Chronicles of the airport

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Friday. 14.12.2007. London. U.K.

6:00 alarm goes off
shower, get ready, pack makeup bag

6:50 ted wakes up
he puts on a Cubbies cap and jogging pants to walk wife to train station

6:57 we leave the house
dragging 3 pieces of luggage all the way to Victoria station

7:02 missed the 7 am Gatwick express
get on the one that leaves 7:15

7:05 ted kisses me goodbye
he leaves the luggage nicely arranged in the train and goes back to the flat

7:48 gatwick express arrives to the airport
I have 3 bags! there is only 1 elevator and 765,893 people waiting to use it.

8:20 take shuttle train to north terminal where my airline is
it took me 20 minutes to access the elevator to go up 1 floor
I did not have a single coin to use one of the trolly carts (arrrrgggg!)

8:35 lined up for check in
my flight leaves at 9:30! the line is huge... horrible fear of missing my flight

8:50 I finally reach the counter
the flight has been delayed 2 and a half hours due to weather conditions in Houston
for the first time i'm happy my plane is delayed

9:01 i finish checking in
the luggage belt at the check in counter is broken so checked bags are left next to the counters!
the continental guy gives me a £ 5 refreshment voucher for being so patient

9: something. I stop looking at my watch because I know there is plenty of time
security line is endless

somewhere around 10. I pass airport security and start looking for food to use my super voucher
while walking around, i remember about the eye-thingie program where you avoid lines on UK returning flights

later. I find it. The thing is called IRIS
takes 10 minutes, is painless, is free, ensures you don't have to stand in the migration line when you come back to London. nice!

11 something. Arrive at gate
there is an starbucks right in front of the gate.
i get to purchase stuff with my voucher. free

Some 9 hours later I am at home in Houston and my sister is picking me up at the airport. I am home for Christmas!

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: vacation time!

Guess where am I?

Starts with "Hous" and it ends with "ton". Yes! Home sweet home! or, my parents home I should say. Isn't it nice to have many homes around the world? well, the western world... we haven't yet visited the other side of the globe.

I am soooooooo happy to be back! Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy my London Crib as well, but after six long months of not seeing the other members of my family, my Ecuadorian blood screams for some connections. I hate to sound ungrateful to the many commodities of my British lifestyle in London, but it's good to be back to American things as well: decent size washer and separate dryer, target stores, driving your car without having to pay congestion fees -or just driving a car!-, houses with more than 1 bedroom, etc. (you know, the good'ole expatriate "whingeing").

Can you tell I'm excited? I'm on a Christmas holiday, back in the States, at my parents' house, no job, no school... oh, wait! I do have to write a school project due Jan 7th. I knew it was too good to be true! oh well, we'll just have to write my essay in between festivities.

I'll be home for Christmas... you can count on ME

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Ohhhhh December is finally here! the jolly good season. I love it!

Here are some images to let of you know that we are still alive. Doesn't it feel like Christmas?

Welcome to the 3rd floor geo!

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Living on the third floor of life is not that bad at all. At first, I was sad for having to leave my beloved twenties. What a decade it was! But now, after such wonderful birthday celebrations, I really believe that "the best is yet to come."

I am extremely thankful to every person who remembered my birthday, called, emailed, sent a gift, etc, etc. I was overwhelmed with so many blessings not only the day of my birthday, but the whole month! Muchas gracias indeed!

To see details of how we celebrated my bday, I must refer you to my dearest Kelly who put together some pictures on her blog and wrote a "brilliant" account of the events. Kelly's post. Thank you Kel!

Wimblerain

I'm still digging into past memories...



Kenny came to visit us in early July. He is our dear friend from Houston who, among other talents, happens to be a passionate tennis player. So, guess where we all went one day? Yes, the tennis lawns of Wimbledon. I was so excited to be in the mist of all those famous players, to catch a tennis ball, to see a celebrity, to appear on tv or something. But not, all we got was 8 hours of rain and 45 minutes of tennis.







I guess we can come back next year and hope we get better weather. It might not be amongst such great company though... (sigh) Thanks Kenny and Monika for coming and filling our home with laughter and fun. We miss you!

Our three year anniversary

Back in June 26th, we celebrated our 3-year wedding anniversary with a small road trip adventure. We wanted to get a closer look at the real English countryside, so we decided to rent a car and discover the southwestern coast of the island on our own.

The experience is not recommended for newlyweds, because the whole "driving on the opposite side of the road" deal is pretty stressful. It was more of a "test your marriage" adventure than an anniversary trip. But, fear not, we prepared ourselves with lots of maps and plenty of patience.



In the end, we got lost a couple of times, but love prevailed.



We visited the Dorset region which is famous for it's quaint villages and the white cliffs overlooking the English Channel. Ted booked a beautiful B&B in Dorchester and did a great job driving. Our main goal was to discover the "Old Harry Rocks" and we found them!

A June Post in August

Yes. I'm going back in time trying to remember all the things I've done. uhmmm painful task (especially when one's memory is not the best) I remember that at the beginning of June, Ted and I had made plans to go to Italy. We had air tickets and hotel reservations in Venice and Lake Como. Everything was set up and ready. Except the fact that, at the last minute, Ted had some work related issues and the trip was canceled.
Now, you might think that was the end of the story, but wait! I didn't have a job at that time, so guess what happened? Yes. I went to Lake Como. By myself. And I liked it.


Lake Como is beautiful. I saw George Clooney's house. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see him.


the best pizza ever!



What does one do when alone in Italy?...

shopping!!!

Back in May...

May was a fun month indeed. Not only we spent time with Romy from Ecuador, but we also enjoyed the company of our friends Adam and Jasmine from Houston.


Here are Ted and Adam setting up "Air mattress city"


Adam, Jasmine and Geo on a boat tour


A walk around Notting Hill


The big red bus


It's all too blurry now


Thank you guys for coming. We miss you!!!

The day has come!

Yeah, I know... about time! Sorry everybody. I have so much to tell. I don't even know where to start... it's been so long.

Ok, mabye I should start saying that I got a job. Yes. A job, here, in London. Isn't that great? The days of expat wife are long gone. Now I wake up in the morning and get out of my house to join the endless line of London commuters. I love it!

Well, the job is great. I am an account manager for a company who provides cultural and language training for expats, among other tools for the "global workforce." The office is nice, the people are great. No complains. The only thing is that the new job has messed up my time. My days go so fast, so furious. This blog has gone to the bottom of my priorities. I'm sorry. It's such a shame.

With that said, I will go ahead and dust off some old pictures to show what has happened in the last months. Stay tuned!

The girls just want to have fun.

Hanging out with Romy has been great. She has an adventurous heart and is willing to do whatever I suggest (which could be pretty dangerous). On Wednesday night, Romy and I went to my gym and took a Pilates class together. We are no Pilates experts whatsoever, so we giggled during the whole class while attempting different poses. After the class, we had some swimming/jaccuzzi/steamroom action. The whole experience was fun!

On Thursday, we spent almost the entire day at the British Museum. Romy is a tour guide in Quito, Ecuador, so I really enjoyed visiting the museum with her because we were learning together and comparing cultures, history, arts, etc, etc. She knows so much! The BM has lots of things to offer. At the end of the day, my feet were killing me!





More than a month ago, Ted and I got tickets to the Cathcart Spring Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. In spite of the fact that I was extremely tired, I put on my best gala and went to check out the event at such amazing venue. This fantastic choreographed extravaganza presented spine-tingling orchestral and choral songs, traditional Proms classics and symphonic rock arrangements. My favorite part? A 16-year old violinist from Russia, who played the Spanish song "Virtuoso." It was amazing. That girl is a treasure. (I wish I could remember her name)

Romy la exploradora

After a 16-hour journey from Ecuador, my friend Romy came to visit us last Tuesday. She is a tour guide in Quito and has already been in several European countries. This time, she gets to see the UK with me!

First stop: Change of guards at Buckingham Palace. Next: an in-depth visit to the Westminster Abby and museum.

The Greatest Sister in the World

She is gorgeous, intelligent, responsible, funny, extremely sweet, and the list goes on and on. Yesterday, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of Houston with a major in Accounting. Did I mention she is only 20 years old???

Meet the graduate with my parents:




I love you sisi, we are sooooooo proud of you!



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Flamenco, anyone???

On Saturday night, we checked out a Spanish restaurant with some of Ted’s coworkers: La Rueda. We had delicious paella, good tapas, sangría and live flamenco music. It was a wonderful night, especially when a handsome dancer was invited to join the show.




(I hope Ted is not reading this post today)