Great things happen when lost

Last week was definitely tough, the unpacking was done, the newness of the situation had faded, and I realized I had made a pretty big move...(yeah, it took me that long, don't even ask)...and I won't lie, I was pretty homesick, lonely, missing my friends, missing being able to pick up my phone and text/email/call whoever I had a story for, etc. It is really hard to meet people when you are not working or in school somewhere new, those are your typical social starting points, and without them I was feeling pretty frustrated.

So during Saturday morning yoga I devoted the entire time to devising a plan. I am going to hunt down a good running club here (like the good 'ol Snug in Denver - none of this running 20 miles a day shit, just a nice little 5k with some booze and good socializing at the end) and hopefully find somewhere cool to volunteer a couple days a week. I've been doing my research, so as soon as we come back from holiday I'm planning on getting started! I'm also going to start meeting people about potential jobs within firms and hopefully meet some people that way and eventually find a job that I like.

With a game plan in place, I completely enjoyed my weekend! Going out, cooking with friends (we made our Guinness breakfast for a couple friends - and I have to say it was a success!) We also took a Capoeira class in honor of our upcoming trip to Brazil - I highly recommend it! So much fun, and a great workout! We completely lucked out too - we were the only two people who showed up Sunday, so we had some great one-on-one with the instructor. It is such a beautiful sport: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capoeira
Sunday night we went to Notting Hill. Great part of town for sure, very nice and clean and a totally different demographic. But I still am digging the east London scene, just more trendy and gritty - so I guess I'll have to get over there and do some more exploring before I can make my mind up!

Monday was a great adventure - spent the morning working on my portfolio (in keeping with the plan), hit up a great spinning class at the gym, got lost heading home from the gym, which led me to a cool little street/bridge area with a fun looking pub below (it is on the list of places to try) Then I headed out to Denmark street in search of some guitar strings...after tracking those down I decided to get myself lost. I managed to find all kinds of great things/places/people in the process! A group of guys from Belgium asked me to take their picture in front of this theater somewhere in Soho - after I did they kept telling me they wanted a picture with the 'sexy lady' - haha! I of course obliged! Afterward we all went and had a pint...okay, so technically I met some new friends...but they were leaving the next morning...and I think they all just wanted to date me, but hey - I got a pint out of the deal! :)

After a pint with my new found friends, I kept wandering, ended up coming across Chinatown, Piccadilly Circus, and who knows where else. And then, I was hunting for a coffee shop near Piccadilly, when I turned a corner and there was a Whole Foods!!! Totally made me happy! Not quite what I'm used too, but still made me happy and feel a little familiar with something! And finally a place to buy decent peanut butter! :) So my day of being lost was a huge success - and I actually am starting to feel more and more at home here, which is the best feeling ever...

Photos: From Top - Me and my new friends; Cool bridge I found in my hood; Chinatown; Piccadilly Circus

East London Style 101: The perfect jacket

So in moving to London, I have been keeping an eye on how British girls dress...and as it turns out, there are absolutely no rules whatsoever! Amazing! They wear exactly what they want, where they want to, and how they want to...it is perfectly acceptable to wear cat-eye eyeliner at 9am and Converse sneakers and skinny jeans to a club. You have to love a place that no one is judging your clothing, and you have complete freedom fashion wise!

But I have noticed, the major staple of the East London crowd is the funky, trendy, black leather jacket. Think a mix of motorcycle jacket and hoodie...much like the one Kristin Stewart is wearing here (and bonus - she obviously knows what she is doing since she is dating the hottest man in London!)

So Friday I set out on my quest for this ever important clothing item - when it is rainy and somewhat cold, you can never have too many jackets, right?!

I decided to focus my search for my new jacket in the funky, cool, Camden Town. Super trendy, a little over the top (okay, a lot over the top) and has some super cool second hand and vintage shops (among a million other cheaper clothing and jewelry booths) and I was thinking that a second hand coat might be just what I needed - already broken in and well loved so I wouldn't look like I was trying too hard...

I hunted through about 15 thrift shops, went into a ton of leather stores, and came up with nothing...I wanted real leather, of course, and all the side booths had fake leather knock-off of the jacket I wanted. The second hand shops' jackets were either kind of dingy and dirty, didn't fit right, or a little too old school for what I needed. Then I found it! Perfection, in a vintage shop, only 10 pounds! Put it on...and of course, just a little too small... :(

Finally I admitted defeat, was starving, needed a coffee, and was tired of sales guys trying to lure me into their booths and sell me things I had no desire to own...so I set off to find the tube station (an adventure for me in itself)...as I was walking along the street to the tube stop, I passed a shop that said leather...so on a whim I walked in to see what they might have. No expectations whatsoever...and voila! There were about 3 that fit the bill, were real leather, and on sale!!! (okay, in reality they are probably on sale every day, and the cute Turkish salesman was very charming) But after much deliberation I managed to locate the perfect one, the perfect fit, and maybe not the perfect price, but at this point I was desperate and a jacket lasts forever, right? :)

Now I am a content girl...great jacket to rock out the days and nights in...pair it with a gray hoodie, jeans, and boots for a laid back look, or a mini skirt for a hip trendy look...I'm in love...too bad it is almost spring and soon it will be irrelevant for several months! :)

Photos: Kristin Stewart rocking a great jacket; Camden Locks; Camden Town Stables; Bridge across the canal at Camden Town; My new jacket!

Blacked Out

Last night was one of the craziest dining experiences I've ever had...we went to this great restaurant - Dans le Noir http://www.danslenoir.com/london/

Such a cool experience, the concept is you experience your meal as if you were blind! The dining area is 100% completely black, the waiters can't see either...So first things first, get there and choose your food. Well, kind of. There are just four choices, Surprise, Fish, Vegetarian, and Meat. They don't tell you what the actual food is, just that. So we were all feeling adventurous, and went with the surprise, including the surprise wine.

Next we were led back to the dining room by Derek, our server for the evening. You hold onto each others shoulders, and follow him into the blackest room imaginable! He seats each of you, tells you what is in front of you (your silverware, glasses, etc) Then hands the bottle of wine to one of you, and you are responsible for filling your own glasses! Amazing, try pouring wine without spilling in the complete blackness! You get creative for sure. The starter came out first. Some sort of meat with cheese rolls. We all decided it must be pork (or as they call pork here, bacon). It was very good though. Next came out the main course, three types of meat, some mashed potatoes, a few veggies. It is so crazy difficult to eat with your fork when you don't know where/what you are forking up! So I resorted to feeling around with one hand, then stabbing with my other hand once I found what I was going to eat - probably not the best table etiquette, but the only way I could figure out what to put in my mouth! Insane how hard it was to eat, but it was so incredibly easy to find/drink my wine!!! :) Last was dessert - a rice pudding thing with some cookies and chocolates around it. Delish!

The best part of the experience is you have no idea what people around you are doing...for example my ever romantic boyfriend handed me his underwear! Lol! Awesome - so I in return gave him mine! Later they were passed to our friend, who wasn't quite as excited to receive them as I had been! She actually snuck up behind him and put them on his head! Lol!!! He thought it was our waiter, then got pretty freaked out when they started coming down over his face, he thought Derek was trying to suffocate him!!! It was absolutely hilarious! Also a great way to get to know new acquaintances, much easier to discuss sex, sex, and sex when you don't have to see the expressions on peoples faces...highly recommend it for shy people.

At the end of the meal, Derek came and led us from the room just like he had when we were brought in. Once we got outside in the light, we all got to see my bf wearing my bra, and also got to see what we had eaten! They have pictures of what the food looked like, and what it was. The starter (we had thought was pork) actually was goose breast! The main course had been Shark (so we were close on the fish!), Kangaroo steak (I had thought it to be steak), and some sort of African Antelope! Crazy, would have never ordered most of that on my own, but super fun to realized you had just tried 4 things you've never eaten before!

After the restaurant we decided to make the most of our Thursday night, and headed out to a karaoke bar. Along the way we had a Clive Owens spotting (I'm still not exactly sure who he is) And we proceeded to drink as many types of alcohol as possible, listened to some lovely and not so great singers, and I managed to find some new friends from Wyoming. Yes, I came all the way from Colorado to London, and managed to find some guys from Wyoming...apparently my redneck radar is still working quite well :) Weird, but running into someone you share even the smallest thing in common with from back home, can temporarily cure your homesickness! I had been feeling pretty sad all day and for some reason, it just made me feel better! :)

Okay, I'm going to figure out where I can get a nice Kangaroo steak to grill up for dinner...xoxo

Photos: Top - Me and one of my Wyoming buddies - his dance moves and spinning moves actually resulted in some bruising when I was flung across the dance floor! Bottom - My new roommates singing it up!

Bike + 'The Highway' = Near Death Experience

So I experienced my first near death experience on Honey last night...I knew it would happen, just didn't realize it would happen quite so fast! So I was riding down this street called 'The Highway' on my way to Canary Wharf, it was dark, and a little wet since it rained all afternoon, I had put on my last clean pair of jeans and favorite coat, done my makeup, the works. Anyway, I was riding on the sidewalk, and decided to do the proper thing and ride in the road. So I was riding along, and the road got kind of narrow so I was between a wall and traffic. In reality there was probably plenty of room, but a truck went by really close, and I freaked out, put my feet down (the truck was already passed) and caught my tire on the curb. I went down big time...right in the road. Luckily I have quick reflexes and had a lot of adrenaline pumping, so I grabbed my bike and got out of the way, and made my way up to where you could get back on the sidewalk. My gloves ripped right through the palms, I had a huge chunk missing from one of my palms, with some nice asphalt in it, I was wet and muddy, and hurt my hip pretty good! I felt like a complete idiot - and even more embarrassed when a car stopped to ask if I was okay (they were probably laughing so hard when it happened - after they realized I wasn't going to get ran over...) but it was actually really funny after it happened! I got on my bike, and remained on the sidewalk the duration of my trip to the wharf, laughing every time I relived the incident...so I didn't let a little wreck scare me off for good! Having road chunks dug out of my hand with tweezers was not fun, but I think a full recovery should be expected...well, until my next stupid biking mistake! :)

Bikes, Rockabilly, and kickass Jungle Sandwiches

After my 2 days worth of jet lag wore off, the fun began! (Not that it hadn't the minute I stepped off the plane:)

Friday we spent some time getting everything lined up for our Brazil trip in April - and amazingly enough, I think it all went through the first time! I know! Hard to believe I didn't screw something up...

Saturday was yoga and getting a gym membership (crazy cool gym) and then off for my favorite veggie burger from Borough Market...pretty much worth the move to London alone...Then it was on to find my new wheels...that came in the form of an awesome bike, a copper colored cruiser named 'Honey' :) - Still figuring out how the heck you ride: a) in traffic and b) on the left hand side of the road! I'm sure there will be many stories of near death in the future...but the bike is sweet!

Saturday night we went to a super cool club/bar called Gypsey Hotel - it has a really cool rockabilly vibe and crazy freak show type thing and great musical acts. There was a guy there that actually was playing like 3 instruments and singing all at once - and to top it off was really good! Couple burlesque style acts to add a little flavor and it was a party :)

Sunday started perfectly, we invented (or maybe just perfected it) the Guinness and walnut pancake, complete with Irish Cream poured over top, some Guinness and Irish Cream Scrambled eggs, and the Guinness and OJ mimosa...every Sunday breakfast should start with a mimosa, right?! On to Spitalfield Market - super cool market with tons of food and cool little stalls selling things - where I was introduced to the Jungle Sandwich...if the veggie burger from Borough wasn't enough to initiate a move, then this definitely was!

Definitely couldn't be happier, completely loving the city and so excited to spend this week exploring and getting to know it better! (and I'm not going to lie...can't wait until next weekend for another veggie burger and jungle sandwich...)

Photos: Honey (my bike), Gypsey Hotel acts, Making a very Guinness breakfast, Enjoying some jungle sandwiches.

2010 - A New Year, A New Adventure

Who would have thought that my third New Year's kiss would lead to this?
It started with an invite for fish taco's, that led to the greatest 1st date of all time: Fancy wine bar, to divey jazz bar with Mexican food on styrofoam plates (Wahoo's was sadly closed), to a country bar for some two-stepping, to another dive bar (where a random guy flashed his penis in an attempt to attract a female), to the Gin Mill for a triple shot of Crown...

I guess all love stories probably begin with at least some of these elements...

Turns out after a second date that included the promised fish tacos and some more dirty country dancing, we realized that we wanted to see each other again...oh, but did I mention this crazy cowboy lives in London...I live in Denver...

So after a sad goodbye trip to the airport, and thinking I would never hear from him again, I was so happy to get a text telling me he couldn't stop thinking about me! :) A week of emails later we had decided a trip to London was perfect for us to celebrate our February birthdays together...and what better place for a 3rd date than London???

A month later I was in London to celebrate Valentine's Day, my birthday, his birthday, Carival, oh, and let's not forget National Pancake Day there! Sometime during the crazy partying, eating, drinking, pancake making, a trip to Berlin for some more wild partying, clubbing and eating, I realized I had fallen for him...and I guess he had for me as well...

My moving out there in the future was mentioned, but not dates were set. I figured if it actually happened it would be months away and take some serious planning.

But the first night I was back, I knew I just wanted to be back there with him, so we threw caution to the wind, and decided to make it happen! I listed my house for rent on Craig's List, told my parents I was thinking about moving (not the easiest discussion due to the fact they still don't think I know him), and started looking into a visa. Little did I know that my house would be scooped up immediately, so I walked into work a mere 8 days after my return to the states and put in my 2 weeks notice, bought a ticket to London for the 17th of March, and started packing! That is right, an 8 day turnaround between deciding to move, and actually making it all happen!

Who says you need to think about these things anyway???