School Days

Besides Justin Magno staying with us, it's been a pretty tame week. School started again (I was on spring break last week) so that's been occupying my days. Noteables:

1. Over the weekend we went to the Ideal Home Show at Earls Court. It's literally a two minute walk from the flat. It was INSANE how packed it was. I enjoyed the food the most - ham and pineapple crepe = delish! It was honestly one big info-mercial.

2. Sunday we had dinner with Andrew's cousins again. It was Chris's birthday and they had us and one other couple over for dinner. Ele is a fantastic cook! I drank fruity Belgian beer and I must say I enjoyed it a bunch! The cheese in Europe are mind blowing...i can't get enough!

3. Monday night I made Enchiladas for dinner. Mexican food is INSANELY hard to find. Tesco has an "el Paso" section, but once I got everything home and cooking, the Enchilada sauce looked and tasted a little like pasta sauce and the fajita seasoning was more like BBQ sauce from back home. But my enchiladas were made with cheese and spicy refried beans too and somehow, mixed all together, it was actually pretty yummy! There was also a guy trying to steal something at Tesco and was getting taken down by a bunch of security guys so that was entertaining... I made friends with the deli ladies, filling them in on want I saw during the scuffle :)

4. Tuesday - I went over to Ele's and she took me and Victoria, the cutest baby ever, on a tour of the city/neighborhood and then to IKEA. We seriously spent 2 hours wandering. In the car, it's insane to see just how close we live to the gi-normous mall :) I didn't really by anything at IKEA because we STILL don't have our sea shipment.

5. Update: apparently the boat that was carrying out sea shipment, like the plane, also had some "mechanical difficulties" and had to be transferred to another ship. Instead of arriving the UK on Saturday, it was supposed to get in today... we'll see what happens!

6. American TV in the UK - on the mid-level cable plan, on a daily basis, we get: lots and lots of Maury, two and a half men, an occasional friends episode, some America's next top model, Keeping up with the Kardashians, and that's about it! Since I like trashy tv, I haven't had to struggle too hard to find something to watch but Andrew and Justin have not been impressed..

7. Andrew and I got invited to Bernie and Alison's wedding this weekend in Windsor! Bernie is our friend from Baltimore also recently relocated to the UK and is marring a Brit. Should be a lot of fun! I got a REALLY great dress today from French Connection - love it!!

8. Good eating by the house discovered this week with Justin - Nando's: a Portuguese chain with a small, simple, menu and a sauce that makes my teeth hurt and me drool uncontrollably because I can't control the hotness in my mouth...so good; Masala Zone: bomb indian food chain - try the chicken samosas; Wagamama: another chain - noodle bar with the BEST coconut ice cream with mango sauce and coconut flakes ever!

9. Andrew bought a grill... we fought over this grill. we are eating with plastic utensils and on paper plates, but apparently we absolutely had to have this grill right now. And it's sitting in my living room...

10. I found a group called The Make Lounge that runs all kinds of arts-n-crafty workshops!! The first one I want to take is called Knockout Knickers! You learn how to make undies!! Andrew promised to get me a sewing machine if i stopped giving him a hard time about the grill :)

11. I've had a bit of a stomach bug this week that has been extremely unpleasant and resulted in some weight loss... things finally seem to be turning a corner so I'm hoping that I'm on the mend!!

12. My parents got me a Bamboo tablet to help me with my graphic art. I used it for the first time this week to help with one of my projects. The idea was to create a brand mark for a Spanish winery called "Baila" or dance. here are some of my "sketches" I came up with :)




I promise to include more pictures in my blog going forward... I MISS EVERYONE!!