Simply having a wonderful Christmastime.

 

I spent Christmas up north in Manchester, with my sweet friend Hannah. It was lovely and festive and full of warmth and cheer (despite the grim weather). 

The cherry on top was tuning into Christmas with my family in New Mexico.

 Skype is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Success.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. So much food and such wonderful friends. And the turkey was great, which was a total relief! Though I needn't have worried. Laurent and I are a pretty stellar team when it comes to kitchen-related endeavors.

Undisputed turkey champions of the world.

After we had eaten, we put some football on (American, of course) and just kind of laid around our living room. At one point, someone suggested games, but that got vetoed because we were all too full to move...which is how you know your Thanksgiving is a success: food-induced lethargy.

It was a lovely evening. I went to bed feeling very blessed.
 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was Thanksgiving, even though it didn't really feel like it.

I spent the day at work, because apparently England doesn't have anything to be thankful for. I would have much preferred to have spent it surrounded by family members while I ate myself into a food coma, like a true American. But alas.

I settled for this.

Did anyone else spend their Turkey Day at an Irish pub?

Not your traditional Thanksgiving meal, but at least it was tasty and shared with friends. Plus, I still have Saturday to look forward to, when we'll celebrate properly.

Happiest of Thanksgivings to you and yours.

Time travel.

I'm convinced the closest thing we have (and perhaps will ever have) to time travel is music. In seconds, a song can take you back years. There are other things that trigger memories -- sights and smells and such -- but music has this rare ability to transport you back to a particular moment (or even particular people) from your past. 

It might be purely accidental. A song comes on the radio, one you haven't even thought of in ages, and all of the sudden you find yourself back in your hometown, riding in the bed of someone's pickup a couple days after your high school graduation, feeling that this night is somehow incredibly significant -- that soon, people will move and things will change, and that you should try to take it all in because someday in the distant future, you'll want to remember how things were.

And for those three minutes and thirty-four seconds, you do remember. And quite clearly.

Or maybe it's purposeful. You're missing your best friends, so you put on that CD you always used to play in the car when you made your weekly run to Sonic for happy hour, and the memories come flooding back and you can't help but smile as you sing along.

Regardless of how it happens, it happens. And it's a wonderful and incredible thing.

I put this on, for example, and it's suddenly 2006, and I'm getting the longest hug of my life, because we both know that as soon as we let go, one of us will be moving far far away.

  

And this will forever remind me of the summer of 2008 and asking if Penland was open and whether or not we should just go play volleyball at the SLC and order pizza.

 
  

This one (forgive me) makes me laugh, transported back to my graduation from Baylor, and how "the party don't start till I walk in" played as we pulled up to the ceremony.  

 

This makes me think of winter in Illinois -- watching the white slowly pile up against our window while we stayed inside and baked our way through the Snowpocalypse.

 

And this makes me think of dancing spontaneously in the kitchen, but only during the chorus, because once the verse hit we went back to nonchalantly tending to the pots on the stove.

There are so, so many more. And more often than not, they catch me by surprise. Not only that I remember all the words (which, by the way, how is that even possible?) but also how an event that hasn't crossed my mind in years is instantly brought to the forefront, crystal clear, with all the accompanying emotions. It's an incredible thing.

What songs take you back?

 

There's no place like home[coming].

I'm sitting at work, smiling maniacally and buzzing like I just drank a lot of coffee. But I haven't had any coffee at all. This, my friends, is what you call a natural high.

 

I'm just so excited to be heading to Texas tomorrow! Why am I going, you ask? Because of this:

 

That's right. I get to go to Baylor Homecoming this year! 

Here's what I'm most excited about:

 

Driving -- I say this all the time, but I can't tell you how much I miss it. A car gives you so much freedom. Plus, where else am I supposed to sing loudly without fear of embarrassment?

 

Christmas -- But it's barely Halloween, you say? Well when you're not going home for the holidays, Christmas comes early for the ones you love. I've been planning, and I'm really excited to make people feel loved and special with an assortment of British goodies.

 

Football -- (American style.) When I was at Baylor, I never missed a home game. I've watched online, but it's been two years since I've actually been to a game. I can't wait.

 

Campus -- Apparently, a lot has changed around my alma mater. Still, I'm sure it will still feel like home. I'm excited to grab a cowboy coffee and walk the Bear Trail like old times.

 

Sunshine -- I've checked the forecast, and it's supposed to get into the mid 80s (that's 30 degrees for all you silly Celsius users). I haven't been that warm since my visit to Italy last June. To give you some perspective, our highs for London are expected to be 50 and below this week. God bless Texas and it's complete lack of regard for fall...even in November.

 

Food -- I've already made a list of all the restaurants that I absolutely must visit. Judging by what I've got down so far, it's possible that I could spend my entire trip eating. But that's a risk I'm willing to take.

 

Target -- I don't even need to buy anything. I just need to go. Don't judge.

 

And of course, friends and family -- To me, that's what Baylor Homecoming is all about. In fact, when my friends and I were interviewed at Baylor a few years ago by some local news crew, that's the answer I gave. That's also the answer Alexis gave, immediately following mine (I think she panicked). So the camera panned across our group as we listed off our favorite things about Homecoming, and it ended up sounding like this: "Football. Pigskin. Friends and family. Friends and...family." It was hilariously awful. I'm pretty sure we never ended up on TV.

 

-------------------------

The point is, I can't wait to get on that plane tomorrow. I absolutely love living in London. It's such a fun city, and I've met some incredible people who mean the world to me.

See what I mean? Lovely, wonderful people.

But there's just something about going home that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. So all you lovely Texas people, get ready. I'm headed your way.
 
And I can't wait to hug you.

  

Wednesday randoms.

The other day, as I was getting ready to take my lunch break, I asked if it was raining. My coworker responded, "Well there are people going by with brollies up." What? Apparently "brollies" are umbrellas. Who knew?

 

This is kind of old news, but I still think it's wonderful. Thanks, Google.

 

I came home to this the other night. So thankful for sweet housemates who know that my love language is dessert.

 

Beautiful.

 

The problem (well one of the many problems) with cold weather is that it makes my hands shrink, which means that my rings start slipping and sliding all over the place whenever I type. I've readjusted the ring on my right hand 4 times while typing this. Weird, I know. Please tell me I'm not the only one...

 

I got my National Insurance number last week, so I'm officially official! Which means I get to...start paying taxes. Hooray.

 

The other day, one of my besties was talking about how it's weird working full time and that she was still trying to get used to this whole you only get a couple days off for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Well me, I'm still trying to get used to there is no Thanksgiving thing. And Halloween's not that big of a deal either. You pretty much just go straight into Christmas.

Seriously? But it's barely October.

 

It's terrible. I'm a huge proponent of letting each holiday have its own time, so I never do Christmassy until after Thanksgiving. But they started putting out the Christmas stuff at the beginning of October. Not cool.

 

I'm heading home for a little visit in just two weeks! Can't wait to see some of my favorite people in the world...and to eat some Mexican food.

 

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.

This morning, I woke up at 5am for no reason and couldn't get back to sleep. I was not happy about it. But thankfully, I had Kim to entertain me via text. And entertained I was. I swear I have the funniest friends in the world. No lie.

We finally had a good sunset! That's a big deal guys, because (1) I love sunsets, and (2) we don't really get them here. But this was definitely one of the best yet.

Makes me thankful for my west-facing window.

This recipe makes me sad that there's thousands of miles between me and my bundt pan. But I suppose I could make it into loaves...though it just wouldn't be as pretty.

I got a surprise delivery this morning! Pie tins and graham crackers! (Neither of which I've been able to find here.) And just in time for some 4th of July pie making. My mom is a star. (This one's first up.)

This fork is stupid and I hate it. I don't need a trident. These guys know what I'm talking about.

Dumb.

This made me smile. How to feel classy in three easy steps.

England might be out, but the Euro Cup continues on without them tonight. Spain v. Portugal. It's nice living in a country that actually likes this sport, especially during a big tournament like this one.

Apparently the Tower Bridge just got some bling. I'm excited to see it in person. Only one more month till the Olympics.

Kira's done with her study abroad in Italy, so she's coming to stay with me for a week! Sad to say that there London is seriously lacking in sunshine and gelato, but we'll make the best of it.

 

Omigod You Guys.

A big congratulations to my favorite newly engaged couple, Shannon and Dakota! I've been waiting for this for a few months now, and by the time this week rolled around, Kim and I were practically counting down the hours.

"They're just like that couple from Titanic! Only no one dies...

I can't even begin to tell you how many engaged and/or recently married friends I have in my life right now. It's crazy. And I'm finding that it's the exact opposite of the culture here. When I mention a friend's recent engagement, I'm typically met with the question, "How old is she?" which is quickly followed by, "How long have they been together?" No one here can believe that I have so many friends married just out of college.

At home, it's super common. We joke at Baylor about "ring by spring," and MRS degrees all the time. And since pretty much the only time relationship statuses are announced to the world is when there's a ring involved, it can be easy to think that you're the only one who's not headed down the aisle any time soon. Which is so not true. It's just that you never see someone posting, "Guys, guess what! I'm single!" on Facebook. So my friends and I have started letting each other know, "Don't worry, I'm still not engaged," every few weeks just to remind one another that we're fine, normal, etc.

But here? It seems like no one even thinks about marriage till they're like 30. Which is totally fine and completely understandable and all that. It's just a bit different where I come from.

Anywho, another shout out and big hug to my sweet sweet friends. You two make an amazing couple, and I'm so excited for you!

Walking tour.

We made up our own walking tour of London, hitting all the major sites: the Eye, Big Ben and Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, the British Museum, a crazy old pub, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, and Buckingham Palace. It lasted approximately 7 hours. I'm spent.

But what a sweet time with good friends! I'm so glad they're here, and I'll be sad to see them go. I've promised myself to take more pictures of them and not stuff when we go exploring tomorrow. Because I seriously failed at that today.

It's a small world after all.

Tonight was great. I went into central London with some of the girls from my church, and ended up meeting some really fun new people. I also met a professional stunt motorcyclist.

But that wasn't even the most exciting part. (I know, right? What could be better than that?)

As we were grabbing our coats to leave, my friend dragged me over to this group of people. "You have to meet this guy," she said. "He's from Texas!" I'm always happy to meet a fellow American, especially one from a state I love, so I went to introduce myself. Then it got awesome. This is how it went down:

Yes. We knew each other. Both of us had worked at Pine Cove Towers camp the same summer. I didn't recognize him because he didn't have facial hair back then. And I'm only speculating, but I'll bet he didn't recognize me because at camp I didn't shower that often, usually sported a hat, and never wore makeup. But the funniest part was what ensued after we figured out we knew each other. You see, at Pine Cove, all the staff go by camp names. You get named before summer gets underway, and that's your name forever and ever amen. So there are quite a few people I worked with for summers -- 24 hours a day for 13 weeks in a row -- and I don't necessarily remember their real names.

Anyway, this was our conversation:

Me: "Pine Cove? Towers?"
Him: "Yes... (Points at himself) Meatballs!"
Me: (Pointing at myself and kind of freaking out) "Visa!"

And then we hugged. I'm sure people thought we were absolutely insane.

But it was awesome.

Good friends and good food.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was such a success. I think around 25 people came. We could barely fit in the kitchen.

Lisa was super thoughtful and got flowers, plates, decorations and such. The Council of Men (aka, the guys) provided tables from various other flats...which entailed disassembling them so they'd fit through the doors and then reassembling them in our kitchen. And just about everyone brought food. So much food. We ate and talked and ate and laughed and ate some more.

Such a fun night. Worth every dirty dish.

Good friends and good food. And that's why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

Wednesday randoms.

Happy Wednesday! We're getting close to the weekend, people.

Starbucks doesn't do pumpkin spice lattes here, so I made my own with this homemade pumpkin spice syrup. It's as easy as it is tasty. Toss 1/3 cup pumpkin puree, 1 1/4 cup water, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/4 tsp cloves and 1/4 tsp ginger in a pot and get it boiling. Turn the heat down to medium and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally (or pretty much constantly if you're paranoid like me). Once it's particularly syrupy, remove from heat. You can store it in the fridge and reheat it when you need some. Add as many spoonfuls as you'd like, along with some milk, to your morning/afternoon/evening cup of coffee.

Yum!

Dad and I went to Hampton Court Palace this morning. We tried out the hedge maze and were defeated. After half an hour, we cheated and ducked out the "buggies and wheelchairs only" gate. I know, I know...lame, right? But hey, we were starting to get really hungry.

I've been very studious lately. Like, getting up at 6:30 in the morning to work on my essays studious. Mostly because I want to have time to spend with my dad while he's here.

It's funny having someone from home around, because it makes me hyper-aware of how my vocabulary is changing. Apparently, I say "pop in" and "hiya" often these days.

Did you know Cadbury makes more than just those creme eggs? Because it's pretty much got a monopoly on the chocolate sections of the grocery stores over here.

My closest friends were all back in Texas this weekend, which meant I got to Skype with them all at once. When they first appeared on my screen, all I could think was, "Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry." Not because I was sad. I was only a little sad. I was mostly just really happy to see them.

Technology is awesome.

And tomorrow, I'm heading to Ireland for a few days. So exciting! See you Sunday.

Soul friends.

Aristotle believed that there are three types of friends: those of utility, pleasure and virtue. A friendship of utility is one that is beneficial to each party. A friendship of pleasure is typically based on things like similar hobbies or senses of humor. Then there's the virtuous friendship. This friend is the one who sticks around long after spending time with you ceases to be beneficial and/or pleasurable.

I like to call this a "soul friend."

A soul friend knows way too much about you, but loves you anyway. They've seen you at your best and your worst; laughed with you and cried with you. They're the ones who help you make major life decisions, remind you that your ex was horrible and you're better off without him, come up with the best inside jokes and tell you when that dress actually does make you look fat. Together, you sing off key in the car (or in public), eat whole pints of ice cream, go for coffee and long walks, dance around your apartment and generally feel like rock stars. Your relationship is messy, honest, tried and true, and often incredibly rare. You're lucky to have even one soul friend in your life.

I have three.

We became close in the summer of 2008, when we worked together. And for some reason, we stuck. Now, three and a half years later (time flies!) they're still my best friends, despite the several thousands of miles between us.

(Not drawn to scale...clearly. The UK should probably be about half that size.)

But hey, that's what Skype is for, right? And since this weekend is Homecoming at Baylor, they're all headed back to Texas. So even though I don't get to be there with them, I still get to see them all at once! Best day ever.

How about you call up your soul friends today and tell them how wonderful they are?

You know, just because it's Friday.

Serious information overload.

How did it get to be Saturday already?

If I had to sum up the past few days in three words, they'd be, "Serious information overload." I've learned so many names -- of people, of cities, of streets, of shops -- and I'm just hoping it'll all stick.

I live in a big hall of flats with 39 other people, and we're seriously from all over the place. There are people from the UK, the States, Greece, Ireland, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Slovakia and more. It's amazing. (My flatmates and I have decided we need to run a language school out of the building to help us pay for our degrees.) A lot of us went out the other night, and I laughed pretty much the whole time.

So what I'm trying to say is that I'm really happy about my living situation.

In addition to "important" things like figuring out how to use the public transportation and learning about the university (oh, right...I'm here for a degree...), I've also gotten to do a lot of exploring. There's a great little market place/shopping center downtown and the weather has been absolutely beautiful, so I've spent most of my free time just wandering around. It's kind of fun being anonymous in a new city.

And then there's central London. I got to see a bit of it today. We went down to some antique shops and found our way to Kensington Palace. And we found this little gem:

So glad I'm rocking the frizzy Hermione hair. It's totally on purpose.

It was lovely. We're planning to go back and do all the touristy stuff like Big Ben and Buckingham Palace on Monday.

But for now, I need to catch up on sleep.
  

Feels like home.

I love Baylor.

I must have said that a hundred times today. Since we're flying out of DFW, I got to spend today in Waco, walking around campus and marveling at how much it's changed in the short year I've been gone. But it still feels like home. I also had the privilege of hanging out with my brother and visiting with a handful of friends.

What a sweet, sweet time. There was so much laughing involved. And so many encouraging words. I seriously have the best friends in the world.

So thanks to Jamin, Lacey, Austin, Alexis, Phil and Adam for making my last full day (and a half) in the States an absolute joy. I'm going to miss you all so, so much.

I'll miss you too, Pat Neff--especially when you're green.