Counting my blessings, but not my turkey or mashed potatoes

So it's the day after Thanksgiving, and all of you are probably enjoying a nice day off, relaxing and digesting your many pounds of delicious food. Although Thanksgiving isn't officially a holiday here, I am getting to go to 2 Thanksgiving dinners - one at a friend's house tomorrow, and then one at school that is being put on by the North America club on Sunday. So there will definitely be a shortage of mashed potatoes in London by the end of the weekend. But that's all after the finance exam. On Saturday. yup...I spent my Thanksgiving studying finance (and all of my spare time since Monday). Hopefully I'll pass, so it will all be worth it. But this is a big one!

Anyway, among all my studying, I just keep thinking about how thankful I am to be here, getting this opportunity to have such an awesome experience. As sad as it was to be away from family and friends on a holiday, it made it worth it to be here! Even the nerdy, boring stuff like the fact that I'm actually learning a TON is exciting. I've made some great friends, I've sailed in the Solent, I've played rugby in Barcelona, I've met people from so many countries I can't keep count...it's just way too cool. And I can't believe my first term is coming to an end. I'm super excited to get to visit my family and see friends in Colorado, do some skiing, and get to catch back up on that life. It's been a whirlwind of a few months, and I'm just so very thankful to have been blessed with this experience!!





And to top it off, Kristen and I listened to Christmas music and put up our Christmas tree the other night!!
At least that's like a proper thanksgiving. Even if our tree is little, and kinda sad with no ornaments. It really makes me happy cuz every time I walk into the hallway I can see it. :)
Alright...back to the finance studying.

What time is it? TATTOO TIME!

Tattoo? What is it? It's an all day big 'ol party. I have absolutely no idea where the name for the party came from...but I do know that part of the party is the application of (many) LBS tattoos. These are rub on tattoos...or in the case of the party...lick-on. A very strange bonding ritual for the students of LBS....more on that later. Anyway, the day starts off with sporting competitions in Regent's Park. There was a paddle boat race that I missed, Volleyball and Ultimate Frisbee, and Football (aka Soccer for all my American friends reading this) and of course, Touch Rugby!! You know what I did. Touch was sooo much fun. It was mixed, so we played with the boys, and they introduced some different rules than what we play, which made it a bit more challenging, a lot easier to score, and a whole lot of fun! There are pics somewhere out there, but I can't seem to find them. Sad. This was the part of the day that I started saying "TATTOO TIME!" whenever anyone asked what time it was. Love it.

So after all the sporting, it's time for the party, which kicks off at 6pm, it's all over campus, and pretty much every country that is represented by at least one student has a "booth". Some are combined (i.e. North American, Australia/New Zealand) some aren't. Each booth has food and decor representing their country. Everyone dresses up in ensembles that also represent their country...hence the cowgirls from the USA. Aren't we cute? I love the shirts...totally like a puff paint experiment gone wrong (we just used markers). I took tons of pics, but they only let you put so many up on this site. Anyway, below is me and Dan, the other social chair for me stream (on the left), and James. These are 2 of my brit friends. I'm pretty sure they had all agreed to dress a certain way, but half showed up in ghetto looking outfits, half showed up in normal clothes, and Dan wore a tux. awesome.

Then there is Stuart my Aussie friend. We swapped hats.

And Igor, the russian. We also swapped hats, but he had that pic on his camera, and as far as I know, those pics aren't posted anywhere public yet, so I haven't been able to get ahold of them!

As the night goes on, there are lots of entertainment things. The brazilians brought their own dance troupe...at first I thought this was a student! yikes! But the guys on the drums are the students, so that was kinda cool. They had a good time wandering around the campus, stopping here and there to dance

There was also a group that did like the chinese dragon sort of thing. The indian students put on an awesome show. There was square dancing of some sort (i'm thinking it was maybe scottish??!) The AUS/NZ tent had a whole pig on a roast. The Japanese did sushi. There were caprainhas (sp??) and Pims, and Sangria, and beer from around the world. My favorite food was the french table...they did crepes with nutella!! yum yum.

There were henna artists...these are their works on Carolina's and my hands. lovely!

There was also a lady who did your name in Chinese, so I've got that hanging on my wall. There was dancing and singing, and lots and lots of tattooing.

Here is me getting one of my tattoos...

yes, he is licking my neck. No, this is not in any way scandalous. Well, maybe it is just in the sense that he is licking my neck!! But that's how the tattooing at tattoo is done. Why? Who knows. Definitely an odd bonding ritual. (And it turns into a theme wherever a group of LBSers congregates) Very interesting indeed. I've even seen a sports trophy that has been tattooed! crazy! Anyway, the night was awesome, I was sad that it ended, and am already thinking about which booths I should hit up next year!

Not so easy, is it?

I KNOW, I KNOW, IT'S BEEN TOO LONG! I have soo much to catch everyone up on, and so I'm going to do it in little bits over the next couple days, because otherwise, I'll just never do it! The first thing I can think of that needs to be said, is that the main reason I haven't found time to update, is because the social life has continued...but the school life has finally hit and really picked up. It's still awesome, and I'm still loving every minute, but there's definitely more pressure and less time now. The thing is, I don't want to miss a thing here...so when it comes to updating my blog vs. experiencing something here in person, I've been choosing the here. Please forgive me ;)
Classes are, well, classes. I wouldn't go so far as to generalize them as "interesting", "hard", "great", or even "boring"...but they've all been a bit of each. Right now I'm taking Managerial Economics, Corporate Finance, Financial Accounting (FA), and Ethics. Each of these are 3 hours of class per week. We also have some soft skills courses sprinkled in, and a tutorial that is required 1.5 hours each week.
Homework so far has been a bit of a roller-coaster---either a ton, or not any at all. It's hard to get ahead because it always seems like we don't get the assignments on days that have "free" time. I'm getting a bit better at my time management with my course work, but not perfect yet. (I've actually signed up for a quick course on this topic!)
So back to the actual class - it's really a different experience than undergrad. We take every class with our stream (Go Stream C!!) and we have assigned seating, so I sit by the same people all day, every day (I love you Pam and Ruth!) I'm in the very back row at the top of the lecture theatre, which isn't my favorite, although it is nice for getting up to get water, use the loo (I'm so british) and just generally zone out when it gets boring. The teachers are surprisingly pretty young, and we have a lot of female teachers, which is a bit unexpected. They are from all over the place. Right now we have a Turk, Canadian, Italian (2 actually), and Norwegian (I think). The classes can be cool because everyone has their different view points and experiences...but right now we don't get too much of that b/c the courses are the basics that some people took in undergrad (and are therefore bored) and others have never had at all (me! so i leave every class feeling like i just ran a marathon trying to keep up with all the material covered!) I'm looking forward to the electives though, when people actually are in classes because they chose to be and are interested in the topic. I think it'll be really cool to see the class dynamics.
Anyway, that's probably a good enough post on classes. They're not the best parts of school anyway. :) More later!

Has it really been a month??!!

So I've been living in London for over a month now! That is just CRAZY. I can't believe how fast the time flies. And I can't believe how busy I still am! Which is quite evident in the fact that I missed last week's update! And I kept saying I would get to it, and then suddenly it was this weekend, and now it's Sunday when I should be going to bed, but I can't not update everyone!

So given this milestone, I thought some reflections of the past month were in order. I've started to realize that there are many things I miss. For starters (and no surprise here I'm sure):

• Tex-Mex. Even just traditional mexican food would do at this point. Now don't get me wrong, I managed to track down tortillas, salsa, and cheese, and I even inherited a beautiful bottle of tequila (thanks Jess!) but it's just not the same. What I wouldn't give for a trip to Cuba Libre, or Chuy's, or OTB. Or for that matter, Taco Bell! mmmm Taco Bell
• A dishwasher! Yes, can you believe that I am living without a dishwasher??!! This is insane. And it's driving me towards insanity each day. And my poor flatmates have to endure looking at my egg pan every morning, because the pan is too hot to wash before I leave for class, so it doesn't get washed until at least lunch time (that's if I get enough time to come home and do the dishes...if not, we're waiting til dinner)
• Clothes dryer! And fabric softener!! Ok, so I bought the laundry detergent "with fabric softener" in hopes of making my clothes less crunchy. But it just doesn't work. I've developed a new "tumble method"...i.e. I take my clothes off the drying rack, throw them in a pile, and tumble them around to try to soften them up. It works ok. But it's no Bounce in the dryer.
• The dollar. Or more, things being priced in the dollar, or as we like to refer to it here, the American Peso. It's worth about that much

Ok, so that's enough griping for now I think. Some things I've come to appreciate:

• The old-lady cart I take to the grocery store. See, a week ago, the above list would have included a car, but only because I hate running errands like going to the grocery store without one. But now that I have my old-lady cart, it's pretty easy going! And I get a bit of exercise which is always nice.
• Beer. Pretty sure I've talked about this one alot. But you know, I'm a cheap date here. And that's nice for me and all the men who want to buy me drinks. ;)
• 60 degree weather - partly cloudy. You'd think it's a freakin tropical paradise. The sun comes out and the people are all over the park, shirts off, swimming, eating ice cream. It's pretty funny!
• and finally...TOUCH!! I love touch rugby. It is so much fun! And the team is awesome. which brings me to the last bit of this post, which will be a bit of an update as usual:

Touch is getting underway, although we don't have the official kickoff of the year until all the 2nd years are back (it'll be next week I think). I've been to 3 practices and seem to be getting the hang of it. I also met a guy at the pub last week who invited me to join his co-ed team on Tuesday nights. So I dragged Amy and Claire out and we made a good effort and got free beer and food out of it! Always good! I'm going to play again this week, but not sure who else will join me. It's a really good work out because the play basically never stops in touch, but it's to the point that I thought my lungs might explode at one point. You just never stop moving while you're on the field. Subs are definitely a must. Last night was the social kick off for the LBS Rugby team (guys and girls - the guys play proper rugby with scrums and tackling and what not). We had a Pub Golf pub crawl. It was crazy. The guys had to wear hawaiian gear, and we had to wear animal print as we're modeling here. Kristen, Kit, Lori, Christine, and me. Grr baby. So for those of you wondering, Pub Golf is played as follows. Each Hole (Pub) has a par assigned - there are 9 of them. Men's tees are a pint, women's are a half pint. Your score is the number of drinks it takes to finish your pint/half pint. The group of about 70-80 of us were split into teams. There would be a tee off from our home pub, then the team would hike off towards the next one. Playing through is not allowed...if you are still finishing your hole when the next team arrives, it's a penalty shot (literally - you could take a drink to avoid the score, or you can take the score penalty). 9 bars of this. You do the math. Here is my team arriving at the final hole...a bit excited to be there! It was a really good time, of course, although it did dawn on me as I watched some of the crazy guys who were drinking more than was required get sick on the side of the road, that this is the sort of thing I always hear about someone dying at and shake my head at their stupidity for drinking so much. Fortunately, nobody got seriously injured, although there are quite a few shirts without buttons left (every hawaiian shirt, for some reason - i swear i had nothing to do with starting the trend, such as being promised a beer if i ripped open Stuart's shirt so that David could pay him back for pouring beer all over him) :) Once the Windsor had to close we naturally retired to our secret meeting place, where we continued the party. Dancing and singing and just bonding with the team! Good times! I shot 15! It says so! :)

And that concludes this week's upate. Class is starting to pick up, so I'm guessing my blogs will become more boring soon enough. But for now, hope you enjoyed!

This is a joke right?

So I'm definitely having more fun than I should be considering I'm supposedly "in school". This has got to be a joke. Last week was our 2nd week of preterm, and so far I've had 1 day of actual courses. Full day of stat. Not really fun, but the prof is pretty cool and nobody was overtly obnoxious trying to prove how much they know. So that was good. Anyway, I should probably start with Monday, which was Stream C and D Away Day. It was a blast. My group C5 was paired with C6, and we had a great time. It was in Reading ("redding") which is south (i think) of London - 2 hours on a bus starting at 6:45 am! Not my favorite game. But they had breakfast for us so that was good! Anyway, we started out with some of the normal ropes course/team building ice breakers. Our guide tried to use some business analogies that he didn't really seem to fully understand himself..that was kinda funny. But then we got to go on to do some of the challenges and it was a really good time. The first one was that Al got blind folded, and we were given 2 ropes, 2 harnesses, a pulley thingy, and our general surroundings to use to figure out how to get him to the middle of a huge circle, where he had to retrieve a can off the ground, without touching the ground with any anything. We got it done fairly well, and I think it was a good start as far as getting us all communicating and working together. Then we went on to this ropes thing where we all started on 1 platform, and we split in half and had to go all the way around it and cross over each other. It was like a really long tight rope walk. I felt like I should be in Cirque. :) Good times. We did well there too. One funny part was when one of the ropes that help support you got dropped by someone, and so we had an odd numbers situation, and 2 of the boys had to cross the rope together. It was interesting to watch, but they eventually made it, so that was really cool! Afternoon was spent on the high elements, and the first one we did was on this giant pole in the air. You had to climb up, and 2 of you got up there, then you jumped for a trapeze and tried to grab it together. Berrin and I went 2nd. I actually climbed up first, which was kinda scary because the thing is REALLY wobbly, so you have to just hang out and wobble in the air while the other person climbs up. And then climbing up isn't exactly easy either, because there is already somebody in your way, so Berrin basically had to use me to help pull her up, and that's interesting when you're that high up in the air!! Anyway, we were 2nd to go, and I think we were only 1 of 2 teams that both managed to grab the bar from our group! That was pretty cool. But everyone else had different challenges, and it was fun to encourage people to keep going, and to see people that were adamantly not going to even make it to the top, end up jumping for the trapeze. Anyway, at the end, Will and I decided to be brave and go for a farther jump, where they moved the trapeze farther out. I went 2nd that time...definitely difficult to climb up when someone else is already there! Anyway, we got up pretty fast, and counted down and jumped...he made it...my right hand grabbed it but not tight enough to hang on, so I didn't make it. But oh well. That's what the belay (sp??) line is for! it was pretty fun. We did the climbing wall after that, and we all did really well and got through it pretty fast. So then we got to do this balance beam thing that zig zagged way up in the air. I love that stuff. I think Amy has some other cool pics, but she hasn't shared them yet, so they're not gonna be here for awhile at least. :)

So anywho, that was Monday. Tuesday was full of orientation stuff. We had a CV workshop which was pretty boring, but amazing to realize that people in other parts of the world just truly have no concept of a good CV. Very interesting. We also met with our Stream Manager and learned some more about the rules of the game. They have these positions you can apply for called Student Ambassadors, and it's basically their job to do recruiting stuff and they run the Admit weekend and all of that. Totally my sort of thing, but it's a HUGE committment, so I'm not sure if I'm going to apply. I want to be able to do it all, and I'm just trying to decide if this is part of my "all". I'm sure there's more to come on this.

So this brings us to Wednesday, which was my one and only day of actual class since arriving. Business Statistics. 3 hours in the morning. 3 in the afternoon. It wasn't actually as painful as it sounds, and it turns out that although I was miserable at Statistics for Engineers, I'm pretty dang good at the stat we're learning. Not to mention that we skip over the theory because "Excel is your friend". Love it! We also had the language presentation that day, and I think I may have a prayer of starting in Level 2, which means I won't have to be doing language in my first semester (which is supposedly going to be REALLY hard.) Anyway, we ended the day with a meeting of the Poker Club - it was supposed to be a beginners night, but I think i may have been one of few beginners to actually play. I did pretty well...played for over 4 hours and ended up $10 up! Go me! But then...I got home..and I didn't have my key. And my roomies both had their phones on silent and couldn't hear me knocking through their deep sleep. So I had to crash at a classmate's flat (fortunately, they actually have a 'guest room', so it wasn't so bad). But then I got up in the morning and raced home on the tube to catch my roomies before class, throw on a hat, and make it to an optional self assessment workshop, where we worked through identifying our driving values, which is like the first step in career coaching. It was not earth shattering, but it was good to see that my values on paper really do align with my confused life plans...so at least I really am confused and need some guidance, as opposed to just thinking I'm confused. Or something like that. Is it weird that this makes sense to me??! :) It was a good day! And the week ended with a Networking session Friday afternoon. (in case you picked up on it, yes, this schedule means that I had nothing from noon Thursday until 2pm Friday...I ran lots of errands and got my room about 90% to the decorated/tidy place I want it to be. And I opened a bank account. good stuff)

So that's my week 2 update! Tomorrow I have my 2nd class - Understanding General Management - all day again! Folowed by all day stats on Tuesday. So maybe this will start feeling real soon. I just can't get over how cool it is that I'm living in London and having a great time, and I'm supposedly in school right now! Very cool.

And a final note...to all of you that have written me personal emails, I promise I'll respond soon enough! It's just that I've got lots of housekeeping things whenever I am home (like setting up phone, internet, paying random taxes and filling out tons of forms, etc.) so I don't get as much time as I'd like for email. But I do love getting the updates from you and hearing how things are on your side of the world! So keep 'em coming!!

Love and hugs to all!!!

Orientation Daze

My "first week" is over, and I can hardly believe how much has happened! I'm really exhausted, but I've got a lot of pings from people wanting an update, so I figured I'd take a few quick moments to upload some stuff. So the week started and we checked in and got our schedules, nametags, tshirts and lists with our stream and group assignments. Here I am showing off my LBS welcome gear in front of the school entrance! cheesy? yes. necessary? maybe?? Anyway, first thing we did was meet our streams, who we will take every single class with in our first year - and our study groups - who we do all of our projects with for our first year. Go C5 (or, C5 is alive!)
Here we are at our first team pub meeting. Clockwise from me - Al (Morocco), Ken (Japan), Onur (Turkey), Berrin (Turkey/Germany), and Chris (UK). Our own little UN! I'm excited to work with them and I think we've got a good plan at least for getting the year started. Anyway, the week was full of orientation type stuff. Meetings to be welcomed over and over again by all the different departments, the student association, etc. One of my favorite things was when they did a home country role call, and would name a country and then we would stand up. There are 315 people in my class. We are from 58 countries! It was really pretty cool. There are about 50 Americans (Our class is 23% North American) . I've met loads of people, and it's just really neat to be standing at the pub having a pint and realize that you're talking to people from 4 different countries. I try to appreciate it whenever it happens. Another favorite thing was the International Citizen Game. We broke into our countries again, and then presented skits to explain some of the things you should know when working with people from other countries. I made a funny about outsourcing for the USA team - here's a pic of me and some of us on stage right after. Anyway, the week really was reminiscent of Mustang Corral for all you SMU peeps checking in on me. Lots of silly bonding stuff, some serious stuff, but mostly about meeting people and having a good time. And lots of pints. Lots. They drink a lot here. Which brings me to Wednesday...Kristen and I scheduled our gym orientation for Wednesday night at 7pm...which meant we were at the pub for an hour beforehand. Smooth move. But we actually did ok. The gym isn't big, and it was a bit crowded then, so we didn't have to actually do anything on the equipment. They did however check our weight, height, BMI and blood pressure...mine was really low. hmm, couldn't be the stupidly strong pint of british beer could it?? Fun times. Ok, and Thursday was the Career Services day, which was a lot of boring stuff considering I already have a job. But it gave me some ideas for internships and meetings I want to attend to learn more about what else is out there. We didn't have any class on Friday, so I had my first appointment at the NHS facility nearest me (free healthcare!) so now if I get sick or injured it's all ok because I'm registered with the system. hooray for healthy hilary. And then Friday night...which was the celebration of making it through orientation, or something, which is just kinda weird because it's not like it was that hard to make it through. But look at the cute ice sculpture! That's Amy with Kristen and I. She my new best British friend. :) This was before the party really got started. Then they opened the bar, and it was free all night. So we had drinks, then dinner and drinks, then we moved into the bar that is actually built into the school, where there was music and dancing and more drinks. Have I mentioned they drink alot here??? Anyway, it was a fantastic time. Here's a group of us outside, I think after dinner because Amy's mouth is open, and apparantly this is something she does in pics when she's been drinking a bit. haha. it still is making me laugh and this is like the 50th time I've laughed about it! (sorry amy, but you crack me up) Ok, so I somehow managed to pull my butt out of bed on Saturday morning at 9:45ish, and JJ, Kristen and I headed out to Finsbury Park where we joined the ALL DAY softball event run by the London chapter of the Texas Exes. It was a good time, but it was 5 hours of softball. That's a lot when your workouts for the past 2 weeks+ have been walking to the grocery store and lifting pints. In case you're wondering, softball looks the same here as it does in the US, but here is proof.

I played pretty well, which was fun, but then I went out again on Saturday night with LBB and some of her friends. And then I pulled myself out of bed and somehow managed to make it to Rugby practice. I don't have any pics of that, but I'm sure they are to come. I had a blast, except for the tired and soreness, but I am really excited to play on the team. The women play touch rugby, which is good. And they travel all around...still gotta figure out what kind of financial commitment that means, but I'm thinking that'll be a fun and active way to see some different places, so it could be a sort of double good thing. Ok, so that brings me to Sunday night, and although I know all of you get Labor Day over there, so technically today was a weekend for you, it wasn't for me. And I'm exhausted and therefore going to go to sleep. More to come next weekend! Hugs and love to all!!!

Pubs and Clubs

So my first week in London is coming to an end! It's been lots of fun, but wet. Seriously, I had to wear THREE!! pairs of jeans in a single day on Thursday! I had lots of errands to run, and by the time I would walk just a couple blocks, my jeans would be soaked. So then I'd get home and change into comfy warm clothes, just to realize I needed to head back out to do something else. So then I put on different jeans while the 1st ones dried. I actually ended up having to put the 1st ones back on for my 3rd errand run of the day. And then I changed jeans again to go out that night, because it had FINALLY stopped raining and I wanted to be dry! Craziness. Anyway, each night of this first week there was a pub crawl (officially the "Flat Hunters Pub Crawl", the purpose of which is to track down a flatmate if needed. We just went to be social. Then after, usually a group would go out to a club. Kristen and I went out on Tuesday night to a place called the Gardening Club. Here's a pic of us on the way...

Apparantly this club is rather touristy, but to us it just seemed high-schooley. Oh, and all of you from the US...there's apparantly no such thing as ladies get in free. Cover was 10 pounds! (That's $20!!) And this was a Tuesday night at a place that wasn't even that great. Last night everyone went out to a club that they were guessing would be around 25 pounds to get in! Um, no thanks. Kristen and I headed back to Ivor Court (our building) and hung out with some neighbors and just had a good time FOR FREE. much better.

Anyway, we're having a good time over all! I'm really excited for Monday. All 3 of us register at 1:15, then we meet our "streams" which are the people we will take every single 1st term course with. Then we'll find out our groups! These are the 7 ( i think, maybe it's 6) people that will be my group for any stream classes - projects and what not. We're assigned, so I have no idea who I will be with! But I'm excited!! Oh, and we have a group picture, and a BBQ and I'm sure we'll go out somewhere after that.

I've been kind of bad about taking pictures. Mainly because when you have to carry a coat and an umbrella everywhere you go, you don't really want to load up your purse with extra weight! So I'll try to take a bunch tonight (Last night for the pub crawl!) And of course next week as I meet people and everything really gets going! I'm just about moved in, but still have some things at friends houses, so I'll wait to take bedroom pics until I'm really settled in. (Funny thing though...my "double" is actually 2 twin beds, and they moved them apart before we moved in, so now I have to figure out how to make them comfortable when they're pushed together. Oh well!)

Hugs to all!!! Happy Saturday. Oh...and it's very happy here because it is gloriously beautiful and sunshiny out right now! Yippee!!

Casa de USA

Ok, so here we are...the 3 americans living in the awesome flat! Kristen, JJ and me! :) I'm sure we'll have more pics to come, but this is the official first flatmate pic :) Hooray for us!

So far I am having a blast! I love it here, and I love all my classmates I've met so far. All the accents are a little difficult to get used to, especially since we're all really only seeing each other in pubs where it's really noisy! Anyway, that's it for now because it's late and I'm tired! Hugs to all!

Life in London, Day 1

So here I am! I'm in London. I live here! This is weird. I arrived this morning after the craziest itenerary ever (Vail-Dallas-Chicago-London), and LBB was so sweet to pick me and my near 200 pounds of luggage up at the airport! I relaxed with her a bit and we grabbed some lunch, then I spent most of my afternoon and evening meeting my new flatmates and checking out our flat! Yup! We got a flat! We sign the lease tomorrow but we already have the keys, so it's definitely ours! Exciting!!!


Here are some pics:









This is the kitchen (duh). Fortunately there is a microwave so I can practice my culinary skills (aka reheating left overs). I make a mean frozen pizza as well. :) Unfortunately there is no dishwasher! This could be interesting. But over all the kitchen has lots of storage space and should work great!


















This is my bedroom! I am sooooo excited. It is huge and there is a ton of storage space. And of course this is pre-Hilary decor, although to be honest I'm not sure how much I'll really do. Guess you'll just have to stay posted!








That's it for now...I'll take more pics tomorrow after moving in a bit. Exciting times!!

How do you say Thank You??

Ha! I seem to even get teased here! I tried to ask someone that, and he looked at me like I'm crazy and responded "Thank you" with that question sound and real slowly...like I'm a total idiot! haha. too funny.

Today we went on a full day safari. It was an hour bus ride to a point where we crossed the Zambezi River by boat...in the middle of the river you are technically in 4 countries at once!!! Then we got off the boat and we were in Botswana (i got the stamp to prove it!) We had to touch our shoes to this "disinfectant" towel, that was so nasty dirty I have no idea how it possibly does anything. Apparantly it's to prevent the entrance of foot and mouth disease to Botswana (which our guide says is not actually an issue in Zambia, so not really sure about that one) Then we climbed into our safari trucks and those took us to a resort where we boarded a boat for the morning safari. We cruised around on this river and saw an elephant cross the actual river! it was awesome. We saw tons of hippos, crocodiles, Antelope, Impala (like antelope but with kinda curvy horns) and Kudu (like antelope with twisty horns like long spiral noodles!) And of course tons and tons of birds. We saw about 4 elephants on this part and thought we were pretty lucky. This was about 3 hours. Then we went in for lunch and it was awesome...I ate Impala stew! (and yes, I took pics of the real impala, and the Impala on my plate, so that I can compare on here whenever I can finally post pics! hehe) Then back into the jeeps and on into the national park for the land safari. We have some kids with us, and they decided to try to count everything we saw. They stopped counting elephants well over 100 and same with hippos, kudu, and impala. We also added warthogs (Pumba!), Merekats (Timon!), Monitor lizards, baboons, and lots of giraffe to the list. Unfortunately, there are no rhinos in the park we were in, and we never saw any lions or leopards. boo. So i guess i'll have to return to africa and maybe go to a more controlled park where you can be just about guaranteed to see some of that stuff. maybe not quite as good as the wild, but come on! I wanted to see at least one ferocious feline!

Well, my time is up in the internet center, so that's it for now. Tomorrow is going to be a wonderfully lazy day! I'll update more soon!

Hugs!
Hil

Um...I ran with the bulls!

Toro Toro!! Ok, so I'm not gonna give all the detail about the balcony or the general run...you can check out Joe's for that. But where we differ is where Joe and J. headed off to run. They had considered running all along, whereas LBB and I never had any intentions of doing so. Not even a 4am, sangria induced "why not?" moment. Nope! They went off to get ready to run, and she and I headed for the final stretch to secure a place to safely watch from a distance. We were right there when they put up the fence, and climbed on up and got about the best seats you could hope for! Unfortunately, to make sure we kept those seats, it meant sitting on a piece of wood that was 2 inches wide at best, for over 2.5 hours! Can i just say ouch?? I would post pics, but we both only took our one uses so that'll have to wait. We did get some nice video though. Still trying to figure out how to share that.

Anyway, as Joe points out, there was a mistake in the rockets, but as we were at the very end of the race course, we had no idea. We heard the 1st rocket which is meant to signify the opening of the gates for the bulls to enter the course. We heard the 2nd rocket, which tells the crowd all the bulls have entered the course. And then we saw the runners...we cheered and yelled (Ole! Ole Ole Ole!!! Just doesn't get old) and then the bulls came. Just a couple at first, then some more, then what we thought was the last of them. They even have these guys that chase the last ones with big sticks to keep them moving forward, and those guys were there. We got the video out and took about a 2 minute commentary as one of the bulls fell turning the final corner (at least, we think that's what happened) and then we heard what we thought was the 3rd rocket, which tells the crowd when all of the bulls have entered the arena and it is safe to move about the course. Well, LBB and I had this plan that after that we were going to jump in and run into the arena and jump over the wall into the stands to watch. So we climbed down, got into the course and I turned to start running. Then everything kind of becomes a blur. I don't really know what made us aware of anything wrong, or how long it was, or what was said or anything. I just remember turning around and seeing a bull charging right towards us!! I know I warned LBB as I ran away and toward the fence. I could have sworn there were 3 but the boys said 2...regardless, there were more than one, and hence...We ran with the bulls. :) WooHoo! We're pretty much rockstars. Oh, and the boys did the whole thing too, so I guess they're pretty good, too. ;) But really, total adreneline rush and LBB and I still keep looking at each other and saying "We ran with the bulls". AAHH!!!

Ok, well, my little relaxing layover in London before heading to Africa is coming to an end. Time to get cleaned up and head for the airport. I'll try to post again from there on the rest of the trip!

Viva San Fermin!

Wow! That´s all I can say! look at all the people!!! and that cloud in the distance? Champagne!

Here we are in our traditional garb. Above is what we saw when we arrived in the old city...this was about 11:15am and at this point I think we had just located our first drink. Pretty sure the rest of these peeps were drinking all night. You get there and everyone is shaking up champagne and throwing it in the air or have water guns filled with wine... the first 3 guys to look at me said ¨very nice!¨and promptly poured champagne\wine\you name it all over my head and my shirt. Then I just laughed at them b\c I had been forewarned and therefore wore a non-see-through-when-wet top underneath my whites. smart hilary!

We worked our way into the crowds to try to catch the beginning of the parade, and actually ended up right in the middle of the CRAZY town square. I mean, you can hardly breath there are so many people. I don´t have pics of that now b/c I took them on my one-use camera to avoid ruining my real camera. Anyway, more people than you can possibly imagine. The crowd starts singing and jumping and you have to do it too b/c they are lifting you with them it´s so crowded! We saw the rockets go off which signify the start of San Fermin, and then everyone started chanting stuff. Apparantly a fight broke out behind us, so Joe shoved LBB and I to the side and we worked our way out of the craziness and to the side streets, where everyone moves along chanting something, and they crouch down like a bull and sing quiet, then they jump up and down a bunch. Then they scream for Agua to the people on the balconies and suddenly buckets of water are coming down from the sky. Nice b/c it washes off all the wine, champagne, beer, mustard and ketchup that has been thrown at you over the past hour, but kinda cold and surprising. to the left is a pic of the alley we went through. YOu can see the balconies above!

After the craziness we wandered around a bit and drank some wine and coke. Yes, wine and coke. It´s the local drink. We put it in pouches b-c otherwise you risk getting bottles broken all over. Check it out -->

Overall it was a really fun day. I´m exhausted but now it´s time for a nap before we get up around 10pm to go in, eat dinner, and party til the bulls run at 8am! It´s crazy! Fortunately, our sweet housemom, which I´ve decided to call her, has her place about a 15 minute walk from where it all happens, so if we get too tired we can come home and take a little nap. Tomorrow morning we have a balcony to watch the bull run! Should be awesome!! Here we are practicing getting out of the way...

So that´s the update! Having a blast and ready for a nap! Hugs to all!!!

Run Hilary Run!

Wow....so I´m in Pamp0lona and the city itself is awesome. We´re staying in a beautiful newer part of town, but we walk about 10 minutes and we´re where the action is. Tonight we went in and tracked down our traditional San Fermin costumes....pictures to be posted soon...then we went for dinner and drinks. I tried the local drink, the name of which i can´t remember, but it´s wine and coke. odd? yes. good? actually, it´s pretty good! after we wandered a bunch and took some good pics and met lots of people. Tomorrow is the beginning of the festivities, so i need to get to bed. but all is good and lots of fun!!! Run bulls run! Hilary is coming!!!! :)

Lucky Duck in London

Day one of the travels was tiring but lots of fun! I landed at 7:30am and after making the trek to my friend's place, Joe and I went for lunch (fish and chips! gotta start out right!) My friend lives in Wimbledon, which is convenient since, well, it happens to be the Wimbledon fortnight (as I was informed it is called. how very British) So we walked down the street and spent a couple hours being teased by the rain. They would deflate the covers, roll them back, get the net up, the line judges would come out on the court....and then there would be a downpour and everyone would run for cover, only to repeat 30 minutes later. After 2 hours of this, the rain finally stayed away long enough for a match to get going. We had some really decent seats (thanks to Joe for saving them while I hid in the hallway during the last of the downpours) and took in about 2 sets of a singles match. Then we wandered around and just checked out the whole facility. It really is beautiful. Made me want to play tennis again. I was gonna post some pics, but I just realized i forgot my stupid camera cord! argh!
Anyway, after that I caught a quick nap, then we met some other friends for dinner, and now it's time for me to get some much needed rest! Tomorrow will be a boring day running errands to start setting up my new life, then on to Barcelona tomorrow night! Hugs to all!!

Change in plans

So i'm gonna just keep this one going a while longer, mainly b/c i'm now in London and don't want to spend my time here setting up a new blog. That being said, clearly, i'm safe and sound in london. Joe met me to help me get to my friend's place and we're thinking about heading to Wimbledon to try to catch a match. Hopefully it stops raining soon! More to come...

Hil

Now it's time to say goodbye

Well, tomorrow is my last day of work before I begin my educational leave. That means it's time to close Chapter 2 of my blog. I have been a very luck duck and experienced so many cool things over the past 3 years as a consultant. I've taken advantage of many of the benefits, and somehow managed to survive through some of the really tough times. Good friends and a great network that I'm sure will come in handy while i'm away at school. Oh, and my company is paying for me to go to school, and I recently received a promotion! So basically....QUACK!

I realize that I haven't updated this blog in awhile...most importantly, I have decided to go to London Business School! So...I'm working on starting up a new blog for this new exciting chapter, so that my friends and family can keep track of me across the pond. I have a feeling it will be much more useful when I can't just pick up my phone to call my friends at any hour (not to mention that it will no longer be free to use the phone! booo no more mobile phone through work!) Anyway, I haven't yet set anything up, but I'll get it done in the next couple days and post a link here! Hope you all have enjoyed my somewhat sporadic tales. See ya soon from London!

Make that 2!

London Business School admission letter just arrived too! Choices choices!! I'm so freakin excited I can hardly stand it!! :)

WWWOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Admission to Kellogg baby! I'm going to school!!!!

Anxious?? Of course not!

This is going to be an interesting week! All the schools should post their decisions. So far, I'm wait-listed at Michigan, haven't even interviewed with Harvard, and am waiting to hear from LBS and Kellogg. Prayers welcome!

Back to Detroit

Yup, I'm headed to DRC, again.

Expect the worst, pray for the best!

I love auto.

Monday Monday

So I can't find anything to help on at work, which means I'm turning to my blog to use up a few minutes before i return to harrassing the people in my office who might be able to give me something to do.

MBA update: Still no result from Kellogg and complete silence continues from Mich and Harvard. I had my LBS interview and it went SOOOO well. The guy started by basically telling me I was accepted and his job was to make sure I wanted to go to LBS. Then we just sat and chatted about what I can expect, where I should live, what organizations I should join, etc. He asked me a couple of questions so that he could complete the interview form, but I didn't have to do the presentation, which was nice. I do fine with those, but it's just so weird to have to stand in front of a single person and give a formal presentation. In my experience, even with the CEOs that have been clients, we sit down and have a conversation-like presentation when the audience is small. It's just not realistic! tangent. sorry. Anyway, I'm not going to celebrate until I get an official letter of admission from any one of the schools, but I feel so much better about the whole process now. I can relax!

On another note, I've been praying a lot lately on what I want to do before heading to school, because I've been feeling called to serve on a mission trip, particularly to Zambia. It seems to pop up often and it's become very compelling that this is what I should do with at least some of my time and funds for my travels. I'm working through the information and will pray on it some more now that I have details, but I'd appreciate any of you to raise this one up for me as well! More to come!

Think good thoughts!

I've got my LBS interview tonight. A little nervous for it. I feel like last year I was so much more comfortable with interviewing...it's weird how out of practice I feel only a year later. Oh well. Still no word from the others.

Happy Valentine's Day

My new favorite quote: The fact is, sometimes it's really hard to walk in a single woman's shoes. That's why we need really special ones now and then to make the walk a little more fun. (Carrie, Sex and the City)

Thought it was appropriate for this fine holiday. Maybe I'll buy myself a red pair of shoes as a Valentine gift! :)

I'm off to Vail tonight to spend some snow bunny time with some of my pledge sisters - really looking forward to it!

Biggest update: applying to schools again. So far I've had an interview with Kellogg and am invited to interview with London, although the actual interview has not been set up yet. Here's hoping it's a little less stressful than last year!

I'm baaaack!

Ok...I've been inspired by LBBbbbbb so I'm going to return to blog land. Just a little bit, but with the intentions of getting this going to stay in touch and keep my friends and fam informed while I'm *hopefully* at b-school. I'll write more later, but think of this as a teaser (just in case there is anyone out there who actually still checks my blog after a year of inactivity!)