Back to life, back to reality

It's really nice when returning your 'life' is a good thing!! The week at work in the US was amazingly stressful, productive, rewarding, and fun all at the same time! I'm encouraged about my job, the future, and life in general. After a week full of family and friend visits, I rented a car and drove down to Columbia on Friday night, got to see my "Blythewood family" for an inspiring talk. Two of their four kids are working in a school for urban poor and refugee children (www.strawberryd.com) where I went a couple summers ago. They use Montessori and have had incredible success turning these children's lives around.

I also got to see my cousin and my kitty - since my cousin has 'adopted' Xai-xai while I'm in the UK, so that was cool. I stayed there and got up in the morning to head over to my friend's house for breakfast! She's due in May, and this was my first time seeing her pregnant - we've been good friends since 6th grade, so it will kinda be like being an aunt. :)

Left from there to drive on to Atlanta and eat lunch with a college friend at Fellini's Pizza - classic hotlanta yumminess! I was having serious nostalgia the whole day - mainly from all the trips I took from Columbia to Atlanta while with Mike, and just the whole intense experience that was living in Atlanta when I finally lived there.

Flight back to London was great - had a whole row to myself! First time since moving that I have flown overnight to arrive on a non-work day, and it was soooo much better. I got in, took a nap, got up and had a relaxing Sunday afternoon. Then, it was party time!! It was a friend's birthday, who is a dj, and thus has several dj friends so they found a cool bar to have all their friends over and they rotated dj-ing for the night. Much dancing and good times occurred...but I had to cut it kinda short so I could have enough rest to fight the jet-lag this morning!!

Tonight, the festivities continued with Mexican night - my flatmates dad (from Mexico) is visiting, so he brought his tortilla press and various Mexican sundries, and they made this amazing dinner - with some potently yummy margaritas! We had a bunch of people over, it was a great family feel, kinda like Christmas was.

I took heaps of pictures of both events, so I'll have to get those up on flickr soon. So far London has put on a spectacular display of reasons why I love living here so much! :) I played the piano after everything died down both nights too, it's hard to remember what I was whinging about...

Trip #4

I can't believe I'm in the US for my fourth visit since moving. It's almost too much! I have had a big reality check though in being grateful for my situation. I mean, what are the chances of finding another job in a location like London that includes work trips to 10miles away from my mom's house?

This time I flew to Atlanta to see my great aunt and uncle before coming to NC. London-Atlanta is about 2hours longer a flight than London-DC, and almost that much further than London-Raleigh...so I'm not sure I'll make that particular trip again. 9 hours is a long time to keep yourself entertained - especially when it's the all-day flight so you're not really tired enough to sleep a lot! And I have started this terrible habit of falling asleep for the last 30 minutes of the flight - they turn off the in-flight entertainment, and it's too late to start reading a book or anything else, so I end up nodding off until the 'ding' sounds that I can take off my seat-belt. It's really not a good thing to do, because when I wake up I'm disoriented and people are jostling about and I have to rush and find all my items strewn about my seat and re-pack my carry-on bag!

I made it through customs and to baggage claim, and then took the Marta (nothing at all like the Underground...Atlanta is not known for its public transportation!!) to the north side of the city and a taxi from there. It was so good to see my "substitute grandparents" - and be forced to move really, really slow for two days. :) Spending time with an 88 and 83 year old is a good way to remember how to not have an agenda and just do what you can when you can.

I flew on to Raleigh Saturday night, had a great dinner with Mom and Alan. Sunday I went to church with them, which I really enjoyed, actually. Mom's started singing in the choir, and it was a trip down memory lane to when I was a little girl and she sang in the choir at our old church. She stopped doing that when my brother was born, I think, and it was the first time since then I was sitting in the pew looking up at her sing, instead of her watching me perform. The appreciation of that moment, the hymns we sung, and just the service itself were a great bonus to an already good weekend.

Then we went shopping :D Got stuff for my mom's svelte new figure and some things (like good workout clothes!) that I have trouble finding in the UK. Then I got to help cook dinner with all the fresh ingredients in my mom's kitchen, eat a yummy meal, and plop down in front of the big TV and channel surf. Great to have these few days preceding what will probably be an insanely busy work week.

Music

I had to pinch myself a couple times last night - I went to hear one of nine performances of Beethoven Sonatas, right on the South Bank, in a beautiful concert hall with perfect acoustics. The place was packed, and the effect of having thousands of people desperately not making a noise while they wait for the first note of the piano strings to come forth was incredible. I kept thinking, how cool is it to live somewhere that this great moment - one pianist performing all 32 sonatas over a span of 3 weeks - is recognized to the point of sellout crowds!

London, with a splash of Seville

I had another one of those "I love living here!" moments today - it's Waitangi Day, which means that the streets were flooded with New Zealanders dressed in the craziest costumes. All Blacks (rugby team) shirts and jerseys, white overalls, orange hair, flags - it was really fun to watch them all as I rode through looking down from the top floor of the bus. Apparently there's a massive pub crawl along the circle line (one of the Underground lines) where people make their way around the city stopping to drink at each stop.

I love being surrounded by so many different nationalities - tomorrow is the Chinese New Year, so there will be festivities in China Town and Trafalgar Square for that.

And, to add to what the city itself contains, I can take a quick business trip to Seville and spend Saturday morning wandering through the old streets, walking by the lake, watching a rowing race, sampling Spanish food and practicing speaking in Spanish. It was such a fun day! Everything went better than I could have planned, I started heading west, got to see the huge old wall, the Macarena, and then circled around to see bridges, the bull-fighting arena, the cathedral and tower (Giralda) and all sorts of cool stuff in between. I made it back to the hotel with 5 minutes to spare, packed up my bags, found a taxi and headed home.

The weather is gorgeous today, so I've already enjoyed a long walk, a trip to the shops, and now I'm back at home relaxing. I'm going out to dinner and then to hear David Barenboim tonight (pianist) tonight with a friend, and then I'm guessing we'll go out afterwards, so I need to rest up!

America Unchained

I'm watching this documentary called "America Unchained" - it's a British guy who flies to California, buys a car, and attempts to drive across the US without giving any money to "the man." In other words, no chain restaurants, stores, hotels, or gas stations. As you might guess, the gas station bit is definitely the hardest. I can't even think of the last time I used a non-Shell/Amoco/Exxon to fill up, even when on long road trips with stretches through no-man's land and only small towns. But he's managing to find them!

They ended up all over the place - at this crazy bed and breakfast built in the shape of a beagle (yes, as in the dog, with four legs and a nose...), this amazing old soda shop that was closing down on the day and serving it's last milkshake, and a motel where the family owners invited them to Thanksgiving dinner.

I think the best part was seeing my country through the eyes of a foreigner who was looking for places that embodied the 'spirit' of America to him - independence, the American dream, etc. It made me really want to try and do more "unchained" living when I'm in the US next time. My family still uses Ashworth's drugstore for all our prescriptions, the local soda shop and pharmacy - and if it's possible to find these places even in homogeneous, yuppy Cary, it's possible anywhere!

You can get the DVD online at www.channel4.com/shop, but it's probably formatted for the UK/Europe.