This Blog Post is Dedicated to My Aunts

I'm terribly sorry for my long absence! My classes have started having these bizarre things called midterms that require lots of time and attention. Needless to say I've been pretty busy. But! No excuse. One must take proper care to document and reflect on ones life even in the face of a busy schedule. --which reminds me please forgive me if I start writing in a flowery Victorian fashion, such as the previous sentence, I had to read Jane Eyre in one weekend for my literature class and the rapid intact kind of infiltrated my psyche.

So, whats up? Ah. So much. But most importantly two weekends ago I went to London to visit my two amazing Cousins, Ian and Giuseppe! Both have been studying and working in London for the past year and as soon as I knew I was coming to Paris I made sure I made time to visit them in London. It would be the first time us three were together at the same time probably since we were in diapers tormenting our parents in the Sicilian heat at Uncle Nino's beach house.

My two girl friends Regan and Brittany also decided to some and join in on the family fun because we had been invited to a ball at Oxford by one of my good friends from High School who goes to Oxford.

Thursday night I have a class until 8pm, so I had booked a later flight out of CDG than Regan and Brittany-- Did anyone by any chance find a typo/ mistake in that last sentence? Perhaps the word "Flight" might have peaked your curiosity? Well it sure is peaking my interest now, namely inspiring the question " What the F were we thinking FLYING to London?" My incredulity will become more clear in a second..

Plain (plane) and simple I missed my flight. It was totally my fault. I just didn't leave enough time for myself to get to the airport. To be perfectly honest, I was writing a blog post and didn't think it would take me as long to get to CDG. The next flight was at 10am the next morning. Fearing that if I went back to my apartment that night to wait for the next flight I would miss that one as well, I resolved to sleep at the airport, I had enough reading and work to do to pass the time, right?

Within a couple hours and 3 Susan Sontag essays later I began having a existential musings. Finally Starbucks opened at 5am and I was comforted by a warm cup of good ole American coffee.

Okay Fast forward to London--> (Board my flight, wait on the runway for an hour while the flight attendants bicker, Easyjet sucks, buy a train ticket from the airport to Kings Cross from Easyjet, Land, take the train, get a 20lb fine at Kings Cross because my train ticket wasn't for the correct line, Easyjet Sucks, should have just taken the Eurorail, phone dies, can't find Ian, buy converter, find them, YAY!

Which leads me to IAN. Ian is just about the best cousin in the world. Not only had he planned the most amazing itinerary of places and activities for us to see and do in London, he gave up is bed for us three girls to sleep in, he even agreed to host three girls in the first place ( brave soul), he booked back up reservations at restaurants and bars just so we could decide what kind of mood we were going for. He truly took the word "hospitality" to a new level and I can't thank him enough for everything he did.

While I was at the airport contemplating my existence, Ian took Regan and Brittany out to dinner at a picturesque restaurant in London over looking the river and the London Eye.

We I arrived he brought us to an awesome open air food market called Bourough Market. It is situated under a train track but goes on forever with tons of sandwiches, bakeries, meat, fish, wine, cheese, jam, honey and basically every other kind of stall. We ate monsterous sandwhiches prepared by very snarky British men. Then went on a lovely walk to West Minster Abbey, Parliament, and through Hyde Park. We say Pick-a-dilly Square and had to go home to get ready to go to an old Wine Bar.

Giuseppe met up with us at the Wine bar. I hadn't seen him in six years since my last time in Sicily. He is now so handsome, so confident, still hysterical and speaks English with a British/ Italian, saying phrases like " Bloody 'ell!" The wine bar was so cool! I don't know the name of it but I will get it from Ian soon. It had 6ft tall rounded ceilings that dripped an indeterminable (probably water) on us and the table every so often from the cracks of the bricks. It was only lit by dim candle light and was packed to the gills with young Wine-o's. We ordered some wine and bought a plate of cheese, baguette, and other noshables and caught up on everything we'd missed in each others lives over the past couple years.

Both Giuseppe and Ian have awesome jobs in the fields of their choice, Shipping and Navigation and Economics respectfully, and I'm so proud of how hard they have been working!

After the wine bar we met up with some of Ian's friend's from London Business School and went to a really cool bar in South Kensington ( a "swish" area of London, as they say).

They next morning Ian and Giuseppe were patient enough to take us girls to Top Shop, the most ridiculous department store in the world. We lost each other it was so big and amazing, but I ended up finding a really great dress for the Oxford ball we were going to that evening. Gowns in hand, suitcases packed, we gathered the troops and headed out to Paddington Station to catch the train to Oxford to meet up with my friend David.

I will write about Oxford and the ball in a separate post. But after Oxford I returned to London Sunday night by myself because I planned on staying in London until Monday night. I met up with Giuseppe at Paddington Station and went back to his Apartment on the outer area of London to cook lasagna with him and Ian. Giuseppe has a fantastic view of all of London and nice big apartment! We cooked a great big dish of Lasagna and Skyped with My beautiful Aunt Cettina and Uncle Giovanni (Guiseppe's parents) and my Dad, Mimi, and Kate.

As my Dad told me after, it was amazing to see his daughter and nephews together on the other side of the world but on his ipad in his apartment in Queens. It felt great to have reunited with my family in a place that is foreign to all of us in someway, but being together with them made me feel completely at home.

All I need to say, now is I love my Cousins! and I'm so glad I got to see them together!