This isn't The Holiday, I'm not Cameron Diaz, and I'm not in love.

We watched The Holiday a couple of weeks after I got here. In case you've forgotten, that's the one where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet trade houses for Christmas. In the film, the American (Diaz) falls in love with a Brit (Jude Law), who literally shows up on her doorstep right after she arrives in England. The girls and I laughed about how it should give me great hope for romance here in the UK, as I'm kind of in a similar situation.  

It only took like a day for them to fall in love in the film. Yet, here I am almost 3 months later, and Jude Law has yet to knock on my door. In fact, I haven’t met anyone I’m interested in. Granted, I don't have movie star looks, and that's a chick flick (aka, completely unrealistic), so I suppose I shouldn't have such high expectations. 

But the other night, Sheila (our romance resident expert--the girl's got men lining queuing up to get a chance to go out with her) figured out what was wrong. She was looking through a lot of my pictures and pointed out that the vast majority of the guys I hang out with at home are quite attractive, which is bound to have had some sort of influence on my tastes. I think her exact words were, "Oh my days. All these guys are really fit! No wonder you haven't found anybody here. You're used to a whole different standard!"  

Now, part of the issue is that I'm not Sheila. I'm not (and this is Sheila's term) "a lioness" in that I don't "go hunting" for men. Like, not ever. I doubt I'll ever be that girl. And I'm perfectly fine with that.

But I still liked her theory. And even though it implies extreme shallowness on my part, I plan to use it as my excuse from now on. Because people do ask...all the time. And because it's more fun than, "Oh I just haven't found anyone I'm particularly interested in...not sure why. Maybe because I'm not really looking?"

So this is a shout out to all my Baylor/Pine Cove guy friends. You're the ones featured most prominently in these pictures, so clearly it's all your fault. Thanks for being so attractive that you've ruined me for all these British blokes.  

It makes it much easier to concentrate on my studies.