Quite a bit has happened since the last time I updated this thing a little over a month ago! So, where to begin?  I'll forewarn you - this is going to be a long one! 

 For some reason, a lot more seems to happen to us in the UK in a span of three weeks, than in five months in the US... I last left off when I was in Florida, preparing for Heather and my big trip back to the UK.  Well, it was a very uneventful three weeks spent in Jupiter.  My days went very accordingly --> Wake up, work out, lay out, job hunt, sleep.  That was about it.  You would think that sounds like 'the life' for some.  See, my parents live in a place most would describe as paradise:

 

A condo right on the beach, fully equipped with a balcony, pool, hot tub, etc. All the luxuries.  It's a great vacation spot, and I love being here to visit, but it's hard to vacation for three weeks when you've got one of the biggest trips of your life right ahead of you.  While I was excited to have time to apply to as many jobs as I could find, and work on my tan, I was so ready for London! 

 When I say 'time to apply to as many jobs as I could find,' I don't mean that with any ounce of sarcasm.  I literally applied to every job I could find.  I had my ideas of industries I wanted to go into, but I figured if someone is going to talk to me, why not give it a shot? I'm 22 and like most 22 year olds, I want a job - the only difference is, I want it on the other side of the world. 

 Three weeks after the many grueling  hours of sun tanning and swimming (okay, okay, it was pretty nice for a while), it was finally time to get ready for London.  I had about five meetings/interviews set up, with different companies, connections through people I knew, and a recruitment agency.  Heather ended up getting around the same amount of meetings as well, which was absolutely ideal seeing that we were trying to make the move together. 

 Okay! So! It's Tuesday - the start of October, and the most looked forward to month of my year.  Flight boarded to Newark, to meet up with Heather and head back home to the UK together. After five long months, we were finally back together! (Which really is no time at all, compared to the year we had to wait before we saw each other again the last time..)  and going to London! Was this real?

Reunited!

New York City from the sky - Bye America! 

We're baaaaack!

It's strange, describing how you feel when you've been away for so long.  I haven't touched UK soil in over a year, and it felt all to familiar to be back.  We grabbed our suitcases, which I should actually call boulders, because of how difficult it was to lug them around, and headed down to the Tube.  Carrying suitcases that are most definitely over the flying weight limit, when you are a weak little girl, is an impossible feat.  And that's no sarcasm - it was absolutely impossible.  When most Tube stations don't seem to believe in elevators, it makes things pretty difficult.  I really wanted to just throw my bag into the train tracks, but with the help of generous strangers, or people who just saw how pathetic we looked, we managed to get our bags through the Tube and into our hostel.  

And then with the help of four more backpackers in the hostel - we were FINALLY to our room .......... just until we had to lug the suitcases out again later that evening to our friends, Nicole and Ciaran's flat on the other side of London.  Whatever, these complaint are very minimal to the thought that we were actually back in London.  I would have carried that suitcase with me everywhere if that's what I had to do to be back there again.

So we checked into the hostel, which - there's no joking here - was a room the size of a closet with five triple bunk beds jam-packed into it.  Now we've stayed in all types of hostels, the great ones and the not so great ones, and I am a dedicated lover of staying in hostels.  I love the backpacking atmosphere, meeting all types of people from all walks of life, and having a great time.  But I will say, this hostel sucked.

Actual size.  Not pictured - the suitcases in the middle of the room because, well, that's the only place that they were able to go.

Again - I would have stayed here for the entire trip, if that's what I had to do to be back again.  I will say also, that this is the last of the negatives of the trip, because after this day, everything for three weeks straight was absolutely perfect. And that's not an exaggeration again - Absolutely perfect.

We dropped our bags off at the hostel and immediately headed out into the city.  We were right over the bridge from Tufton Street, where our flat was located in Westminster. Obviously that was the first place we had to go.  It was very surreal coming back, but not being able to tap our key to get back in.  I felt like we still lived there - I walked these streets hundreds of times!

The greatest view.

Home!

Flat 3 - 48 Tufton Street - Yes. We were spoiled.

Why won't the key work?

Westminster Abbey Dean's Yard. Our daily commute. 

My favorite alarm clock.

'That picture' that I never took because I thought I was too much of a local to.

We took our daily routine from our flat into the Dean's Yard, to Parliament Square and down to the Westminster Tube Station.  Is there any debate on where we went next? St. John's Wood, of course.  Had to make a quick visit back to Abbey Road and the area that we were soon going to live. Don't laugh, we are going to be able to afford to live here one day.

 

The signing Holly and I made a year and a half ago!

Our future home.

Me too ... sort of

After the quick visit, we went down to Oxford Street to do some shopping at Primark.  With how disgusting cheap this store is, it was almost like we were throwing anything we saw into our baskets - why am I going to care if this sweater actually fits me if it's only 6 pounds? I'M SOLD.

We spent as much time as we could possibly tolerate before we had to get out of there.  Luckily, we didn't spend TOO much money there, but that was the first of about five more trips throughout our trip.  We checked out, and headed back to the flat to grab our bags to drop of at Nicole and Ciaran's before our Liverpool weekend.  That was another adventure I won't even get into - it sounds similar to the one I told in the first few paragraphs - can't lift bags, hundred of people helping us, sad, weak, pathetic, etc. etc. etc...

It was so great to get to their flat, because it had been over a year since we had seen them too! They live in this amazing flat in East London, with a great view of Canary Wharf and Olympic Park.  We spent a few hours there catching up, until we realized we hadn't been asleep in 32 hours, and we had a train to catch the next morning to Liverpool.

Canary Wharf

Olympic Park

Parliament and the Eye 

I didn't realize how long this post would be - I mean, it's only about the first day in London!  Clearly enough happened to us, that I should probably break this up into parts.  Next post - Liverpool!

Rounding up on almost a year since I updated this thing, so quite a bit has happened since then.  I'll do a little brief update on everything that has been happening:

House Managing at ETC was possibly the best part of the year.  I was able to work through the entire season until June, where  I was able to learn and grow in my career and future.  I was blessed with an incredible company full of genuine and caring people, and a season of some of the greatest shows I'll ever be able to have a part of! ETC was so good to me, and it is because of them that I've got the work ethic that I've come to have.

I finally went on a college spring break this year too! Gabrielle, Hannah and I took a Royal Caribbean Cruise to Nassau, Coco Cay Island, and Key West.  I haven't been on a cruise since I was maybe 12, so I was verrrrry excited.  It was one of the best vacations I have been on, with some of the best friends I will ever have.  We played games, ran around the ship, got tan, gambled, met some friends, and basically partied for a straight week.  It was just what we needed during our chaotic senior year of college. Pictures below!

Later in the year, I accepted a summer position as the House Manager at Berkshire Theatre Group in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  Big move for me way up north! I'll get more into that later though - first, I had to graduate.  This was probably one of the top moments in my entire life.  To be done with school forever? It was, and still is, really difficult for me to grasp.  It's strange with everyone going back and posting about classes, and while I miss the freedom and college life, I definitely do not miss being in school!

After this came Abbey Road on the River.  This is a yearly Beatles festival that takes place over Labor Day Weekend in Louisville, KY.  

Heather and her mom flew up for the five day fest which was amazing.  The last time Heather and I saw each other, we were hugging goodbye in the Heathrow Airport leaving our study abroad experience.  It was literally one year to the day from the last time we saw each other.  The fact that we basically spoke constantly, probably daily, during that year really shows how good of friends we had become.  

It was so exciting seeing them, and to go along with the reunion, The Shakers and The Rockits came from Liverpool to play in the festival too! And we got to see Peter Noone and Herman's Hermits, meet him, as well as Laurence Juber and Denny Laine from Wings, Tony Bramwell, and Peter Asher.  Peter went to school in Westminster, so clearly he, Heather and I bonded over our past homes.  All in all, it was one of the greatest weekends of my entire life.  24/7 Beatles concerts all day, and when they finished up, there were nightly jam sessions in the hotel lobby bar.  People from different bands would all bring their instruments down, group up and just start playing.  Someone would shout out a song and everyone would chime in and get the music together, and the rest of the folks who came to see the shows and hang out would stand around, enjoy the music, and sing a long.  It was beautiful, which is a weird way to describe it, but there were so many different people, from different places all over the world, coming together over a love of the greatest music in history.  The entire festival, the entire weekend was beautiful.  And fun. So, so so much fun.

Literally, the day after the festival ended, I was en route to Massachusetts for my summer.  It was an incredibly hectic, busy, and a bit stressful of a summer, but I was able to meet and get to know some incredible and talented people.  

If I were to describe my summer, it would be Big Kid Camp, where everyone works their asses off for 10 hours each day.  We lived in shantys in the forest without air conditioner, sharing our rooms with the spiders in the corners, but being able to spend it with so many people from so many different places was incredible.  I was able to learn about myself and what I am capable of, understand where I'm flawed and what I need to work on in a business setting, and ultimately grow.  

It was a roller coaster, but I am so glad I was able to have the experience. Oh, and I got to get on the roof of the theatre, which was pretty sweet too.

While I was in Massachusetts, Heather and I had been in talks to trying to get a job and move back to London permanently for a while.  We made the decision to go ahead and plan a trip, and work reallllly hard in the time before then to get some interviews and meetings with potential companies.   

Our amazing, amazing parents bought our plane tickets as 'we will give you this shot to try and make your dreams come true' presents, and we began planning.  

It is two weeks from this day that I will be boarding a plane and flying back to London, and I still can't believe it's real.  It has been a year and a half since we lived there, and I've missed it more and more every day.  Both Heather and I have been hard at work trying to connect with UK businesses - it's very difficult with work visas as Americans, but we are still hopeful and persistent.  I can't wait to be able to get back there with Heather, and walk the streets as if we never left.  It's going to be an amazing trip - and to add into it all, we'll be going up to Liverpool for a weekend, and if you've read any of my blog posts, you know how much I love (am obsessed with) Liverpool.

So that's been my life so far, cliff note version.  It's been a wild year, but it's also been a great one.  Hoping good things are to come in the near future, and will be updating this much more - especially since I've got some more adventures abroad coming up!