Sorry. (London Part II)

Sorry for the delay! We have been traveling a LOT before our program started and we are finally in class today! So obvi, we are getting on the computer. :)

So. Our second day in London was as jam-packed as the first. After a late night of partying, Beau wakes up to go buy himself some OJ, after which he fell back asleep until we woke up about 40 minutes until our free walking tour. Needless to say, after we showered, etc., we were running to catch the tour (which we did). We saw so much stuff! Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Green Park, Parliament, and a lot more. We were lucky and got to see a "Changing of the Guards" ceremony outside of a different palace where it wasn't crowded. Also, Prez Obama was there and so it was extra crowded everywhere. Don't worry, he made time to stop by and see me. Heidi: "You're dumb." Anyway, we walked around for a bit and then headed to a pub to eat lunch again, it was super yummy! Then we went back to nap for a bit. But before that, we went to this grocery store Tesco to buy some stuff, which was pretty easy except for the fact that Beau decided to stick his money into the coupon slot instead of the money slot...I think the security guard was not amused at our American-ness.

Instead of doing a bar crawl, we decided to walk around London ourselves and go to see the Tower Bridge. Of course, we had some our infamous juice with us, and so we did a LOT of planking. Austin and I planked along the Thames River, while Beau planked on top of Heidi and Austin. Again, lots of vodka involved here. We also played the "What What" game, where we yell at people "Can I get a what what?!" and if they say it, everyone but the yeller drinks, and if they don't, then only the yeller drinks. We ran across of group of about 20 people who caught on to the game quickly and all started yelling "what what"....probably how our intoxication level rose substantially in about 20 minutes. We walked along the edge of the river for a while, where we came up with a new game. "Nuke, Immigrant, Cockroach", along the lines of "Rock Paper Scissors". We'll let you decide who wins against who in that game.

We finally got to the Tower Bridge and took pictures, and then we tried to find our way back. I apparently "forgot" we had taken pictures at the Tower Bridge, so when we ended up passing it again, I had to yell "THERE'S THE TOWER BRIDGE" and take pictures again. On the way back, Beau decided to ask a construction worker how to get back. Beau magically picked up a British accent in conversation. I think the construction worker was very impressed. We also saw some guy with a woman's purse (obviously stolen) close to the hostel. Beau was going to stop and say something to him, but eventually we convinced him not to...basically the first serious part of the trip.

We finally ended up back at the hostel, where Austin and Beau had to leave in about an hour and a half. When Beau woke up, he was not Beau. The amount of words coming from his mouth that actually made sense was...zero. ;) sorry Beau, we had to mention it!

So the next day, Heidi and I decided to eat at this place called "The Diner", where we ate some really good food! As we looked around, we realized two things. 1- we are the only Americans in the restaurant and 2- we are also the only customers with napkins. We acted like we were all offended at it, until one of Heidi's five napkins flew off of our table outside and into the restaurant. Yup- We iz American.

Later that night, when we went to dinner at this great Italian restaurant (can you tell I am enjoying the food?!), we were greeted in Italian and then the host asked "Table for two?", and I said "Si." Did he start speaking to me in Italian? Did I then become so embarassed and say that I only speak Spanish and English? Yes and Yes. Talk about embarassing.

The next day we headed to the airport where, annoyingly, we had to leave our corkscrews behind because apparently they are a weapon to AirEuropa, but not to Delta. Questionable... But at the airport we ate at this cafe called Pret a Manger, and it was DELICIOUS. I mean amazing. If you ever go to London, eat there. Yumm.

And now finally, on to Madrid! We'll post pictures later. :)

"I need to re-juice before we plank." -Beau (London Part I)

LONDONNNNN!
Well this is the first Heidi-written blog :)
We made it safe and sound to London, after couple things happened on our flight: 1) The priest sitting next to Cayla tried to convert her into being a nun.. HAHAHAHA. 2) i stole the captain's seat just so I could sit next to Cayla, awkkkwarddd! 3) the line at Heathrow was literally a mile long. no joke. and these 2 Asian guys tried to act like they didn't know where the line ended and cut in the middle of the line. No worries, I had no problem telling them "nuh uh the end of the line is waaaayy back there." can you say #WINNING ? some lady told me nice job on that. and then we took a bus to our hostel. Too bad the driver just dropped us off on the side of the road without telling us where to go..? No worries we ended up finding it. Minutes after we checked in, Beau and Austin came in! And so the adventure begins...

We went to Shakespeare's Head Pub and Cayla orders a whole freaking pitcher of Pimm's (this fruity drink), yummm. Cayla ate some traditional fish & chips, which she said she surprisingly liked. So I'm looking for a spicy fix since I am being deprived of flamin hot cheetos, and guess what. NOBODY IN LONDON EATS SPICY FOOD WHATSOEVER. seriously, we searched for any type of spicy food, and faiiill. We CLASSILY walked around London with jugs of "vitamin juice" aka gin & juice. which we later found out is NOT illegal fyi. We decided it would only be fun to have a wandering drinking game, so we came up with "Morganing" (patent currently pending for Austin). Morganing is basically everytime you stop and drink, you must make the Captain Morgan pose, if not, you drink dubs. It's funny how often we forgot to morgan. We played "Drink Master" in the hostel and did a pub crawl that night and danced with some foreigners.

Later, Beau insisted on getting BK, but settled for McDonald's. As we are walking in, some sketchball came up and was like "AYEE, you want some coke?! I got some real good stuff, you can try it right now before you buy!" uhh NO? thanks anyway...

PLANKING. for those of you who are unfamiliar with this term, it consists of laying flat arms by your side or superman style and taking pictures of it in random places.. aka hilaaarious. you should get a kick out of the pictures. Ironically, we ran into some Australians (the creators of this game) who were also planking!!

Well, that's the end of part I, we'll keep you posted on London Part II later :)

P.S. WE LOVE OUR LITTLE SISTER JENA :) she's been faithfully checking our blog every day and waiting for us to post. Sorry we kept you waiting! MISS YOU! <3 Our lack of communication freaked our parents out...but more on that later ;)

first planking attempt: FAIL.

MORGANING.

my "first beer"

outside the pubs.

EPIC TRIPLE PLANK.

Pimm's!

Epic Fail #1 of the European Adventure = already happened, sadly enough.

The last weekend before leaving is always the hardest. Nothing feels real until you are finally saying goodbye to those people who are your reasons for not leaving. Your good friends will hold you and tell you everything will be okay, but your best friends are crying with you and telling you "B****, get out of here and have some awesome European adventure and make me jealous!" While I MAY or MAY NOT have cried at the bar last night, just want to say thanks to all of the friends that saw Heidi and me off on our last night in America. We feel so lucky to have all of your support and love. :)

So on Saturday, I committed one of my smartest moves ever. As I was in Walmart doing some last minute shopping, I went to the "travel" aisle with shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothpaste, etc. THEN, The Idea struck me. "Well," I thought, "since I can't bring big containers of shampoo and conditioner on my carry-on, then I'll buy 5 small 3 ounce things of shampoo and conditioner!" Yes, I know. And yes, I did indeed buy all of those little bottles. Feeling all high and mighty, I walked into my house and showed my mom my purchases. Her response?

...

Yeah. Silence. And then laughter, lots of laughter, as she explained to me the idea behind not taking more than 3 ounces of liquids in your carry-on. And so here we have it, Epic Fail #1 of our European adventure.

Sometimes it's the little things that hit you most about leaving, like driving. I absolutely LOVE my Jeep and all the memories I've had with it. And I know everyone loves the Goldfish I keep in the back for my drunk passengers :). But what I love most are those 80 degree days (no humidity, obvi) like today when I can just roll my window down and cruise down Dodge like it's nobody's business. Heidi says to also mention that the music must be blaring so you feel like you are on Laguna Beach (she would say that). It's hard to believe that I won't be driving for more than two months...

But one of the things I am looking forward to is the fashion in Europe! No more sweatpants for these girls, we are looking to take Europe by storm with our amazing - that's right, amazing- fashion sense. We will of course be posting for you the pictures of our outfits in front of the many places we will be stopping!

Well, it's about that time...time for the biggest adventure of our lives. Are we ready? Maybe. Are our bags packed? Luckily. Catch you later, America- the Kurtenbach sisters are headed for Europe!

First stop? London!

"...that never happened."- Heidi

We have finally started packing!! And now that I see how small the suitcases actually are, I am wondering how we are going to fit everything... uh oh. I foresee some last minute packing "adjustments" that we'll have to make. Maybe that whole "one suitcase for only shoes" isn't going to work out as well as we thought...

We also got our housing assignments! Which is as exciting as it sounds. Although kind of worrisome, we are not allowed to use the kitchen. At all. Which in Heidi's case is probably a good thing (let's remember the time she tried to take a pan out of the oven with bare hands...), but I am disappointed! I wanted to make our family a real traditional American meal, like...hotdogs...or ramen...anyway, irrelevant. I guess no American meals for us.

Me: Oh my gosh, Soldja Boy is in Brazil right now.
Heidi: Are you serious??!
Me: Yeah!
Heidi: How long is he going to be there? Maybe we will see while we are there!!
(silence)
Me: Brazil is not in Europe.
(silence)
Heidi: That never happened.

My favorite episode of How I Met Your Mother was on today..."Nothing Good happens After 2 AM". If you haven't seen it, watch it. If you don't like HIMYM, watch it. You will love it. Neil Patrick Harris is too much, I swear. I will definitely miss these shows while I am abroad...Guess I'll have to find the Spanish version of HIMYM. Imagine, Spanish Barney. Yup, definitely legend- wait for it- ary.

Playlist of the moment:
Hair- Lady Gaga
The Lazy Song- Bruno Mars
F**k him, he's a DJ- Ke$ha
Cat Daddy- Rej3ctz
Turning Tables- Adele
Honey Bee- Blake Shelton (yeah that's right, say something, I dare you.)
Dog Days are Over- Florence and the Machine
Girls Do What They Want- The Maine
Where Them Girls At- David Guetta


First time I'll be away from my mom and dad for more than 2 weeks :(

PS- for those of you who asked me for my mom's pasta recipe, I will post it up as soon as she gives it to me. :)

"Don't get in cabs with strangers."- Mom

Time flys when you want it to slow down. It's hard to believe it is only 5 days away-ahhh! Oddly enough, as the time to leave approaches, my list of things to do seems to get longer. Things have I gotten done include buying clothes, buying shoes (you have to have good shoes in Europe!!), and getting some pretty Monopoly money (also known as Euros). Maybe I should, oh, I don't know, start packing? Yeah. About that.

Newsbreak! Heidi is apparently trying to "fix" her internal clock before going to Europe by staying up until 6 AM and then going to sleep (she has been preparing for years, apparently)! Props. We'll let you know how that works out for her.

My dad is pretty excited for us to leave and get some traveling (and beer-tasting) experience, but my mom is slowly but surely beginning to freak out about Heidi and me leaving. Being the great daughter I am, I suggested that we re-watch the movie Taken with Liam Neeson. Needless to say, she was not amused.

However, one of the best things about leaving is that your mom makes sure she cooks all of your favorite dinners before you go. Last night = favorite pasta dish with chicken, bacon, tortellini, mushrooms, zucchini, squash and onions. Yum! Other dishes we hopefully get to eat before we leave: mashed potatoes, steak, burger, french fries (you know those are American), and cheesecake. Lots of cheesecake and/or pie.

Three days left of work! Sorry to everyone who wanted us to bring cheesebread overseas, guess I'll just have to make some while I'm there.

As a little last note, we'll be posting pictures this week of the things we will miss most about America...

Jena and Frosty.