Happy New Year!

Whoa. 2010. That' insane.

Hope you had a lovely start to your new year, and may you keep your resolutions for at least a week ;)

Love.

Reverse Culture Shock

I thought that was a big joke. But it's not. Well, to be honest, i'm not shocked by my own culture. Obviously. It's not hard for me to rejust being back in america on a cultural level.

It's difficult being back on a normal level. It's so difficult being back in my suburban town. Where i am stuck. Not having the tube just a few blocks away, and an entire magical city at my feet. Where i can do anything, even hop on a train and fly to another country. Anything. But instead, i'm back in the states and i can't even get into town.

It's like being dunked in hot water and then immediately thrust into freezing. Not time to really adjust. Not that i really thought i'd need adjusting. It's easy enough falling back into an old routine, or old habits. But i just spent the last four months trying to break out of my old habits.

I know it will get easier, and that eventually everything will fall back to normal but i'm not really looking forward to that either. I think what all us LDA kids are feeling right now, is that we just want to go back.   Although i love being home and seeing my family and friends who i have missed desperately--i really just want to go back to that city that i had begun calling my home.

America?

Well, I'm back. Almost a week. It's been a little difficult, some things i certainly have to get used to again. But it's getting easier. I do miss it so much, and i think i'm going to make a list.

But firstly, thanks for reading. I'm so glad i got to keep in touch with my family and friends through this little blog and i've had a lot of fun with it. And i'm glad you've liked it too!

I'm trying to decided if i should keep it up, make updates from Trinity...so let me know what you think. :D

But for now i'm going to enjoy doing nothing for once! Yay! And catch up on all the american television (like GLEE) i've missed out on! :D

cheers!
xx t

ps. Hopefully in a few days i'll have all my pictures that i took VIA disposable camera/my last polaroid. So those include our last night together and thanksgiving! I'm pretty excited! :D

Tim the Tube Man :D

I can't even begin to explain how unreal it feels right now. I'm done at LDA and have one day in London left? Egads.

So i won't. Instead i'll tell you about "Tim". I might have mentioned Tim before, but he's our tube station guy, and the nicest person--always ready with a smile and wave. We see him practically every morning, and he always loves to chat. I didn't realize this, but it looks like everyone loves tim JUST as much as we do...the BBC actually wrote an article about him! So now you'll get a little insight into who i see every morning. It's true, riding the tube can sometimes be annoying, crowded and rather sad because people are piling in. But every time i walk into warwick, or leave to head home--seeing Tim makes it so much more cheerful. We had to say goodbye to him on Thursday...i will so miss seeing his smiling face every morning.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/low/people_and_places/newsid_8358000/8358871.stm

My City

Yesterday i was walking home from the tube station after going to the Apple Store to have them check out Moby. Lately it's been warm (considering it's december) and a little rainy. Last night it was lovely--especially in oxford circus. It's so shopping/touristy heavy i don't usually make my way down there, but i must say with the misty christmas lights everything just looks so beautiful.

So anyway, i'm walking home from warwick tube station and I started to realize that in a week (just about) i'll be home. And that taking a quick trip to the apple store is not going to be as easy as just taking the bakerloo line to oxford circus. OR  even running down the street for a quick late night cookie from Tesco. Or even simply making some tea (because at home i don't have one of those water boiling tea maker things which i do here...xmas present anyone?). And i realized despite the fact i want to get home, see my family and friends and really return to the normal routine...I'm going to miss this city more than anything.

I realised (i still can't get used to this s instead of z thing) that i've lived here from 3 months, and that i've really found a comfortably place here. I never thought i could live in a city, and grated i have a lucky situation here but still...i've loved every moment. I do wish i had gotten more time to explore, there are some places i just haven't gotten to go. But that just means i'll have to come back.

I realized i would miss this place more than I realized. I was so worried about doing all my work (obviously i still am), and getting home, and everything else...that i forgot how much i was going to miss this places. My comfy little flat, everyone in the program, going to see shows every week....but I'm getting ahead of myself. I've decided that one of my last days I'm going to list everything that i've learned/will miss about london.

Alright, silly amounts of work this weekend, but Sinead and i are finding time to slip in some fun. We're going to the movies today and tomorrow we're FINALLY going on the London EYE. ( £16 later my friend.)

I'll be seeing you in a week and 1 day.
Love,
T

It's ALIVE!

Goodness.

If you hadn't heard, my computer had a little accident. It's rather a mystery, but basically we had some technical difficulties. But, for some miraculous reason we're back in business! So i didn't want you to think i'd forgotten about you! <3 On the contrary, Moby (as some of us fondly call my little white mac) just needed some time...to...wake up i guess.

Anyway, HAPPY DECEMBER! I cannot believe it's here. And that tomrrow is friday. One week and i'll have my last day of classes. I'll be home in 10 days? That's unbelievable to me. I can't believe i'm leaving so soon.

Love, T

Weddings, Bath and Harrods!

Well, playing catch-up again! But this one is rather fun! Lots to chat about! :D So we must jump back a few weekends ago, i guess we'll start on friday night. First, i guess i've got to explain.

My friends Sienna and Aylia go to school together in California, and they are the best of friends. They've lived together this past summer in LA and they love each other soooo much. You think of one, you think of the other <3 And they decided to get "married" (just like how matt and i finally did this summer, it's more of just a fun celebration). But we decided (because we're all drama kids) to have a little ceremony and each of us would take a part. It was SO lovely. We had SUCH a great time! <3 Sienna was the bride, Aylia the Groom, I was the maid of honour and Geoff was the best man. Then we had a few bridesmaids, Eddie was our Reverend...it was great. We had x-lovers and crazy uninvited in-laws. It was so silly, but we had so much fun. The ceremony actually was really sweet, they wrote each other vows and gave each other best friend necklaces (well they already had them but they put them on each other). Geoff even made a bouquet out of newspaper (it looked so good) and Sienna threw it! Alright, onto the pictures!

Maid of Honour, Bride, Groom and Best Man <3

(Don't they look SO lovely?)

Throwing the Bouquet!

Pandemonium!

(Steph ended up getting it!)

Glowing with married bliss! :D

hehe Best man and Groom <3

Making it facebook offical ;)

Cutting the cake (well it's actually cheese).

I just think this is really funny :D

It was one of the best weddings i've been too, although i've only been to about 2, but it was so much fun.  

It was great being with all these wonderful people, being silly and having a hilarious time. But also, it just reminds you how important the people you love are to you, and that sometimes it's nice to celebrate love, no matter what kind--be it friendship or romance, sometimes it's just nice to get together and celebrate it. Wow, i know that sounds cheesy, but there was a moment when each of these wonderful ladies was describing how important the other one was--and i must say i got a little teary eyed. (But are you really surprised by that?)

ALRIGHT. So the next morning we woke up rather early and took the bus to BATH! It was pretty much raining and cloudy all day, but we had so much fun! First we had lunch at this little pub on a side street of Bath. Had some yummy chicken fingers ;) And then we headed off to the bath house!

Ann, Aylia and Geoff...see they could have build the Baths!

Ok, i should explain this. After you do the Bath Tour you can have a taste of the waters in their restaurant. And, it takes like warm egg water. It's terrible. Ew.

Now, the bath tour is really cool. Before you can even go outside you have like an hour or so in their huge museum learning all about the baths! We had lots of fun, and you can also do a deal where you buy your ticket to the bath houses AND the fashion museum...which is of course what we did. So we then headed (in the pouring rain) from the Bath Houses over to the fashion museum!

It's a really quick museum (like 1/2 an hour) but its cool! They have so many different outfits from all different eras! From elizabethan all the way up to now! But the best was the dressing up area. Oh yeah. It was hilarious!

Trying to be the mannequin.

Corsets! She's SO tiny!

We even got Geoff to do it!

It was just as fun as it looks!

hehe, hats! (this was in the little kid section we technically couldn't play with...but they hats were too tempting!

So the fashion museum was fun, but really quick! So we ran out into the rain again and went to the museum i had been waiting for!

JANE AUSTEN! Yay! :D It was this tiny little house, but it was so cute! They had this guy at the front door dressed up as a man from her era. It was really cute. First you go upstairs and have a little introduction to Austen, her time in Bath and basically her life. And then you go on this little tour downstairs of some costumes and books and such. It was kinda small but was really sweet. And of course i got some stuff in the gift shop--but the best part is the tea room. On the top floor they have a little tea room where you can go and have scones, cake and tea. It was FANTASTIC. Everything was so yummy, and all of us thought we were going to die we were so stuffed!

Classy (Please note, we did not have tea yet...we're just that cool.)

SO MUCH FOOD. WE ATE (practically) EVERYTHING!

Scones, cake, cucumber sandwiches, clotted cream, jam, and tea <3 SO delicious. We got what they called the Mr. Darcy (of COURSE).

Sorry, i ate everything. my bad.

So, the Jane Austen museum was lovely. Had so much fun! Sadly the guy dressed up was gone after we finished our tea break, so there is not picture with him (despite the fact we really wanted one).

And then we walked home, it was so dark (even though it was 5PM)! And we took the bus home! Bath was wonderful, and I certainly recommend you go! (It's about a 3 hour bus ride from London).

And then, Sunday, Sinead and i decided to head off to Harrods! If you don't know Harrods is a HUGE department store, kind of like Macy's in NYC. With window displays and a silly amount of christmas decorations inside. The first 1/2 we were there was "browsing only". It's so overwhelming, it has 5 floors, and each one is so decadent. But it was lots of fun. This christmas their theme is Wizard of Oz! And every room was playing christmas music. It made me want to run home and start putting up xmas decorations (THEY even played some ELLA! I was so happy)

It's huge.

We waited outside the store with a CROWD FULL of people. It was crazy!

Oh, you know, just your everyday department store...

Christmas WORLD!

Sinead <3 The toy section was like 5 rooms, it was AMAZING...they had so many different toys, it was hard not to buy everything. Especially the ignoramus stuffed animals!

Because of the wizard of oz theme, they had one room FULL of red slippers for you to try on. And i believe most of the £'s go to charity. :) Nice job Harrods.

It was overwhelming but really cool! It's just so huge, and there are so many different rooms full of EVERYTHING. From pet world, to pianos, to books and £5000 jackets! But it was lots of fun.

Alright, i'd say thats good for now. Later i'll update all about Ireland...with my lack of pictures. Sadly my camera loved ireland so much it decided to say there. But i can steal some pictures from Ann.

Again, i hope you all had a lovely thanksgiving! i can't believe i'll be home in 2 weeks. It's crazy.

Cheers, (and love)

Tierney