start the countdown

so there is less than one week left! and i've done some cool stuff since the last time i wrote. such as write a book. a short book, but nevertheless i had to write over 40 pages these last few weeks and it's been killer. i just finished all my essays today, and i still have to study for one more final! to give you an accurate description of how it feels to be studying for finals here and writing papers here at the wonderful IES, i should tell you that i'm not in the least bit stressed. i've gone to bed whenever i felt like it, and though i've given myself tons of time for these papers, i haven't felt like i needed to skip out on anything because of studying for finals. 

example. i think it was last weekend that i went to WIMBLEDON. this was awesome and i let myself go at the cafe and the store. where i bought the towel of course, and the 2009 calendar. these things are sweet. it was very cold but nevertheless enjoyable ( i really like the word "nevertheless" if you can't already tell). yes, it was awesome, and yes, i want to go back ASAP.

i'm now only 6 days away from going home! this is sad, but also really exciting. i can't wait to have things be back to normal and to see the fam and everyone else of course. i also would very much like to play some tennis. a lot of tennis. hours and hours of tennis. i can't wait. and also for christmas get togethers. those will be fun. 

today i tried to go christmas shopping at brick lane, but failed. i couldn't even find a jacket or peacoat for myself. it was pathetic. i did find an eel skin billfold for cards and cash. its super thin, so its perfect. 

only one more final! i'm so excited to be done with the schoolwork, but its going to be sad to leave london and england in general. i've grown to really like this place, and i wish i could stay longer if funds permitted and that everyone decided to move on across the atlantic. that would be much better (how much fun would it be if Whitman was in england?!) . anyways, time for sleep. and i will catch up with you guys on SATURDAY! or possibly sunday, because i will be quite tired i think when i get into the airport. 18 hours of travel actually its over 20 including getting to the airport and check in and everything. its going to be a busy day. boo. 

Discovering the Isle

so this blog that i have seems like it survived the semester...kinda. sorry about the delays in posts. so i thought i would talk about London and its awesomeness for the time being. London is awesome. I've never been to a really big city and had to stay there for long. probably the biggest I've been in is LA, and i never really reached the center. But London is huge! its by no means a walking city. you have to take some mode of transportation everywhere you go. some of the cities i travelled to here seem like you can walk them all if you really want to. these cities being Barcelona, Venice, Florence, and Rome. i may be wrong about barcelona, but i feel like i saw most of the city, and most was all seen by foot. in london, this is not possible. you would never get to the east end if you lived on the west end. even walking from central to east or west ends would take forever! i'm so happy that the tube system is in place, and that night buses are forever running throughout the city. they save my life everyday. 

you would also never be able to go to the awesome markets that take place on the weekends on the east end, or the amazing portobello markets up in notting hill. lets just talk about the markets i've seen or heard of that i will eventually attend. first off will be the "sunday up market" this place has really cool clothes and really delicious food from all over the world. its in a huge warehouse, and costs nothing to attend. there is tons of vintage style clothing, and basically a bunch of stuff i would call "chill" clothes. individual designers selling their stuff, along with vintage designers selling their stuff for really cheap because they are going out of business, etc. nothing here in the clothing/accessories department exceeds like £30. and you can get a really good jacket/pea coat for 20 to 30p. like hella legit stuff. the food is sooo good. you will never know. but i had the best Chinese food of my life there. and it was only £3.50 for a lot of food. i also had some really good Indian cuisine there. lets just touch on what the English think Mexican food is. basically its terrible, they don't know the proper beans, or how to create a burrito or a legit fajita. their fajitas are basically a milder curry thing. its so not Mexican. its decent. but not Mexican. i want taco bell. and chipotle too. 

let us move on to Brick Lane. which is situated right next to the Sunday up market. this area can be sketchy. people will basically sell you the shoes off their feet in some areas of this market. its open on Saturdays and Sundays, and there are obviously tons of stolen goods that are in perfect condition. i can go there and get a blazer coat thing for £10 or less. and this is a real French Connection (FCUK) coat. obviously stolen. anything at these people's booths, no matter what it is, is £10 for men's stuff, and £5 for women's stuff. its insane. there's some good bangers and mash (sausage and potatoes) over there, and some really cool looking coffee caff places that are really cheap. this place is also filled with vintage booths and some touristy stuff where tourists are taken advantage of because they are usually not the brightest crayons. so this place is awesomely huge, and there is tons of stuff to look at. my friends and i try to go to the Sunday up market / brick lane combo every Saturday or Sunday afternoon. its a lot of fun, and its cheap. i haven't bought anything yet, but hopefully i will find some good gifts for Christmas there.

next we have the Portobello market. its vastly a antiques market, full of silver items and old books and antique jewelry. though these things don't generally interest me. it was a lot of fun! especially going with lindsey and charlotte. this market was generally way expensive because of the items being of pure silver and gold, and that they were hundreds of years old. they also had awesome pocket watches  (!!!) for like £10, which to me was  a good deal. though i didn't buy it, i think i will consider it for a later time. there was also some banger and mash places along with some fish and chips places, but they looked a bit shaky. so this market wasn't my favorite, it was a little pricy, and it just wasn't my cuppa.

the others that i have heard of are petticoat lane and some flower market. these names directly relate to what is there. petticoat is strictly clothes, and a good place to find fake name brand stuff sold illegally. the flower market is strictly flowers. really awesome flower arrangements, i've seen them. these are all the markets that are noteworthy...i think. i'm satisfied with what i've seen, any more options and i think i'd be marketed out.

ooooohhhhhh, i don't think i've talked about this place yet. the other weekend i went to the coast, about 1.5 hours away from london. this city was called Brighton. it reminded me of the oregon coast, because it was windy, and had its fits of bad weather. one part reminded me of the board walk in cali, because it had a huge amusement park like atmosphere on a pier, with tons of roller coasters and little rides. in the city, there were awesome little shops that seemed to date back into the 60's. this seemed appropriate, because in my british youth culture class, the "mods" (british hipsters if you will) would go down to brighton from their hangout in soho, London on the weekends to hang, battle with rockers, and just rage. anyways, there's history, but back to the "lanes" as these little streets were called where the shops were located. first, amazingly cheap for england standards, and amazing little breakfast shops where i had my first famous full english breakfast! it was REALLY GOOD. hahaha. anyways, lots of vintage, and other nice clothing for really cheap, even versus american prices. AND, there was a beach front, and it was full of bars and famous night clubs (how awesome would it be to go to a nightclub on the beach??). anyways, brighton is an amazing little beach town where londoners go on the weekends to get away from the city and to chill out...and rage. 

Speaking of raging, in youth culture lecture today, we learned all about raves in england. from the illegal ones to the ones that they house in warehouses, aka ministry of sound (yeah, i went there a month ago!) and fabric. also, brighton has an annual outdoor rave on the beach during the summer and has over 150,000 people attend. Fatboy Slim is the DJ who hosts, he's a pretty famous guy in the rave world. so is Paul Oakenfold, who DJ's in London a lot. sweet house music, haha.

Back in London. so now the city is decked out in its full christmas attire, and it looks amazing. Carnaby street (hipster central) is fully decked with lights everywhere and inflated HUUUUGE snowmen floating above you in the street. on Oxford street (high street shops) there are giant stars made of lights just hangin slightly above the bus height line. this is through the entire street. its sweet. it reminds me of home and portland during the christmas season. Harrods is also fully decked out. they have half a floor dedicated to the genre "Christmas World" where you can find all your home decor for christmas, from ornaments to the garlands to everything you would ever need to decorate your home for the holidays. its simply crazy. the ice rinks have been set up in front of museums, the tower of london, and possibly in front of parliament (haven't seen that one yet though). i want to go ice skating, because the buildings surrounding it are decorated for christmas as well. London is ready for christmas, and its not even thanksgiving yet. oh wait, thanksgiving doesn't exist here. booo. and neither does eggnog (seriously?). so i don't know what to do about those problems. but what i do know is that i'm ready for christmas. right now.

Oi! i'm also ready for winter break, i can't stop thinking of all the friends i'm going to see and all the christmas extravaganzas i would like to attend. basically it will be amazing. ahhhh i can't stop thinking about ittttt. oh, also, i have to train a lot. tennis hasn't exactly been a priority as of late. luckily there is such thing as a ball machine, basket of balls, and a christoph fuchs :) i have been hitting the gym quite regularly though!

also, sorry mom, i haven't sent the tea yet. but some friends are sending stuff tomorrow, so i will probably tag along and send your stuff as well :)

etienne, i miss you. a lot. lets try skype again and i'll ensure there are no interferences. 

Cheers from London, 

Davad (head tilt)

Paris, Italy, and Halloween

yeah, its going to be long, so be prepared...

so i'm going to start out with Paris, France. which was probably in the top ten of the most exciting weekends of my life. so i wake up around 4am to catch a bus on saturday morning to go to Heathrow airport. i make it there a bit later than i was supposedly scheduled to, i talk to the desk person at British Airways, who then tells me i have to check in with the electronic devices. upon reaching one of those, i was approximately 3 minutes late for my check-in, and it wouldn't let me check in at all. i call someone over, and they say i have to buy a new flight. i'm super pissed and stressed. its 5am, and already things are going wrong. so i buy a new flight from some big british lady who is telling me all these things i should have done not to be late. i really couldn't care less about what she had to say, because all i wanted was an early flight to paris. i get a flight a few hours later, there was some odd conditions about the airport and letting me have my racquet for a carry on (it had to be checked in, i wasn't too happy about it), and then i'm off to paris. i get a phone call from jasper, and we're off!

First stop was lunch. which i now remembered, i was really hungry in heathrow airport around 8am. being up for 4 hours, i naturally ordered a terrible british burger. yes, at 8 in the morning. haha. so anyways, we get some panini sandwiches and we eat at a cemetery. which i was told by some other people was one of the things you should do in paris. so we ate in a cemetery, it was really quiet and peaceful. Jasp and i caught up and it was a great lunch all together. from there, i think we checked into the hotel. upon having a somewhat sketchy experience by myself in barcelona, i decided that booking a hotel would be more comfortable, safer, and they would speak english. so i booked Le Meridien Montparnasse. Le meridien is a chain in europe i think, they are 3 star (europe only has 4 stars) rated hotel, and it was sweet to say the least. 22nd floor, excellent view of paris, and the BEST bed i've ever slept on. wow it was good. so from there we went to the eiffel tower, which we found was too busy. so we took a bus sight seeing tour. and it was probably the best way to see the entire city in the amount of time that we had. we saw everything, i couldn't tell you what i saw by name, because there were far too many, and i don't know french at all. but nevertheless it was awesome and efficient. we then went back and cleaned up and went to dinner. it was a great little restaurant and we ate some great hearty food. the dinner lasted around 3 hours. we're eating with jasper remember, lol (jk jasp jk). but this is just how they do dinner around there, they give you lots of conversation time. and as for couples, lots of makeout time, which the couple sitting behind jasper were doing basically the whole time we were eating. haha. 

anyways, after dinner we went to meet up with some whitties i had never seen or heard of before. apparently they are our year. and also charlotte was there, who i had run into at seattle airport last spring break. and so we all met up, and tried to go into a club that was basically under a pretty big bridge next to the river. we waited in line for probably 30 minutes, and some lady met us at the front of the line and said something in french, and next thing you know we were rejected! i didn't think we'd get in, after all i was wearing a white hoodie with some red and other colors on it. and parisians don't do color. so that was  a bummer, it looked like a really cool club with special lights and your typical euro house music. so after that, it was really really late, so jasper and i went back to th

e hotel. failing to find a cab, and the metro closed, we walked it out. and we reached the hotel, and collapsed into the fine queen.

the next day proved hard to get up out of bed. but after a nice hot shower, we were off. jasper had to run home (forgot to mention that i had tea in jasper's apartment-like room the day before) to get his antibiotics for his cold, poor guy. so while he was doing th

at, i continued on the metro to the eiffel tower, hoping that it would be a much shorter wait to go up. i waited in line for a short 30minutes. and then i was off, climbing the stairs of the eiffel tower! going up to the first level wasn't bad, looking down from the first level hadn't set off any fears just yet. but going up to the second level, the fence

on the outer sides of the eiffel tower had disappeared, and i

 immediately got a bit shaky. i pretty much ran up the stairs in order to get on a level surface that had railing and more fencing. the view was spectacular, and yes, it was high, really really high. after snapping a few pictures, i waited for the lift that took you to the top of the tower. eeeeeeekk. when i got on the elevator, i didn't look down (if you didn't know, i have a fear of heights), so i looked up. which wasn't a good idea, because i saw just how far up we were going. about half way up the smooth elevator ride, my legs started shaking and wanting to give out. i had to hold onto the side rail and close my eyes for the rest of the way up. it was embarrassing. so the top of the eiffel tower is pretty much a blur, because i felt a bit light headed. i went around the top probably once, and i immediately waited for the lift to go down. the view was good by my pictures, but i am pretty sure i blocked most of it out.

after the eiffel tower, i met jas

p back at the metro, and we were off to Roland

Garros. i was unbelievably excited for this part of the day. we somehow caught a tour in english at

 3pm. we had

 no idea there were special tours, so this

 was awesome. we

 got to go to many areas that the public are usually not allowed during the tournament. such as all the media rooms, the players lounge, the locker rooms, the hallway that enters into court phillipe chatrier!!! it was sooo awesome! we even went onto the court, with the same clay that fed and nadal played on! (they hadn't changed it since the tournament). it was awesome. we took many the picture. we then went to the tenniseum! which in my opinion was one of the best museumsever. haha. it was basically a lacostatute's dream. upon leaving the site, it was time for me to go, and for jasper to catch his hit. which means i left 3 hours earlier than i needed to. but of course all this fun couldn't go without some more trouble. this means that the transport system that gets u from paris to the airport crashed, and i had no idea what was going on, as everything was in french. luckily i found some brits that understood, and the only way to the airport was via taxi. so we stood in a line of probably 300 people, which meant waiting in line for about 2 hours. which means, that i got to the airport right when my plane took off. and again, brisith airways can (*&^%$£$%^&^%$£$%. i hate them. basically. they didn't help me find another flight, they basically told me to come back tomorrow. it was only like 9pm. so i went to the ticker boards to see who was flying to

London, it turned

 out to be easy jet. and luckily i got a ticket, though at a most ridiculous price tag. so in the end i was very stressed out, so i ate a ton of "hit" cookies. and fell asleep on the plane. overall, the paris experience was very positive, and very fun! i think jasper is the best guide in paris, so efficient, so well planned. thanks jasper! it was seriously a weekend i will remember for the rest of my life!

Now, i got back into london on sunday night, and had to write two midterms, and then leave for italy on wednesday morning! haha, these last few weeks have been so packed. so me and 13 people from my program are all going to italy. we leave in the morning, catch a coach bus and get to the airport, everything is great. we get to venice, italy. and it was amazing. there are no cars, only boats and gondolas. the city consists of 400 bridges and endless amazing food and glassworks. it was probably the most beautiful city i had ever seen. we had a three course italian dinner for only 13 euro. it was simply the best food i had ever eaten. so over the 1.5 days we were in venice, we ate tons of food, saw many cool piazzas, and we went on a gondola ride! next stop was florence, where we took a eurostar train, which supposedly go really fast.

the train wasn't that fast. it took a few hours to travel halfway down the boot. we get into florence, and we have the coolest hostel i've ever seen. it was called PLUS florence. they had a restaurant, bar, pool tables, a cardio room, and a awesomely lit swimming pool. the beds were amazing as well. we all ate dinner at a place called Yellow Bar. which was okay, but i discovered an awesome green and yellow pasta with some sort of sausage and creamy sauce. i wish i remembered what it was called. this is the city where the famous David sculpture is. made of marble, it is really really big and impressive. there is also a bronze version at the top of a hill that we climbed as well where you could see the whole city. there was also, so much gelati (gelato). we ate a lot. florence was not my favorite city, it just didn't seem that italian. though there were tons of leather markets and sketchy italian men who didn't fail at hollering at all the girls in our group. but from there we were on our way to roma!

so in the train station in florence, some retarded men, who were regulating the lines for tickets, told us that all trains to rome were sold out. we then started to freak out. we thought of all our possibilities, bus, train, taxi, and rental car. there were no buses to rome, trains were sold out, taxi would cost thousands of euros, so rental car was the option. exce

pt no one knew how to drive stick except me! so i'd have to be the driver because almost all cars in europe are stick, no automatics. this option would have been cheaper than the train as well. but there were no cars available, luckily we actually went up to the ticket desk for train tickets, and we found out that the other guys were lying. it was so much unnecessary stress. so we trained it to rome. it was really late when we got in. we got to our tiny tiny hostel after getting lost a few times. then we got dinner, and got ripped off by italians about the price of the food. 

the next morning was a trip to the coliseum which was amazing. we got a tour instead of waiting in a three hour line. it took the majority of our day. we then went to the forum, also got a tour. it was pretty awesome, lots of ruins that were from the BC era. it was a really unique experience. we went to many of rome's attractions. ate tons of gelati on the way of course. and ate other italian food all day long. rome didn't seem to have the markets that other italian cities had, it was mostly tourist rip offs. but rome was also really dirty, and full of graffiti. we were awoken by a protest by romans. it was annoying, and loud.

so the next day, we went to the vatican city, where we also paid for a tour to avoid a 4+ hour line. it was simply amazing, the art and sculpture were the best i'd seen

. and we got to see the sistine chapel with the paintings on the ceilings! it was definitely worth it for the tour to get us in early. the pope lives in grandure, thats all i'm going to say. the best stuff. also we saw st. pauls. the church where the pope gives his mass. it was very majestic. and i don't know where the pictures to that church went. 

by the end of all this touring, i was really really tired and just wanted to go home and sleep. so at the airport, again, they hate letting me have a normal day. so the wrong name got put on my boarding pass. and they wouldn't let me have my ticket. i had to get a "name change" because i had the credit card and everything that i bought it with. they charged me 150 euro to change the name. even though i had the girl whose name was on my boarding pass with me, she even had her own boarding pass. it was so ridiculous. they were, excuse my french, complete assholes. it was sooo annoying. i wanted to strangle them. i was so out of energy, and stressed out. i just wanted to go home. jeez, i hated it. so i'm glad i made it home at 2am. soo tired.

so after that, i again had to write 2 papers. and then it was halloween yesterday. i dressed up as the phantom of the opera, all black and the half mask thing. we went to our local pub that we go to. and then to a club called crazy larry's. it was lots of fun, but then the weather was bad on the way home, and made me wish that i would have stayed in my sweats watching a movie and drinking tea. haha. 

to my beloved tennis fam... i miss you guys lots. i wish i could have come to the corn maze, as i always enjoy it. the pictures of the pumpkin carving made me laugh and miss you guys even more. i hope your semester is going well, and i can't wait to hit the courts with you in the spring. winter break i will be very motivated, its hard to find ppl to hit with over here, so when i hit, i'm very excited. i hope to see some of you during winter break possibly!

Belgium and stuff

So its been a long while, and i don't really remember where i left off. but it probably had to do with my touristy weekend of london. these last weeks have been harder with school and stuff, but have also included many fun weekends. i found an awesome church called "Hillsong London". it was like a concert, pretty amazing. also i found out that when you give to the church, and you are a london tax payer, the government will match 25% of your contribution. just a little tidbit there. i went to belgium the other weekend. it was pretty much the most depressing adventure i have ever been on. we went to 1000000000000 cemeteries and memorials. all for the great war, and for the soldiers who had died, but were so badly injured, they could not be identified, or had died and couldn't be found after the war. many many headstones. these cemeteries were not dark and gloomy, but rather they were very bright and quite beautiful. i'll put up pics soon. there was only one gloomy cemetery, and that was the one for the germans, the same one that hitler visited for some publicity thing back in the day. other than visiting museums devoted to the great war, cemeteries for the great war, and memorial buildings and arches for the great war, we ate food. this seems to be a general theme of my trips. the food is so good in other countries. all i felt that belgium was good for was chocolate, and waffles. apparently beer is a part of their culture, but its not good according to my taste, it has a high alcohol content, it tastes like butt. but back to the chocolate, the best chocolate in the whole world, i wish i could bring back a huge supply....i feel like i will find some here, and actually do that. it was simply good and delicious. the waffles were also amazing, very light, yet with substance, very sweet, and very cheap. other than that, it was really cold and rainy, due to the fact that it is situated pretty much right on the coast. the ferry ride was aweful, i would have seemed to anyone that i would have failed a sobriety "walk the line" test, because when i was walking the halls, i was basically zig zaging because of the turbulance of the boat. it was bad. i don't like ferries anymore.

this weekend was again touristy in london. this time we went into St. Paul's Cathedral. it was the most ornate church i have ever seen. they still hold mass there, which sounds pretty cool just because of the sheer size of the place. you can climb stairs to certain height levels of the place, which is obscenely tall. its like a big cavern in the main area, and the first flight of stairs leads you very very high. when we got there, and i looked down, i almost passed out. yes, i am afraid of heights. i held on tightly to the rail which didn't surpass chest level, very very scary. then, we went even higher, to a level that led you outside, not as scary because there were bigger fences. you can see basically the entire city from this vantage point. then we went even higher, and were again outside. it was very windy, and the space to move around was very small because the top narrows. and inside near the stairs was a little hole that had a window. you are on the top of the building, and you can see straight to the ground, it was pretty much the most amazing/terrifying sight ever. 

at night we went to the biggest club in all of europe, with the loudest sound system in the world, this place was called "ministry of sound". it was okay, i was expecting much better, three dance floors, and all played house/techno. it was filled with european guys on steroids and women in their 30's on drugs. it was sketchy, not going there again. other than the people, the building was huuuuuge and the decor was pretty cool too, really interesting fibre optic chandeliers and stuff. pretty awesome. maybe if we go on a weekday, there would be better people and music, but we decided we're never going there again. it was also obscenely expensive. kinda the place where you just go so you can say you've been there i guess. 

anyways, this week i wrote a paper, which took much effort, and i'm glad its done. this saturday i'm going to paris to hang with jasper! i got a niiice hotel in the city, and my flight is in the main airports so i don't have to take such long traveling times. i'm really excited! cuz after that, i go to italy for 4 days starting on wednesday! miss you all tons! 

New Pictures

Pictures of the city and such. i think more will come this week, we might be going on the London Eye. but here are some on the right --> 

just click on it and it will show my library of pictures

Being a Tourist n such

i think i may be turning into a tourist. it takes dedication, such as trying to see everything in one day, like i did just a few days ago. i saw the london eye, london bridge, big ben, and st. paul's cathedral all in one day. i don't like spending much time at any of these places because they are full of more tourists....more dumb and annoying tourists. i guess i like to see myself as a first time resident instead of a tourist, because when i think tourist, i think "stupid." 

so this week after barcelona has been spent trying to figure out where and when i want to travel in europe. and who(!) to go with. trying to organize has been a task. getting multiple together to go on an adventure i feel like is going to be really hard. but i know it will be worth it in the end.

also this week was the first time i went to the gym since july (sad i know). and the first time i've played tennis in about a month. the gym is at city university, its super nice with plasma screens everywhere, and techno music and base bumpin' the whole time. all with the same equipment we have at whitman's BFFC. its basicallly great. as for the tennis, its been an adventure trying to connect with the guy i was supposed to get into contact with over 3 weeks ago. but i finally made it out to this academy that they had running. this club is "Chiswick Riverside Health and Racquet Club." basically, its the nicest, fanciest club i've ever stepped into. no joke. grass, clay, hard, bubble. they had everything. a sweet gym. big pool, indoor courts too. this place was no joke. so i played at this academy twice last week. it was pretty good i might say. its nothing like practicing with the team, but it reminded me of my hs days at VTC and the UP academy. the kids ranged from smaller 13 year olds to seniors in hs. all of them were pretty good. some stood out more than others obviously, but they were all good for getting my rust out. surprisingly, there wasn't much rust, and i was hitting with pretty good timing on my second day. overall, i think i will hit there once a week, and i'm in the process of finding locals my age. apparently most are at university in the states, so hs kids is pretty much what i'm going to get, with the exception of a few older guys. i'm also going to be hitting with deem's bro, nejeed, who is also (studying?) in london, so that should be fun. basically i'm happy to be hitting again (also, might be playing a tourney next month!). 

so that was my week. and the food discoveries for the week include: Pret a Manger (its french i believe, so i think jasp could pronounce it correctly), My Old Aunt, which is great for breakfast, and we just discovered a great Thai food place called Thai Smile. 

ps. more pictures tomorrow. its bedtime.

  

pictures

hey i have pictures up now. just to letting you know. you can click the smaller set to go directly to the library of all my pictures. the bigger ones are just a small selection of what i have. 

also i forgot to tell about how i had dinner with Lindsey's host family! it wasn't too awkward like she thought it might be. the family spoke no english at all, and i have fairly limited spanish, so i just listened a lot. i can understand a lot more than i can say, so it was interesting. it was an experience that i won't forget. also, i think it takes guts to live with a family who doesn't speak your language. i'm proud of linds, i think that would stress me out more than anything. but she is doing great! 

i also forgot to mention the fact that i have to use a british accent in my everyday life now. whenever i go to the grocery store or restaurant in a part of town that isn't full of tourists, i'm always being told that i can't be understood. but as soon as i try out my pathetic accent, i'm all of the sudden understood. odd. also, the checker doesn't say "next" they call out "yes please!" which i find odd. all clerks at stores say this. then they say "alright" but not in a questioning tone, they just say "alright" which is meant to mean "how are you?" and you are to promptly respond "fine," not good, not great, not terrible, but "fine." just some quirky little things.