April 2010 - weekend trips, iPhone, and cheerleading tryouts

April was a whirlwind of lovely little trips, sightseeing, and hanging with family (well, James' family). The first weekend in April was Easter and James took me to Durham, the small town in northern England where he went to university. It was adorable and peaceful, and it was fun to see all of James' old haunts and listen to him reminisce. It did make me a little sad at times though to think about what it would have been like if we had gone to uni together. I often get sad about that – wishing that I had found James years ago so that I could have had that much longer to be in love with him. Sorry, I know you are probably vomiting right now, I will stop with the mush. Besides, if we had met when we were younger we might not have ended up together – Lord knows I needed to shop around before I knew the right guy when I found him! Anyway Durham was super, we had four days there since Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays in the UK, and we mostly spent it pootling (remember this word?) around the town. We had a tour of the castle (originally built to defend England against the Scots, now a dorm for some of the students), and gave ourselves a tour of their immense cathedral, including the climb to the top of the bell tower. The cathedral is what Durham is known for – it's too small a town to have one really, but was at one point a seat of one of the prince-bishops. On Easter we even went to the morning service! It was amazing, I had never been to a proper service in a cathedral before. I can see why people back in the day would have been so awe-inspired by the building, when all they had to compare to were their tiny houses and huts. I was impressed myself and couldn't stop staring upwards at the stonework and stained-glass windows! The rest of the time in Durham was spent going on long walks and James showing me all of his favourite places, and eating and drinking really cheaply! The beer there was cheaper for two than it is for one in London – amazing and dangerous. Of course we also had dinner at James' favourite curry house!

The next week my mobile phone contract was due for an upgrade. I realise this isn't normally something one would get excited enough about to write in one's blog, but I am because I got – drumroll please – an iPhone, hurray! I was so excited b/c I had felt so left out for a few months. James got one in January and when we skyped my parents that evening they were showing theirs off too - they had all gotten one the same day! So I had to get on the bandwagon. And it is SUCH a bandwagon isn't it? A highly-functional, overpriced, super-slick bandwagon. I will admit that I secretly feel cooler when I get my phone out on the tube now to check the news or my email. And for those sad few months after James and the family had one when I didn't, I secretly felt ashamed of my poor inferior Nokia. I know I sound like an idiot rambling on about a silly phone, but it really is superb – if you don't have one you should get one. Trust me it will be like before you had a mobile and then got one for the first time – how did you ever live without it?! You know what I mean.

Ho hum back to more interesting things...the second weekend in April James and I went to Oxford on Saturday to see his parents and sister – his parents had arrived back in the UK after their six months in New Zealand so we hadn't seen them in ages! It was really good to catch up with them and have a quiet day doing loads of relaxing, chatting, and eating. We all took a walk in the park before dinner and happened to come across a hot air balloon being unloaded from a truck! We decided to stay and watch the excitement and got to see it inflated, loaded with people, and take off. It's surprising how big they are – you forget b/c you usually only see them when they're high in the sky. I was also surprised at how many people they managed to jam into the basket – I think there were about 12 or 14! It didn't look that comfortable really. I'd still like to do it someday, would be fun.

The following day James and I went to Burnham for his granny's 89^th birthday party. His aunts, uncles and cousins were all there as well (this was the little do where I met them all for the first time last year, remember?), it was beautiful weather and we had a lovely day. Although I didn't notice it, apparently it was also a bit quieter b/c per his aunt and uncle they live in one of the Heathrow airport flight paths but we happened to be there on a day when the erupting volcano had grounded all of the flights. Super! And no, it wasn't foggy or cloudy from the ash, it was too high in the sky. But yes the party was great with delicious food, I ate so much I thought I was going to have to have James roll me to the train station to get home.

Later that week James and I went to an Idlewild concert on our traditional “date night” - Wednesday. See, it works out well b/c we spend all weekend together and then we see each other on Wednesday night to get us through the rest of the week without each other! Anyway this particular one was a gig – Idlewild, who is one of James' favourite bands. They are Scottish and fairly well known around Britain. The venue was small-ish – about the size of the Uptown in KC. James and I got there fairly early since we were coming from work, and as I was doing some people watching before the gig started I realised that there was a trend among the concert goers – they were all slightly geeky late-twenty somethings! So this must have been the fan base that Idlewild built up through their ten years of playing – let's just say that James fits the picture well. The concert itself was fantastic – I had been ordered by James to educate myself on the band about two weeks before the show, so for those two weeks I listened to nothing else. It worked though – I knew most of the words to the songs, or at least the chorus. James on the other hand knew every word to every song, and wished that they played more at the end of the show. He was happier than I think I've ever seen him – smiling ear to ear, belting out the songs at the top of his lungs, dancing with abandon. I've never seen anything like it from him and it made me so happy to see him that way! Honestly I think I spent more time watching him than I did the band!

One of the last weekends in April we went up to Harrogate for Lisa's (one of James' friends from the English equivalent of high school) birthday. Harrogate is the small-ish town in North Yorkshire where James grew up for those of you who don't remember. We went up on the Saturday via the very expensive train journey (nearly 100 pounds each!), met up with everyone at Lisa's for a light dinner and then went out dancing! While we were still at hers Lisa tried to make everyone a round of Irish coffees, except they turned out like warm milky whiskey, not that great and so strong I would barely drink a few sips at a time. As you can imagine the Harrogate clubbing scene is small potatoes compared to the London scene, but I didn't mind b/c it meant the dance floor wasn't that full. We danced the entire night, it was so much fun. Mark, James' flatmate in London, came up for the celebration and everyone mocked him all night b/c he never makes an effort for anyone's birthday and finally decided to show his face after years. I believe there was even a point where some of the girls were making fun of the fact that he's gotten a bit pudgy since they'd seen him and started stripping off his shirt to see his moobs! Pretty hilarious and slightly disturbing. All in all a good weekend, as it always is with that crew.

On the 22 of April I finally started my class at the London College of Fashion. I say finally b/c I signed up for this class in February – they book up rather far in advance. It was Fashion Buying and Retailing level 1, basically just an introduction to the industry and the roles of the buyer and the retailer. It was a short course, only five weeks long, but pretty insightful and gave me some inspiration. I signed up for it because I've been a bit bored with accounting lately (shocking I know) and am thinking about career changes. Actually, not bored so much as lacking passion. I would like to do something that I am more passionate about and work for a company that I feel more committed to instead of ever growing resentment. But anyway enough complaining about work. The class was actually really good fun, I met some great girls (there was only one guy in the class of 18, and surprisingly enough he wasn't gay!), and most importantly, as I said before, I gained some much needed inspiration for the career path I might take. The job market is terrible now and it's even harder for me with the visa issues, but perhaps one day I will no longer work in a public accounting firm. Let's hope so anyway.

Last but certainly not least, the last weekend in April was cheerleading tryouts for my sister! This was the first year that she could try out and she was nervous about the whole thing, but I did my best to help her through skype (point your toes, arms straight, sharp motions – that kind of thing), but in the end she was a star as usual and she made it! I was so excited that she wanted to tryout, of course I wanted her to since I was a cheerleader and loved it, but I wasn't going to pressure her. Very proud of my little sis for making it her first time! Oh as a side note – Brits love it that I was a cheerleader, and was in a sorority, since they have nothing like either of these things in Britain. Their only impressions of cheerleaders, sororities, and fraternities is through the movies and TV (groan). So they think cheerleaders are all bitchy and promiscuous like the girls on Glee. (I, along with most of the girls in Britain, am obsessed with Glee – it's just as big here as in the States I think).

Ok enough rambling, whew this was a long one! Love to you all, I miss you!

Heather xoxoxoxo

PS – there are pictures of all the weekend trips on facebook - on James' page, but you should be able to get to them through mine as I'm tagged in them. Hope you enjoy!

March 2010 - markets and musings

March was a fairly busy month at work so not a lot to write about. I did, however, finally buy myself a Nintendo Wii (off of my colleague for a steal!), so I've been playing a lot. The best part is that I beat James in just about every game, other than soccer which I just can't be bothered to learn all of the controls.

James and I spent one weekend in March exploring some of the markets in London. On Saturday we went to Borough market, which is a fairly famous one where you find every type of food and drink you could imagine. Except for cheez-its though, of course. It was amazing though - just walking through the market and seeing and smelling all of the deliciousness was heavenly. I decided that I want to take my family there when they come to visit this summer - I think mom and grandma would especially enjoy seeing foods you don't usually get in the States. I ended up buying some fresh spices (tex-mex and chipotle for Mexican cooking!), and a heavenly raspberry tart when I was feeling a bit peckish. Have I ever used that word on my blog? It's an English phrase for hungry. I really wanted to get some cheese but could never decide which to buy, there were so many! The vendors would have those giant cheese wheels behind their stands and they would just cut some straight off. There was also a stand selling ostrich meat - I couldn't believe how expensive it was! It did look very lean and tasty though.

The next day we went to a couple markets within walking distance of my flat - Columbia Road market which is for flowers, and Brick Lane market. Columbia Road was so crowded it was not enjoyable, and I haven't been back. I suppose it's good for florists b/c most of the flowers were sold by the type, rather than in arrangements. I'm not that great at making the arrangement myself, and in that crowd all I wanted to do was choose and leave, but in the end I found a very nice ready-made bouquet. We have been to Brick Lane market several times, and it is mostly just junk, but it's fun to have a walk around and see what you can find. The area where I live now is very eclectic and edgy and dodgy in some bits, but I really love it.

That's kind of how I feel about London in general - there are some things that I could do without and at times I downright hate, but overall I love it and am so glad I made the choice to come here. There are times when I get fed up with the smelly streets and noise, but then I reflect that it's all just part of the hustle and bustle and excitement of the city. I do feel that I've become a bit jaded from the city though - sometimes I realise that I'm rushing from place to place without stopping to enjoy the ride, and I have found myself at times bumping into people and not apologising, since no one else ever does. I often times relish the thought of moving away to the country-side where you actually get to know your neighbours and have green space to roam, but I reckon I would get rather bored after a month of green and quiet. Someday I will move from London, but I bet it will be having kids that gives me the motivation to do it, b/c I wouldn't be able to afford a big enough flat for kids if nothing else! It's so convenient in London too - everything that you could every want to see/do/need is here somewhere. Except cheez-its and Chipotle. I love being in one of the cities that gets referenced in magazines - in the States they always talk about shops and restaurants to go to in Chicago, New York, and LA which didn't really help much in KC, you know? I think I'm finally really settled in here - making friends and feeling comfortable being an American in London. It took longer than any of the other moves in my life, but then again I suppose it was the biggest one, and the first on my own.

Living in another country (even one as similar to the States as Britain is) really opens your eyes and your heart as well. You gain perspective on Americans in ways that you had never thought of, both in negative (we really ARE terribly fat, poorly travelled and over-worked as compared to other western cultures) and positive ways (we're patriotic, not in the crazy skinhead way, just that we truly believe that our country is a great place to be from, and are proud of it). Americans are also more self-reliant - Britain is called a nanny state for a reason after all. Of course this self-reliance is probably the reason that most Americans have a warped perception of work-life balance and are chained to their desks - we believe you make your own destiny.

I've also enjoyed getting to know people from different races and religions - it has been especially interesting to make friends who are Hindu and Muslim, it's intriguing to me to learn about their religions and observe their devotion toward their gods. It definitely makes you more tolerant and less intimidated by other races and religions when you get to know them better.

I'll stop musing and leave it at that - April's entry will be more exciting and less philosophical, I promise.

Heather xoxo

February 2010 - rugby, gay bars, and olympics

February was a relatively quiet month overall - both at work and at play - but still over very quickly, as February always is. The weather was crap - shocking for London, I know - more snow but mostly cold and rainy.

Near the end of January James and I made a list of things and places that we want to do and see around London and the UK in the coming years, and we got off to a cracking start at crossing them off by having another "tourists in London" day in early Feb. We tooled around the City (the original Roman part of London, commonly called “the City”) one rainy Saturday and went to the top of the Monument. This is a column that was erected to commemorate the Great Fire of London which happened in 1666. It sounds weird to say that they were commemorating a fire, but it was more like remembering the rebuilding effort and remembering what London was like before the fire, you know. Anyway we went to the top and I thought that we weren't going to be able to see anything due to the dreary weather, but we gladly could see all the important bits of the skyline (pics on James' facebook page). We also saw the London Stone, which I thought was going to be a bit of the old Roman wall (there are parts of it somewhere in London), but it turned out that it was just some old slab of rock found around the area a long time ago – very underwhelming. It was also weird b/c it was just in a little glass case in the side of a wall along the street – if you weren't looking for it you would almost certainly miss it. Odd. After that thrilling piece of history we made our way to St. Paul's cathedral, and went inside for an organ recital. It was SO beautiful!! I had never been inside so was mesmerised by the mosaics and the size, and the organ sounded amazing as well. The unfortunate part was that they close off most of the church on Sundays as it's only open to worshippers, so we couldn't really get a proper look around. But it was still lovely and I'd like to go back someday (on a day when you have to pay – meh) to have more of a tour.

In early February the Six Nations rugby tournament started – this is a tournament between England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, France, and Italy which happens once a year. England did well at the beginning but ended up losing to France, Ireland, and Scotland. Boo. It was really fun to watch though, I would say that rugby is my favourite British sport so far. I still find football (soccer) very boring and miss American sports very much. Although being in a foreign country does have its benefits in that you can forget about the pain when your team chokes in the second round of the NCAA tournament, since we don't have every news station going on about it. Sigh...

The next week Denisse was in town from the States and I had my “staying do” to celebrate my staying in London, as I mentioned in my last entry. That weekend was also Valentines Day, and I told James that we didn't have to celebrate it (since it is a fairly contrived and commercial holiday), but I did say that I would like some flowers. This does not sound as selfish as it sounds – he used to bring me flowers nearly every week as he would pass a flower stand on his way to my house, but since I've moved to Shoreditch he doesn't pass one and I hadn't had any flowers for a while. Hence my gentle suggestion. But I never did get any on Valentines Day! He made up for it a few weeks later though with a lovely bouquet from a local flower market. The rest of the weekend was spent watching rugby and the Olympics (and cheering my Americans onto the top of the medals board!!).

I've discovered the coolest place – a sort of gym that only does classes - your standard cardio and toning classes but also has loads of dance, yoga and pilates! I love it so much – the dance classes are fun, although I feel like a bit of an idiot sometimes b/c I'm so out of practice, and the yoga instructors are really excellent. The other day I did a headstand all on my own, without the wall, for the first time ever! Very exciting stuff.

I also discovered an excellent restaurant in February - I went to a French two Michelin-starred restaurant called Pied a Terre for a work dinner. It was arguably the best meal I've ever had (except for mum's home-cooked meals of course!). I checked online to see about prices as I'd like to go back someday (we had had a set menu), and it was about 75 pounds for three courses! Guess I'll have to make it for special occasions only...

A few weeks ago James and I went to a work colleague's birthday party in a gay pub, and and my favourite bits were how James kept getting blatantly checked out from head to toe, and my in depth conversation with one of the guys about the effect that Alexander McQueen's death would have on the fashion industry. The following day we went to my very first live rugby game with a group of work mates. This was a friendly match (like a scrimmage) between London and Melbourne, and it was League Rugby rather than Union Rugby. It's just two different leagues but there are slightly different rules between the two. Union is the more popular and it's what is played in the Six Nations. The game was awesome to watch, although it was freezing outside and London lost.

Love to all and miss you!

Heather xoxo

January 2010 - cold and snow (boring)

Did I really just title my own blog "boring"? Oh well, it's true - January was a fairly tame and boring month, I mean when you compare it to my normal ultra exciting, jet-setter lifestyle. :)

James and I had a few outings with friends here and there, went to a friend's birthday party who had hired a sommelier for the evening - it was good fun and nice to try all the different wines. While we were there I met one of James' friends from uni who is now a bankruptcy lawyer and was telling us a story about how he had to repossess a woman's Arabian horses but had to bring the police b/c she had threatened to kill herself if the horses were taken. We heard from him later that she did slit her wrists when they took the horses and they are now arresting her on contempt of court - soulless! But also quite entertaining.

We also had lunch at a Peruvian place with friends one Sunday - it was interesting and very tasty. Another weekend we spent a day in Greenwich - all-you-can-eat curry, milkshakes, and the Greenwich market as always. But it never gets old! I love the Greenwich market, but the best bit is seeing friends of course.

There was loads of snow in January in the UK, but we didn't get any snow days this time, at least not if you loved in central London. Everyone who lived outside and has to commute in had about a week's worth of snow days b/c the British can handle snow about as well as the Floridians - basically everything grinds to a halt if there's an inch of snow on the ground. But central London barely saw any - and thus I had to trudge into work everyday.

The other exciting thing that happened in January was that I got the official word that I could stay in London indefinitely! I had been working with the two firms for a few months on either giving me an extension of another year or transferring me over to a permanent contract, and in the end they let me choose, so I decided to go permanent. It makes life a little simpler for me, and also allows me a bit more freedom as I won't be tied to GT under a contract after September. It was a hard decision to make though, b/c I feel like I'm abandoning my friends and especially my family back home. I had a big sob-fest about it a few days after the official word came through. It's very weird - feeling very happy and very sad about the same thing at the same time. My boss was very kind though and got me a "staying" present when he saw that it was hard for me - a set of Legos! Yes, I love Legos even though I should have grown out of them 15 years ago. I also had a staying do - just a small get together of work friends at a bar close to the office. Usually people have leaving dos when they leave their jobs, but I decided it was appropriate to have little celebration for my staying! That was actually in February, when Denisse was here again from KC! She comes in early February every year now, which is an awesome thing to look forward to in the middle of the winter blues after Christmas. We had a good, if not short visit with her and it was awesome to hear all the gossip on all the friends back in KC. I really miss everyone so much. Honestly, when is someone going to invent a teleporter?

Well that's about it for January and a little of February, more on that month in the next entry!

Love to all, xoxo

Heather

New Year's Eve and South Dakota!

After my harrowing trip to KC I was finally back with James! Ok, it had only been two weeks but it feels like two years when you're as crazy about someone as I am about James. I know, I am a mushy romantic, I can't help it. We had an amazing time in KC though, where he met almost all of my friends and it felt like we also gained about 8 lbs each b/c all we did was eat! I had planned a load of lunches and dinners in order to see everyone and it just wasn't kind to our waistlines.

Our first day in KC I hadn't planned much as I figured James would be jet-lagged, which he was. Either that or he was just using it as an excuse to sleep till his normal 1 pm. Either way, we just spent the day running a few errands that I needed to do in KC (like, for example, spending an hour strolling around Target. Ahhh...Target) while I drove the long way in between to show James all of my favourite spots around the city. We had Chipotle for lunch and it was superb and delicious. James loved it as well and still mentions it from time to time - he just did today when we were wondering what to have for lunch! That night was Monday Night Football and James, Myers, Young, and a couple of other guys all went to the ESPN sports bar on the plaza where I introduced James to fried pickles. We all made an effort to teach James the rules to the game and he was getting a few details, but as I've said before I never realised how complicated football was until I tried to explain it to a Brit! He will learn slowly, this fall we're planning to go to Ohio for an Ohio State football game so I will try to teach him before then!

The next day we accidentally slept in ridiculously late and got to lunch 30 minutes late with the girls from GT (well, none of us actually work at GT in KC anymore!). We ate a very large amount of Italian food at Brio, James accidentally ordered the dinner size portion of lasagna and it literally came in a serving dish - he had to turn it sideways just to fit it in front of him. Even with this massive meal though he managed to have burnt ends at Jack Stack that night with Rach, Ang, Jackie and their men. Even though Jack Stack is nice, once everyone got wind that this was James' first BBQ experience they couldn't stop going on about Oklahoma Joe's being the best place in town. I ended up taking him there on our last day in KC. He marveled at the line out the door, ate the Z-man (tried to order it as the "zed-man" and the man behind the counter looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language) and posted pictures of it on facebook he loved it so much!

But rewind a few days - Tuesday night after Jack Stack we all made our way to the Cashew for a few drinks, and loads of people from the GT KC office turned up to say hello! Of course Jenni, Meisel, and Jenn were there as well. It started snowing while we were in the Cashew and James ended up having to push me out of our parking space b/c the car was stuck! Fortunately we made it home safely before the roads got too terrible.

Wednesday afternoon I took James to the only touristy thing I could think of in KC - the war memorial near Union Station. Unfortunately the tower was closed due to "weather conditions" so we couldn't go to the top, but the view from just the base is pretty fantastic, so we kind of got what we had gone for. That evening we met my friend Kelly and her bf for Mexican food on SW Blvd, it was soooo good. We didn't get there until rather late though and were the last ones in the restaurant - we kind of had to rush b/c the wait staff were giving us the evil eye! Still didn't take away from the deliciousness of the food though.

The next day was NYE, and as I mentioned before, I took James for lunch at Oklahoma Joe's with Jenn and Myers. That evening we had dinner at place downtown called 1924 Main with Young and Ashley, Myers, and another couple. The dinner was fancy and very good! I had scallops in some creamy sauce with walnuts, but most of the rest had a delicious steak. After dinner we made our way to the piano bar in Westport, where we had purchased tickets in advance but we still had to wait in the queue for a bit and it was freezing! We finally made it in though and had a blast. James had never been to a piano bar before (I've never seen or heard of one in London), and he thought it was awesome! I also ran into a very old friend from KU named Zach at the bar, it was such a weird coincidence that we were both there!

After the evening of debauchery, James and I had to rise VERY early to catch a greyhound bus to Omaha. We were on our way to South Dakota for my friend and old roommate Heather's wedding, and found that it was cheaper to get the bus to Omaha then rent a car from there than it was to rent the car in KC and drop it off in Omaha. Weird. Anyway this was my first experience on a greyhound, and I wasn't let down by the reputation they get. Let's just say that our fellow passengers were, well, unique. But the service was very good and we even arrived a little early in Omaha. We had an uneventful drive to South Dakota after stopping in Omaha for McDonald's - hangover food. The woman at the cash register had to keep asking James to repeat himself when he ordered, and when I explained that he was from England, she said, "Oh, that's why I couldn't understand a word he said!" Poor James. Anyway we made it to South Dakota and the coldest temperatures that I have ever been in. It hovered around negative 19F (neg. 28C) the whole time we were there. It was so cold that you could feel your nose hairs freeze every time you breathed in! Even if all we had to go was one block, I would get in the car and drive.

That evening was the rehearsal dinner, and unfortunately was also the Rose Bowl, in which Ohio State was playing. I was able to watch the first half, but missed the second. Gladly, Ohio State won. The rehearsal dinner was delicious and I cried when Heather gave me my gift - I'm such a sap. It was just so good to see her! After the rehearsal dinner we went back to the hotel for a small reception, and I introduced James to Sandy and Cameron, some of Heather's friends from grad school. They really hit it off, which was good b/c James had someone to hang out with the next day while I was with the wedding party. I was very impressed with Sioux Falls - the wedding was beautiful! In between the ceremony and reception Sandy, Cameron, James and I all went to this dive bar on the edge of town that Sandy and Cameron had discovered a few nights before. It was awesome and had the dodgiest people, and we got 4 beers for 5 bucks - bargain!

James and I left for Omaha that evening as we had an early flight out the next morning (Omaha was the closest commercial airport to Sioux Falls), and we ended up driving through the worst snowstorm I've ever driven through. It was so scary and didn't let up the entire way. Eventually we made it safely, thank God, and I felt like I had just run a marathon - I had been so stressed and tense. My fingers were sore from gripping the wheel so tightly! I was glad that we had gone that night though b/c I bet they wouldn't have had the roads plowed enough for us to make it back in time for our flight if we had gone that morning. As it was the flight was right on time and we made it to Chicago just fine. We then connected from Chicago to New York, and from New York to London. Except the flight from Chicago was two hours late, and then took another two hours to get us our bags (we had booked the flights separately so had to collect and re-check our bags). So we missed our flight to London but thankfully were able to be put on the last flight out. The only downside was that we didn't get to sit together, but really I just slept the entire time anyway. So we made it to work a bit late (we had planned to land at 7 am and be on time for work), but all was well in the end. We'll just never fly American airlines again - they were the airline that had a two hour delayed flight, and then took another two hours to get the bags from the plane to the baggage claim, and when they finally got there James' bag was cracked on one side! Miserable service. Oh well, as I said all's well that ends well.

Oh also, there are pictures from all of our adventures in America on facebook, if you'd like to check them out.

Heather xoxo

December 2009

December was a superb month - mainly because three of the four weeks were spent on holiday. More importantly, work just happened to be at a stage where I could really get away and not have to think about it whilst on holiday. I didn't even bring my computer with me! It was amazing.

The first week of December was really spent slacking off at work and just waiting around for my holiday to start, and picking up a few presents for folks back home. Most of the buying I saved for home as: a) I wouldn't have to haul it across an ocean, and b) it would be cheaper in the States. By the way, I can't remember if I ever mentioned this one in my earlier translations, but "dear" = "expensive" in Britain.

I left London on 12 December, with the slightest feeling of dread about my upcoming traveling. In the next few weeks I was going to be crossing all of the Midwest in the dead of winter - that's just asking for snowstorms and delayed flights. I miraculously made it to Ohio without a hitch, and woke up to my sister's homemade sign on the bedroom door saying "Welcome Home Heather!" She's so thoughtful and precious. Also on the way home I saw Sarah Jessica Parker (actress from Sex and the City) - she had been on my flight from London to JFK! I didn't even realise until I was standing right next to her at the baggage claim, so cool! I arrived home late on a Saturday night, so the first thing we did was go to church the next morning, and after church we had lunch - at a Mexican place! It was sooooo good, I savoured every bite.

James went to New Zealand for Christmas, as his parents live there for 6 months of the year the family spends alternating Christmases in England and NZ. Life of luxury! He stopped to be with me in Kansas City for a week on his way back across the world, more on that trip later....

A few evenings later my entire family plus our exchange student from Austria, Clemens, went to a medical society dinner for my dad. It was all planned to have kids there as well, and they had rented three of those bouncy castles (indoors of course). By the end of the evening we were all in the castles, acting like kids. One of them was set up as an obstacle course where you could race another person, American Gladiators style, so my brothers and I kept racing each other. It was so much fun! And good exercise too. We went to the party with my dad's partner in his medical practice and his family, but before we went they came over a little early b/c his partner had bought a new pistol and he wanted to try it out with some target practice. My parents' house is perfect since they live on some acreage so it's not dangerous. So my dad got out his pistol as well and they both put on the headphones and stood out in the backyard having target practice. This may seem like a normal thing in America, but having lived in Britain for the last year I realised how shocked a Brit would be to see such a thing happening! I told James about it on Skype that evening and he was laughing - nervously.

Luckily, I got there just in time to see my sister's band/choir concert, and also her dance recital! This is her first year in band and choir, and she sounded great. Well, they sounded great I guess b/c I could hear only her. Her dance recital was great as always too, for her performance she was the only one who turned up! Fortunately they found another girl who knew the dance so she didn't have to do it by herself.

It was pretty low key at home for the first few days, I was good and went to work out 3-4 times a week. It's amazing how nice it is to work out when you actually have time to do it! My mom and I went to a few yoga classes too. My family also found this awesome new gym that had recently opened. They have this room that is full of games that keep you active - like dance dance revolution, the Wii, a climbing wall, etc. The best bit was this giant light-up board - one on the floor, one on the wall. There were different games you could play on these boards, for example, in dodgeball a ball of light bounces around the board and everyone has to avoid it. We went there a few times and stayed for hours without even noticing. Even my brothers liked it and they never like anything except video games!

It also snowed while I was at home, big fluffy flakes. My sister, dad and I spent the morning sledding, having snowball fights and building snowmen. So fun! Of course it mostly melted by the time Christmas rolled around, so we didn't have a white Christmas. But it was fun anyway.

My brother Matt arrived from Phoenix a few days before Christmas, and mom, Grandma and I went up to Columbus a few hours before to do some shopping! I went to all the stores I had been missing in London - J Crew, Anthropologie, Banana Republic, Victoria's Secret. Matt arrived right on time with his two little dogs - Dachshund and Chihuahua mix. They were so cute! At first they were quite scared of everyone else and just followed Matt everywhere, but by the time he left they were much more independent. Matt was the last of the kids to come home, and my mom was very pleased to have all of her chicks back in the nest.

Christmas itself was great - for Christmas eve we went up to my grandma's and had a massive meal with my aunt and uncles and cousin, and some friends of the family came over to catch up. My parents overdid themselves again and everyone got gobs of presents. My favourite present was from my grandma and was a framed picture of my great great grandparents. I also got a set of legos! I will admit that I still love legos and usually I just steal whatever legos my siblings get and build them first. But they are growing up and not asking for them anymore, so this was the first year that I actually got them myself again! It was a very grown up set though - a model of the Guggenheim museum in NYC.

A few days after Christmas the whole fam all went up to the zoo in Columbus. They always decorate the entire place with thousands of lights - it's amazing to see. It was below freezing though, so we would just hurry from one indoor exhibit to another.

I was to leave Ohio for KC on 27 December, but of course a horrible snowstorm was blowing through the Midwest and my flight was canceled. Apparently my flight was the only one that was canceled too. But then again if I had made it to Chicago (connecting city) I probably wouldn't have made it out. They did end up booking me on a later flight, but that one was canceled in the end as well. I ended up hitching a ride with my uncle, who randomly and very conveniently happened to be driving from Ohio to KC that very night. He works as a welder and the closest work he's been able to find in the last few months is all the way in KC, working on a new power plant. So we drove all night and I got to KC at about 4 am. James was already there of course, since he had come from NZ through LA he hadn't hit any of the snow. We were staying with my friend Matt Myers, who was so kind and picked him up at the airport and entertained him while I wasn't there. He took him to Taco Bell for dinner, of all places to introduce James to American cuisine. I was not pleased. :)

Ok this is getting to be a rather long entry to I will write about Kansas City and South Dakota in another one.

Lots of love to all,
Heather xoxo

Egypt

On 21 November James and I flew to Sharm el Sheikh for a week long holiday in Egypt. The British seem to think of going to Egypt a bit like Americans think of going to Florida, it's funny. Sharm el Sheikh is a beach town on the very tip of the Sinai peninsula, about six hours drive from Cairo. When booking our trip, I noticed that there were quite a lot of hotels, and I should have taken note b/c this town has to be the most touristy place I have ever stayed, save maybe South Padre Island for one of my spring breaks in college. In spite of the garishness of some of the city, we still made the most of it and had an amazing and very relaxing time.

We arrived on Saturday evening, and immediately were met with our first bartering opportunity. We had read and been warned by former travelers to Egypt that you have to barter for everything and anything in Egypt, even in places like pharmacies, and they were right! Bartering for a taxi from the airport was something we expected, and we ended up agreeing on 100 LE (Egyptian pounds). The exchange rate is about 10 to 1, and we thought that £10 was pretty cheap for a taxi anywhere, especially considering we're used to the exorbitant prices of London taxis. Later we got a taxi from the airport for 40 LE when we were in more of a bartering mood, so clearly we overpaid but it's all about perspective, right? Anyway we made it to the hotel, which was really a very lovely resort. There were two parts, one just on the beach, and another larger portion across a rather busy four lane road, called the "mountain side" of the resort. Sometimes there were men outside who would stop traffic to allow us to cross, but usually we just had to dodge traffic to get down to the beach. It wasn't really that bad though, I'm probably making it sound worse. Of course everyone at the resort spoke English, which was nice but we felt spoiled. Just another indication of how touristy Sharm is.

After checking out our cute and cozy hotel room and changing into some lighter clothes (yay!), we headed down to the promenade on the beach in search of an Egyptian meal. When we made it down to the promenade we realised just how touristy the place was. When walking down the path, one passes nothing but resort after resort, with their restaurants front and center. I was a little shocked, but on the plus side I always felt very safe, b/c they had loads of security for all the tourists. Most of the tourists were British, Italian and Russian, but there were a few from other countries as well. The staff at resorts could generally speak at least one of these languages, and sometimes all three, as well as Arabic of course! One of the nice things about the tourists from other nations is that James and I could play dumb to the endless men hocking excursions and meals to us and pretend we didn't understand English, or whatever language they were speaking to us.

We found a restaurant that served Arabic food, and settled down on the long, low cushioned seats to an Egyptian beer called, ironically, Stella. Not Stella Artois, this was a different Egyptian Stella. It was very good though! James and I ordered enough food for a king and queen as we hadn't really eaten since the morning, and certainly did not leave hungry. We had loads of hummus and lamb dishes. The dishes we ordered were smaller, about the size of an appetizer, and we just shared all of them. My favourite was minced lamb sort of spread across a thin pita with herbs and spices, and I would spread hummus across the top before eating it too. Delicious! We had also been warned by friends that we may get sick from the food, and were told never to drink the tap water, not even to brush our teeth. It felt very luxurious and slightly wrong to brush my teeth with bottled water. But I suppose it was worth it b/c we never did get sick during the week of our stay.

The next day, Sunday, was my birthday and James wanted me to indulge in whatever I wanted to do. Which was easy to fulfill b/c all I wanted to do was a whole lot of nothing. We just laid by the pool drinking beers and soaking in the sun all day. I had heard that the resort we were staying in had a Japanese restaurant, so we went there for dinner. We had sushi to start and teppanyaki for the main. I was so full by the end I thought was going to have James roll me back to our room. The restaurant was very empty, we were the only table having teppanyaki that night, and there was a very nice German couple sharing the meal with us. We had some good conversations with them, as James speaks fluent German and the wife of the other couple spoke fluent English. At one point our chef called me up to cook some of the vegetables for everyone, it was good fun! I tried to flip some of the veggies into James' mouth like the chef's often do, but I always missed. Our chef was actually Arabic, which was a bit odd, but he was very entertaining and made delicious food.

The next few days were more of the same - waking up just in time to get breakfast before it was taken away at 11 am, then laying by the pool/beach for hours till we got bored or the sun went down, then eating another delicious meal somewhere along the beach side promenade. It was such a relaxing time. With all this laying out you would think that James and I would have come back to London tan, but we are both very pale and slapped on the SPF 50 everyday. Shamefully, I barely even had a tan line. On one of these days we decided to walk up to "the strip", which I decided was aptly named after I laid eyes on the thing. It looked like the Vegas strip. Neon lights everywhere, and hockers every five steps. We had come to collect some presents for friends and family, which ended up being slightly stressful for me as we had to haggle for everything. But in the end I felt like we got a decent price for everything. I'm sure we could have done better, but it was a good price to me. I ended up with a silver scarab necklace for Megan, and some red coral necklaces from the Red Sea for my girlfriends.

Thursday (which was also Thanksgiving!) we went on an excursion to Cairo. This was one of those guided tours which at first I felt a bit lame about, but once I saw Cairo I was SO glad I had a guide with us. Cairo is one of the dirtiest, poorest cities I have ever seen. I knew it was Africa, but I was expecting a little more from Cairo. I mean they have had 2000+ years to develop the thing, after all. Seriously the ancient Egyptians must be turning in their graves if they could see the city. There was trash everywhere, and the sand had created a horrible film on all of the buildings. When we were on the bus on the way to the pyramids, we were driving along a canal with a horrible amount of rubbish on the banks, and at one point the rubbish got so thick it filled up the canal, you couldn't even see the water. It was nauseating. In Cairo I also figured out where all of the 80s and 90s cars go once we sell them - Africa. Also in the bus whilst on the highway, James and I had a good laugh when we saw one of those old small pickups with a cow tethered in the back. By the end of the ride we realised this was fairly commonplace, and not only with cows but goats and donkeys as well. Speaking of donkeys, we saw several people using donkeys as transport - I didn't think this had happened seriously since Jesus days. I mean I suppose it works, but can you imagine taking a donkey to work?!

To get to Cairo, we had to be at the front desk at 4:30 am, where we were picked up and after picking up a few more travelers, were taken to the airport. After the flight we boarded a bus in Cairo and our first stop was the Egyptian Museum. This was a fairly old school museum, where at times it looked like things had just been stacked in and hadn't been moved or cleaned since its opening in 1901, and it was odd and a bit sad to think that such rare and incredible artifacts were sometimes so haphazardly displayed. Other exhibits were breathtaking. My favourite was of course everything found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen. It was nothing short of amazing to see that famous mask with the gold and turquoise that I had seen so many times in books and magazines. There was so much stuff in his tomb, and so much gold! Our guide made the interesting point that if he was only a fairly minor, un-influential pharaoh, imagine what the tombs of the important pharaohs must have contained.

After the museum we had lunch at a buffet style place, then stopped at a "Papyrus Museum" which really turned out to be a glorified sales pitch. After a short 5 minute demonstration about how papyrus is made, they tried (in vain) to sell us some of these very cheesy paintings which had been done on the papyrus. Think pyramids in the glow of sunset and your name in hieroglyphics, those kinds of awesome paintings. Finally, we made it to the pyramids. They were unbelievable, but not surprisingly they looked pretty much like they do in photographs. I still felt rather in awe of them, and Thanksgiving was a good day to be there as I had a special appreciation for how blessed I was to be able to see these in my lifetime. We drove to several different locations around the pyramids for different photo ops, the last being right in front of the sphinx. An odd juxtaposition that we couldn't help laughing at was the Pizza Hut directly across the street from the sphinx. It was really all so amazing though and I highly recommend a trip if you ever have the chance. Our last stop of the day was another loooong and annoying sales pitch in a perfumery, where they tried to sell us some "special Egyptian essential oils" or some crap like that. After a sales pitch that lasted about 30 minutes, no one bought anything and we all headed straight for the bathroom to wash off all the smelly stuff they had rubbed all over us to sample. Despite the two disguised sales opportunities, the day was one of the best parts of our entire holiday, to me. Of course the best part was being with James for 7 straight days. It was wonderful, and when we got back to London I missed him so much the first time we were apart. Mushy I know, but I can't help it.

Thanksgiving night we tried to find Mexican since I knew we wouldn't find turkey and it is American like Indian food is to Britain, but couldn't find a restaurant. We went to Thai instead and I had the most awful representation of pad thai I've ever had. However, while sitting on the upper level of this restaurant, we had a good view of the strip and managed to spot a Mexican place! We went there the next night for our last dinner in Egypt, and it was surprisingly good, for Mexican food in Egypt.

We flew back Saturday evening and were welcomed with wind and rain for the next three days. We missed the sun very much. Although it hadn't been super hot there (high 70s every day, and zero humidity), it was still much better than the cold and rain. Ah well, it was a fantastic holiday and I can't wait for the next one!

xoxo,
Heather

PS - there are Egypt photos on facebook too, have a look!