Snow Foe

How ironic my last post was cursing the snow- I now have more reasons to add to my vendetta against the snow. Thanks to the snow, I spent 12 hours at Heathrow airport and got no where! It was honestly one of the worst days of my life. Here are some snapshots of how my Christmas vacation to Texas slipped away from my hands:

Roughly 30 minutes after being on the plane (we had to wait for the cleaning crew to come clean up a kid's throwup).

Okay, it's not looking good....but I'm still hopeful.

Hmmmm......

Um.......

SHIT.

So, we waited for 3 hours on the plane while the crew worked to "de-ice" the plane. This is all new terminology for me....but apparently it's a two step process and we only went through the first step which took forever! While on the plane they closed the entire Heathrow airport. I really shouldn't complain because others had it worse. Some people were stuck on their planes for 7 or 12 hours! The BBC article about this is actually kind of funny. But, read on to see what else happened....

So our flight gets cancelled and the captain says, "There will be agents waiting for you at the baggage reclaim, and they have a plan for each and every one of you." I personally was so hopeful at this point, but later learned that was complete bs. We also had to go through customs before we could even get our bags, which was ridiculous because we never left the country!

Once we get to the baggage reclaim area, there is the longest queue in the world to "speak to the agents." My friend and I both get in the line and then take turns to get our luggage. I was so glad she was there throughout the whole process- it was actually complete coincidence that we happened to be on the same flight and on top of that by some weird coincidence our seats were booked next to one another- totally not planned! She got her luggage pretty instantly, but I literally waited for 2 hours to get my bags! The problem was that they placed 7 different cancelled flights on the same baggage carousel. It was the craziest thing ever. In the meantime, my friend had gotten to the front of the long line just to find out that we were standing in line to receive a sheet of paper that gave us the American Airline reservation number. What the hell. It was a nightmare because everyone was calling this number at the same time and some people could never get through. I was fortunate that some guy was nice enough to pass on the person he was talking to to me and I was able to get my flight rebooked for three days later....on a nondirect flight, which is really frustrating!

My friend got a flight that was to leave Heathrow that day, but at a later time when the airport was supposed to open. Unfortunately I found out later that the airport closed entirely the whole day and she lost that flight as well and now can't fly out until 6 days after she was originally supposed to!!

While in the long line for the AA agent, we also met a college student from Little Rock, AK. I ended up letting her use my phone to try to get a hold of the AA reservation line, but it ended up being a nightmare. She was on hold with my phone for over an hour, and that was the point when I was really desperate to just leave the airport because I had gotten my luggage and it was already 4pm and I didn't have lunch yet and was running on 3 hours of sleep! On top of that, at one point she walked away with my phone for a long time and I couldn't find her!!

I finally get to leave the airport, and I withdraw a ton of cash because at that point, I didn't care the price...I just wanted to get the hell out of there! Unfortunately, there was the longest queue ever to get a taxi. There were at least 100 people waiting out in the cold snow. Ugh!

So, while dragging two jumbo suitcases, I headed down to the Tube...only to find a massive crowd of people. It took me probably 30 min just to get through this crowd. I finally make it to the Tube....and embark on a super long and slow Tube ride back to Chelsea. However, because I couldn't get a taxi, I had to walk 1/2 a mile in the snow while in my flats...which is really really not what you should be wearing in 5 inches of snow! I was desperately dragging my two suitcases, backpack, and purse up the stairs of the Tube station and all the way home. It's quite difficult dragging suitcases through the snow, by the way! Several people stopped to ask me if they could help which is nice because I did look pretty pathetic. Thankfully, Jessica and Joe were on the way (I'm so glad they live nearby!). I was so happy to see them because right before they came by I had just fallen in the middle of the road in dirty snow and ripped my one pair of skinny jeans!! I made it back home and instantly popped a bottle of champagne I had been saving for a "special occassion." I think it was a well earned occasion to break out the champagne haha.

The one nice thing about the day is that I met so many friendly people. There was a lot of solidarity at Heathrow. I met the man that was traveling all the way from Kuwait to Brownsville, Tx. He had already been traveling for like 40 hours and is now stuck in London....and on top of that his family didn't know he was coming because he was going to surprise them. In order for him to get home he will have to travel to New York and then spend the night there on Tuesday and then fly two more flights on Wednesday to get to Brownsville. He was actually in such a good mood the entire day and he was the one who passed his phone to me, and he also came by to keep me company as I waited desperately for my luggage. I met many nice people who were joking and laughing at the situation while waiting for luggage, etc. On my Tube ride back I talked with two girls both around the age of 19- one from Kentucky, the other from Ireland. We both talked about how terrible our day had been, but it was nice to share stories....especially since my phone was close to dying and I was losing human contact!

So, for now I remain in London. Fingers crossed I make it to the sunshine by Tuesday!

Christmas Markets

Well Christmas has come and passed, but I thought I would recap a little bit about Christmas in London. Christmas markets are a huge deal there and they have several around the city. Christmas markets in general are all over Europe this time of the year. I couldn't for the life of me understand how Christmas markets could stay in business and why people like to bring their kids there, but after going to the biggest one in the city in Hyde Park, it's all making sense!

Welcome to the Hyde Park Christmas market, or should I say carnival.

This totally reminded me of the Texas state fair but with less fried food and cold weather.

The markets are pretty much German themed, I guess because this all started in Germany. Here is a stand completely devoted to cookies.

And awesome rides!

London also had decorations all over the city, especially in heavy shopping areas. The window displays were fun to look at, but definitely not as impressive as in New York City.

This particular department store chose to go with a Christmas + alien theme.

London is definitely more charming in the winter when there are Christmas decorations all over. Now that the holidays are over, it will just be back to cold and dreary!

Blame it on the....

SNOW.

Apologies for being MIA since Thanksgiving. I'd like to be able to blame it on the snow, but it really is probably more attributable to work lately. Oh well. Here's what you missed: snow, snow, snow, SNOW! What's a Texas girl to do?

I've found that this city shuts down when it snows, just like in good ole Texas, except here you are still expected to go to work/school. So, the snow really isn't that pretty or exciting here. Much better when you can watch it from the comforts of your home. My commute each day was terrible and required a lot of creativity! One day I arrived at my local Tube station to find that it was closed...because of a fire! That's just so wrong, you can't have snow and fire in one day!

So, to catch you up to speed (and I promise I'll have posts all throughout next week!) our little community of foreigners decided to host an early Christmas party the other weekend where we brought Christmas food from our respective countries.

What did I bring? queso. I think it may have been life changing for some people. Although, I had a tough time really recreating it here. There is a store here that sells American staples like Oreos, Kraft Mac 'n cheese, etc. They had Rotel but they did not have Velveeta. Can someone please explain to me the point of Rotel without Velveeta? I am vowing to bring back several boxes of Velveeta with me when I go back home and I am planning on converting these people one by one! Anyway, I had to give them premade queso from a jar from a brand I've never heard of, but it actually tasted decent. Regardless, melted cheese around drunk people tends to go over well!

Let's just say we were not short on food.....

The Belgiums brought tons of Chocolate desserts, the Danish people brought liver pate, the Polish people brought pierogies, the Italian people brought some sort of doughnuts that were appetizers, the Swedish people brought a sort of fish and Swedish meatballs, the list goes on and on!

The girl that cooked Thanksgiving dinner for all of us also brought more of her leftovers!! I secretly mostly ate the Thanksgiving food....I couldn't help it! More American goodies (this girl's grandmother's recipe- made from scratch):

We have a ton of Swedish people in our group. They say London is like their second capital! They shared all sorts of traditions with us like a drink they drink around Christmas time (kind of like mulled wine) and some song we had to sing....before taking a shot of another drink...that kind of tasted like perfume....

They also performed a traditional Swedish Christmas song, lol.

I love our group- everyone is definitely trying to make the most of their time here!

Turkey Time

Happy Thanksgiving to me in London!! In case anyone was wondering how I got by, it was quite tough. Please see below:


Traditional Thanksgiving meal prepared from scratch with all the proper fixin's by one very very generous and brave soul. One of the American girls also on rotation here offered to cook about 12 of us a Thanksgiving meal! I love Thanksgiving food!!!

I was a bit hesitant to post up this pic because Thanksgiving did have a major flaw in it- Jessica and Joe were invited as well, and I was supposed to meet them up right before. Well, our meeting location did not work out and I changed the location thinking that Jessica would have her phone on her....but unfortunately she left it home! I was also really sick that day and likely had a fever at the time, so I was not the most coherent myself (it's getting quite cold here!!). Long story short, our plans to meet up completely failed, and I felt terrible that they missed out on the gathering of Americans :(

Another thing I have learned is that working on Thanksgiving is the pits. I will not be doing that again next year. I didn't realise how important having the day off was!

The next day, since I also had to work then, I went to Borough Market for lunch. Borough Market happens every week Thursday-Saturday on the River Thames, and tons of vendors sell food from all over the world both ready to eat and groceries/special ingredients to cook with! They have really good empanadas and paella, for example. This week they had a special THANKSGIVING SANDWICH. I knew I had to sink my teeth into one of these. All I could think of was Friends and Ross's special Thanksgiving sandwich with the "moist maker." This one was sans moist maker but did have plenty of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and spinach! It was a pretty rockin' lunch!

Random British factoid: Apparently turkey is a really popular dish for Christmas. All the stores are advertising for people to order their Christmas turkeys now. Strange! They should get on board with Thanksgiving and moist makers.

Fairy (tale) cake

London is now home sweet home. Literally. Jessica has found an amazing cupcake place in our neighbourhood, and now our lives are complete. Oh, did I mention that Jessica and Joe are going to be living one mile from me??? Yup, we're neighbours :)

Hello, Hummingbird Bakery. You are sweet, pretty, and whimsically tasty. You make me feel like I'm in America.

Cupcakes are allegedly "so American" here just like Christmas and Halloween, but I've noticed that they are taking storm here quickly as they did in the US. British people even call cupcakes "fairy cakes" because they are supposed to be for children. Well, hummingbird bakery is no child's play.

We are so happy. In London they charge you extra money to eat in the restaurants. No joke. Here is was an extra 35 pence to eat our cupcakes indoors. We got them to go, mainly because there was no seating left inside! However, we were at a restaurant earlier that charged 3.5GBP to takeout the food and 8GBP to eat in. And, last weekend I got a salad at Starbucks and they charged me an extra 40 pence just to hand me a plastic fork so that I could eat it there!

Okay, but in all seriousness....these cupcakes are amazing and they are right by the tube station I take to work (South Kensington tube station). I will be taking many people here!

MMMmmmmmmm

Christmas Cheer

Christmas in London is big as you can imagine in any major Western city. I decided to nix my promise of showing you the Christmas decorations on my route home, and get down where the real sexy Christmas decorations are- Mayfair....London's wealthiest area and where the serious shopping gets done.

Here's Picadilly Circus, London's version of Times Square- HAHA

And here is Regent Street....THE place you want to go shopping in London. Except for Christmas, because it's absolute madness here as you can see. Despite all sanity, I headed down here anyway.

I got the idea to head down here because I had gone to a client meeting in the area on Friday. I was with a partner, who was extremely excited to see the Abercrombie and Fitch store nearby. She seriously made us walk in while we were in our suits because she had heard that there were models all around the store. Think Abercrombie + beautiful young, fun people + accountants in suits....that really put my life into perspective! The place actually reaked of men's cologne, it was like someone was trying too hard!

I also walked down Bond Street, which is where all the high rollers drop some serious G's. Regent Street houses Banana Republic, Gap, H&M, as well as Burberry and Dior. Whereas Bond Street is home to Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Tiffany's, Harry Winston, and Prada.

Look at all the sparkly! And, yes I realise this is nothing compared to the US!! Can't wait to see the lights back in TX :)

Here's the Ritz, in case you want to book a room to keep all of the diamonds, furs, and purses you'll surely be buying on Bond Street.

American pasttimes

Thanks to the global world we live in today, ideas can easily be transmitted across cultures. This weekend there was an important symposium of idea sharing- Europeans meet beer pong.

Yes, let the history books record the date the American immigrants brought beer pong to Europe. There should probably be a holiday from now on celebrating the event every year.

The beer pong was a relative hit, but the Swedish people got too cold. (Seriously??) However, flip cup was a big hit among the entire group!

Even the Swedish guy here looks like he's having a blast....and alllmost getting the hook'em sign right.

Mass consumption.

The happy group at the end.

I must also lament about how long it takes to get places in this town. If you want to go to any other part of London you should budget at least an hour....even if it is supposed to take you 45 min to get there. Depending on public transportation is the worst! It's taken me over an hour to get places because much of the Tube is closed on the weekends for construction (I imagine to prepare for the Olympics). I literally took two Tube trains and a bus to get to the place I needed to go on Sat night. On top of that you can hit traffic on the bus, as my friend did...which can cost you over an hour just to get across London!

Feels like home to me....

The reason why I was so silent last week was because I got my shipment in last weekend and was unpacking/cleaning/making up my home all week! I knew I would have guests over at the end of the week for a small house warming party that I had as well as the fact that Jessica and Joe were getting in to town. Unpacking involved finding the perfect place for everything as well as doing many loads of dishwashing and laundry. Finally though, it's starting to feel like home here. :)

I'll walk you through my place now- with some before and after shots!

Remember the main living area before:
Look at it now:

What has changed: The mirror has been hung, the couch ordered by the landlord was delivered, and I put pics to make it feel more like home!

Remember my bedroom before (very ominous Asian man guarding a minimalist/bland bedroom):

Look at it now:

What has changed: More color with blue throw and red and cream pillows that gives it a warmer feeling. Crystal lamps and perfume tray adds a more feminine and classic touch.

I made one splurge, which are these crystal lamps. Kiki, I think you'd like these lamps. They were the only personal style thing that I could really add to this place, so I thought the splurge was worth it....for my sanity!

I got the lamps from John Lewis department store....which is the most wonderful place in London. It's the most fabulous department store and it's less than a mile from me. I'm in heaven...I go there every weekend!

Remember the empty closet:

Look at it now:

What has changed: Well, the most fabulous dresser in all of Chelsea has moved in (just kidding). Also, I apologise for the mess...have not had a time to color code by seasons!

Remember the bathroom (which I have decided was not designed with a female in mind):

Look at it now:

What has changed: I took out the towels and added baskets that provide more storage space (since the bathroom has almost none) that contains all of my mess!

The Christmas spirit is very alive in London now, I'll be posting pictures soon of the spectacular displays I encounter on my daily commute!