Welcome Back to Village Life

I am home. Back in England, back in Orston. When I arrived it was raining, unsurprisingly, but there was so much rain that my village actually flooded! I closed my eyes and tried to remember what the Californian sun felt like!

It is weird being back. I am so excited to see all my friends and family but trying to fit back into this life is going to take some time I think. There was a moment when I was standing in my bedroom, trying to unpack (a task that took me way longer than it should!) and I was just looking around unable to remember where my stuff went! Other habits came back straight away like having to yank the bathroom door really hard to get out as it has a tendency to lock you in. Driving has been also been interesting; definitely turned the wrong side of a bollard and continued to drive in the wrong lane for a while! Oh well, quiet village lanes mean this wasn't too dangerous!

My last few days in Seattle were great. I got to spend some time on my brother-in-law's parent's boat which they had moored up in the Puget Sound for 4th July. We played Bananagrams and ate cream teas randomly! Also ate gorgeous clam chowder in Pike Place Market! 

My year abroad was absolutely amazing. I am so happy that I got to experience life in another country, meet some great new friends, see such beautiful places, and try things that I never would have done otherwise! I have been all over the country from Seattle to LA to Nashville, and that barely even scratches the surface of America. Now that I am home, people are asking me what my favourite thing was, and it is so hard to narrow down. I would say that it is between the white water rafting, and  just the general lifestyle; the outdoors, relaxed, care-free, sunny! It sounds so cliche to say it but America does feel like the land of opportunity and freedom. The sky feels higher there which I know is not possible but somehow...it just does. I have said for a long time now that I want to live in America and this year was either going to make or break that idea. It definitely made it! I do now appreciate how hard it is to leave everyone and it was really hard for the first few months, and when you were feeling down, but you do create a new life for yourself. I am going to live there one day, I just have to make sure I am rich enough to come back often! 

Oh and during the year I was trying to see all the different license plates. Out of 50 states, I saw 44. But I mean, who is going to have driven from Delaware all the way to Santa Cruz? There is also only like 50 people in the entire state anyway.
Thanks for sticking with me and reading this blog for the past year! I have loved writing it and am now going to print it out and make it into a scrapbook (well, that is the plan anyway!). I also need to find something to do on Sundays now that this is done with!

Preparing For A Shock

Since my last post I have flown to Seattle, drove to Portland, drove to Skamania Lodge, back to Portland, and then finally back up to Seattle! At one point I had been in four states in a 48 hour period. Phew. I am enjoying pretty much doing nothing in Seattle with my sister and brother-in-law!

Last weekend I was at Skamania Lodge, which is a beautiful lodge on the Columbia River Gorge on the border of Washington and Oregon. My brother-in-law's family have a reunion there once a year and this was my first time going. Again, another beautiful place. Trees, the river, the lodge with all it's wooden features, sculptures and big stone fireplaces. It was a shame that the weather wasn't great. Rain, rain, a bit of sun, then some more rain. It didn't matter too much though. There was a lot to do inside like swimming, relaxing in the hot tub, going to the gym, and with 20 other people in your group, always someone to talk to or play board games with! We all spent a lot of time in the indoor pool; at one point we had pretty much taken it over with the majority of our party playing piggy in the middle and of course, having competitions like who can travel the furthest on a single breath. Why is it that when families get together, there is always some level of competition? Not that I mind of course! We all know how competitive I can get. We did introduce the newest member of the family to swimming. Now this cute 2 month old will surely be a great swimmer when she get's older. She was already kicking her little legs and blowing bubbles in her adorable pink swimsuit!

The first night we were there, after spending the afternoon in the pool, we all gorged ourselves at the dinner buffet. In fact, I am reluctant to use the word 'buffet'. It makes it sound like it was just one big table with cocktail sausages an potato salad. No, this does not describe it well enough. Perhaps the words 'culinary experience' would be more appropriate. There was everything you could possibly want from all kinds of hand carved meats, sushi, pastas, fresh fish, I could go on and on.  We won't even touch the dessert table. Buffet's are dangerous. Really, really dangerous. It is not often that you find yourself walking out thinking "I only had four plates worth, it could have been worse"! I'm glad we spent a lot of time in the pool and the gym! Oh my word the smoked salmon was to die for. Sunday brunch was the same type of thing, and my brother-in-law summed it up perfectly when, at the end of the meal, pushing his plate away, he said "You know you have overdone the buffet when you dunk your last piece of french toast into the creme brulee!" The following evening was thankfully just the average three course meal. This came after photo-shoot time outside with a whole array of different combinations of people; "Ok now the sisters, now the brother with mom, now grandma you jump in and mom you jump out, now just those with dark hair, smile! Now James Bond style". There was no professional photographer, just members of the family who had been coordinating this for the past ten years.

Another great activity that we took part in was the Bird's of Prey talk and exhibit. We saw the end of the show that took place just outside the lodge on the lawn, on the Friday evening, but when we came to watch it on the Saturday, it had been moved to inside the lobby which was a much more cozy setting. I have never been so close to a giant Bald Eagle who was happily decapitating a chick! The photos are of the same birds just on the Friday showing.

Came back to Seattle on the Sunday night and haven't done much since! Well, I got my nails done, something I have been wanting to do for ages after forcing myself to leave them alone. Now I feel all girly! The bro-in-law and I did check out the Experience Music Project which is this giant museum downtown where they have all these cool exhibits about Nirvana, the music in horror movies, and sound labs where you can play all these different instruments. You should have heard us rapping in the vocal booth! Actually, i'm glad you didn't. I'll stick to my piano. Speaking of which, that is one of the first things I am going to do when I get home on Thursday. I can't believe I only have a few days left. I love Seattle, and I love being with my family here, but now that I have left Santa Cruz and California, I feel like I am in a weird limbo. Everyone has been telling me how much of a shock it will be going back home and i'm not sure how to prepare for that. Coming back from a three week holiday to America get's me all confused with the cars on the other side of the road, and the money etc! It feels weird that I will be seeing my friends and family in just a few days, and this sounds strange, but I feel nervous about it! Oh of course I am excited too, I just know it will be strange to begin with. I think I am going to open with "LOOK AT MY TAN!" Or what is left of it...damn Seattle and the rain. It is starting to fade. Is it weird to take pictures of your own back as evidence? That may just get awkward.

I will leave you with both the notion that this is the last post that I will make while in America. I want to do another one when I am at home so I doubt this is the last! I am also mentally preparing myself for the epic journey from here to home, via Iceland of course.
 Finally, my bro-in-law and sus gafas de sol. Sadly he did not have them on while we were rapping.

2012 and we are all still here....awkeward!

and a Happy New Year to all of you! Many thought we were not going to make it past midnight of the 1st as the apocalypse was supposedly upon us...apparently not. So I guess this means we can all go about our normal lives until next December which I believe is now the more up to date predicted date of the annihilation of the world? A few more blog posts to go until then so no need to panic;)

I am now back in Santa Cruz after hitching another ride with a randomer, something I said I wasn't going to do again but when faced with lugging 2 suitcases on a train, a tram and 2 buses, personal safety seems to be pushed into the back of your mind. This time it was a woman who turned out to be lovely and she gave rides to 2 other UCSC students so we all had a nice chat on the way from the airport to Santa Cruz. One of the guys would not shut up about accounting, the financial crisis, his job offer in a big firm, and being a downright arrogant prick the whole way, saying patronising things to our driver like "Wow Tammy, that is just so awesome that you managed to keep a job and family going through 2 hard financial times in the Silicon Valley". I think the car let out a huge sigh of relief when he was dropped off.

I feel almost jet lagged at the moment, even though I have not crossed over into a different timezone. I think it is seasonal jet lag. Taking off from cold, rainy, gloomy Seattle and arriving 2 hours later in sun drenched, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky California where the temperature was 18 degrees (65 for my American readers) really messed with my system! I am not complaining, don't get me wrong, but there is something very confusing about it being January 8th and it is not beyond the realm of reason to be wearing shorts!

Since my last post more family things have been going on; restaurants, walks, endless netflix watching etc etc. We did all travel down to Portland for my brother-in-law's sisters wedding (if you follow that) which was nice. It was held at the Kennedy School (a hotel made from a converted school) which is where we all stayed for my sisters wedding 4 years ago! It is such a great place where the bars are named 'The Detention Room' and 'The Boiler Room' and all the bedrooms have a different theme and a massive blackboard along one wall which you can write on in chalk. My brother and I had the Thumbalina room:) The wedding itself was beautiful and we all ended up getting up to dance at the end. I think my brother and brother-in-law were waiting for this moment.

Apart from that, not much else has really happened. I was ill over New Year so spent the night in front of the TV, that was after attaching wire coat hangers to my sister's head so she can be Pip pi-longstocking. It was a lovely Christmas, nice and relaxing and lots of family time. I definitely did not want to leave! Though after sleeping in the lounge on a rather thin futon mattress thing for 3 weeks, I jumped into my bed at UCSC and slept like a baby for 11hours. I will miss being able to do that when classes start. Oh well, roll on 8.45am tomorrow morning when I have to be at the pool. Joy.

Feliz Navidad!

The 'Feliz Navidad' song has been stuck in my head for the best part of 2 weeks now. I had never heard it until this year which may be why my subconscious has been paying special attention to it. Let's face it, the words to 'Last Christmas' or 'Jingle Bells' are part of our genetic make-up and require little brain cell power to listen to. This new song, for starters, is half in Spanish which caught my attention, coupled with a catchy, bouncy, mexican-esque tune, you have yourself a winning Christmas song. I even wake up with the chorus on a loop, going round, and round, and round...."Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad, I wanna wish you a Mmerryy Christmas". Therefore it seemed like an appropriate title for this blog post. Ok on to the more interesting stuff.

Spending time with the family, when you thought it would be a year again until you saw them, has been really nice. Our days have been spent going to coffee shops and restaurants, walking (when my knee lets me), Christmas cookie baking, the occasional gym session and a lot of Christmas shopping! The nights are passed with competitive games of Stop the Bus, Apples to Apples and our personal favourite, Bananagrams (think a better version of scrabble), where not a night goes past without the excited shouts of "BANANAS" and "PEEL" and the desperate cries of "No, i'm telling you 'shibzing' is a word!" My brother-in-laws parents came up from Portland to visit for a couple of days and brought with them a game that incorporated a hilarious round of charades...

In my mind if you don't do a full on proper Christmas, there is no point. Guess who started the petition for a real Christmas tree and saw the 4 'kids' going to a couple of different  stalls around town to pick the best one, tie it to the roof of the car and drive ssllloowwwlly home? One thing that I did let slide was the fact that we didn't have a fairy for the tree, but I was quite taken with our gnome. He sat on our tiny, fake tree, while the rocking horse sat on the main event.

On Christmas eve a few of us went on the West Seattle Christmas Light tour which involved a map with the locations of people houses who had taken my idea of a big Christmas to the extreme, a car, a camera, and in some cases sunglasses to protect the eyes from a visual onslaught. The first few got the response of "Look a life-size santa riding a polar bear, aww that's nice", and one flashing light display on a house that instructed you to tune your car radio to a specific station and the lights flashed along in time to the music. However one in particular quite literally outshone all the others combined! There were so many people clustered around it, taking photos, pointing and 'wowing' at various parts of the creation, that you couldn't miss it. The house glowed. I wouldn't be surprised if you could see it from space. I overheard the son of the owner of the house saying it took 6 people over 100 hours to set it all up. Again, feeling more and more like my dad, the only question I wanted to ask was "How much is your electricity bill?!" This tour only served to remind me that I am in America.  The same display in England would have been scoffed at, grumbled at, maybe the local council would have received a few complaints about light pollution or something. But here was a family just embracing the Christmas spirit (maybe a bit too excessively) for others to enjoy.

Christmas day brought lots of shredded wrapping paper and lots of food as one might expect. I videoed my mums reaction as she opened up her kindle and debated putting it on here. I won't but there were a few tears! One of my favourite gifts was from my aunty, who had knitted me a little killer whale! I thought it was so sweet! A lot of clothes were received by the boys and we all got pictures of them modelling them. It was a chance to show their feminine side. Or their Hugo Boss catalog posing side. All in all, a great Christmas:)

I have another 10 days until I fly back to California and in that time we have a wedding and New Year's. There should be some work being done at some point. But i'll wait until 2012 I think!

From the richest, to the tastiest, to the happiest places on earth

I have been putting off writing this post as so much has happened since I last updated!
I'm not sure whether to write pages and pages, because I probably could, or just quickly summarise the events...perhaps a bit of both.

Hardcore studying coupled with illness made finals week anything but fun. I was ready to leave by the time the week was over, I love Santa Cruz, but I needed a break! Before flying to my sister and brother-in-law's home in Seattle, I flew down to Orange County to stay with a friend. First I should describe my journey from UCSC to the airport. Looking back on it, I am annoyed with myself for doing it this way. There is a website called 'Zimride' where you post the journey you want to take (in my case UCSC to San Jose airport on Dec 10th) and anyone driving that way will post how many seats they have in their car and how much they want you to pay. I could've taken a number of buses to get to the airport but with 2 suitcases and not feeling 100% I thought I would do it this way. I found a guy who was going past the airport and onto Oakland so I 'booked a seat' in his car. I spoke to him on the phone and he sounded a little weird but I had seen his facebook page and he seemed better than some other options. I barely slept that night because I was worrying he was going to be a rapist of murderer! He turned up in an old beaten up, smelly, messy car with a bag of weed on the dashboard. After a bit of struggle getting my suitcases into his car amongst the duvets, walking boots and other random items, and against my better judgement, I got into his car. I spent the whole journey completely on edge. He was giving me his life story and telling me how his sister is a manic depressive, his mum is ill etc, I nodded and awwed in the right places. When he told me he was actually not going to Oakland as he never told his mum he was going to visit and just going to drop me off and turn back that is when I started to panic! I was starting to feel like I was about to live a real life episode of CSI. It all turned out fine though. It is amazing how your mind will work overtime! I am well aware that I shouldn't have gotten in the car if I didn't feel comfortable. Next time I won't!

I had a great 5 days in the OC! My friend lives in a really nice gated community with views over Irvine. On the first day we went down to Crystal Cove and Laguna Beach. Laguna Beach was not how I imagined it at all. I thought it was going to be a really big area, really touristy and a bit scabby to be honest. It was actually pretty small, really cute with little boutiques and art galleries, and not scabby at all:) We also went to a restaurant called 'The Boiling Crab' where they give you bibs, you order seafood by the lb and it is brought to you in a bag with a sauce and you just sit there and dig in with your hands! It was delicious!

LA was just a whirlwind. We managed to fit in A LOT! It is about an hour drive from my friends house in Irvine. We hit Rodeo Drive first and gawked at all the expensive, posh shops that we couldn't even afford to breathe the air in! I mean, a dress made exclusively of diamonds, really? The funniest thing was that we had barely been in LA for 5 minutes when I was stopped by a woman wanting me to be a hair model! Apparently it would be the best haircut I had ever had, I politely declined after hearing it was going to take 2 hours and I thought that they would probably cut my hair like Emma Watson or something else as equally as ridiculous (don't get me wrong, she rocks short hair, but NOT me!). We also went to The Grove, a famous shopping mall, and saw Mario Lopez doing some filming!

We also hit the Walk of Fame and the Chinese theatre. It was really cool seeing all the stars on the floor and the handprints of celebs in the cement. Hugh Jackman has MASSIVE feet by the way...;) We also went up to Unviersal City Walk which is all the shops outside of Universal Studios. It got me all excited for Disneyland the following day!

Before we left we headed up to the Griffith Observatory to get the view of the whole of LA and the Hollywood sign. It was pretty dark by this time so the picture's of the sign aren't great but seeing LA all lit up was just beautiful, even if it was a bit cold!

Disneyland....I don't know what to say. I felt like a little kid. Well, almost. It made me look forward to taking my own children and seeing their faces light up when Belle glides down the street:) I had my picture taken with Woody, Mickey and Minnie and the parade and firework show was just MAGICAL! We were there for close to 13hours. 13 hours of Disney magic! I could write a whole other blog post on Disneyland and all the rides, and the food, and the experience but this I will keep to tell people:)/ I can't be bothered to type it all out! I took a few videos....

I was sad to leave the OC. I had eaten a lot of good food, including Korean food which my friends family thought was so funny that I liked! But I was really looking forward to getting up to Seattle and starting the Christmas celebrations! After a round-the-houses flight which included a trip to Las Vegas (the airport is right next to the strip so I got to see the pyramid, the hotels and the Sphinx etc), I arrived in Seattle pretty tired after a crazy week. I greet my sister at the baggage claim, she says "I have a surprise for you", I feel a tap on the shoulder, turn round and my parents are standing there! SURPRISE! I was in complete shock, i just burst into tears (of course!) and was also aware of my dad with his camera though thankfully he didn't manage to get any good photos of my face! I had been downhearted that whenever I had spoken to them they were not enthusiastic about coming out to visit at some point but it was all a lie! They had this planned for 6 weeks! My sister didn't know they were coming either! It was all my brother-in-laws doing....isn't he so sweet! After re-starting my heart, and dried my tears, we got in the car and drove home. We opened the door to the apartment and sitting there is my brother!!! He had lied to me too and my parents and my sister! He had said he wasn't coming and then turned up at the doorstep a few days before me! So it is going to be a nice family Christmas in Seattle:)

"This is no ordinary apple. It is a wishing apple"

Rain, rain, rain...reminds me of home. It has not stopped in almost 24 hours. The sound is peaceful but the gloominess is a bit depressing. I have all the lights on and it is 11.30am!

Another busy week or work; it's never ending. Well there is an end in sight...18 days and counting until my final exam and then off to LA and then Seattle:D I can't wait to see my sister and brother-in-law. I will miss the cosy, english village Christmas but I am excited to spend the holidays in snowy Seattle even if it is going to be fffrreeezzzziinnnngggg. I have also spent quite a bit of time on the Disneyland website in preparation for my visit to SoCal! I feel like a little kid who can't wait to hug Mickey Mouse and all his friends! Oh and points to whoever gets the reference from this blog title;)

Speaking of Disney, I have chosen my modules for next quarter. After having such stressful, deep classes this quarter I have decided to take a more laid back approach to my American academic life. Ready for it? My modules include: Spanish 3 (ok so still stressful but I want to be able to at least say a sentence in Spanish by the time I return!), TV and the Nation (looking at the role of TV and broadcasting in shaping America since WW2) aaannnnddd WALT DISNEY! Yes, I will spending 4 hours a week analysing Disney and his movies and the franchise! At first I felt guilty for signing up for this class, I am constantly reminded how much I am spending on my degree but when else will I ever be able to learn this?! Not in Warwick that is for sure! So I am taking full advantage of the sheer range of classes they offer. There are some PE classes slipped into my schedule as well, I have to have some motivation for working off the Thanksgiving pies and the Christmas stuffing!

Went 'downtown' (yes I know there will be certain people laughing at this word) a few nights ago to celebrate a friends birthday. The way she phrased the invitation to me was "you wanna coming dancing? We are going to this club called Motive". I was taken a back by the word 'dancing'. I took it to mean 'clubbing'. So there I was getting ready as I would at home, downing the wine in preparation, but once down there realised she did actually mean dancing. We got into the club, expected to go straight to the bar, but no, we just went and danced. For ages. With no alcohol. Everyone was completley sober! This is not something I was used to! I think in the space of 3 hours, around 4 alcoholic drinks were consumed out of a group of 8! At 2am they even got in their cars and DROVE HOME! From a night out! I have to admit, it was a really really good night once I had got over the initial awkward, uncomfortableness of it all. Why is it that the Brits need to be completely wasted to do anything? It seems in America that when you go to house parties, that is the place to get smashed, but when you go out to clubs it is more just to dance. At least that has been my experience of it all. Will have to wait and see!

Cake has also featured prominently this week. A friend brought over the nicest banana loaf I have ever had ever, a chocolate cake was made a few nights ago, and then yesterday my roommate came back from picking around 100 apples to make apple crisp. Seriously, the apartment is covered in Apples! I can't believe it is thanksgiving on Thursday! I'm supposed to be saving myself for then! But how can you resist when the whole place smells of sweet, delicious desserts? Perhaps I need to face the rain and go to the gym. Actually that isn't even a perhaps it is an I WILL. Oh wait, is that another apple crisp I see?