Last days

People say a lot of different things. They speak a lot of different languages. They act in a lot of different ways. But somehow, we all can relate to one another. There is some unknown force that breaks down all the differences and barriers that make us unique to become similar and relatable to those we don't know.
Heading to the Tate Museum in London pushed me into this realization. While watching a live art performance, a young Frenchman approached me and started telling me about his father. His story was quite relatable; my dad also has a heart that never quits, who has the willpower of a hundred oxen. Another woman came to me soon after and told me about her cycling years and her 18 year old daughter. Each story had something I could relate to. I encountered something like this before, but I didn't know what to call it. Thank you Tate Mesuem for making me a deeper thinker🙌
The rest of that day was a mash of heat, Shakespeare, and lots n lots of people. The stagnant weather basically drove mom and I crazy, both of us were ready to kill each other. Carrying a bunch of luggage didn't help either. But the following day we caught a ride to Cambridge and went punting. Man oh man, it was hotter than Hades. With the occasional cow mooing in the picnic area between what seemed like thousands of Asians who didn't know how to punt, it was a good day.
The real shocker was what happened on Friday night. Waiting hours and hours for the Olympics to start was the highlight of the day! No. Midgin coming back to England two days after we left Norway?! Yes!! I thought I was literally never going to see her again. We all went bowling the next day (with LOTS of difficulty) and had Indian curry for Michelle's birthday. Big mistake. Too much spicy, not enough ginger.
Today's the last day, I'm sad, but happy; bittersweet. I'm going to miss this place, but hey! I still have to head to Chicago for another fun filled two weeks:)

Norway in a nutshell

Currently alive, looking forward to snuggling with my pillow, and somewhat happy I'm not traveling too much in the next 3 days. Flying over Norway was gorgeous. All I could see from my grimey window were the forests. Eveywhere. But once off the plane and onto the bus heading to Oslo, I realized my precious iPhone had a "No Service" icon. Mistake number 1. Mom freaked out; her's was deciding not to work either. So, twitching on the bus, I finally mustered up the courage to ask someone to use their phone (thank God they spoke English) so we could call Midgin. Once I recieved my orders, I calmed down a steaming Myriam who still could not believe we actually left the airport without calling Midgin and had to use someone else's phone to call her! Mistake number 2. Finally we made it to Oppegård, a small village twenty minutes outside of Oslo. We found out that we had to carry three bottles of wine, a backpack full of junk, and a suitcase packed to the rim UP to Midgin's place. Mistake number 3. The long uphill walk was well worth it though, because she has a spectacular view of the forest and open area in her backyard with wine and dinner waiting.You can see how happy we were be there ;)
I met up with my amazingly sweet friend Malin who I met last year when she did a foregin exchange program at SCHS. We went to dinner to meet our new friend Camila's family who has two sons. I was not sure what to expect, since the woman is a biological engineer and her husband is also an engineer. As soon as I walked around the porch and looked through the window, I saw an attractive, tall, twenty year old with blond hair and bright blue eyes. We had loads in common. Same music, same movies, same intrests, same humor. On top of it all he was brillant! And I just couldn't help keeping a stupid-love-struck grin on my face the entire night and well throughout the next day. But of course, the fool I am did nothing about it, said nothing about it, and never saw him again. And I'm sad about that.
Days were packed in Norway, using every possible moment to do something. All day. The sun doesn't go down until 12 then rises again at 3:30 am. They were long days consiting of;
A naked man
Pouring rain/soaking wet clothes
Vikings
More rain
Hedgehogs
An ice bar (they dress you up in special clothes)
Super sunny days
Lyst
Amazing food
Bruce Sprigsteen
Slugs. Huge slugs.
Seasides
Breaking Mom's toe
Aquatics
Midgin falling and nearly breaking her arm
Christmas stores
Running to catch busses and trains
Walking up hills
Supposed Swedish parties
Muttering "takk" after asking for directions
Pretending I'm 15
and wine

I love Norway. I'm going back there one day. The country is very expensive, but then again, it provides for its people. The people are good looking. Even the bad looking people are good looking.

Work, work, and more work

Yesterday and today have been two of the most "patience is a viture" kind of days. But also, they have been "good things come to those who wait" days.
After long trips to Marks and Spencer for food, without looking at any clothing (which I am in desprately need of), to plowing out every single teeny tiny weed in every teeny tiny crack in the front AND backyard AND side yard, to vaccuming the entire house, only to find its floors dirty ten minutes after finishing, I finally got something I wanted. Finishing The Alchemist was the high point of yesterday. The story about finding and reaching your destiny was eye opening and gave me the confidence to talk to one of the cutest guys I've seen thus far. He's french. I had butterflies. I'm running back to tourist information as soon as I land back in the UK next Wednesday. He'll teach me how to say OUI OUI! And, Mom gave in to buying me Fifty Shades Darker. Hehe, what did she expect me to do on the plane without anything good to read? Man oh man, I cannot wait to see what other good things I recieve in the next few days for my good manners!
Tomorrow we head off to Norway to visit cousin Miriam. Thank the lord almighty! I do not have a clue as to what I would do for the rest of the week. We haven't even packed our carry on (the only luggage we are bringing) so time to start at 9:45 pm just as the sun sets. Hopefully Mom finally learns on this excursion that you can't bring three outfits to last seven days. Til neste gang!

Countrysides, Quaysides, and Footpaths

We headed back to London to wrap up our last tour and to meet my second cousin Miriam. Instead of bringing a change of clothes (to my dismay), Mom and I brought one outfit to last us two days in the city. While George was visiting. I did not let him stop me from enjoying my time in the city.
We rode the tubes to the footpaths in Hyde Park and saw the vast expanse of green along with some of Yoko Ono's art gallery. After putting my wish on Ono's tree, Mom gushed that we MUST go to Harrod's and start shopping. What I didn't realize was that Harrod's was full of Gucci. Prada. Luis Vutton. On six different floors, along with other ridiculous overpriced foregin names. Once we finished our cheapest shopping spree ever (we bought zilch!) we headed over to one of the nicest places called Covet Garden to meet Miriam and have an italiano dinnero. The next day, Mom and I jumped on a bus to take a tour of historic and modern London. The tour guide was better from the first in a few ways; this one kept me awake, looked like an older version of Adam Redding Kaufman, and had a Mary Poppins umbrella!

Every girl dreams of being a Princess. The closest I got to being the most important girl in the world was at Yoko Ono's chess board...but then again, I never had that dream until I saw the Crown Jewls. H O L Y Q U E E N! One hundred fifty (atleast) carat diamonds, emeralds, rubys, you name it, the crown's have it. Tucked away behind steel doors, they reside in the London Tower that also has a splitting (literally) torture chamber. Oh yeah, don't forget the bearskinned army guards standing infront of all the doors. It was a good day until England's rail system failed us. Twice. Once, we were, as my Mom described it, "packed like sardines" in the tubes, and the next delayed a full hour at a random train station outside waiting for another to pick us up to head back to Ipswich in the freezing cold. I was wearing a skirt.

Anywho, we spent the rest of the week in the countryside. We met up with Miriam's friend only to introduce ourseleves as Aunt Miriam, Miriam, Myriam, and Isabel. Similar? Nah. The countryside is absolutely gorgeous, and I want to live there. Cottages are everywhere you look, in all different shapes and sizes. The three Ms and I walked along a huge estate that consisted of a giant brick tower, enormous trees, and hundreds of deer. Yep, deer. Antlers. Bambi. Staggs. Mom, of course, was frightened one was going to ram us, until she realized that they run away from humans, not to them.

That was one of the many trips we did during the week to the countryside, along with trips from the seaside to the quayside. Do you know how to pronounce quay? KEY. Do you know how to pronounce queue? CUE. Theres two fun facts for the day!

Hot or cold?

Since leaving Sam's, I've been to the Lady's Castle in Leeds, seen the white cliffs of Calasis of France from Dover, explored downtown Canterbury, and experienced the wonderfully wicked Wicked play/msuical.
I never thought that I would enjoy musicals or plays but seeing the skilled (and hot) actors and actresses opened my eyes to the exciting world of fairtales that are created before my eyes. I also never thought that I would be more scared in my life walking five blocks back to our scary hotel in London past 10 pm AFTER seeing the wicked show. Mom, gripping to my arm, nervously looking left and right for any sign of strange people, scolding me on and on about keeping the dirty peanut butter knife to protect myself in situations like these. I was determined to be the one who kept her cool so we could actually make it back okay WITHOUT getting lost. And we did. With no creepiness, thank God.
The next day, we woke up too early to a rainy morning after a day of walking miles and miles around London only to continue walking more throughout the day. Having an old man full of history was cool, but not cool enough to keep me from passing out on the bus every time we got back on it. Bob bob bob was what my head did until I realized I could use my backpack as a pillow (hallelujah!). The white cliffs of Dover and Canterbury were the best part of the day, aside from getting on the train to head back to Aunt Miriam's.

Now that we're safe at home, we've eaten enough food to last two days. In one. Aunt Miriam keeps us nice and full. I love it here, her quaint little house, with cats. Cats. Big cats. Small cats. Lots of cats. Cats that go out in hot weather, like yesterday, and cats that go outside in pouring rain, like today. Hot and cold? I choose hot. Thats when all the hot guys come outside here, as I saw yesterday at the exchanging of the torch in downtown Ipswich. Who knew!

Reminiscing & Rest

So it is my first week in the UK. I absolutely adore it.

Last Thursday I met up with my friend Sam, from Australia, and have been staying with her for the past five days. She is wonderfully fantastic, and such a sweet girl. Her wide, oval eyes are gorgeous with long curly eyelashes. She hooked me up with a weekend pass to Hop Farm Festival in Paddock Wood through the company she is interning for. Yippe!

The festival itself was loads of fun. I mean, there was hot english and irish and whatever men walking around left and right. Damn they are sexy! Our weekend consisted of skippy peanut butter, squished bread, Cadbury chocolate, fruit, and cheap wine. Sleeping was on the suprisingly hard ground of the farm for the first night, and passing ouicon day clothes and dirty boots on the second. Oh and don't forget the tedious task of snapping wristbands on the various arms of the world. The people we were working with were awesome. They joked and teased us but were undoubtedly kind and generous. They're people I'll never forget.

Saturday night has been the highlight of my trip thus far. After seeing Bob Dylan and some random band I had never heard of that turned out to be very good, Sam, Rachel, Julian and myself went to our campsite and popped out the alcohol. We ended up meeting with a few others who volunteered for the weekend as well and went to their camp which was very far from ours. Once there, my new friends popped out their guitar & ukele, harmonica, and blue grass thing. As they played, a mysterious man with black hair, a black top hat, and black clothing approached us and asked if him and his friend could play for us. We handed them over and listened to him croon tunes to us for about an hour. I was entranced by his voice and the setting; a dark night with clear sky's showing the radiant burning stars with the ground lit by an almost full moon. After taking a long swig of my beer, the man played a few more sing a longs, then disappeared. After their departure, a very upset neighbor kicked us out of the camp area so we excitedly left hoping to find somewhere to dance and enjoy the rest of the morning. We stumbled (literally) upon another guitar circle and sang along to "Blackbird." T'was an amazing night.

Writing that essay has made me dreadfully weary and now I am in need of a nap. I think the English have already improved my vocabulary with their intellectual minds. Until next time then, cheers.