Countdown to kickoff.

I just clicked onto the Baylor website and saw this: 

I then proceeded to freak out.

That's right, friends! College football kicks off this weekend.

I can't really explain what it is about college football that makes my heart skip a beat. And trust me, I've tried -- especially since moving to London. No one here gets it. No one. This is probably for two main reasons:

1.  It's American football. Not many people follow it. Even fewer understand it. And if you tell anyone you enjoy it, you'll probably hear some form of the phrase, "It's not real football." Except it is, England. And I love it.

2.  There's no such thing as college sports over here. Universities don't really have competitive sports. They might think they do, but really they're about as exciting as watching B team sorority girls slug it out on the intramural field. It's nothing like what we're used to.

(God bless America.)

So that means that while my Facebook and Twitter feeds are buzzing about the games that'll be played this weekend, I'll be holed up in my room, looking up last season's highlights or watching Remember The Titans by myself -- mostly just trying not to bore my housemates with football talk.

It's fine. This isn't my first football season in London.

Last year, I survived almost entirely thanks to ESPN text updates. But it was painful, and I'm not sure it will suffice this year. After all, a girl cannot live on highlights alone. I'm determined to find some website (however shady) that streams the games. Granted, a 6pm kickoff in Texas means I'll be tuning in around midnight, but it's totally worth it.

Especially if it's to watch my Bears.

Happy college football season! May your favorite team win. Unless they're playing against mine.

(Go Baylor.)

  

Wednesday randoms.

As one final goodbye to the Olympics, here are 33 of the best gifs from London 2012.

Last week was our one week of summer. It was boiling. I thought I was going to pass out and die on the Tube. But this morning, the air was crisp and chilly. And there were some leaves on the ground. So I guess it's autumn now.

I saw a couple of Waldos on the train the other day. But here, it's "Where's Wally." Silly Brits.

Yes. I realize this is a creeper shot.

Here's something strange I don't think I've mentioned yet: Occasionally over here you'll see a period ("full stop") used in place of a comma when there are numbers involved. Apparently it's a European thing. It's all very confusing.

I really liked this article on 10 Saturdays to have. I think I'll try to incorporate them into my life soon.

We went to the park the other night, and for the first time since I moved to London, I saw stars! And not just one or two, but a whole sky full! That's a big deal, because I swear stars are my love language. (I realize that doesn't make sense.) I've missed them so. 

This is one of my pet peeves. Seriously people, you don't get a whole seat just for your bag.

Just plain rude.

Sometimes when British-accented people say "I'm artistic," I think they're saying "I'm autistic." Which may or may not cause me to stare confusedly and/or ask potentially offensive and definitely awkward follow-up questions. (Sorry about that, random artistic guy I just met.)

Every so often -- and more and more often lately -- I accidentally spell something the British way, like favour instead of favor, or realise instead of realize. But don't worry. I'm always quick to delete it and correct my mistake.

  

Nectarine muffins.

You know that bit in The Notebook, where Allie says, "Most of the time I have all these thoughts bouncing around in my head, but with a brush in my hand, the world just gets kinda quiet"? That's how I am with baking. I don't care if my world seems like it's falling apart. Give me some dough to tend to, and I'll be okay. 

On the flip side, if I go a couple weeks without baking, I get a little antsy. Which is why I made muffins the other day. Well, that and the fact that the nectarines were about to go bad.

These are the perfect breakfast muffins. Not overly sweet, but still full of flavor. (Confession: I initially typed flavour...oops! These Brits are just too darn influential.) Anywho, let's bake.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 cup milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup (heaping) diced nectarine (about 2 nectarines)

1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar (for topping)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400°F (about 200°C). Grease or line muffin tin.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in the brown sugar, making sure to get the lumps out. Make a well in the center of the mixture.

In another bowl, combine butter and milk. Add the eggs. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined, being careful not to overmix. Mixture will be lumpy (as all good muffin batter should be).

Gently fold in the diced nectarines.

Spoon batter into the prepared muffin tin. Sprinkle with brown sugar for extra goodness. 

Bake for about 15 minutes (mine were done around 13), or until golden brown. Watch them fairly closely after about 12 minutes -- after all the love and care you've put into these babies, it'd be a shame if they came out too dry! If you're not sure, do the toothpick test.  

Cool on a wire rack before serving.

Notes: I made a half batch, and got 8 muffins (though I did fill the tins up quite a bit), so you can expect to get anywhere from 16-18 from the full recipe. Also, if and when I make these again, I'll add some strawberries. I think that'd take em to the next level of amazingness. 

  

Tentative celebrations.

I'm no longer homeless! 

Well, I suppose I never actually was. Still, the possibility was looming. But we found a house! It's lovely too, and just what we were looking for.

Confession: Despite having moved every year for the past six years, this was my very first time to sign a lease without any sort of parental involvement. My fam didn't even know about the house till after we were told the landlady had accepted our offer. So I was mildly terrified about the whole thing. While we were viewing the property, I just knew the leasing agent was going to see right through me -- that he'd realize I was just a kid (24 is still a kid, right?) and laugh me out of there.

I kept telling myself, "Stay cool. Just act like an adult. Stand up straight, think of clever questions to ask, and don't let on that you have absolutely no idea what you're doing here."

This cartoon sums it up nicely:

But I guess we pulled it off, because we left the leasing agency with a piece of paper that said the property was [tentatively] ours. I practically skipped down the street (again, I'm just a kid). It was all very exciting, and I feel like I can breathe again.

Now we're just waiting to make sure all our references go through before we can be absolutely certain we've got it. So keep those fingers crossed.

Barring some horrible, catastrophic mishap, we'll be moving in at the end of the month.

Hallelujah.
  

We're sorry.

But this blog has been postponed until its author finds a place to live next year, as she now spends every ounce of free time scrolling through countless property websites.

The good news is, she's now unbelievably familiar with all of South West London (at least in map view), including how long it takes to get to Central, links to transport, and walking distances to grocery stores. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Please note: this is a merely an illustration,
not an actual approximation.

So in the meantime, she's got a proposition for ya. Whenever you pass a house with a "for sale" sign, say a little prayer that she gets this whole thing sorted soon.

Because she really really doesn't want to be homeless come September.

We win.

Just a quick shout out to my homeland. Congratulations, America! You won the Olympics! 

China was making me nervous there for a bit, but you pulled through.

Go team go.

"First, you take the graham..."

Last night, myself and the other Americans in the building decided that it was time to share some of our culture with our international friends. So we put on The Sandlot (which most people hadn't seen) and made s'mores (which most people hadn't had). Because, really, that's about as American as it gets. Except for maybe apple pie, but that takes a little more planning.

You may notice that some of the marshmallows in these pictures are pink, which is apparently the norm around here. Weird. But they tasted just the same, so it was fine. And as we lacked a fire, we broiled them in the oven for a few minutes. (Side note: how do you roast your marshmallows? Because I've always been of the light-them-on-fire-and-blow-it-out persuasion, but some of the guys argued that it's essential to turn it slowly and try for that perfectly even brown. Doesn't sound very fun to me.) Thankfully, we weren't lacking graham crackers (which don't exist in England), thanks to my sweet mom. I know she loves me because she sends me things that I can't find here. 

Things like graham crackers. And good peanut butter. 

Anyway, they were super messy, but that's half the fun. And Sandlot was wonderful, as always. That's just one of those films that never gets old. Mostly because of scenes like this:

Love it.
 

Brave.

Pixar's putting out a new Disney princess-type film...or rather, they already have. At least in the States. It doesn't open here for another week. But guess what. I got to see it early.

My sweet and talented friend Fiona works at The Sunday Times. She got a couple of press passes for an advanced screening and was kind enough to invite me along. (It's nice to have well-connected friends!) Not only did we have to check in, but we were also offered beverages, and got to enjoy the screening in a small theater full of comfy recliner-like chairs. Plus, I really liked the film.

The whole experience made me feel all glamorous and important. Thanks, Fiona!

 

Wednesday randoms (that have to do with London 2012).

As it's Wednesday, I've decided to briefly tear myself away from the BBC Olympics website (it's where I've been spending most of my free time lately) to post a couple of randoms.

Oh, Ryan Lochte. You're a great swimmer, which is why we can forgive you for this. But next time, let's leave the attempts at stringing words together to form coherent sentences to someone else, okay big guy? It's just better for everyone.

Olympic memes are taking over the Internet right now. But my two favs so far are McKayla is not impressed and One is not amused.

Brilliant idea: Since there's really no way for us non-Olympians to wrap our minds around just how incredible these athletes are when they're competing against other incredible athletes, they should have a regular person participating in each event. That way, we can better understand just how much stronger, faster, and more talented these people really are compared to the rest of us. Even some kind of a "normal human" marker (similar to the world record lines that they show during the coverage of swimming or track and field events) would do. That'd give us some perspective.

Speaking of track and field, if you ask someone about that here, you'll just get blank stares. Here, it's called the athletics. Which is kind of confusing, because I was under the impression that, this being the Olympics and all, pretty much every event was athletic...

Meet Boris Johnson, the mayor of London. He's a legend. The other day, he got stuck on a zip line in Victoria Park. He also did this once.

I got this in the mail yesterday, which means I'm finally able to cheer on my 'Mericans properly.

Ask any American to sing you the Olympics theme song, and they'll give you their own rendition of this. But did you know that it isn't associated with the Olympics anywhere else but the US? Because they don't play it during their coverage here, and hardly anyone I know has heard of it. Crazy.

Anyway, that's all for me. Happy Olympics!

Seven goals and 122 minutes later...

I don't care if you don't like football/soccer. You owe it to yourself to watch last night's epic semifinal match between the US and Canada. It was completely unreal.

Canada was leading 1-0 at half, when I decided to Skype with my mom. When I tuned back in, I found I had missed three (THREE) goals, and it was tied 2-2. Both Canada and the US scored once more before regulation time was up, making it 3-3 and extending the game another half hour.  

Having played 120 minutes, the game was still tied at 3-3. Then, with just 30 seconds to go before penalties, Alex Morgan got her head on a long cross, putting it just over the keeper and into the goal. 

Morgan celebrating her game-winning goal.

It was absolutely incredible.

The whole game the play was quality -- high-energy and aggressive, with both teams battling it out till the very end. (Plus, the girls don't dive half as often as the guys, which is nice.) So exciting.

Seriously. Go watch it.

  

Footballs.

Thanks to a friend's brother visiting for the Olympics, my building has recently become the home of what I'm convinced is the only American football in London.

You may remember me mentioning that we recently went on a mission to find one, but despite the four floors of sports equipment, Sports Direct let us down. (Everyone kept telling us to just use a rugby ball, but there's no way that would work, as not only are there substantial differences in their shapes, but also let's be honest...I need the laces to know how I'm supposed to hold it.) So I was really excited when I found out one had been brought from home.

We rallied a group of people to go play, bringing with us both kinds of footballs. After a quick warmup with the European version, we busted out the pigskin, and held a mini-tutorial on how to throw it. At first, my sloppy spiral (more of a wobble, really) was looking pretty good compared to the other guys' attempts. Sure, they'd never so much as held an American football, but is that really relevant?

Anyway, they caught on really quickly, and soon we were playing with both footballs simultaneously. The best moments were when someone received a pass from one person at the same time that another person started another pass. You didn't have enough time to think about it, so the frantic attempts to catch/stop/duck all at once were pretty hilarious.

And one of the guys made an interesting observation. Whenever an American football came flying at a European who wasn't feeling confident about catching it, he'd try to stop it with his foot instead of his hands. On the flip side, when a European football hurtled toward an American, we typically stuck out our hands to knock it away. It was pretty interesting. Plus, it was a lot of fun.

Oh football(s). How I love you.

Wednesday randoms - Olympics edition.

Happy August! Yeah, it's August...already. I know I say that like every month, but it's crazy to think that I've been living abroad for almost 11 months now.

I'm starting to really dislike NBC's prime time tyranny, because it severely limits my freedom to post about the outcome of Olympic events. I get excited watching the US women's gymnastics team win the all around team competition, and start to give them a Twitter shout out...then I realize no one at home (aka 90% of my Twitter followers) haven't seen it yet, and I don't want to ruin it for them. Lame.

Guess who got to hold an Olympic torch. That's right. This girl.

If you're here for the Olympics, or just planning to visit. Here are some good tips on how to blend in.

I was so so so excited to see the US women completely rock the team final (as in, I may have gotten teary-eyed). They were really incredible. It's especially fun, because the last time the US won gold in the event was at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and I was there. Now, I'm here in London and they win again. I think I'm good luck. How about an honorary gold medal, ladies?

Speaking of gymnastics, You've probably already seen this video, as it's kind of exploded onto the scene recently. But it's maybe the funniest Olympics vid yet...

Still on that topic (can you tell which Olympic sport has my heart?), I feel like beam mounts used to be so much more creative. These days, they just hop up and start their routines, but I remember when the mount used to be a major part of the routine. Can we bring that back, ladies?

This also made me laugh. She's just so cute, bless her. And I'm sure I'd be making those faces too if I were made to stay up past midnight at 86 years old.

Did anyone watch the men's beach volleyball game between the US and South Africa? One of the South African guys was named "Freedom," so of course we joked about how it was the US vs. Freedom. And when the US won, there was plenty said about how Freedom didn't stand a chance against the US, and how we destroyed/defeated Freedom. It got pretty ridiculous, but it sure was fun.

Found this article about the medals race between US and China, and definitely laughed out loud. 

That's all for this week. Hope you're enjoying London 2012 as much as I am!