January Sales

Since it's the last day of January, I thought I'd post about the wondrous thing called January sales. In the UK stores don't have many sales. At home, stores have annual, semi-annual, bi-annual, seasonal, holiday, everything sales all the time. Here, there really are no such regular sales, and even sale racks have slim pickings. But all of this is made up for twice a year, in January and July. Every single store has a blowout sale, with literally almost everything 50% or 70% off. This includes clothes from the past season and the current one. And not just clothes stores--I'm not joking that it's every single store. Fantastic!
So, fortuitously for them, Jessica and Jess were here for the January sales. We bought a ton of stuff, for so cheap! So I'm ending January a very happy girl, and very well dressed =)

Harrods...There is only ONE sale! And Harrods is the place to be

One of my favorite stores, Monsoon, usually too expensive, but now priced just right!! Most stores are decorated with these sort of sale signs, just in case you forgot it's sale season

English TV

Before I came here, I definitely did not get English humor! Jessica and I watched the British version of The Office a while ago, and I'll admit that I didn't think it was too funny. Maybe American humor is more crass, simple, down to earth? I'm not sure. I suppose the English like to think that they're above our childish humor levels. But I've come to appreciate it a lot more, and the definite subtle differences.
I've watched several English TV shows now since I've been here and am hooked! Peep Show (hilarious!!), Little Britain (like our SNL), other older ones that I can't remember now... Anyway, they're great.
I'm mainly writing this post because I want to put up a clip from Little Britain. It's a sketch show like SNL and my favorite character is Vicky. She's a chav (sort of like what we would call white trash, if someone was EVER so vulgar as to use that term!) and she's hilarious. And this is my favorite scene, enjoy....

Fun in Dublin

I really wanted to go somewhere while Jessica was here so we found super cheap tickets to Dublin. As in $100 round trip! Cheap airfare + cheap hostel = FUN IN IRELAND! We were there for two days and I absolutely loved it. The city is very quaint and everyone was super nice. It had a wonder atmosphere, beautiful scenery, fun people, historic buildings, and great food. We went on a fantastic tour of Dublin Castle, which was built a long long time ago (the 1200s maybe?) but burnt down in maybe the 1600s. It was rebuilt more as an administrative place for the viceroys of Ireland and visiting dignitaries and such. But part of the original castle still stands. The tour guide was really great and definitely knew her stuff. No, we did not do the tour of the Guiness factory...I hate the stuff though if I had more time I guess I would have gone.
We went to a town just south of Dublin called Dalkey, which has a castle and is on the coast. The castle was really neat to walk around in, because we got a personal tour and free reign of the place. Then we really wanted to take a walk along the coast because it's supposed to be amazingly beautiful. We started out and it began POURING. I mean I've never been in such harsh rain and wind in my life. I think it was a monsoon. The wind broke both my and Jessica's umbrellas. It dominated. We were so wet that we had to buy new pants in Dublin. But totally worth it! There were some amazing mansions along the coast, and apparently Bono lives in one!

Remaining part of the original Dublin Castle

Christchurch Cathedral

Jessica on top of the Dalkey Castle. Such a cute little town!

Don't piss me off

Jessica is trying to hold back the monsoon that we walked through. Unfortunately the wind beat her umbrella into submission

This is my future house on the Dalkey coast. Currently a residence of the Moroccan embassy...

Edinburgh's Hogmanay

I came back to London just after Christmas with two friends, Jess and Jessica, in tow. We had decided a bit earlier to go to Edinburgh, Scotland for New Year. They have the largest street party in all of Europe and a 4-day celebration called hogmanay. In short, it was AMAZING!!! We got a really nice hotel room (actually cheaper than a hostel) and stayed there for 3 days and nights. It rained practically all day every day, but the sights were amazing. It's an walled city with such cozy feeling but placed in a spectacular landscape I think created by volcanoes. Edinburgh castle is on a big hill overlooking the city and the "Royal Mile" is the road that connects the castle to Holyrood Palace, the royal residence of Scotland.
New Years eve here was great fun--it is a Times Square-ish street party with concerts. Plus we got tickets to a special section that played really cool traditional Scottish music and had dancing. Plus fireworks over the castle at midnight. Definitely, definitely go here for hogmanay sometime! And take me with you.

Edinburgh castle all lit up at night.

cannon at the castle

We went to this cafe called the Elephant House, which is where JK Rowling wrote the first couple of Harry Potter books. The cafe overlooks this castle-looking place which is actually a school. And legend has it that the kids in this school are wizards and witches who fly around on broomsticks. I took this picture while on a really really scary ghost tour. WAY more than 5 pumpkins!

J, J, and I at the castle

dressed in our finest for New Years eve. Not that anyone saw our amazing outfits under all the coats and scarfs and hats.

Jessica loves Hogmanay!

watch this video of traditional Scottish dancing! Which we then participated in.

Home for Christmas

After months of intense work 24/7 and absolutely no play or fun (ok, heavy sarcasm) I got a break to go home for the holidays. I spent several wonderful days in Virginia seeing friends and eating out (lots and lots of Mexican!!) and shopping (everything is half as expensive as in London!). It was strange to be home and to be driving...being there tuned me into a lazy bum =) Then on to Pittsburgh to spend Christmas proper with family. An intense couple of days filled mostly with baking and coking and eating and relaxing. Not a bit of schoolwork in sight!

Lovely family portrait! Me, Brad, Monica, and Kathy. Christmas tree in the background, but we're wholly blocking it

mmmmm.... what is Christmas without baking loads and loads of cookies? And eating them of course.