Authenticity

The other day I was talking with a friend and we were having a conversation about our shared affinity for travel. Although, when discussing our future travel plans and wish list of places to go, we quickly figured out we would not be good traveling buddies. I will go ahead and preface the next sentence with the phrase "At this point in my life". At this point in my life I prefer to see the world with a pack on my back, sleeping in a hostel, catching a discount airline or a train to my next destination and with an idea of where i'm going..but no real plan. While he much prefers a first class plane ticket with a stay at the Four Seasons. Now don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the luxury of first-class and the Four Seasons...and there is a time and a place for them in my life as it currently exists. I'm sure there will be a much larger place for it when I am hopefully seeing the world for a second time around in my old age! So he asked me a relatively simple question, "why..what do you enjoy about traveling that way?" It is a question I know the answer to, but had really never thought about in a way that I could verbalize. So I thought about it for a minute and the answer I came up with is Authenticity.

That pretty much sums it up, I feel like I get a more authenitic experience when traveling on the fly. He asked why can't he have that while staying a the Four Seasons. Maybe he can, but I feel like for the most part you sign up for "touristy" tours where you get to see but not touch, watch but not join in. That isn't how I want to do things, I want to touch and to join in. I also like leaving a lot of flexibility to my plans because I have also experienced that the things I have enjoyed the most while traveling were not things I had planned. You also meet so many other travelers along the way, especially when staying in hostels, and you share experiences and learn about so many things you didn't know about. So it is nice to be able to change your plans.

Traveling is about so much more than the places you see, but it is about the people you meet and the experiences you have. With all of the places I have been, the most memorable have little to do with the sites I have seen but the experiences I have had that make me feel a certain way about that place. I like to travel the way I do because I feel it creates more of an opportuntiy to find these people and form these experiences. For me it creates an authenticity that I can't get enough of.

Let Texas Fill My Soul

I've finally made it back home to Texas!  My flight home seemed to take forever, I'm not sure if it was the anticipation or the little boy kicking the back of my seat, but either way it was a long one!  On the flight I had my iPod on random and a big smile creeped across my face as Southbound 35 came across my playlist.  I've always loved that song, and felt an appreciation for Pats inspiration for the song.  I've always loved Texas as much as any good Texan should, but it's hard to really grasp until you've been gone...there really is something so special about this place.  And most would probably argue they feel the same way about their home, but I beg to differ.  But it's not their fault, they don't know, they're just not from Texas. "Let Texas Fill my Soul" that has always been my favorite line of the song, but it sure does take on a whole new meaning.  I truly do love London, but I am glad to be home!

I'm so lucky that I can work in our Dallas office while I am home so that I don't have to take vacation days to visit my family, I am able to be in the States for entire month because of this! I will be in Dallas through the New Year, then off to Houston for a few days, then on to Steamboat to ski with some friends for a week! 

Sorry I have been ignoring my blog the past few weeks, they have been a crazy few weeks! I left off at Thanksgiving with my family coming to visit me in London! We had the most amazing week, but I can't tell you how exhausting it was! We packed in anything and everything in those 6 days, and we did it with a baby!  It was such a great time, I would love to tell you guys every detail, but the thought of that is exhausting! Luckily, my sister has written all about it on her blog, so if you are interested, I will now direct you there!!  One cool tidbit I will let you in on is that we did see the Queen! What are the chances!

After my family left I only had a week before I left to come home for the holidays, so it was a week full of packing, seeing friends, Christmas parties and now here I am....off to let Texas fill my soul :) Family, friends, Mexican food, etc!

Full of Thanks

1. for my parents and what an amazing example they have been for me. for how supportive they have always been of me and my dreams no matter how outlandish they have seemed at the time.

2. for my sister who has provided me unending support (even though I know she would prefer I didn't live on a different continent!) and unfailingly shown me what it means to be a Godly woman.

3. for my precious neice, Hayden, whose never ending fits of laughter keep me smiling!

4. for my friends, both new and old, who make my life a little more fun

5. for the fact that I have a place to celebrate Thanksgiving tonight!

6. and most of all that my whole family will be in London in less than 12 hours!!

Africa - Victoria Falls...In the Lions Den!

Our last stop in Africa was Livingstone, Zambia. They say that your pockets "bleed US dollars" in Livingstone, and they aren't kidding! I was kind of prepared for this, and the rest of Africa had been pretty cheap...well not the really, I just mean I hadn't spent much on food, drinks or souviners up until this point, so I was prepared to spend! Livingstone is an adreline junkies heaven of sorts. They have the 2nd highest bungee jump in the world, a zip line over the gorge, a gorge swing (which looks terrifying!), micro-light flights over the falls, white-water rafting...you get the drift! Well it seems the prices to do anything start at around $100 and go upwards, quickly! Since I'm not much of an adreline junkie (I know you think I'm lying, but I really don't like stuff like that, I just do it usually b/c I say I will and I don't like to look like a scaredy cat!), anyways back on the subject, I opted for walking with lion cubs and an elephant back safari! Most of you are probably thinking, "and how do those activities not induce adrenaline coursing through your body?" Well you are right I guess, it isn't every day you walk side by side with the "King of the Jungle" (haha, sorry, I couldn't help myself!) or sit on top of the largest animal to walk the face of the earth. Yes, I'll admit, I was a little afraid at first...seeing as I we are talking about a girl whose parents had to send her to the "doggie psychologist" when she was young just to get over her fear of dogs! But the "doggie doctor" worked, I went from screaming fits on top of kitchen tables to wanting to be a veternarian all in a span of a few short weeks! That is until I found out that they had to put animals to sleep. So I was very excited to have a chance to interact with these animals on this level. Still, I was ever-mindful of the risks and I didn't want to become the latest YouTube celebrity, think "Girl gets mauled by lion"

Ok back on track, a month or so ago, I ran across the YouTube video of "Christian the Lion". I was in tears by the end and wanted to know more about the story, so I hit up my good friend Google. I found out they had taken Christian to a man named George Adamson in Africa who had a unique relationship with lions and had released other lions back into the wild previously. I was intrigued, needless to say, I had ordered both the Christian the Lion documentary and his wife's book Born Free from Amazon by the end of the day! So with my new found love for all things lion, when I found out that you could walk with lion cubs at Antelope Park in Zimbabwe I called and booked my place immediately. Then, I started to read some things on the internet about how many places breed these lions for the sport of hunting them when they are full grown. I was horrified at the thought that I could be a part of this, so I started doing research on Antelope Park. Luckily, I found out the organization I booked through, Lion Alert, is dedicated to the conservation of lions. They have a program set in place to introduce lions back to the wild as they estimate the lion population in Africa has decreased 80-90% in the last 30 years due to human encroachment and poaching. You can read more about their program here.

We got to walk with two lion cubs that were just 7 months old. Still they were a pretty good size! We walked with them for about an hour, just following them where ever they wanted to lead us. They were so playful and pounced all over each other. They play with each other pretty rough, which is safe to say why the people in the park didn't want us to be their playmates! If you remember from a few entries ago, when I was in the Delta, how our guides told us that if a lion approached us to stand our ground and stare it right in the eyes. Well at the time I thought they were setting us up or something, haha! But again, before we met up with our cubs, the guides at Antelope Park told us before we met the cubs we needed to get rid of any fear we had because they would be able to detect it instantly. We needed to stand tall, maintain eye contact with them, not back away from them and definitely NOT run! Lions prey on the weak and they are innately able to sense this. They told us they would seek out the weakling of the group and harrass them the rest of the day! Sure enough, when we first approached the cubs, they stared us down, one by one! I guess we all passed because they left us alone we had a great day with them! I also found out that they have volunteers at the park who help out with the lions, there was one with us on our walk and I talked to her for a bit about it. I defintely plan on making my way back there one day to volunteer with the lions!

The next day was our Elephant Back Safari, where we got to ride on the back of the elephants and play with them a little bit as well. This was such an amazing experience. You wouldn't believe how graceful these giants are! They are actually good swimmers and are able to climb straight out of steep riverbeds with ease. My elephant was Mashumbi, and she is the Matriarch of the herd. Elephants don't take these roles because of size or age, but more based on personality. So she just leads all of them around and they follow! She is also an elephant of loose morals, as a few years ago, she disappeared her enclosure to be found 10 months later with a herd of wild elephants...she was pregnant! Elephants are pregnant for 22 months and their newborn calves weigh over 200 lbs! Yikes!

Our last night in Africa, Amy and I stayed at this really cute lodge on the Zambezi called the Chundukwa Lodge. The had these little tree hut lodges along the river that we stayed in, it was great! They took us for a sunset cruise along the Zambezi that night and we had our last African sunset. So I guess this is a good place to end my blogs on Africa!

Africa - Chobe National Park

After the Delta we headed to Kasane, Botswana which is a really unique place. It marks the point where the Zambezi River joins up withe Chobe River and also where 4 countries come together. It is the corner of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. There is a large national park just outside of Kasane, Chobe National Park. In the morning we took a long game drive around the park and later that afternoon we took a sunset cruise up the Chobe River to see what wildlife we could see coming down for a drink. Here are some of my favorite pics from my time there.

The Fish Eagle

While driving around the park we ran into a large herd of elephants. We pulled up and watched them for a bit, it didn't take long for them to take notice of us creeping closer. The Bull elephant made his way towards us and situated himself between our vehicle and his herd and gave us quite a stare down! He remained there while the rest of the herd crossed the road and then headed up the rear after they had all safely crossed. It was pretty cool to see. I have a video of them crossing below.

Bull Elephant protecting his herd

Video of Elephants crossing




Hippos sure have big mouths for all the grass they eat!
Some of the most beautiful landscape you'll ever see! That is Namibia on the other side of the Chobe River. The land along the river in Namibia is farmland and the farmers will shoot the animals if they come onto their land, since they tend to destroy the crops. The animals have learned this and stay off of the land during the day, and only cross at night!

The Cape Buffalo

One of my favorites! Can you find Michael Jackson??

Mokoro Video

Here is the video of the mokoro ride through the Delta, so you can see what it was like. Not quite like the real thing, but you get the drift! It truly was the most peaceful experience.

Westfield Mall...it's a great shopping place!

London has finally joined the rest of the world and opened....an indoor shopping mall! And it's glorious! I realized that I have been so wrapped up in trying to sort and post my Africa pictures and blogs that I have completely neglected my life in London here on the blogosphere. Things have been pretty low key since I got back, but I have decided that my trip to Westfields was blog worthy enough to break my silence! I had lunch and shopping plans this past Saturday with my friend Erin (that I studied abroad with in Italy, thanks Melissa for letting me know she was here!!). We were just going to do a typical shopping day on High Street Kensington, but last minute she sent a change of plans...we were going to do it "American style" at the new mall in Shepards Bush. I'll be honest, there has been a lot of hype over here in the media about this mall, but I wasn't expecting too much. After all, nobody knows malls like America. I'll have to print a retraction, they did this mall right! It is huge, very pretty, and has tons of great restaurants and even a Champagne Bar (cleverly located right outside of Tiffany's!). They had it all decorated for Christmas, which always gets me in the shopping spirit...as if it's really that hard! They even had a Playstation zone with these rooms that are decorated like living rooms that you could play all of the new Playstation games at. The best part about the mall, is it's like a whole new mall-experience for me! It's all stores that completely new to me, not like malls in the States where it's the same store in every mall you go to! So much un-charted territory...that assures I'll be back, it's my civic duty!

Song and Dance

It is too dark to see them, but you can hear their song:)

Africa - Okavango Delta

This was by far my favorite place I went in Africa. It's funny, the Delta wasn't anything that spectacular I guess, but it was such a unique experience that few people have had. Not only was the expereince unique, but the scenery was beautiful and the people...well, they made it! The delta is located a little ways outside of Maun in the northern part of Botswana. In the Delta live the BaYei people, they have a village of about 700 and live in a way surprisingly true to their roots. The Delta is an area of land spanning several thousand square meters and much of it is marsh. The BaYei have been using mokoros to get around this land for hundreds of years. A mokoro is basically a dug out canoe and they use a long pole to "pole" themselves around the area.

We took an hour long trip in an open truck to reach the Delta where we were met by our polers and a large group of villagers. I can only assume that it provides much excitement and probably a good laugh when a new group of tourists arrive each week with their clean clothes, fancy cameras, oversized hats and unabashed curiosity. If we only knew we would arrive back at the same site two days later filthy dirty, our cameras safely packed away and full of laughter, conversation and stories we share with our new friends.

Our trip started with a two hour mokoro ride to an island where we would set up camp for the next two nights. The mokoro ride is an incredibly peaceful and relaxing experience, for the person lucky enough to be riding in the mokoro. I can safely assume it is a much more tiring experience for the person at the helm. It is hard to explain the experience, but I can try. First off, the polers have skillfully crafted our bed rolls into chairs in the mokoro so we can lounge back in comfort while we glide through the reeds, creating a comforting swishing sound. All you can hear is the this noise coupled with the chirping of crickets and the songs of the many birds of the delta. There is an occasional grunting of a hippo. It truly was one of the most unique experiences of my life.

Once we set up camp and dug our toliet behind a well concealed bush, we set out for an evening game walk. Our polers served as our guides as they know this land like the back of their hands. There are no fire arms allowed in Botswana, so we were literally walking into bush completely unarmed. On the way out our guides gave us a few pointers about staying down wind, how close you could approach an animal and then they gave us some tips that might save our lives. If an elephant charges you, run zig-zag into the bush. If a buffalo charges you, run to a tree and climb up the opposite side. And finally if a lion approaches you, stand completely still and stare it straight in the eyes...awesome, I can do that, no problem. ha! Luckily, none of us had to put any of these tactics to the test. We ran into a few elephants right off the bat and spent a good deal of time watching them. We weren't able to pass them as they had found a tree that must have tasted like candy seeing as they were unwilling to leave the tree and move from our path. So when the sun started setting we headed back to camp and I experience my first true African sunset. That is one thing that Africa sure knows how to do! It is amazing how the colors can change from orange to red to purple all in a matter of minutes.

The next day we awoke for another game walk and spent the hottest part of the afternoon soaking in the swimming hole. I'm not sure how they can know or guarantee this, but our guides assured us there were no crocs or hippos in this area. If I wasn't so hot, I would have probably been more inclined to question them. Even so, I did have the sense not to go any deeper than my thighs, I just sat down close to the shore (for a quick escape) and watched all of those other fools swim out deeper! Later that afternoon we went on our mokoros to a hippo pool not too far away from camp and watched the hippos. It is crazy how big and noisy those animals are. They have a loud barking grunt and spend most of their time in the water. Did you know a hippo can stay under water for up to 6 minutes! At sunset we headed back to camp for our final night in the Delta.

We had a special treat that night as our polers, who were camping with us, performed some of their songs and dances for us by the light of the fire. It was amazing to hear their songs, and even though you couldn't understand, you couldn't help but be moved by the sincerity of the songs. We asked what the songs were about; nature, people, religion, love...same as us. I was amazed at how similar we were to these people, maybe I shouldn't have been, after all we are all still people. I spent a lot of time on the mokoro ride home thinking about this. We're all people, we all have families, we all love, we all have the same basic needs, what differs is want. I want a bigger flat closer to the city, they want a solid mud hut for their entire family with a fully thatched roof that keeps the sun and rain out. I want a pair of Louboutin's with their coveted red soles, they want a pair of shoes with any soles that don't have holes. I want to travel the world, they want to find a way to get into town to spend the 40 pula (roughly $5) we tipped them. I want to try a Gordon Ramsey restaurant, while they want to provide 3 meals a day for their family. It puts such a refreshing perspective on life and the things we focus on and begin to so easily lose perspective. The people we spent these days with had less physical belongings than I could imagine spending a life with, but they also had a re-assuring amount of joy. So like I said before, it is the people that made the Delta such a memorable experience.

As usual, the rest of my pics are on shutterfly

Africa - Khama Rhino Sanctuary

It is so hard to even know where to begin!  So I think I'll just break out my blogs into different sections, by place or activity, and hopefully I'll get through it all.  First off, I guess I will explain a little more about my trip.  Amy and I went with a tour company called Geckos (I know, the irony!)  it is an Australian company so there were tons of Aussies on the trip.  They gear towards a budget traveller, so we were roughing it!  Seriously...tents, sleeping bags, meals cooked over the open fire...roughing it! It was pure luxury if our camp sites had a shower and a toliet (that actually flushed!)  Needless to say myself and all of my belongings smelled of camp fire after the first night and continued to the remaining 12 days.  There were 18 people on our trip, ranging in age from 20 to lets say, 50ish.  We had people ranging from a personal chef on a yacht, to a vascular surgeon to a parachute packer!  We all met up in Pretoria, South Africa at the Twana Lodge (we didn't know the type of luxury it had to offer at the time!) and met our tour leaders, Dumi the driver, Mischek the chef and Innocent our fearless leader.  We also met what was to become our closest companion over the next week and a half...our big orange tour bus!  Little did we know how much time we would spend in this orange eye sore...Botswana is big, as big as Texas to be exact!

The next morning we set out on the road to the Backroads of Botswana at 6 am sharp!  Again, little did I know this would be the first of many sunrises I would see.  We arrived at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary late that afternoon and set up our camp for the first time.  It took a while, but by the end of the trip we were all pros at setting up and taking down our tents.  The next morning we woke for a 5:30 breakfast and then our first game drive at 6 am.  The Rhino Sanctuary is a protected area and is home to only "grazers" they are meant to help preserve the rhinos and create an environment where they are protected and can hopefully reproduce and increase the dwindling rhino population.  In the sanctuary we saw both black and white rhino, giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, warthogs, ostrich, antelope and many different birds.  We were able to get so close to the animals in the vehicles. You can see the rest of the pics on my shutterfly site. 

10 fingers 10 toes

I made it back safe and sound from Africa. I had the most amazing experiences and you safely could say I am hooked. I will return, hopefully sooner rather than later. Africa is one of the most beautiful places, both landscape and people. I could not have enjoyed myself more and I have over 1000 pictures to prove it! I am going to start working on getting everything loaded, with some heavy culling of course! Bear with me, I will start my blog updates and photos shortly.

One thing I can tell you is that none of my granola gear is as bright and shiny as it was in the picture below! Camping is dirty!

Granola, it's not just for Breakfast

OMG, I'm in shock, I leave for Africa a week from tomorrow! When thinking about what I would pack, I realized that I am not at all well-equipped for the wilderness. Really, I could survive for a couple of months without doing laundry in any major city in the world, but not one single day in wild, unless of course I did it in the way God intended, naked. So I found the London version of REI (Black's) and spent a grand total of 317 POUNDS! This whole granola thing is a lot more expensive than I thought, I have a whole new appreciation for all of those tie-dye wearing, dread locked hippies spending their time hiking the Rockies and being at one with nature. It ain't cheap! I am now the proud-ish owner of a sleeping bag, hiking shoes, a camping pillow, camping towel (folds up SO small!), a backpack, super-dooper bug spray, a rain jacket, a flashlight/lantern, binoculars, a head torch and the pièce de résistance...a pair of pants that zip into shorts...hot! Seriously people, I need to take up some new outdoorsy hobbies when I come back to get some use out of all of this gear. I think I'll take up spelunking, I've got the head torch for it plus, I've always like the sound of it. The actual word, not the act of crawling through dark caves. Here's my loot!

Mood: Starstruck

I have had my first celebrity siting in London, and I personally think it is a very exciting one! So let me set up the story for you guys. Last weekend Kelly, Desi and I went to watch Simon's(Kelly's fiance) soccer game. Afterwards we went to grab a bite at this steakhouse in our neighborhood. There was a bit of a wait, so we decided to just go to the Thai place next door. Desi had borrowed the movie, The Kite Runner, from Kelly and had brought it with her to return it to Kelly. She gave it back to her at dinner and this sparked a long conversation about the movie, the book, the follow up book A Thousand Splendid Suns. Now, these are two of my favorite books (if you haven't read them, do so immediately!) so I obviously saw the movie as soon as it came to theatres. I was really scared to see it, because so many times movies that are made after books are so disappointing. This was not the case, I thought the movie was so well done and really complimented the book. So anyways, we are sitting there talking about this and all of a sudden Kelly goes "Oh my gosh, the guy from the Kite Runner is at the table next to us" We of course all whip around and "non-chalantly" stare him down. It has to be him, looks just like him! But it is too crazy to actually be him, when we have been talking about the movie all night, and actually have it with us! So leave it to us, after dinner we go over and interrupt his family dinner and ask...sure enough, it is him! He was so gracious and took a picture with us...he even asked for another one b/c he thought his eyes were closed in the first one! His family even took out their cameras and took pictures of us with him. I am assuming he probably isn't one to get recognized everyday and I think his family was excited for him as they all started clapping as soon as we rounded the corner to leave the restaurant...it was cute. Anyways, here is the photo of us with Khalid Abdalla

Daily Rant.

If the tube were in Texas, it would be a very different scene. After three months of relying daily on public transportation I have come to find that my first notions about the tube and British men are indeed fact. British men are just plain rude, when riding on the tube. To be fair, it is a free-for-all and everyone must fend for themselves. You've barely stood up before someone has swooped underneath you to take your prized seat during morning rush hour. But I have found that men will cut a women off to get to a free seat, they will avoid eye contact with any standing women nearby as to not have to be directly confronted with the fact that they are sitting and you are standing and they have no intention of giving you their seat. Old ladies will remain standing, pregnant women, women in stiletto's (even though that is their own fault). In fact, I have seen more women give up their seat to old ladies and pregnant women than men. It's funny, when you think of British men, you think of very old fashioned, chivalrous men. Which is true for the most part, with two exceptions. They've had one too many pints or they are on the tube.

Betty Crocker wants her apron back

Sorry Kel, it was a valiant effort and they tasted great. That's what matter, right?! My sweet neighbor Kelly wanted to make some "I love you" cupcakes for Simon the other night. Here was the result.

But she looked good doing it...and they were the sprinkle kind, yum! Luckily, Kelly loves me too and I got a couple :) Thanks, they were yummy...I ate them in celebration of the anniversary of my third month here in London, can you believe!

Culture...check

Last night I went to some opera/dinner concert thing at the royal Banqueting Hall (yes, I realize that I can't really be cultured if I call it a "thing" but I don't know what else to call it). I went with some co-workers, it seemed like an appropriately "london-y" thing to do. I think I was expecting a large room with big round tables with a sit-down dinner and some string quartet in the background. Not quite. It was a very intimate concert of 300 cultured people (me being the youngest in the room by generations, well besides my coworkers) with three opera singers in coat-tails, followed by a buffet dinner, church-social style, downstairs in the "fellowship hall". There was a bass, with a slicked back pony tail who fit his part as the phantom in Music of the Night very well. A precious spanish tenor. And a counter-tenor (whatever that is), who I lovingly refered to as Falsetto Fanny the rest of the night. Falsetto Fanny was a 60ish, gray haired man of moderate stature with ants in his pants. About 6 ft, bit of a belly...so you'd be as surprised as I was when you heard the sounds that came out of his mouth. I'd call him more of a soprano, and not the gun-toting, brass-knuckle wearing, guido type. Poor thing had a bit of a lisp too...I felt bad for the front row. But I wasn't sure whether it was the shower of spit that was probably flying out of his mouth from his lisp or his sweeping hand gestures throughout his performance that might hit them the hardest. Either way, I did enjoy myself even though I only knew two songs. Music of the night and Ave Maria...which they sang twice with different arrangments, so technically I knew three.

Well at least I have checked off my culture box for the month, next month, Hadrian's Wall exhibit at the British Museum.

Prost!

I didn't know what to title this entry, it could have been and array of things. Among them, just plain "Beer, Beer, Beer" or maybe "Men in tight suede pants" or "Holy Lederhosen" or "Wurst Hangover" but I'll just stick with "Prost" it is the German equivalent to the rest of the world's "Cheers", but don't forget to look your drinking buddy in the eyes. Or it's 7 years bad luck, and I'm not talking the kind you get when you break a mirror or cross a black cats path.

Oktoberfest was a success, I had countless beers ( I say countless b/c they are all served in Liter glasses and have well over 5% alcohol so I can't really relate that back to a specific number of Miller Lites I might have had at a similar event in Texas), ate a few too many different types of wurst (that's sausage for those of you who don't speak fluent German like me), tried veinna schnitzel (while trying not to think too much about my aunt's old dachsund Schnitzel), ate pretzels larger than my head and found out I do in fact like mustard!

The Notorious Eisbock, 12%

Munich is actually one of my favorite cities hands down. I loved it 5 years ago when I went after my study abroad trip and I enjoyed it just as much this time. And I'm not just talking about enjoying my alcohol enduced experiences, although the city never seems to fail me on those. Munich is great, they have beautiful, interesting architecture, the freindliest people I have come across, tons of history, great shopping, ok...and great food and beer!

The New Town Hall

So the actual Oktoberfest was quite an experience, I don't know if I was all together prepared or knew what to expect. It blew any expectations I had out of the water though. At least in sheer size and scale alone. When they said beer tents I was thinking a bunch of tailgating tents propped up in a field 'a la' Chilifest. Or maybe if this thing was as big as I'd heard some of those huge white tents people rent for Weddings. Ha! These "tents" had wooden floors, balconys with seating, a huge kitchen, and actual bathrooms with plumbing...and held between 5-10 thousand people each. And I'm not talking standing room only, they had tables and benches for that many. Although, by the end of the night everyone was standing on their tables dancing to the music.

A "Tent"

Inside the "Tent" (this is just one half)

Amy and I went to the tents on Monday to meet her Aunt and Uncle (Molly and Kevin=hilarious). They were fully dressed in Lederhosen and Dirndl and I knew it was going to be a good day! We got to the tents around 11 and actually found a seat in the Paulaner tent right by the band. Another sign it was going to be a good day. By noon the entire tent was packed and Liter beers and roasted chickens were being served by the thousands. By about 7 pm all of the families had left and been replaced by the serious drinkers. The band was in full swing and we were on top of the benches. By 10 pm there was and inch of beer on the floor, people were falling off of tables and we were all dancing arm in arm with our new German friends. It was quite an experience.

Meet Molly and Kevin

Oh and (hide your face in shame Mom) I had to partake in the Oktoberfest tradition of standing on your bench and chugging your Liter...I killed my Ring Dunking time :)

More pics are on my shutterfly site at lwaterfield.shutterfly.com

In the words of Heidi Klum, Auf Wiedersehen!

All Roads Lead to Jesus...

...if you know where you're going! This seemed to be a theme for mine and Kelly's trip to San Sebastian last weekend. The locals are friendly...if you know their language (or any language other than English I assume). Eating tapas is fun...if you knew what you were eating. It's fun to try the "local" places...if you like locals glaring at you openly. Ok, really...I did have a fantastic time and San Sebastian is the cutest city, right out of a picture book! It really has it all; sandy beaches, picturesque city, fun nightlife...which is why we were surprised more English people haven't yet discovered it. I guess that is for the better since as soon as they do it will probably lose some of it's quaint charm and become a tourist haven with the promenade lined with cheesy tourist stalls selling hokey souvenirs rather than cute park benches with old couples eating ice cream.

So back to Jesus, the town of San Sebastian is set in a bay and at the tip of the bay there is a big (bigger than you think) "hill" with a huge statue of Jesus looking down over the town. Now it would have been appropriate for me to probably do some research as to the history of said Jesus, but I'll just take a wild guess and assume he was put there to look over the city in some time of need. Well, a friend of mine who had been to San Sebastian before had told me that you can climb the hill and go up to the Jesus and there is a great view of the city below. He assured me it is an easy walk and worth the time so Kelly and I decided it was a must on our trip. This brings me to my alternate title for this posting "How do you get to Jesus...." this was the question I posed someone the night before. His response "Pray."

So Saturday afternoon, after napping off the night before on the beach we decided it was time to be productive and take a look around the city and head to up to Jesus. We figure it can't be too hard we'll just walk towards it and surely there will be a marked path or something. Sure enough we get to the end of the bay and there is a gated road that leads up the hill with some sort of Park map so we head in. I must mention that in the half hour it takes us to get from the beach to the hill the weather has taken a drastic change...overcast, windy..foreboding if you will. I guess this has driven many of others who would normally be exploring this park out of the park, but not us. We are determined to get to Jesus. As we begin our walk we pass a man peeing on the side of the road...we turn around (to make sure he's not following us once we pass him, of course) and see him sitting in the same spot he just pee'd in, meditating. Interesting. So we carry on, we round a corner and see that the grade in this hill goes from an easy stroll to some serious leg burning action. We carry on. Only as we climb higher and higher do we realize we haven't seen anyone in a long time and we are pretty high up. Trapped, if say a peeing, meditating bad man jumps out of the lush bushes that surround either side of the road. We continue on. Then there is a fork in the road, to which i reply, "All roads lead to Jesus" ...well our road lead to a cemetery. We contemplate going back and trying the other road and in jest we yell out "God, lead us to Jesus" then, right at that very moment there is the first booming clap of thunder. I kid you not. We decide it is time to skedaddle.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the trip. I will have the rest on my shutterfly site soon, lwaterfield.shutterfly.com

view from the beach

other side of the bay

the fishing port

Cathedral

typical street in the old town

our hotel...apparently pretty swanky per the locals

lamps on the promenade

Me and Kelly

2 months, 2 days, 2 hours

I didn't mean to do this post that way, but that is actually the exact amount of time I've been here in London. One would think from the title that I am counting down the time, but that is far from the case. All I can think about lately is how fast these two years are going to go by. Too fast I think. Although, I just figured out that in the three rent payments I have made since moving here, I have already spent more on rent than in an entire year in Dallas...how's that for some perspective!

I just tried to analyze my last months bank statement to see if I was anywhere near the "budget" I blindly planned for myself before moving out here. I exported it all into excel, color coded each line depending on which category they fell into and made a little pie chart (Dad, aren't you proud! Even though I know what you're thinking...Microsoft Money will do all of that for me, but there is something I like about doing it myself...maybe it is the color coding!) I was actually quite shocked at how well I did, even though there was a lot more money than I had planned for on groceries, but way less than I had budgeted for going out to eat. So it all evens out in the end. The second largest pie in my chart, albeit a fraction of the largest piece of pie (bills), is cash...this is the dark abyss. I don't know how to categorize this, because I have no idea where I spent it! This was never a problem for me in Dallas when I was trying to analyze my expenses because cash was a thing of the past, I used my debit card for everything...even a 85 cent pack of gum. But here I have stepped right back into the past where cash is preferred to plastic. I'm assuming it falls into the grocery, food, entertainment category. Yes, I had an entertainment category. Although it only had 15 pounds in it so I'm assuming that is where most of my cash went! Here's my pie...but not the pe-CAN kind I prefer....

Status Quo...

completely normal, for sure

Fish are friends, not food

I ate octopus this weekend...just because someone dared me....what has become of my picky eating habits, my mom will be so ashamed of me!

Gag! It actually didn't taste that bad, but was chewy. Unlike when they say wine can be "chewy"...this was a kind of chewy I can understand, but not relate to.

Hydrogenated Fat and Preservatives here I come!

Thanks Mom!

The first stage is denial

have no fear, I am not drowning my sorrows in alcohol, i promise...really, i'm not!

I made my first trip down to my local Majestic Wine Warehouse this past weekend. I needed to buy a bottle of wine to take to Mike and Andrea's dinner party on Saturday night, and I thought this would be a great time to check out the local wine store. I loved it, it reminded me a lot of the wine section at World Market. They had these little cards that had descriptions of all the wines, so I walked around and read them all and then picked out a couple as if I really understood what they mean when they say "it has black currant undertones with an oaky flavor and a chewy finish" how can a wine be "chewy"??? Anyways, I was glad to see they had several deals where if you bought two of the same bottle you could save a couple pounds. So I decided to be a shrewd business woman and selected four bottles and headed to checkout. I was quickly made aware that at the local Majestic Wine Warehouse they only deal in cases, as in 12 bottles of wine at a time, but no worries...you can mix and match bottles and they deliver. Well seeing I was already a third of the way there I decided to head back into the ominous aisles of wine with their snobby wine descriptions and pick out 8 more bottles. So an hour and 72 pounds later I left my own "stock the bar" party and headed home empty handed. The next morning there was a knock on my door and my drunken haze began...kidding. But I do have 12 bottles to work my way through if anyone wants to come help!

An Advisory to my Parents

If I go missing and you haven't heard from me for a few days please send some one to Selfridges at 400 Oxford Street, tell them to go to floor 2 and they should find me here....

If they still can't find me, tell them to go down the escalators to the ground floor take a left and follow the signs to here....

When you come visit, if you lose Lindsay, follow the same directions but stay on the ground floor and you should find her here....

If you still can't find us, then you should start worrying! 

New Pics of my flat

I have put the pics of my finished flat on my shutterfly site http://lwaterfield.shutterfly.com 

check them out, I just love the way it has all turned out.  I'll try to add pictures more often now!  

Ain't got nothin' but love babe...

My sister's friend Missy took Hayden's one year pictures this weekend, I still can't believe she is a year old!  The pictures turned out great, Missy is a wonderful photographer, you can check out the rest of Hayden's pics at http://photographybymissy.blogspot.com/

Here are some of my favorites....