Volleyball and stuff.

Holy cow I didn't actually think it was possible to be this stressed out!  Turns out writing a dissertation, planning a wedding (in less than 6 months), apartment hunting, and being really poor all at the same time can be a bit overwhelming!  But we'll survive :)  Wedding planning is coming along nicely.. it's a good thing I have Momma Keys in America or this would be so much harder!

My dissertation is not coming along so nicely because let's be honest - wedding planning is so much more exciting than dissertation writing!  I suppose it has to be done though.

I've also been playing in the All Nations volleyball tournament.  It started last weekend and ends this weekend.  It's a tournament open to everyone in London.. you enter to play for your home country.  Unfortunately, there weren't enough Americans to make a team this year (come on America.. the Canadians managed to make a team!?).  So I'm on a team called Oceans - which is basically a group of people from countries who didn't fit into other categories.  We also got the ugliest coloured jerseys - orange. Honestly. It's good fun though and I'm happy with my team! GO OCEANS!

My team :)

Pretending to keep score.. we were really just chatting!

Me serving :)

That's all really.  My final thought is that British people really like naming places after body parts.  I thought it was just Queens and Kings (Queen's Head, King's Arms, etc.) but then I found this place in Bank...

Pope's Head Alley.  So weird.

Back to emailing 6 million wedding photographers :)

Sketch

Been a busy busy busy week!  I finally got my ring back and it fits beautifully and is perfect :) 

I also started both of my summer jobs (both just nannying part time) and have been frantically working on my last essay, which is due on Wednesday.  We had our last class last Wednesday - yes my last class of my Masters!  If only that was actually the end of the degree.. we still have that 16,000 word dissertation looming over our heads all summer!

Mat has been working A LOT of hours so we've hardly seen each other this week.  He finally had a day off yesterday so I took a break from my essay writing and we had a day out!  It was the Real Food Festival on the South Bank, which is basically an amazing food market with amazing food stalls.  We ate a lot.

We were especially excited about Barbecoa's stall because we love Barbecoa.  They were doing pulled pork sandwiches and frankfurters with sauerkraut.  Both amazing! We also bought some Scotch eggs (Mat bought a Black Pudding one - sick), sausages,  and chocolate.

Then we found this sign :)

Then we came home, caught up on some TV, I forced Mat to do some wedding planning (he's sick of it already!), and then we went out for a fancy dinner to celebrate our engagement!

So dapper :)

We went to a restaurant called Sketch near Regent Street. We ate in the Gallery part of the restaurant.  It was amazing.  The restaurant has a sort of mismatched theme.. every piece of cutlery is different, every glass is different, every napkin is different, even the light fixtures are all different!  The result was a vintagey lovely restaurant with amazing food!

These were the bathrooms.  They were all little pods with toilets inside. And they had staff dressed as maids who cleaned the pods as soon as you came out.  And there was a person playing a harmonica on the stairs leading up to the toilets.  Honestly... just google it and look at pictures. Sketch London. If you're ever in London you should go!

Right, off to the library to put the finishing touches on my essay!

Engaged! :)

As I'm sure you've all heard, Mat popped the question yesterday!

Here's the story:

We went to brunch at Barbecoa, which is a restaurant we've been wanting to go to for a while now.  We ate our brunch, drank a cocktail or two with our tea. Mat was planning on proposing there and then....

The fire alarm went off. And we had to evacuate the building.  We got free brunch but Mat's proposal plan for the morning was ruined.

Then we went shopping in Covent Garden because Mat needed a new suit jacket for work.  In the process of holding his jacket for him to try new ones on, I felt the lump of the ring box in his jacket pocket :) Oops! 

For the rest of the afternoon then I was dragging him to picturesque places and patiently waiting for him to get down on one knee!  He finally popped the question in the courtyard outside Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Very picturesque indeed!

The ring is absolutely perfect.  It's platinum and from the 1920s and not too big and so pretty.  My only ring requirements were that it's old and not too big so he did a fantastic job :)  The only problem is I can't get it over my knuckle!  We're going to get it sized on Tuesday.

Here are some pictures.

As for all the burning questions:

No we don't know where the wedding will be.

Yes it's a logistical nightmare.

No we haven't set a date.  

We do have the added pressure of my impending visa expiration date though!

I think that covers it :)

Finally, thank you for all the congratulations!

Safe London

One of the things I love the most about London is how safe it is.  I walk home from the tube at night by myself and never feel uncomfortable.  Obviously there are some creepy people and some drunks, but I don't ever feel like I'm in any danger from gangs or guns or anything.  I love it.  Here's an article about how safe England actually is!  I'm not even going to bring up the gun debate because I like you all and I want to continue liking you :)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22275280

I've been working out like a crazy person for the last two days.  I went to All Nations training on Sunday (which is going to be really fun!  It's a volleyball tournament you enter and they put you on teams based on your nationality.  There's always an American team but this year there weren't enough players for an America team - COME ON AMERICA! - so I'm on the Oceans team.  Basically any country connected to an ocean, including America, Nigeria, Romania. In any case, it will be fun!  We play over two weekends in May - if you're in London, come watch!)

Anyway, then  I went to my first spin class on Monday, volleyball practice Monday night, stretch and tone class on Tuesday, then volleyball again on Tuesday night.  Needless to say my body is sore. Really sore.  I was supposed to go to Body Pump class this morning but I just couldn't do it! I'll make up for it tomorrow by going to Pure Core (which literally sounds like the worst thing ever - my core is like jello).

The weather has been BEAUTIFUL in London the last few days.  I spent most of the day yesterday doing my reading on the roof terrace in the sunshine.  I even got a little sunburn!

View from the roof :) And Mat's little herb garden! The neighborhood cats think it's a litter box so we need a net. Annoying.

The flowers Mat got me last week are finally all blooming! I love lilies :)  And they smell amazing!

Right, off to class shortly.  Then to spend some hours in the library I think.  I've only managed to write like 300 words of my 6000 word paper.  6000 words is just so many! Wahhhhhh. At least it's our last paper (if you don't count our dissertations which I can't even think about because it makes my brain hurt).

Some boring stuff.. and some other stuff.

I just read this article on CNN and I like it. You don't have to like it, but I do. And this is my blog :)  It's well-written, concise, and speaks the truth about the realities children face in schools in America today.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/19/opinion/lyles-columbine/index.html?hpt=hp_t5

Not much to report in my life!  I haven't done any school work since Thursday, which is completely unacceptable but I've lost the will to be productive.  It doesn't help that I'm still a bit jet-lagged (the time change is so much harder coming to England than it is going to America) and Mat's been off work this weekend so we've been hanging out before he starts his new job tomorrow.

I haven't been taking good photos either but here's what I've got.

This is an elephant on the wall at the entrance of the Jubilee line in Waterloo Station.  I don't know why it's there or how I've never noticed it before!

Mat bought me flowers just because he loves me :) And a new watch (because I lost mine)!

This is the London Marathon on TV....

And this is the London Marathon out the window of the train :) I had to brave the Marathon crowds to get to volleyball today and it was an absolute nightmare! But kudos to everyone who ran, all 37000 of them!

That's it. I told you, nothing exciting.  Tomorrow I'm going to my first ever spin class and then spending the entire day working on this essay (because it's now due in 2 and a half weeks.. yikes!).

Out and about in London

Welp I finally made it back to London after a few airport complications.  Still feeling pretty jet-lagged.  It's 10:40 pm here and I am wide awake.. doesn't bode well for sleeping tonight. And I need to sleep because I have a big presentation tomorrow (which I'm terrified about, by the way).

Anywho, the sun was shining today so I decided to take the scenic walk from Holborn to Waterloo after my interview this afternoon.  And I snapped some photos along the way!

Right outside Holborn Station.  It's not really a picture of anything. I was just eating a sandwich outside so I took a picture :)

King's Library on Chancery Lane. So pretty!  I was planning on going in to do some work but the weather was so nice I went for a walk instead.

My absolute favourite building in London, The Royal Courts of Justice.  It's impossible to get a picture of the whole thing but it's just so pretty.  Also, you can see the barricades were still up from Margaret Thatcher's funeral.

Royal Courts of Justice again.  These pictures just don't show how pretty it actually is! Google it. Everyone google better pictures of it.

I swear this is new because I've never seen it before.  Looks pretty fancy! The Brits know how to spruce up a public toilet!

Classic London Eye/Big Ben picture.  With the sunshine!

Flags flew at half-staff today for Margaret Thatcher's funeral.  I've never seen the British flag at half staff before today.

That's all. I'm going to practice my presentation to my empty living room now! Hopefully that will make it easier to say it in front of the scary panel of academics tomorrow :/

Finally an update!

I have been seriously slacking in the blogging department. Sorry!  But I've been so busy doing school work.. and spending time with this adorable tiny human!

I realise I'm biased but I have never seen a cuter baby :)

My college roommates and I had a little reunion last weekend in Lacrosse.  We all drank like we were still 21 and regretted it the next morning :) But a good time was had by all!

BFFs.

See what I mean?  A fish bowl. What were we thinking?

Then Momma and I had to drive Katie and Log back to Missouri so we stopped in St. Louis on the way back and went up in the Arch.  I have to say it was one of the most claustrophobic experiences of my life!  You go up in this tiny rickety pod and it only goes 4 miles per hour and looks like it hasn't been updated since the 1970s.  Awesome view from the top though!

There was a Cardinals game later that day so all those tiny dots on the right side of the picture (behind what I'm assuming is the capitol building) are people tailgating and to the left is the field.

I've also been doing other stuff.. like laundry and dishes and vacuuming.  These are the things I do to avoid doing my schoolwork.  So if anyone needs their houses cleaned, let me know so I can continue procrastinating! :)

Finally, one more picture of me with my favourite person in the whole wide world. He's just so cute.

The end :)