - guidebook out, McDonald's drinks in hand.

Megan very much enjoying the Vatican Museum

The family in front of - can you guess? - the Colosseum

Some flowers and some ruins - me trying to be arty with photography

The ruins of Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius in the background

The kids at a Pompeiian fast food restaurant (no joke) right outside the baths

David and Megan exploring Pompeii - the roots show how deep it was buried for so long

In an ancient Pompeiian bakery - they're on one of the grindstones

Riomaggiore

Boats in the cove at Riomaggiore

Bored in the Heathrow baggage claim after the airline lost Dad's bag...for the second time

The family in Bath, as photographed by Meg. The boys are very excited at this point.

The Roman baths in Bath

Stonehenge

August 2009

Oh my it's been so long since I've written - again! Well August was a jolly good month, particularly since it started with my family here in London with me! Not quite everyone came - my brother Matt stayed back in the States, but mom, dad, brothers Tim and David, and sister Megan were all here - I was in heaven! Despite what the fact that I've moved thousands of miles away might let on, being around my family is one of the only times that I can truly unwind and be at peace. Right, enough mush - they arrived on a Wednesday and for those first few days I was still working, but it selfishly worked out in my favour b/c I missed all of the really touristy London things that I've done loads of times already. I did try to take them for some new and fun cuisine that they can't find in Portsmouth (where the most foreign restaurant is the local Mexican place) - we tried Lebanese, Indian, and a traditional English pub, amongst others. My sister (who is 11 for those who don't know) of course hated nearly all of it, except the chips (fries) at the English places. She took one bite of the curry and only ate rice after, and I had ordered the mildest thing on the menu! Oh well, she'll grow into it I guess. My family brought me some of my favorite treats from America as well (that I can't find here): Cheez-its, colby jack cheese, Cheryl's cookies, Ohio sweetcorn on the cob. All so delicious although my brothers ate nearly all of the cheez-its before I did! My mom also brought presents for James and I - get ready for the cheese - they were mugs with pictures of the two of us on them, to drink our tea! I love them and James does too, despite and because of the cheesiness, and because my mom's so sweet to think of such a clever present. She also brought James an Ohio State t-shirt - she's making sure he cultivates his allegiances right away!

On Saturday after their arrival we flew to Rome, where we stayed for three days before moving up the coast. In Rome we did all of the touristy things - Colosseum, Vatican, etc. that I had done while traveling in 2005. It was fantastic to experience it with my family, but I'll admit that I was mostly there for the heat and the gelato. After my first English "summer", I was soaking up the sun! It was that heat where you must take a shower at the end of the day before getting into bed b/c you're so sticky. It was awesome. I did get a bit sick of Rome by the end though, I thought many of the people were rude and loud, but it was probably b/c I was in the touristy areas. On our last day in Rome we took a day trip to the ruins of Pompeii, which I hadn't seen before and was mesmerised! With the way that the ashes preserved the city it literally looked like some of the houses had been lived in just a few months before our visit. It was also creepy to see the volcano looming in the background, looking green, peaceful and harmless, probably the way it looked to the ancient Pompeians. We spent all day there (in 90 degree heat - hurrah!), and returned exhausted to our hotel in Roma. The next day we took a train to the Cinque Terre, a small region along the Italian riviera comprised of five tiny villages. The coast is not very beachy, more like steep mountains rising out of the sea upon which the villagers grow grapes in terrace fields. There is a seven mile hike that you can do between each of the five villages (we stayed in Riomaggiore, the southernmost town), and I did this whilst traveling in 2005 but decided to have a day on the beach this time around. The "beach" at Riomaggiore is not sand but rather pebbles and smallish boulders - not the most comfortable but I improvised and bought an inflatable pool float to sunbathe on and thus cushion myself from the rocks. The sea was amazing - so clear you can see right to the bottom many feet out from the shore, and the most beautiful blue-green. My dad bought a mask and snorkel set and it turned out to be the best purchase yet - the fish were incredible! There were loads and loads - they didn't seem to mind the people in the water at all, but you couldn't really see them until you had the mask and could look underwater. Honestly I think I could have snorkeled all day long. For the most part we just kind of chilled out in Riomaggiore, played a lot of cards with my brothers and did a bit of shopping. On the last night we had a nice dinner of seafood and the delicious wine that is made in the region, along with a sample of pesto from the region as well. The restaurant was high up on the hill and looked out over the sea, and the sunset was to die for.

After the Cinque Terre we came back to gray sodden England for a roadtrip. We rented a car at the airport, and my dad drove (on the other side of the car and the other side of the road mind you), and I was navigator. It was SO stressful at first! Dad was simply trying to stay on the right side of the road while I was trying to figure out what the hell all the road signs meant. We accidentally made an entire journey around Heathrow airport, but it was probably for the best b/c it gave us some practise with the round-abouts. First we went to Stonehenge and did the free audit-tour. Very cool to see but made much more interesting by the tour. Otherwise it's still unfortunately just a pile of bloody rocks, no matter how old and mysterious they are. After Stonehenge we drove to a town to the south called Salisbury (no, we didn't have any steaks nor see any on the menu that night) where we stayed for the night. We pootled (English word for amble) around the town but all the shops were closed, so we came back the next morning and did a bit of shopping. My parents bought me a picnic set I'd been eyeing the night before. This is how middle-aged I have become - I now own a picnic set (think wicker basket, proper plates, wine glasses and cutlery) and I love it. I feel like a bit of a d-bag taking it to the park but that's the beauty of London - you can get away with literally anything. Any worrying that I ever did about what I wore or what I looked like has completely evaporated b/c in London there will always be ten people who look weirder (and somehow cooler...) than you do. The next day we went to Bath and strolled around, then to Oxford, where (gasp!) my and James' parents met each other! It was rather spur of the moment b/c James called to let me know that they were going to be in Oxford visiting his sister, and I couldn't show up in Oxford and avoid them, now could I? To be honest I was actually quite excited by it, and they got on very well, as I knew they would. Our parents are very similar so I didn't have any doubt. Our mums gossiped and laughed the whole time and our dads (when my dad could actually understand James's dad's accent (he had a bit of trouble understanding British accents sometimes)) gabbed the whole time too. We didn't see much of Oxford that day b/c we had decided to visit Blenheim Palace, an aristocratic home (palace really, as the name implies) which has been partially opened to the public. It was very beautiful and a lovely day, so the gardens were fabulous as well. There was a very large hedge maze in the gardens - so fun! That day we drove back to London and they left the next morning. I was quite sad and cried a little to come back to my empty flat, but James was very good at taking their place and cheering me up again, since I hadn't seen him in over a week.

After the week and a half holiday I spent the rest of August trying to get back in the flow of working and having quiet weekends - James and I went to the London aquarium which was cool but we both thought was overpriced, and we did a bit of running (which has since nearly ceased). Also during August I got the result of my IFRS exam and I passed!! The passing grade was a 50 out of 100 and I got - wait for it - a 50! It was exactly what I was aiming for though and what I keep telling people is the result of highly efficient studying. Just so glad to have it over and done with. Except now people keep expecting me to remember the things that I studied - bollocks!

At the very end of August there is a bank holiday in Britain, a week before Labor Day. James and I went down to his parents' house in Dorset, in southeast England. They have a lovely house in a very tiny village called Drimpton. It was a quiet weekend and that's exactly what we had planned. On Sunday we had Sunday lunch (a big pub lunch generally consisting of a roast) and then went to the seaside, where it was freezing and windy! Thank goodness James's mum doesn't like the cold either and didn't want to stay too long. There was a little visitor center at the beach where they had many of the fossils that had been found in the area on display, kinda cool! James's sister came down too for a few days, so it was really nice just to spend the weekend relaxing with his family.

That finishes August off, next - you guessed it - September!

xoxo,
Heather

July 2009

Cripes! I can't believe it's been just over a month since I wrote last! It doesn't feel like it...but maybe b/c August has been so busy, and finally it was for a few reasons other than work. Well, let's be serious, work was still busy. But at least it wasn't to the point where I felt like throwing myself out of the window everyday.

Right, so backtrack to July, but first to the very end of June. One of my best friends, Denisse, who was here in Feb, have birth to her first child - an extraordinarily beautiful little girl named Isabella. She also has more hair than I've ever seen on a newborn - so funny! I cannot wait to meet her when I'm home for Christmas...

Also another best friend of mine, Heather (or H2 as many called her when we lived together in KC), got engaged. And she is the fastest wedding planner I've ever seen b/c she's having the wedding on 2 Jan! But very fortunate for me since I'll be back in the States for Christmas. So it'll be a big trip this year! Also James will be coming with me, so he gets to meet all of my friends - hooray! I'm so excited to introduce him to America (he's been just across the Canadian border for about a half day and calls that having "been to America", but we all know it's not), and I'll be so proud to introduce him to all the friends and family who haven't met him. He's only coming to KC and then South Dakota for the wedding, but he'll get that good ol' Midwestern experience! He's coming from his parents' house in New Zealand where he'll be for Christmas, and I feel bad b/c he'll be coming from a warm Christmas to a freezing NYE! Oh well, soon enough it'll be back to dreary London.

But that is all a long way away, and to get back to my life as of late...July was fairly quiet after my grandma and Missy left, but I did celebrate the 4th...kind of. Let's just say that American Independence Day celebrated anywhere but America will be a bit of a let down. Maybe it's b/c I'm in the place we're celebrating our independence from...hmm. No, actually you don't get any negative energy about it and there are so many Americans here that there are parties and stuff going on all over the city. I went on a little self-made tour of some American sites around the city which turned into a bit of a pub crawl, mostly the embassy and some statues. At the embassy I was taking photos and the security guards out front starting eyeing me suspiciously, and given the presence of their semi-automatic weapons, I decided to wander away slowly. The embassy is a horribly ugly 70s/80s style building that frankly looks very American. But it's in a really posh area so nice to walk around. Afterward we tried to go to a fireworks show which we found out was cancelled only after we got there. I was pretty disappointed, I mean it was depressing enough being away from the States on the 4th. But ah well, it's a choice I made to move here after all.

On the 11th James and I went to Oxford again to help his sister celebrate her birthday. It was good fun and I spent most of the night looking after James when he'd had a bit much to drink...but he's adorable when he's drunk. He mostly just gets very sleepy and you have to keep an eye on him that he doesn't wander off and fall asleep in some inappropriate location. The next day his parents came up and he all had Sunday lunch in a gorgeous pub on the river. It was a lovely day and an even lovelier time.

Also in July I finally met more of James' friends, which is good since the only friends that I've seemed to make outside of work so far I've mooched off of him. Sigh. Anyway his friends were really nice as usual, and really good fun. I met Christoph, Caroline, and Nicola who were James' old work/flatmates, and Russ, who lives in Newcastle and for whom James was best man in his wedding to his wife Emma in April, who also came along. Russ and Emma were telling us all about their honeymoon in the Maldives and making me so jealous! It sounds and looks absolutely amazing and I think I might be on a mission to get there at some point in my life, and then I might never come back!

Work was still awful in July, working through the weekends and other awesome things like that, but it did finally wind down a bit towards the end. I finally started going back to yoga, something that I had not done in months. To give you an indication, I bought a 13 class pass which was good for 3 months back in Feb/March, which I then had to pay an additional 10 pounds to get reactivated for an additional month - twice - then it still permanently expired with 3 classes still on it. Pathetic.

Speaking of fitness, I also started going running again, and more than that, I also got James started running! This is the man who literally had never stepped inside a gym in his life unless he had taken a wrong turn. But he actually kind of likes it, has gone on his own several times, and is usually the one to suggest it now! It's so much more enjoyable running with him than just alone. I did a 5k for GT at the beginning of July, and it was a horribly slow pace, but my only goal was to not stop running, which I accomplished. This sounds like a pathetic goal to all of my runner friends I'm sure, but I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that I had run twice - TWICE - since I'd moved to London. Running an entire 5.2 miles without stopping felt like quite a feat.

The other American secondee that I worked with most closely returned to the States at the end of July, but she left with a going away dinner at a tex-mex place! It's called Crazie Homies, which I had heard about but hadn't been, and it was soooo delicious! I felt like I had stepped into SoCal for a few hours. James and I have been back once since then, and intend to make it at least a monthly ritual. The only bad thing is they make you pay for the chips and salsa - sacrilege!

The best bit about July came at the very end though, when my family arrived for their visit on the 28th! But I'll tell about that in the August post since most of the trip took place then, and also I'm sick of staring at a computer screen for today.

Love to all, miss you like crazy and wish I could hook a rope to America and haul it across the Atlantic and park it right next to the UK, but until I figure that out please keep in touch here, on facebook (where there are also more photos that have been posted), or by email/phone. I'm also on Skype if any of you have it - it's literally like a miracle that it's free!

xoxoxoxoxoxo,
Heather

June 2009

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

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