& 1 year later {continued}

 



Amazing girls trip to Amsterdam! I love this city. Even in the winter and highly recommend it! It was actually so cold that all of the canals were frozen over

Carolyn's Birthday!!

 


 

So glad my parents were able to come visit me! We had a great time driving around the south of England. Especially this cute little town of Weymouth. & of course, Mama Joy made friends with a pup.


MOROCCAN PARADISE

 

 
 

France! So thankful to have gotten to go to France twice this summer and stay with Natalie and her mom and pup. It was such a relaxing holiday.

 

Diamond Jubilee Excitement in London & Windsor!

 

OLYMPIC-ness around London!

 

 

SWEDEN--> final trip before 'Merica!

 

 

And Coach K!!

Although, I have seen some amazing places and traveled a lot, I have also spent plenty of time in the Library, at a desk, in front of my computer reading and writing! Good times.

11 Days till I am home!

& 1 year later....

Today, 1 September, marks my one year anniversary since leaving the South and moving to London. I still cannot believe it has been a whole year. I guess time has really flown by but I have done so much, traveled to so many places, met new people, moved {almost} 4 times, and am about to be a 'Master' all in the past 12 months that it really seems unreal. While I absolutely cannot wait to fly back home for my sister's wedding and be surrounded by family, friends, dogs, the USD$$$, Mexican food, & more, my British experience as a whole has been extraordinary and I feel so blessed. God allowed me the ability to move here for a reason and I know my next chapter will be a part of His plan for me as well.

For this post, I have decided to do a collage of pictures expressing my past year over the pond.

1.

2.
3.                                       
4.
1. Mama Joy & I in front of Big Ben last September. Construction for the Olympics underway.
2. Picture of Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland.
3. Bianca, my amazing Italian flatmate, and I on our first weekend together in London.
4. Countdown to Olympics 306 days.
5. 6.
7.    8
910

5. The Apple Store at Oxford Circus the day after Steve Jobs died.
6. Halloween with Carolyn. And Wills and Kate, of course
7. And then we got Bed Bugs!
8. Occupy London at St. Paul's Cathedral
9. First Thanksgiving to actually cook a bird!
10. All of our new friends eating their first American Thanksgiving meal.

11

12 
13 
1415

11. Mer arrived & I completed my 1st semester at Regents Business School
12. Tower Bridge with Mer. Before we went to see Phantom of the Opera
13. Then we went to north England, South Shields, to see Mer's friend, Adam
14. Adam presented us with our first proper cuppa! Tea time was amazing
15. Mer and I ventured over to Dublin too where we froze & went to the Guinness factory

1617
18 192016-20 Amazing times with my BFFs touring london & bringing in the New Year! 

OLYMPIC-NESS!!

& let the madness games begin!


it has officially begun. But technically not till tomorrow night. BUT- the tourists, volunteers, athletes, police, vendors, photographers, workers, & more are in London. The streets are packed, the tube is HOT, & the excitement is everywhere. 


Tonight, my friend, Natalie, & I went to Trafalgar Square to see the Olympic torch make its' final journey through London and on the way to Stratford, the Olympic village. While it was difficult to get a picture, I magically managed to take one. Not very good but at least you can see the torch and that is as close as I will ever get to it. 

 YES. There it is. Small and barely in the frame but if you look to the right, there is the Olympic torch!

Right in front of me but, unfortunately, no flame. 

After sweating among the crazies for an hour & seeing what we came for. Natalie & I headed to the Canadian house. 

The place has turned into the official site for Canadian athletes (family & friends) and special people. So we couldn't go in. BUT there was a Canadian photographer there who asked to take our photo for the newspaper, or something like that. I told him I was American (& proud of it!) but I got to be included in the picture anyways! Natalie and I kissed a police man's cheeks while holding Canadian flags. It was pretty cool. Supposedly Dave, the editorial photographer, is going to email us the photo so that will definitely be my next post! 

Tomorrow morning I plan on going to Westminster at 8:12 am to hear Big Ben chime for 3 minutes (second longest time in history and the first time Big Ben has struck outside its regular schedule since 15 Feb 1952 for the funeral of King George VI) and exactly 12 hours before the 2012 Olympics begin! 

Tomorrow night, we plan to be among the masses and celebrate the opening ceremonies. 

So excited for this fun time when everyone around the world comes together. Hope y'all are having a party for the festivities as well. It will be such a magical time in London that I am so excited and blessed to experience. 

<3 cate

And yet again- Another Move!

So I have found myself in my 3rd flat since moving to London 10 months ago.....


Positives- I am really getting a feel for different areas of London & living with new friends. 
Negatives- I keep accumulating more and more stuff and moving without a car is not too fun. 


My new flat is still in Northwest London, which I think I like the best (probably bc that is the only place I have lived). Queen's Park is a longer tube ride for me now but a really cute area! I have already checked out most of the eateries and am really impressed. Also, my room is huge. It is supposed to be a living room, I guess, but has been converted into a bedroom. The tenants before us also had 2 people living in this room so as the only one now I have 2 desks & 2 closets! 

To complete my England experience, we have gotten into the Euro2012 and went to a local restaurant last night to watch England v. Italy. 

The picture above is of my 2 new Swedish flatmates! Amanda on the left is getting her masters from London School of Economics and Charlotte on the right is from Regent's with me. 


We really got into the game last night and were quite sad when England lost on the last shootout. 


Not much else is new. Just looking for jobs, researching for my dissertation & taking another city scape to France. 


Missing you all but especially.....

my pal Duff!

The countdown to being complete of my dissertation & on my way to 'Merica is 80 days! 

It is HOT, okay! day 3-Ourika Valley

On the third day of our trip, we adventured into Ourika Valley. We hired a 20-passenger van to drive us there (1.5 hours each way and stay and wait for us while we climbed the mountain). It was an all day deal which cost us about $15 per person to put some prices into perspective. The journey there was absolutely beautiful and our driver stopped along the way for us to take pictures, see how argan oil is made and eat lunch.

 Charlotte, me, Natalie, & Carolyn

 I LOVE camels!

 Moroccan women making argan oil

This is where we ate lunch. And yes, we did cross that bridge & no, I did not trust it. 

After we arrived to Ourika valley, a man instantly approached our van and asked to be our tour guide for 500 Dirham, so like $5. Carolyn had read blogs about seeing the '7 waterfalls' at the Ourika Valley and told us that we did not even need a tour guide as it was just a trail. So we then got the man to agree to 300 Dirham= $3 per person. Looking back, I cannot remember our guides name but he saved all of our lives and we paid him more than $3 each. 

 Starting the journey off! this is when we still thought it was a simple trail. 

 This is when the trek got interesting. We had to pay this man 20 Dirham to climb his ladder. Total Oregan Trail move. 

 View along the way. We still went up but you can see the small town we came from in distance.

Family Photo!

Tajine Tajine & More Tajine!

Well I have not written in a while due to finishing classes, my dissertation proposal, my parents coming to England, AND going to Marrakech, Morocco!!! Last Monday @ 3:40 am, my adventures began as Charlotte, Natalie and I trekked it to the airport. At the airport, we met our fellow Moroccan travelers including Carolyn, her 2 American friends, her boyfriend and his friend. And from this post you will see that it was truly a party of a group!

After arriving to Marrakech, we were escorted to our Riad in town. A riad is a traditional Moroccan house or more like palace with a garden in the middle. While it was Africa, I am pretty sure that I am experiencing more culture shock returning to my tiny flat where I have to cook myself meals and can't eat them on the roof.

 Our room. With the lovely Nat

 view from the roof looking down

our living room. We never sat here but it was pretty

At our riad, we had a cook, a maid, and a full-time anything-we-needed guy. He was so nice and always walking us to the cash machine or the supermarket and helping with calling taxis and speaking to locals. Arabic and French are the languages spoken so luckily we had some French studiers with us as I was no help with my spanish.

Traditional Moroccan food is meat and veggies cooked in a tajine or a clay slow-cooker. We are now experts in Moroccan food. And by that we ate it until we got sick. Literally. Remember, Morocco is still in Africa. 

 First- The 'salad'. Or just cold vegetables

 The Tajine!

The reveling of the tajine! always very exciting. Beef, Chicken, Goat...we experienced a variety

The markets or souks were also a highlight of our trip with natives and pushy sellers trying to ask ridiculously high prices and then working their way down to sometimes the equivalent of $1. 

 Shoes, shoes & More shoes. Marrakech was actually the place of the filming for Sex&theCity2 and I met the shoe seller who sold Carrie her pair. 

 Beautifully dyed scarfs hanging in the slums

 Carolyn & Michelle with their Coke

Carolyn LOVED the snakes. And after taking this photo, the man wanted 300 Dirham (Moroccan currency) but I worked him down to 20 after threatening to just erase all of them! 

More to come! this was just day 1&2...........