Valentine's Day

Ah Valentine’s Day -- A single girl’s favorite day of the year. American’s might think that they can get away from this Hallmark holiday by coming to England, but unlike Halloween, Brits actually understand this one and practice it in the same way.

So, in order to have fun on V-Day, Sandra, Meagan, Joce, Jo, Drew and I all decided to go to an Italian place for dinner. The food was amazing and the company a perfect accessory to each of our entrees. 

Afterward, our trip to the newly opened Globe Bar, was the perfect dessert. We all went home, happy and 364 days away from another Valentine’s Day!

Snow Day in London

So this was the big snow of ’07 for London. As you can see, that Thursday was a big deal. It even made the teaser for the local London paper, The Evening Standard. 

I thought those of us from the less sunny parts of the US might find these pictures funny. Above is a picture of Dibdin House (AKA - where I live). You can see just how snowy it got. It’s a wonder we all made it anywhere.

Joce and I got up to go to our normal workout class only to get all the way there and it was cancelled (not surprised are you?) The Tube was an absolute disaster, people were late to work, college classes were cancelled, people just didn’t know how to work in this sort of weather.

Just another funny day in London!

Weekend with Sam/Blue Man Group

Yeah, yeah, so Sam came to London, stayed at the flat, we had dinner at the Elgin, watched the Super Bowl...all good. 

This blog entry is more about the Blue Man Group outing we took on Sunday before the game. First of all, don’t try to get 1/2 price tickets for plays on a Sunday in London. There wasn’t a lot of options for us. I couldn’t wait to see a wonderful musical - maybe Chicago or Mary Poppins or even the politically incorrect Avenue Q. Instead we basically had three choices. I can’t remember the other one, but we could choose between Stomp and Blue Man Group. 

Remember how I wanted to watch a story? Didn’t happen. I couldn’t bear the thought of listening to a bunch of banging on drums, so we decided that the Blue Man Group was for us. Denae went earlier this year and wasn’t impressed, but perhaps she was wrong...

Nope, don’t go see the Blue Man Group if someone gives you tickets! The inane entertainment includes some drums and basically mimes in blue faces who do stupid things like stuffing paint balls into their mouths and spitting them back out on canvas...the best part of the entire show was when the audience pulled about 200 rolls of toilet paper from the back of the theatre, where they were suspended, to the stage. It was like being a kid again and doing something that your mother was going to yell at you for, but it was still worth it. 

I’m not sure what the point of the paper was since it just sat lifeless near the stage while Larry, Mo and Curly continued to do stupid crap...not impressed and never want to be involved again!!!!

Click here to see photos from our weekend!

Bath Road Trip

So when I found out that Samantha was moving to Bath, England, I thought it would be the perfect time for Jocelyn, Drew and me to check out Bath. Unlike normal people who would book a train ticket for all involved, we shunned that idea, opting for the much safer mode of transportation -- driving. 

Hmmm, Krystin, you don’t know how to drive on the left side of the road, neither does Jocelyn. Drew just got his drivers license a few days ago, what makes this a good idea? Well nothing probably, but it was so much fun. We had the obligatory disagreements about music (thank God for Sam and another person with good musical sense). We also went through a McDonald’s drive-thru on the wrong side of the building. 

We were saved by the fact that we had a GPS in the car. We named her Bessie and she did a lovely job of getting us to Heathrow, to Bath, Bristol, back to Bath, back to Bristol, back to Bath...you get the idea.

You’ll notice that most of the photos on my Bath Road Trip page are from the car. Since we had a car, four iPods and a GPS, we didn’t feel a grand need to get out of the car very often.  Drew also felt the need to test his ability to circumvent the speed cameras that line English highways. He was caught at least twice, but since he actually rented the car on his American license...well, let’s just say his parents are looking for any suspicious things in their mailbox.

Click here to see photos from our Bath Road Trip

Super Bowl Baby!

I called it from the very beginning of the season. I just knew that since it was the one year out of my entire life that I decided to live outside of Indiana...this would be the year that the Colts made it to the Super Bowl. 

Joce, Drew and I went to Sports Cafe starting at 8 p.m. to catch the Chicago v. New Orleans game. I really wanted Chicago to win - two black coaches and two midwest teams in the Super Bowl...couldn’t be better. 

As the Chicago game ended and the Bears and Saints fans left the bar, I realized that the Colts fans were outnumbered about 20-1 (including Drew - who has never lived in or near New England!!!). That was ok though, I knew it was our year, we were going to win, Peyton couldn’t have three bad games in a row and the defense had too much to prove to let this one go. Our city has supported the Colts and the Pacers for years without ever getting past divisional championships. We’ve now paid for two stadiums -- it was our time (BTW it was 11:30 p.m. in London at this point). 

I talked a little bit of trash before the game, but choose mostly to rely on the scoreboard as my bragging right and let everyone know so just before the game started...

21-3

WTF -- How could we be down right from the start and by so much? It was crazy, it didn’t make sense. Didn’t Dungy remind those guys about how the fans have stood by them, how we deserved a win, how they deserved a win, how we couldn’t choke one more time? I was nearly sick to my stomach, but I told my dad in a call before the game that I felt good about it and I stood by that feeling all the way to 38-34 with 1:00 to go. I just knew that somehow they wouldn’t let the Patriots get into the end zone. They might score a field goal, but there was no way that the Colts would be up with one minute left and lose.

I couldn’t sit in my chair anymore. I’m sure most of you couldn’t either. I was absolutely DYING of heat in the Colts fleece pullover I received for Christmas, but I refused to take it off. I gathered around with the other seven Colts fans and we knew it was coming, we were jumping up and down, sick to our stomachs with scratchy throats thinking of the magnitude of our city finally making it to the Super Bowl.

Colts Interception!!!

I was in tears, hugging everyone around me. Colts fans came running from everywhere. We’d finally made it to the big game. I don’t think any of us actually care too much if the Colts win the Super Bowl, we are so proud that they finally broke the Indy curse and made it to the championship. 

I’m seriously thinking of coming home for the game. It could be once-in-a-lifetime -- I mean if they go the same amount of time, I’ll be 48 before they make it back...If I don’t make it, enjoy the game for me. I am so happy -- GO COLTS!!!

Going Home

So I couldn’t change my ticket to come home on December 16 like I was supposed to. So instead I decided to surprise my parents and not tell them that I was going to come home two days early. I was so lucky that my friend Pav offered to DRIVE me to Heathrow. 

Since Joce and I got our flat, we had to move out before we left for the holidays. So in addition to worrying about my last school project, I had to pack to come home and also pack my entire London life (thanks to Priyanka for letting us store our stuff in your room). I got everything done and Pav got me to the airport in record time. 

I was able to check in right away and my baggage wasn’t overweight. The line for security was long, but it moved fast. I made it to my gate in plenty of time and there was even internet there when I sat down. Can you tell that at this point things were going just too well for my trans-Atlantic flight?

We get on the plane, I sit next to two really great people whom I talked with throughout the flight. Still no hiccups, except I was in the middle row, middle seat - no biggie! Then it began...

Our plane was getting ready to taxi off the runway and the pilot comes on the overcom and says that we have been flagged by TSA, we’ll have to return to the terminal! Well, I’ve already taken my sleeping medicine and snuggled in, I can’t concentrate too much on this, but as an American leaving Heathrow to Chicago, I’m a bit concerned to say the least. So three TSA officials come walk around the plane. I’m sure they’re going to escort someone off for some hideous terrorist plot, but no, they simply walk around and delay our plane an hour and a half. 

So my two hour layover in Chicago just got killed and I’m now going to miss my flight. There is no way that I’m getting on American soil, two and a half hours from home and not getting there. So during the flight I’m pretty convinced that I’m going to have to figure out how to drive home from Chicago (don’t know how to get from the airport to I-65). 

I get off the plane and the American Airlines woman I talk to hands me my new ticket for my 10:20 p.m. flight! I cried I was so happy...then I waited 30 minutes for my luggage. It was 9:30 before I could try to go recheck my baggage and get on my connecting flight.

I get to check-in area and tell the woman that I’m about to miss my flight. When I tell her my flight, she asks me to wait while she sees if it’s CANCELLED. I almost lost my mind. After she gets her life in order, she tells me that the flight is on time, but that I needed to be there 45 minutes before the flight to check my luggage! I lost it at that point. I started crying and tell them that it wasn’t possible, I wasn’t staying in a hotel, I was getting on the flight - I was 35 minutes early for the damn thing, just let me on! 

Some other woman takes pity on my and hands me to George - the best - who can break the rules. George is annoyed, but checks me in...but, my luggage is now over weight for a domestic flight. As I go to pull my extra carryon out of my luggage (a total of 20 seconds to relieve the weight problem), George tells me that he’s in a hurry. I’m totally upset now. So to blow off some tension, I got through security. Of course, I’m flagged to be searched. I’m hysterical at this point, but I get released. I run through the airport, crying and cursing the terrorists who just got my liquid face soap taken from me since it was over 100ml. When I arrive at the gate, the nicest guy says, “I hope you weren’t running, you had plenty of time.”  I’m no longer involved. I can’t take it.

We wait on the plane for about 20 minutes for my other Heathrow companions to make the flight (clearly I didn’t get the memo) and then I get home to Indy, rent a car and drive to Fishers. It was 2 a.m. by this point as I snuck in the house. My parents loved having my shadow standing in their room in the middle of the night two days earlier than I was supposed to - oh well, I’m so glad to be home!

Movin' on Up

Jocelyn and I are “movin’ on up” to the...well, south. We signed a lease for our apartment in Maida Vale, London yesterday. We won’t actually be able to buy food for our flat (I’m kidding, Grandma!), but there are so many benefits to our new location:

1. No more scary night bus to get home if we stay out after midnight. We can finally take buses that won’t take over an hour and we could also afford a cab since we don’t live a million miles away from natural civilization.

2. We will be able to actually use our internet - not just pray it works, only to be disappointed. We should be able to use our instant messaging to chat (yay to everyone who has a MAC with a built in camera - or PC users with an external). 

3. We’ll be able to move when we sleep - there will be a full bed, not a child-sized bed. 

4. We will live near Drew and Starbucks so we’ll always have good stuff around us!

5. There are actually grocery stores and pharmacies and I’m sure there is a book store near where we live. No reason to have to walk a mile for any and everything that we need. 

6. We’ll have a balcony.

7. We’ll actually live in London - not Harrow.

8. No more sharing a mini-fridge with seven other people. We can actually get enough food to last us more than three days!!!

9. No more fire alarms at 3 a.m.

10. NO MORE LIVING IN HALLS!

All around we think it will be a great thing!!! There is an extra couch where everyone can sit and we can entertain. If you are ever in our neighborhood...