Royalty and Politics

Sorry if I got your hopes up about some sort of interesting discourse about how royalty impacts politics with that title.  I just meant that I saw Buckingham Palace and some political areas of London the other day.

 

 

 

I honestly don't even know everything that I saw, and I have no interesting facts or tidbit about these pictures to share with you, so this post is basically pictures.  Enjoy!

 

Pleasant Suprises

Before we came to England, there were a few things I expected (I outlined many of them here), but I really tried to not have expectations. 

I am pleased to report that I have had many pleasant surprises since we got here.  The following list is by no means comprehensive, but just highlights some of the niceties and surprises.

London at Night

After we emerged from the pedestrian tunnel (yes, I survived), we hit up the public transportation again and went to Oxford Circus. 

 

I'm discovering that there are lots of ritzy parts of town... or maybe the ritzy area is just very large.  Either way, we were walking past lots of swanky, hoity-toity shops like Hermes and Louis Vuitton.  I could almost imagine I was in The Devil Wears Prada.

 

Greenwich and Noodles

*All photo credit goes to Tim.  Nice werk...
 
Tim and the guys will be working half days on Saturdays (8 am- 1 pm), which we kind of thought would be a bummer and kill the whole day.  However, we discovered that an afternoon and evening is really plenty of time to cram in site-seeing.  What I'm realizing is that when you have virtually no regular household tasks to attend to (cooking, cleaning, dogburts, etc) it leaves a LOT of time in your day for living life.
 
While Tim was working Saturday morning, I made it my mission to figure out what we could do and (more importantly), where we could eat.  My friend Leah spent a semester here studying abroad, and gave me a couple of pages of tips, tricks, and things to do.  Being a poor college student, she didn't eat out much, but she did recommend one restaurant: Tai Won Mein.  She said it was her favorite Chinese place in London.  I looked it up and realized it was in Greenwich, near the Prime Meridian.
 

 
 

Harrods

 

I did it!  I made it into the city, all by myself!  Ok, with good directions from the concierge. 

 

 

 

After walking around the town we're in for hours yesterday, I finally determined that there really isn't too much to see around here. It was time to put on my big-girls pants and got into the city.  The Changing of the Guard seemed like a good, (free) way to start.    However this morning, I didn't put on my big-girl pants, I put on a skirt.  And it was so rainy I wanted to do something inside. 

 

Harrods it is.

Adjusting

I am now in my third day here in Great Britain (I think), and things are starting to settle in a bit.  I started writing this blog post in my head almost as soon as I woke up from my nap on Monday.  Although I am very grateful to be in an English-speaking culture that is (relatively) safe, there are still some things that take getting used to.  I will probably discover more as I expand my circle of exploration, but for now, here are my initial impressions.  Not all of these are surprises, but they still require extra thinking for now.
 

Accent

Obviously, not a surprise.  What is  as surprise is how different their speech sounds.  When I am walking through a store or restaurant, and hear people all around me talking and I'm not trying to understand what they're saying, it sounds like a foreign language.  If I "tune in" and try to understand, I usually can, but the background chatter all sounds like another language all together.
 

Language

There are some different terms around here, which hasn't been too confusing so far.  I know what they're talking about, but if I'm not careful, they don't know what I'm talking about.  Monday night I walked up to the counter and ordered a hamburger.  After a moment of blank stare, the cashier said "...you want the beefburger?". Yes.  Yes I do. 

Departure and Arrival

Well kids, we made it here.  All in one piece.  And we're still married. 
 
I'm starting to get acclimated a bit, although I'm still trying to find my bearings a little bit.  I know that some people have an alter-ego that they like to blame their behavior on when they are drinking.  I want one for when I am sleep-deprived and jet lagged and just generally out-of-it.  Any ideas on names?  I've thought of Stephañia, but that just sounds so exotic and sultry and... pulled together.  Not at all the zombie I have been for the past 48 hours.

As I think I mentioned previously, I had a list of approximately one billion things I wanted to do before I left-- most of them involved deep-cleaning my house.  Yeah... that didn't really happen.  Or at least not like I wanted it to.  "I'm so surprised!" said no one ever. 

Finals Week

This week has been Busy. Of course since we're leaving on Sunday for 3 months, that makes sense. 

So.  Much. To do.

I was talking to my sister, Kelly, on Saturday and she said "It's kind of like finals week for you..."

Yes.
Yes it is.
A lot.

TGIF

I was going to title this post "The Big Apron Reveal of 2014", but thought that might sound weird, so I didn't. Also, do I really think there's going to be another big apron reveal another year?

I know you've all been waiting with bated breath since Wednesday to see who's was whose (or is it whose is who's? Or whose is whose? I've been out of school way too long...) so let's get to it!

Aunt Lynette was the only guessers (thank you always for your support and encouragement, Aunt Lynette! It means so much to me!), and she guessed right! Nice work! The results are:

Aprons for my Sibs

Short Story: I made aprons for my sisters and brother.

Long Story: My siblings and I exchange birthday presents once a year, some time when we are all together.  In 2012, that was Thanksgiving.  Mandy had asked for an apron, and I was into sewing at the time.  We exchanged gifts, and I told her I would also make an apron for her.  I asked Sven and Kelly if they wanted one too, and they said "Yes!"  I may have indicated that I would get on that after I returned from Honduras.

In September of 2013, I was talking to Sven, and he was like "Hey Steph.  Remember how  you were going to make us aprons? When are we going to be getting those?" and I was like "Maybe Christmas, but I make no promises..."

After Thanksgiving 2013, I decided I should probably order some fabric (this may or may not have been prompted by a 50% off  a regular price item coupon from JoAnn's).  The problem with those coupons, is that you get them when EVERYTHING is on sale.  So I picked out fabrics for my sisters, and then tried to think about what to do for Sven.  Then, I saw IT.  And I ordered it.  (If you were concerned, I decided to back all of the aprons in the same fabric, so I used the coupon on that).  

Two weeks later, my order still had not arrived.  Finally, the day before we were going to leave for my family's for Christmas, it arrived... good thing I didn't promise them before Christmas!  Our 2013 birthday gift exchange included more promises of aprons coming---"I even have the fabric, and I'm SO EXCITED  about it!"

I forced them to agree that they would not open their packages until they all had them and could open them at the same time on a Google hangout.

That happened last week, so I can finally show them to you!

  

  

  

Let's play a game!  Guess who's is who's. (Is that proper grammar?) Check back Friday for the answers!

This Week

This week is going to be a little lighter on the blog posts.  (I can hear a collective sigh of releif).  Not so many posts, and not so wordy.

I'm hoping to check a few things off of the "before London" to-do list, and have one last Bunco party before I go.  We'll see how things go.  So far, my day has involved this:

Tico helping a little girl take her nap.  He's so popular with the young ladies.

Friendship Week: Troubleshooting-10 Reasons You Might Not Have Friends

Here we go!  The last post for Friendship week.  If you missed any, you can catch up here:

• Friendship Week
• What I Learned from my Mom
• Making Friends 101
• Real Life with Stephanie

READER DISCRETION WARNING:
If yesterday's reality check on friendships was too much for you, today is going to be really hard.  Things are about to get personal.  Consider yourself warned.

After all of this talk about friends, I hope you have a little more perspective on your friendships.  However, if you feel like you have tried most of the tricks listed in Making Friends 101 and you still feel a little friendless, its time to take the next step in self-examination.

Maybe it's you.

It very well may not be you.  In all likelihood it is a combination of you and them.  But you can't change them, and you can change you.  So let's talk about you.  Here are 10 reasons you might not have friends: