Howdy! This week, Catja’s family was in town, and we went on many adventures to make the most of their visit. Notably, Catja and her little sister, Mikka, introduced Zoe to the many questionable Catholic traditions from their childhood in honor of Easter.
Tuesday 3/26
C: I woke up early, made some instant coffee, and hopped on the Tube to Heathrow to pick up my family! Just as Mikka told me, it’s like the opening scene of Love Actually, and she’s Colin returning from his escapades in Milwaukee. I ducked under the barrier and ran to give my little Mike n Ike a big squeeze as soon as I saw her. She and her Marshall Statesmen played (and won!) two softball games the night before, drove straight to the airport with my dad and stepmother, and flew transatlantic for 8 hours, so she was a bit out of it. She kept asking what day it was. I gave my dad a big squeeze next. I always forget how tall he is, and I feel like I’m still a little girl next to him.
After caffeinating up at Costa, we rode the Lizzie line to Paddington and dropped their bags at their Airbnb. Next, we walked just down the road to Kensington Gardens, where Mikka giggled at the many “mews” we passed (mews = lanes that used to have stables but also a strange Gen Z trend that Mikka enjoys). When I pointed out Kensington Palace, the childhood home of Queen Victoria, she said, “That’s it??? Bro, that’s Joe Shmoes’ house.” We all sat on a bench near the round pond for a lovely lunch of Tesco Meal Deals. After swinging by Prince Albert’s mahoosive memorial, Mikka and I dipped our toes into the icy water that is the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. Jet-lagged, we went to our respective homes for a siesta, then we had delicious Indian food for dinner.
Z: Determined to make a dent in my final assignment for the term, I headed off to a coffee shop on Tuesday morning. Not really knowing where I wanted to go, I set off walking in the direction of central London, hoping that I would find a nice place along the way. It was a gorgeous day for a walk, so I ended up going to Kensal Rise before finding a spot to sit down. The coffee shop I found was quite small, but had lots of other people doing work. I got myself a coffee (which was honestly terrible) and got to work. Although the coffee was less than stellar, the vibes in the coffee shop were exactly what I needed. While brainstorming ideas, I listened to the baristas' gossip. One woman, who is apparently a regular, began complaining to the barista about how terrible her life is, from her job to her child. This woman had a lot to say, so much so that she began to cry. After she left, the barista turned to his co-workers saying that she comes in multiple times a week and every time complains and cries about something. Safe to say everyone was rather concerned for her wellbeing. After getting a good chunk of work done, I headed back home to see Catja and Mikka!
Wednesday 3/27
C: I had a lecture in the morning, so my family met me at Roehampton to see my school for the first time. They were impressed by how green it was and that I have class in Grove House, a converted mansion. Next, we took the bus to Putney, where the sun was shining on the Thames. My dad’s converter exploded the day before, so we were on the hunt for a new one. Alas, no luck. So we walked to Putney Bridge station and rode to Farringdon, where my dad reunited with his old friend from the US Air Force Band, Phil, who now is a hornist for the Royal Opera House. They last saw each other in 1997, when they played for President Bill Clinton’s inauguration ball! Phil was lovely and gave me some advice on obtaining a work/partner/marriage visa, which he said was very difficult but not impossible.
The adults had a rousing evening catching up over drams of whisky while Mikka and I had a girls night on the town. We sampled teas at Twinings, walked by my old stomping grounds at King’s Strand campus, and celebrated the pinnacle of American/Virginian cuisine for dinner: Five Guys. We ended the night at the Adelphi Theatre to watch Back to the Future: The Musical, which Mikka was thrilled to see. I’ve never seen the movie, but I was blown away by the overall stage design and production. We raved about the musical as we got candy from Sainsbury’s for the Tube ride home.
Z: Feeling rather unmotivated to do any more work, I spent the day procrastinating by cleaning. My chore for this week was to clean the bathroom, so that’s what I started with. I then threw my sheets in the laundry and cleaned my room. I hung my sheets to dry outside, but it promptly began to rain, which was rather annoying (I miss American dryers). After my room was sufficiently clean, I decided to have a solo crafternoon. I did a bit of painting and started watching “The Gentlemen” as recommended by my dad, which is quite good.
Thursday 3/28
Z: On Thursday morning, Catja’s family so kindly invited me to join them in their tour of Westminster Abbey. As a fun new way to spend my large amount of free time, I am finally checking off a goal I have been wanting to do for a while, read the Bible, so this was a very complementary excursion. Dad, I promise I am not reading the Bible to convert to Christianity, you know me better than that…it is to more eloquently create arguments against institutionalized religion. I am thoroughly enjoying my read-through so far, with my favorite quote being “How awesome is this place!” (Genesis 28:16). What a fantastic translation!
Catja, Mikka, and I headed to Westminster to meet the rest of their family and explore the Abbey. We made our way through the main atrium, discussing the large amount of famous dead people, before arriving at the central altar. As the three of us chatted, a lovely gentleman who worked at the church came over to give us all fist bumps. We laughed at this strange interaction, to which the man replied that we gave him more energy than “Duracell batteries.” We swiftly moved through the rest of the church, keeping our eyes peeled for more famous people and strange looking babies. My sister came up with a fun game while we were in Spain in December where you try to find the silliest looking baby in the church, so Madeline if you’re by some chance reading this, we’ve added some great new submissions.
Catja’s favorite part was clearly the last room where all of the famous authors were buried. Mikka and I sat to the side laughing at how overjoyed she was, as she spotted famous person after famous person.
C: Westminster Abbey was fascinating, and I loved seeing my favorite dead royals. Anne of Cleves?! Queen Elizabeth I and Bloody Mary buried next to each other?! Mary Queen of Scots?! So many of the Henrys?! I was nerding out. Zoe went home while we went to The Two Chairmen pub, a place where my dad’s coworker used to “sling pints” in his youth. We took some photos and grabbed some snacks before heading back to my flat. Zoe had kindly prepped ingredients for pasta, and she and Mikka whipped up a yummy spaghetti bolognese for dinner. I was supposed to help, but apparently I’ve either acclimated to British food over American fast food, I got food poisoning, or I’ve become lactose intolerant because I was doubled over with nausea and suffering from intense cramps throughout the day. Lol. This sucks because cheese and ice cream are two of my favorite things about life on this earth.
I digress. We ate, we chatted, we added new family members to the height chart in the living room. My dad is the fourth tallest at 6’4”! My dad and stepmother left for the evening, and Zoe, Mikka, and I prepped for games night with Luke and Ethan. I had Mikka answer the door even though she’s never met them before to build character and make sure she doesn’t have social anxiety like me! We began with a thrilling game of Stop the Bus, where we intentionally skewed the categories against Ethan because he always wins. I told Mikka if she beat Ethan, I’d get her a gift. After a few rounds, ZOE WON FOR THE FIRST TIME (I (Zoe) would like to thank female country artists with first and last names that begin with the same letter for this win)!!! This is a huge achievement for us all. Mikka also beat Ethan by one point, so I am staying true to my word and getting her a Pride and Prejudice “what excellent boiled potatoes” t-shirt. We played Mario Kart for a while where I destroyed everyone with my speedy skills and caught up on big life updates and stories. I’m so glad my closest London friends got to meet my favorite little sister.
Friday 3/29
C: Friday was a jam-packed touristy adventure for us. We started the day with coffee and an Uber boat, one of my favorite London activities. Next, we hopped off at Tower Bridge and stopped by the Tower of London, St. Dunstan in the East, the Mithraeum of Roman ruins, Millennium Bridge, and Borough Market. I got Zoe a Napoleon cake as a thank you for her helping feed my family last night while I was quite ill and in honor of the Emperor who haunts us every day. Sadly, the Garden at 120 was closed and Sky Garden was fully booked, so we didn’t get to see the city from above. Mikka stayed with me again for the night and painted fish because she was inspired by some fishy tea towels at the market and wanted to make her own t-shirt.
Z: In an effort to continue my assignment procrastination, I decided to take on what has become my greatest baking challenge in this very finicky oven, cookies. Everytime I have tried to make cookies they come out flat and thin like I put far too much butter when I followed the recipe to a tee. This time I followed a BBC recipe instead of my normal American recipes, which turned out to be the key to this cookie mystery. The snickerdoodles turned out perfectly! I now can confidently make cookies as it seems I have earned the respect of our very silly oven.
Saturday 3/30
C: My stepmother went to the Tower of London while I made pancakes for my dad, Mikka, and Zoe. I accidentally burned a pancake because my dad called from the station platform and I went to wave from my bedroom window, but the rest were scrummy! Later, we hopped on an afternoon train to Brighton to make the most of the warm, sunny weather. Zoe felt under the weather, so she rested at home. My dad got us yummy kebabs, and we sat on the stony beach to watch the waves. I also watched a group of friends in their late 20s play with one of their kids, a little boy dressed in dinosaur pajamas named Rory who seemed like a ball of sunshine. They all made me smile.
My dad, Mikka, and I sorted through unique rocks, and we found a very cool one with a hole in the middle. We took turns taking pictures of each other through the rock and basked in the sunlight. This is now my fourth trip to Brighton, and I think my new life goal is to become one of the resident artists on the boardwalk, paint all day, and sell postcards and prints to tourists. I love being near the water and meeting all the painters. I could also look at cool rocks all day.
After walking around a bit and learning more about the history of the beach town, we headed back to London. I ordered my dad a new converter from Amazon, and it arrived with his new Roehampton sweatshirt by the time we got back. It was quite an eventful day!
Z: Mikka and I headed out bright and early aka 11am to do the weekly grocery shop, while Catja got to spend some time with her dad. Our trip to Lidl was more eventful than ever before. While checking out we saw a little girl probably around two and half running around the store without a parent. Our favorite checkout employee tried to talk to her, but she just ran away from him. On our walk back through the park, a man sprinted past us as if he was running from a bear, before stopping in the grass to do handstands??? And the cherry on top, a very large intimidating man was yelling at a dog, which we were expecting to be a large doberman, but was instead the tiniest little purse dog we had ever seen.
I had been feeling a bit sick at this point, so I spent the rest of the day in bed watching tv.
Sunday 3/31
Z: Catja and I have had a lovely Easter tradition for the past couple years, where we get dressed up and go out to Easter brunch with Payton (we miss youuuuuu). This year, we were both feeling a bit tired and me rather ill, so we decided to stay home and do brunch here in our pjs. Catja cooked up some eggs and sausages, while Mikka worked on her Resurrection Rolls. For those who don’t already know, Resurrection Rolls are made from a marshmallow covered in cinnamon sugar, which represents the body of Christ, and wrapped in puff pastry, which is supposed to be the tomb. When these are put in the oven the marshmallow melts, meaning that Jesus has risen. They were basically just weirdly religious cinnamon rolls, but still very fun. We also made a few filled with cheese instead of marshmallows, which we dubbed Cheesus Christ Rolls.
I again spent the rest of the day in bed after Catja and Mikka left, in an effort to recover from whatever mysterious cold I got from somewhere in between my room and the kitchen, as I have barely left the house.
C: I took Mikka on one last trip to Primrose Hill before she leaves tomorrow. The view was quite smoggy, but we enjoyed the warmish weather by eating Cadbury eggs and singing “Aspirations” by Marcus Man #marcusmanifesting. He has been off the grid for months, and we miss our favorite British musician. We then rode the bus to Kensington for dinner with my dad and stepmother at the Airbnb. They cooked a delicious steak and potatoes dinner with sides of shrimp, mushrooms, and salad. It brought me right back home to eating this meal back in VA. As I write this, I am currently fighting back tears because the only things I really miss from back home are my family, friends, and Target. But mostly my family. Luckily, Zoe and my new friends make London feel more like home now, and I know I’ll visit my people in the US again soon.
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