Feliz Graciadando (Happy Thanksgiving?)

We missed everyone a ton on Thanksgiving...but we missed our favorite American foods even more (its a selfish holiday, lets be honest). Mom's pumpkin cheesecake, Nana's delmonico potatoes, Bob's carmalized onions...mmmm.

We ended up celebrating with Bobby's school friends at the Blue Cactus, a mexican restaurant in South Kensington. We were 2 of 4 Americans teaching everyone about Thanksgiving and how to celebrate properly - in other words, eat until you drop. Along with us Americans, there were 2 Brits, a Dutch, a Malaysian, a Columbian and a Lebonese. They were very impressed with the holiday!!!

We started our Thanksgiving feast with what else? Margaritas, nachos and quesidillas which were actually quite delicious. Then a turkey dinner with all the fixins - mashed potatoes, gravy, a stuffing patty (we weren't quite sure on this one, but didn't ask questions), cranberry sauce and some brocolli and cauliflower. Then, the moment we were all waiting for, the pumpkin pie. But when it got to our table, we were all pretty disspointed to see what looked more like a pumpkin cookie. Nevermind that it tested awful...we think they put pepper in it?

And it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving unless we all went around the table and said what we were thankful for. Everyone is just happy to have the opportunity to be living here and meeting all these new friends (aww...cheesy but true).

Bar-thay-lona

Hola amigos.

Spent the weekend in Bar-thay-lona. Spell it: Barçelona. The "ç" makes all the difference.

Barçelona is in Catalanya, an independant state within Spain and actually has it's own hybrid Spanish language. They use the "ç" quite a bit, and it is just the tip of many differences between the languages (but for the amateur Spanish speaker, an easily noticable difference).

Beautiful city only 1:45 hours from London via Easy Jet our local low-cost airline (like a Southwest Airlines, but less perky and with less perks if that is possible). Fun fact: Cass Business School alumnus is the founder of the airline...Sir Stelios.

Anywho... Got into Barçelona late. Hotel was Vincci Arena near Plaça de Espanya a huge and impressive plaza close to where the Olympics were held in 1992. Grabbed some snacks, a late night paella and a couple draught San Miguel's at the corner paella joint, at around 11:30pm.

We opted to call it a night early so we could be in 100% MAX tourista mode the following day, which we were...

Poble Espanya - The National Gallery (views from)...

Rode the cable cars in Montejuic Park....

Saw the olympic arena....

That evening we rode around on the "Bus Turistic" - a sightseeing bus that stops at all the hot spots. We saw the Port Olympico where the olympic athletes were housed and now they are luxury apartments, the Christopher Columbus statue that points away from America (we also saw the Placa del Rei where he was greeted by the King after coming back from America) and Placa Cataluyna where the old city meets the new. We also found our new favorite snack - churros (like fried dough) dipped in hot chocolate. Dinner with Andrew, then got Katie after she landed and headed out to grab some more cervezas at a few bars in the Bourne Plaza.

Saturday morning we were up sightseeing again. This time we had a plan and saw....

La Pedrera - one of Gaudi's most famous buildings (designed as an apartment building in 1905. can you picture this in 1905?)

La Sagrada Familia - Gaudi's last work. Amazing. Its been under construction for 120 years and they expect to have it finished in 2025! We took the lift to one of the top towers and then climbed down over 250 narrow, windy stairs to get back down.

And Park Guell, again by Gaudi. It overlooks the city and the bay. We shared a bottle of wine and watched the sunset... picture perfect.

Dinner on Saturday was at a tapas restaurant called La Cerveseria Catalanya. It was the best food we've had since I've been in Europe. And such a bargain in euros! We got there at 10:30 (the Spanish eat soo late) and sat down to eat at midnight. The place was packed up until 2 am when we left. We drank sangria and ordered two full rounds of tapas - four cheeses, cured ham, tortilla espanola and finished with crema de catalanya (like creme brulee but better).

Up early and back to rainy London on Sunday and getting ready for work/school.

Have some pumpkin pie for us on Thanksgiving!!!

P.S. Can you tell Bobby and I each wrote half of this one?

Busy Weekend (lots of pictures)

We saw lots of British culture this weekend. Saturday we went to see the Lord Mayor's Festival, which has taken place every November for over 800 years in London. It is to show the new Lord Mayor to the people after he is elected and when he swears allegiance to the Queen. The Lord Mayor is different from the Mayor because he is only responsible for the "City" area of London, which is the financial heart of the city (where Bobby goes to school). There's a big parade with over 100 floats. Our favorite was with the little kids below on the Great Fire of London float - all the kids were dancing to "Light my Fire" when they went by us! There's also a picture of the Lord Mayor getting sworn in at the Mansion House. You can barely see him in the middle... he's the one in the white wig.

Afterwards, we qued up for a free historic guided walking tour of the "City" area of London. Our guide was fantastic. We learned that this area was the original "London" back in Roman times and a lot of the architecture was destroyed by either the Great Fire of London or WWII. A couple highlights are pictured below: seeing the old office of Edwin Waterhouse of PwC, Bobby in front of the Roman wall remains and our tour guide in front of St. Pauls' cathedral. While we were walking back, we caught more fireworks over the Thames.

Then today we went to Windsor Castle. Its beautiful and the view is fantastic. There's a flag on the tallest tower that lets the public know whether or not the Queen is in residence. When we went into the tour of the state apartments, it signaled that she was away, but when we came out she was home! I can't believe we missed her coming in. Here's a picture of us in front of the main tower and the second is a picture of the part of the castle the Queen actually lives in.

We're trying to do as much as we can before it gets too cold and we don't want to leave our flat! Next weekend - Barcelona!

BT makes up for it in the end

We have a phone line! It's a miracle, people. And its all thanks to Bobby emailing the CEO of BT to complain about our customer service. We actually heard back from the CEO that day and he put us in touch with his high complaints department, specifically a lovely woman named Lesley. She researched our issue, setup our appointment to get the line installed within a week, gave us her direct line to call from now on (no more holding for 3 hours), gave us three months service free AND THEN sent two bottles of wine and a box of chocolates for our trouble!!! Can you believe this company? It's all or nothing with them.

Last Friday we went out to dinner and then to see Avenue Q - a musical that's like an adult version of Sesame Street and extremely funny. A couple of our favorite songs were "it sucks to be me"and "everyone's a little bit racist". We used the theatre tokens that L&L bought for us (thanks girls) and got front row seats!!

Saturday night we went to go see the fireworks at Battersea Park for Guy Fawkes Day (November 5th). What is Guy Fawkes Day you ask? I had no idea until I looked it up on Wikipedia. Basically, Guy Fawkes planned to blow up the Parliment and kill the King back in the 1600s, but thankfully he was captured right before the plan went through. They killed him and now they celebrate every Nov 5th with fireworks and bonfires. It seems bizarre to me...but I'll take any excuse I can for some free fireworks. Especially when you can watch them right over the Thames river while enjoying a Guinness...

Bobby started his new classes this week and he's saying that he likes the classes much better already - he's taking economics, strategic finance and marketing. He also met with his career counselor this week to start talking about possible jobs after he graduates. Maybe management consulting or aerospace?

And we booked a trip to Italy last night for New Year's! It's two nights in Venice, then one night in Florence & two nights in Rome. I can't wait! Its so easy when its only a three hour plane ride away...