ALASTAIR + LALEINIA

 When Alastair and I dated, we never did long distance. I mean, we only dated for 3 months before we got engaged, but still, we never did long distance. I never imagined we would have to do that in our marriage. 10 weeks apart....sucks. It's the absolute worst. I highly do not recommend it! It was nice to see family and to gain weight on American treats (oh, Taco Bell, you have my heart!), but it's not worth being apart from your spouse. I've rarely been homesick. Maybe 2 or 3 times. But I was missing "home," the familiarity of my favorite face, my best friend, my home, and Emre's dad. Emre can throw quite the tantrum and his tantrums during the summer were next level intense. It was exhausting! I even called Alastair late at night, crying, and we were trying to find flights two weeks early. But I soldiered on and lasted the full 10 weeks. So you could probably sense how excited I was to finally be in London. I've never lived there, but it felt familiar...

Really excited to say that I'm going to intern with Bain & Company in London for the summer! The reason I left Google and came to grad school was so that I could become a consultant and I'm over the moon that I've got the opportunity to do so. I've been back and forth to London three times since the start of the year, for each of the interview rounds and now for the offeree weekend. It hasn't set me up to knock midterms out of the park but I shouldn't complain! It was also a great opportunity to spend time with Hollie before and after each of the interviews. I'm really looking forward to getting started, but excited for the spring in Barcelona!

After saying our goodbyes to Dad, Mum, and Connor in Johannesburg, we boarded the impressive but uncomfortable Airbus 380, flew through the night to Paris. As soon as we arrived, we made our way to one of the main train stations and got on the Eurostar, bound for London. Alastair hadn't stepped foot in his own country for almost six years, and hasn't really lived there for almost a decade. He was as excited to be in England as Laleinia, who would be in London for the very first time. Hollie (part tour guide, part photographer, part sister, part sister-in-law) met us at the station. We were all in for a long and exciting day and got straight to work. We bought our tube passes (well, Hollie did - thanks again) and headed over to Buckingham Palace. Our tight schedule meant that we didn't have time to chat with the Queen, and so we made haste to our next destination, Trafalgar Square.  One of our favorite things about London was getting from place to place. Of ...