LHR Thai

Like all good flight attendants, I have my favorite restaurants in each city. My new fave in Edinburgh is the Potato Shop where, for a mere five pounds, you get two medium potatoes smothered in all sorts of wonderful things like beans, cheese, chili, sour cream, and various toppings alike. In Shannon, Mongol Indian is the best. There's also great Thai and a fancy pizza joint along the river.

I was excited to get this London trip because I wanted to go to my favorite Thai place, The Churchill Arms. It has a great atmosphere, good beers on tap (even though I always get Guinness), and the food is reasonably priced and quite delicious. Here's a snapshot from my table, looking across the way. The ceiling is covered with hanging potted plants, and the windows are large and let in as much light as is shining.

EDI

Check us out!  We did Edinburgh together, and climbed Sir Arthur's Seat!  It was wonderful, and we look so cute coming home too ;)

The Rules

My mother said I'm not allowed to leave the country unless I let her know.

Glasgow.  Found the Nando's.

Edinburgh.  Found the Nando's, and Whistle Binkies.

Belfast.  FINALLY had a beer at Kelly's Cellars.  Walked past the Nando's ;)

Ich vermisse dich

I miss you all, dearly.

Here are a few of the snapshots from my last day in Augsburg.  It was my dream day, mein Traumtag.  I went to school in the morning with goodies from the bakery.  Received all 2's and an 1 in conversation!  Went it to Pow Wow for a coffee with the kiddies after class.  Then went on an epic journey to find the big slide; went down aforementioned slide.  Drank a bottle of Italian wine on a bench in the park, that J had brought from Italy to New York, then back to Munich for my birthday.  It was delicious.  As it was Feiertag, made our way out to the suburbs (via bus! I rode the bus!) for beers in a tent in the middle of a field.  I couldn't have planned it, dreamed it, or lived it better.

Epic slide.  There's clearly toddlers waddling up the staircase, and a sign that says this Spielplatz ist fuer die Kinder.  Ich bin ein Kind im mein Herz.

M's holding the bottle, and those are cups commandeered from Pow Wow...

We're classy.

The Boys made fun of my American smile in all the pictures.  In this particular snapshot it appears M is holding my beer, but I assure you I can hold my own liter.  With two hands.

RIP Robin

Robin Gibb past away on Sunday.  This is a cheesy video of The Wallflowers' cover of Robin's best song, one of my absolute favorites.  I secretly (well, not so much anymore...) LOVE The Bee Gees.  They created their own sounds, melodies, harmonies, and perfected those very basic yet challenging elements of writing music and songs that will always be monumental and ground breaking.  Cheers to you, Robin Gibb.

Now What???

On Friday afternoon, as the 777 was descending, and Manhattan was standing so proudly out the window of my quite glorious first class flat bed seat, tears were streaming down my face.  It wasn't that I was sad to be home, it was that I had no way of knowing how I'd get back.  When I left Augsburg two years ago, I knew in my heart I'd be back again and without that same peace: tears.  I was so lucky and fortunate to have then spent the next few hours out to lunch with my best friends, then out to drinks in the City.  I'm currently at my parents' house, where I've been for the past 48 hours.  I spent every one of them lying down watching an embarrassingly large amount of television and eating meat (my host family was on a meat-minimalist diet).  There are a few things that are for sure:  I'm cutting off my cable in the apartment, I'm going to a different gym with classes because my knee won't permit me to be a marathon runner (and I'm okay with that).  I do need to make it to that soup kitchen and start volunteering.  And achieving fluency in the German language.  It's quite the list of goals, but all within my reach and all things I've always wanted to do anyway.  The time has come, the Walrus said, to stop talking of things and doing them ;)

Birthday Dress!!

Here's what 28 looks like with my new bestie Angelene :)