Dear World,

I know I still owe you all a Spain recap and a France recap as well as an account of my hellish trip home and J's impending return back stateside and I promise I'll get to all of that. Life's just been hectic and I'm on the strangest sleep schedule.

Anyway, what I intended to say was that, after those recaps, this blog will be done. I will be back home and not abroad which means that an Ally Abroad is no longer relevant. It'll still be up but for the remainder of my college career (and maybe law school? fingers crossed), posts can be found here: Ally Escapades

Tell your friends :]

Oh, The Snow.

The snow that's been attacking London for the past few days caused a massive meltdown in Heathrow, meaning that flights were disrupted beyond belief. And now, while I'm going home tomorrow at 11:40 am, it will be a 10 1/2 hour flight that I am taking alone for poor J is stuck here until December 26th. DECEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH. That means Christmas. In London. Alone :[ I want nothing more than to stay here with him but if I were to make that call now, chances are I wouldn't get on a flight till the 28th or later.

Why you may ask? Well, all the flights that have been cancelled these past few days have passengers. And these passengers have now been put on every available seat from here till after Christmas. It makes me sad to even think about, but hopefully, these next six days go by fast. For J's sake.

On a brighter note,

Merry Christmas :]

The End.

Going to bed tonight will be weird. I'll lay my head on the pillow and nestle under the blanket like always but when I wake up, my flat, for all intents and purposes, will be empty. There's no chance of running into someone when I'm making my morning toast or if having someone to talk to over lunch. No meetings in the hallway to plan our night or wine time and storytelling in the kitchen. There won't be people over and we won't stay up until obscene hours of the night watching old, British TV shows. While everyone else can seek solace in the fact that they'll be back and up to their old shenanigans in a few weeks, I hold on to every moment knowing that this is it for me. Tonight's fried chicken is my last Mile End fried chicken. No more Drapers. No more flatmates, who I've come to know and love.

Everyone but J and I it would seem, leave tomorrow or early Sunday morning and will spend tomorrow packing. I would rather have left when everyone else did, I think. Being alone these last few days is going to make me sad. Still, it can't be sadder than closing my door tonight, knowing that this will be the last time I fall asleep in the company of these great people. Knowing that the people just two steps across the hall will be an almost unbelievable 5000+ miles in a few days. Knowing that there is always that possibility that we'll never be able to see each other again.

As I try to sleep tonight, I'll try to remember what it is that Lewis Carroll once said: "There are better things ahead than any we leave behind." Mr. Carroll, I'm putting my faith with you on this one. Don't let me down.

The End Is Near

Only one essay, a trip to Winter Wonderland, and an End of Term Party stand between now and the flatmates leaving. Add one trip to Covent Garden and Oxford Street and suddenly J and I are leaving. Where in the world has the time gone? Wasn't it just yesterday that I was posting a 40 day till I leave countdown on here? So many emotions but first and foremost is stress for the essay due at 4:30 tomorrow that I still haven't started. As soon as that gets done though, I'll be blogging my recap and my impending 10 1/2 hour flight. Ick.

If J and I were on a game show...

We would completely dominate. Let me break this down for you.

Objective: Get donuts.

Mission:
-J will take the Tube to a place he has no geographical knowledge of.
-I will sit at home on the computer, Google maps at the ready
-He will tell me hat he's looking at and I will find it on the map, then give him the direction to go in, based solely on sights (because London doesn't really believe in street signs).
-I will have to adjust for wrong turns and for things not on the map.
-The mission must be completed in 10 minutes as that's when the store closes.
-J's phone will run out of minutes. Communicate solely through text.
-Try to navigate him in the dark, when most of these places are closed and don't have illuminated signs.

Can we do it?

Yes. We did. It may have been incredibly stressful but I feel like we can now compete successfully on those couple game shows and maybe for a bigger prize ($$$) ;)

So Weird

I know I'm still one Spain recap behind but I'm going to go ahead and save that for another day. Today, I've realized that every time I talk to a friend from back home, it makes me a little sad. It's so weird to hear how much everything is changing and how much I'm not able to be there for. I know that my closest friends are going to be there to welcome me home and catch me on all I missed out on but for a while, I'm just going to be hopelessly behind.

I knew it would take adjusting when I first got to London but I never thought about the amount of adjusting I would have to do when I get back home, which, coincidentally, is in twelve days. That's right. Only twelve more days of these crazy adventures before I go back stateside and pick up where I left off. If that's even possible. I doubt where I left off even exists anymore.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that it'll probably be harder to adjust to going back home and realizing that everything's moved on without you. I know it'll be an adjustment that takes significantly less time than culture shock, but it'll still be a hard one nonetheless.

Has anyone else been away from home for a really long time? How long did it take you to get back into the swing of things?

Halloween

I'm a procrastinator at heart. I'm even procrastinating lunch right now. I think my problem's gotten out of hand but REGARDLESS, I'll type up a short recap of Halloween!

So the flatmates and I decided early on that we wanted to have a flat theme going on. At the very beginning, we seriously toyed with the idea of being these people:

source

But decided against it since we didn't want to spend the kind of money it would take to buy 5 of those. Then we narrowed it down to Alice in Wonderland, the Addams family or 'Hey Diddle Diddle'. I preferred the first one but it was eliminated so I went with Addams. The rest of the flat, though, was dead set on the last one. One of us was going to be a cat with a fiddle, one would be a cow, one would be the moon, and two would be the dish and the spoon. Clever? Maybe. But unfortunately, we weren't clever enough to figure out how we were going to make dish and moon costumes :(

So finally, about 2 days before Halloween, we came to a unanimous conclusion:

From left to right: Joker, Penguin, Poison Ivy & Two-Face. We even had two Batmans! And to top it all off, I'm pretty sure our costumes got more effective throughout the day because by the end of the night, people were actually legitimately frightened of J.

Can't say I really blame them, though. He is kind of a creep ;]

All in all, it was a successful Halloween. Worth every pence spent just seeing the faces of the people in the Tube.

Rome, Italy Part 2!

The third day, we forked over the money to be able to tour the Sistene Chapel & St. Peter's Basilica and, with the exception of our last meal in Italy, I think that was one of the best uses of our money. Seriously. Everything about Vatican City is gorgeous. The walk up to the Chapel was long but we managed to see a lot of things along the way. We had the most hilarious tour guide ever and she explained enough things to keep it interesting but left enough up to the imagination so that people weren't falling asleep.

I can't really use my words to explain just how beautiful and grand our walk up to the Chapel was so I'll recap real quick and then use pictures.

1. We saw a giant pine cone which represents fertility. J wouldn't let me leave until I took an embarrassing people in front of it. People were laughing. Obviously. And pointing. Highlight of my day.

2. We saw the most intense bathtubs.

3. We saw things stolen from the Egyptians.

4. Absolutely beautiful pieces of art.

5. Ceiling art that looked 3D even though it was actually completely flat.

6. THE most beautiful tapestries I've ever seen.

You would've thought that all this beauty would've desensitized me a little bit but we hadn't even gotten to the grand finale. Our tour guide (who was an art history major who studied the Sistine Chapel and because of this, was someone I was inclined to believe) told us that the best and only way of truly appreciating the Sistine was to walk with your head down to the very back and then turn around. There are two reasons for this. The first is that, if you look around as soon as you get in, you'll probably explode. There is just so much art everywhere, it's overwhelming and you'd probably miss the back of the Sistine, which is, in my opinion, just as pretty as the top. The second reason was that the panels on the ceiling were painted in an order that needs to be viewed from beginning to end. And the beginning just happens to be at the back.

So J and I held hands and avoided all the crowds to finally make it to the back. The guards kept yelling 'NO PICTURES' but I was really sly about it and managed to snap a few.

They aren't the best but I do have my shaky hand problem and I was having to be super sly about it. Something that doesn't come naturally to someone like me I'm afraid.

After that, we went and drank from some nifty fountain and went to the catacombs of the popes. I actually refrained from taking pictures there, out of respect for the dead, but it was also an incredible sight in itself. There were piles of letters and flowers by Pope John Paul II and a crowd of people quietly observing from outside the glass. Their reverence was absolutely moving. A few feet down the way (purposefully, perhaps?) was St. Peter. He had the coolest tomb but it was guarded by a few members of the Swiss Guard and about 17 panels of glass so there was no getting close to that.

Afterwards, we made our way to St. Peter's Basilica and admired the architecture and decorations there. Really, this is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world.

I know this is getting absurdly long but I promise this is almost over. I really need to learn to talk less :/ Anyway, after a nap, we went out to Piazza del Popolo which consisted of puddles and this statue also stolen from the Egyptians paired with a lovely fountain but the really great part comes after. J and I were starving (as we normally are) and he let me pick. I usually have a hit-or-miss sense when it comes to food but SOMEHOW I managed to pick the most INCREDIBLE place in the world.

This is not an understatement. I'm enclosing a picture of the name just so someone else can go and joy it. Order the roast chicken and potatoes. I don't know how anything else tastes but this will seriously change your mind. This is the pitch I gave to some people outside (from my college! So weird) who were debating whether or not to eat there. They did and I'm willing to bet that their lives were also changed.

Rome, Italy

When we finally got from Volterra to a town called Cecina, which was a journey in itself, we got on the train for the 4 hour ride to Rome. Luckily, I had a word search book to keep me entertained and there were beautiful sights sporadically. Examples? We got to watch the sunset over the ocean, we got to see giant windmills in the country side... I tried taking pictures but since the train was moving and I already have a problem taking still pictures without the flash, they didn't turn out so hot :/

When we got to Rome, we had no place to stay and no idea where we were going. We got off the train, wandered into the nearest grocery store and found some lady who told us that, if we wanted to stay somewhere in "the center of things", we should head to Plaza de Spagna.

She told us to avoid taxis and that we could take Rome's version of the Tube. SOMEHOW, we found our way there and walked around until we found some hotels. We haggeled with the people at the desk but at 4 am, not many people had their wits about them.

We were lucky and found a great place for a low price :] We rested, and then hit the ground running.

Day 1 we decided to be complete tourist and head off to the Coloseum!

J and I are both history buffs so we spent a good couple of hours there, reading all of the signs and looking at the trinkets they have picked off the floor. It really was incredible and I would suggest it to anyone with the slightest interest in Roman history. We grabbed some pizza and went back to the hotel to rest a little before making our way to the Trevi Fountain!

Being the complete girly-girl-myth-observing person that I am, I made J throw a coin into the fountain with me and I caught it all on film! There were people with Polaroid cameras wandering around offering to take pictures of us but when we politely declined, they offered to take pictures with my camera. We got a good amount of pictures there (most of which I'm making a funny face in) but they wouldn't accept any tips. I still wonder what they were doing there but I won't complain.

The next day, sadly, it rained ALL DAY. Seriously. I'm talking howling winds, flooded streets. I had only brought my Toms with me which are hardly good rain shoes so J and I set out to find some more appropriate footwear. Needless to say, we didn't find any. I spent my day in soaked jeans and even more soaked shoes. But we're troopers! And we made it out to see an assortment of different things:

We kept walking and running into beautiful things. It got to the point where I didn't even know what we were looking at anymore so I forced J into a little touristy shop and read one of the travel guides in the corner, comparing the sights with the book so I could figure out what all this greatness was about :] I'm so ridiculously cheap, I know.

Now I still have Day 3 to cover and our horror story stay in Frankfurt SO I think I'm just gonna go ahead and put that in a new post so this one doesn't become obnoxiously long.

Volterra, Italy

In the very first stages of planning, Volterra was going to be the only Italian destination J and I were going to hit. It seemed like a really good idea in theory since we were going to be within walking distance of delicious food, gelato and beautiful Tuscany. We flew into Pisa and took the train to the bus station to Volterra which took about 3 hours when all was said and done.

I got to take some pictures from the bus ride but when we got to the town, all of our attention had to switch to figuring out where our hotel was. The entire city, for those of you who don't know, is basically a life-sized maze with no distinct markings and where a lot of the streets look the same. I was kind of relying on the similarities between Spanish and Italian to get me through but as it would turn out, the languages were a lot more different than I had thought.

So, after asking about 40 different people where we were staying and getting a map from the tourist office, we walked half an hour up hill to our hotel. Which was conveniently located around nothing. There were metal grates on the windows and, since we didn't want to try to find our way back to the city in the middle of the night, we ended up having to eat at the hotel restaurant which was ridiculously overpriced. Since J and I didn't plan for a rental car, and the beautiful sites of Tuscany were only accessible by driving, we decided to cut our trip short and head on to another city where we would be able to rely on our own two feet and public transportation.

Sadly, we left Volterra the next morning but NOT before eating some delicious gelato, pizza and finding the city-wide market place that was around the Plaza de Priori and pretty much every other open space you could think of.

(Random: Best gelato ever is the wild berry flavor, if you can't tell from my completely enthusiastic expression. If you're ever in Volterra, check it out.) But yes, this market had everything you could think of. They had fruit, meat, bread, cheese, wine, shoes, clothes, sweaters, lingerie, undergarments, movies, CDs, posters, potted plants, toys and books and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few other things. Everybody was out and about, talking to each other. Since J and I didn't really see many other stores about Volterra and the closest town was about an hour away, we decided that this was probably the easiest way for the people of Volterra to get their shopping done. But it was also a social thing, too. Kids were playing in the streets and everyone had brought their pets with them. It was one of the happiest things I've ever seen and something so quintessentially European.

It made me sad that we had to go but it made sense for us. (Though we did make a mental note to come back here when we're significantly wealthier s we can tour the vineyards and the neighboring towns). And, since all of Volterra sits on a hill, while we waited for the bus, we got to see the clouds over the towns below us dissipate. It was absolutely gorgeous and I probably took 100 pictures of that alone.

After we wandered around the market for a little, bought some fruit and drank some Italian espresso that made J go insane, we packed up on the bus towards the bus station that would take us to the train station where we would catch the train to our next destination.

Snow is Just Ice That Can Hit You in the Face

I believe the title accurately sums up how I feel about snow right now. Don't get me wrong. I'm from Texas and so, for my entire childhood, I saw not one flake of snow, except for this one time a little fell on the cars during church and the priest let us all go see it. I built a snowman about a third the size of my finger which is kind of pathetic considering the fact that I have a really small finger. So anyway, last winter, I got the chance to see snow up close and personal in my college further up north (but still in Texas). It snowed for 2 days and I had no way to prepare myself since they really don't sell cold weather clothes where I live. Needless to say, when it left, I wasn't sad to see it go.

FOR SOME REASON, I hadn't really thought about how cold it would get here. I guess I've never really been exposed to extreme levels of frostiness before but here, not even a week after Thanksgiving, THIS show up on my computer screen.

That means that there's snow on the ground and in the sky. And I'm sad to say, this little picture is a liar. It snowed all Wednesday. There was no sun. There's a strong breeze so the snow's flying, smacking everybody around. It's taken me a little bit to adjust but I think, with my 239482394 layers of clothing, I'll eventually be able to venture outside since, for the past few days, I've only been going out for class or groceries. Don't get me wrong. I still love this city and I'm so beyond grateful to be here. It's just that I've never been anywhere where it gets colder than 36 and this is a new experience. But I guess that's what traveling is- one new experience after another.

Friday, when the new high has changed to 27 degrees, the flatmates and I are going ice skating in one of the nearby rinks and J and I are going out to the kissing tree in Covent Garden. I promise to blog about it later. Unless I turn into an icicle that is.

And finally, if you guys feel so inclined, a sorta fairytale is having a giveaway for the most beautiful pearl necklace this side of the blogosophere so feel free to amble on over there and check it out!

:(

I lack a better title for this blog because I honestly feel horrible about not keeping up with it better. I could go on my list of excuses but I won't. Instead, I can merely sum up the recaps that lie ahead of the past month.

There'll be:

1. Halloween, where I'll unveil what our flat theme once and show, once and for all, just how destructive foam cannons can be.

2. My trip to Italy! My first ever trip where I absolutely had no idea how to speak the language. I like to think I'm pretty decent at Spanish but as it turns out, Spanish and Italian really aren't as similar as I was hoping they would be. Needless to say, (mis)adventure ensued.

3. My trip to Spain, which was considerably more successful but unfortunately, a lot colder too. For some reason, I was banking on the sun shining and wrapping me in its beautiful, warm rays but no, it was just as cold as London. Go figure. Still A+

4. A very British Thanksgiving. This one'll be a real nail-biter. A broke college student and her boyfriend, both who lack any knowledge on how to cook, attempt to put together a Thanksgiving dinner for five including, but not limited to, a full turkey, ham, pies, casseroles, mashed potatoes, rolls and a pudding. Stay tuned, folks.

I suck, I know :( But thanks for hanging in there with me and hopefully, your patience will be rewarded :) (I know, I'm lame too to top it all off!)

Long Time No See

I know I've been horrible at keeping up with this thing lately and I will accept full responsibility. TO BE FAIR though, I have been sick, again (I'm telling you, I have the worst immune system) and I was reminded by my homework that I am in fact here to 'study'. Which means doing the odd, extremely irritating poetry assignment every once in a while, reading a boat load of articles and watching movies. But luckily, today is the start of my weekly four day weekends and I am here to rectify my absence.

I had my birthday a few days ago and I'll blog about that as soon as I get the pictures uploaded but a few weeks ago, J and I went sight seeing again. We're a really distractable couple who like to go down side streets and into little random shops that catch our attention. We also really like to eat. A lot. So while a normal couple might be able to see Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Chinatown and the Millenium Bridge, we were not so lucky. We hit four out of five and the funny part about that? We did it on accident.

See, what happens was that I really wanted to go here:

(source)

Because it seems like one of the London sights I just have to see. It's a pedestrian steel suspension bridge and it was featured in Harry Potter. How could I possibly refuse? 

So after I had made up my mind to go to ^ that bridge, we decided we didn't just want to go see the one thing. We should go to Buckingham Palace because my mom insisted I had to see it. So I got directions from my flat to the Palace and then from the Palace to the bridge. Cool, right? Well, we got to the Palace as planned and then we saw a really nifty park across the street. 

So we decided to walk down this beautiful sidewalk instead of down the boring sidewalk to the Bridge. Fine. Dandy. Then we saw this arch. Wellington arch.

And we (I) decided we just needed pictures by it. After we had admired it for a sufficient amount of time, we tried to find the path we had veered from but out pretty sidewalk had gone. It was replaced with an entire park. Hyde Park. For some unknown reason, we decided that the right thing to do would be to walk through it and I think we honestly believed we would find our way again. So we did. It was a beautiful park complete with rose gardens, ponds, swans, fountains, horses and we even saw the Princess Diana memorial. A+ park, for sure.

 

There were randomly set up lawnchairs with a view of the river. I really wanted to sit down in them but no one else was so I opted not to.

Beautiful, right? Well, while we were lost in our little wonderland, the weather grew stormy and cold and it rained on us. LUCKILY, I was prepared with an umbrella but that didn't help much when it kept blowing inside out. So we ran and sought refuge on a bus. That took us here:

Yay for Piccadilly Circus! As you can imagine, we stopped at a good number of shops (there was even one with a giant bear standing outside of it!) and ate lunch and I think it was around this time where we realized we had absolutely no idea where we were in relation to our directions. So I let J follow his "man instinct" and instead of Millenium Bridge, we ended up here:

No complaints though :) We had a fun walk through, bought some candies and saw some beautiful cakes. When we finally left Chinatown, I asked a policeman where we could find Millenium Bridge and he gave us directions. I only understood them partially but for SOME REASON I thought J would mentally log all this. 

You guessed it, folks. We did not end up at the bridge. Instead, we went here:

It was absolutely beautiful and I was having the time of my life exploring all of the Square's little nooks and crannies but no, J wanted to make sure I got to my bridge. He said that if we headed towards the River, and walked alongside it, we would ultimately find it. So down to the river we went.

Including some cool grafitti...

A statue who moved!

Needless to say, we didn't find the bridge that day but we'll go back and we're going to find it. Rest assured.

And I promise to do a better job of keeping everyone posted :)