Happy New Year!

Friends, Romans, Countrymen… oh wait- I’m not Mark Antony on the speakers stump in the Roman Forum, I’m Angie and I’m blogging… apologies.

Italy was fabulous, amazing, incredible, fun and yummy! We spent 11 days abroad in the boot shaped country and spent our time taking in the sights, eating pasta and pizza with abandon, drinking house wine for 3 euros a ½ litre, and taking full advantage of the siesta. A quick recap:

Rome: We spent four nights (including Christmas) in Rome. We stayed near the Colosseum and took us where Rick Steves told us to go. The city is great- it is organized chaos at it’s best. The people are nice (and most speak enough English to get you by) and everywhere you go there is some ruin or statue on the corner. It is incredible. We went to the Borghese museum, took in some great Baroque statues and art and then did our own walking tours to discover the city. On our final day there we did an organized tour of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum and heard fun stories of people from thousands of years ago inventing everything from roads to cities to socialism. It was really cool to get a refresh of history lessons that we had long since forgotten. We stayed at a hotel that treated us like we were at a bed and breakfast: Hotel Lancelot: www.lancelothotel.com

Siena & Tuscany: We took a coach bus from Rome to Siena on our fifth day in Italy to the town of Siena in the Tuscany region. Tuscany is just what it is portrayed to be- rolling green hills, vineyards and rows of olive trees, big hill towns surrounded by nothing. I can imagine during the spring it would be even more gorgeous, but we really liked Siena. I think in all this was our favourite town mostly because of the slower pace, lower prices, gorgeous scenery and great food. We explored neighboring villages and cities while there, courtesy of a mini-car we rented on one day and then a guide we hired to take us wine tasting and such the second day. We saw Cortona (where “Under the Tuscan Sun” was based), Montelcino (where they make the expensive and tasty Brunello wine), Montepulcino (more wine!) and Buonconvento. Here we stayed at a villa/guest house that was much like living in someone’s home- which is both good and bad. It was pretty loud, which if that is the only thing we can complain about we are lucky. http://www.villaeldasiena.it/

Florence: Finally we headed into Florence for the last two nights of our trip. By this point we were a little tired out of museums and such which is really a shame because Florence was the birthplace of Renaissance art and even for us art novices we knew there was some great things to see. After waiting through a painful reservations-but-you-still-have –to-wait-an-hour-in-line thing at Ufuzzi we enjoyed the place but decided we had enough of Italian run museums (completely unorganized, inefficient- like herding cats or something) and just concentrated on roaming the streets, admiring the various piazzas and enjoying gelato- which supposedly is the best in Florence. We loved our hotel here- in the middle of everything and reasonably priced. http://www.hotelsantamarianovella.it/

Food: Italians know what they are doing. We didn’t have one bad meal- even the more touristy spots served delicious and fresh pastas and pizzas. I think we have spent over a year deprived of really good food here in London (yes yes, there are good restaurants- but let’s get real…) so this was a real treat for us. There aren’t many options other than Italian food options- so if you are watching your carbs then forget it – but I challenge someone to go to Italy and say they are on a low carb diet… Italians don’t eat Italian food when they visit other countries, and they are all convinced their region’s food is the best. I won’t argue- it was all great.

Holidays: We spent Christmas in Rome, which was a treat. There were a few things open, but the weather was so nice that we just walked around the whole city and enjoyed all the street performers and other tourists and took lots of pictures. We enjoyed a Christmas Eve dinner of five courses of fresh fish that was the highlight of our time in Italy. We had Christmas dinner at the hotel with other guests staying in Rome for the holidays and met some nice people that night. New Years Eve we spent in Florence with another incredible meal (Florentine steak! Yum) and then followed the crowds to the main piazza in town to watch the incredibly unsettling and yet strangely entertaining firework shows put on by the towns most drunken and rowdy people- there was no organized show, just loads of illicit fireworks going off all night long. We fell asleep to huge bangs and booms, but it was part of being in Italy (the Italians love loud noises).

All in all, other than our honeymoon, this was the best trip we’ve taken. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays as much as we did! Pics are on shutterfly and some are on Facebook as well.

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!

To the four readers of this blog:

You can subscribe here (see to the left) and you will get notified via email when I post a new update to the blog! I know, I know, super exciting, right!

A Paris Affair

There is more to this posting than just Paris- but that is where I will start. JP and I planned a trip way back in August for a quick Paris getaway this last weekend- and I can't believe it has come and gone. The last time we were in Paris we spent a very quick 24 hours on the back end of a trip to France and packed in all the big sights. Our purpose in returning (which, we try not to do since there is so much to see) was to just slow it down and be romantic and enjoy the experience of being there versus rushing from sight to sight. We did it the right way this time, nice long dinners, crepes and wine and cheese, fun sights but also with some rest in between. We chose a fun neighborhood yesterday to wander around- Monmarte- home of the cemetery where Jim Morrison is buried, the cafe where Amelie worked in (great movie by the way) and Moulin Rouge. It was a really fun hood- lots of galleries and street vendors and kitshy shops. We took in a nice french romantic dinner at Le Tavestin http://www.letastevin-paris.com/ where I tried escargot (yum) and we had great steaks and delicious desserts.

I love France, and I love Paris. However, it is the only place where JP and I have felt 1. unsafe (i'll explain) and 2. the need to be a little vigilant against taxi drivers out to rip off tourists. Of all the trips and cities- Paris is the only place we've been approached and pursued by people hoping to rob us, and the only city where we've had to get out of taxi's due to meter problems. On Saturday while walking to the subway a group of guys approached us talking very fast and pulling at us and we had to look down and walk fast to get out of their way. It is a pretty common ploy I guess to distract tourists while stealing from them. Only, this happened to us on our first trip. We don't think we walk around looking like targets- but either way we thought for how gorgeous and fun Paris is- it definitely has it's drawbacks.

Drawback number 2? Oh yeah- 26 euro for ONE drink at our hotel bar. I guess on Sat. nights at the Le Meridian hotel bar they price their drinks accordingly: 26 euro for your first drink (ANY drink- fruit juice, water, whiskey, wine) and 12 euro for each subsequent drink. Imagine our surprise, we come back from a great dinner, it is sub-zero outside (it snowed on our way out of town, it was freezing) and we decided- hey, let's have a few at the hotel bar before going to bed... only to sit down and glance at the menu and be suitably SHOCKED by the prospect of paying 75 euro for 2 rounds. Give me a friggin break. Thankfully we looked- often at a hotel bar we'll just order a couple glasses of wine or beer and let that be. We retired early to watch some french TV and marvel at the audacity of a sub-par hotel bar for charging such prices. Oh, and BTW- the bar was pretty packed. Ridiculous. Am I a cheapo? Must be.

Enough bitching though- I'll put some pics up and show you what we saw, it was a great little getaway on our favorite mode of transportation- the Eurostar.

In the last couple weeks we also saw Dave & Ariel come and go and had a little overnight jaunt to the English countryside and saw the Cotswolds. Let me just say that we really enjoyed having the Gutierrez's visit- any friend from home is always a nice welcome break from the norm. Additionally, the Cotswolds and countryside is just gorgeous. We rented a car and JP drove us all around to various little villages and we stopped in pubs along the way. Very typical too- good food, fireplaces, friendly people. We stayed at a cute little inn over a pub/restaurant called The Kings Head http://thekingsheadinn.net/ and enjoyed a great dinner and played cards and drank with some locals. I highly recommend a trip out there, I would have liked to stay one more night . Of all the trips we've taken, it ranks high up there as one of the highlights.

As all of our US friends are getting ready for Thanksgiving- we expats are preparing for a feast of our own. We will be cooking a big dinner next Saturday to celebrate the best holiday of the year. No friends, we don't get Thanksgiving off here in England (and yes, we are asked that question from our friends and family) but we'll make up for it suitably with a turkey bowl and 20 expats gathering in a small flat to give thanks, eat turkey and drink beer.

Finally, the final immediate family member left in our small circle is making her way across the pond- Mandi lands on Tuesday! I'm beside myself in anticipation- both because we don't get to spend a lot of one on one time with Mandi, and also because I gave her a list of things to bring me the size of a short blog posting (I don't know how to do short blog postings, sorry!). She also knows how to cook a turkey, which is better than the other 19 of us Americans who are eating together next Sat. night. On the agenda for Mandi is the normal guest circuit along with a day trip on Friday to somewhere close and also the Jack the Ripper tour which we still haven't done and are looking forward to. With each of our guests we try to plan /organize something unique- whether it be oysters or a side trip or a play, with Mandi it is Jack the Ripper.

Well, since JP just asked me in his exasperated way- "are you still doing your blog posting??" I'll leave it here. As November is almost over, I must admit that I'm getting extremely anxious/excited/sad/happy about the coming 4-5 months. I can't believe our time here is almost over. I am just not ready to go home at the same time as being ready to get back to the sun and our friends/family. How can that be? I'll leave you all (my remaining 4 readers) with that thought.

Until next time, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I'm grateful for so much- mostly for those of you who read this to the end. :)

So much to say!

Let me recap the last month:

• More guests- My mom came to visit and we had a blast. My very independent and resourceful mom has lived her whole life with a car and in a suburb. I was very impressed with how quickly she got over her jet lag and took to the streets to enjoy the city like a local. We gave her an oyster card (travel card) and a map and she took to the buses and tube like a native. Not only that, she tried Indian, Turkish and pub food and even cooked JP and I some home cooked meals. It was sad to watch her go- reminding us of how far our loved ones really are.
• Dubin- I had to head over to Dublin for a work meeting and my very fun manager suggested heading out a day earlier to check out the city since I had never been there. I enjoyed the day I spent around town- but if you are planning an Ireland trip- don't spend too much time in Dublin- get out of town to see the gorgeous countryside.
• Weather- Somehow we were cruising through October enjoying a proper autumn- leaves changing, crisp weather and sun. Suddenly last week it turned freezing. I'm hearing about all these heat waves at home and here it is snowing in London (first time in 34 years!) and just wintery. It has improved a bit from the "cold snap" that we had last week- but it is definitely time to pull out the seaters ("jumpers") and scarves.
• Berlin- highlight of this month, other than my mom's visit of course- was our weekend break to Berlin. We went over with a bunch of expats and really enjoyed the city. The history and stories behind the buildings and walls was alone worth the trip. We spent all day Saturday touring around on our own seeing the bigger sites, and then after a big night out on Saturday we took a walking tour on Sunday of the Third Reich. It was sobering and interesting to learn about the events in such recent history. The city is quite cosmopolition and didn't feel like Germany necessarily- it is nothing like Munich. We had sushi and mexican food- to give you an idea of whats on offer there! I recommend the city and would go again. I put our pics on the shutterfly site- the link is on the left hand corner of the page.
• There ARE nice people in London! As a quick side story- I left my cell phone on the tube last night on accident. Now, let me say that I have already lost one phone in London- and I don't consider myself an irresponsible person. Anyways, so, frantically searching for my phone and resolved that I lost it for good, I went along to dinner and drinks with friends. Then, at a bar- JP looks at me and says "You just called me!" We walked outside and this very nice man picked up my phone and called us and we made arrangments to pick it up. He was extremely nice and at first refused my gift of chocolate saying it really wasn't a big thing. To me though- it showed me that there really are nice people in London! Whoda Thunk??
• Proper tea at an English person's home! A little over a year ago before we came out to London we got an immersion lesson from a nice English lady who told us that we could consider ourselves as immersed here when we are invited over to another English person's home for tea. Now, until this point we have had plenty of happy hours and outings with our non-American friends- but have yet to get that nod.... until recently. Today we headed up to Muswell Hill (great area of North London!) to have tea with some friends. It ended up being very much any other thing we would do with our friends- some apps and sweets to munch on, wine and tea to drink, good conversation with some friends. However, we just need to say- we are now officially immersed. Not only that- the topic that we spent the most time on was the election. It is amazing how living outside the US makes you realize how important our elections are outside of the country. People knew just as much about the election and candidates as we did- some of them even more! Incredible.

Looking to the future:

I think JP has mentioned in his own blog- but something I haven't shared yet officially is that we have purchased a new home to move into when we go back to OC next spring. It is being built and is a little townhome in Aliso Viejo, a short 4 miles from the beach. We are super excited and have added that to the list of things to look forward to when we move back.

Just yesterday we booked our trip home to the US... via Southeast Asia!! We will be leaving on April 1 and spending three weeks exploring Thailand (specifically Bangkok, Ko Samui and Chiang Mai) Cambodia (specifically Siem Riep to see Ankor Wat) and Vietnam (south Vietnam- in Ho Chi Mihn or Saigon). While many consider our secondment to London as the "pre-baby, pre-grown up" detour, I very much consider this trip to be the big one before we finally settle down.

This week we are welcoming Dave & Ariel to London and looking forward to a side trip to the Cotswolds and a trip on our guest circuit. We are super excited to see them.

I'll make it a habit to update this more regularly to avoid such excess information next time! I got a little lazy and busy with guests and such - but no excuse to drop in and update on all our antics!