A London Thanksgiving

I know it was almost a week ago now and I'm just getting to posting about it but Thanksgiving in London was lovely! Although it took trips to 4 separate grocery stores to find all the ingredients we needed to make everything, Thanksgiving dinner went off without a hitch! We had everything we would have had at home! Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, bread, cranberry sauce and pie! It was actually a lot of fun to celebrate such an American holiday here. I had class all day on Thursday and because I was going over to Caitlin's house after class to cook dinner I had to carry a glass pan and ingredients with me haha I must have been quite the scene walking around waterloo, Covent Garden, Oxford Street and then finally Kengsington with all my bags.
Upon arrival I was introduced to some new English friends of Caitlin's as well as meet up with friends I had not seen in a few weeks. We opened a bottle each of red and white wine, poured us each a glass and toasted to productive cooking! The turkey was in the oven, the casseroles just needed to be warmed up and the rest was ready to go. The hardest part of Thanksgiving to explain to our English friends was why we put marshmallows in our sweet potatoes. They just couldn't understand why it would be necessary to sweeten sweet potatoes anymore! After a (nearly) heated discussion they decided it was just a weird American tradition and let it go. I wouldn't trade that dish for anything, make fun all you want!

In the end I finished three HUGE plates of food and didn't even have room for pie. Sad day but I guess that means at Christmas dinner I'll have to have extra dessert. Anyways, this plate I have here on the left doesn't even begin to tell how much I piled on that plate. Don't tell anyone but I definitely had to undo the button on my jeans after finishing the third plate. As I was getting ready to leave a while later it was still quite painful to button them up again but I figured no one on the tube needed to see me being such a slob after having stuffed my face for over an hour.
Thank you Caitlin and friends for helping us celebrate one of my favorite holidays! (because it involves food of course!)

Love from London,
Kristin

My First Visitors

I have finally had some visitors here in London!

My mom and sister came to visit and let me tell you, it has been a VERY busy couple of weeks.

Lets go back to November 7.....My mom flew in to Heathrow on November 7 and I picked her up from the airport and headed back to my flat in Greenwich. It's about a 2 hour journey but it seems to go pretty quickly (I think so anyways.) I think she realized very quickly how much walking I do in this city as we had to switch tube stations multiple times and then walk back to my flat once in Greenwich. We didn't do much that evening besides relax and catch up on things because early the next morning we left for Edinburgh, Scotland! I had been wanting to visit this city since before I moved to London so I was thrilled to have the chance to travel more this term!   

We had 4 full days of seeing castles, and cathedrals and meeting locals at a pub nearby. We took a tour bus all around the city and learned a lot about the history of the city and the people who live there. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL and worth the 4 1/2 hour train ride. Because we were so close, we also had the opportunity to visit Glasgow for an afternoon as well where we walked around the city center, had some dinner, and found ourselves laughing hysterically while shopping in the north face store. That story is for a different time ;) I can't wait to go back to Glasgow though because we literally only had about 5 or 6 hours to walk around and I know there is so much to see in such a historic city. We passed old universities you can tour and an old cemetery that I want to walk through, even though that seems creepy and weird. It was beautiful and for some reason I just wanted to walk through and read all the old headstones.

It is a hard to wrap my mind around the fact that this city is so old that the headstones I could see had dates in the early 1800's! I want to say some were even before that but....anyways. If nothing else, being abroad has made me realize EVEN MORE how much I absolutely love history and trying to follow as much of it as I can.  It's also funny to think that even when the US is as old as these countries are, it will still be a baby compared to Europe. (Duh, Kristin, Europe gets old along with America...you know what I mean, ok?!) After 4 days in Scotland, we headed back to London...for less than 12 hours haha we got back to my flat around 11pm and repacked for our next adventure to Paris, France! We left at 8am the next morning to get to the train which would take us through the tunnel and into France! It was hectic and I was exhausted but I guess I've always moved quickly in life so overall it worked out. That afternoon we walked around and gathered our bearings and had dinner at a lovely restaurant where I ate the BIGGEST salad I have ever had in my life. It was so yummy! The next morning I got up bright and early to go pick up my twinnie from the airport where she flew in to meet us!! I am proud to say that I managed to figure out their metro system, and the replacement buses being used because they were doing repair work on the line that went all the way to the airport and I did it allll by myself :D For those of you who know how directionally challenged I am, I know you are smiling right now. I have actually become very good at using public transportation out here. Mostly because I don't have a choice but hey! still a huge accomplishment I think. ANYways, I picked up Kimberly and we made our way back to the hotel and the three of us hopped on a tour bus and began the most touristy few days you can imagine. we saw the eiffel tower, the louvre, champs elysee, sacre coeur, and the arc d' triomphe! The tour involved buses and boats and it was actually a good way to see the city for the first time. Due to the fact that I had school work to work on (boooo) I didn't get to see any of Paris at night but I guess I'll just have to head back soon for that experience!!  My favorite part of being there was going to the tippy top of the Eiffel Tower and seeing the magnificent view.  There is nothing to compare it to that I have ever found. It was stunning and romantical and Kimberly and I kept waiting to see someone propose haha especially since they sell champagne (by the glass AND bottle) up there. But really, it was great and as cliche as it is, I LOVED IT. It has especially been fun to travel with my mom and sister and have the time to spend more than a day or even just a few hours in any one of these places. On previous family trips we've been able to travel to France, Spain and other places but they were on cruises and you only have a few hours really in the actual city. Point being, I LOVE TRAVELING and actually getting to explore the cities I am in. The three of us left Paris together, back through the tunnel and in to London! I had a lot of fun showing both my mom and my sis how good I have gotten at using the public transportation and how much I've learned about city. We walked a lot around central london....mainly covent garden area and on Thursday, when I had class they were able to do a lot of shopping around Oxford Circus. Both of them went home with more than enough souvenirs ;). We were also lucky enough to see two amazzzzzing plays! One was called Backbeat and is about the story of the Beatles. It starts in the eeearly days when there were 5 beatles (which I didn't even know) and goes through how they ended up with 4. I thought it was incredible and all the actors actually played their own instruments and well, I was impressed. We also saw a play called the Million Dollar Quartet and this one was even better! Absolutely INCREDIBLE. It is about the one and only night that Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins all played/recorded together. These actors/musicians were so impressive. I would definitely go back to see this one with ANYONE who wants to visit. *hint hint* 

Kimberly and I also had a lot of fun celebrating our birthday together for the first time in 5 years! I'm always in CA and she's always in AZ so we haven't been together on our actual day of birth in forever! We went out to a club called koko which is in Camden and we had fun dancing and such. 

We were fortunate to have really good weather in all our travels! Sun shining every single day in Scotland (crazy!), Paris, AND London! I think even the weather knew they were leaving today though because it was so foggy all day I couldn't see a foot in front of my face and it was very cold. I know it's only supposed to get worse so I best prepare myself!  

So as I said, the two of them left London, back for good 'ol Arizona and I'm sitting here alone in my apartment, skyping with my Javi and trying to get myself focused on school again. I need to start figuring out how to write my second essay because on Thursday we were told we would have to give a 30-40 minute presentation basically with all the information we will be putting in our paper. SO. I need to get on that. It was a lovely couple of weeks of distractions and I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to travel so much so far this term.

Next stop: Bremen, GERMANY!

Wait....where did October go?!

I can't believe how quickly the time is going. I feel like I blinked and all of a sudden it is November! Not that I am complaining because I can't WAIT to go home for Christmas but it hit me this week just how much work I have to get done for school in the next 6-7 weeks. I still have a lot of reading to do for both of my classes and I still need a topic for one of my papers and....well more on that later because more important things to say on this special day....
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL BOYFRIEND, JAVIER RAMIREZ! 
It's a little bit sad to be so far away from family and friends on special occasions like birthdays, holidays and what not. I know at least that it is only for one year and then I will be back in the states and celebrating next year will be even MORE exciting! On a more exciting note, my mommy and sister are going to be here to celebrate our birthday in London! I am super duper excited to travel with them (I won't give away yet where we are going) and even more excited to have my twinnie with me on our birthday. I think it has been a lot of years since we have been together on our actual day of birth. 
This past week has been a busy one with lots of reading (always) and more time at the Imperial War Museum. On Friday though I was very happy to go to St Paul's Cathedral for the first mass since the church closed due to the Occupy movement going on outside its doors. I can't say I know enough about the movement to give my opinion on what is going on but I can say it is incredible how many people have organized outside the church. It was closed for one full week at a (supposed) loss of more than £20,000 each day the church had to keep its doors closed. There are approximately 200 or so tents set up in front of and around the church though they have peacefully agreed to shift as the church requests so they may keep their doors open to the thousands of tourists who flood their steps each and every day of the week. Now what else I don't understand is how other people see their position in this occupy movement that is sweeping the world. It honestly blows my mind that this is something happening to countries everywhere, it's not just a movement where people can say "oh those Americans...." or "what are those Brits doing...." (just to use the countries I currently identify with) but it's happening everywhere! I should take more time to read in to this whole situation but let's be honest....I'll probably just ask Alex and my dad as I do with all things political. 

On a lighter note....Halloween was a hit this year! I wasn't really sure if I wanted to do anything at all and I didn't want to spend any money on a costume I probably wouldn't want to waste precious suitcase space with later on when I go home but Sharlene convinced me there were plenty of fun things to do around the city and we couldn't waste a holiday in another country! (Thank you, Sharlene). After a night spent looking up clubs, events, and other things going on for this holiday where the British actually thank us for giving them something....we decided on a club called Brixton Electric. We weren't going to dress up but 2 hours before we left we were at Tesco, the grocery store below my apartment building, and....we saw cat ears. and masks. and tails. And so we became Tesco Kitties for halloween. hahaha we thought we were pretty funny and it was the perfect addition to the black dresses we were going to wear out that night anyways! We danced for a few hours and even though the dj didn't play one specific type of music it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of old music played and it felt an awful lot like high school dance music but that kind of made it fun because we were able to jump around and sing to music we knew! 
And tomorrow! To celebrate the actual day of Halloween I am going with Caitlin to.....A BRITNEY SPEARS CONCERT!!! I can finally let go of the fact that I wasn't allowed to go to shows/concerts as a kid because....I get to see Britney. Whom Caitlin and I both still happen to LOVE. (Thank you Laura Michelle for bringing me back to her Sophomore year of college.) I am beyond excited BUT I now need to go read, read, read since tomorrow night I will be out! 


Love from London,
Kristin

Venturing Beyond London

For anyone who actually reads my blog, I am sorry it has been so long since I last posted. I guess I feel like so much of my life has become ordinary here as I have tried to focus on school a lot. I know I don't have class often but that means a lot of work to do on my own outside of class on top of the small homework assignments from my teachers. Anyways, this past weekend I was able to go visit France! No, not Paris (though I will be headed there in a few weeks!) but Strasbourg. Let me back up a bit....
When Kimberly and I were in high school our mom signed us up to be a host family for girls from France each summer. Manon was the third (and BEST!) girl to come stay with us and we have kept in touch, first through email, then through facebook, for the past 6 years. We have always talked about visiting each other but it has never really been a possibility until I moved here!
After briefly discussing travel options and dates we were both free my flight got booked and off I flew to Strasbourg! I can't even tell you HOW ADORABLE I think this city is. Not only did Manon grow up in this city but her parents AND grandparents grew up there! It has an adorable city center and it is on the river so we were able to take long walks all around the city by following the river. It was really fun to see another country and city from the eyes of a native. In my opinion, that is the best way to travel when possible.
I'll walk you through my weekend:
Friday morning  I woke up at 4:45am to get on the first tube and off to Victoria Station where the train would take me to the airport. I travelled to the airport and got on my flight without a hitch. I arrived in Basel-Mulhouse-Frieburg airport around 11am. This airport is actually in Switzerland because Manon lives closer to this airport than the ones in France haha. Quick side note.... it literally borders Switzerland/Germany so my phone kept sending me messages "welcome to Switz." wait "welcome to Germany" WAIT "welcome to..." so I turned it off since I didn't need it anyways. Back to our day....
We had lunch at the cutest little restaurant where I had meat and potatoes of some kind and it was DELICIOUS. Then we walked and walked and walked all over the city which actually isn't very big, quite quaint, but SO much history to see and talk about. We picked up her nephew Friday afternoon and it made me homesick for Aiden. I miss that little boy so much. We also climbed the stairs to the top of the Cathedral! We were both super out of breath by the top. It had an incredible view from the top though and definitely worth it. Friday evening we went to a beer fest of sorts and we got to keep our glasses as souvenirs. There were beers from all over the world and it was so fun! I was able to meet many of her friends and everyone was super nice about speaking English to me. Another side note...I was the only person who couldn't speak more than one language. Manon speaks four. FOUR. I need to work on that.....

Saturday involved sleeping in and walking around the city again. We went to visit/meet her parents which was so awesome! I love their house a lot :) And Saturday night we went to a friends party where there was lots of music and dancing and more people practicing their English with me haha. They love practicing languages and it's so awesome! We ended up staying out until after 5am and had to get up at 8 to head to the pub for the Rugby World Cup! Sunday morning we were so tired I don't know how but we got up with plenty of time to get  a good table to watch France and New Zealand play. Although France lost it was still a great game and France played REALLY well. It was fun to get so in to the sport. Side note part 3: I had my first traditional English breakfast at this Irish pub. In France. hahahah I find this amusing. After the game we just had to nap for a while as we were exHAUSTED from the night before.

We then walked to the park where they have a mini zoo and it was so fun to see all the animals including a couple rams stuck in a staring contest and some really cute kangaroos! I also ate a waffle with nutella and it was super yummy. I LOVE FOOD! Sunday evening we went back to Manon's parents house for dinner which was so lovely! Her dad cooked for us which apparently only happens once a year so I felt honored it happened while I was there haha I was telling her dad that the meal was delicious and her mom started laughing and told me to please tell him that several more times so that he starts to cook more!  I made sure to mention it a few more times before we left that evening ;)  It was such a lovely weekend and it went by way too fast. I can't WAIT to head back in the spring when the weather warms up. It was VERY, VERY cold the entire weekend. Lucky for me I had my warm coat and a jacket that Alex got me right before I left that fits under it as well. I am becoming a fan of scarves because they really actually do help quite a bit! With the help of boots, coats, scarves and gloves I think I'll be set for winter in London. I have been told it won't be as cold as in France but that the rain will probably make it seem that way. My first adventure outside of England was a big success and I can't wait to continue my traveling experiences.

Some good news has come my way this past week or so as well! My twinnie and Mommy will be with me on my birthday!!!! We are going to travel around England as well as go to Paris and I can't WAIT to explore with my family. Although I don't feel the need to make a big celebration out of our birthday anymore it will definitely make me feel less homesick to have people I love with me on this day. It will be fun to celebrate in another country too!
I visited the Imperial War Museum again today and spent another 4 hours in the place and still didn't finish the entire Holocaust exhibit. I probably could have but I was getting tired and wanted to really pay attention to the whole exhibit so I decided it was a good idea to leave and go back a different day when I wasn't feeling so tired.
I actually need to go now and work on some homework for class this week. Lots of reading to get done tomorrow as I haven't read another book for this class in over a week. EEKS.


Love from London,
Kristin

My Second First Day of School

Yes, you did read that right. I get TWO first days of school. Because each of my classes is only once every other week I started my second class this week. This class was my Christian Education class and I really liked it! There are only 3 of us in the class but the other two women in the class are very nice and we each have a different perspective to bring to the class. One woman is Anglican, one is Salvationist (she is a minister in the Salvation Army, which I had no idea was a religion until yesterday) and then there's me whose Catholic of course. The teacher is also Anglican but he is SO knowledgeable on every other religion it is almost scary. He is just a very intelligent man in general and I know I am going to learn a lot from him. He likes to talk a lot so the class was a lot of lecture but because he has so much to say I was mostly just enthralled with everything he had to say. He gave us an assignment for next class which is going to be a little difficult. He asked us to give a 10 minute presentation on what our theology is and why it is that we believe it. Now at first it seemed easy: "I was born Catholic, raised Catholic, so I believe Catholic" but of course it needs to be a little deeper than that. Being that we are older now and our beliefs/practices are our choices not just parents pushing their religion on us it is important to understand why it is we believe what we believe. On a completely different note I realize that it has been over a week since I last updated my blog so I have a few moments to comment on. 1. Caitlin's birthday! Caitlin is so great and we celebrated her birthday out in Camden at a club called Electric Ballroom.

 Lots of dancing and lots of fun!
I have also been trying to cook or bake something new each week. So far I have tried chocolate cream cheese brownies and this pasta casserole type deal. Both came out really well if you ask me! I will keep you updated on what else I end up making. If you have any suggestions I will gladly take them.

Besides lots of reading and researching I have not been up to much in the last week. I have figured out what I want to write about for my youth ministry essay so I can start really looking in to that but for my Christian Education class I am really going to struggle. I'm hoping to have some sort of epiphany at my next class but as for now I am going to continue reading and reading and reading and....reading. 

Love from London,

Kristin

First day of school! First day of school!

I haven't been this nervous and excited for my first day of school since.....well my last first day of school senior year at LMU haha but point is, I am SO happy that classes have actually started for me. This morning I woke up, skyped with Javi and even made myself some breakfast so my stomach wouldn't make all the obnoxious noises it likes to make. I got ready (picture to the right hehe don't worry, Mommy, I wore a jacket and scarf) and being that I didn't want to be late for school on my first day I left WAY too early and ended up sitting in the computer lab for an hour before class began. Better early than....late? right? Ok that was a silly way of putting it but I hate being late and this solved that problem!  It was startlingly cold this morning when I left my apartment and I was very glad I wore my boots! I need to remember that sun does NOT equal warm anymore. I am still very grateful for the sun though :)

In my  youth ministry class there are 8 people and I am definitely the youngest by several years. I am the only one who has never been a youth minister (I managed to make Life Teen relate during our discussions) and/or a pastor. I am the only one who isn't married/engaged and have a family.  (wait, one guy isn't married yet! That was the one thing we were able to connect about ha) And I am the only one from the US. It is definitely going to be an interesting term as I am on a different page and stage in life than the rest of them but I can honestly say I fully enjoyed my first day of class. The four hours FLEW by and I hardly had time to even realize how quickly time was moving when BAM. class over. It was a good feeling really! We had a lot of really good discussions and it made me wish even more so that I had class more than every other week. But at least now I know what to expect.

The book we were asked to read for today was written by our teacher and it was kind of funny discussing HIS book with him, it made me more nervous to speak up because I didn't want him to catch me misinterpreting him in some way but he was happy with people contradicting him or disagreeing because he said it's a good challenge.
So now I am going to start reading for my class next week and my teacher today made me even more nervous by informing me that there were no longer five (yes, 5) people in that class and only THREE. Holy cow I better be on top of things or I'm in trouble. I'll have to give you another update on that next week though.
After class I enjoyed a cup of coffee with one of my new friends, Sophie and then thoroughly enjoyed this BEAUTIFUL sunset on my train ride home. Why does this never get old to me?! So, so pretty.



Love from London,
Kristin

If anyone would find a beach in England it'd be me

Yes, the heading on that is correct. Thousands of miles away from the warm sunshine of Los Angeles, California I found a beach. London has been abnormally warm this past week and I have more than taken advantage of it. The temperature has been in the high 70's to 80's this entire week/weekend which apparently has not happened this time of year since approximately 1885. I did not make that up, I read it in the paper. Now I originally found out about the beaches in England when telling a new friend out here that I wish I could go to a beach on a beautiful day like this. She mentioned that Brighton is the place to go for the beach experience. I was able to meet up with one of my friends from LMU and after spending oooo about an hour and a half figuring out what tubes/trains/etc...to take to get there we began our journey! A quick one hour train ride later we arrived in Brighton...along with 3838960 other people anxious to enjoy the beautiful weather at the beach as well! hahaha but that is ok, I had sunshine and ocean and I was excited. Now the really funny part about this beach is that it isn't covered in sand like a "normal" beach rather it is covered in pebbles. Yes, you heard me, stones/rocks/pebbles. Now they don't hurt like I thought they would but it did feel funny to lay on compared to sand.
After spending a couple of hours enjoying the sun we decided to walk down to the pier. I can't explain to you how cool it was! It was about twice as long as the Santa Monica Pier and much wider at the end with several types of roller coasters/rides. They also had funny wooden photo cards to take pictures with haha
We enjoyed taking a couple at this one and another one nearby.
It was while walking back down the pier that I got my first feelings of homesickness. Not just the daily dose of "aww I miss ____" but completely sad that I could not be with family or friends enjoying such a beautiful day. It seems silly that being in a place I feel at home (WOW I really love the beach) in would make me feel more sadness than being back in London. Maybe it is the small part of me that still doesn't feel like I'm here doing anything but having an extended visit. It seems silly because I have been able to keep in contact with family and friends on a daily basis thanks to all the social networking sites I have caved in to (including twitter and this blog) so I am definitely grateful I am not complete cut off from everyone I miss so much.

On a happier note! I was able to do one of my most favorite things in the whole wide world....watch the sunset :) And it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. This pictures does not do it justice but I had to try of course. As the sun set the colors got brighter and darker all at the same time and then the clouds slowly filtered in front of them....oh I wish I could write poetry because it would be filled with cheesy lines about love and hope and new beginnings.
After sunset we wandered around this cute little beachy town and were able to sit in a pub and have a drink before we caught the next train home. We met a few other people from London as well and I laughed because while we were talking to them, for the first time since I've been here I realized that I no longer really notice the English accent. I feel like I have become more conscious of my own "accent" but I already imagine how funny it will sound to go home at Christmas and not hear it for a few weeks.

More good news from today as well! I FINALLY made it to church after 4 attempts! The bus route is messed up for a a few weeks while a new gas line is being put in nearby so instead of bothering to figure out the new bus route that would take me closest to the church, Javi helped me look up the route from my apartment to St Joseph Catholic Church of Greenwich. (Yes, I am lucky enough to have a boyfriend who not only gives me directions when I'm living in LA but also when I am thousands of miles away in a city he has visited once before.) It actually only took me about 25 minutes to walk to and it seems unnecessary to use the bus, at least while the weather is still semi decent. Once it gets to be "real" cold here I'm sure I will reevaluate that statement.
Tonight I went out with the roomies to a comedy club that is down the street and we had heard was fairly popular. IT WAS HYSTERICAL. My ribs hurt from laughing so much and I don't need to do ab work outs for a week. Seriously. Come visit me just to go to this place. It is somehow almost 1am and I am exhausted so I think it is time for me to get ready for the week ahead.

Love from London,
Kristin