Snow, pretty yes but it's a bitch for traveling...

Yes, I will wait for all the "Oooo" and "Ahhhhh"ing to pass as you look at the lovely white blanket of snow draped across the trees of the rolling countryside.....

Done? Ok, now I too would enjoy this beautiful view if it were not for the fact that today was the day that I was supposed to do a whole lotta traveling. I started in Florence, then was supposed to go to Rome, then to London, then finally to Prague. Right now it is 8pm and I am sitting in the London airport. Things got a little knocked off course, and there were no dancing and singing snowmen to help me on my way (where were you Frosty??)

Turns out the Florence airport was closed - because of the snow. Then there were no taxis running to take me to the train station - because of the snow. Then the first couple trains out of Florence were canceled - because of the snow. And I missed my connection in Rome to London - because of the snow. Then I missed my flight from London to Prague - because of the snow. And now I am waiting for my flight which has been canceled - can you guess why??? *all together now ... Because of the snow!

But no fear, I am sure as soon as I get to Prague and get all settled and "stuff", I will go out and frolic in the snow. Maybe even lay down and make a snow angel. Maybe. If you're lucky.

Is that Billy Joel I hear?

I went to the Changing of the Guards on Wednesday. Anne and I decided that it was a must do before we each headed off to our next locations. Being the winter time, they only do the whole ceremony thing every other day. So we take the Tube there and walk through the park to the palace.

Here is the gate that the guards walk through. They do the whole ceremony behind these gates, so you may see some bars in some of the pics.

Here is a pic of one of the sculptures on the outside of the gate.

Here are the guards in their, what I am guessing, winter attire. No red coats, just a drab grey. But hey, they still have the tall funny hats on!



They had a band that played music during the changing of the guards. And what else would one play during such an event but Billy Joel?

There were tons of British cops around to keep all us tourists moving along. They are very easy to spot, because they wear bright neon yellow/green. And they have the neatest hats! Check out this bloke.

Here is a shot of the front of the palace after the ceremony.

Afterwards we walked through St. James Park. It is a very pretty park with lots of birds and squirrels. We watched the "Squirrel Men" for a while. It seems like they come to the park everyday with a bag full of peanuts and just feed the squirrels. And the squirrels know this too! We watched them come right up to these men and take peanuts straight from their hands. We even saw one run up the pants of one man to get a nut. (hehe) Then we came across a lake/pond with some black swans and white pelicans. For you animal lovers out there, here they are.


My next adventure will be the Tower of London and the London Bridge (is it indeed falling down??) Stay tuned..

Abbey Road

Here are some shots of the street made famous by the Beatles. Mom - this one's for you!!


Me crossing Abbey Road.

People left lots of mementos in front of the recording studio.

Erica and I crossing Abbey Road.

Tea Time

As a last farewell, all the remaining London girls decided to go out with a bang and go to a traditional English high tea. It was Anne, Stef, Sara, Erica, and me. We went to a beautiful hotel called the Park Lane Hotel. The room we had tea in was decorated in a 1920's style. Very pretty, and very suitable for tea. We had very comfortable seating - plush couches and chairs. (could I say very one more time?) There was supposed to be a guy that came around and filled our cups with fresh tea for us, but he didn't come often enough for us! We just ended up doing it ourselves, and he "caught" us once and told us we were doing his job. Haha, oh well!

I had the Pear and Vanilla tea - highly recommended. We ate a tray and a half of mini sandwiches, a tray of scones, and then we each had two little desserts. All in all a very good experience and a nice way to catch up on our last night all together. *tear

The Hotel front, all decorated for the holidays.

The delicious sandwiches.


After tea we wondered outside to catch a bus home and we were hit with the quintessential London evening. Foggy! I looked down the street and I saw the fog, a classic red phone booth, and a black cab. All very London, so I snapped a shot.

Then I decided to be a bit goofy and take the "I'm in a phone booth pretending to talk" shot.

But was surprised with all these "flyers" that covered the inside of the traditional red booth.

Cheeky ole London!

Saatchi's Christmas Party

Well, we did it - we went to the Saatchi & Saatchi Christmas party in London. It was pretty cool, they gave out these scroll invitations where everything started with an "S". It ended up being at a club in London called Tantra. When you walked in you got your pic taken in front of the "Saatchi" wall, then you ventured inside to the madness.

It was an open bar - and I don't think anything else needs to be said :) Here are some memorable fun pics from the night.

A group of us.

Anne Stef and Erica. Nice height line!

Erica me and Sara.

BigLittle Head

Me and Stef

Me and Stef being silly.

Our group at the bar.

Me and Jenn Chen.

Yummy, nothing like some Fish-n-Chips!

Where Do I Belong?

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city girl with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand And gorgeous Italian men - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

I got this quiz off of Jenne's blog - I guess it's a good thing I am going there for Christmas! I would love to know where everyone else gets!

A Big Thank-You!

I would like to just say a big THANK YOU to all my family and friends out there who wished me a Happy Birthday and a Merry Christmas. It will be hard being away from family this holiday season, but that will just make next year even more special (awww).

If you didn't know already - I will be spending this holiday season traveling. I will be in London till Dec. 21st, then I fly away to Italy. I am staying in Rome for 5 days in a hostel. And yes, I will be there for Christmas. Christmas in Rome! Can't wait. I can't wait to be a part of the huge crowd gathering to see the Pope. After Rome I fly off to Florence for 3 days. I am staying in a cute hotel there. Can't wait to see all the beautiful architecture and art all over the city.

After that I am almost positive that I will be heading off to Prague for my next qtr. away for school. I will be interning at MARK/BBDO there. I have heard the city is beautiful, almost mythical. Can't wait. I will be having to buy some layers though, as I am told Jan and Feb are the coldest months there with an average temp of -4 C per day. Burr!

Thanks again and I miss you all back in the States!!

Happy Holidays!

The Quarter of a Century Celebration

OK - so my other birthday blog was a bit premature before. We ended up going out for sushi at about 8:30pm on friday. It took a little finding since it was IN a Tube station. We kept wanting it to be outside near the ice-skating rink, but alas it wasn't. We finally found it and went inside and sat in this awesome table that made us feel like it was US inside the sushi roll.

I ordered a flask of warm sake and Stef and James were the only brave souls that would try it in a sake bomb with me. Here we all are at Sushi. Me and Erica
Stef, Anne, and Patrice

After our wonderful dinner we decided to go to a club called Sahara Nights. James' flatmates were there and they said it was free to get in and that they had a dance floor. We were sold! We got in and were immediately bought a round of drinks by an intoxicated man at the bar. Stef chatted him up and told him it was my birthday so he bought us all a round. After that the girls bought me a shot and we all did a birthday cheers. My first B-52 shot, quite tasty. Yay for the free drinks. :)

Me and James

James doing his famous fire-in-the-mouth shot. Ooooo, Ahhh!

Me and Anne ... I think I am singing along to a song or something.



The music at the club was AWESOME! So not a European playlist. We had a great time of dancing and singing along. I ended up losing my sweater that I was wearing, and "gaining" a belt. A pretty cool belt at that too. But no worries, I went back to H&M yesterday to replace the lost sweater.
Peek-a-boo, I see you.


I couldn't seem to get with the theme of the following two pictures...




Much thanks to Momma Stef for tucking us all in that night. We love you!

It's my Birthday?

Today is my birthday! The big 2 -5. The quarter of a century mark. Half way to 50. Umm, and whatever else.

And what are we doing to celebrate .... nothing! Yes that's right. I have the unfortunate luck of always having my birthday on or around finals. So that means everyone is all stressed out and I get a few "Happy Birthday!"'s and then it is back to the grind. I guess I am used to it, but I miss my family. They understand the annoyance I feel about being A) brushed aside and B) having my birthday combined with Christmas. All you December babies out there know what I am talking about here.

With or without anyone else I am planning on going for sushi and sake tomorrow (Saturday) night. I haven't had it since San Diego before I left the States. I miss it, strangely enough. I didn't even like it really till Miami. Funny how things change. Maybe when you get older you start to like raw dead things more. Next thing you know I'll be eating mushrooms or something! Haha, probably not.

Happy Birthday to me!

A Weekend in the City of Love

As some of you may know, last weekend Stef and I traveled to Paris. And to put your immediate questions at ease, there was no rioting going on and it wasn't scary at all. We even bought tickets and braved the Metro system - which is pretty easy to figure out once you pass the obstacle of buying the ticket. If you are 26 or under you can get a discounted ticket for the weekend, and you can also get into the Louvre for free on Friday nights! Which is exactly what we did when we arrived on Friday night, after a little drama of figuring out where we were going to stay.

We had originally planned on staying in a hostel, but of course their online booking didn't work and they didn't take reservations over the phone. So they said to just come there when we arrived, which we did - and of course there were no beds available. So we took our little suitcases and walked the streets of Paris looking for a hotel with an open room for 2 nights. We struck out at the first one, and the second one .. then we finally experienced the true meaning of "Third Time's the Charm". We got a room on the top floor with a mini balcony with a view of the top of the Eiffel Tower, shown here at night...

After our visit to the Louvre we found a cute little cafe and had some very yummy food. We shared a cheese plate, each got a glass of wine, and I got a french baguette with french ham and Stef got an omelet with cheese, ham, and potatoes. After we were full we took the Metro back to the hotel and witnessed a couple kissing to the sound of jazz echoing in the tunnels. A cute reminder we were in the City of Love.

We woke up on Saturday morning to a surprise - SNOW!! It was snowing in Paris! Here is the view from our hotel window...

We decided that for our first stop (after a lovely lunch of yet another cheese plate and glass of wine) we would go to the Eiffel Tower. I still could not get enough of the snow, being as this was the first real time I had been in the snow. Just look at it!

The Eiffel Tower looked awesome with a light layer of snow upon it.


The snow did however cause the lifts to freeze, so the tower was closed. There were also a lot of guards with guns standing around, and these middle eastern girls would walk around and pick out people who looked American (by the huge cameras around their necks or by their faces glued to huge fold-out maps) and ask them if they spoke English. Of course your first natural response is to say "yes", at which point they hold up a card they had written in English claiming that their brother or son was back home with leukemia and they needed your money to save him. The weird thing is that they held up a card with this on it. When they spoke perfect English to start with. We quickly became aware of their schemes and the next time we were asked if we spoke English Stef quickly replied "no", and they left us alone.

We next went to various other Paris sights. The Arc de Triomphe and The Champs Elysees
Notre Dame

Then we decided to make our way back to the Eiffel Tower in hopes that it had thawed out (since it had stopped snowing) and we would be able to ride to the top. When we got off the Metro we were struck with how beautiful the lights were on the Eiffel Tower at night.

We finally made it to the summit (and almost froze to death). These are an attempt to capture the view of Paris in the nighttime. It was eerily quiet in the city, maybe due to the recent violence that had occurred just weeks before.



After we conquered the sights of Paris we were famished - so we found a nice cafe near the Eiffel Tower to enjoy a dinner at. This time we got a bottle of wine. We sat there for 2 and a half hours just eating and drinking. It was great. And of course we got our new favorite cheese, Cantal, to enjoy at the end. After this it was off to our last night in our room, as modeled here by Miss. Stefenie:

We had planned to make Sunday our day of shopping, but were unaware that literally EVERYTHING is closed on Sunday in Paris. We were lucky to find a cafe that was open! We had a glass of wine and our last meal in Paris. We then decided to just head to the train station to wait for our EuroStar. During our wait we got to see a real-life documentary of Paris bums in the train station. It involved gift giving of some early 90's Nike shoes (sans laces), and the potential bribing of a young child with a piece of stolen candy. I was able to buy some cantal cheese from the station before we left, my last memory of good ole Paris.