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I woke up and rolled out of my famously comfortable bed. It would be the last sleep in that squeaky worn down twin mattress that had held me during my sleep for the past three months. It was a real champ.
I looked around my room and found that the only things on my walls were chipped paint where past tenants had hung posters – no more Christmas lights, no more harry potter poster gracing my bathroom door, no more England football poster over my bed – this certainly did not feel like my room. My suitcases were neatly lined up in a row ready for my departure. I walked into my kitchen to savour one more bowl of Kellog’s delicious Crunch Nut Clusters Milk Chocolate Curls and woke up Erigony and asked her to join me in the kitchen. I had so much sentiment built up inside for this flat, was this the last time that I would see it? Sadly, it was beginning to feel like I was a guest in someone’s house, and it was a feeling I was not warming too – I needed to leave to the airport quickly as to not let the feeling set in. It was not a tough goodbye. I had thought that it would have been hard to say goodbye to such close friends knowing that I was leaving to another country an ocean apart, but it was surprisingly easy. Easy because I knew that this was a “see you soon.” Not a “goodbye.” Something told me that I would be back in London, and back to see my mates. These are friends that are worth travelling great distances to see, worth staying in touch with, and worth making great sacrifices for.

I brought my luggage down the stairs and met the car that was waiting for me outside. We loaded my bags into the car and headed to Heathrow via the M25. I was happy for the decision I made to have a car take me to the airport; I was imagining myself carrying all of my luggage on the underground on a Monday morning rush hour – it would have been madness. The driver of the car was from Cyprus and we had an enjoyable conversation on the 45-minute journey.

I checked in, passed security and entered the main terminal. I was beginning to feel quite nocuous. I was carrying every souvenir I had bought over the 3 months on my back, I was tired, thirsty and starving. I walked over to Pret a Manger – my favourite sandwich stop and grabbed some yoghurt and granola and a large water. I sat down.

“Man this sucks!” said a man at a table behind me, as I turned to see a large Denver Broncos logo printed across the back of his t-shirt. My jaw dropped. I turned to look at the other table and there was a group of teens wearing shorts and flip flops and in front of me I found a lady and her husband arguing over what to feed their child who was crying out for food. They were all American. I had suddenly found myself inside the USA enclave of Heathrow airport and I despised it. Was this really where I was from?

I arrived at the gate to find passengers wearing baggy hooded sweatshirts embroidered with USA across the chest, teens wearing pyjama pants and slippers as public clothing and a furious mother yelling at the British Airways clerk, speaking ridiculously slow in order to humiliate the worker, as if they did not understand English. The culture shock had begun, and my feet were still touching the sweet ground of her majesty.

The flight was enjoyable and felt quite short. I watched almost all of the different movies that were offered in our personal video screens and enjoyed the delicious Indian curry for lunch. The lighting outside was really interesting; we departed London at 12:30 and it was bright sun. We approached Iceland and the north pole and experienced a beautiful sunset for an hour, then landed in Denver where it was a sunny afternoon.

The passengers of our flight marched down the corridors of DIA towards the passport control. We were all immediately stopped by a short woman carrying a walkie talkie and roped off as a flight. Some passengers misunderstood the poor signage and were reprimanded loudly by the woman. The surrounding foreigners from my flight whispered to one another “I forgot how rude they are here.” After waiting for around 30 minutes in a roped off section, completely confused, our entire flight was able to proceed to passports where we were greeted by a police man shouting mens bathrooms over there, womens bathrooms over there, passport check straight ahead. The DIA workers were all wearing cowboy hats, it was quite odd.

I proceeded through the doors and found my family eagerly waiting for my arrival.

Farewell to the Goat and 400 santas

Cristobal and I headed to central to finish some christmas shopping and were greeted by hundereds of santas converging in Picadilly Circus - it was a sight to see. They all began shouting "what do we want?" "CHRISTMAS!!" "When do we want it?" "NOW!!"


We also all had our last night at the goat pub

Narnia and My Neighborhood

The world Premiere of the Chronicles of Narnia; where I was able to see Prince Charles and Camilla.
The House of Parliment, The Tower of London Ice Skating Rink, The Tower Bridge,

3 countries in 1 Day!

On Saturday, Michaele Erigony and I took a coach from London to Dover where we boarded a ferry to France and then rode the coach into Belgium for the Brugge Christmas Market. Belgium has been my favourite country I have visited in continental Europe so far - it was spotlessly clean and smelled of chocolate and christmas, an incredible place. Enjoy the photos.

Polar Express 3D

On Wednesday a group of us met down in central London at the BFI London IMAX cinema. We saw the Polar Express in 3D - a real christmas spirit booster! We loved the glasses so much we had to pose.

A great picture of my flatmates Stephanie and Erigony; and friends Mertdo and Michaele after the film.

Watch where you put that!

I walked into my fitness lab this morning with Michaele and was coldly greeted by the infamous frowning lady that proudly rules over the 50 square foot learning environment. This woman is not our instructor, but she is know to show up for the first 5 minutes of class to remind us of the strict rules that apply to the lab – telling students to move their backpacks into a small corner, and with her third eye spotted that I was chewing gum, and told me to place it the rubbish bin; I have never seen her smile.

Our instructor was late, and upon his dishevelled arrival he announced that we would be measuring body fat on each other. “Some Uni’s (universities) make you strip down into your underwear and walk around the class room for 5 minutes,” he gladly informed us. “This is going to be a part of your career, so you need to get familiar with touching other people, today you will get over your embarrassments!”

This statement was a little shocking to say the least, especially for a student such as myself who is just taking this class to fulfil a measly fitness requirement at CSU. “Turn to page 49, and read about the different locations on the body that can be used to take skin fold measurements.” The instructor then revealed a large shiny calliper that we would be using to pinch the skin for our data. “You may begin now.” After a cautious silence, I reluctantly volunteered within my group to be poked and prodded first.

The entire process felt a bit like being a turkey or other fowl that was getting measured before a holiday slaughter. Across the classroom, students were pinching folds of skins of other students with the callipers, as some stood humiliated in their underwear.

After the lab, there was an hour break which allowed me to head back to my flat and cook up a cheese toasty (grilled cheese sandwich) and get ready for the gym session that was to follow. In the session we learned about plyometrics and lunges. Our instructor demonstrated a certain exercise where she jumped as high as she could and landed in a squat and then leapt up immediately afterwards – repeating this 5 times. She asked us to practice it, but gave fair warning that it was a demanding routine that can lead to muscle soreness even in a well-trained athlete. When I returned to my flat, I found it a chore to even make my way up the stairs, as she was right about the strong pain.

The City of Lights

Here are some pictures from this weekend's trip to Paris. School work is all coming up quite quickly and I am searching for time to write on my blog. I apologize greatly for the lack up upkeap, but the storys will be up eventually. Enjoy!