Home for Christmas

Shortly after arriving in England, I was told by basically everyone I talked to that I should go back to the States for Christmas because Birmingham would be empty. I took them up on that and a few weeks after arriving, Andrea and I purchased plane tickets to fly home for Christmas.

Our flight was at 9am, so in order to get to the airport 3 hours before that, which is what is recommended for international flights, we had to get up at 4am. That is hell for me. Of course I had trouble falling asleep the night before so I only ended up with maybe 3 hours of sleep. Andrea experienced the same thing. Despite how tired we were we got the airport without any delays or setbacks. We got a little lost in the airport but eventually figured out where we were supposed to be. We got through security fine and we were on our way. Birmingham airport is weird in that as soon as you get through security you are shuffled into what is essentially a mall. There is no open path with stores lining the side like most airports, you walk straight into what looks like the show room of a Macy's. We even got perfume squirted at us, which is annoying normally, but at 6am it is insufferable.

We made it out to our gate which was thankfully shop free and began our long wait. We were extremely tired and things got a little silly. Andrea did not have a fancy neck pillow so she tried to invent one out of her hoodie and a scarf....

We were so tired we couldn't stop laughing for ten minutes. That picture still makes me chuckle.

Flights across the Atlantic suck. I hate long flights. Hate them. I watched a fairly decent movie called The Hundred Foot Journey, but that only took up two hours of the 8 hour trip. On top of all this, just with my flight to England, I had a cold. It had not really been too bad up until this flight, but the air pressure made everything a nightmare. Mucus was literally pouring out of my nose. Thank goodness for Andrea's supply of travel tissues.


Skipping the rest of the travel, being home has been awesome. It has been so wonderful not having to cook for myself...so wonderful. Also being able to cuddle my cat whenever I want to has been pretty rad. When you have lived with pets your entire life and are suddenly cut off from them, it can be rough.

My mother kept getting scared the first couple days I was home because she was not used to someone shuffling around in the background and thought I was a burglar or something. Still, I think she relished the opportunity to take care of me ;)

I have gotten spoiled being home. My giant queen size bed with lovely soft sheets in my big room is so wonderful, and the bathroom that has the toilet and sink in the same space, and the shower that has good water pressure! Ugh. Also TV. Not having to wait for things to be uploaded online the next day is awesome.

Christmas Eve we went to a family party to see the relatives. Some even told me they read my blog. Woo victory! It was at this party that I realized I am really bad at talking about England face to face. People would say "Oh what is it like!" and I would just say "Fine" or "It has been good!". What is that? Goodness that is lame.

Christmas was a bit odd because it was just me and my parents, but it was nice. I got eleven pairs of socks! They are all so fabulous. I also finally got a camera strap for my nice camera, which will make taking pictures infinitely easier. (I also found the charger for this camera that my mother insisted was not there, so now I can actually start using my nice camera again).

The day after Christmas, today, I got my hair cut by the same woman who has been cutting my hair since high school. I love going to see her and her family so I was really glad I got to go. Plus they gave me cookies ;D And my haircut looks really good. I have decided when my hair gets really long it ages me in a not-nice way.

Now I am eating leftovers from yesterday, and am trying to convince myself to work on one of my essays and watching the last Lord of the Rings movie.

These last few days, anxiety over going back has been creeping up. I am not looking forward to the flight home and these essays are stressing me out. I wish I could fast forward to the new term, but I have to get through a few nasty things to get there!

See everyone in the new year! Well, if you live in the US I won't bee seeing you...oh well!