Happy New Year! 2010- lookin' good so far!

Thanks for the fireworks and snow London, it made New Year's eve completely surreal! There are a lot of events to look forward to this year. A few of them include my mother's 60th birthday, the birth of my sister's baby, my first niece or nephew, my ten year class reunion. 2009 was the first year I have spend entirely in a foreign country (that's right England, I love you, but you are still a foreign country because I need a visa and I don't yet say 'cheers' for thank you. Don't be sad dear England, I will get there:) 2010 is also the year that I say hello to being 28 and great! With so many momentous and sure to be memorable occasions I wanted to start the year out right.

Directly after work on the 30th, Wednesday, Letty (my housemate from New Zealand) and I hurried to the train station to travel down to London where we met my very lovely friend Andrew, our host extraordinaire. Andrew is a particularly amazing individual that I had the good fortune of meeting through our mutual friend, Dan. We were both moving to England to study literature and it is always nice talking literature ad nauseum with Andrew! He gave and lent me many books this visit in preparation for his move back to the USA. London will miss you Andrew!
Upon our arrival we decided that we absolutely MUST take Letty for a curry. Letty had never yet had a curry in England, and Masala Zone, just around the corner from Andrew's house in Camden Town was just the ticket.

For dessert, Andrew prepared amazing vegan cupcakes (another thing Andrew and I have in common is our enjoyment of vegan baking) Andrew received silicon cupcake holders for Christmas and was eager to try them out. Sounds good to me! :)
Meanwhile Letty helped me make our pint-glass-sized gin and tonics to enjoy whilst the goodies were baking. I guess that is what happens when the two sizes are either very tiny or massive. Massive it is then.
I was Andrew's helper and was in charger of putting the apricot jam in the center of the cupcakes. so delicious. I like this picture because it shows my ginormous glass of G & T, cupcakes, and fantastically cool watch Tim gave me for Christmas. :) Good job Letty :)
The next day we had a relaxing afternoon, went for noodles, made some dinner and then drank a few coffees with Bailey's and mulled wine (it is COLD outside people). After accidentally using liquid soap as toothpaste (don't recommend, it is so 2009) I cleaned out my toothbrush and used proper toothpaste and then bundled up in every article of clothing I had brought with me for the weekend to brave the cold. Letty, Andrew and I ventured out into the crowds to find a view of the fireworks. I am really glad that we chose to venture to the Thames. the buzz in the streets was amazing. I don't think I have ever seen so many people out for New Year's in my life!! The picture above was taken near the Black Friar's Bridge (where we were to watch the fireworks) and I think the double Decker bus caught amongst the throngs of people captures perfectly the madness in the streets. I even enjoyed the periodic yelling in jubilation of the new year and random horns and whistles.
Letty and I waiting for the fireworks to go boom!
There they are. Was a spectacular show. We were a little far away to hear music or a count down, but it was fun nonetheless. Bonus, because we were away from the loud I heard my phone and was able to talk with Tim and we wished each other Happy New Year! from the capitol of England and the capitol of Scotland. cool!
We saw this sight on our epic walk across the entire city of London back to Andrew's house. Odd but cool. I HAD to take a photo. Sober and tired and still wide awake from all the caffeine in our coffee earlier we had a nice long chat and headed to sleep. But not before Andrew came out with a few great one-liners about English culture. My favorite being "salad is not something that grows in our garden!" English people often ask if you want salad on your sandwich and they mean lettuce and it is confusing and a little strange every time. I actually kind of just went with it and assumed they were putting salad on my sandwich albeit a very simple one. You learn something new everyday.

I have friends that don't like celebrating New Years, but I quite like it as it has a sense of New beginnings and it seems that anything is possible. I have a few New Year's resolutions, one of them which is (maybe) relevant to you if you are reading this to be a more consistent blogger. I miss my family and friends scattered all over the world with a high concentration in the great Auburn area of Washington, blogging is a great way to stay in touch (as mention in previous blog) Also I would like to write more letters and in general write more. more. more... and perhaps if dare to dream... better. poetry in particular is a craft that is missing in my life lately. So here's to New Year's resolution that improve the quality of life! More life in my years I say! :)