Back in California

Hello!

So here I am, in sunny California... again... Bittersweet... I'm totally glad to be back... I missed Ryan sooo much, and here I am again with him... Kind of... haven't seen him since Sunday -oh, the travesty!
Now, I totally miss London, and I miss Ryan... hmmpf... hahha... I'm just being silly.

So, the extent of my walking now is around supermarkets and to my car. Such a Californian. But maybe I should start in chronological order, eh?

So, my last days in London were nice. I worked quite a lot Monday and Tuesday (a week ago!), and on Wednesday I went to do last minute souvenir shopping. Went to Buckingham Palace first to see the changing of the guard. That was cool! And then I did some marathon walking, to Picadilly Circus - went to Hemley's (the toy store) it was sooo much fun!!!, then Covent Garden and got Ryan's sweater, which is really nice :) and my glasses broke somewhere in between.... but I got lunch, Ben's cookies and a few other souvenirs... Surprisingly I don't have a ton as I thought I would.
Then I went into the lab, got last results and said goodbye to Dr. Knight and

Adrian. There we are in the lab... And then I went home and relaxed a bit I think... Thursday I packed in the morning, and was done by lunchtime. So I went to look for Lauren, made copies of my lab notebook, and went to have Fish and Chips at Fishcoteque with Jen and Steph. We were so full after that! And, we ate them by the Thames River near the National Theatre (by the Waterloo bridge). Then I returned my lab book, and went to Lauren's lab to say goodbye to everyone. Dr. Rob Evans gave me a red King's College hat, which was really sweet of him! Then I went home, and hung out, then made mashed potatoes. We had a huge dinner with my flatmates, including a great Tiramisu that Dora made.

And on Friday we woke up at 6am and had breakfast. Everyone was up except Jen. It was so sweet of them! And then Lauren and Julia took the tube with me until Paddington, and then I took the Heathrow Express alone. At the airport I met up with Myesha, Jason, Claire (?), the two Ls-- Luciano and Leonardo-- and Jaime, and Dr. Tolmasky. THe flight was cool, we got to share a row of 5 seats between two of us! So I got some good sleep. And the food was yummy!!!

Then, we finally flew into LAX, after 10 + hours of flying... And as I leave the gate, there I see my love, Ryan, standing there, with his typical black and white shirt :) I was soo happy!!! I could not believe I was again in his arms, after 2 months of being so far apart.

So, we hopped into his car (after getting a lovely bouquet of flowers and a variety of photo holder things... I'm so articulate, I know) and drove to Carmen's work to retrieve my keys. Talked to her for a bit, and then came home :) THen, Melissa and Claudia stopped by to say hello. And then mom, Ryan and I had milanesa with salad. By 9pm I was drunk tired...

Saturday morning I wake up at 5am, and start unpacking -- I couldn't go back to sleep. Then, Ryan came over around noon... or 1pm :P And then we headed over to Marie's bday party. It was to be a pool party... So much fun!!! I hadn't been in a pool in ages!!! We had loads of fun, and even went in the spa. So that was cool!!! Again, by 9pm I was sooo tired, but the poker chips were out... so after a while I fortunately lost, and seeked refuge of a couch, where I dozed off a bit.... and then around 11pm we left, and Ryan took me home.

Sunday morning I woke up and hung out with my mom for a bit... and then went to Ryan's, to see his new apartment. A very cool apartment it is, very spacious. And well, got to spend some nice quality time with him, which was awesome :) haha, but by 9pm I was tired again, so I drove home... and watched some tele with my mom.

Monday morning I was awaken by a phonecall from sweetie... a nice way to wake up if you ask me :) But after I had breakfast with my mom, and she left for work, the emptiness of being back hit me.

After two months of being surrounded by people, being left alone to do pressing work kind of hits you. So I really missed London. A lot. I called Melissa, but she was at work I assume... so I just went to the supermarket -- the peak of my social interaction-- and came home to make salmon and potatoes. My mom was very pleased with it -- it was very good, if I do say so myself. Then I got to speak to Ryan, which was great!

Today, woke up to continue the search for grad schools... THe excitement of the day was a wonderful doctor's appointment. On my way there I called Eric, we talked for a long time... I think he was just as bored and anxious for social interaction as me :) The call ended with him telling me we should plan a trip for Vegas this weekend. He's serious too. It sounds fun, but I'm not sure... not sure Ryan would want to either... I wasn't definite in my answer, to which he was puzzled, so I said I wanted to talk to Ryan about it, to which he made a crack, which he promised not to tell Ryan about -- too late I guess, since he reads this blog. In any case, it was good to speak to him. He's a nice friend.

And then it was to the doctor's... it's so funny how you can be in the most awkward situation, as women exams tend to be, and yet they have no problem engaging in normal conversation. Today's was about her wanting to learn spanish, that she learned a bit when she started working at the hospital/clinic, about 5 yrs ago... It's so funny, bc it's so awkward, yet the conversation makes me want to laugh, but then I'm like overly aware of how my body convulses when I laugh.... which might not be something wants to do in that situation. Anyway, I'll stop there, for many reasons... one of which is the male viewers, which make up 75% of my blog readers...

Anyway, and here I am, after another grocery shopping trip... I bought some yummy Hallumi-- such yummy cheese!!!

So yeah, hi! I'm back in California!! Yeyy... now, looking forward to Sept 8th, when I'm going to Florida..

Ok, that's enough for today.

Tchuss