Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas.

It's an odd thing being away from home on Christmas. There are so cues signifying the approach of the big day that I didn't have here, and that made it hard for me to realize that it is indeed Christmas. Like...:

Mom and dad getting down decorations from the attic.

The guest room being overtaken by wrapping paper.

Working at the Pig with last-minute pottery orders and a frantic Allie.

Scurrying through Target and the Mall looking for gifts.

Going to the Christmas pageant.

The advent wreath and scriptures leading up to the 25th.

Seafood gumbo on Christmas eve...

But I guess some things about the holidays never change no matter where you are for Christmas, and that's nice. For example, Christmas lights! They may not be lining my house (er, flat) but they are all over the city, they are beautiful, and they just make me so darn happy. There's also Christmas music playing in all of the stores and on the radio, non-stop Christmas movies, the overwhelming need to buy chocolate and desserts... There's plenty to get you in the mood. Plus there are attractions like ice skating and Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, plus snow for crying out loud. Snow! Snow and mulled wine and minced pies and all sorts of little English cues that have helped me realize Yes, Stephanie, it's Christmas. .

This year it came and went like any other day though. Well, a few differences: none of us had to work, we ate much more cheese than can possibly be healthy, and nooothing was open. So it was like Christmas in that I spent the day relaxing, eating, and watching Christmas movies, but it was a little different being so far from my traditional surroundings... I wasn't sad persay, I don't think I've been here long enough to be properly depressed about missing Christmas at home. But it is definitely something I'll be happy to share with friends and family again once I'm back stateside.

I spent last night and today with the flatmates, minus Jess and plus a few. Loly's sister Pope (pronounced "Poppy," not like the head of the Catholic church) is in town from Chile, Jen N from Australia came over to our flat, and Benjamin and one of his friends joined us last night as well. It was kind of fun to explain our different Christmas traditions to each other. Loly and Pope made a drink for us last night that's white wine mixed with canned diced peaches - syrup and all. It was pretty sweet but delicious. I said that we usually have seafood gumbo on Christmas eve and found myself trying to explain "gumbo" - and after a story about finding a pearl in my oyster, then I had to explain an oyster!! Can you believe it? That was kind of hilarious. I was also the only person who had ever actually seen a version of the Nutcracker, let alone the real ballet. I never realized how much I loved that story until I was explaining it.

Since we spent so much time together last night and today there were plenty of other things about one another's cultures that we've been learning. For example, both Jens (from Canada and from Australia) were both raised without a religious affiliation - Jen N has never even been to a single church service. So I tried to explain the concept of the "Bible Belt" and I think she was kind of taken aback... creeped out, honestly. Like she didn't know these sorts of places exist. Veronica had a funny cultural bit - in Spain they eat a grape for every toll of the bell at midnight on New Years. She is very worried that she won't have any grapes if we're out on New Years Eve so I told her we'd pack some in our purses.

And recently I've been asked several questions along the lines of "Is it really like that in American high schools and universities - the ways it's portrayed on TV and in movies?" And I honestly don't know how to answer. I never considered myself to have had a normal high school experience what with it being a new school and so tiny. And when you think about all of the teen shows and movies and those ridiculous stereotypes - the jocks, the cheerleaders, the freaks, the geeks, the emo/goth kids... and in college - the parties, frats and sororities, football games... my initial reaction is like Of course it's not like that in real life! But then I start to think about it and, well, I don't know what it was like in high school in Australia or Chile or Spain... or Canada or England or even California for that matter. Maybe my high school and college experiences were kind of like that...? High school, at least, could have been a TV show. All those rich kids with no rules in a brand new school, that's a gold mine for hilarious plot lines, ha. And of course we had the cliques, the popular kids, the wannabes, the youth group kids... maybe it's all not so different from the movies after all.

Tonight we watched 10 Things I Hate About You - classic, came out when I was probably 10 or 12. In one of the opening scenes two kids are wondering around the quad and one is pointing out all of the groups to the other - the cliques are awesome. There's the typical jock/cheerleaders, but then apparently there's a cowboy clique, an edgy/coffee-sipping/hipster clique, white Rasta clique (really?), and the "future MBAs." So they go walking in a room and there's all these cowboys and I'm thinking, seriously, other countries think that we have cliques of cowboys running around because of movies like this?

So the point is - if there even is a point - I'm still trying to figure out what to tell these people. Here I am, a representative of the US, and very likely the only person from Arkansas that they will ever meet, and I'm supposed to confirm or negate what American life is like according to teen movies.

I'm not sure what any of that had to do with Christmas aside from the fact that I just got done watching 10 Things I Hate About You and explaining "prom" and "fraternities."

I got to video-skype with the family for the first time tonight and that was absolutely delightful :) :) Made my day! I finished the book The Help, which Mary Rogers sent me, last night and now I'm on to Scar Tissue, an autobiography by Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers. To be honest I don't know if I can stomach all 400-odd pages of this, I wish that someone else had written it... just cause you can write rad lyrics doesn't necessarily mean you should write your own memoir I guess? haha. But it was loaned to me as well and I've got nothing else so I think I'll go for it.

Tomorrow is "Boxing Day." I've had three or four explanations of this but I still don't know what it means, all I can figure is that it's become somewhat equal to Black Friday in America. These are different explanations I've heard:

1. Has to do with the homeless going door to door the day after Christmas asking for boxes and leftovers (depressing or what?)

2. Has to do with boxing kangaroos (the Australian told me that, go figure)

3. Has to do with the aftermath of Christmas and cleaning up, boxing everything away for next year (call me crazy but this definitely sounds the most legit)

4. And then there's my own pre-conceived notion that it has to do with actual boxing, Jermaine Taylor style.

I'm off to H&M and some other stores on High Street Kensington tomorrow to get some black ankle boots I've been eyeing (thanks Allie!) and see if there are any other bargains calling my name.

Larnie comes Monday and I couldn't be more excited! I feel just like a child looking forward to Christmas! Wait.. that just happened...

Tata now and hope everyone had a lovely holiday,

Steph xoxo

More photos.

With Jess and Veronica, our little tree in the background!

Same night - in the snow with Veronica, Jess, Dom, & Loly.

Holiday photos.

On the last day of class/ first day of snow!

With the Ice Bear in Trafalgar Square, haha - His skeleton is made of bronze and the ice has been carved around him. He's already lost his head :( It's a global-warming-awareness thing.

Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park!

With Valentina (a Chilean friend of Loly's) and then with Santa.

Out with the girls in Camden at a club called Koko - looks like an old theatre inside, very cool. From left to right: me, Valentina, Veronica, Jessica, and Loly.

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Honestly it's been looking like Christmas ever since I got here around Halloween. They have no Thanksgiving to slow down the autumn-holiday-anticipation fever so there have been Christmas lights up since early November.

I got out of class last week on Wednesday and was greeted with my first English snowfall. Elvin and I gave a presentation on Reality TV (cause that's normal) and then walked outside together on our 15 minute break from class - the doors opened to the courtyard and I saw gigantic flakes falling and couldn't help it, I let out a huge gasp of glee!! Elvin was so tickled by my reaction that she took a picture of me. A couple of girls across the courtyard shouted "We just did the same thing!"

On Monday I got back my first paper with an A on it and the comment "Utterly perfect in both style and content." Pretty pleasing response Olaf, thank you thank you! I guess I can call up the Millsaps English department and tell them thanks for the preparation. I don't know my grade on the paper I turned in Wednesday yet, but I'm so delighted by the first grade that I hardly even care!

Since Wednesday I've seen quite a bit of snow. On Thursday we decorated our sweet little tree in the flat. I made some mulled wine and as we were decorating it started snowing again - have I mentioned the snow yet? And last weekend the girls and I went to this Winter Wonderland that is set up in Hyde Park - it was like a state fair dedicated solely to Christmas. It was awesome. There were rides, games, delicious foods like Belgium waffles and German sausages, and an ice skating rink. We walked around and enjoyed the environment, drank mulled wine and ate and ate. We also visited the markets at Brick Lane and Spitalfields where I can tell I'm going to have a fashion field day once I get some money.

Speaking of fashion field days - I've been wearing shorts with tights - talk about fashion risk! (Larnie.) I love it though. It's very comfy. Of course, that was before it became absolutely FREEZING... I've been layering leggings and "trousers" for the past few days because of the cold. (Trousers = pants, pants = panties. Some things you learn the hard way.)

I can't believe Christmas is this weekend. For one thing, I've been here 2 months?? It feels like I haven't been here anytime at all. I'm surprised that I'm not exactly homesick with the holidays and everything. I think I would be if I'd been away from home longer before these holidays started rolling around.

Funny little things will make me a little homesick though. A mom left the shop the other day with her two daughters simultaneously bickering and playing. They looked about 3 years apart in age, just like me and Allie. They reminded me of us the way they were picking on each other but just get the other's attention, not to be mean. Or I'll see a dad with his little girl or a mom and her teenage daughter and start to miss the 'rents. On the tube the other day I had a strange sensation: you know how certain smells can really trigger memories? Well I smelled something that reminded me so much of Grandma Claire's house. I figured that someone must be wearing a lot of Mary Kay, haha. But it definitely made me long for home a bit.

Larnie comes to visit in ONE WEEK which is very, very exciting! I have pleeeenty of ideas to keep us busy but I really just can't wait to catch up with a best friend face-to-face. I'm also excited about introducing her to the friends I've made here.

I will post some pictures from the past couple of weeks in a bit.

Much love from London,

Steph

I'm back!

These past couple of weeks have been so busy, sorry I haven't kept up with the blog! I got out of class this week so I've been writing papers, working, and enjoying an increasing social life (thank goodness). It snowed for the first time this week - on both Wednesday and Thursday! We decorated our flat Christmas tree (not like Flat Stanley - haha) this week and it started snowing while we were doing it - so perfect!

It's getting late now so I'd better hit the hay but I'll write some updates later on. Just wanted to let you know that I am in fact alive and well :).

London Lights.

View from atop the hill in Hampstead Heath.

Just happened to be around Harrod's last night. I love that window display above... the dress, the tree, the lamp, with the dining room chairs in the foreground and make-up counters behind... Ahhh that dress is to die for. Did I already mention the dress?

Then of course I had to get someone to take a solo pic of me in front of the photo booths and Harrod's lit up for Christmas!

B.E.D.B.U.G.S.

At first I didn't really know how I've failed to tell anyone about this yet, and then I realized it's because it sounds so disgusting and weird that I was embarrassed.

I didn't even know that bed bugs were still around/ even real. Previous to living in this flat I've only heard of actual bed bugs once: when I was about 10 I did a week-long summer day camp in Baton Rouge at a restored plantation called Magnolia Mound where my grandmother was a docent. We did all sorts of old-timey things like churn butter and see how sugar was processed from the cane, but that's beside the point. I remember being on a tour of the plantation and in one of the bedrooms she said something about bed bugs. Later, at home, I looked them up in the gigantic dictionary in our living room and was horrified to find a very gruesome drawing of this creature - That thing could be found crawling around in people's beds?? Ew!

So for the first 10 years of my life I didn't know they were real things, and then for the next 12 I didn't know they were still around, threatening to bite while you sleep tight.

Apparently around the time I moved into this flat Loly had realized she was getting bitten by something in her sleep. I'm not sure what research led her to discover they were bed bugs, but I noticed she had stripped her bed of the duvet cover and sheets. The next thing I knew she was throwing out the entire mattress as well as her chest of drawers and shelving. Then Veronica, my roommate, started to get odd bites - she compared them to Loly's but they were different so we all thought that Veronica's must not be bugs of the bed.

But the bug people were coming the next day to spray Loly's room and walls, so they decided they should spray our room, as well. Well I'll just say I was not entirely excited because this required us to strip our beds and remove everthything - EVERYTHING - from our closet, shelves, drawers... everything. Basically we would have to move out. I was like Ok, so I don't have any bites and I'm fairly certain this isn't necessary, but I kept my mouth closed.

Then over the next week or so Veronica got more and more bites and she was itchy and yada yada... It was such a mystery because her bites didn't look like Loly's, she couldn't actually SEE anything in her bed, and - this is the weirdest/most fortunate part - I was showing no symptoms of bed bugs! My bed is literally less than a foot from hers. She was waking up every morning with more and more itchy spots (maybe it was measles?) and I was waking up... with... nothing.

Ha so it was really hard for me to share in her frustration with this situation. I tried to be sympathetic, but everyone kept being like "I think they just like some people more than others" and honestly I was starting to get my feelings hurt by these little buggers (get it? buggers? bugs?).

Anyways, Veronica's battle with the bugs (which I'm still not convinced we had) got so intense that she decided to throw out her mattress as well. So she and Loly have been sleeping on the couches in the main room for the past, like, week, and I've had a half empty room all to myself.

This Monday the bug dudes came by for the 2nd part of the treatment and we had to go through the whole thing again - move our crap out of the rooms, re-wash the duvet and covers, wait for the treatment to dry for hours before going back in the room... and now Loly and Veronica are downstairs huffing and puffing and heave-ho-ing putting beds and shelving together. (I helped Veronica, don't worry - but then Loly entered the scene with Benjamin to help and I excused myself to Jenn and Jess's sanctuary upstairs to "write my paper" aka write my blog).

So there you have it, the saga of the bed bugs that may or may not have actually existed. Although I'm pretty sure that Loly did have them in her room, but I think that Veronica just had a weird allergic reaction and might be a tad paranoid.

This is Monday in my room with my bed still flipped over from where the bug guys were spraying everywhere. Notice the empty closet.

PS, we don't have a hammer so you should have seen Ben and Loly putting together Ikea shelves and drawers using the handles of carving knives to tap the nails in. They were like deranging Christmas elves.