Talk about a weekend jam packed with fun things – I guess ‘spontaneity’ is my new middle name.

Before I start blabbering on about my weekend I just have to be serious for one second.  Can you guys believe that my first month here is already over??  I can’t.  Know what I also can’t believe..?  Today is the FIRST day that I’ve seen rain here in London.  All us Americanos thought all it did was rain here – but then again we don’t always expect there to be 80 degree days in September.  I guess global warming is to blame..?  I’m no scientist but that sounds like it makes sense.

So let me tell you a little story about my weekend.  Friday night I met up with a friend I had studied abroad with back in 2010.  Gemma (British) went to the same school as me in Madrid – Universidad Pontificia de Comillas – and we hung out quite a bit.  I guess it was an easy friendship since we both spoke English.  Well, four years passed and we finally got to meet up again, this time in her neck of the woods.  We met at the Holborn tube stop and headed over to a shwanky outside bar in Southbank.  It was under a white tent and lit up pink, blue, and purple.  There were small tables and white leather couches for post-work schmoozing and decompressing.  We grabbed some Prosecco, picked our little white table, and reminisced about our Madrid days.  After finishing up there, we went to a restaurant called The Real Greek.  It was basically Greek tapas – you pick 4 or 5 small Greek plates to share and they stack them on a display in the middle of your table.  I’ve never had homemade hummus that tasted so good.  (Side note – I realize all I do it talk about food in these blogs.  Don’t worry, I promise I won’t get fat)  After finishing up our tapas from the Greek Gods we bid adieu and agreed we would definitely need to hang out again.  After a long week it was nice to get back to the flat reasonably early rather than staying out all night pretending I could keep up with the cool kids.

Saturday was just as early of a morning as a week day.  I got up at 6 for a workout and met a co-worker at Westminster for another tour: The Houses of Parliament.  I admit that I am definitely not a politics nut but it was cool to hear how they did business over here.  We had a two-hour guided tour that morning with an absolutely hysterical English woman, about 75(ish) years of age.  She was spunky – making sure to intertwine a joke into every room we visited.  We saw all the important chambers – House of Commons and House of Lords – the Central Lobby, Queen’s Robing Room, and many others.  Unfortunately you can’t take pictures in any of the pretty rooms here either so all I have is one on the staircase and entry way where they actually were allowed.  Serious security in these important buildings.  After the tour, coworker #1 and I met up with two more coworkers for brunch at Dean Street townhouse.  I know, I know – here she goes talking about food again—sorry not sorry.  It was delish.. I got myself a mimosa alongside scrambled eggs and salmon.  Pretty darn healthy, dontcha think?  I’m on a serious salmon kick these days.. I want salmon in my sushi, in my salad, with my breakfast and with my dinner.  Hey, it’s better than fried fish n’ chips, right?  After we wrapped up with brunch I broke off from the group for my next adventure: NFL on Regent Street.

Yes, you heard me right.  It was an NFL extravaganza on Regent Street, central London.  As most of you know, the NFL hosts a game in London every year but since it has been so successful, they are having THREE games this year – one in September, October, and November.  Unfortunately my Pats aren’t playing but it’s still pretty cool.  So, they had banners running the entire stretch of the street, athletic challenges and games, all kinds of American football paraphernalia, and a live stage with announcers, coaches, and players.  I met up with my mom’s friend’s son (Eric) again and watched as the Miami Dolphins walked out onto the stage.  If you already saw my Instagram I apologize for repeating myself but Tannehill is one fine lookin fella.  They all said their little pump up speech and then they brought out Dan Marino.  You won’t believe me but I saw at least 50 people in the crowd with his jersey on.  Actually, on that same note, I saw every single NFL jersey on Regent Street that day.  It didn’t matter that it was just the Dolphins and Raiders playing this weekend – anyone that had even the slightest interest in American football was sporting their jersey.  Lots of TB12s in there – only saw 1 Cam fan, sorry Spence.

After they cleared the stage, Eric and I decided we were going to grab a beer somewhere close.  We walked up through Picadilly Circus in search of a pub but continued walking to Trafalgar Square.  To our surprise, there was a Japanese festival going on.  There were at least 30 tents of different Japanese cuisine, a group of karate kids putting on a show, and a full choir of tiny Japanese ladies singing in their native tongue.  I fought the urge to purchase an authentic hand-held fan and stand in line for mystery meat and instead, continued on my way through the square.  Eric and I walked all the way down to the Thames as we chatted about some of the places we wanted to visit.  We both mentioned Greenwich (again, pronounced ‘Gren-nitch’) as a hopeful future destination and decided right then and there that we would just go.  We were already at the Thames and you can just take a water taxi over there anyway.  It was £16 round trip for two people total – not bad at all.  So, we hopped on the next boat and took a 35-40 minute cruise over to check out the Prime Meridian.  For those of you that haven’t put the pieces together  yet, Greenwich is at 0° on our map, which is where Greenwich Meantime (GMT) came from.  We base all of our time zones off this.  Once we got off the boat we stepped into this serene, quiet oasis swept with cobblestone side streets and winding greenery.  What a perfect place to run – too bad I had been wearing HIGH HEELED BOOTS THIS WHOLE TIME!  I can’t even tell you how bad my feet hurt – for like an entire day after.  From 8am – 11pm I had heels on, walking around everywhere.  Never again.  Ok, end rant, sorry.  So, we walked around the park to the Royal Observatory to see the actual Prime Meridian line.  Unfortunately since we decided on a whim to make this trip, we were a bit late and mostly everything was closed.  Not to worry, we got pictures so at least there’s proof we were there.  After a couple hours of meandering, we sat down for a nice salad and a cider.  The boat ride back was gorgeous – all of London was lit up, reflecting right onto the river.  I would recommend just going for a boat ride at night, even if you don’t have a destination.

Sunday was another day full of activities that I had not planned on.  It was the first day in weeks that I actually slept in a bit and didn’t get up for a workout.  After the ~7 miles in high heeled boots I didn’t even think it was possible.  Didn’t matter though, my Sunday brought another 4-5 miles of walking again… this time in flats.  I made myself a quick breakfast and headed out for some shopping!!!  First stop: TK Maxx in Covent Garden.  Ladies and gents, I was thoroughly disappointed.  I expected it to be like TJ Maxx but better.. it was just crap.  So I walked about 10 more minutes to Oxford Street instead for some real shopping.  That street will literally swallow you whole.  I went to Primark, H&M (twice), Accessorize, Bershka, Zara, Boots (The UK CVS) for some necessities, and a sports store for an England “football” jersey (Gotta play the part next week when Spence and I go to the game!).  Don’t worry, I didn’t buy stuff at all those places.  But I did get a couple nice jackets and a pair of boots.  Not as successful as I had hoped but at least I took care of the Ireland essentials – still crossing my fingers for no rain (EVERYONE – cross your fingers for me PAH-LEASE!!!).  After about 4 hours of non-stop-shop I was ravenous so I went into ‘EAT’, a Panera-like place, and got a quick salad.  Ugh, I hate sitting at a table alone in public.  ..Just pretend you’re on your phone doing something really important…..

I stopped at the flat to drop everything off, change into my Pats jersey, and head into West Hampstead to meet Courtney.  We were going to the NFL football game at Wembley – ballerrrr!  Her bf had an extra ticket and asked if I’d tag along… duh!  On the tube ride in there were no seats so I was standing by the door.  At one of the stops the door opened and there was a boy, around 12 years of age, sitting with his parents at the stop.  He was wearing a Gronk jersey and spotted me sporting Brady.  His face lit up and he waved at me like we were best friends.  Pats fan?  Of course we’re best friends.  I returned the smile and gave him a “you’re the man” point.  Doors closed and my best friend was gone.  Anyway - I hadn’t been to Courtney’s neck of the woods before but I knew she was near Abbey Road.  Obviously we had to go check it out.  I was absolutely SHOCKED when I saw it.  It was a teeny cross walk on a random side street with regular traffic.  You wouldn’t be able to pick it out for anything – If Courtney hadn’t pointed it out there was no way I would’ve known.  The cars and buses were beeping ferociously as all the dumb tourists tried walking across in a Beatles-like fashion while another random stranger took their picture.  Ya, we did the dumb tourist thing too.  It is a miracle there are no cars in the background of our picture – I thought for sure we would be run over.

Eventually we got back on the tube and arrived at Wembley to meet up with her boyfriend and boyfriend’s friend.  We were totally amped when we heard the US National Anthem playing from outside the stadium as we waited.  Once we got in we followed the guys down to our seats… down, down, down, we were only about 6 rows from the end zone.  You couldn’t have asked for better seats.  We were in the Raiders fan zone which was fine because we needed them to win  - but they didn’t.  What a stompin – what the heck are the Dolphins eating?!?  Again, every NFL team was represented in the 90,000 person stadium.  It is freaking ginormous!!  Court and I got a couple Carlsburgs and enjoyed people watching.  Dolphins and Raiders fans are pretty entertaining.

In all that excitement I almost forgot – more translations!

1.  Lorry = truck 

2. Boot = trunk (like the trunk of a car, not your booty trunk)

3. Boot Sale = yard sale out of your trunk (ya, I guess that’s a thing here)

4. Nappy = diaper (I have no idea how that came up in conversation)

Welp – I will leave you with that for a while.  This week I will be super busy with work preparing for a week off in Ireland!  T-5 days: Can’t wait to come back with some Irish tales for ya!

I didn’t abandon you, I promise.  I’ve just been sitting here eating bon bons and watching BBC.  Pffffff ya ok.

I guess I have a lot to get you caught up with from the past week+.  Let’s just get the translations over with at the beginning, shall we?

English-to-English translations

1. Rolly poly = forward roll  (as my family knows, this is also what I call MY glass in Grammy’s kitchen cabinet)

2. Jacket Potatoes = baked potatoes (because it looks like the potato is wearing a jacket…….?)

3. Take Away = Takeout (pretty straight forward)

If I remember correctly, I left you hanging last Wednesday, right before my FaceTime dates with Kho and Val, later to be joined by Jbug.  So awesome to catch up with the girls, even though they made me stay up until midnight my time.  The following night, I was lucky enough to have been invited to a work dinner with all the IT wizards from the Barcelona office – they were here to get the new London office up and running before we officially moved in.  If you’ve ever been to Spain you will not be surprised when I tell you that we didn’t sit down for dinner until after 10:00pm.  If you haven’t been to Spain then just believe me when I say they are crazy and never sleep.  But…. They are also super awesome.  Want to know why?  (I’m going to tell you even if you just muttered no).  They were adamant that if we all sang happy birthday to a random person at our table that we would get free shots from the bar.  I played along but gave them a look like, “You know we’re not in Spain, right?”.  Welp, I was dead wrong.  Not even 2 minutes after we finished the last note of our song did a platter of shots arrive at our table.  ¡Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa' dentro!

Friday I was greeted by a visitor, Mr. Glenn Harris, great co-worker and even better pal.  Arriving a bit groggy and jetlagged, he still managed to get me out to ‘sight-see’ Temple Church during my lunch break.  It was a short visit but well worth the trip.  I was reluctant to pay £4 to go into a church but I did it anyway… it was gorgeous inside.  Many of the walls were dedicated to memorializing WWI, featuring detailed timelines, statues, paintings, and quotes.  The ceilings were lavish, intimidating, and tall while the stain glass windows brightened up the room with a cheerful stream of radiance.  We took our time reading the excerpts and admiring the architecture before I headed back to do some more work.  That night I joined a couple of my coworkers again for dinner before meeting Glenn out at Brewdog Camden.  For those of you that don’t know Glenn, he’s a beer addict.  No, not an alcoholic – just really really REALLY likes beer.  Craft beer to be exact.  That’s pretty much what this weekend was going to be about but I welcomed it because I wouldn’t have done it otherwise.  At BrewDog we tried a few local beers that were delicious and chatted with a guy named Guy.  He introduced himself, “Hi I’m Guy, just your regular old guy”.  My friends, Guy was most certainly NOT just your regular old guy.  In fact, he has been to 49 out of the 50 American states, lived in the UK, Ireland, Australia, China, India, Japan, the Caribbean, and several other countries.  He works for short periods of time to save money and backpacks all around the world on his own.  He admitted that he didn’t really have much money but I would argue that he is one of the most wealthy individuals I have ever met – I haven’t met anyone that has a wealth of experience that could match Guy’s.

Saturday was an early wake up call for… you guessed it… beer.  Glenn insisted that we start the morning off with a mini brew-crawl, hopping around to 3 different breweries before noon.  First stop was Kernel brewery which was of course in a very industrial area.  The cool part was, there were actually a lot of artisanal shops within that little industrial pocket, including an amazing Italian shop decorated with cheeses, meats, olives, and spices of every kind.  Grammy Selvitella – you would have had a field day in there!  So, after we had a couple at Kernel, we tried some of the free olive samples at the Italian shop and made our way over to the craft honey garage.  Have any of you actually eaten honeycomb before?  I  had no idea that was regarded as a snack but they had them packaged up like lunchables.  She let us try a few different flavors and, although the honey was delicious, I was not a fan of the wax that built up in my mouth after the honey was gone.  Apparently you’re supposed to eat it but I was rude and spit it into a napkin.  The soft-spoken honey girl assured me that I am not the first one to have done that…  Second stop was Beer By Numbers Brewery.  Oddly enough, the brew master serving us was from Maine and had previously worked in a brewery that Glenn frequents back home.  Instant best friends.  Small world.  Third stop was… I actually forget the name, but they had an excellent porter.  After I impatiently waited for Glenn to finish up his conversation with the third instant-best-friend-brewmaster I finally got us onto a train back to central London.  We had to make it in time for our Buckingham Palace Tour! 

Wowzers that place is incredible.  In all seriousness though, it was one of the most well done audio tours I’ve ever done.  They had the symphony music going on in the background, fine Brits describing each room in full detail, and sample speeches from the royals.  Each room sparkled brighter than the last.  The walls were all draped in silk, lit by the crystal reflections of many chandeliers.  There were trapped doors, original paintings, interactive timelines, and all of the royal children’s’ toys.  I couldn’t have been more impressed by the execution and feel so lucky to have been inside the palace walls in the 2 months out of the year that it is open to the public.  (P.s. No pictures allowed inside so you’ll just have to use your imaginations).

That night we hit up another special beer release event – Zwanzee Day.  I guess it’s also big in the states, well, really all around the world but I’d never heard of it.  We were there for quite a while and met a wonderful older couple from Greenwich (Grenn-itch) who told us all about their travels.  They had been married for 30 years and have a couple kids but they were trying really hard to “be cool”, they said.  I reassured them that since they were sitting with us at the beer event, they were certainly still “cool”.  I am hoping to make it over to Greenwich at some point in the next few weeks because they made it sound like one of the most beautiful areas outside of London.  I’ll keep you posted if I get there.  After Zwanzee-many-hours-day, we headed into Picadilly Circus for dinner.  Since it was already 10:30pm we had to really search for a restaurant that was still open.  Lucky for us, we found an absolutely amazeballs ramen joint, rated 90% on urbanspoon (had to be good, right?).  Glenn got some sake and I may or may not have had an entire craft of wine to myself.  I was so done with beer… don’t judge.  After we soaked up as much sodium as our organs could handle, we headed out to find somewhere that wasn’t a club.  We failed a bit in this area.. not too many pubs still open at midnight.  So, we went to the casino.  We pretended to gamble and I thought it was a good idea to get one more glass of pinot noir.  Holy gasoline – I have no idea what was wrong with that bottle but it was not OK.  I guess casinos don’t specialize in wine.

Sunday was not as early of a morning as we had hoped… I’m sure you can imagine why.  Eventually when we got up we made our way into Seven Dials Soho for some brunch at Kopapa.  It was just by chance that I found a cheapish but nice restaurant still open for brunch when we would be able to get into town.  Great find… spectacular farm-fresh eggs, salmon, hash, and organic fruit smoothies.  Oh, and coffee – LOTS of coffee.  We left brunch and started walking toward our next destination, the Churchill War Room, but stopped at Trafalgar Square on the way.  Curiosity came upon us and we decided to head into the National Gallery for a look.  We didn’t spend too much time there but were in awe that there were so many originals.  Monet, my favorite, was absolutely everywhere, as well as some originals by VanGogh.  I was shocked they let you take pictures so I snapped as many as I could.  Once we left we headed down the street to the Churchill War Room which was the secret underground headquarters for the British government throughout WWII.  Another audio tour very well done but I wish they had told you at the beginning that you really need at least 5 hours to see the whole thing.  After a while we tapped out and left – the light of day was calling.  We emerged from the underground and I took Glenn by Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and over to the Tower of London.  As we strolled the cobblestone from the tower to the bridge, we walked past Drew Barrymore.  WAIT WHAT!?  Ya, you read right, Drew freaking Barrymore.  She totally saw that we noticed her and briskly went on her way, hand in hand with her hubby and the nanny holding their son.  I got a quick snapshot though, obv.  #paparazzi  That night we got dinner in Covent Garden and headed back to the flat so Glen could figure out the next leg of his trip through Europe.

Monday and Tuesday, work work work… yawnnnn.  But Tuesday night was the first time I had taken the train outside of London.  A few of us had to go down to Portsmouth for a two-day meeting.  We stayed at the (not-so) Premier Inn and I was greeted by a giant bug the first morning while I was getting ready.  You know how I am with bugs.  That was a project.  Another fun fact to add is that we went to a quaint, delicious, Italian restaurant the first night by the marina called Zizzi.  One of my French co-workers cautioned us to not eat here because “zizzi” actually means something not so quaint and delicious in her native language.  Think “male genitalia”.  Ya.  We ate there anyway and I thought it was bomb.

So, I’m back here in the flat now and looking forward to a weekend jam packed with fun plans.  I am hoping to give you another update next week before I leave for Ireland.  We’re in the single digit count down now – 9 more days!!  McKenna and McSelvitella are getting our Guinness on.

(That's Drew Barrymore in the brown jacket!)

Woah... Do I have a lot to tell YOU.

I’ll try to pick up right where I left off – I think it was Saturday evening before I went out for the night.  Well, this starts out pretty funny actually..

I took the double-decker bus by myself for the first time into Clapham Junction – about a 40 minute ride – to meet some friends.  The agreement was to meet around 9:30 at Northcote records, a bar on the main strip.  I arrived a bit early so I got myself a cider and waited by the bar.  As some of you know, I haven’t been able to use my phone unless on wifi (still had a US number this past weekend and would be roaming if I used it), so I couldn’t text my friends to let them know I was there.  I waited, waited, and waited.  It was almost 10 so I asked the security guard if there was another Northcote records.    ….Ya, I was at “The Northcote”.  Northcote Records was a couple blocks down.  That was embarrassing.  Anyway, I casually placed my cider down on the bar and walked away like nothing happened and I wasn’t the loser standing at the bar pretending to text on her phone. 

But then – the night turned around.  I got to Northcote Records, which was jam-packed, and met up with my friends.  We had a couple drinks and then co-mingled with a group of guys and gals from Ireland.  They were beyond fascinated with our “American accents” and couldn’t get enough of it.  They had been in London for only about a year, so not entirely familiar with the city and still completely obsessed with Ireland.  I told them I would be going to their homeland in a few weeks and they were just elated.  They were by far the nicest people I have ever met.  I wasn’t surprised since all I’ve heard about it how nice the Irish are… I can now confirm that is 100% true.  I totally plan to hang with them again but boy can they drink.  I’m going to need to get my stamina up before that happens again.

It took a while for me to get up Sunday, thanks to my nice Irish friends and my failed attempt to keep up with them.  I really just wanted to chug a Gatorade and sleep for the rest of the day but NO.  That is just not an option, Holl, you’re in London, GET UP!  Ok, Ok… I got up.  Got in a workout to sweat out the Jaeger, got myself ready, and met Courtney for a day out on Brick Lane.  On our walk over I saw a sign by a café that said “We have ICED coffee!”.  Wow that was music to my ears.  We stopped in and I ordered a large.  The nice café worker handed me my iced coffee, which was just a cooler version of regular coffee in a plastic cup with straw, sans ice.  I guess my expectations were set too high.  Man I could go for a dunks pumpkin iced right now.

We made it to Brick lane, walked down the street where Indian-restaurant owners tried to reel us into their pristine-but-empty curry palaces.  It smelled delicious but we decided to keep walking to see the real thing.  Then we got there – the Brick Lane indoor market.  I am not kidding when I tell you they have every single type of food in there to choose from… well, everything besides American.  They had Indian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Ethiopian, Mexican, Italian, English, Spanish, Irish, German, and some I hadn’t even heard of.  Since we had our hearts set on curry, we both went for the Indian booth.  We got a giant, heaping plate of curry chicken, mixed vegetables of all sorts, topped with spices and other random sauces, for just 5 quid!  I think I ate a third of it and was immediately full.  Then, we walked around the other side of the market which had everything from scarves to dresses, purses, jewelry, phone cases, hats, and rugs.  All hand-made and all awesome.  We took some time to peruse and then went down the street for a look at some other sights.  We saw a guy selling coffee out of the top of his car and the queue (line) was pretty long.  I mean, wouldn’t you buy coffee from a guy simply because he was selling it out of the roof of his little black car?  I would.  But I didn’t because I was still full.  We saw more shops, more food, and then we saw crepes.  It had been a couple hours since we had the giant plate of Indian so we decided it was time for a banana Nutella crepe of goodness.

After we finished drooling over our delicious dessert, we started on the hunt for a bar that was playing the Pats game.  JetLag, the bar from last week, wasn’t playing it so we starting calling everywhere we could think of.  We found out that Hippodrone Casino in Leicester Square was playing most of the NFL games so we decided to try it out.  Guys, I am never going to another place to watch a game while I’m here – The Hippodrone is LEGIT.  An American guy runs the entire back lounge where he has separate theatre-like rooms set up for every single NFL game.  Additionally, he welcomed us with an American bar food menu, featuring Coors Light, wings, and nachos, before mentioning that there was going to be a wing-eating contest at halftime.  I told you, this place is legit.  And of course, since it’s a casino, they are open 24/7.  So no matter what odd hour you may have to watch your game, you can count on the Hippo to be at your service. 

Let’s take a small commercial break to add a few more words & phrases to the English-to-English dictionary:

1.       Car Park = Parking Lot (self-explanatory, I know.  Just different and sounds a bit funny)

2.       Way Out = Exit (Again, self-explanatory.  But I literally have yet to find a sign that says “Exit”.  Everything says “Way Out”.  The only Exit sign I saw was on Brick Lane because it was a name of a restaurant… which is also confusing in itself.  Do I even want to eat there?  Or do I just want to leave?)

3.       Are you alright? = How are you? (Just another way to greet someone but it’s confusing at times.  Yes, of course, I’m OK.  Why, do I look sick?)

4.       Mind the Gap = Watch out (I love this one.  Sounds so proper when the automated voice on the tube says “Mind the gap between the train and the platform”  Surely, automated lady.  Thanks for the heads up!)

5.       Canapés = Hors d'oeuvres (I guess this is more of a French-to-French translation but the English say canapes rather than our preferred French name when little food items are served)

Another thing that I want to mention because I am proud of myself: I can now convert Celsius to Fahrenheit in my head without using an app or google.  Small victories.

Monday was a long day.  But TUESDAY… Tuesday was a great day.  Work was very productive and concluded with some other larger victories, only to be interrupted by a fire drill.  Ya, they do those here too.  The funny thing though, is that the alarm went off twice with another automated lady saying “the alarm is going off.  We will let you know if you should evacuate the building”.  HA!  Hold on a minute while our automated lady checks to see if there is a fire and then she’ll let you know if you need to run down the flights of stairs.  Eventually she told us to get out and not use the lifts, but it was a drill so don’t fret.

That night was absolutely incredible.  A couple of my coworkers were invited to an event put on by London Partners, featuring Deval Patrick, the MA governor.  It was just the two of them but they kindly extended the invite as I am a fellow Bostonian and would be able to “translate” for them.  Pahk tha cah in Hahvahd yahd does get a bit tricky sometimes… but at least Deval is originally from Chicago.  We took a taxi to Vinters Hall after work, over by the London Bridge area, where the event was being held.  Our name badges were waiting and a glass of champagne was too.  It was quite the networking event so I’m glad I had a suit and some business cards – really came in handy.  Before mingling with the big wigs, I took a moment to check out the room.  It was old-fashioned London – giant burgundy room, adorned with chandeliers, a ceiling outlined in gold and velvet accents.  We saw the podium set up in the back center so we stayed around that area as we chatted with business professionals and enjoyed the canapés that were being passed around.  One of them was a single spoonful of lobster and mini asparagus… like holy crap, right?  I don’t even like lobster but I ate it of course.  A few spoke at the podium and then introduced Governor Patrick who made his speech brief but memorable.  My favorite line was “We make friends before we make money”.  This was the reason he was here – his goal is to join forces between MA and other strong, educated, and motivated countries, cities, and organizations so that we can all be successful together.  Bravo, Mr. Patrick.  I was fortunate enough to have a quick chat with him and take a picture to commemorate that special occasion.  He was a really great guy – he is definitely a politician.

Today I finally was able to unlock my phone and get a UK SIM card through O2 so that I can actually use it off of wifi.  If you haven’t gotten my new number yet and need it, make sure to message me on Facebook and I can get it to you!  Otherwise, my work number, email, Facebook, Instagram, etc. are all still the same.  Before I go, I want to give a quick shout out to Steph Whitney – I’m currently wearing my “home” shirt, outlined with the shape of Massachusetts.  Love it, thank you.

“Oh, American.  How exotic!”     ..ya, I’ll get back to that in a bit.

Woo that was a busy week!  Sorry I haven’t been able to entertain you kids with a post for a few days.  Works been bananas but no worries, I’m still enjoying the stress.  So let’s see, where should I start?  Ok – here’s an update on my English-to-English dictionary:

1.  “Are you pissin on me? = are you joking  (yes, I agree, it’s preposterous)

2. Quid = bucks (i.e. that jacket only costs 5 quid!)

3. Tk Maxx = TJ Maxx (literally the same logo, same idea, London name brands.  I need one of those emojis of the illuminati hands with the heavenly glow above them to put here)

So, if you’re wondering, I’ve kept to my rule of trying, doing, seeing, finding at least 1 new thing every day.  Tuesday after work I decided to take myself on another “little” journey.  From Buckingham, which is less than a mile away, you can see the London Eye.  I figured it was pretty much right around the corner…. WRONG.  I walked all the way down the Mall, through the palace gates, up to Trafalga Square, and down a side street that lead me to the Thames.  Boy o boy, that was not around the corner.  After a casual 2.5-3 mi walk, I saw it, and I saw it at night.  Let me tell you, this was worth the not-so-casual stroll.  I walked up onto the Hungerford walking bridge, which was also all lit up, and slowly meandered across while listening to all the bridge performers and watching love birds take selfies with that picture-perfect backdrop.  Yes, I was jelly.  Spence – you better believe I’m taking you here.  On one side you see all of the different architecture from across the mall and on the other side of the Thames sits the iconic Eye and a treasure-island-like theme park.  You know my level of curiosity at this point so of course I walked through the park, took pictures, and then quickly skipped over to the giant blue-lit ferris wheel like a kid in Disney World.  That thing is ginormous.. I can’t wait to go on.  But I refuse to go solo so that’s gonna have to wait.

Wednesday was another late working night so I didn’t adventure out anywhere new however, I did try some delicious new food.  For lunch, my coworker brought me to this quaint family operated café just a short walk from our temp office.  It was no bigger than a corner coffee shop but had just enough tables for the locals to enjoy their meal.  Their specialty was quish and salad for just 4 quid.  This wasn’t just any quiche and salad though, it was a heaping plate of spinach roasted tomato and feta quiche sided with roasted veggies, lettuce and beet mash, and quinoa with mushrooms.  I definitely didn’t need to eat for the rest of the day.  (but obvs I did).  Oh wait, just kidding – I went for my first run through St. James Park that evening, which is now my favorite running route.  I guess I did go on an adventure that day.

Thursday’s lunch break was even better.  We. Went. Shopping.  The same coworker that brought me to the little quiche café decided it was super important to show me PRIMARK on Oxford Street.  Holy cow that place is amazeballs.  I guess it may be our equivalent to Forever 21 or maybe even Wet Seal – not the nicest quality stuff – but the fashion is truly London style and the prices are lower than low.  I was baffled seeing a winter coat at 20 pounds and an entire floor dedicated to shoes.  My coworker lost me on that floor.  But good news,  I know my UK shoe size now: 3.5.  Actually, that’s bad news.  See ya later bank account.  After shopping we got some lunch and headed back to work.  Later that night I decided enough was enough and I needed to change my Oyster card (Train pass).  In just over a week I had used an equivalent of $250 on my Oyster.  Not okay.  I figured out that instead of the top as you go plan, I could get a monthly unlimited card which is about $200/month.  I feel like I threw away $250 in that first week but you gotta learn somehow.  Problem solved – I have a monthly pass now and using the tube/bus as much as I possibly can.

Guess what happened Friday… I showed a coworker where to get lunch!  He’s from the UK but just moved to London so he didn’t know where to go.  Am I a local already???!!!  Nahhhh.  Later that afternoon though, I met one of the other London office employees for the first time.  He reached his hand out to introduce himself and with a smile I said, “Hi, I’m Holly – So nice to meet you!”.  To which he stopped, raised his eyebrows, smiled and said “Oh, American.  How exotic!”.  I died.  Exotic? American?  Never heard those two paired together.  But hey, call me Mila Kunis.

Friday night I went out for dinner and drinks at Polpo in Covent Gardens with Courtney, a former Bentley classmate.  It was so nice to catch up with her – just makes a big difference to have someone from home with you, you know?  After splitting a bottle of wine over meatballs – ya, I thought the meatballs came with pasta but it was just 3 meatballs, whatever – we went to a nearby bar called “Dirty Martini”.  I don’t really like martinis but this place looked pretty shwanky and a lady earlier on that night gave me a flyer so I said ‘what the hell, let’s try it’.  We each got a different fancy, fruity drink which were both bomb, and continued the chatter until we were just sucking up ice.  Then, we met up with Courtney’s boyfriend and all his “football” friends at Haagen-Dazs RESTAURANT.  Do we have these at home?  If so, I’ve been living under a rock but holy moley this was awesome.  It is literally a restaurant just for dessert and coffees.  The menu has a mélange of crepes, brownie sundaes, scoops of all flavors, toppings, you name it.  I think my sugar levels rose just by turning the pages.  I went with the banana butterscotch crepe topped with 1 strawberry scoop and 1 chocolate praline scoop.  I can’t even describe to you how good it was.  Just image the best food you’ve ever had in your life and multiply it by chocolate.

After that gluttonous escapade I got up this morning, did a bodyrock tv workout, went for a run, and got in a couple hours of work.  It was another really nice day so I got  my act together and made way over to the Portobello Road Market.  It’s a mix between little Italy and a whole lot of other Mediterranean flavors.  This market is open every day of the week but on Saturdays they have a special antique section so I wanted to make sure I checked that out.  What I thought was going to be about an hour of perusing turned into over 3 hours.  They had antiques of all kinds – jewelry, cutlery, tea cups, rugby balls, boxing gloves, purses, scarves, dresses, tools, wood work, furniture, cameras, CDs, everything.  I didn’t feel the immediate need for a 400-year old coin bowl so I bought fresh fruit and veggies instead.  Before I left I definitely wanted to taste something local so I passed by the paella, crepes, quiches, and curry, and got a vegetable & falafel wrap.  Excellent choice.

Another Saturday night out tonight – meeting up with some people at a pub with live music.  Hopefully I’ll get another post in to wrap up the weekend but until then, I leave you with this: 

Cadbury flakes……. OMG.