Half-term

Hiyaaa,

Here are some pictures from last week. The schools had their version of spring break (half-term) so I had five days off work while the Foster's went on holiday to Cairo...lucky me!


View of Windsor High Street from my friend Ronan's kitchen in the castle.


St. George's Chapel where dozens of royals are buried including King Henry VIII and King George III...this is our view when we go outside to smoke!


Another view from inside the castle (including the anti-tourist gates)


JFK memorial in Runnymede. This was really neat, it says: "This acre of English ground was given to the United States of America by the people of Britain in memory of John F. Kennedy, President of the United States 1961-63, Died by Assassin's hand 22 November 1963" (and then goes on to quote his inaugural address). So as I was standing their taking the picture I was actually on American soil, in a novelty kind of way...


View of London from the top of the Allied Air Forces Memorial in Runnymede


Getting blown away on the East Sussex coast.


Oh, oh, I think I see France in the distance!


A glimpse of Rye harbour


One of the picturesque medieval cobblestone streets in Rye


Couldn't resist. Waiting for the train to London with Morrissey


Drinks with the Eton girls: Anouk, Lauren, Myself, Danielle and Holly

Speaking of the Eton girls, some of us are off to go to yoga now. It's been almost 2 months now...sheeeesh.

Love love love,
Kelsea

Aussies, Snow, and the Full English Brekkie

Hey dudes,

I've finally forced myself to sit down for an update, I really couldn't be bothered the past couple weekends! I do have loads of pictures to make up for it, however:


Me and my boyfriend Jamie Oliver hanging out in the tube on the way to an Australia Day party with my Aussie friend, Lauren. Isn't he cute? Everyone here hates him for some reason!


The line to get into Waxy O'Connor's for the Australia Day thing. It was pretty miserable outside so we went and got sushi across the street until the line got a little less ridiculous.


We finally got inside...so many Aussies! I'm pretty sure they were well over capacity, we could hardly get a drink. Or move. Or breathe really...


Cute.


Half awake in London with my first full English breakfast: baked beans, a fried egg, sausage, bacon, tomato, mushrooms and toast. Oh, and of course a cup of tea loaded with milk and sugar...yumm.


The first of the snow (if only we knew!)


The view from my window on the day of the "terrible" snow ordeal. We got maybe half a foot of snow and the entire country shut down. I didn't even have to do anything that day because they closed the boys' school and their Mom didn't go in to work. London literally came to a standstill, you couldn't get any trains, and the bus and tube lines shut down. That night at the dinner table my host dad, Rob, asked me what would happen if we got the same amount of snow back home, to which I replied "Nothing really."


Snow again from my bedroom with the castle in background.


One of the fountains in Trafalgar Square in front of the National Gallery. This hardly captures how beautiful that night was (or how cold it was).


Birthday drinks at Lauren's with most of the Eton au pairs/nannies- Anouk from the Netherlands, Lucy's boyfriend Ned, Lauren, Lucy, Holly from Australia, Danielle, Carolina from Mexico, Nadia from Czech Republic, and Deb from New Zealand (Lucy and Danielle are just English, heh)


Lauren and I got a hotel in London the weekend after her birthday so we could do some proper partying without having to worry about getting a train home. I thought our view was kind of cute; it was nice being somewhere that wasn't super tourist oriented for once.


Trying to figure out how to pay for dinner...I've almost got their silly coins figured out. They have a penny, a 2 pence coin, then 5p, 10p, 20p, and 50p coins. It's not particularly confusing, but when you're in line paying for something it does get annoying having to stop and think about it!


Loz and I at a club in Shorditch called Sosho. We had to queue for a little while and when we got up to the front the door guy let everyone with us go in, asked us where we were from, and very sternly told us "We don't allow Americans or Australians." (We must have stood there arguing with him for 5 minutes before realizing he was just being cheeky...)

So that was my last few weeks. I can't believe I've been here for over a month already, it's starting to scare me. Before I know it I'll be getting my stuff together to go back to Kansas...god forbid!

Love love love,
Kelsea