Lots of smiles indeed. I've surely had an adventure of a month, no doubt about it. England/Ireland/Scotland/Wales were amazing, quite possibly one of the best experiences of my life. There were a great many exciting occurences while I was in London as well, a few of them being:
-two stabbings
-Picadilly bomb scare
-Glasgow bomb explosion
-Spice Girls reunion
-the wettest day in 50 years (yes, I was in York getting heavily drenched that day.)
-Tony Blair's last day as Prime Minister

So yes, there were a great many interesting things going on. Lots of hubbub. We even started out with a bang, because as a result of terrible weather in Houston, we were several hours delayed in going to Newark, and thus we missed our connecting flight to dublin. Luckily, they had enough seats on the next flight out to get us all over, but that flight wasn't for anouther 24 hours. Well with 13 teenagers and 2 adults, you can't expect us to wait in an airport, can you? At about 3 in the morning, they got us rooms at the hotel next door, and managed about 4 hours of sleep before we headed in to New York City for the day. That also was an adventure. I won't recap the entire 17 days, because that would be quite tiresome, I'm sure. We hit all the main tourist attractions, and also managed to throw in some...ahem, cultural experiences. While in Wales, five of us decided that with nothing better to do but sit in a hotel room at night, we purchased a variety of foods that we'd never tried before, got a disposable portable grill, and went out by the river (in the rain, I might add) to cook it. Among the foods were swordfish, some odd melon-esque fruit, carbonated limeade with splenda (yeah, that was utterly disgusting), and various delightful British chocolates. There was an incident with certain neon green beverages reappearing on a street corner after a chugging contest, but that need not be described. Scotland overall was completely and totally gorgeous, and is probably my new favorite place in the entire world. England was inspiring in its own way, with so many places to go and adventures around every corner. In our own little group of travellers, I made what I can only hope is a very close lifelong friendship, and became good friends with many others. Of course, I also lost one, but that is to be expected I guess. I have much to write about now though, which is always cause for a smile.

Since I've gotten back, I've been completely busy. I start work on Tuesday, which is a new thing for me. I've made attempts at writing music for my so-called songs, and I've actually done something worth remembering, which is a start! Hmm...yes. Thinking about painting my room light orange just for a change. That should be interesting. But for now, I think I shall go listen to music and try writing some more. Adios for now.

Kristen

PS Joshua Radin and Schuyler Fisk, both individually and singing together, are my new obsession(s). Check them out.