Homesick

What is my deal? One minute I'm desparately thinking "I don't want to move" "I'll miss it here" "I love it here" !! The next minute I'm whining to JP that I miss home, I'm tired of the pace and the people and the weather.

It has nothing to do with hormones either for those skeptics!

This homesickness thing is funny. It washes up on you at very unexpected times! We are cruising along, finishing the last minute details for a 10 day trip to Italy next week and all I can think about is home. Wasa sushi. Javier's seafood enchiladas. The sun. The beach on early mornings when I used to go swim. My friends. My car. Friendly people in the office.

Maybe it is the sudden absence of activity- for the last three months straight we have been entertainers and haven't had much down time. I got home from work at 6pm last night and was just irritable and wanted nothing more than to transplant myself to a warm day in OC. Yes, my commute home was normal- shoved in the tube with smelly and unfriendly people. Yes, it is cold outside and rainy. Time to think of the positive though....

I thought if I blogged it, the feeling would go away. I'm hopeful that I'll wake up tomorrow morning with a renewed exuberance for London. I will acknowledge that this city wears you out. Sometimes I don't want to walk as fast as I possibly can to the tube stop like everyone, I just want to take my time. Sometimes I just want to smile at people and shake them a bit and say- what is wrong with you?? Why are you so, I don't know, British!!!??? Sometimes I just want to shout at the sky and say- "STOP HIDING THE SUN!!"

This should do it, my five (thanks Tina) friends to vent to and make it real- you CAN be sick of such an amazing city, there is nothing wrong with it!

Of all the GEP's here, we seem to be the ones who most often are anticipating, hosting or planning for guests. Since we landed, we have hosted 20 people in our flat on Sinclair Road. Considering we've been here for 14 months now, that means in some form or another we have had at least a guest per month. We often talk about how lucky we are that our friends would make the long trip and pay the high costs of a plane ticket just to see us (well, and this amazing city!)

Tomorrow we'll be saying good-bye to Anneliese- fittingly our first guest last December and our last planned guest during our secondment here. It is bittersweet, no longer will our little guest room and extra phone and oyster passes be needed. (well, unless I lose one of my own, which is highly likely). No longer will we have an excuse to go out every night of the week. No longer will we have deliveries of American goods like salsa and make-up (it is expensive here!!).
What it also means for me is that our time here is winding down. We don't touch down in the US until April 23, but with the new year quickly approaching, I feel like we will soon be packing and filling out moving forms and planning leaving "do's".

Highlights of Anneliese's trip include a holiday costume party that also celebrated our friend Andy's 30th birthday (so, named the Dual-Purpose party), a Christmas pantomime show : http://www.stratfordeast.com/shows.php (another England holiday tradition), a trip to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, a viewing of the movie Four Christmases, and pub quiz night. Today we will be spending our last day together by doing a day trip to Marlow- a quaint little town about an hour outside London.

JP is in Barcelona this weekend attempting with some friends to score tix to the Real Madrid vs. FC Barcelona tonight. He luckily is enjoying some more mild weather. It is freezing here with weather warnings of sleet and rain- great for walking around outside! That is why there is a pub on every corner here.... ahhh the pubs.

Thanksgiving also has come and gone- and my sister and I successfully cooked for 20 people in a small London flat. It was a super fun day and night- cooking with my sister and then relaxing and watching American football with our friends. I didn't realize how easy a turkey was to cook and now that I have a fancy roasting pan perhaps I'll try to do the wife-ly thing and cook a chicken or something for JP. (although, I secretly think he likes my super special meal of minestrone soup out of the can and a baguette)

This is our last week working before we head to Italy for 10 days to celebrate Christmas and eat loads of pasta and gelato. Everyday this week we have some sort of holiday lunch planned at work that starts at 1pm and includes copious amounts of wine and goes until evening. What a tough life we lead here.

I'll leave you with some pics of Thanksgiving and the dual-purpose party.

Showing off our super sweet sweatshirts, thanks Anneliese!

At the pub, we were quite the spectacle. Stuart wearing the PJ's went as the American dad on Christmas morning. Oggie, well, kind of did the Canadian tux and a holiday tie and hat.

Anneliese made three sweet sweatshirts for our party... JP wore his proudly. Antlers purchased separately.

The gang heading out to the pub after some drinking and beer pong at the flat.

My first turkey going into the oven... yum!

Happy Christmas

This installment brings you a little UK holiday lesson: First, a fun pic:

The UK holiday season doesn't differ much from what you are experiencing in the US. However, just for fun, I thought I would reveal some of those little things that make the British feign more excitement than normal (it ain't much) this time of year:

Mince pies. Sounds gross right? They are these little pies filled with minced fruit. They are the rave come mid-November here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mince_pie I recently ordered a box with our grocery delivery and mistakenly put in 2 boxes. For two people, 2 boxes of minced pies is about 1 1/2 too many. So, I took one to work and put it by the coffee machine. Even the more reserved people in the office got a little excited about the appearance of the random mince pie. Direct quotes include: "mmmm, now that is quite nice" and "it rather is, but me mum makes them better"

Christmas crackers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_crackers These fun toys give even adults something to look forward to. You typically open one by standing in a small circle with friends and holding on to the xmas cracker next to you (the toy, not the random guy) and pop the cracker for some holiday treats. It is a fun tradition, I just sent some to the US to start the trend. You always get a fun hat to wear, as modeled by yours truly at least year's holiday party.

Boxing Day. You get two days off Christmas and Boxing Day. What is boxing day you ask? It is rooted in the day where traditionally you give gifts to those less fortunate. Nowadays, it is an extra day off. With a 10 day trip through Italy planned, I'll take all the holiday time I can get!

What you get here is the same focus on consumerism, and in this economy you can bet that everything is at least 10-15% off. Daily we get emails advertising sales at the major retailers and there is plenty of encouragement to buy right now. I'll do my best to keep this economy on the upside :)

What you don't see as much is that public need to be more philantropic and cater to those who have less. Businesses don't adopt schools or a family to put gifts under the tree and a dinner on the table. That may come with living in a much more socialist society, but I have not noticed any Christmas Angel trees or adopt a family or soup kitchen pleas. It also may have something to do with the fact that people volunteer just like at home but do so in a less public way. Many people have it as part of their routine to volunteer at shelters, schools, churches, etc. but you don't hear about it unless it is specifically brought up.

Finally, it's CHRISTMAS here. Not holidays. Not Hannakah. Nobody is PC and if you do not celebrate the holiday you don't remind somebody, you jus accept the greeting and continue on. There is no PC-ness when it comes to Christmas. And, it is not "Merry Christmas" it is "Happy Christmas"

So with that in mind friends, with less than 3 weeks go to, a Happy Christmas season to you all!