An English Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I am currently writing you from a flat in England. The last time I posted I was a week away from going to England but no worries I haven't been here since. Mike and I had such an amazing time on our Thanksgiving England trip we decided to come back for a longer period of time over Christmas. We have been here since the 20th and are staying until the 1st of January. A lot has happened since my last post. Our first trip to England was a bumpy one. I had a couple of days off right over American Thanksgiving so Mike and I planned this quick two-day trip to England to have some delicious food and wonderful company for the American holiday. The day before we were suppose to leave we recieved a phone call stating that we would not be able to fly out on the scheduled day because (of course) all of Portugal was on strike just for that day. After some bantering back and forth with a woman that had a pretty thick portuguese accent it was official we could not get out of Portugal until the day after cutting our trip of only two days down to less than 24 hours. After some debate over whether spending more time travelling than actually being in England was worth it we decided to still go. We were definitly glad we did. Mike's old family friend (Gwen) who is attending school in England made some amazing food and she invited 12 of her school mates for dinner who were all really awesome people. It was really refreshing to eat familiar food and have lengthy conversations in English. We had such an amazing time we decided to return for longer over Christmas and bring my American teammate, Kia.

Although Gwen went home for Christmas she is letting us stay in her flat while she is gone and we are really getting a chance to discover England. We are in Eastbourne which is on the sea and is home to the "seven sisters" a coastline of cliffs that is beautiful. We have already run along the coast 3 times and plan on doing an intense hill workout on them today! Other than that we plan on exploring some of the many pubs for Mike's birthday and trying some of the famed fish and chips. We are also going to tackle making Christmas dinner on our own. A pretty big task, we have bought the turkey and all the ingredients for stuffing, mashed potatoes, broccolli bake, cheessy potato casserole and of course apple crisp. Just because we wont be home for Christmas doesn't mean we can't eat like we are there! Plus we definitly aren't missing out on cold weather and snow. It took us 13 hours just to get here due to closed airports because of snow delays.

After Christmas we are heading to London for a day to see the sights and then on to Manchester where I have a bunch of family! Richard, one of my cousins, is going to take us to Whales and Liverpool to see mountains and cassles and also to some old country to show us where my grandparents grew up and to meet a bunch of great aunts and uncles and cousins that I have never met. This is something I have always wanted to do so I am glad I am getting the opportunity with my Fiance and good new friend Kia in tow. We top off this trip with an incredible New Years Eve in Manchester with my family before the noon flight home out of Manchester International New Years Day.

It is definitly going to be difficult spending Christmas away from home, it already has been as I miss my family very very much. However, skype is a beautiful thing and I will be skyping in on our famed Ross Christmas eve party tonight and I am okay knowing I in somewhat of an English dream.

As for the basketball, our team is seriously improving which is refreshing. We had a four game winning streak which is big for us. It brought us to 5-5 before we had to play the two top teams in the league again right before Christmas. The upside is we only lost to the top team in the league by one point so we know we can compete for a top spot. One of the best parts for me was when we played the team who has the player that I am fighting with for top scorer in the league. She is a post from Syracuse in her sixth year over seas and she is very veryy strong. I outscored her 23-19 and took over leading scorer in the league just in time for Christmas Holidays. :) A nice little present to myself. haha. Us Canadians are definitly competitive. Congrats to Courtnay, checked up on the big games you had! Nice work! I am glad to hear about everyone's success! Go Canada Go!

I think I have procratinated on running the seven sister long enough though so Merry Christmas to all and enjoy the time with your families! Never take it for granted, it means more than you know!

Kendel