Rewind a couple of days. Thursday I was having lunch with Tiffany, Levi, and Mindy and Witherspoons near the Tower of London. We had been on a tour of Westminster Abbey already and planned to take a look at St. Paul's Cathedral after lunch. Levi got the news on his Blackberry that a volcano had erupted in Iceland and the ash was causing flight cancellations. We laughed, wondering if the delays would carry on through Saturday. Sure enough, we heard from AIFS on Friday that our flight had been canceled. They re-booked us for a Monday flight and made arrangements for us to move into a flat in Kensington, as our time with our home stay families was up. (Mindy and I could not have been more excited) On Saturday instead of a trip to the airport we took a trip downtown with all of our luggage and moved into the flat. Mindy, Gillian, Tiffany and I share a 2 bedroom basement apartment. Levi has a single a few floors up.
We didn't bother to settle in too much since we would only be staying two nights. On Sunday, however, one of our RA's knocked on our door and informed us that our Monday flight had been canceled and the soonest they could get us out was Wednesday. We celebrated with a BOYB party and invited some of the other AIFS students who were living in the flats to join us. Early in the evening Gillian told me that her original plan for Sunday was to have her mom's tuna noodle casserole at home. Of the many things that Gillian, myself, and our moms have in common... tuna noodle casserole? The only difference, we discovered, was that my mom adds peas to the mix. Her mom adds potato chips. (I think the combination of the two would be delightful) Anyway.. having heard the words "tuna noodle casserole" come out of my new best friend's mouth made me miss my mommy and start to cry. We had all been so prepared to go HOME. We had made plans to see friends and family. I, for one, was excited just to have my own cell phone back so I could call people and hear their voices. It was a stressful weekend. I am not the type of person who can easily adjust to not having a game plan. I like to visualize my life in advance.. WAY in advance. I was stressing because I didn't know whether I should do my laundry or wait until I got home.
On Monday we were informed of the final plan. We would be staying until Friday. At last... I could breathe. But not really because volcanic ash was causing my lungs to collapse. Okay... not really. But most of us have been experiencing difficulty breathing, minor coughing, and congestion. Volcanic ash? Maybe. 10 weeks of trying to balance school, drunkenness, and hangovers catching up to us? Much more likely. The first day of the last week in London was filled with resting, laundry washing, grocery shopping, and movie watching. Day two we ventured out a little bit. Gillian and I went to the National History Museum where I hugged a trunk of petrified wood from Arizona. (anything to get me closer to home) We also walked through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. ( these are all just down the street from what we now call home) We came home to Tiffany, Levi, and Mindy cooking up a storm! We all contributed to what will probably be called The Last Supper. We had multiple pastas and sauces. One of the sauces we named Tiffsauce after Tiffany.. because several weeks ago I started to call her Tiffsauce.. then it stuck.. and we needed to actually have a sauce to call Tiffsauce. It was delicious! We also tried to make a mixed drink called Volcanic Ash to toast our extended stay to. The mixture was white wine, red wine, and Morgan's Spiced. We ended up calling it Volcanic Ass. It was not delicious.
It has been strange to venture back out into the city after having said goodbye to so many things last week. I cherished my last moments at Highgate tube station... which I had to visit again this evening. I had kissed ONeill's goodbye last Friday (quite literally) and went there tonight for dinner. I had already said "Goodbye Forever" to my friends there... then had to say hello again? It wasn't easy. I had been fairly certain last Saturday as I gazed at the empty skyline that I was experiencing my last hours in Muswell Hill. As much as I feel blessed to be spending extra time in legendary London, I feel more like I am tolerating it... and less like I am enjoying it.
Does anyone know where I can get some Velveeta in London? I need to make tuna noodle casserole.... NOW.
Honey, I'll put potato chips on the casserole if you want. That's the way Grandma made it. And you know I just put peas in it just to piss Quinn off.
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