Post at Bournecrest.

Just in case you were planning to send me anything else in the mail I just thought I should let you know that since I will only be here until the 17th of December, you will want to make sure it is postmarked BEFORE December 8th, otherwise it might not reach me before I leave.


Not like you have to send me anything or that I'm expecting anything, just, you know, a heads up, in case you were planning to send anything : ) I know I've got letters on the way from Steven, Paige and Chris so I'm already pretty excited about that!

Turkey Day.

There's my bird!! Victoria named him Fred. I suggested Ebeneezer so I think we added a hyphen. I had never stuffed a turkey before. You can fit quite a lot in there!

We had an amazing Thanksgiving celebration! When I got back from Belgium on Monday, Kimberly and I went grocery shopping for our big dinner. We only spent about 110 pounds. Yes, it's quite a lot of money but considering that it fed 14 people Thanksgiving dinner AND I still have leftovers to show for it -- it wasn't bad. I spent the next three days cooking. Literally. It's a good thing you can make so much of it ahead of time. There's no way I could have done all of that ON the actual day!

(Like my new apron?? I was quite proud of that turkey. I look rather flushed. Hmm... I get my pink cheeks from Grammi : ) I had been in that kitchen since I woke up at 7am.)

It was such great fun too because I got to make LOADS of things that I had never made before. This was my first turkey and I baked a ham as well. I looked up some recipes for that and then just sort of created my own glaze based off of what I had read. It was beautiful. I found a WONDERFUL sweet potato recipe, which I will probably use for the rest of my life -- you bake the sweet potatoes and then split them open and pour in a mixture of butter, brown sugar, flour, baby marshmallows, cinnamon and pecans. I wish I had taken a picture of them. They were divine!! I thought we'd have loads of them leftover because they were so huge but there was only one left. I ate it.

I just LOVE cooking for people!!!!! Seriously. It's one of my most favorite things to do. I talked to Steven's mom to wish her a Happy Thanksgiving and she said that she thought I was so brave for cooking Thanksgiving dinner for all those people by myself. She told me that when she was my age and she had to do Thanksgiving dinner she was terrified. I think that's why I'm a decently good cook -- I'm not afraid of the kitchen! I get excited about finding recipes and trying new things and I truly do enjoy taking the time to make really good food that I know people will love.

I made our traditional things like mashed potatoes and pink salad and cheesy cauliflower. I found a new recipe and made my own cranberry sauce. That was pretty exciting. I also made a HUGE green salad, which didn't really get eaten and is still in the fridge, and Kimberly made a bean/rice salad and Brussels sprouts with bacon. So good! I quite like Brussels sprouts. I made pumpkin bread and cheese dip for the crackers and a pecan pie, and a pumpkin pie (with home-smooshed pumpkin!!!) and some whipped cream as well.

I didn't take many pictures because I was so busy and then once everything was finally on the table, it was too dark in there to get any really good pictures anyway. I was too embarrassed to turn the flash on. I felt a little silly taking pictures at that point.

Have I mentioned that our heat has been broken since last Tuesday? Yeah, true story. We're getting a new boiler in a few days though, so that will be good. On Thursday, while Kimberly and I were bustling around getting things ready, we brought all of the space heaters out of the bed rooms and tried to place them strategically around the entryway and dining room to help take the chill off. Kimberly and Curtis had moved the kitchen and dining tables into the big room and at one point while Kimberly was decorating the tables I heard her shout "Do you think the candles will give off any heat???" I laughed but then I realized she was serious -- we were SO COLD! She went ahead and lit the candles anyway just in case that tiny amount of extra energy was going to do us any good. We got the gas fireplace going and rocked out to some Jackson 5 (interesting choice of Thanksgiving music...), all the while counting down until our guests were due to arrive.

At 5pm I took the potatoes over to the next door neighbor's house to put them in her oven -- couldn't have done it without her!! -- and everyone showed up at 7pm. There were 14 of us all together and it was fantastic! Everyone was so complementary. It's a good thing it was dark in there because I'm pretty sure I was blushing the whole time. Curtis had introduced me to everyone when they came in and he kept telling people that I pretty much run his life -- which made me feel really important and needed -- and Kimberly kept telling everyone how we wouldn't even be having Thanksgiving if it wasn't for me. All throughout dinner they were all imploring me to change my mind about staying in Seattle after Christmas and Curtis made a few comments about how there was a chance my passport might go missing in the next couple of weeks : ) Kimberly told Curtis that as long as they're married, she's quite certain this will have been the best meal he's ever eaten. I thought that was quite funny. Deb (the woman with the blond hair sitting next to Curtis) was particularly thankful as she usually likes to do Thanksgiving (she's American) for her family but has gone back to school full-time and knew she wasn't going to be able to pull it off this year. I spent quite a bit of time talking with her husband, Chris, who I was sitting next to. It turns out that the two of them used to own property in Woodinville and Juanita!! How random is that??

After dinner we went around the table and everyone said one thing they were thankful for. We laughed a lot and it was just such a happy time. I missed being at home so very much but since there was no way that I could really just pop over for a long weekend -- I know I couldn't have found a better alternative.

Brilliant.

I'm really into Queen right now (because of the musical I saw last weekend) and I always love the Muppets, so I found this quite entertaining:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY&feature=player_embedded

And then THAT reminded me of when 4th West did The Princess Bride for Ashton Cup sophomore year (because they used Bohemian Rhapsody) so, I had to watch that while I was on youtube. It was fun.

I'm Thankful for You!!

Hi guys. I'm pretty tired but I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you're all having a marvelous holiday and not missing me too terribly much ; ) I am certainly missing you! I had a busy day though and a really lovely Thanksgiving celebration -- I feel so lucky to be living with an American family. I'll tell you all about it (with pictures) tomorrow.

Thank you for reading my blog and staying in touch with me and always sending your love and encouragement. Knowing that you're there for me has made this entire experience so much more enjoyable.

love,
Steph

It Has Begun.

The Christmassyness that is. I know. I cheated. I started a day early. Victoria and I saw the new Christmas Carol movie yesterday. You know, the 3-D Disney one with Jim Carrey?

We very much enjoyed the 3-D glasses but I tell you what -- that movie was scary!!! Seriously! Obviously, I know the story pretty well. I've seen the Mickey one and the Muppet one and I've seen the stage production and I know that Scrooge gets haunted by ghosts, which equals scary. BUT since this was produced by Disney, I sort of expected it to be a little bit more light-hearted like the other ones I've seen. No such luck. The ghosts were scary and since it was 3-D... things were flying at us and we were a bit jumpy.

Fortunately, there weren't many other people in the cinema so we were able to just talk, which made it less scary, and we had loads of sweets to snack on. Probably a few too many...

Back at the house, Victoria helped me to make a pumpkin pie (her first ever!!!) and then we bundled up with some blankets in front of the TV. We watched Scrooge, the 1970 musical with a very young Albert Finney as Scrooge. It was MUCH more cheerful than the other version of the story we had watched earlier in the day and we were both feeling quite Christmassy afterwards.

It was so much fun to have a sleepover, but it felt a bit strange being the "host" considering this isn't even my country. I think that's another good sign that I'm feeling quite comfortable here and that makes me happy. The great part about being the host was that I got to use the "Mountford motto" and say "I insist!!" so that Victoria couldn't get away with trying to pay for everything like she usually does ; )

Just Like the Pilgrims.

We're having a big Thanksgiving dinner here on Thursday and I've been so loving planning it!!! I can't even tell you how many lists I've made. It's a bit ridiculous. Kimberly and I went shopping yesterday and, my goodness, it's no wonder they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here--they don't have any of the right ingredients!!!! How do they survive?? No mini-marshmallows, no cool whip, no cans of cranberry sauce, no ready-made graham cracker crusts (or graham crackers for that matter), no corn syrup, no canned pumpkin... the pilgrims didn't have these things so I suppose I'll manage. This is definitely going to be an experimental Thanksgiving. I don't feel like any of my recipes will be made without at least one substitution.

I decided to buy a pumpkin and cook it myself. Of course, when I woke up this morning our heat, hot water and oven all weren't working. So... I washed the pumpkin, cut off the peel, chopped it to pieces and boiled it. Then I squished the water out of it and forced it through a colander with a wooden spoon. Yes, it's true, I made my very own pumpkin smoosh. No food processor or anything. Just a wooden spoon and a colander. Oh yeah, I totally could have made it as a pioneer. Well, actually, maybe not really. I must say, that was a lot of work for just 2 and a half cups of pumpkin (don't worry, that is enough to make one loaf of pumpkin bread and a pumpkin pie)... at least I know I don't NEED canned pumpkin! I'm so self-reliant.

(Good thing I had all that experience making baby food this summer... it was my inspiration.)

More Chocolate Please.

I forgot to tell you before I left but, look how little I packed! Cool, huh? That was all I took with me for ALL THREE NIGHTS!!

I spent the first day/night (last Friday) in London. It was really quite nice. I walked around for a few hours and checked into my hostel and it was just a beautiful day. I walked through some of the arcades but didn't do any shopping. I was really wanting to see a show so I went to Leicester Square and said "what can I see tonight for less than 30 pounds?" I bought a 25 pound ticket to We Will Rock You. Then I made my way over to the British Museum. I was wrong about the "14 more trips" thing. I've decided I'm done with it. It's huge and yes, there's a ton of stuff in it but since I don't stop and read everything, well, okay, since I don't stop and read anything, it actually goes by pretty quickly. I strolled through the displays I hadn't seen on my previous visit and when the museum closed, I walked across the street to Starbucks.



I love Starbucks. I feels so much more at home when I'm in Starbucks. Seriously. I am comforted just by the sight of a Starbucks. It's a little odd. Anyhow, I read my book and enjoyed the Starbucks atmosphere until it was time for the show to start.



It was such a bizarre show. I mean, really strange! I had no idea what the story was about and it was just weird. It's set in the future and it's supposed to be a time when instruments have been outlawed and everyone listens to the same regimented music and they aren't allowed to make their own music but there's this group of "Bohemians" aka rebels, who try to make their own music and are on a quest to bring rock and roll back to life. It was ridiculous but funny and of course the music was great. Everyone likes Queen, right? I was SO glad that I went!! I just love being in the theatre. I can't really even describe how it makes me feel except that I feel so alice in there. I just get this huge surge of energy and excitement and emotion. It's the best. I love being on stage and I get SO excited for the people who are performing and they just looked like they were having such a wonderful time and I wanted to be them. Even though the show was weird. I had a blast.



Upon returning to the hostel around 11pm, I met my roommates for the night -- a large group of students from Spain, Germany and France who are all attending the same school in Ireland this semester. We talked for a while and they invited me to go out with them around midnight... I politely declined and went to bed. They came back more than a little tipsy around 3:45am. At 4:15 I had to sit up and tell them to either go to sleep or leave the room. They were whispering but 10 people whispering is not exactly quiet.



Next morning, I was on a train bright and early and I was in Bruges by noon.


Bruges is beautiful! It's referred to as the Venice of the North because it has lots of canals and people think it's super romantic. The map I was given at the hostel even has little hearts all over it, which are supposed to mark "places to kiss." That seems like kind of an odd thing to put on a map but... when I would walk by those places I had to check and see if there were actually people kissing. I just think the idea of having a map dictate where you kiss is really funny.


There are horse-drawn carriages EVERYWHERE! I was particularly fond of this one. I love how huge and amazingly strong those horses are. I wanted to pet them but they didn't have time to stop. I think they're amazing. The carriage rides are expensive and I didn't want to go on one by myself anyway. Plus, it's hard to pet the horses when you're in the carriage so... what's the point? No, really, I would like to go for a carriage ride someday. Just not alone.

The marketplaces are so great! I love pedestrian areas with just a bunch of people milling about. The Christmas market was all set up and people were ice skating and it was just lovely.

The buildings here have so much character! I just wanted to take pictures of ALL of them. So... I did. I walked around for quite some time with no particular direction in mind. I walked through the various markets and at one point I bought myself a hat (finally! I've been looking for one for weeks! Now my little head will stay nice and warm and I can hide my hair whenever I need to) and a gigantic Asian pear, which I carried around in my purse until the following evening.

This is the Belfry tower. I climbed it because it seemed like the thing to do. There were 366 steps, I think, so about half as many steps as climbing up the Eiffel Tower. But these steps were scary!!! It was a spiral staircase the whole way up. It was steep and I was feeling very trapped and claustrophobic. Breathing was difficult because not only was I out of breath from the climb but I was a bit anxious about being in such a tight space. People were coming down at the same time I was going up and it was just a bit crazy.

I was glad I did it -- of course. The view was great! And the bells were ringing while I was up there. I don't think they ring at any particular time necessarily but a guy sits at this thing that looks like a piano and "plays" the bells and he was just playing random songs. I really liked it.

I was also quite happy to be back down on the ground. I felt pretty accomplished though, so that was good.

I walked around Bruges for the rest of the afternoon/evening and it was just beautiful. The weather was perfect (lucky me!!! When Paige went at the same time last year it snowed! I was so scared I was going to come back half frozen and while snow would have been beautiful, I was happy not to see any) and it's such a pretty and friendly place.

Waffle on a stick dripping with warm chocolate?? Right, as if I was going to pass THAT up! It was tasty. There are waffles everywhere in Belgium. And chocolate, too, which makes it a pretty great place.

I spent the next portion of the evening walking around the market place, drinking mulled wine, which I actually quite enjoyed, especially in that atmosphere, and looking at, but not buying, all of the cute things in the marketplaces. Once I had walked around these particular areas three or four times each, I decided to head back to my hostel and guess what I did.... I took a shower!!! Wahoo!! This was the first of TWO showers that I took on this trip! And I changed my clothes too. Huge improvement from Paris ; ) It was only 7pm after I was all clean and everything so I walked around the corner and sat in a pub with hot chocolate and a piece of apple pie. Excellent dinner. I read my book there until I decided it was a late enough hour that I could probably go to bed without feeling too lame (uh.... it was... um... 9. Yeah, 9 o'clock.)

Back at the hostel I ended up going down to the bar with another girl who was staying in my room (Stephanie from Toronto, also traveling alone) and we hung out down there talking with the bartender and the owner of the hostel and it made for a far less lonely evening. I very much enjoyed Bruges.

Sunday morning, I caught a train to Brussels. Brussels is a city that takes a long time to wake up. I felt like I walked around for a while before I found a place where I could sit down and have a hot chocolate (p.s. my eating habits on this trip were really bad. I didn't eat much and when I did it usually involved chocolate.) The buildings in the Grand Place area were pretty cool so I walked around there for a bit until my bike tour started at 10am. They were using that big thing to decorate that ginormous Christmas tree. Unfortunately, they were using those hideous blue lights that are so piercingly blue it hurts your eyes to look at them. Yikes. I'm glad I wasn't there to see the finished product.

The bike tour was okay. Word(s) to the wise:

1. Brussels is not so wonderfully flat as Paris. This makes for a slightly more strenuous bike tour.

2. Do NOT try to do a bike tour with a huge hand bag over your shoulder. You will probably have balance issues and you may be decently uncomfortable.
I don't like to leave my bag at the hostels. I don't bring much with me and I don't like to let any of it out of my sight. Having my bag bumping against my knee the whole time wasn't the greatest. There are a lot of really wonderful buildings to see in Brussels and again, the weather held out for me. We stopped part way through the tour and had some fries. In Belgium, they dip their fries in mayonnaise. Actually, they pour mayonnaise over the top of their fries. I don't think this is the greatest but as long as it isn't too globby and is just a tiny bit and you can't really taste it, then it's not gross.

I DID get to go to the Musical Instrument Museum. It was my favorite part of my time in Brussels. It's pretty fun. You put on headphones and walk around the museum and when you stand in front of different instruments you can hear what they sound like. I didn't discover until the very end that they have these guides for each room that are in a bunch of different languages but that's fine because I probably wouldn't have read it anyway. I just liked seeing all of the cool instruments and listening to them. It was fun watching people sort of dancing around. Everyone was listening to a different kind of music (depending on what instrument they were standing in front of) and it seemed like people couldn't help but move to the beat a little bit. I was doing it too but that's not really a big surprise. I wanted to keep this one. It would be a nice addition to my collection.

When I was finished looking at all of the instruments (and wishing I could take them home) it was pouring down rain outside. Since it was getting dark I decided to brave the rain and start looking for my hostel. More words to the wise:

1. Take your rain coat. Yes, your trench coat is cuter but your umbrella probably can't handle the windy conditions and you'll wish you had a waterproof jacket with a hood.

2. Take a padlock in case your hostel as lockers you can use.

****

I was at the hostel at 5pm and I was SUPER hungry. I went outside and walked for about a block and a half. At that point, I discovered I was freezing cold and it was VERY dark. Not only that but my hostel was in an area where pretty much everything was closed down (5pm on a Sunday evening, why would anything still be open? I mean, really...) and there weren't many people about. I decided that I wasn't super comfortable making the 20 minute walk into the city center and then back again in the freezing cold darkness and all by myself. So I went back in the hostel, took a shower and got in bed. There, I ate my ginormous Asian pear, listened to a sermon from church on my ipod and fell asleep to my music. I felt really lame about that but... I also felt safe, so it was probably the right decision. No point going out if I was just going to be anxious the whole time.

****

I woke up the next morning, found a place to eat a waffle and drink some hot chocolate, walked around Brussels in the rain for a couple of hours, bought 4 very expensive but very delicious chocolates and hopped on the train. Heading back to my temporary home.

****

On the train the next morning I was SO happy to be arriving in London. Really. I was incredibly excited about it, which surprised me. I think I'm sort of starting to "own" London. I'm beginning to figure it out and to know where things are and when I use the subway I don't do that walk-really-slow-so-I-make-sure-I-can-read-every-single-sign thing, I just blaze on through because I know where I'm going! And it's a great feeling! It made me even more excited about the fact that I get to see Seattle in just a few short weeks. I love that coming home feeling and being in my comfort zone. I'm glad that I'm starting to let London be part of my comfort zone. Just in time for my departure, right? I guess that's perfect for when I come back in the future.

BTW.

I know it looks like it says "READ-ing with Victoria and Bec" but what it really says is "RED-ing" because here, the city that sounds like Redding (there's one of those in Northern California) is spelled like Reading. Just thought I'd clear that up since probably not a whole lot of people would have picked up on that and it was probably a little strange that I said I was "reading" with them.

Reading with Victoria and Bec.

Mostly I just wanted to post something and I wanted to use some of these pictures... so here you go : )

My first red-cup beverage of the season!! Very exciting. They don't have pumpkin spice syrup here which was really a bummer because I wanted a pumpkin spice chai. The plain chai was good too.

We met up in Reading for a little a shopping the other day. We had a really fantastic time but felt very unproductive. We had very ambitious plans to get loads of our Christmas shopping done and we didn't buy much of anything, which just means we'll have to go shopping again! I did try on an incredibly stunning dress from Karen Millen though. That was fun. Fortunately it wasn't perfect or I would have been really tempted to bring it home with me.

And, I wore my new red coat and I wanted to show you that. Because it's beautiful.

I'm off to London for the night. I ended up booking a hostel so... I'm going to catch a train into London, go to Leicester Square and try to find a cheap ticket to a show tonight and just hang out. Then I leave early tomorrow morning for Belgium! Yeah! Secretly, I really really really wish that someone was going with me. I don't want to sound ungrateful that I get to go to Belgium because that's really cool but I just don't love traveling alone and not only will I be alone but when I'm gone for the weekend I don't get to make phone calls and send e-mails so I feel even more lonely. So I'm hoping it will just be so crazy much fun that it will fly by and I'll be back in Virginia Water preparing for Thanksgiving dinner before I know it!!

"See" you Monday!

Steph

Feltham fiasco.

I think the trains here are really great. We don't use trains like this at home and it's just cool how it works and how that's the normal way to get around. However, I've found out this week that maybe it's not the greatest that everyone relies so heavily on the trains. I guess that while I was in the Midlands last weekend we had some really crazy weather and quite a bit of damage was done to a bridge in Feltham. Because of the bridge being unusable, everyone is having to take different trains and buses and it's an absolute mess! Last night, it took Curtis over 2 hours to get back to VW from London and he had to hitchhike the last bit of it when his train broke down! How crazy is that. It usually only takes 45 minutes to get into London and it's taking people 2+ hours because they have to be rerouted everywhere. It's awful. I guess it might be 4 weeks until they have everything repaired and ready to go again. What a dreadful inconvenience.

I'm a bit worried about it slash seriously bummed out too because I was just making all of these plans to spend more time in London exploring. I can still do it, I'll just have to spend more time traveling. I'm going to Belgium early Saturday morning so I'll be staying in London with Ed again on Friday night. I've decided that to completely avoid the Feltham fiasco (take the train to Feltham then take a bus to Twickenham or another station then wait for a train into London Waterloo), I'm going to take the train in the opposite direction from here to Reading (40min) and then from Reading into London Paddington (30min) and, really, it won't be that bad.

I just think it's so crazy that millions of people are being inconvenienced by this one little bridge mishap and it's not going to get fixed quickly. It's like when it snowed last Christmas except, well, not as cold.

Shopping in Sheffield.

Not sure why I've been procrastinating on writing this one...

I had a lovely spur of the moment trip to visit the Mountfords again last weekend!! It was absolutely wonderful and a total whirl-wind trip but I'm so glad that I was able to go. The traveling bit of the day was quite the adventure -- for everyone. I left the house at 5am and walked to the train station to catch a 5:30 train. I read Oliver Twist and listened to music and enjoyed the "cross country" trip to Sheffield where I arrived at 9:45am. Yes, it was a four hour journey. There at the train station in Sheffield, I found a cafe and staked out a spot with my hot chocolate and journal since I wasn't supposed to meet with Victoria until 11:20 when her sister in law's train was due to arrive. Long story short -- if I can manage it since I tend to make them long -- Victoria and here mum were caught in TERRIBLE traffic and advised Anna (Victoria's sister in law) and I to meet up with each other and just take the train over to the shopping center.

As what was supposed to be an hour and a half long car ride very slowly turned into a four and a half our car ride for Victoria and Mrs. Mountford, Anna and I were having a smashing time getting to know each other. The MeadowHall shopping center is absolutely huge and it was crazy busy. After a couple of hours, we were feeling a bit overwhelmed and stopped for lunch -- baked potatoes. So good. I've been missing cottage cheese.

I bought a bag. It's biggish and black "leather" and zips closed and it only cost 15 pounds. I was looking for one because my purse doesn't quite hold enough and it doesn't zip closed, which makes me nervous, AND because I thought it would be good to have for Belgium this weekend. I found the perfect one! And I'm quite fond of it. And it passes the elbow test. I can get my elbow through it and put it up onto my shoulder in one fluid motion without have to use my other hand.

When Victoria and her mum arrived they texted us and suggested we meet them at Marks and Spencers for tea. Isn't that funny? They had just sat in the car for hours and hours and instead of wanting to jump in and make the most of their shopping day, they wanted to sit down and have tea. I love that. I love that people stop to do that here. Anna and I were ready for another break anyhow so this suited us well. The tea and talk time was lovely and we were back out in the shops in no time. I bought a belt at H&M for 1 pound and put it on straight away -- I was wearing a sweater dress that I've always thought needed a belt, I just hadn't found the right one yet. And I picked up a few Christmas gifts here and there, but I've hardly made a dent in my Christmas shopping. Lots to do.

We closed the place down. No joke. Those Mountfords can shop!! It's pretty impressive. We stopped in M&S again for tea before hitting the road. I very nearly fell asleep a few times in the car but those little tiny naps were probably good. They helped me to last the rest of the night. Back at the house, we ate pizza and watched footage from James and Anna's wedding : ) It was really fun and really cute because the whole family is so involved in everything. I loved listening to their stories and this or that relative did or said this really funny thing at this point in the reception... it was great.

I spent the night with Victoria's friend Laura (who I had previously met in Oxford) because there wasn't any floor space left at the Mountford house. It was so nice to see her! She let me sleep in her bed and just before I arrived she put a hot water bottle in it to warm it up for me! How sweet! AND it's the coolest hot water bottle I've ever seen!! It's shaped like a star! I should have taken a picture for you. Laura and I made plans to spend the first weekend of December in London together. It's going to be so much fun shopping with her and enjoying all of the Christmas lights and festivities. I'm really looking forward to it.

After church Sunday morning we ALL went out to lunch. Victoria, her mum and dad, her grandma, her sister, her sister's boyfriend, her brother, her sister in law and me. The Mountford's are wonderful. It was just a really fantastic experience. I love listening to them talk to each other. They get along so well and they have so much fun. Just ordering the meal was this huge family affair. Everyone was asking everyone else what they were getting and Victoria's dad was making a list and he kept changing his choice every time someone else told him what they were getting because he thought their choice sounded better and it was adorable. And then Victoria and I were force fed dessert. Seriously. They asked me if I wanted dessert and I said no. I said no four times. I just didn't have the heart to say it a fifth time. So I said yes. Victoria and I shared chocolate cake and ice cream. And it was tasty.

Back at the house, we all sat around and drank tea and looked at more wedding DVDs and talked. I wanted to stay there for the rest of my time here in England. I wanted to just move in. I could live on the floor and be best friends with their cat and it would just be so perfect. I'd gain about 20 pounds because I'm not allowed to say no to food at their house : ) but I'm sure I'd manage some how. Being in their house just makes me really happy. They're a lot of fun and I'm trying to figure out how I can get them all to come to Seattle some time. I'm trying to coax them into taking a cruise to Alaska and spending some time with me before and after.

The train ride back to Virginia Water was another long one but, a little Jason Mraz and a few Rhianna songs plus the Finding Neverland soundtrack and I was in good shape.

Anneliese, Victoria's sister, asked how many more days it's going to be until Steven comes. I told her 25 and she suggested that I get an advent calender to count down. I thought that was a brilliant idea! I actually already have an advent calender so that's just so perfect. Mrs. Mountford had given me one the last time I visited so I think I am going to use it to count down to Steven's arrival because other wise, I'd end up taking it home with 7 chocolates still in it, and that seems kind of silly. It's so cute, don't you think? I guess Mrs. Mountford really wanted to get me one while we were out shopping in Birmingham and this was all she could find : ) I love it. Very British.

Here's something else interesting, and really random: Just as James and Anna and I were getting ready to leave for the train station, James started rummaging through his suitcase for something. He pulled out this shirt. I sort of stared at it thinking "what the heck?" and James says to Anneliese, "Is this yours?" She just stared blankly for half a second and I said, "It's Chad's!" It was really funny and really strange. I guess somehow it got left there when he and Whitney visited last spring and someone thought it belonged at James and Anna's house so they sent it up there but then they assumed it belonged to either Anneliese or Victoria so they brought it back down and no one would have ever known whose it was or where it came from if I hadn't been there to tell them. Crazy.

So, Chad, I have your shirt and I will give it to you when I see you over Christmas.

Announcement.

Hiya! I'm just really proud slash excited about this and wanted to share with everyone that Steven is going to be a volunteer firefighter with the Enumclaw FD!! He starts training in January -- yay! That's all.

Congrats Babe.

Eye 2 Eye.

I love my camera, really, I do. I love that it's so nice and small and it fits perfectly in my pocket and it's currently holding an 8 gig memory card, which is fabulous, and my camera is always there for me... but, sometimes we just don't always see eye to eye.

Exhibit A:

Notre Dame at night is amazing!!! But you can't tell, can you? My camera just doesn't see things the way I do. And I know this. I know that my camera struggles when it comes to night photos and it's just because it takes pictures too fast, which in other situations is definitely an asset but sometimes I just wish that it could capture everything that I'm seeing. Things are so amazingly beautiful at night time and I want to take pictures of the beautifulness so I can share it with you.

That is all.

Paris When It Sparkles.

Warning: This is a long one -- I didn't leave anything out. Seriously, you need a good fifteen minutes (at least) to read it all.

My goodness. That was quite the weekend I've just had. On Friday, I took the train into London and found the British Museum. There's a ton of stuff in there! But don't worry, I think it will only take me about 14 more visits to see all of it. When it closed, I wandered around in the rain for a little bit until Ed picked me up in a taxi. I spent the rest of my evening enjoying their flat and watching Forrest Gump while Ed and Christina went to a movie. The next morning I was up at five to get ready to leave. Ed had insisted that I let him drive me to the train station. He said we would leave at 5:30 but... I think he must have stayed up a little bit too late. At 5:38 when Ed was still asleep, I grabbed my stuff and made a mad-dash for the Tube. I got to the train station on time, no problem, and sat back listening to Harry Potter for my two hour journey into Paris.


Paris. It's so strange to be in a new place, especially a place that people are always raving about. When I got off the train I just walked around for a bit thinking "Paris. I'm in Paris. That's pretty cool." and just sort of getting used to the idea. I decided hot chocolate was necessary and found a cafe where I could sit and journal outside and wait for my cooking class to start.

The class was so much fun! I was really glad that I did it and really really glad that that was how I started my weekend in Paris. I think the best part was just being with people and sharing an experience like this. While I was still on the train, the class had actually already started at the market. Three of the other students met with the Chef at a market close by and they wandered around and chose all of the ingredients that we were going to need. I wasn't the only one who joined the class a little bit later though. There were two other guys who had been in Paris for a day but somehow still didn't have their clocks set to the right time and showed up an hour late because they thought they were on time. I was disappointed for them that they missed the market portion too but also kind of liked it a little bit because then I didn't feel totally left out.

At the market, they had bought two whole rabbits! They were headless rabbits. Our chef was disappointed that the butcher didn't leave the heads on. He said he likes to use them to make stock, but I was glad! I don't think I would have liked to watch my classmates chop off rabbit heads... Chef Pino showed us how to butcher rabbits and we made braised rabbit with carrots, bacon and shallots. The bacon was amazing! It was super thick and I don't often say this about meat, but it was beautiful. It really must have been a third of an inch thick if not more and it was so tasty. We also made a quiche with some really fancy cheese that sort of looked like a cantaloupe. It was orange and hard like parmesan but had a thick dirty looking rind. I make quiche myself so that wasn't really anything new but this one was really good! I usually try to load up my quiche with vegetables so that there are hardly any eggy bits since I don't much care for egg but this one was really tasty even though it was eggy. Probably because it also had plenty of cream and cheese. The tricks Pino showed us with making the crust were pretty helpful too.

We also made mashed potato and celery root as well as four different types of sauteed mushrooms. I have no idea what they were but they looked nice. Chef Pino showed us how to make our food look really pretty. We used circular cookie cutters to keep things in place on the plate but he said it's also just as easy to use a clean tuna can. It's amazing how NOT difficult it was for me to make my food like all fancy like that.

We cooked for hours then got out a few bottles of white wine and had the quiche as an appetizer with some salad. The mash and rabbit came next as the main course. THEN we spent a ton of time doing a little cheese tasting. There were twelve different types of cheeses! It was crazy. We drank wine and had bread and cheese and just talked about cheeses for maybe 45 minutes. When Pino was arranging all of the cheese out on the table someone commented that it smelled like stinky feet and Pino said "Yes, because it's the same type of bacteria." Well, now that's comforting, isn't it?

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I'm a bit picky about cheese, actually. I like the mild milkier ones like goat cheese or brie. There was one that was flavored with Paprika and tarragon and another that tasted like garlic (I liked it) and one that was walnut flavored (sort of mapley) and the one that looks really dirty is actually covered with dried squished grapes--what's left over after making wine. It was crunchy because of the dried grapes and the seeds too. There's another one that's not in the picture that was some type of bleu cheese with gingerbread. Did you know that the green bits in Roquefort are pieces of moldy rye bread? Disgusting! I don't know why people love it so much. That was one of the few that I really wanted to spit out. I was out of wine by that point and didn't even have anything to wash it down with. I was so stuffed by the end but the dessert we made was too good to pass up, plus... there's always room for chocolate.

We made molten lava chocolate cakes. They were FAR easier that I would have ever thought, and so so tasty. I thought mine looked especially pretty so I took a picture of it for you. It would have been even better with some raspberry coulis or just fresh raspberries. We had a shot of port with dessert, which I was also surprised to find that I enjoyed.

After the class, one of the guys, Perry, offered to walk up the hill to Sacre Coeur with me since I had said I wanted to go find it. I'm not too keen on spending loads of time alone so I was happy to have the company. I'll admit, it was a bit of a climb up the hill but well worth it. The church is gorgeous and the view is absolutely amazing. We wandered through the church and around that area for a bit and then down into Mont Martre to hop on the Metro.

I had already decided that I was going to take a bike tour that evening. The tour was supposed to meet at the south pillar of the Eiffel Tower so I figured I should head over that way. I got SO lucky with the weather!! It was supposed to rain all weekend and while it was VERY cold, I didn't need my umbrella once while I was in Paris and I even saw the sun a few times.

And there it is. The Eiffel Tower. I took this picture the very first moment I could see it. It's funny, I actually didn't like it all that much at first. It's just really iconic, you know, so that's what makes it a big deal, but I wasn't in love with it or anything. It grew on me. I like that it's unique and how the structure/design seems somewhat delicate, like lace. I like it BEST when it gets dark and all the lights turn on. Actually, I found that many of the buildings look more beautiful at night with their lights on. I think it has something to do with the shadows that are created by the different shapes.

I like it when it looks like this but at night, every hour on the hour until about 1am, they have a little light show on the Eiffel tower and it turns colors and sparkles and it looks pretty neat (you can see it for about a second on The Devil Wears Prada). Especially just the sparkles without the other colors. It's very Disney : ) and makes me feel like I'm in Disneyland.

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The bike tour was WONDERFUL!!! It's my new favorite way to see a city. I'm thinking about doing one here, in London, with the same company and I think I'm definitely going to take a bike tour while I'm in Belgium in a couple of weeks. It was so much fun riding through the streets with the taxis and buses honking at us. The lights and buildings were absolutely enchanting and I enjoyed ever minute of it. I had two favorite parts of the night tour: 1) seeing Notre Dame for the first time. Oh. My. Goodness. I fell in love. 2) riding our bikes through the courtyard of the Louvre. Wow wow wow. It was magical.

After a few hours of riding, we went down by the river where we parked our bikes and hopped on a boat. Our tour guide had brought about ten bottles of red wine, which she poured into plastic cups and we all sat shivering and talking and drinking wine while we floated up and down the Seine taking in the sights. The people on the tour were all very nice and friendly and it was fun just talking to everyone as we rode along. I met four girls who are studying in Madrid. They are all Spanish majors from the States and I sort of made myself part of their group. We had a good time talking and got crepes together at the end of the tour on our way back to the metro. It was late (11:00pm) but you never would have known it by how many people were out and about.

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Now here's the interesting bit: I got back to the hostel at midnight. I keyed into my room and though the light was off, I could see that there were four beds and there were people sleeping in three of them. I didn't want to make any noise or wake anyone up so I quietly closed the door and set my things up on the top bunk and took off my rain jacket so it would stop making crinkly noises. I climbed up on the bed and just laid down without taking my shoes off or anything. I lay there for a minute, exhausted and freezing, trying to figure out what I was going to do. I didn't want to make my bed because it would make too much noise, and I was feeling really awkward about being in a room with sleeping people I had never met. As I lay there, I was listening to the people sleep breathing (and snoring in one case) and it suddenly occurred to me: they were all guys. I was in a room with 3 sleeping strange guys who I had never met before. Well! Then, not only was I feeling awkward but I was starting to feel somewhat embarrassed. How weird was that? When they fell asleep there were only guys and then some strange girl snuck in in the middle of the night. What if they were sleeping in their underwear or something? I started to get all anxious about waking up in the morning and couldn't handle how weird I felt about it but was too tired to think about it much more. I took my shoes off, pulled the blanket over me and tried to fall asleep. I didn't sleep much though. I was pretty cold the whole time (even in ALL of my clothes) and people were noisy. They were noisy out in the hall and at some point I heard people shouting in the streets... finally, at about 6am, I heard one of the guys get up. He took about an hour to shower and when he left, I quietly put my shoes on, grabbed my stuff, climbed down and left. I was too embarrassed to stick around and shower or even change my clothes. I walked down stairs and had breakfast--I sat with a cup of tea just staring into space trying to wake all the way up for about fifteen minutes then used the bathroom in the lobby to brush my teeth.

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So you know how I made a big deal out of packing so light? I didn't need ANY of it! Seriously. I didn't use a single thing in my backpack except the tooth brush and toothpaste and comb (even that I only used once). I didn't end up showering or changing my clothes all weekend long. Not even to sleep. Gross.
I felt so yucky and I was wishing that I had a hat to cover up my not showered hair and keep me warm.

At the start of my second day, I walked through Mont Martre to find the Moulin Rouge. I figured I at least needed to see it. It would have looked cooler at night but there was NO WAY that I was going to be in that area by myself at night. Yikes. It was scary enough on a Sunday morning.

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Interesting thing about Paris... PDA is not an issue. There were couples kissing everywhere and I was missing Steven so so much! But I get to see him in 29 days so it will be okay.

And back to the Eiffel Tower I went to wait for my second bike tour to begin. I walked up the Eiffel Tower. What a climb.

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Dear Steven, I'm reconsidering going for a hike when I get home -- I just climbed Mt. Eiffel and I think I'm going to be tired for a while.

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Dear Hilde, This climb is not meant for people who have a problem with heights. I myself was a bit anxious about it and on the way down I had to look only at the steps and not to the sides because I was getting a bit light headed.

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The view was worth the climb and on my way back down, I stopped at the cafe on the first level and drank what was probably the most expensive and maybe the tastiest hot chocolate ever out of a styrofoam cup : )

I forgot to mention, the bikes have names. On the first tour, my bikes name was Old Gregg, which I did not like. I was determined to get a cooler one for my second tour and I read through all of the names before choosing my bike. Roll it like you stole it. It doesn't get much better than that as far as bike names go. I loved the day time tour just as much as the night time one. We saw some different sights and some of the same ones but the ones that we stopped and talked about were all different and having different tour guides changes the experience dramatically anyway. Our tour guide was really nice and lots of fun. Halfway through, we stopped and had lunch at a cafe in the middle of a park. It was beautiful but I was SO SO SO cold! I was really hoping we were going to eat somewhere where we could be inside but, no such luck. I could not control my shivering and it was a bit embarrassing as I was trying to have a conversation with this really nice New Zealander. He's was part of a tour group--they're seeing 9 countries in 20 days or something crazy like that.

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After the tour, I was all of the sudden feeling very ready to go home. I was tired and very cold and not looking forward to spending the rest of the day alone and then going back to the awkward hostel--I'm not sure I'm cut out for the hostel experience... BUT I was dying to see Notre Dame in the day time so I went and found it. Oh wow. Can I keep it? I mean, seriously. I love it! I want to get married there -- how cool would it be to have wedding pictures with those amazing flying buttresses in the background?? I took about a zillion pictures of it, from every angle, and then I walked through the church. The inside was cool but not too different from any other church that I've been in over here. Then I decided that I wanted to climb the bell tower. I was SO disappointed to find that it had closed just a few minutes before I got there! I had asked one of the men working there how long it would be open and he said 5:45 but when I got to the entrance, it was closed and the sign said it closed at 4:45. Sigh. I was seriously bummed and can't wait to do that for sure the next time I go. BUT it all worked out for the best.

Since I couldn't go up to the top of Notre Dame, I decided to walk around for a while and find somewhere to get dessert or have another hot chocolate (I just haven't been in the coffee mood... hot chocolate seems cozier) and I ran into the Madrid girls again! What are the odds? They asked me to join them and we spent the rest of the evening walking around Paris together. Their hostel was close to mine so we got to take the metro back together as well. It was lovely and so much better than spending all of that time by myself. We had a lot of fun and I am already facebook friends with two of them : ) At one point we were walking through an area and didn't know where we were and Sima said "let's head back to Ravioli street." and I got all excited and said "that's what I've been calling it too!!" Since I can't really pronounce any of the names of streets and things there, I would just make things up in my head that were kind of close and acted as triggers so that I could remember things. For example, at one point I got off the metro at George Clooney (it was really Cluny something) and I knew that there was lots of shopping on Ravioli St. and on our way back to the metro we were on Filet Mignon and had to turn left on something about booty. It was ridiculous but so helpful and I was glad to hear that they had been using the same trick. We ended the night with a stop in the Disney store and after that, I figured my short little Paris adventure was complete.

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(almost done I promise!!)

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I was back in my room at the hostel by 9:30 this time. There were a few beds made and some backpacks in there but I was alone. I was determined to stay up until someone got back so they wouldn't come back to a sleeping girl they had never met (I wasn't super comfortable with that idea) and so that I would be able to meet the people who were sleeping in my room. I journaled for as long as I could and then fell asleep on my bed without meaning to. Not much later, I guy came in and I sleepily said something along the lines of "hi-I'm-Stephanie-and-I-was-trying-to-stay-awake-so-I-could-met-you-but-it's-just-not-working-out-too-well." He laughed and said that if I wanted to stay awake then my bed probably wasn't the best place to be. He's from Tazmania and we talked for quite a while. I told him about my experience the night before and how uncomfortable I was and he sympathized. He said that he was also leaving at 6am to catch the metro at the train station and suggested we walk together. I was happy with that idea and felt much more comfortable going to sleep having talked with him. I just felt safer. Another guy came in shortly after we turned out the lights and then around 2:30am there was someone trying to key into our room who was shouting about drugs and saying the f-word about every third word. I assume he just has a small vocabulary and coudn't help himself. He was pretty quiet once he finally got into the room and I was able to fall back to sleep.

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The next morning, I was awake at 5am (4am London time) and Anthony and I walked to the train station together. While waiting to get on my train I stopped at Haagan Dazs and spent I'm not going to tell you how much on lemon sorbet and a bottle of Perrier. It was exactly what I wanted. I was so tired and un-showered that the train trip felt like forever and just a word to the wise, NEVER travel through London during rush-hour. Once back in London (at 8am) I had to take the tube to the train station (I got in such the habit of saying bonjour and merci that I almost said them when buying my train ticket once back in London) to get a train back to Virginia Water. There were so many people on the tube and in the stations that I couldn't even move and was starting to feel sick and a bit nervous being packed so closely with all the people.

I finally arrived back here at the house at 10am after 5 long hours of traveling. I got straight into the bath first thing, then into the shower (I had to make sure I was really clean) and then I put on about four layers of clothing. I just couldn't get warm enough. I know I promised I'd blog the minute I got back but I just didn't have the energy yesterday to do much more than post facebook photos--this particular entry has taken me all of The Incredibles to type (I started right when I turned the movie on and it's at the part where that little boy on the trike says "That was totally wicked!!!" which makes me think of Kristi Moore at Ashton cup a few years back--was that her?). Anyway, I made it back safe and I'm really glad that I went. I'm looking forward to going again someday--there's so much to see in Paris, you just can't do it all in 48 hours.

Missing you all!!

Steph