Duty free is the place to be

London Heathrow airport

The foreign exchange is $2.2 to 1 British Pound. And the price of everything in the airport is still the same. Yikes!

I am totally amazed that the London Heathrow airport doesn’t have toothpaste in a vending machine. I also was imagining some sort of showers and maybe even some longer benches on which to sleep. Seems I was sorely mistaken and am now running on 4 hours of seated sleep. Luckily, I was right about the fuzzy British Airways socks they provide and really convenient sleeping masks. My morning has thus far been spent in the duty free shops trying on make-up and perfumes. This Clinique foundation is really quite something—it is really light and makes my skin look really even, erasing the dark circles under my eyes. And lip gloss has never before made quite such an improvement… if it weren’t for the shirt that I’ve been wearing for 24 hours and the nappy hair, I would look almost presentable.

Here I am on my way to Finland. I haven’t really had a chance to get excited about going since I was so busy getting ready to leave Utah. Now I am on my way, and can’t stop being giddy. It has been four years since I’ve last been to Finland, and I am just excited to be there again. I wonder if I’ll feel that same pull that I have in the past, the feeling inside like, yes, this is familiar, this is what your blood knows. I can’t really explain it any better than that, but maybe I’ll try once I’m in the country. I’m excited to see family, and to speak in Finnish (though I’ve gotten quite rusty), to swim in lakes and go to real sauna, eat some Fazer chaoclate and pear ice cream and makarra (sausage). I have butterflies I am so excited. Or maybe that is just the lack of decent food to eat that is finally kicking in.

So I spent yesterday in New York, running some errands and visiting with friends (special thanks fo Di and Mim for letting me crash at their cute Little Italy apartment, and we’ll hang out more once I move to come back to the states). Although I still don’t have an apartment, I’m feeling a lot better about that after meeting with Emily (hey, if any of you are aware of any apartments for rent in New York, let me know…) Guys, I think I’m ready to move there. It felt good… not quite homey, but it just felt like I could get a handle on it, and there were pieces that I felt that I could definitely get used to owning. I was so relieved to feel this way because last time I was in the city I was totally overwhelmed by the volume and action. I’m chalking it up to first date nerves with gigantic expectations of making a good impression. This time, the city felt more familiar, not as crazy, opening up to our tentative relationship—as if it was opening up to engulf me, to make me part of it, and I was stepping into it’s mouth, not quite knowing what sort of experience this would be, but ready to be digested whole.

The best part about being in New York, and definitely a contributing factor to enjoying New York, is that I got to spend the afternoon with my friend Mike. We’ve been friends since we met at the age of 14, and he has been one of my favorite people in the world since then. We met up at NYU and he had a container of cherries, and we spent the day running little errands, looking at beautiful things, and just talking. We have a list of about 20 things to do in New York and I can’t think of anyone else I would rather share the adventures in New York with. He knows and loves the city, he loves life, and is always doing something and experiencing something amazing and can’t wait to show me so many cool things. I can’t wait to meet the kids he is teaching, and I know he is an amazing teacher because he cares that the kids learn. I remember one time he came to visit me in Provo and we made falafels and wondered how sea shells were formed. The following week, I received a letter in the mail with a full description, including a diagram, of how seashells are formed. Mike, you totally inspire me to find the beautiful corners of New York, and not only that, but to see the beauty in everything there.



Oh, and there is a really good Vegan restaurant that you, my friends who come to visit, will have to eat at. It is called Angelica’s and they make wheat free stuff and this amazing peach pudding-like stuff. Oh how I love food!

More to come.,..