Home is Where the Heart is

Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you how much I love Arizona. Arizona is where I was born and raised and I intend to always call it "home". Arizona has some of the most incredible sunsets I have ever seen, the heat in summer, which as crazy as it sounds I absolutely love, the snow up north in winter and of course my family and friends! Approximately every 6 months my 6 best friends (Alex, Aiden, Jessica, Stephanie, Michelle, Katie) and I are reunited with each other and it always feels as though we have never been apart. I feel very, VERY lucky to call these girls my best friends because although our lives have taken us all across the country and even the world these past several years we continue to remain incredibly close. Social networking sites are of course always helpful with that but even once we are all together again it feels (to me) as though nothing has changed! I am truly blessed to have these wonderful, beautiful friends in my life and I don't know what I would do without them.

As for this lovely Christmas Eve Day I have been happily finishing up some last minute Christmas shopping, wrapping, and now watching a Friends marathon. I plan on watching a Christmas movie and playing some board games while eating pizza and wings (a tradition every year) before heading over to Alex's moms house to help with all the crazy wrapping whirlwind that ensues every year on Christmas Eve at their house. It's always so fun to help because there are so many children to wrap for and prepare Santa presents for and the Christmas spirit is exactly how I always want Christmas to be! Crazy and hectic with lots of laughter :) For anyone who somehow doesn't know, I consider Alex's family to be my second family and they kindly adopt me every holiday as part of their family so I get to celebrate with all the people I love through the days!

Christmas always has been and always will be my favorite time of the year! I am so excited for the next two weeks to spend time with my family, friends and as I have recently decided, to re-read Harry Potter! Every time I watch one of the movies again (such as last night) or read quotes on pinterest or see postsecret's anything Harry Potter related I get so sad that the series is over and I have to start reading them again! I LOVE HARRY POTTER! Who has an opinion on me getting a Harry Potter related tattoo?..........
While Javi is here I am also really excited to start exploring Arizona. Being abroad has gotten me even more excited about history and learning the stories that a city has to tell and I really want to know more about this great state that I love so much! I was doing a 100 question quiz in a magazine with my dad and it was all about Arizona (because Arizona turns 100 on February 14, 2012) and it was talking about all sorts of historical places and important places in Arizona that have so much history to offer and I want to see and visit it all! After I inform Javi this is what I want to do while he is here (hehe) I'm hoping that he is just as excited to explore with me! I'll keep you all updated.
A quick update on this terrible bug bite I had and cold I had- the bug bite is finally healed except for a small scab which yes, I am putting neosporin on, and the cold is finally gone except for a stuffy nose. I'm hoping to keep it that way.

Love from ARIZONA!
Kristin

Full of Surprises

Good Morning family and friends!

This past week has been crazy, CRazy, CRAZY with surprises from yours truly. Let me start by saying I finished off my semester at King's and am very happy with how both of my final essays turned out! They aren't due until January after I get back but I would never have been able to fully enjoy the holiday if I had to worry about writing those darn papers. Because I completed every thing over a week early (yes, I am an overachiever) I began to feel very wrestles wandering around London and I knew I just needed to get myself home. I spoke with British Airways and for relatively cheap I was able to change my flight and not only come home early but also switch airports so I could go to Los Angeles for a week! I wasn't sure I would be able to make it to LA at all this Christmas season and I was very sad about this because not only did I miss all my friends/family out there but I missed the beach a lot too! Let's backtrack again....
On Monday, January 12 I left my apartment around 630 am to head to the airport. I wanted to give myself 2 hours to get there. Being that there were no lines this early in the morning I got through baggage drop and security in just 20 minutes and had over two hours to kill before my flight. I wandered around and then read a new book I got at the airport. About 45 minutes before boarding I walked over to my gate and sat down waiting for everyone to board the plane. I absolutely HATE all the pushing and shoving people do to get on the plane first. I just don't understand it, everyone has an assigned seat!! Anyways, I happened to sit down next to a lovely girl, Cordelia, who was doing the same thing! haha and after exchanging small talk about no free wifi and eating carrot cake we became fast friends. It worked out PERFECT because Cordelia had an open seat next to her on the plane and we were able to chat and watch movies the whole way home.
Now keep in mind that only a couple of people knew I was leaving London a week early. I didn't want to tell too many people because I  didn't want anyone spoiling the secret and I couldn't have that happening since Javi didn't know I was coming! Yup, that's right, Javi had NO IDEA I was coming to see him in LA. Lisa picked me up from the airport and the first place we went to was the beach. Even though it was raining a little I just had to go put my feet in the sand. We only stayed for about five minutes and then went back to the apartment to rest and shower up. As Javi got off work, his sister, Irene, let me know he was on the way home and Lisa drove me over to their house. I knocked on the door and being that he was the closest, Javi answered the door! It couldn't have been any more perfect of a surprise. He opened the inside door and saw me through the screen door and he just stared. His mom and sister had to remind him to open the door and let me in out of the cold! Then he smiled and smiled and kept repeating "this can't be real!" over and over hahaha It felt so, so good to be back in his arms and back at home. It took two days for him to realize I really was there and we were both so happy.
It was a week filled with LOTS of sun, friends, and family! On Thursday night I woke up pretty sick and am still trying to recover from a cold that won't leave my nose. On a positive note, I did completely avoid jetlag! I've never been able to completely do that but I did well with staying awake when I needed to and sleeping when I was supposed to.
The second surprise came on Sunday, December 18. My parents were having their annual bridge Christmas party and my mom had already told me on multiple occasions that she wished I could be there so I decided to show up and surprise her (and as it turns out, all of the people at the party). It was so funny to see my parents faces as I walked in the door. I think surprise number two went over well.
The third and final surprise was to my most perfect, wonderful Godson, Aiden! I asked to pick him up from his dad's since I had not seen him in over three months! When I knocked on their door and he saw me outside he flung himself at me and hasn't let go of me for more than a few minutes at a time since he saw me. I love it and although I probably shouldn't be carrying him anymore I can't help it when he asks! He has gotten so big and I just can't believe he is already FIVE years old!!
This week is already shaping up to be a good one, I am still fighting this cold but making plenty of time to catch up with friends. On Wednesday I am having all my girlfriends over to have a cookie and present wrapping party! I can't wait!

Lots of love,
Kristin

Life Is Burritoful

My favorite time of year is here and I can't explain to you how excited I am to be going home soon. I have been missing home a lot lately, more so than in the beginning of my adventure out here. That's probably because the novelty of being in a foreign country and everything being new has kinda worn off and I'm ready for familiar faces, family, friends, and fun. Today being the first day that Christina, Mariel and I all had a free day with NO SCHOOL WORK to do we went on a mission to find Chipotle and guess what. WE DID IT! It's probably a good thing that I found it now and not earlier or I'd probably half live there haha. It was nice to have a little taste of home even if it came from a quick serve restaurant (which Javi has informed me is different than a fast food restaurant). It was only a few weeks ago that I found out Chipotle was even in London and I just haven't had time to go find it. Then last week in the evening paper there was a full page spread about how burrito's are becoming a trend in London and I laughed so hard on my bus ride home because it seemed so funny to me that burritos....BURRITOS....are such a craze all of a sudden. Not that I'm complaining or anything, the lack of Mexican food out here is depressing so if it wants to pick up as a trend or whatever, hey! don't let me stop it.
After we stuffed our faces (yes, I did actually finish my entire burrito bowl with an entire bag of chips, thank you very much!) we walked off the food coma by heading over to the Victoria and Albert Art Museum. We didn't stay more than an hour but we were able to see some statues of people and stuff (sorry for that pathetic description) and also art from the Renaissance which had a lot of church icons, relics, paintings, tapestries etc...and that was much more interesting to me. We were exhausted and sleepy and decided to head home to rest before we head out for the night.

Love from London,
Kristin

Ich Liebe Bremen!!

Hi family and friends! 

I'm writing this with a happy heart as I just had a wonderful weekend in Bremen, Germany! It was a very busy weekend with lots of new friends, tons of sightseeing and general Christmas cheer! I left for Germany on Thursday evening after my class got out and after minor (ok annoying major) delays at airport security I was finally on board and ready for take off. I landed in Bremen around 930pm and found Thorsten right outside of customs. Although I'm officially fed up with Ryan Air I'm glad that they have their own little section of airport so no wandering aimlessly through terminals and baggage and what not for me. We headed back home via the "scenic route" aka we hopped on the wrong bus haha and were back at the apartment in about 45 minutes. After trying gluvein (mulled wine) for the first time and catching up a little it was off to bed! 

Friday morning I was lucky enough to sleep in until a little after 10am! For those who know anything of my sleep habits that is LATE for me. Thorsten was already off to work and I decided to have a lazy day watching movies I hadn't seen (Avatar) and eating what felt like 5 pounds of Christmas cookies his mom made me. They were unbelievably good and I even got to bring some home with me! I'm telling you....these cookies were serious Christmas cookies. Friday evening we were off to the Christmas market to meet up with friends. I got to try a few different types of gluvein AAAAAND I was even allowed to keep the cups I drank out of! I have a lovely collection of 3 cups now haha The Christmas markets were so magical, you guys. A cold evening, a hot drink, and everyone happily spreading Christmas cheer. This really should take place in the states. After the Christmas markets we bar hopped a little and ended up at one called the heartbreak hotel and another that looks like a real life cave when you walk in! It was SO neat. 

We handmade sushi for lunch on Sunday!

Saturday was very eventful as well and although all the sightseeing was SUPER awesome I think the funniest part of the day was the pajama party we went to that evening. It was funny to see so many people in so many different types of pajamas from footie pajamas (yes, like the ones I have) to slippers and boxers. Any excuse to wear my pajamas I'm not going to say no to! I made lots of new friends and even talked to a fellow Californian. It took us a while to be friends because he cheers for UCLA and I cheer for USC but we managed to be friendly enough hahaha

Swinging at the Science Center

Sunday afternoon we headed over to this really awesome interactive science center! We played around like kids for a couple of hours and even got to see the new laser show that recently started. Exhaustion was starting to kick in at this point so things like the maze you had to walk/crawl through in pitch dark seemed extra fun AND funny to me. I could have stayed there for hours....days even....so much to see and I can't wait to be back in the spring to go again. 

I feel very lucky to have been able to stay with Thorsten in Germany because traveling is so much fun when you have an insider perspective and get to do more than just typical touristy attractions. Not that I'm against that because who are we kidding, I LOVE being a tourist sometimes haha but it's fun when you have someone who knows short cuts through the city and how to use the buses and I think it takes a lot of the stress out of traveling. So thank you, Thorsten for showing me such a WONDERFUL time in an awesome country! 

I got caught taking just a littttttle nap while
 skyping after the pajama party hahah

On another note, I am getting very tired of London at the moment and can't wait to come home. Don't get me wrong, I've come to love this city but I miss having the simple pleasure of customer service. No one here cares about customer service and it drives me insane. I could go on about this for hours, especially after a few situations Thurs going to bremen and Monday coming back to London but I've dwelled on it enough and need to let it go. But as long as I'm on this topic....other things I desperately miss back home: I miss eating Mexican food 3 (ok 4) nights a week. I miss driving. I miss calling friends to catch up frequently. I miss the beach. I miss each and every one of you reading this. Before this post turns sad I'm going to sign off but I can't wait to catch you up soon on my brief time left in London this term. I am back to the states SO SOON! 

Love from London,

Kristin

If You Say So....

I was skyping with my oh so loving boyfriend, this morning and he asked me what I had done yesterday. I said my usual, "not much, read a lot, walked around town a little, ate at some point....nothing exciting" and we then started talking about movies and football and I forget what else (sorry, Javi). Towards the end of our conversation I said something along the lines of "oh! at the Natural History Museum yesterday I saw...." to which he replied, "Kristin! you said you didn't do anything!" Now in my defense, I was only there for about 2 hours and I wasn't nearly as in love with this museum as the Imperial War Museum but I know what he meant. After (gently?) reminding me that some people actually do care about what I do on a day-to-day basis out here I decided I would blog a little about this museum as I've now been there twice this week. 
For starters, I wish I had not begun my tour of the museum with the "creepy crawly" exhibit. It really, honestly was creepy AND crawly and I certainly did gag a few times at the life size spiders and MASSIVE crabs. However, I did enjoy learning about how much more dominant female spiders are over their male counterparts! I'm pretty sure I knew this at one point but reading it and seeing videos showing it was pretty cool. This crab here on the left is 3meters and all I could think was, "I really, really, really hope I never ever, ever, EVER see that in real life." That shouldn't be too hard as I'm pretty sure this guy lives at the bottom of the ocean BUT point being, I was disturbed. Even worse in this exhibit was finding out about the bugs that live in ALL (it continually said nearly all but that means all right?) of our eyelashes that are supposedly necessary to keep our eyelashes clean. I hate the idea of that so much I wanted to cry right there on the spot but hey! I guess I haven't noticed them up until this point so I'll keep letting them do their thing. *insert shudder here* 

After being sufficiently scarred by this exhibit I moved on to.....DINOSAURS! Why is it that something so far removed from our past still continues to fascinate us? I know I came home and immediately started googling more about dinosaurs. How crazy that these animals ruled the world before humans were even a possibility! 64-65 MILLION years before humans are known to have been on earth. Oh history, you never fail to blow my mind! Anyways, I of course spent much more time among my new prehistoric friends than among the creepies and crawlies and actually learned a lot about the different types of dinosaurs and what they ate and who would have one battles against who.....Don't ask me to tell you any of it offhand because I won't be able to but it was fun to read about! This "little" guy over here on the right was probably one of the smallest replica's of dinosaurs they had on site but I thought he looked funny because he looks like he's searching for someone or something. I think he would have been one of the more friendly dinosaurs but what do I know.... 

Today I ventured back to the Natural History Museum for lack of anything else to do and not in the mood to wander to another museum today, and I walked upstairs to the exhibit on Darwin. Now, as controversial as this may be to some peope, the man makes a point! First off, I loved walking in on the side with all the cute lil monkeys!! I love monkeys! Probably because I wish I could move among the trees like they do, I just loved climbing trees as a kid! Ask my parents, I'm pretty sure I gave them a heart attack or two growing up. They'll probably claim more than that. I digress... DARWIN. Although the exhibit started with him and talking a lot about his ideas I was more intrigued by the comparisons between humans and the many different kinds of apes humans, or should I say homo sapiens, have similarities with! There are of course significant differences that distinguish us from the monkey family but did you know that some species have the same size brain as us?! Did you know that some of them even know how to make tools? There was even a video example of how certain monkey's understand the idea of seeing something from someone else's point of view. In the example it showed how a female monkey was hiding behind a rock with a male monkey who was not the dominant male monkey of her group so she should not have been with him. On the other side of the large rock the dominant male could see only her but not the other male monkey. It was all quite scandalous really, I guess it didn't matter since the screaming children were more interested in running around and through the exhibit hitting each other rather than actually reading anything about it. Though in fairness to them, a lot of them weren't tall enough to read the signs anyways...Side tracked again....
ANYWAYS. I didn't stay long at the museum today because I was tired and need to pack because tomorrow I fly to GERMANY!!!! 
I cannot express how excited I am to be going to see Thorsten (for all who don't know Thorsten is Javi's sister's boyfriend and he lives in Bremen, Germany) and spend time in the Christmas markets and enjoying more time traveling abroad! It still amazes me how easy it is to travel around Europe and reminds me on my more homesick days why I want and love to be here! I do have class tomorrow so I need to get off to bed now but I of course will keep you posted on my next adventure!


Love from London,
Kristin

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!