so my flight was at 8.10 from cork, so i wanted to be at the airport around 6.30-6.45ish... so i am always good at waking up when my alarm goes off, and setting it properly - i never once missed a 6am practice for crew - never recieved the dreaded phone call, i was the one to make the phone call. so i set my alarm for 4.45 so i could catch the 6.15 bus to the airport. soo imagine my surprise when i wake up at 6.45 - i saw the time on my clock and was like thats not right, look at my computer - shiiiit. so i'm trying to put in my contacts as i'm looking up taxi numbers online. i call a taxi while i'm getting dressed - luckily i was all packed, i just needed to throw my makeup bag into my bag and i'm making sure i have my passport, camera and wallet. so the taxi arrives like 10 mintues later and we head to the airport. thank god for living 15 minutes from the airport, so i arrive at 7.10, making my flight no problem. so i did my makeup and hair in the bathroom and i think my heart started beating normally once i got on the plane.
it was a quick and easy flight to stansted, where i hopped on the train to london, and made my way on the underground to parliament, where it was a gorgeous sunnnnny day! yay! so i had about an hour before i was supposed to meet yorkie for lunch, so i sat across the thames from parliament and read. it was great and so nice to be in london when it was warm. so that was fun, met up with yorkie for lunch - where we caught up on everything and it was fabulous to see her. so it was too late to meet up with with a few ZTA's who invited me to a later lunch, so i decided to go drop my bag off at melissa's house (a sister who i was spending the weekend with), so i found her flat easily, a gorgeous area and met her husband. dropped my bag off and headed back to parliament, because i was getting a tour!
one of the london zeta's works for a mp - so i find the right entrance, and tell the security person, who i'm meeting and it's not on the list, i was like well this is the mp and this is the person who i'm meeting they let me in.. so i get in and i'm standing around and trying to see where i go next, and i hear an american accent on the phone - so after she hangs up, i tap her on the shoulder and ask are you a ZTA? luckily she was, and she was calling stacey - the one who works in parliament. so after we found everyone we went on a tour. soooooooooo amazing, the history of the building, and the ceremonial atmosphere and it was just reallly cool. it was also great, because she works there so she kept telling us fun stories, and just her thoughts about working there, so it was a lot different than a regular tour. then after the 7 of us on the tour went to dinner and met up with everyone else who was coming from work.
dinner was great, there were 12 of us there and it was great to hear 12 completely different stories of how we all ended up in england/brussels/austria/ireland. we were all different ages, from all over the country (but half were from texas!) and had been living abroad from a year to 15 years. so dinner was great, lots of fun conversation and everything. i was the only new person, so it was kinda weird at times, but they were all so welcoming and friendly. so after dinner melissa and i headed back to her place where we hung out for a bit before bed.
saturday morning we were off bright and early to meet everyone at king's cross to catch the train up to cambridge. it was a fun ride up with 10 of us talking, sharing stories and laughing. we met up with a few more people in cambridge and had a fun lunch, then set off for our walking tour of the town. i love cambridge, it was amazing and a really fun place. i can totally see myself living there. there were bike everywhere, which was cool and our guide was awesome and told us lots of fun things, we had fun enjoying the sunshine! and talking. after the tour we split, some were headed back to london, while i stayed with a few others to walk around more and to head to evensong at king's college, which was amazing, a semi-mass service sung by an amazing boys choir, and the little ones were sooo cute. but it was just ear candy and the cathedral in king's college, wow - i didn't know where to look, it was just so amazing. so cambridge uni is amazing, i loved trinity college and also st. john's. i would love to go there, just the history and the small college feel of the huge uni and the town of cambridge. ahhh loved it. after evensong we had a fun dinner and then train ride back to london.
sunday after a fabulous breakfast at melissa's i met up with kristen from austria to head to the national gallery, which was amazing! lots of picassos, van goh and matisse. it was fun to walk around and talk with kristen, we are toally different - she has been married for 15 years to an austrian, with 3 boys but had a fabulous day. she went to uni in texas, so she was dying for texas food, so we went to the texas embassy, which had amazing fajitas and strawberry margaritas. yummmmmy! then we did some shopping - i can't resist the gap when i am in the uk - ireland why is gap only in dublin? seriously. i miss it. so then we caught the train to the airport and caught our flights home.
so it was a fabulous weekend and it was awesome to meet other women like me living abroad and to be able to share in our sisterhood. this weekend really helped me to see that zeta is forever, and isn't just college.
so now i'm onto thesis, bah. work yesterday was crazy, because i was all by myself and today was just busy so i didn't get anything done. oh well. i read a few things today, and need to read more tonight. i went climbing yesterday for the first time in about a month and a half, it was fun and great to catch up with everyone. so off to finish reading :)
some of us at parliament
i'm catching the hogwarts express!
lots of bikes in cambridge
punting on the river in cambridge
trafalgar square on a busy sunday morning
1 comment:
that's pretty cool that you got to meet up with so many ZTAs abroad! I'm glad you had a good time! You're just lapping up the life abroad, aren't you?! :)
how did you meet up with this group? is there a secret ZTA group that keeps you all connected? :)
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