My Bridal Shower

A bridal shower is a decidedly American thing, but a lovely tradition, and I was fortunate enough that my Mummy and Grandma decided to host one while I was in America. Mummy had ordered cute little invites, and sent them out to all of our family in Michigan. Grandma and I were together most of the time before Mummy even came to America, so we had to go shopping for

all the stuff that Mummy wanted to use as decorations and to cook and such. It was quite a long list - so it took us several days for us to go around and collect all the things we needed! I made cute pink and white chocolate dipped pretzels wrapped in cellophane bags as a favour, with little "Thank You" hang tags. It was much harder to make than advertised! And I never go to taste them either! That was pretty much my contribution to the shower, but Mummy made lots of yummy food.

We made together maple syrup bacon on sticks, which we then made in the oven, cute little shot glasses filled with yoghurt and berries on top, some great fruit skewers, and a bunch of bacon egg muffin things. It was a lot of cooking in the kitchen in the morning, that's for sure! We had gotten yummy coffee, and iced tea and pink lemonade too. I think the cutest thing was the cake, made of mini white donuts, piled up into a cake, decorated with little flowers.

It was simply the most adorable thing, but I never got any good photos of it before it was eaten! In the morning, all the family came, Rachel and Mary came from down south, Krista and Linda came from Traverse City,and even Heidi came up from Detroit. I wore a cute little dress,

and we played fun little games, and drank orange juice out of these cute baby milk bottles with pink striped straws! It was a lovely day all around, but best of all it was nice to finally spend some time with all of my extended family who I never get to see very often!

Leaving London

After my time in Florida, and then in Japan, I had to come back to London, to sit my exams. They were out at the Excel Centre in East London - a place completely difficult to get to! But anyway, they went well, and I passed, and so the teaching portion of my degree was finally over. Next, I had to move to Austria to fulfill my thesis part of the degree. It meant I was saying goodbye to my lovely little flat in London, and my time there. It was weird to leave - I had finally become comfortable

in London, and only nine months later I was having to leave. Mummy came down to help me move out. That part was easy - we packed it all up in her car no problem - leaving some free time to sight see, do some shopping on Oxford Street, and have a lovely high tea at the Dorchester. I had to take a few cliche photos before I left, of my favourite two things in London - the classic red phone booths, and the Shard. The skyscraper I could see out my window, and right next to my university - the new symbol of London.

Jackson in the Lilacs

Grandma likes to spend a lot of time outdoors, gardening. I try and get out with her, and while I am not so much help at the gardening aspect, I was able to enjoy the sunshine and the great weather. I love Grammie's dog Jackson - and so we got down and

took some cute photos of him in the pretty lilacs. I don't think I have ever seen Lilacs before, so it was nice, that while Grammie was cutting them, I posed Jackson with them, to take the photos. I only got a few before he wandered off, but they were cute enough to put in a frame for Grandma!

Some Mid-Michigan Barns

I left London, and went home for a week or so. Just a week to unpack my London life, pack for a trip to America, and then pack to move to Austria. I also had heard that I had gotten a job in Frankfurt, so I had to pack to start that job in August. To be fair, that whole week was packing and organising, and taking stuff out of my room

I wanted to keep and what could be left. It was hard to leave nothing at my parent's house anymore! I flew over to Michigan, mainly for Kara and Dan's wedding, but I went early so that I got to spend some time with Grammie and Papa too before hand. Papa knows how much I like to take photos so on our way around on errands and such, we went looking for some great barns to take photos of. This one, which is in the process of falling down, is just down the road!

Our final day in Japan

We spend our time in Japan, out all day, training around and eating ourselves silly. I loved waking up every morning, having a milk tea and a Mr Donut, then catching a train to the city. We would do some sightseeing, have a yummy lunch, and try and meet our friends in the

evenings for dinner. It was hectic to try and meet up with everyone, but we were able to see the majority of people we had wanted to. We had packed suitcases to the brim (all four of them) and were finally ready to head back to Beijing. I think we spent our

final day in Japan the same way we spent it last summer - with some rowing on the lake, some deer feeding in Nara park, and a couple of hours of karaoke. And seriously, there couldn't have been any other way to finish our time in Japan. I love rowing on the lake in Nara Park.

Especially in April, there are very few people there yet, and the deer are still hungry. We took some photos in the deer park that were identical to the ones we took on our final day in Japan last time. I know when we return we will have to take the same photos. We found a group of deer to pose with, and take amazing "Snow White" photos with too, which added to the fun. Eventually we had to leave, and as we left the gates of Nara Park, I remember crying just like I did when we moved home - and knowing that I would return, no matter what.

Kobe Harbour

Kobe Harbour is another one of those nostalgia views, that I hope I remember for all of my life. I'm pretty sure all of Japan is like that for me. But we stopped down there, just to sit on a bench and admire the view and the cool buildings, just like the old times.

A bus ride up Mount Rokko

We tried to spend a little bit of time in all of the cities in Kansai, so we were off next to Kobe. Kobe still conjurs up memories of winter illuminations, and great Chinese food. Sadly, the illuminations weren't on til November, so we started with a walk through China town to grab

some food. Back in the autumn, I had seen posters advertising the fall colours at the top of Mount Rokko, this mountain near Kobe. Since I never went when I lived in Japan, we figured it was a good thing to do, especially as all we had to do was ride a bus.

Well, first a bus, and then a cute little funicular to the top of the mountain. At the top of the mountain,there was a great view over the city, and then a bus to take you around the top. All we could find was a very, very expensive botanical gardens, and then an extortionate music box museum, so we set off on a little path up the mountain. We found all sorts of great sakura trees and funny wild boar signs. Thankfully, we didn't see any wild boars, but we did see

lots of sakura, and enjoy the pretty views. It was nice then, to just sit on a bench in the countryside and wait for the bus to take us back down to the bustling city.