The Beginning of Time

So our first week in October has been very exhausting. I took my driver’s test and passed so I am now legally allowed to drive. My next step is to learn to drive stick hopefully; I find it very unlikely though since driving stick over here is crazy, especially in Cambridge. While I was in driving class Rob was in school also. He spent the week in classes for being a dedicated crew chief. On Friday, I spent the day at school for orientation and Rob had his last day of class. It was also our 6-month anniversary. So once I got home from school we got decked out and went out to dinner at a cute little Greek restaurant in town. We made it an early night knowing we had to get up early the next day to go on a trip that my school had planned. We were to meet up with everyone from school at around 10 right on the River Thames. This meant we had to leave the house around 730 to make sure we got there on time. The day started out with a boat tour on the River Thames this was all the way to Greenwich. The boat ride was about an hour and freezing cold but it was definitely cool to see the city that way. Plus the tour guide pointed out places that you should definitely visit, so we now have more things on our list to see.

(Tower of London)

(Tower Bridge)

(London Bridge)

(Ministry of Defense)

(Big Ben)

Once in Greenwich the professor who planned it gave us a very short tour of places we should go back and see during the free time that was planned. Well during our free time we went and got Mexican food, the first time since we have been here. It was delicious and it was a chance to warm up. After that we headed to the Greenwich market, which used to be a farmers market but over the years has turned into an arts and crafts market. From there we headed back to Greenwich Park and walked up the hill to the Royal Observatory. This is where the line of longitude was discovered. There was much debate about where the Prime Meridian should be, but since it was discovered in Greenwich they wanted it to be there especially since this is where people who were travelling in by boat would change their clocks. So on the top of one of the buildings there is a red ball that at 1p.m. hits the top and falls immediately afterwards.

This means that boats would sit on the river and wait for the ball to hit the top so they knew to set the clocks to 1. So while we were at the observatory, we stood in both hemispheres at the same time.

(Standing on separate hemispheres)

After the Royal Observatory we headed to the Queens House, which is where Anne of Denmark lived. She was the wife of King James I. It was built because they couldn’t stand each other and their relationship started off very rocky and things got worse. Behind the Queens House is where the King used to hunt and when she first got there he asked if she would like him to take her dog for a walk while they were hunting. Well while they were hunting he “accidentally” shot and killed the dog. She moved to the house shortly after to keep her out of the kings business. After the Queens House we headed to the Palace of Placentia, this is where King Henry the VII was born and so was his daughters Mary and Elizabeth.

(Queens House and Palace of Placentia)

We went there just to see the Painted Hall and the Chapel. There really are no words to describe either of them. Walking into both rooms they leave you speechless. We decided that it was time to go home so we jumped on the train and two hours later we were home. From there we headed to a guys house that Rob works with, he was having a party and we really wanted to go no matter how long our day was going to be. It was a good time and we ended up spending the night there. Sunday was a day to relax. We laid on the couch all day.

(London Skyline behind us)

Last Weekend in September

We actually had a busy weekend. Of course this wasn’t planned but it did happen. We spent Saturday morning around the house doing absolutely nothing so I got online and looked up stuff to do in Cambridge that wouldn’t break our wallet. We knew that there was a zoo nearby but they closed at 5 and it was already 2:30 so we looked up to see if anything was open later than that. We found out about a wildlife park that was open till 6. Not much later but enough time for us to get out of our pajamas and out of the house and still spend a decent amount of time there. Shepreth Wildlife Park is about 15 minutes from our house and really cute. Right when we entered the park, we saw this crazy looking animal that neither of us have ever seen.

Most of the animals were in areas that I could reach over and touch them although there were signs that said the animals’ bite. The fact that they could jump over these walls though, frightened me. All the birds were completely caged… thank god. They had three different types of ponies that I wanted to feed. If you got to the park early enough in the day you were able to feed the ponies and goats. The last time I fed a goat I think I was about 10 and it started eating my hair but I was very excited to feed them. It is a shame that we got there 2 hours before the park closed so feeding them was not an option. We went into the Reptile house and there were no real cages and there was a monkey that was just jumping around over your head. I was not a fan. I love seeing animals I don’t really like to be close enough that it could jump on me though. After the ponies we followed the signs for Big Cats. This also led us near the nocturnal house, I figured that if they are letting monkeys and lizards roam free they probably have bats in there just flying around so I refused to go in. We finally got to the big cats and were let down because the tigers weren’t out. You could still see them, they kept them in 2 separate rooms but you could go to see them both. It was cool because the tigers would come right up to the glass and you really see how big they are.

The other big cats that we saw were Mountain Lions, but compared to the tigers they were house kittens. Our other favorite animal there was the wolf. They had two of them and they were so cute, reminds me of why I want a husky. They followed us as we walked along their cage, so adorable. After that we walked around a little longer and then headed home.

On Sunday we decided to go see the American War Cemetery in Cambridge. The cemetery is for American soldiers who died in England during the wars in Europe. There is also a wall full of names for soldiers who were in unknown graves. It’s a beautiful place and really informative.

School is for the Weak... sorry for the plagiarism Steve!

I am officially registered for classes at AIU in London. We headed down to London yesterday and checked out the school for the first time. I wanted to try my first commute with Rob so if by chance I got lost I wanted to be with Rob. The walk to the train from our house isn’t long at all; at most it is about 15 minutes. The National Rail is the first train I take and it is an hour to get into the city, it isn’t a bad ride at all though. It would be better if I could read on the train but I can’t so I’ll deal. I take the National Rail into Tottenham Hale, which is where I jump onto the tube. The tube is the London underground and one of the easiest forms of public transportation I have ever ridden. I take two separate lines from the first station but it takes about 10-15 minutes. The tube is awesome there are no time schedules for it; you just go down to the line you need to take and then you wait. For all the train jumping Rob and I have done the longest we have waited for a train is about 2 minutes. They run all the time and very frequently. Once I am done with the tube, I walk about 10 minutes through a very nice part of London and it is part of the shopping district so that might be a problem. There is even a mini mall in the tube station that I end in. The school is straight down the street from my station and it is really nice. The area is incredible and is rumored to be a celebrity hot spot. Apparently there are tons of UK celebs that live around there and one of the singers from the group Oasis lives in the building right next to school. The school is a total of 3 buildings including administration. There is the business building and the fashion building. We got a tour of the fashion building and it is incredible. It is full of studios and it has pictures of projects done by the students and during the quarter there will be pieces shown on mannequins in the building. I am only taking 3 classes but they were worth 5 credits each. I will be going to class Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for 5 hours a day. My classes consist of: Garment Construction, Marketing Fashion, and Principles of Design 1. The program is set up that there are core classes that both design and marketing students take so it is easier for them to communicate. I am very excited to be taking some design classes. I have had a couple of ideas before for some article but now I will be able to get them out of my head, onto paper, and then onto a person. As for Rob, he has been working like crazy still, but he has class everyday next week so it will be regular hours. I am going with him on Wednesday, while he is in class I am going to get my license. Big steps are happening over here and we have a busy month coming up, but I will fill you in once it all happens and hopefully we will have pictures. Sorry for all the text.

Excuses, Excuses...

So I know that I haven’t updated much and I would love for my excuse to be that we are super busy. Well Rob is super busy, and I am sometimes. On the weekends we keep busy with sightseeing and doing stuff around the house but I will get to that soon enough. On August 21^st, we went to the U.S. Air Forces air show in Duxford, mainly because there was a special demonstration that they were doing that Rob was volunteered to be a part of. Basically Rob was playing the part of a down pilot and the Para Rescue guys would come in with the helicopter and get him and bring him back on the helicopter. Rob was so excited to do this because he works on these helicopters everyday and now he was riding in them for fun more than for work. Hopefully this video works and then you will be able to see first hand how it happened. Rob is the guy in the middle of the field.

After his demonstration it started to pour so on my way to the helicopter after they landed it, I got soaked. I did get to go into the helicopter, which was pretty cool to see what he worked on up close. After that we headed home due to the fact that the weather had made such a drastic turn. We spent the rest of the weekend watching Entourage. I know it doesn’t sound too exciting but Rob is very into it and it cracks me up.

Friday, August 28^th, Rob had the day off and we made a last minute decision to go to Stonehenge. After Stonehenge we were going to go to IKEA to buy some furniture for the house. Rob was very excited about going to Stonehenge. I was excited but not nearly as excited as he was. On the way there traffic was miserable. As we got closer traffic let up for awhile and then we were super close it slowed down again and we soon realized why. The main road goes right by Stonehenge and people just drive by and stare at it. We bought our tickets to get in and grabbed listening devices. Rob was against it at first because he didn’t want to seem like a tourist but we were and we actually ended up learning tons about Stonehenge from these things. We took tons of pictures although most of them might look the same. You aren’t allowed to get very close to it but you do get to walk around it and see it much closer than from the road. On the way back home we were going to head to IKEA and grab a few things. We ended up getting lost in the town that the IKEA was in, but we found a T.G.I.Fridays and we ate dinner there since neither of us had eaten in 9 hours. We were in the car for about 12 hours and decided that we would stay home all day on Saturday. Well on Sunday we decided to make another go of trying to get to an IKEA and we made it to one much closer to our house. We bought 2 desks, a wardrobe, an entertainment center, and a shelving unit for our bathroom. We put some of it together that night and our place was finally coming together again.

The following Friday and the first one in a new month, Rob got out of work early and we went out to dinner. We went to this little restaurant right down the street from our place. It is called the Backstreet Bistro and Rob has wanted to go since he got here because it is always busy. The food was fantastic and it really wasn’t that expensive. It was a late dinner and we just came home afterwards and hung out. Rob was supposed to work Saturday and he got a call Saturday morning saying he wasn’t needed. He ended up working on Sunday instead and then had Monday and Tuesday off. Monday we spent the entire day on base trying to get stuff done. We had to take our car in for the yearly inspection. It failed, of course and we had 10 days to get it fixed without being charged again to get it retested. On Tuesday, we were just hanging out around the house watching Weeds when Rob got a call from some guys from work. They were in Cambridge and wanted us to meet up with them and get a few drinks. It turned out to be a really fun night. The guys were really nice and I think Rob is adjusting to new friends finally. He worked the rest of the week and the hours were pretty insane. He wasn’t getting home until 4 or 5 in the morning. And as I said in the last post, my computer had broke on that Sunday and I was lost without it, I was supposed to be getting all of this paperwork for school done and I couldn’t without my computer, and to make matters worse I started using Rob’s computer and then we lost phone and internet connections. The whole week was a mess in that area. But we did find out good news that our TMO would be dropped off on Friday, the 11^th. We had 30 some boxes arrive at 8 in the morning and we didn’t get to bed until about 4 due to Rob’s work schedule so it was a very early day for us. On Saturday we went to base and Rob and some friends from work fixed our car and we went to one of their houses for dinner. It was a good day and nice to meet some other people Rob worked with. Yesterday we babysat for the same couple that had us over to dinner. They have a 1.5-year-old boy and he is amazing. He didn’t even realize they had left once they did and he is just the happiest kid ever. It was fun to babysit and be around a kid again. We are starting another week of Rob working long hours and I am trying to unpack and work on school paperwork.

Recent Events

Sorry about not updating recently, I started a blog on my computer and then it broke and was getting fixed for a week and then we lost internet for a couple of days, I have resumed working on the most recent one and it should be up shortly. Sorry for the delay.

London Adventure #1

On Saturday we decided to make a day trip to London. We made this decision about 2 hours before we went to bed the night before and it took us forever to decide what we wanted to see. There are so many beautiful things that we both wanted to see so we narrowed it down to Picadilly Circus, St. James Park, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben. We figured we would start at Picadilly Circus figuring that it was the furthest North of the things we wanted to see. Then we would just walk our way south. So we took the tube to Picadilly Circus, which for those of you that don’t know it is supposed to be their version of Times Square. It’s cool, tons of places to shop but that wasn’t why we were there so we got bored… fast. We walked to where we thought we needed to go and ended up in front of The National Gallery. It is an art museum that has free admission so we ventured in and looked around for some of the names we knew. I really wanted to see Monet because I love Monet. All Rob wanted to do was find a painting that he recognized as being famous. Well we when we finally found Monet, Rob found his famous painting. It is called the Water Lily Pond.

From the gallery we realized we were in Trafalgar Square, which is the heart of London and one of the more famous tourist spots in London. Most of it was blocked off for some kind of competition I only got about one good picture so we will have to venture back sometime. After we sat down and figured out where we needed to go, we headed towards St. James Park. This park is known for its views of the Palace and I couldn’t wait to see the Palace. We ate lunch in the park, which was a disaster as I am afraid of bees and have a huge bird phobia. So after our traumatizing lunch we headed to a gorgeous building that doesn’t even look real in our pictures. It was called the Horse Guards Parade. There were still soldiers there, two were on horses and that’s what they do for 24 hours a day. After seeing this we headed to the other side of the park over to see the palace. On our way to the other side of the park we walked along the lake, which is in the middle, and apparently it is where everyone goes to feed birds. There were geese, ducks, pigeons, and then this huge bird that was easily taller than me. Rob was very interested in this bird so I made him go pet it so I could get a picture. Everyone was petting it and I was hiding behind other people. We finally made it to the other side of the park and saw the Queen Victoria Memorial; it is located directly in front of the Palace and all of its gold gates. We missed the changing of guards by many hours. It was very cool to see and it takes your breath away. Once we were finished taking in the awe that is Buckingham Palace we headed to Westminster Abbey. I really wanted to see Westminster and it is just as incredible as I though it would be. We got there late so the inside was closed so we are planning another visit. Its gorgeous and there are sculptures of 20^th Century martyrs. From the front of the Abbey if you look slightly to you left you will see Big Ben, or what we called our next destination. Big Ben is a part of the parliament building but individually its beautiful but when you see the whole of the parliament building you are amazed at how huge it really is. Big Ben and parliament are located right on the Thames so we crossed the bridge so we could try and get a picture of the whole building. After we saw Big Ben and parliament we were exhausted and we jumped on the tube and headed home.

Picadilly Circus

The Natianal Gallery and us in front of it.

Trafalgar Square

Us in front of Frederic Duke of York's Monument

St. James Park and the Horses Guard Parade

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey and Big Ben

Parliament

Day 1

Well I arrived safely and am still getting used to the time difference. I got in Wednesday morning and I hadn’t slept at all on the plane. We got to the house and after the grand tour of the place I immediately fell asleep for a couple of hours. I woke up and we watched tv in the living room. I again took a nap for about an hour or two and by the time I woke up it was time for dinner. I got all dolled up in new clothes and so did Rob. We decided to go get sushi on the river. Everything really is so close here. It is all within walking distance of our place. Which by the way is coming along great. Well there isn't much more to say, so I will leave you with a picture of our first night here... well together anyways.

Last Month in the States

My last month here in the U.S. has been very exciting and a little stressful. As all of you know my passport came in about 2 weeks ago and my visa came back about a week and a half later but since all of that has happened, I figured I would let you in on what we have been doing since the 4^th of July when I last posted. I know it has been awhile. Well the weekdays have been pretty repetitive but the weekends have been a blast. On the weekend following the fourth, we took a little adventure out to the coast and through some amazing parts of Washington on the way there. We packed up the car with boys still in pajama’s and everyone else still half comatose, we even brought Pickles along because she would be allowed on the beach and we felt bad leaving her home all day. On our way to our first stop of the morning Pickles proceeded to get car sick, the only reason I am bringing this up is because I had to sit next to her all the way in the back. After she got sick she then proceeded to eat it up. After this very traumatizing experience for me we drove through the town of Forks, WA which some of you might know is the setting for the Twilight series, it was interesting on how much they are marketing off of it. Every storefront had posters and signs saying, “Welcome to the Twilight Zone”. There was even a store called “Dazzled by Twilight”. From there we headed to the Hoh National Rainforest. We walked on one of the many trails through the rainforest and it was appropriately titled the Hall of Mosses. It was beautiful and very fun to climb the fallen trees and just see how cool nature is when uninterrupted. After the rain forest the boys put on their shorts and everyone was dressed for warm weather expecting the coast to be beautiful. Once we parked at Ruby Beach we realized it was about 20 degrees cooler than the rain forest. It was gorgeous but very cold. The boys climbed some rocks and we walked along the water. Jaxon ended up in the water so we immediately went to the car and got him some dry clothes after I had sacrificed 2 of my 3 layers to keep the poor kid dry. From there we headed to Hurricane Ridge which has amazing views of all of the surrounding areas, you can even see Canada from some of the paths. It was also about 30 degrees warmer than the beach so it was a nice change. The wildlife didn’t even seem wild there; it just walked around the parking lot and walked up to people like it was no big deal. After the ridge, we headed home and didn’t get back till about 9.

I think the weekend of the 18^th we actually just spent the weekend at home. But we had big things planned for the week; the reason being is that it was Steve and Gina’s birthdays.

On the 24^th as a present for Gina from the boys and Steve, we went up to the San Juan islands and went whale watching. It took 2 ferries and about an hour of driving to get there. We then spent about 4 hours on a boat and it was very cool. We were about 200 yards away from Killer Whales or as some people might call them Orcas. We were within distance for about an hour following them as they moved through the Sound. One eventually stuck his whole nose out of the water; of course none of us got a picture of it. After we did this we spent another 4 hours getting home which made it an extremely long day. The following day we went to the demolition derby and had a blast. They had two special events that I had never seen at a demolition derby, which I thought were some of the better events. One was The Rollover, this is when they put a ramp in the middle of the field and a car drive onto it and tries to roll their car as many times as possible. The more sides that touch the ground, the higher the score; the boys loved this event because in Mario Kart they jump off ramps all the time, we told them that this is what would happen if they tried it in real life. The special event planned for the night was the Can-Am football game, which was nothing like I was expecting. Basically, they paint a car like a football and it sits in the middle of the field and then 5 cars from Canada and 5 cars from America line up on both sides and the first team to push it across their end zone wins. Well this was absolutely hilarious and the highlight of the night. I had never seen anything like it.

As for the first weekend in August we headed down to Portland. It was my last weekend in Washington and had never been to Oregon, so it was my day to knock another state off my list. I looked up free stuff to do in Portland and we did about 2 of them. We went to the International Rose Test Garden; they have over 8,000 different types of roses there. Since it was about 95 degrees there we headed to the waterfront, where they had a fountain the boys could play in. Xander and I went on a walk and found out that there was a Wakeboarding Competition going on. We eventually grabbed dinner and then headed back to watch some of the riders. It was cool and something I had never seen. After that we headed to Voodoo Doughnuts. It is this crazy doughnut shop that put all types of crazy stuff on them. Steve got a doughnut that had bacon on it. The boys and I had ones with Cocoa Puffs on it. After we grabbed our doughnuts we headed home. We didn’t get home till around midnight so it was definitely a late night. Other than all of these adventures I have been packing like crazy.

My last day in Washington was on Tuesday, August 4^th, 2009. We all packed in the car and drove to the airport around 4 and it was a very tearful goodbye, at least for me. I already miss those boys so much it breaks my heart even thinking about not seeing them for a year and a half.

From Washington, I headed back to Illinois to spend a couple of days with my family. I got in Wednesday evening and it was so busy until I left on the following Tuesday. On Thursday the 6^th, I headed down to Bloomington to spend the day at Pub II and see a couple of friends. We spent a few hours there and then I headed home. On Friday I spent the day with my grandma and some of my cousins and my aunt. We went to Chili’s and then headed to my Grandma’s house and we spent the whole night there just talking and spending time with each other. My cousin Jenna spent the night at my house that night and then Saturday morning her mom and sister came over and ended up spending the whole day at the house. Saturday night was my night with some of my best friends we had a great night. We had Arranello’s Pizza for dinner and then we started drinking. We played some drinking games and then ended up heading to one of the bars, thanks to our D.D. of the night (Chrystal). I saw some kids from high school that I never thought I would see again and we all just had a great night. After the bar we headed to White Castle. If you couldn’t tell I was trying to hit all my favorite places to eat that are not over here in the U.K. After White Castle we headed home and watched maybe 5 minutes of Scream before we all just passed out.

Sunday was a big goodbye day, I said goodbye to all of my friends and it was sad. Maybe for me, than for them. After everyone left and my dad and I tok Chrystal to our favorite Ice Cream place in town my parents and I decided to go bowling. We bowled three games and the first two we played, I bowled over 100 for the first time in my life. After bowling, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings and from there we went to see The Ugly Truth.

On Monday my mom and I went shopping and we got a late start due to a delivery guy who was supposed to be there before 11 and didn’t get to the house till around noon. After we got home from shopping and running around I headed up to Chicago to spend the evening with Michelle and John. Michelle made egg rolls and stir-fry and then we spent the rest of the night catching up and talking about the future.

Tuesday was my last day with my parents and I had to start packing. Now when I described my goodbye with my brother and my nephews I said it was tearful. I couldn’t even talk I was crying so hard saying goodbye to my parents. I miss them everyday. It is more of the little phone calls when we were in the car to each other because now it is just emails and due to the time change the emails are about once a day. I am not using my phone anymore and I have not gotten a new one yet.