I Told You She Was Real

If you’ve ever wondered who that mysterious and good looking chick is that makes occasional cameos in Caity’s blog posts, then you’ll want to read on.

 It's me, Heather!

I'm the one you read about, but actually have no idea who I am.

And contrary to the awful pictures that Caity posts of me on here, I'm actually a normal person - I swear.

I'm a little rusty at this whole writing-a-blog-post thing, so excuse me for not knowing what I'm doing here. 

I'm from Overland Park, Kansas.

Home of the world's best BBQ, Walt Disney (back off, Chicago),

the Happy Meal, and most importantly, the world's tallest water slide.

Here's just a little bit about me:

- I love all things Disney, especially Frozen. And Despicable Me. And How To Train Your Dragon.

The trilogy of my free time.

- I am always listening to The Beatles and most other bands from the 60s.

(Yes I take credit for Caity's full-on obsession)

- I graduated from Oklahoma State University (Go Pokes!) and was a member of Alpha Delta Pi.

LNL to all my sistas out there!

- I have three brothers, a dog named Cali, a cat named Kitty, and most recently a puppy-nephew named Nikko - the world's cutest husky.

- Since August 2014, I've been lucky enough to call London my home,

but I think you already knew that.

For as long as I can remember, I've always loved England and knew that I wanted to study abroad there.

I am a very independent person, so the decision to hop across the globe alone wasn't a scary one.

Luckily, Caity and I were randomly paired as roommates and we clicked instantly.

Babies.

We traveled Europe and the UK together,
while roaming the wonderful streets of London for five glorious months.

Once we came back to the states - otherwise known as reality - we realized that our American homecoming wasn’t at all as sweet as we were expecting.  It was difficult for us to get back into the swing of things, and we found out reverse culture shock is a real thing.

Our minds were constantly dreaming of London, and about a year later, we made up our minds to move back, as we already had the gears turning.

For me, the process of moving back to London was tricky to say the least, but not impossible.

Caity is my trusty strategic planner and is always looking 10 steps ahead, while I normally only worry about the problem right in front of me.
We were fabulous at balancing each other out in that way.

She would emphasize importance of timing and paperwork for me while I would real her back in after the stress would leave her mind wandering.

The hardest part about moving back to London, for me personally, was purely the organization aspect of hopping countries without any study abroad program or parents to hold my hand this time around.

The application process to the schools alone took a few weeks.  After that was finally settled, it was time to apply for a visa.  The running around and searching for old documents was enough to tip me overboard.

And as a true procrastinator, I waited until the absolute last minute to do all of this,
which left me still waiting for my visa two days before my flight.
(and left Caity in an an absolute panic - yes this is Caity right here. Yes I was FREAKING OUT)

Long story short, we both made it back to London on time and in one piece.

And honestly, it feels like we never left.

The two years I was back in the states feels like a dream or another life.

Caity and I knew England was the place where we belonged and we were lucky enough to find what we loved most together.

Neither of us imagined we’d ever be living abroad in the most spectacular city ever,

but life has a funny way of showing you exactly what you need at exactly the right time.

And to conclude, I’ll have my good friend Mr. Disney sign out this post: 

“Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."