Conservatives, high heels, and kiwi

Two major events have happened in the past 24 hours.

1) I met a conservative Brit. Yes, you read correctly. And no, I don’t mean conservative in British terms, I mean conservative in American terms. I know, shocking.

2) I am wearing high heels today. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal, because, lets face it, I love heels. BUT, I haven’t worn heels in 10 weeks, since Obama’s inauguration night to be exact. That’s because I was in such a hurry to make it to class on time that night and see the actual inauguration that I sprinted across half of London in heels. To make a long story short, I had to take a cab home from class because I couldn’t step on my left foot due to shooting pains in my metatarsal. I self-diagnosed myself with metatarsalgia and haven’t worn high heeled shoes since. Today I pulled them out of storage and thanks to Dr. Scholl’s Party Heel inserts, I am loving my shoes again.

Ok, those probably aren’t too exciting to any of you, but they were both fairly huge events in my day.

Well, I’m off to snack on a kiwi. Camilla, my co-worker taught me how to cut one open with a spoon and eat it kind of like a cantaloupe. Quite the nice little treat. Plus they are only 30 p each at Sainsbury's. Talk about a good deal.

Love.

Question of the Day...

Well, my Tigers won. I am beyond ecstatic. I could undoubtedly go on about the game for hours, but I'll spare you.

But I will tell you that I did stay up until 4:30 AM watching the game on my computer wearing headphones in the tiny hallway of my flat. Everyone else, all the sane people, were asleep. I figured that by going to sleep at 4:30 I would get 4 hours of sleep, wake up at 8:30 throw my hair up, and leave for work by 9. Needless to say, I was super excited last night after we won and with that came all sorts of energy, so I didn't fall asleep until about 5 and was so paranoid about oversleeping that I got a total of 2 hours of sleep. When I actual got to sleep, it was filled with dreams of running after trains and getting lost in London by myself.

Stupid anxiety.

Well, I am paying for it today, but it was definitely worth it. Thanks to loads of tea and Coke I survived.With the work day behind me, only a 30 minute tube ride stands between me and my pillow. That might be more of an obstacle than anticipated. When it comes to riding the tube, I'm like a little kid in a moving car.

So here is the big question:

If I fall asleep on the tube, do you think someone will wake me up when I get to my stop?

Maybe I will wear a sign that says "Wake up at Earl's Court....Cheers?"

Yes, I am still alive.

To those of you wondering why I don’t slash CANT update much:

I still don’t have internet in my flat. Haven’t had it for the past 5 weeks. Seriously doubt if I will get it back before I leave. And I can’t really update from work unless I use my lunch break, and let’s be serious, a girl has got to eat.

The lack of updates is not from a lack of material. Plenty of times I am walking down the street and think of something to write, or I watch a show about a man who has limbs that looks like trees and I would really like to discuss it, but unfortunately I can’t get on the internet. I would use my phone from home to update but that would cost $800 a minute at the very least. Considering that I have 4 weeks left and am barely on budget, I don’t think using the phone is going to be a possibility.

But here are the highlights from the past week:

Jess came to visit last week. It was a fabulous week filled with Avenue Q, Billy Elliot, sightseeing, and some excellent food.
Linds, Katie, and Christy are here visiting this week. It is great seeing some school friends and hearing about all the news from home.

On a different, yet still incredibly exciting note…

THE MISSOURI TIGERS ARE IN THE SWEET 16!!! I know some of you are thinking I should really be more concerned with being in London and things like the G-20 summit occurring mere minutes from my flat. But to you I say this: WHO ARE YOU?! GET SERIOUS! My beloved Tigers didn’t even make it to the NIT last year. This is a BIG HUGE GIGANTIC DEAL. As fate would have it, of course I am not in the U.S. when this happens. But thanks to espn.com, my daddy and the Sports Café (a wonderful establishment that plays all of March Madness), I have been able to stay up-to-date and cheer on my Tigers.

Tonight they play at 8:37 cst. For those of you taking longer than 5 seconds to figure out the time difference, that means they play here at 1:30 am. Yes, I will be going to Sports Café to watch it. Yes, I do have to work tomorrow. Should be an interesting Friday (and by interesting, I really mean painful).

Win or lose, I am still proud of my Tigers. When you are unfailingly loyal to a team like Mizzou you get pretty used to disappointment. But every now and then they show you why it is that you love them so much.

So, Leo, J.T., Matt, Kim, Demarre, Zaire, and all the rest of you kids, please don’t make me regret staying up until 4 am to watch you play.

Well, I will try to update as often as I have internet. If you all would like to complain to my program for the lack of access, I can give you names and numbers, just ask.

See you all in 4 weeks and 2 days!

M-I-Z!

It is St. Patrick's Day, right?

Today is St. Patrick’s Day. I went out of my way to wear green to work. That is a big deal. First of all, I don’t really wear much color and today I am wearing a bright green scarf. Secondly, I had to borrow this scarf from my flatmate.

I did this because I thought everyone else at work would also being wearing green. Again, it is St. Patrick ’s Day and I’m currently living mere miles from Ireland, in a country that is part of the United Kingdom. I thought St. Patty’s Day would be a big deal and rightfully celebrated.

Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong. There are two other people in the office wearing green. I actually think people purposefully didn’t wear green. The guy from Ireland five desks away from me is wearing all black. And for those that did, I think it was an accident. One is a guy who doesn’t seem like the type to get super into holidays and themes. The other is a girl who always wears eccentric outfits with crazy colors (quite unique for a Brit). I think her green is also on accident.

Oh well. I’m just going to keep wearing my green scarf with purpose. No one is pinching ME today! Good luck everybody else

Sunshine?

It is sunny today. I know, weird. I don't even need a jacket. I'm not sure what to do.

As confused and excited as I am, I think the Brits are even more so. I was walking to the grocery store this morning and next door to me there was a 4-year-old kid sitting on the stoop waiting for his mom who was standing in the doorway talking to a friend (I assume). As he stood there, this is all he kept saying:

SUNNY DAYYYYYY!!! SUN! SUNNY DAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!! MOM, SUNNY DAYYY. SUN SUN SUN SUNNY!!

Hilarious. I could hear him as I walked down my entire street. That is proof that the sun rarely makes an appearance. You would have thought the kid had never seen sunshine before.

Well, I'm going to take advantage of it. Maybe hit up Hyde Park for a while.

Love.

I know, I know. I'm sorry

This is an official apology for not posting in about a month. I promise I will try to be better. I know any excuse is unacceptable for my lack of writing BUT, I do have a reason. You see, I haven't had internet in my flat for about three weeks now. And they don't expect it to be working for another week or two.

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You may remember that we have been having issues all semester with the internet. Well, they kept blaming us saying that we were Skyping too much and downloading shows (yes, I did find a way to watch ABC.com from out of the country). However, it turns out that there was a virus already on the server and it has been slowly crashing for the past few months. HA. NOT our fault.

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So, they are currently replacing the entire system. Until then, I can only use the internet when I go to McDonalds, Coffee Republic, or at work. McDonalds doesn't have any plugs so I can only go for about an hour at a time. Coffee Republic requires us to buy things every hour we are there or else they yell and kick us out. Good thing they have some great Peach Iced Tea....the best I've ever had. So here I am studying in London, but I can't really study or write, because I don't have regular access to the internet.

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So here is a little update on my life the past month. I'll make it short and sweet.

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The weeks following our trip to Barcelona were great. I got into a routine and had the chance to really appreciate London. Not just the touristy part, but the people and the culture. I went with Neili to Camden Market and bought myself a leather jacket. This is not something I would normally wear, or would buy from a punk-rock outdoor market, but I thought, why not? I also received a package from the Overman family (I babysit their daughter Langley, my favorite kid in the entire world!). They sent me Tostito chips, and salsa, and....drum roll please...DR. PEPPER. The real stuff, not the British imitation. That package pretty much made that week for me. So thanks!!

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Mom and Nate came to visit the last week of February and stayed until last Sunday. It was incredible to have them here. Not that I have been terribly homesick, but I did miss them a lot. I played tour guide for the first four days and showed them around London. We explored the tube, famous landmarks, and phone booths. We also ate DaMario's pizza three times. Yes, it is that good.

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We then went to Paris for three days and had a wonderful time. The first day we walked from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower. I honestly think it was a three mile walk. But totally worth it because we got Mom to go up in the tower and we had the chance to see it lit up at night. Beautiful. The next day we decided to travel to Versailles. The conceirge at the hotel told us a specific train to take and circled it on the map for us. After staring at the monitor with confused looks for a good 15 minutes we finally hopped on the train and an hour and half later we arrived in Versailles. If you ever have the chance you should see it, just don't get crepes from the sketchy vendor outside the gates. He uses frozen crepes and then heats them up and puts minimal nutella. Not ok. After out little adventure we tried to find the train back. It was very busy and confusing so we boarded the first train that said Paris...and 15 minutes later we arrived in Paris.

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If someone could please explain to me how it took us and hour and a half to get there and 15 minutes to get back, that would be great.

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One of the best things about Paris: crepes on every corner. We had at least two a day. YUM.

From Paris we took the night train (from hell) to Venice. Never ever take a night train. Ever. Unless you are guarenteed to have your own room with heating. Mom had to bribe the worker 50 euros to give us our own room away from the man that smelled like an ashtray soaked in Jack and Johnny. To give you a little perspective on the night, even Nate couldn't sleep the entire night. I know, that's saying something.

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We arrived in Venice alive, and lice-free thanks to Mom not allowing us to use the blankets on the train.

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I can't even begin to describe to you how gorgeous Venice is in the sunshine. But we first arrived when it was pouring. We jumped on the boat to take us to our hotel and both Nate and I managed not to get sick. Quite a feat for two of the most motion-sickness prone people in the world.

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Our hotel couldn't have been more opposite than the night train. Definitely lifted our spirits. While in Venice we saw the Murano glass factory and actually got to see a Master create a bowl. We also had some of the best food ever! And I'm not just saying that. Our last meal in Venice consisted of tuna quiche, fresh crab, clams in garclic and butter, fresh salmon, monk fish, and crab pate. We also tried octopus. Interesting. We then had black spaghetti with scallops. My dessert was some sort of passion fruit deliciousness. I think I was literally in a food coma for the next two hours.

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The trip was fantastic and I have been resting this entire week. My friend Jess comes on Sunday for a week! I can't wait! I will probably get to Heathrow three hours early because I will be so excited - possbily with a big sign in tow, we will see.

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Ok. I can officially leave work now. I plan to go home and make a big box of Kraft Mac and Cheese. Mom brought me five boxes and I have five weeks left. I'm rationing.

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Love!