These are a few of my favorite things...

As of late I am really beginning to miss the ole US of A. Being away from the states for such a long time has forced me to realize all the wonderful items that I took for granted while living in the land of the free and home of the brave. So the following are items that I miss and can't wait to have back (in no particular order):

1. Cut the polite crap...Give me a crude and loud American any day of the week.

2. Food that I don't have to google to make sure I'm not eating cow balls or something of that nature.

3. Any sport besides cricket, rugby or soccer.

4. Not having to plan my grocery trips around the 274 bus.

5. Being Tan.

6. Saying "y'all" without being aware of it.

7. Large portions.

8. The Texas heat.

9. A cell phone plan that includes free nights and weekends.

10. A good healthcare system.

11. The American Standard Dictionary - no more "u's or s's"

Now of course the obvious items are included such as family, friends and the babies of the world - so don't go getting in a huff because those aren't on the list :). I miss everything! How am I going to make it to December?

Tea for Two

I am now going to reflect on an English past time which should be called an English all the time, the art form of drinking tea. I think I can single handedly blame tea consumption on the UK's inability to outperform the US in productivity. Tea time is a common misconception, every minute is tea time. Every ten minutes at the firm someone around me will call out, "Everyone ok for drinks?" The answer is never yes. The answer is always, "Well, I could use a cup of tea." This answer comes from everyone and was the answer 10 minutes ago and so on and so forth. Paper tea cups line their desks, tea bags fill the trash cans, and reports go unfinished because...gasp, we haven't had tea in 15 minutes - the shame, the blasphemy, the horror.

After witnessing this mass consumption of tea, it forces one to ponder several items.
1) Has the English bladder somehow evolved to take on this much tea? No one ever seems to go to the "loo" except for me, new to the game of binge tea drinking.

2) The Boston Tea Party must have been more than a protest to the Brits, but a complete tragedy. There was probably wailing in the streets, clothes torn in mourning, and possibly sipping from the surrounding waters from the loyalists.

3) Will I upon my arrival back in the US suffer some sort of massive caffeine withdrawal where I might need to check into the Betty Ford of tea drinkers just to survive?

Maybe a cup of tea will help me find the answers.

If It's Not Scottish It's Crap

Welcome once again to Courtney's Euro adventures! This time we join our heroine in the idyllic setting of Ayr, Scotland...
Well the beginning of the trip was hellish. I had to be up by 5am to catch a cab to the airport. I was not a happy camper. I think I spoke about 2 words to my production team the whole day. My hotel room situation was problematic in that I kept finding spiders in my bed. I don't know about you but I'm not a big fan of sharing my bed with them, the hotel however, wasn't too bothered. I kicked up a fuss and moved rooms only to find more spiders. I started trapping them under glasses as evidence for the hotel staff. But they viewed this as odd (this coming from people who eat haggis, a pig's stomach deep fried and stuffed with unmentionable meat), but I digress. I worked all day everyday and didn't get to see as much of Scotland as I would have liked to. For the times I actually spoke to a Scot it never amounted to much because most everything they said was lost in translation. For the majority of the trip I merely nodded and smiled alot. But now I'm back in sunny (not) England counting down the days until I'm back in Texas. I keep making mental lists of things I want to do/eat. I'm praying I won't come back fat but I have a feeling that's inevitable. I can't wait to see y'all. 14 more days! Get excited!
Love y'all,
Court

When in Rome...

...Make sure to stay away from the Gladiators trying to rip you off. Rome was absolutely amazing, and below I will highlight some of the most interesting events (in no particular order).

6. Finding a beach outside of Rome complete with Roman men in Speedos sprawled out in all their glory as they bronze in the sun. Imagine any stereotypical greasy Italian man in a spread eagle position complete with medallion and mustache.

5. Eating Gelati (the best ice cream ever) three times a day - 4 scoops each time. Having the Gelati man try to get me to give him a kiss in exchange for my cone. I told him maybe next time which I'm sure he probably didn't understand.

4. Accidentally joining a pro-marijuana protest because we thought it was a parade.

3. Joining a random tour group in St. Peter's only to have the best tour guide ever. Learned that Madonna's baby wasn't allowed to be baptized there because it was a bastard child, and that Ben Affleck and J. Lo had tried to have their wedding there, but the pope wouldn't allow it. Strangely enough a marching band went through the plaza playing "Downtown" and some Stevie Wonder song.

2. Meeting two Italian girls who took us to a local hangout. One was a translator for films and is currently working on Dead Man Walking. We proceeded to meet way too many Italian men who couldn't speak English except for "Me boy, you Girl, we pretty." Typical Italian dress consisted of a tight t-shirt with some sort of Euro expression or some sort of random athletic jersey (child's small) from the states. They had an obsession for US pop music and sang every word without knowing what they were singing. According to them my name was Broke.

1. Being approached by a cab driver late at night who had some sort of throat issue, and had the electronic voice box thing...very darth vader like, very scary.