October 21, 2011

October 21, 2011

We woke up this morning at 6:00, which was really hard having gone to bed around midnight. We got all packed up and went downstairs for an earlier breakfast at 6:30 (breakfast doesn’t technically start until 7:00 but they were very nice and made us our breakfast early). At 7:00 we headed to the tube station and took the tube to Victoria where we headed to the Victoria bus station. We got the bus to Stansted Airport at 8:00. I slept throughout the entire bus ride and we arrived at 9:15. We had no trouble with security and such and our gate wasn’t posted yet so we hung out in the main area with all the shops. I still had some pounds to use and I realized that, since we were through security, I could go to Boots (the British equivilant of Walgreens) and get some lotion (they don’t have lotion in Italy…okay, they do, but only in small bottles for outrageous prices. They just don’t use lotion, I guess). Anyway, I bought lotion and something to drink of the plane (Oasis—Sonja, do you remember Oasis? The citrus drink that was so delicious?) . Then we went to Starbucks and I bought a raspberry-peach muffin for the flight with my remaining pounds. We then spent the next twenty or so minutes in the London 2012 Olympics store until our gate was posted.

When it was, we headed there and only had to wait about fifteen minutes before we boarded. It was much more orderly than on our way here, thankfully, and we only left a couple minutes late. It was not a bad flight—just under two hours—and I was much happier having left on time. We landed in Pisa around 2:30 Italy time (1:30 London time) and had to wait about an hour to get our bus. We left Pisa around 4:00 and arrived in Florence around 5:15. From the Santa Maria Novella Station, we caught our #4 bus home, as usual. Although I was sad to leave London, it is nice to be back in Florence and especially back in our apartment. I really do feel at home here and it’s nice to be back in our room and with our family. When we got home, we unpacked and started a load of laundry. After that, I started typing up my blog entries from the week. I journaled every night before bed so all I had to do was type them, but it still took a little while.

I took a break for dinner (of course) at 8:00 and I had forgotten much I loved dinner with our family. We started out with homemade pesto on linguini, followed by chicken for Daniela and Franzi and a soy burger for me, along with potatoes with olive oil, as well as bread and cheese. We finished up with boiled chestnuts, which made me think of Christmas! We told them all about our week in London and it was so nice to talk with them and see them after having been gone four nights. It’s good to be back :)

After dinner, we put in another load of laundry and now I’m back to my blogs. But hey, I’m almost done! And then it’s on to editing my 350 photos from the week…how in the world did I take that many photos?! Anyway, photos may not be coming until sometime in the upcoming week when I have better internet because there is no way I can upload them all here at home. I mean, I can try, but I really doubt it. We’ll just have to see. Then I’ll probably head to bed fairly early, as I am just exhausted. I also have a bit of a cold, which is not surprising because everyone in my program had it last week, so I’ll spend the rest of my fall break (this weekend) laying low and relaxing. Tomorrow I look forward to not setting my alarm and spending the day in sweatpants and a sweatshirt :P I hope you have all had a wonderful week!

All my love,

Kari