London Calling

The blog post I know you all have been waiting for! The post about my meeting my older, but much shorter, sister in London for: Harry Potter, Doctor Who’s 50^th Anniversary, site seeing, Les Miserables, and her hen party!

24,000 people came to the 50th!

Les Mis!

I was really nervous getting to London as my flight was delayed an hour and I didn’t want to miss anything we had planned in London. But I made it in after buying an extremely overpriced water (to get a wifi password) to try  and reach my mom so that if my sister checked in with her she could tell her I would be late, I waited for my flight. It was a miserable flight but at least I arrived and could book it to the bus I had booked a ticket on to get to my sister. Mind you I had to take a later bus so when I got there I looked around my sister and right as I turn around there she is! We did the typical movie run and jump into a hug. It was awesome, and reminded me of the TV show Psych. We are so Shawn and Gus!

 

I met the 11th!

Then we headed to King’s cross station where we had this fantastic meal at the Giraffe, and then had our picture taken at Platform 9 ¾. We got to wear scarves and pretend we were pushing a cart, as my sister says I always have a leg poised to look like I’m running. Maybe I’m just like the Doctor, and I’ve been running for too long; but either way it was snazzy in the picture. We headed back to the horrible hotel we were booked into that literally had no heat, hot water, internet, manners or taste. But whatever, at least we really got stuff done the next day!

Proud Gryffindor

Kate with the Clock!

We headed out to the Harry Potter studio tour, which was amazing. I

 grew up reading Harry potter and was turning 11 when the first film came to cinemas. We got to see the actual Great Hall that they built with a stone floor, the costumes, fly the Weasley’s car, hop on the Knight bus, taste butter beer, and just do everything you can imagine. Harry Potter is one of my all time favorite fandoms, I can’t explain it. I think it always gave me comfort that you could be different and use that for good. But I worshipped Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, and Remus Lupin growing up.

The Doors to the Great Hall!

So...no little mermaid?

It was great to get to go with my sister. I love traveling alone, I don’t get lonely doing it. But it is still really nice to get to experience things with others sometimes. Especially since Kate and I grew up Potterheads. I remember she had used my library card once when the 3^rd book was out, and didn’t pay the fee. So I couldn’t check the book out, so instead I stole her copy since she took FOREVER to read them! But we were definitely potterheads. I even bought the 3^rd book in the UK edition to really get the full experience!

Originals!

Then it was time for the town, seeing the sites and grabbing dinner before Les Miserable! I love that musical so much because it is about revolution, and living for a cause. I actually hate the character Cossette and have been known to scream at the screen: you are a pointless character! You stand for nothing! When I was in London in 2011 I wanted to see the revival on the West End but the one night I could go to the theatre was the one night they were changing the sound system :(  Therefore, my sister found inexpensive tickets so that she could take me for my Christmas present! 

Don't blink near me!

Matt and Jenna laughing

It was fantastic! The slow motion choreography was mind blowing, and the songs were perfect. I was just overjoyed at how fantastic that show was. But we still had to make sure we  got to bed since the next day was THE DAY. THE DAY WE WERE GOING TO MEET MATT SMITH!

Lizard lady!

Now ladies and gentlemen; new friend or old; fandom geek or not; friend or foe; Dalek or Companion ;) if there is one thing that got me through all my troubles in life, it is DOCTOR WHO. I am a true Whovian. In fact I have waited over 8 years for something like this, something like the 50^th Anniversary of Doctor Who, and I was not going to miss it! It is everything I could ever imagine attending.

The Silence saw me!

So we went, I bought tickets and Kate and I attended what will be the biggest anniversary celebration in history. The anniversary we will tell our children about! And it was wonderful. We sang happy birthday to “who,” saw stunt performances, original doctors, original companions, anything and everything.

Then came the moment we were waiting for, that I paid a lot of money for: we were meeting 

It was so cool!

Matt Smith to take a photo with him. We waited in our line for 45 minutes making friends with those around us. And I was trying to breathe as I had a plan to get him to draw a bowtie on my wrist so I could get it tattooed. We rounded the corner, and saw a girl hug him and how gracious he was. We saw his body guards get defensive (understandable) we saw a group have him hold up a banner in Italian for their photo and slowly we approached. I took out my tiny sharpie and hid it up my sweater sleeve and when it came time I walked up to him and this is what happened:

BEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE!

Me: Hi, would you please draw a bow tie on my wrist so I can get it tattooed? I already have an appointment in basically an hour.

The Body guard: That Is NOT appropriate-

Matt Smith (cutting him off): Yeah, sure. Fantastic.

Takes my wrist, starts to write his signature because the body guard won’t stop, then realizes:

Matt: Oh, um, that’s not a bow tie, right I’ll just add this (puts a tiny bow) right, that works?

Me: YES! It’s perfect

Body guard: you have 10 second to take this photo

Matt: Of course

Huge smiles, he touches my shoulder and I die

Body guard: You better never wash that hand

Matt (before I could answer): It’s alright, she has a tattoo appointment it’s going to be alright, she’s all set!

He really does!

AND THAT IS HOW I GOT MY MATT SMITH TATTOO!!

Isn't is amazing?

I basically went out into the freezing London air with my arm exposed so that I wouldn’t mess up the sharpie and got it tattooed! And I love it, so much. Because here’s what that tattoo is:

Very true, and I try to remember it always

Everything that ever taught me how to be a person. To be the person I want to be. Doctor Who taught me true humanity, it taught me how to live in pain and with pain. How to run and how to stop running. How to never seek revenge but instead seek peace. People don’t realize that I am able to let go of bad things, pain, and sickness because Doctor Who taught me how. And I am eternally grateful for that, I live by the motto:

They put fog on my feet!

This tattoo forever cements my choice to live for hope, love, peace, reflection, and joy. I’m a whovian and I am proud to be. And being at the 50^th was the best experience I can ever recall. It’s hard to explain but even while I was there I knew I was a part of something fantastic, something major that will never occur again. I was with people who understood me, in a community of appreciation for hope. I was home, and if you don’t have something in your life that evokes that so strongly in you, you can’t understand what I mean.

I went back again on Saturday and took a picture with the Tardis, bought the 11^th Doctors

50th coat!

50^th anniversary bow tie and coat, met the special effects team who put fog on my feet! And just took in the end of my journey. I had been hoping for this for a long time, but like Amelia Pond I was fine being the “Girl Who Waited.”

The 3 of us at Harrods!

Kate and I met back up at Harrods, to do dinner in the Tea Room, where my mother and nana once ate. I brought a picture of the three of us to try and include my mom; and my sister asked me to officially be her Maid of Honor. Things we will one day tell her children about. Then we walked to the London Eye, took our spin around the night in London and I (barely) stemmed off a panic attack as I have a fear of barrier heights. (Only my Uncle George seems to understand this)

I couldn't see Peter Pan, but he's there somewhere!

Kate! Get away from that glass!

We finished the night off with classic “Fish and Chips” in a pub, while Kate tried a pint and just

West Minster!

enjoyed all that we had experienced. My sister and I have never traveled together before, not without my mom there to make sure we paused for every family photo. It was nice to just get time with her, see Westminster with her, but also to be adults. You know I took the tube, transferring stops, and getting to the Excel on my own, taking in the 50^th on my own; while Kate explored London more and we met up at Harrods. That’s what adult siblings do, and it was nice to just be at the point in our lives.

It comes in pints? I'm getting one!

But sadly London had to come to an end and after being attacked by the receptionist at our hotel who was high, tried to steal our things, and was a nightmare- we got into a cab with a delightful cabbie who offered to take us to get coffee so we wouldn’t be cold waiting for our 4:45 am bus to the airport, and he wouldn’t charge us for the time. Yeah, we were lucky! We got on our flight, after they totally disregarded that my bag was too large technically, and we headed to Bulgaria so I could share my new home with my sister and we could celebrate Thanksgiving!

To be continued in another post...(da-da-dum)

Goodbyes are so hard :(

Tonight’s song is"A Thousand Years" and yes these are videos with Doctor Who clippings. But see I would have waited a thousand years for the Doctor to save me, for the Doctor to come and tell me it was ok to be angry, or it was ok to be afraid. I would have waited a thousand years for him to instill this humanity in me that spurs me on and pushed me to move to Bulgaria to try and help someone, anyone, achieve their dreams. Sometimes, you have to wait for hope. 

Anna 

The Doctor with Clara (which is brilliantly done)

 

The Doctor with Amy, the Girl Who Waited

People They Say We Are, Crazy The Way We Are

"That we won't even discuss, 'cause what we got that can't smother, we trade our life for no other, they've only got one another, but we've. got. us!!"

CHILDHOOD LOVE!

Undergrad graduation day

Fun moment: Today marks my 4th completed month in Bulgaria. One of my students yesterday told me this is my "graduation day" that I am now really a teacher here and fit in I suppose. Weird to think I have yet again matriculated, and yet my bonds grow stronger with some students and I feel like maybe it's appropriate! 

I spent the  last weekend in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Yes I call it the capital to my students as I constantly try to reference literature, esp fun literature like the Hunger Games. (Not that kids killing each other is cool, it isn’t but you get my point!) 

Why is it always clowns?

I took the 1 am bus on Wednesday to get in at 7 am so I could go to see a specialist in Sofia since there seems to be complications from my surgery in February. I got to the bus station and began to read “The Fault In Our Stars” which is a horrible and wonderful book. Horrible because it basically reminds me of the years I spent being ill and terminal and how it tore me apart to see my mom wonder if I would die. Wonderful because it is a beacon of hope and filled with dark humor that I completely understand. Found me bus to find my doctor and when I got there I felt like I was in the hotel in the 7^th season of Doctor Who where one door held my greatest fear.

It was very different from American hospitals, which I mean fair enough it’s a different country. But the doors had lights and words in Bulgarian that I couldn’t read and I just had to play it by ear hoping I got to see the Doctor! Then after I walked around until I found my return bus and checked into my hotel to sleep off the very long night. I don’t know when I got old, but I got old!

When 23 became old?

I went to dinner with Carolyn and had a wonderful time, then prepared for the next day when we would tour the US embassy and figure out if we wanted to apply for the foreign service. Boy was it a great tour! I loved it! I would definitely love that type of job. Then we had the rest of the day to bond some more and catch up on everything we’ve been missing in each others lives.

What I want to tell my students about dreams

Fulbrighters are a very interesting breed my dear readers. We are pretty intelligent and we can sit together debating gender and stereotypes for hours, but we also want to just relax and just let go sometimes. So we went to see Catching Fire! It was fantastic! I had already seen it with my sister, Kate, when she came to visit but it was nice to just go and sit with my friends and relax. It was also nice to get to know some of my colleagues better. One totally understands what it is like to always be ill and we had a great discussion about how you live with that and stay upbeat.

Then the next day was the 100 Days in Bulgaria presentations! We discussed our schools and how Harry Potter totally lied to us with those Durmstrang students who are perfect and obedient, and well behaved and how half the time our students are opening umbrellas in class and dancing. J.K. Rowling LIED TO ME! Lol.

Seriously, first knowledge of BG

But we supported each other, we listened to each others struggles, and we shared each others joys. Thus the muppet quote for the title of this post! It’s fantastic to have this support system and it’s also really cool because one of the Fulbrighter’s has these adorable children that we are fortunate enough to get to interact with and they are delightful! I had tons of fun with them, singing reindeer songs and discussing getting their 2 front teeth for Christmas. We had a great Christmas party at the Fulbright office which was interesting because last year I was at my departments Christmas party with all adults, and tequila, and fun; and I could have never imagined being at this Christmas party this year! But we all walked home together with me carrying Annabet so she

she caught tons!

could catch snowflakes on her tongue!

I took a nice long shower, and went to bed happily. Then the next day we were up and off to the Rila Monastery. Ladies and gentlemen if you have no seen the Rila Monastery, you have not witnessed one of the best man made gifts in Eastern Europe. It was gorgeous! Even better in the snow so I am told! We got there and it was freezing which didn’t work out well for Jake since he only had a vest and fingerless gloves. One woman asked me: Why is your colleague dressed that way? To which I responded with a dead serious face: Well , you see, he’s chosen the thug life, and once you’ve chosen the thug life you can’t go back, not even in times of snow. The woman took a moment and then very seriously: oh, well, I see. To which I smiled and said: nah, I’m just kidding, he is just crazy and didn’t buy a winter coat yet!

It was gorgeous!!

I wish I could have used this humor on our tour guide though as she was a captain crabby pants who glared at us most of the time. But as usual we all tried to still enjoy and really take in the beautiful artifacts. As my first major was History of Archaeology, Archives, and Museum Work, this was especially pleasurable for me! Then we went back outside throwing snow balls and seeing the actual church and just enjoying both the glorious beauty of the paintings and church as well as the beauty of the nature around us. Leaving was hard but we went to get lunch before having a tour at the American University for Bulgaria, in Belouevgrad.

There is absolutely no purpose for this. I just loved it.

The tour was pretty nice, it reminded me why I wish I’d really done college tours before I went to undergrad. It’s an essential part of applying. But it also made me feel so old! I finished undergrad, I’m half way through my MA, and I am living here. It’s weird to be back at an undergrad institution and just seeing students who want to apply. Seriously, WHEN DID I GET OLD?!?!

Basically

Then after the tour we headed back and I went for dinner with a few of the Fulbright ladies just celebrating the weekend and reconnecting. It is very hard being so far apart. Especailly since I know that it would be much easier for me if I was nearer to Kelly and Kaitlyn, we really get along well and it’s hard to be so far from them when we are a great support system. But we enjoyed, went back to pack up and hit the hay for our final night in a truly amazing hotel (seriously if you hit up Sofia, go to the Best Western Thracian Hotel) really nice!

"I'm not sure how well this plan was thought out!"

The next day we were up and at breakfast where I got to commandeer my little helpers to help me check my room for anything I missed. Annabet really wanted to see my hotel room so I brought her up to play there and enjoy. She told me how much she did like learning Turkish, but that Bulgarian was a bunch of silly words so it was ok. From the mouth of a 5 year old ladies and gentleman, I really enjoyed that moment. Then it was grabbing a taxi together (during the ride we made up a group story about a princess who is looking for her lost wizard in the desert and there are pirates, and T-Rex, and magic, and butterflies, you really missed out!) then got on my bus for home.

On my bus though I got an awesome surprise. I was seat 5 which means I am supposed to get a

Just let me have my seat!

window seat but when I get on the jerk who was seat 6 out his bag in my seat so he could sit there. ANARCHY! I was planning on how to best explain “no this is my seat you jerk” when I heard someone say “YOU’RE ON THIS BUS!” I looked up to see my beloved K.C. was on the same bus and it was music to my ears! The guy boarded at that moment and when he realized we were going to talk non stop in English he rudely took his bag, pushed by me, and stole someone else’s seat. Which we loved because then she could sit with me. It made the bus ride back that much better and helped end the trip on a positive note.

It’s always hard to leave each other but ironically I constantly use a quote fro Horatio Hornblower to get through it: 

So many places left to go!

"Just thinking of the distances we travel and yet how far we've still to sail as men." (Just change it to "women") 

---

Tonight’s song is from the Muppets showing just how crazy we Fulbrighter’s are but how wonderful it is to just have us! 

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For some reason Youtube wasn't working but follow this, or just punch in "Muppets and Dom Deluise!"

Anna

When I Go The Distance I'll Be Right Where I Belong

All I wanted to do!

Never told you about the 20th Anniversary of Fulbright in Bulgaria!!: 

As I arrived in Sofia I was tremendously lucky about the time of my trip that I got sick. Bulgaria having been a previously communist nation that American’s were not allowed to visit, has now had Fulbright here for 20 years. Thus they were having a celebration for the 20^th Anniversary of Fulbright in Sofia. Which is why I was lucky enough that when I got sick I could stay there fore free, with friends who would watch out for me, and let me actually get to participate in a ceremony that previously I would not have been able to attend because I would be teaching those days instead.

I arrived at the hotel and saw some of my friends instantly, it was the prefect timing to arrive and I felt like I was home with them. They got me to my room since I couldn’t walk and as Sam said “You’re all sick and dying”, then they got me to McDonald’s, where I ate completely unhealthy food but hey food is food when you are so sick! It was really great to see them and joke with them.

Very true!

Stately is still trying to work on his project and his facial expressions when you ask him about it are priceless. He’s one of my favorite Fulbrighters’. He has this really fun sense of humor but he’s also down to earth, so perfect mixture of fun and intelligence that I enjoy being around him. I was telling him that I’m not doing so great with mine either when Sam said with sarcasm and humor: “of course you’re doing a research project.” Statements like that remind me that I am completely insane, and ok with it. Love my Fulbrighters!!

Coolest mug ever!

It was a good time, the next day Aviva refused to wake me for the panels so I could sleep and go to the Doctor. When I finally made it I had hiked it to a pharmacy and gotten a bandage from my foot though I still had to stop every 2 minutes because it hurt so much. (Of course I find out later my ankle wasn’t sprained, my foot was dislocated so, you know, makes sense.) I got to the event and there was bright, sunshine-ey Iliana just a breath of joy. She gave me a fun set of gifts for the 20^th including a bag, mug, and shirt. Now you are probably thinking “so it’s like what you get at a business convention, what’s so special?” but this mug is the mug I have worked years for. That bag will be with me until I die, and that shirt may only be worn with total pride and self-confidence because ladies and gentlemen I made it. I am a Fulbrighter. You have no idea what that means to me. After so many people I trusted betrayed me and made me question everything about myself, here I am on the other side realizing just how capable, intelligent, and successful I am and can be; and god am I happy! These small tokens are incredibly important to me. Being a part of the 20^th was so important to me. Honestly I think that God or fate wanted me to go to the celebration and gave me a little push (down the stairs.) Totally worth the dislocated ankle!!

Kicking it with the masks!

That night we had a private performance from the Bulgarian orchestra playing songs from a past American Fulbrighter who came to Bulgaria. It was amazing to the point I didn’t care that I had to keep leaving to vomit. It was so beautiful and the music reminded me of home to the point that I enjoyed being able to bring my two worlds together. There are moments in your life that you’ll never forget and getting a private performance to celebrate such a big thing was fantastic. In some ways I felt like that student that the school brings to the symphony in Boston so that they start to cultivate an appreciation for “adult things” and then I realized I am an adult, this isn’t a field trip, and I am a guest at a wonderful event. Really beautiful realization. It was completely worth "going the distance" not only from Romania back to Bulgaria but to Bulgaria in general.

I totally wish I'd had a fez at the event

Basically, my luck

Then Kaity got me into a taxi and back to the hotel where we went right around the corner to the grocery store to get me bland foods so I could go up and relax. I took a nice long hot bath, ice my ankle, got into bed after packing up and just took a moment to appreciate my life and all I’ve gotten to see lately. In the morning

Always sad later

we all met in the lobby for breakfast and final goodbyes before taking our buses to our homes.

It is always sad to leave each other. In many ways we are each others rocks. But it is our missions that we are returning to and so we depart and look forward to the next time we will meet.

Taking that bus ride back is very long and gives me time to contemplate life here, and where I am going. I figured out from the 20^th that it doesn’t much matter if I know exactly where I am headed right now because I am truly prepare for anything, so as the Beatle’s say: “Let It Be.”

Fulbright friends are now always worried for me!

I won’t be blogging for about a week as I am meeting my sister in London to get things settled for her wedding and attend the Dr. Who 50^th anniversary. But I will leave you with this song tonight: “Go the Distance” (sung by Lucas Grabeel) because everyone should get to find where they belong and I am so happy to have found where I belong!

Anna

Love him!