Adventures With Javi

As all time seems to be doing lately, the last two weeks have flown by so quickly I think my head is still spinning. Javi has been visiting me the last 2 weeks and our travels have taken us all over the UK, Ireland, and Germany. Writing about absolutely everything we did would take ages but I'll give you as brief of a summary as I know how while including all the good bits!
Javi arrived early morning April 18 and our reunion was so exciting. It involved lots of jumping up and down and a near tackle right outside the security doors but I didn't care if I made a scene. I was beyond excited to say the least! After a quick 2 hour nap I made us get up because you can't beat jet lag if you sleep through the whole day! We grabbed some dinner and then went to go see Titanic in 3D! Seeing as I was deprived of the opportunity to see it when it first came out in theaters I was ecstatic to be seeing it this time around! For anyone wondering how hard Javi fought me on the decision to see this movie....he didn't! It was actually Javi who suggested we see it together hahah. He's the best.
Let's move on to Ireland. WOW. I am in love with this country. We landed in Dublin early afternoon and found our way to the center of the city. We mostly did a lot of wandering around, taking pictures in front of things that looked important and planning our few days there. Thanks to some awesome suggestions from my friend, John, we found a yummy fish and chips place, a cute pub and the Temple Bar. Now, when I was first told to find Temple Bar I assumed it was one bar. Singular. Not an entire area filled with adorable pubs, restaurants, and overall tourist sites. After settling this confusion between the two of us we did find the right area and even the actual "Temple Bar" and we had a great time listening to an Irish band play music and the next day we even saw Irish Step Dancers perform. On our second day in Dublin we decided to take a tour on the hop on/hop off bus and it was the best way to see as many of the sites as possible in our limited time in Dublin. We saw the outside of the palace (it was closed that day), a famous church I can't remember the name of and the best part of the day...touring the Guinness Factory! We walked through all the steps of the process from the grain to the water to taste testing it. We also had a ticket to go to the Guinness Academy and learn how to pour a proper pint of Guinness. It's a six step process and yes, we did graduate...we have certificates to prove it hahaha.
Day 3 in Ireland sent us over to Galway where we woke up at 5:00am to catch our 6:00am bus. It worked out perfectly though because the tour we wanted to take ended up being partners with the bus that took us over to Galway so we were able to buy tickets and hop straight onto the tour bus where we headed off to see castles, cliffs, and caves! It was by far the BEST and my personal favorite day of our entire time in Ireland. Even the constant rain couldn't damper my mood as we passed breathtaking scenery and stood on the cliffs of Moher with the wind literally whipping my hair across my face. I felt very small standing on the cliffs and looking out over the ocean watching storm clouds seemingly race across the sky towards us. After the cliffs of Moher, the caves were my second favorite part of the tour. It was SO neat to see these caves which used to be used by bears for hibernation (bear bones were found inside and are actually still there). We were walked past huuuuge waterfalls, ducked under old rocks, and skipped down massive passageways that had slowly been formed over thousands of years. I was fascinated and thought it was SO neat.

Our time in Ireland sadly came to an end and we headed back for a few days in London where I not only got to show Javi around my stomping grounds but we also got to go on a tour of the Warner Brothers Studios where Harry Potter was filmed!!!!!! Javi found out about this tour and knowing how much I adore the Harry Potter series he gave me tickets for the tour including a souvenir book for Christmas this year. As you can all imagine I was absolutely stunned and ecstatic to go. I nearly cried on several occasions as excitement overtook me. I forgot to even take pictures! But luckily Javi was on top of things and took about 5000 pictures of me/for me/of the sets/and absolutely everything there was to see! From original costumes to props to video recreations of scenes and an actual broomstick you could ride....I was beyond impressed with the entire tour and I would have absolutely no problem going back again to spend another 3 hours there. Like I said, Javi took all the pictures because I was in a general state of hysteria the whole time but I did get a picture of the GIGANTIC castle they used for filming the Hogwarts castle. Even the most minute details had been put into place from working lights inside to the forbidden forest. I literally lost my breath from gasping so hard as I walked into the last room of the tour. It was absolutely incredible and this picture I have doesn't do it justice but it's a start. I could honestly make an entire blog post about this tour (and it just might happen when I have more time...) but if you want to know more, all you have to do is ask! ;) Harry Potter wasn't the only thing we did in London, don't worry. We also went on a tour to Stonehenge (yes, I've now been there three times), Windsor Castle, and Oxford! Of course the rain was unending yet again so we spent a lot of the day sprinting from the bus to sheltered areas and back to the bus again but I truly enjoyed seeing these new places with Javi! Windsor Castle was stunning and as I do with every castle, I imagined what it would be like to live in such a place. If you take out the fact that tourists take over your household on a daily basis it would be sooo cool to play hide and seek or dark tag. The possibilities would be endless! Anyways...
After London it was off to Bremen, Germany to visit Thorsten for his 30th Birthday! Now in Bremen, it is a very big deal to turn 30 and a tradition stands where if you are not engaged/married by the day of your 30th birthday you have to sweep the church steps until a virgin comes and gives you a kiss. Although he was not forced to go to the actual church to do this, his co-workers and friends did make him follow through on this tradition not once. but twice! After lunch on his birthday we walked Thorsten back to his office and on the steps outside his coworkers had dumped thousands of bottle caps and he had to sweep them all up. Of course, people constantly walked through the piles making the task endless. At his birthday party that night he also had to sweep off the stage in the venue his part was held and THIS time...he was wearing a pink dolphin costume hahahah it was hysterical and great and maybe you just had to be there to understand but it was a great night with great people and I really do love the city of Bremen.

Early the next morning we headed off to Hamburg with Thorsten and his parents (who are just SO, SO amazing and great and I loved meeting them not through Skype) to watch him play in a very important Rugby game. It was so intense and exciting and I loved all the tension between the teams! Whichever team won got to advance to the next division for the season next year so there was a lot of hostility on the field. Want to know who won?!.......Thorsten's team!!!! YAY!!!!!!! I wish our trip to Bremen could have been longer...heck I wish all of our trips could have been longer. But we were very fortunate to have nearly 2 weeks together to explore parts of Europe and enjoy each others company.

I'm struggling to figure out how it can possibly already be May. Not that I am complaining about how fast time is moving but WOW. I have two more trips coming up this month and then it's on to dissertation work only. Bummer right? I guess that is the purpose for me being out here though so like it or not, it must be done! With this last photo, I leave you.





Love from London,
Kristin

A Few Favorites

I haven't traveled anywhere new this week but with Javi less than 3 days from being here my travels are about to pick up again and I may not have time to update for a while. So, to make sure you all don't miss me too much I thought I'd share with you a few of my favorite blogs that I read constantly throughout my weeks. More so than ever as I have currently deactivated my facebook for a few days/weeks...we'll see how long it lasts.

The first blog I want to tell you about, POSTSECRET is my absolute favorite and I have been checking it religiously every Sunday for years and years. Alex and I first discovered the books around my sophomore (her freshman) year of high school when we were wandering around Barnes and Noble. (Quick side note: every Friday we would go to Desert Ridge and when there were no good movies to see we would wander from store to store until our last stop at B&N where we would spend aaages searching books to buy for that week. We would take turns every week buying a new book or two and then trading! It was a pretty sweet deal we had worked out. Hey Grapejuice, why don't we do that anymore?!) Anyways. So on one night we were actually looking in the music section for some reason I can't recall right now and we stumbled upon a Postsecret book that was tucked into the wrong shelf. We were immediately addicted and anxiously awaited each book to come out.
Postsecret was started by Frank Warren who was interested in learning about other people's secrets. He self addressed/stamped hundreds (a thousand?) postcards with instructions for people to write a secret of theirs on it and return it to him. Before he knew it thousands upon thousands of secrets were/are being mailed to him and the books were then born. As the books became more and more popular he started a blog and every Sunday (at midnight exactly- I know, because I often refresh my browser at 12:00 on the dot  to see the new secrets) he posts 15ish new secrets that he particularly enjoyed from that week. If it's near a holiday he will post a lot about people's holiday secrets/traditions etc... Anyways. I am so happy that Frank Warren came up with this experiment so many years ago and I'm happy to say I have been following it from essentially, the very beginning. The project is now 7 1/2 years old and going strong! I encourage you to check out the site and watch the most recent video about his project which went up last week. As of today over half a million secrets have been shared with Frank, making him one of the most trusted men in the world if you ask me!

The second blog I want to tell you about is MAKES ME THINK and I'm warning you now, it will make you tear up. The blog is for those who want to tell about events that happen in their lives that quite literally, make them think. Click on the link above and you'll understand what I mean. They are often touching, heartfelt, sincere and most importantly, they make others think as well. I can't tell you how many times a week I look at this blog and think "wow, my problems are so trivial" or  "that person has a good point." So many of them are about losing loved ones, a kind word from a stranger, or something embarrassing which made others laugh at them and each one reminds you that we are not alone. Everyone has day to day trials which make us think and when we share them with each other they help us feel not so alone.

The third blog I am obsessed with is DEAR PHOTOGRAPH and it is a blog that started off as someone posting six photographs from their past held up in their original setting. I can't remember how I came across this blog but I sure am glad I did! This is another one that often makes me tear up because pictures hold more sentimental value than we give them credit for. In this technology age we live in it's a miracle if pictures even get printed any more. I personally print hundreds of pictures a year but you all know how camera crazy I am. (plus, after my hard drive crashed and I lost, literally, thousands of pictures, I am happy to say that at least I have a few hundred of them in "hard" copy.) Scroll through this blog and you'll see how touching it can be as you imagine the feelings these pictures evoke from their owners and the happiness in sharing it with the world wide web.

I have a lot of time to myself over here in London and sometimes that makes me feel like I'm going crazy. Reading blogs like these three not only make me feel like I'm not the only one who struggles with certain problems or fears irrational things or has weird OCD habits but it is also enjoyable to get an idea of what goes on in other peoples' minds! It's fascinating and makes me wish I had more actively pursued psychology in my undergrad. Buuuut that's a whole other discussion for another time.
I know we're all really busy with school/work/life but I hope you have time to look through these three blogs at some point and enjoy them as much as I do! It's a much better time waster than Facebook or even Pinterest (AAHHH I can't stop pinteresting! I need help! haha)
Ready, Set, ENJOY!

Love From London,
Kristin

If April Showers Bring May Flowers....

...then come May I don't know WHAT London is going to do with all the flowers it's bound to have from all the rain we've had for the last several days.
That's not to say the sun hasn't shown up for parts of the day but this picture here shows just one storm that has blown through here today! Anyways, I guess since I need to be forced indoors to focus on my school work it's not all bad to have this weather around and the sound of the rain is quite soothing. So all in all it's not bad for anything except my mood.
Yesterday, however, I was lucky enough to go on a tour of the Palace of Westminster.  The Palada is most commonly called Parliament around here and I was actually unaware of the fact that it was considered a palace and used to be used as a palace, until booking this tour! It was obviously a very historical tour so I was enthralled for all 75 of the very quickly spoken, nearly running to keep up with the guide, minutes of it! With the State Opening of Parliament coming up on May 9th we were walked the route that the Queen will be walking when she comes to give her speech. No, it is not written by her and it is apparently only 10-20 minutes long now (I'm sure much to the relief of most people in attendance) and it's not even guaranteed she'll know what she's saying but HEY! she is the QUEEN! Anyways. We walked through both the House of Commons and House of Lords though we were not allowed to sit down on the seats. That is a privilege you must earn and I'm glad that even the children respected that. I so badly we had been allowed to take pictures but...alas, respect for the age of the building and security and all that.
Did you know that for (insert long time period here) years no royalty has crossed the bar into the house of commons from the house of lords because that is a sacred space for "the people" and when the Queen wishes to speak with the Commons she must send someone to knock on the door (which is previously slammed in his face as he approaches) and say something along the lines of "The Queen demands your attendance..." I feel like she should ask more politely instead of demanding but hey, tradition is tradition and if something's been done for hundreds of years...well you don't mess with it.
There are so many more interesting facts that of course I just can't remember off the top of my head to share with you...darn I should have snuck in a recorder! Ah oh well.

Included in my tour I was also allowed to go see the Jewel Tower which was/is part of the palace though no longer connected to the palace building. There is not much to see but it used to be quite a big deal! It was where stones were weighed and measured and money was kept and it is one of the last remaining parts of the ORIGINAL palace built like a million years ago or sometime in that time frame.
These scales here were actual scales used in the tower when it was still in use. The tower was actually still used until around 1941 (whoa! how did I remember that?!) when it was finally deemed too small for the needs and purposes it was designed for. I can't tell you where everything was moved to now, probably somewhere inside the palace or somewhere important nearby.
On an exciting note as well I got a haircut yesterday! Now I haven't trusted someone to cut my bangs (fringe as they insist on calling it here...what am I a table cloth?!) but it was time as they had finally grown past my chin and were more like a silly looking layer than bangs. So I went to a place near one of the Starbucks I was doing work at the other day and the nice lady who cut my hair was very patient and understanding of the fact that I wanted to keep all the length on my hair and that she had to be VERY careful not to mess up my bangs. I left feeling VERY happy with how it turned out and for the first time in several hair cutting experiences I haven't left crying. I suppose that's the difference when you pay for a decent hair cut as opposed to walking in to a chop shop ;)

Love from London,
Kristin

Blessings

I woke up early this morning and couldn't actually believe that Easter was already here. Time is moving so quickly and I can't believe that it's over a week in to April and not only have I completed another term and turned in my essays for both classes but I have begun research for my dissertation. I'm starting to get excited about it because it will be on a topic I get to pick all on my own! On this Easter evening however I'd like to reflect and share with you all why I feel so blessed in life. (Warning: this could get sappy). 

In my life I have always been surrounded by a strong support system. My family always told me I could do whatever I put my mind to. Encouraging me to play sports I wasn't good at (ha!), helping me move to California to live near the beach and now helping me pursue my dream of living abroad and exploring new things on my own. I've always been a daredevil and I'm grateful that even when I scare them half to death they never try to hold me back. 

Then I have the most amazing friends I could ever ask for. From Arizona to California you all have been my cheerleaders and I feel so incredibly lucky that we manage to stay close no matter the distance that separates us. Encouraging emails, texts, and letters that make me laugh and able to carry on when I want to give up. 

Then of course I have been blessed with the most amazing boyfriend in the world who always takes care of me. From making sure I'm eating properly to taking my medicine when I'm sick to making me laugh when I've had an extra grumpy day of reading. He always loves me no matter my mood, no matter how un-put-together I seem to always be. 

I feel like I could go on forever about how blessed I am to have such amazing people in my life! The last 7 months of this journey here in London has not always been easy but I have been so blessed with people who are going to get me through it! Being here is a blessing in itself and I am fully aware of the fact that I need to take advantage of all the opportunities I have out here and trust me, when it comes to travel and exploring...I AM! I have loved all the new places I've seen and experienced and I'm so excited to continue all of that! 

I know this has been a scattered post but I guess the point is that I am BLESSED. The lent season passed quickly and in some ways I feel like I forgot about the season altogether. It's disappointing but at the same time I'm pretty excited that time seems to be moving. For anyone that was wondering about how I spent my Easter day I went to church at the Brompton Oratory (sorry I forgot my camera :(  so sad. But click on the link to look at pictures!) which is a beaaautiful church in South Kensington. I went with Caitlin, Mariel, and Pete so it was lovely being there with friends! We walked in right at the end of the Latin mass because it was running quite late so we waited to get good seats right up at the front. Then our mass started right after and let me tell you, the priest sped read through the readings and gospel and gave a 5 minute homily that would have made certain members of my family very happy. (cough cough daddy cough cough). There was also no music at this mass which saddened me a lot but within 45 quick minutes the mass was over and it was off  to breakfast with Caitlin where we got to catch up on the last few weeks of our lives. After losing track of time we said our goodbyes and I then came home, went for a run, worked out a bit in my living room since the gym is closed (everywhere shuts down here for Easter- Friday-Monday a lot of places are closed. I appreciate that this country celebrates and enforces religious holidays haha but I'm not used to it.) And then I got to skype with my loving family back home! After I finish this update I'm going to try and get a little school work done before I watch a movie and crawl in to bed. So I leave you with the Di Marco 2012 Easter photo! 

Easter Family Photo 2012

Love from London,

Kristin

Reflections

The rain outside tonight is reflecting my current mood as Lisa has officially taken off from London and it's back to reality for both of us. After some brief (okay not so brief) and embarrassing tears on my run and at the gym this afternoon I decided that tonight will be devoted to updating you all on the last couple days and getting as many pictures up as I can so that you can really follow our journey (if you have access to Facebook. If not...well, what century do you live in anyways?!) if you so desire. If I ramble or seem distracted I apologize. Just accept it and look at the pictures ;)

For the past 3 or 4 days Lisa and I have been making sure to hit all the last main touristy sites we may have missed before Spain. We were finally able to climb to the top of St Paul's Cathedral after our third attempt. First time the whole church was closed for a fancy event, second time we were informed the top two outside views did not open until April 2nd so we finally went Monday and loved it! It beats the view from the London Eye for SURE. Well maybe it doesn't beat it but it sure does compete with it. The climb up is over 500 stairs though and gets very narrow and very steep so we were dizzy and minorly scared for a bit there but it was more than worth it.
The picture above is where we went to tea! It was in a very pretty hotel next to Kensington Gardens and the movie Nottinghill was filmed in one of their gardens. I can't remember if I've seen that movie or not but I remember we used to own it because I remember the VHS cover! Silly, Silly. Anyways we got to eat little sandwiches, tarts, macaroons, and lots of other yummy sweets. It was so good and we each tried a different type of tea- mine was called silver arrow or something like that. Clearly I only picked based on the name but I don't actually know anything about teas.

This weekend we also went out dancing which was fun! We went to a club not too far away from my house called Ministry of Sound and it has a few different rooms with different types of music and it was nice to go out in London because it has been a long time since I have had time to enjoy a night out in London. School work seems to dominate my life which is probably good since I need to stay focused in between people's visits. We went out wiht our new Australian friend who taugh us Aussie slang hahhaha and also one of my roommates and we had such a great night out!

I'm exhausted and need to get to sleep here in a few minutes. I thought I would be excited to have my bed back to myself but really I know I'll need all 5 of my pillows tonight more than I have because I liked laughing as we fell asleep and fighting over sides of the bed and being ridiculous and silly with our stuffed animals.
Thanks, Lisa, for visiting me! It was such a wonderful trip and it truly has helped get me through small patches of homesickness. Miss you so much already!


Love from London,
Kristin

Kind of a Big Deal (or two)

So last week I was at the mall and was astounded at just how massive this building was! It not only had approximately every single store an American mall would have but it also had hundreds of food and clothing and shoe and any other type of store you can think of that I had never even heard of before. It was overwhelming and I probably only saw about 1/3 of it in my brief walk around after paper writing some more. The most exciting discovery was of course the fact that there is a PINKBERRY in the mall!!! It was exactly the same except they don't charge per topping and you can add as much as you want to your cup like at Yogurtland or Menchies. It made me so happy because I haven't had froyo in months and months! Poor Chris probably thought I had lost my marbles when I squealed as we turned a corner and BAM it was directly in front of us. hahaha but he kindly took a picture of me anyways which I of course have to share with you all here. Once I had some Pinkberry in my belly I managed to avoid stressing about my paper for a brief period of time which was quite a relief. 

Now on another school related note...I am not famous on the King's Website! About 2 months ago now the director of our program asked if a few of us would be interviewed just answering the same 3 or 4 questions; why we picked King's, whether we liked the program, if it helped with career plans etc... I had actually completely forgotten about it until my friend, Bryan, told me to go look at the Program website and WHOA! There was part of my interview at the beginning of the video clip! I'm slightly embarrassed because I feel so young compared to everyone else and like my answer seemed silly but eh, I'll let you all decide what to think of it. It's kind of exciting either way! Now, I wonder how long that video will be up there....! WOW I'M FAMOUS.....kinda.

Love from London,

Kristin

Who Does She Think She Is?!

As I've mentioned in previous posts I have a lot of respect for the Queen of England and really enjoy the fact that I get to enjoy all the jubilee events happening around London this year. It's an exciting time to be in London but busier than ever and I'm struggling to accept the huge influx of tourists and craziness. Today, however, was especially disappointing. Lisa and I signed up for a tour to take us around Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor Castle! We specifically chose this tour because we were so excited to go to the castle! We arrive at our tour this morning and they tell us that we can no longer go to the castle because although it just re-opened less than a month ago the Queen has decided that she needs to use it last minute today and we can therefore not be walking around the same place the queen is walking around! *GASP* how scandalous would that be?! In my opinion she should have just requested a wing of the castle and left the rest for us to tour but oh well...we instead went to Hampton Court Palace which was beautiful as well but not what we had planned. 

The palace did have some beautiful gardens that we really enjoyed walking around. The oldest vine in the world is housed here and is literally thousands of years old. The roots spread out massively over the grounds and the parts we could see were thick and gnarly and in their own ugly way, stunning. We were able to walk around some of the state rooms but of course with our luck the Queens private rooms were closed off while an exhibit is being set up. Good thing I much preferred being outdoors today anyways as we were blessed with yet another gorgeous sunny day! 

After the palace we headed to Stonehenge which I was delighted to see again! I still find it fascinating and it was also at this point where we began talking to some other people on the tour who were about our age and we bonded over the crazy lady who was annoying the entire tour bus. I kid you not, not a single person wanted to sit next to her and she was yelling at people (us) for getting too close to her picture in front of Stonehenge (Ummmm HI, do you see all the people here?!) and she threw a fit because we weren't going to Windsor. I mean...who does the Queen think she is that she can use her own home when she feels like it?! Anyways...we really enjoyed seeing this and wish we could have stayed longer. Unfortunately we were only given 45 minutes but it was enough to learn about what history is assumed about the stones as well as some of the conspiracy theories that people have. Our guide was quite knowledgeable on every place we visited as well as what was going on outside our bus windows as we drove past so we learned a lot on the way to and from each location. 

The last stop on our tour was the city of Bath which again we had very little time to explore but we did get to go in and tour the old Roman Baths which was just incredible to me! Why do I love old things so much?! Probably because I like to imagine myself in that time and dream of what it must have been like in those times. But honestly it was stunning to see how much of the baths are still preserved and how technologically advanced it seems they would have had to have been in order to keep up such a building containing numerous rooms and both hot and cold baths along with rooms for exercise, massage, worship and more. The fact that the original ducts still have water flowing through them and you can still see the steam rising from the pools is pretty awesome. 

It was approximately a 2 1/2 hour drive back in to London after our tour of Bath so we napped a little and enjoyed some of the pretty scenery and sunset. We all know how much I love sunsets and tonight the sun was a strange but bright orange color that I found beautiful. 

Like I said earlier we made a couple friends on the tour and after our bus dropped us off we went and got hot chocolate! They are both from Australia and Lisa and I really enjoyed talking to them for a couple hours about traveling mostly but also about work and school and general get to know you things. I spoke with Mel a lot about what it's like living in London and she and I both agree that although we love London we can't wait to get home haha. It's funny because talking to her we decided we have a lot in common in terms of both of us wanting to be adventurous and explore new places and have new experiences and that we are both afraid of regret. I would rather come to London, struggle a bit and know what it's like to live virtually alone in another country for a year and then get the excitement of going back home than spend years wondering what it could have been like if I had just gotten the courage to do it! Long story short, we decided that we would both be very happy to say "We did it!" if nothing else comes of this year. 

Love from London,

Kristin