Eight and a half years ago I ventured on to one of the most amazing experiences of my life. As a junior in college I decided to study abroad in London! Yes - I got get college credits and back-packed throughout Europe all in one shot! Not bad right?
I moved to London in January 2001 into a cute flat on the west side / Bayswater area of London. Well, I thought the flat was cute back then but when I look back at pictures I say woah and yikes! The furniture was old and drag, the kitchen was the size of a bathroom, the refrigerator was only big enough to hold 2 yogurts and 2 takeout boxes, the washer and dryer was a combined unit, yes washer and dryer all in one and could only fit 4 shirts at a time, the hot water never worked and with so many girls showering a day it was not fun getting ready. I think I shaved my legs all of two times that semester! But some how, some way I still managed to fall in love with my 3 story flat and would not trade any of my experiences for anything in this world!
Our flat, 2 The Colannades, was home to 8 American girls and right next door was another group of girls, 2 of whom we also got close with! I only knew one girl (Kerri) prior to my trip but I wasted no time of making new friends and marched myself right in to everyone else's lives. We spent countless hours together in the flat, at school (not really), out at a club, pub or restaurant, touring around London, eating jacket potatoes or crepes, shopping at Oxofrd Street, Covent Garden or Camden and BEST of all seeing other countries! During my stay in London I was able to go to various parts of England, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, Amsterdam, Paris, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic and Austria! Yes all of that while going to school and getting 12 credits towards a Business Degree! Whew, what a whirlwind. Four months later I returned to the states a new and improved person. While in London I learned a lot about myself and even grew up a bit. I learned to actually like myself, maybe even love myself and realized being different was a good thing. It was great to be in a new place where I didn't have to worry about what other people thought and I didn't have to pretend to be something, I was just me. I am not going to get too deep into this but lets just say it was a very positive experience and my other flatmates will attest that they had similar feelings of finding themselves.
So after London, I managed to keep in touch with all 10 girls - on and off but yes we kept in touch. Every year we promised to get together and have a reunion but every year we failed. Most recently we all found each other on facebook and really put the plans in motion for a reunion! (God I love facebook!) We decided Lake George was a good meeting point as most of us live several hours away. 6 of the 10 girls were able to make it to this reunion and I felt so blessed to see them again and reminisce about our trip and crazy travel stories. We talked, laughed, shared pictures and really enjoyed our time together! We did some touristy things too: a paddle boat tour on the lake, a float tour in tubes down a river, mini golf and a lot of eating! We vowed to do this again and also decided we wanted to have a reunion trip to London one day!
I know this post is lonnnng but I had to add in a running update as well! I am lucky that 3 of my London friends offered to run with me that weekend! I only needed to log 10-12 miles and I mapped a route for us along Lakeshore Drive. It wasn't as scenic as I would have liked and was very hilly (Adirondacks, ugh) and the rain was a bummer but we persevered through! Thanks Paula, Kerri and Shara for running with me! Shara I hope your knees are ok!
It was so great to see all of you girls! Paul, Shara, Kerri, Lauren, Natasha I had so much fun with you! Rachel, Kelly, Lisa and Shelly - you were missed!
Here are a few fun pics
Running partners
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