It is the current trend in blogs to write some sort of retrospective or a 'best of' from 2009. Since I barely had time to blog this year, which really makes no sense as a student, I wont recall a list of links. I would rather share a few things that made life fun and interesting this year regardless of whether they made it on my blog. So here is my top 5 of 2009. QYPE - Early on in my time here in London, I came to need a hair salon. Not having many friends who have similar hair needs, I went online and came across a recommendation. I booked at appointment, had a successful experience and returned to the website to add my own opinion. Not only did my hair salon reward me for this on my next booking by giving me a free treatment, but after I began using the website more and more, I received an email to join a guru event. I, along with some other fantastic ladies and a couple of men, had an opportunity to go on a speed boat tour of London. Meeting the lovely people of Qype, and some new friendly faces, I was hooked; thus began my relationship with Qype. They allowed me to attend master classes, wine tastings, food tastings, special shopping events and more in exchange for my opinions of the businesses online. Being a poor student, this was a great way to be treated to some of the best things London has to offer in a budget friendly way. It also brought me new friends and true understanding of the importance of peer recommendation. Below is the video that shows that first Qype experience.

Qype Does London : Thames RIB Experience from Qype UK on Vimeo.

2: Social Media - Without Twitter, I would not have the social life or business connections that I have now. My first week in London I attended a social media cafe event called 'Tuttle' and a few weeks later I attended my first London tweet-up in Shoreditch. These events expanded my network and introduced me to other events coordinated via social media including Twestival, London Bloggers Meet-ups, Silicon Stilettos and various conferences. The list is long, but I'd like to mention some of my favorite people that I have met along the way: Mat, Darika, Josh, Mauricio, Lewis, Dom, Litman, Laura, Stuart, Melanie, Kai, Willem, Fernando, Alfie and Conor. There are many others who have been friendly faces to look forward to at each event, or even in random passing on the streets, but this list includes those people who have become friends. They are my dinner dates and drinking buddies and they are inspirational and encouraging.

3: Central Saint Martins - 2009 was also the year I returned to school for my Masters. I chose a program called Design Studies where the students from multiple disciplines come together to tackle briefs in a collaborative way. While many MA programs are based solely on research, this program also had a practical element, which I found to be more relevant to my needs. In the end, I tackled the subject of trust and how having an online/digital presence could strengthen trust in offline relationships. While my final exhibit was not a mind-blowing demonstration of my knowledge, I am perfectly comfortable with the wisdom gained from this project. While I do not have my degree in hand yet, I have completed my MA and can walk in full cap and gown glory in the summer.

4: Visits - I wouldn't have thought I'd see my family so much this year, being abroad and all. My parents came in the spring and we set off for Paris for a few days and also had a couple days around London to visit. Then, in the summer, they flew over to Vienna for a cruise. I flew over to meet them for a quick visit. In September, I went home for a few weeks before returning just in time to have my sis and niece visit. We had such a blast! We did video-blogs for Lauren that were so cute. I loved seeing her discover London. It reminded me of why I loved this city so much after my first visit.

I also had a chance to visit with many friends who were either passing through or spending a few days in London. This list includes: Steffi - a friend from Holland that I learned to surf with and went to school with in Australia -- came to see me (twice!) Chris - an ex-boyfriend/now friend -- came to study the archives at the British Library for this PhD in Theatre (plays with absinthe!) Megan S - a co-worker from BR -- came over with her MBA class, we had dinner at Jamie Oliver restaurant Fifteen (yum!) Megan R - one of my best friends from KC and former classmate at Oxford -- here for work (please send her back for more!!) Vince - a co-worker from BR and all-around great guy/good friend -- here on holiday with his bros, it was bonus that I was here (haha) Matty - Hendrix/Choir friend - here on holiday and was the one who set me up with a singing opportunity at Westminster Abbey (bless!) John De- American Idol PA friend -- here to photograph a wedding, and again, I was bonus (good times!!)

5: Sam - The majority of my year would not have been complete without this wonderful guy. I can say without hesitation that he is my best friend. On many occasions he was the voice of reason and encouragement, my caretaker and my ass-saver. He made me laugh until I had tears more times than I would care to admit - it seriously became a joke. We traveled together to Dublin, Brighton, the Cotswolds, Derbyshire and Vienna; played ridiculous amounts of Scrabble; and watched hours and hours of tv episodes. I have very few memories from this year that do not include him, which tells you how big of a part of it he was. While I dont know what the future holds for us, I'm glad he is in my life for now.

Finally, here it is: Lauren's last Look at London video. I had such a great time with her here (and my sis too) and hope that she enjoyed her first big trip abroad. I also wanted to include a few outtakes and some clips that were edited or left out. She's funny kid.

Christmas Shoppe, Pet Stores and Toys, OH MY! We hit Harrod's before seeing Billy Elliott and Piccadilly Circus. We had a tired trooper on our hands! The long days were catching up. (approx 5.5min)

(approx 3min)

Another video brought to you by Lauren. Her enthusiasm for art (and pigeons) cracks me up. Director for the day was Jennifer! (approx 4.5min) n)

After leaving the London Transport Museum, we went to Loch Fyne to have some fish. This is the same place where Lauren tried her first oyster. While she didnt care so much for the oyster, she did love the small bowl of peas that came with her dinner. She loved them so much that it was quite fitting, as we were about to see Oliver!, that she was asking for more. Her mother, being ever-so-happy that more green anything was wanted by her daughter, sent in the order, which arrived in a MUCH larger bowl. See the results: Following our sticky toffee pudding, we headed to the theatre. Thanks again to Charlotte who arranged the fabulous seats. It's funny to hear what Lauren thought was so awesome. Then again, I think at her age that I would have been impressed by the kid dancing too. While the music is still catchy and Fagin, played by Omid Djalili, was hilarious, there's still some tough subject matter in there for an 8-year old to grasp. On our walk home, we left on the Stage Door side, so we hung around and saw Bill, Fagin and Nancy (the Nancy video is not included due to bad footage). All in all... we had a great day and an even better evening!

Day three's video continues... We left Buckingham Palace via taxi and headed to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, which was a perfect location for pre-theatre fun. I have been in the gift shop many times, but never actually in the museum. It's an extremely kid-friendly place, with lots of interactive exhibits, but also has a lot of information that adults find interesting. Big thumbs up. (Approx 4.5 min)

The videos were much longer today since we had the Changing of the Guards taking up most of the morning, so here's part I of day 3.

Here's the second video diary of Lauren's visit to London. Daily dog count was somewhere near 20 when we left Greenwich Park, but I forgot to write it down and we didn't record the final number on video. (approx 9min)

Dear Class, Today is my last day in London. I had eggs on toast with baked beans for breakfast. We dont normally eat baked beans at home for breakfast, but I think it's good. After breakfast, we went to Covent Garden and to a creperie and I had a crepe with Nutella. I went shopping and I got a magic trick and my mom got two scarves for us to share. I also got to mix my own tea for my teacher Mrs. DiLeo. It has cinnamon in it. Cinnamon smells sooooo good. I sat in an area between the market and another building and watched a street performer. He made five boys dance and three people be judges and the guys that had to dance were probably embarrassed by what they had to do. It was funny because one of the guys had to do a somersault. From Covent Garden we grabbed a taxi to the Houses of Parliament because we were going to have a tour of the inside. My favorite parts were seeing the throne that Queen Victoria sat in where she rubbed the velvet off the armrests because she was nervous when she had to speak in front of people. My other favorite thing was seeing where the Queen sits when she visits the House of Lords. When we finished the tour we went across the street to Westminster Abbey for Evensong. The choir is made up of boys and men. There were some boys my age in the choir. As we were leaving, we looked at the steps where the King or Queen walks up when they are being crowned King or Queen. We also asked one of the Reverends how many people are buried inside Westminster Abbey and he said approximately 3000! After the Abbey, we went to a pub where I saw a special bell for the members of the Houses of Parliament (a division bell to signal the members when to return to Parliament -- km). Then, we got on the tube and went to Chinatown. It had lots of hanging paper lanterns and bright colors like red, yellow, orange and pink. For dinner, we went to Inamo. It had magic tables. There was an overhead projector over the table that made all these different colors and designs on the table. You could choose which one you wanted by using your finger as a mouse on a round place on the table (like a touchpad -- km) and you could also play games like Battleship or picture puzzles, order food and drinks, and even call a taxi. I accidentally called one! I liked going to the chef cam where I could watch what was going on in the kitchen. I ate steak, rice and edamame. Yummy! We left Inamo and went to Snog for frozen yogurt. I had chocolate yogurt. We walked back to Chinatown and went to a food shop to see all the different foods. Above the check-out desk were some candy toy guns and I got one for Evan and one for me. We came home and packed because we go home to Kansas City in the morning. I wish we had the London Eye and the [architecture and interiors of the] Houses of Parliament and a Queen in Kansas City. I want to come back to London again some day to see the Thames River, do all sorts of fun things and try all kinds of different foods. I had a wonderful time. See you all soon! (More videos coming next week when I have time to finish editing them. As you can see, we have been VERY busy during our visit. Keep checking and I will try to post them within a week. The clips are hilarious. It's hard to know what to choose! -- km)