All of the Lights - Happy Christmas

Christmas is over and I've made it through the holiday season without my family. I feel sad that I couldn't be home, but pretty proud of myself for making the most of where I am and taking advantage of what London has to offer during the season. It was quite a different holiday than I'm used to, but I feel like I still got that Christmas feeling. How can you not feel the spirit in London?

Christmas in London is a totally different thing than Christmas in the States. Don't get me wrong, I love the holiday season back home with all of the over-the-top light displays and Christmas activities, but in London, they do it a bit more elegantly. Specifically the Christmas lights. The pictures don't show just how amazing everything looks, but here's a peek into what a real British Christmas looks like. The photos are a mixture of some of my favorite Christmassy things I saw in London - Winter Wonderland, Oxford Street, and the Harrods window displays.

Happy Christmas xoxo

Thanksgiving in London

It's after midnight on Black Friday and I'm finally getting some down time after a long week. The last few weeks have been spent reading, studying, doing mock exams, freaking out over statistics (like, who really gets that stuff, right?), and generally being a full time student.

This week, though, I took a bit of time out of my student schedule to make my first Thanksgiving meal myself and celebrate my first Thanksgiving away from home. This post may be a bit sappy, which is a different turn from my usual, but hey, "if you can't tell the truth at [the holidays] then when can you?" (name that movie)

I was feeling a bit down at the beginning of the week as Thanksgiving was approaching. I realize that I've been so fortunate to be able to spend all of my holidays with my family until now and that the experience I am having here is the best thing, but it's still a bit hard to be away from home this time of year.

The funny part...
Now, even though I promised sap, this story starts out like a typical "Liz" story. In London, they don't really sell turkey like they do in the States. Especially at this time of year. That said, I ordered one online through Tesco to be delivered to me, frozen, on Tuesday evening after I would arrive back from class. I was Skyping with my parents and Grandma when the Tesco Man called letting me know he was downstairs. I quickly said goodbye and ran downstairs in slippers and without a coat.

When I got to the courtyard of my building, the Tesco Man was standing in the bushes (yes, like actually sort of in the bushes) in total darkness because of course the lights weren't working at a moment like this and just held out a crate to me. With his eyes, he told me to take the turkey out of the crate and handed me a receipt. The turkey was not in a bag. It was just a frozen turkey. Just like that.

I grabbed the turkey out of the crate, said thank you very quickly, and started to run back into the building because the block of ice turkey was starting to freeze to my skin. I am looking at the turkey in my arms as I run up 4 flights of stairs whisper yelling "it's so cold it's so cold it's so cold" and realize that this turkey is tiny. It's like a baby turkey. I cannot emphasize enough about how small this turkey looked to me at the time. It was small, but in my panic and frozen arms, it looked like it was no larger than a newborn baby bird.

To set the stage - I had ordered a turkey to feed 11-14 people (I had invited 12 to my dinner) and at this point in time, 20 people were now coming. How, I do not know. So I'm looking down at this infant turkey wondering how in the hell I'm going to feed 20 people when it looks like it would feed about 6 children. Spoiler alert - it was fine, but only in the sense that it was cooked perfectly and everyone got to taste it. We did not get full on turkey. See: making extra potatoes. 

The next hour is spent on Skype with my family cry-laughing and attempting to wrap the turkey in plastic bags to carry it down to a friend's fridge.

Back to sap...
On Wednesday, I baked a few pies and some cornbread with my friend Nora. She is from Germany and we haven't gotten to know each other too well yet. It was so nice to spend a few hours baking and talking with a new friend. We got to reflect on our own family traditions, talk about how we both think that London is amazing, and just generally girly things. It really got me in the holiday mood and with the smell of freshly baked pies and Christmas lights, I was feeling a bit better.

Thursday morning was again, a bit tough, but I had invited a small army to dinner, so onward I went! I made the obligatory "oops" trip to the grocery store to pick up the few things I was missing and then got cooking!

A few of my friends came over, Susana and Vicky, both from Spain, and helped me to prepare the small feast. I was able to Skype with my family again briefly and finished up the cooking at the time I actually planned to serve it! A THANKSGIVING MIRACLE.

We carried the food up to the top floor common room. Here's what it looked like.

And the turkey up close.

All in all, I made a turkey that (after a lot of man handling and a small freak out about the neck rolling around inside of it - this was discovered a long time after I pulled out the bag with the other insides) turned out great, sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping, mashed potatoes, cornbread, cranberry salad, green bean casserole, stuffing, pumpkin soup, roasted veggies, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and even homemade gravy. I'm so proud of myself that I actually was able to pull this off! I've never before cooked for that many people and I've definitely never made a turkey. It was delicious!

Before we ate, I made everyone go around the table and say what they were thankful for. As there was only me and one other American, the "thankful" thing went a little over the top and we ended up applauding everyone after they spoke. It was actually really cute and I got all mushy feeling over it.

Even though the last few weeks have been oh so stressful (thanks, grad school), I'm still forever thankful for all of the things I've gotten to experience over the last few months and days like yesterday make me realize that this was the best decision of my life.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Week 3 - Lizzing London

Grad school is hard. I mean, I know that's pretty obvious, but until you get into it you don't really think about it that much. I give props to anyone who does this while working / being a parent / doing anything else because of the sheer amount of reading and work that needs to be done!

Classes are going well so far and I'm enjoying the content, but honestly, they all sort of blend together a bit. I have all of my classes on Mondays and Tuesdays (That's 6 hours straight each day) so by Tuesday night (right now) my brain feels like it's seeping out my ears. Quite the image, right?

I had a meeting with my "tutor" today and I felt so much better about things after that meeting. At King's each student is assigned a personal tutor for the year. They are a professor who is teaching one of your classes during the year and is someone you can go to for advice, help, questions on material, and potentially as references after the program is complete. This is something that I think King's does really well - and I know it sounds like I'm sponsoring them now, but really, this is pretty awesome. It's basically someone to say "Yep, stuff is really hard and it's only going to get harder and there is a ton of reading, but honestly, if you didn't think it was hard we wouldn't be doing it right". Pretty relieving!

Aside from school, I have had more of a chance to enjoy being in London lately since I've gotten a better handle on my schedule and how to plan my days. Since I have somehow lucked out and gotten two days of classes, that means that I have five day weekends. European weeks? I wish.

Last Friday, I went on a night bus tour that was set up by the building I live in. Not much to say here aside from - wow, my city is amazingly beautiful.

Some of my coworkers from my office in Chicago were here last week and it was SO NICE to see familiar faces and just generally hang with people who already know me. I didn't have to be as on my game as with my friends from school. (We're still new and in the "please like me, I'm making good impressions" phase of our friendships). We went to the Borough Market, walked around Kensington Gardens, and went on our own little pub crawl in Queen's Park with some friends from the London office. It was awesome. And super London-y because it rained the whole time. For what it's worth - my raincoat is perfect.

Weekly list of my favorite things right now:

- Getting the front seat on the top level of the bus. See the Shard? I live right next to it. Ah!

- Indian food is literally amazing here. All of it. Anywhere. Even the frozen meals.
- CityMapper app. It is on the list again because I couldn't live without it.
- Having a "regular spot" at the library where I meet my friends.
- The fox in the courtyard now has a name. Foxy. Really original.
- Making a breakthrough in my flat. If you know me well, you'll already know this story.
- I'm rubbish (see see!) at taking care of plants. I think. Unless it's supposed to look like this:

Thing I learned to fear this week - flying daddy long legs. Yes, these are real. They are just like those spiders in the U.S. that have super small bodies and really long, thin legs and are totally creepy BUT THEY FLY HERE. I would have a photo of this, but in moment of sheer panic, you tend to forget all about capturing moments. They come in your window when you least expect it and the next thing you know you have a boot on each hand and you're jumping around your room yelling "I've aggravated it!!" Don't ask me how I know this.

Cheers!

Lizzing London - I'm here!

Hello from London! This has basically been my subject line in every email I've sent in the last two weeks. I'm finally here and somewhat settled into "normal" life. I've been here for 2 weeks now and can say that I do feel like I live in London! Here are some major topics and some updates.

Classes: 
Classes started last week and I love them so far. Although, there is so much reading my eyes might fall out of my head. I am starting week 2 tomorrow and basically have all of my classes on Mondays and Tuesdays only until my certification workshop starts in late November. That leaves a lot of time to do fun things - like more readings for class haha. But really, it does help that I have a 5 day weekend and can really space out how I want to work.

My Flat:
The building is tucked away behind a busy high street in the borough of Southwark. That flat is laid out very oddly, but it's pretty functional nonetheless. My room is a bit bigger than I thought it would be and I have plenty of storage space. I have three roommates that I'm very slowly starting to get to know who are from China and Mexico. The building is only for Postgraduates at King's, so I've met a lot of people who are doing as much reading as I am so it's nice to have some study buddies.

The area: 
I basically live in the Lakeview of London with just a hint of Wicker Park mixed in. It's technically in Central London, but just outside of all of the major landmarks. I live south of the river, so when I travel to one of the campuses, I get to walk across Waterloo bridge and see this:

OMG, right? I get to live here!



People: 
I've gotten to meet people from all over the world since the building I live in is only for International students. My program is also very international with students from 35 countries out of the 90 of us - pretty awesome!

I have learned so much already just being here two weeks. Here's what I've been thinking about the most.

- I take English for granted and I'm totally spoiled by the fact that everyone else has to speak English to me.
- I need to learn 10 languages ASAP.
- I can get by with only 4 pillows on my bed.
- Coffee and I are BFFs again.
- Weekends are for class reading. As all days of the week are.
- Getting lost in London is a right of passage. Unlimited data for GPS is a must.
- The CityMapper app is a literal life saver.
- Buses are awesome for getting you places, but they often don't take the route they're supposed to. Be prepared for unannounced detours for no reason at all.
- The coins are still confusing.
- Groceries are the most expensive thing ever.
- Foxes to London are rats to Chicago.

Lizzing London, Volume 2: Two Weeks to Go

Welp - we're in the final countdown!

I've been unemployed for about a week and a half. I'm sorting through my things to get it down to just a suitcase or two. I'm spending time with family and friends.

Right now, it all still feels like I'm just on a bit of a vacation from my real life and that I'll be going back to work and my normal life in Chicago very soon.

Here's what I've learned in the last week and a half: 

1. Without a schedule, I honestly never know what day of the week it is. I need one of those calendars that says the date and day of the week like in a nursing home.
2. I make a lot of lists to feel productive.
3. I take a lot of naps.
4. I have entirely too much stuff.
5. All of my hair appliances are dual voltage: win!
6. I'm really bad at that "Two Dots" game.

The next time I write, it will be from London. How crazy is that?
Cheers!