m y e y e o n l o n d o n

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

2009-12-18T06:21:00.002-05:00

My Last Two Weeks

2009-12-17T13:10:00.007-05:00

Well I'm three days away from my flight home, but its been a while since my Rome update so let's backtrack. These last two weeks in the UK have flown by. The Christmas season is upon us over here which means my annual post-Thanksgiving rule goes into effect: nothing but Christmas music playing on my iPod. Some might find it nauseating, but I've never been happier!

Last weekend: On Saturday, I woke up in the best mood. After my last full week of interning, I needed last weekend and it turned out to be so relaxing and enjoyable. I started my day (with iPod in hand) heading over to the Piccadilly/Bond St. area to do some last minute Xmas/souvenir shopping for everyone. I walked into Fortnum and Mason and was taken aback by the sheer number of people once in the door. If you've been following this blog since the beginning, you'll remember that F&M is where I learned that the Queen gets her tea from and it's one of the most revered shops in all of London. A must-see if you are here. I made my way upstairs to the second floor where Mel and I had sampled Oysters a few months ago. It was now transformed into a Christmas land and I was just so excited. I got some goodies to bring back to the States and then exited and did some wandering. I ended up walking through Piccadilly Arcade (which is a narrow outdoor "tunnel" of old school English shops, apothecaries, perfumeries, wooleries, and tea supplies. Inside, they were playing more Christmas music and there was garland everywhere I looked. I actually remember thinking that day that I will miss this part of London so so much. The cute, Christmas-y English part of London where men in top hats and tails open doors for you and literally everyone is in good spirits. At the end of the tunnel, I saw a storefront that looked familiar. I know I hadn't been on this backstreet before, but I had seen the storefront somewhere. I realized that this shop was featured in an issue of GQ that I read a while back and they had rated it one of the best men's stores in the entire world for grooming, shaving products, barber supplies, etc. Its called the Taylor of Old Bond Street and it was exactly what I thought of in terms of a quintessential English shop. I had to go in. I took this picture of the front of the store for you to guys to see!

After I left Bond Street, I met Mel who was in the area after coming from the Notting Hill market. We went for sushi at Itsu and I got this great salmon sashimi and ginger juice that was infused with lime. twas delish.

After my festive morning in the city, I headed back to get some work done before going to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park! Imagine if a good chunk of Central Park was sectioned off for a giant festival of carnival rides, food vendors, a huge market, and live music. It was a crisp night outside and a perfect time to go!! We got there and I just went insane. I got a german bratwurst, mulled wine, a hot donut, and rum balls. It was not the healthiest of nights, but most definitely satisfying. Here are some photos from Winter Wonderland!!

That was two weekends ago. The following week goes by. This past weekend arrives. Now I can continue...

THIS Past Weekend: We went to Oxford! We got up early and took the train from Paddington straight to the town of Oxford, about an hour northwest of London. I'm actually so glad that we saved this day trip for the end of my time in the UK because it was just unbelievable to see at Christmastime. It was everything you would think of and more thanks to Harry Potter movies and the school and town were like nothing I've ever seen. The whole place was very collegiate-looking covered in ivy and since the school was hundreds of years old, you could feel the history around you. We walked past a cemetery outside of one of the churches that was entirely green with beautiful moss that covered the withered stones. I got some really nice pictures that day. We also made it to one of the campus stores and I got myself a souvenir Oxford University rugby shirt! Here are some pictures from our day!

Now that you are caught up on my past two weeks following the trip to Rome, I can fill you in on this past week. On Monday and Tuesday, I finished the last days of the three classes I took here. In British Life and Cultures, we got our final exams back (A!) and then the professor took us out to his favorite pub and treated us to a drink. In media, we watched a film and learned that our professor was planning a visit to DC in February or March and said he would contact me because he wanted us to take him out to a diner. I also finished up my internship with Elemental Design on Wednesday. I never thought that I would be sad to say goodbye, but it was very strange. Seeing as I don't know if or when I will be back to London anytime soon, the goodbye at my office was just weird because it was more than just "thank you for an amazing experience, see you around". It was like "thank you and have a great rest of your life". I wish them all the best and hope to stay in contact! Today is Thursday and I slept late, watched Christmas movies, and oh yeah it snowed here. Apparently it never snows here and the one weekend I have a cross-continental flight, they are predicting inches of snow. Crossing my fingers everything goes according to plan!! Tomorrow I am doing one last lunch at my favorite Whole Foods on High Street and then going to the Oxford Street area. On Saturday, I have to pack up the last four months of my life and mentally prepare myself for the 10+ hour flight back to Miami!!!!!!

Expect one more post before I leave the UK.

Cheers!

When in Rome: Eat Gelatto, Cannollis, Pasta, Street Pizza, Espresso Granitas, Fresh Bread, Suplis, and Mussels

2009-12-08T16:14:00.008-05:00

and I am still in the food coma. The food in Italy was just UNBELIEVABLE!! I still can't believe that I conquered Roma. In 48 hours no less! Here we go...

We got there on Saturday morning around 11am Rome time. We instantly got off the plane, onto the train, dropped out stuff at the hotel and then booked it to the Vatican. We were told that the Sistine Chapel closed at 4pm that day so we thankfully got to the Vatican and were able to see Saint Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museum, and finally the Sistine Chapel. I couldn't believe that I was actually standing underneath the ceiling that Michelangelo slaved away over for years and years. I was speechless!
That night, we went to Trestevere and wandered the narrow streets with Wendi as our tour guide. (She's studying at John Cabot in Rome). We sat down to eat at a restaurant off the beaten path, where they spoke no english. I liked it better that way, there was barely any tourists in this neighborhood which made for a more authentic experience. I got basic pasta with marinara and clams! Very basic, but very, very excellent ;)

The following day, we woke up and went to the Trastevere street market and from there walked across the river to the Colosseum, and all the other ruins in that part of the city. It was a really nice day out and the pictures came out really great so I was happy! We did a lot of walking and so my feet hurt at the end of each day, but we did manage to accomplish a lot.

On Monday morning, we flew back to London and I made it to my 3:30 class on time. I now am freaking out with all the work that I have this week, but I'll be fine. By next Monday, I will be 100% completely done with work and just relax and enjoy my last few days in Christmas-y London!

2009-12-03T19:25:00.000-05:00

So I'm going to Rome tomorrow and HOME IN 16 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my home away from home during the holidays...

2009-11-29T05:03:00.014-05:00

I'm sitting here on Sunday the 29th of November, just 21 days away from my departing flight from Heathrow airport back home to Miami. I have Pandora internet radio playing in the background my favorite holiday station. Reflecting back on this past week, the holiday season is really starting to set in here in London.

Last weekend, Brian, Rebs, and myself went to the Oxford Street Christmas market to see what it was about. Our program recommended that we go to see it so we did! It was smaller than I thought, but very festive nonetheless. We got german brats and walked around to see all the crafters and holidays things. There was one booth that had ties and bow-ties made of wood. I know its really hard to picture it, but they were actually wearable. I never saw anything like it before so I got a bow-tie. On Wednesday, I wore it to work and I got no less than 4 compliments on it so I'd say it was a pretty cool souvenir.
On Thursday evening, most of the Americans in my program went out to a small Italian restaurant at the end of our block, got ourselves a table for 20 and had a "Thanksgiving meal" consisting of garlic bread and pasta. It obviously wasn't the same, but it was something. It was really nice to be alone together with everyone else. Mel's boyfriend Will had just arrived from the States to visit so he was able to join us for our meal. It was really nice to see a familiar face from home and I think Mel really appreciated it.

The two following pictures are from Thanksgiving. As you can see, I wore my festive sweater and plum-colored blazer to represent the lack of actual pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce at the table that night.

Yesterday I went to Mailboxes, Etc. and got two huge boxes to mail home. I've accumulated a lot of souvenirs, holiday gifts, and clothes while abroad so there is no way I would have been allowed on the plane with my threepossiblyfour suitcases so my dad suggested I just ship boxes home. One box went to the Savona Winds house in Florida and the other went to Wisconsin Place back in DC. After both boxes were packed, it felt amazing!! I looked in my closet and a lot is now gone and I can manage for the last three weeks with less than usual. It will be nice to not even be able to fill both suitcases now coming home: a huge burden that I have literally been losing sleep over.

Last night I watched the DVD version of 'Up' that Kelly sent me in the mail. What an amazing film with so many powerful messages to boot. I went to bed last night in a great mood.

We go to Roma in SIX days! I can't wait to see Italy!! I think it will be so unbelievable, possibly the most amazing city that I'll get to visit while here in Europe. Even though we are only there for a few days, I think we will manage to fit in a lot.

Also, a bunch of us are going to see one last West End show before we leave London: we got tickets to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof starring Felicia Rashad and James Earl Jones. I'm looking forward to seeing those two amazing actors on the stage in front of me. It should be a nice treat following work that day! Getting back to reality on this rainy Sunday, most likely going to start some of my work today. Or not. We shall see.

Can't wait until the 20th!!!!
Cheers!

Familiar Faces in Familiar Places

2009-11-21T04:53:00.004-05:00

Last night was epic! After a long stressful week ending with three days of work, it was finally time for Jeff to unwind. I met Lauren's best friend Molly from back in Chicago (who was also here studying in London) so needless to say, we had aLOT to talk about!! She said that she had not had good mexican food yet so I took her to Chiquito, our fav tex mex place right here in London. It was about my 5th time there, but they make really really good margaritas so not going was not an option. Molly and I got there, waited a bit for a table at the bar and then finally sat down in the window on the second floor overlooking Leicester Sq. It was really interesting to see at night with impromptu street performances and things of that nature going on all over the square. We split a pitcher, ordered our food, and laughed our way through a HIGHlarious dinner. I love that girl haha! After Chiquito, we met up with my friends at O'neills and thankfully didn't have to pay the cover charge. It pays to be a regular. We walked up to the bar, met my friends and Molly orders a pint of Guinness. (If you read my post about my trip to Dublin, you know how I feel about Guinness). So this girl gets her pint, turns the glass upside down, the drink disappears down her throat and she turns to me and goes "What? I'm Irish". I think I died a little at that point. At one point, Molly left to go change and get her flat-mates to bring them back to the bar, but they eventually came back. Rebs and Woods were there at that point so it was a party. We all migrated up to the top floor where the live band was playing and so we enjoyed their music for a while. Around 1am I decided to head back to Kensington, so while exiting the bar, I run into Jill Horn standing outside. She hadn't even gone in yet and she was ready to leave so the two of us rode the bus back to Queen's Gate. Awesome night, let's do it again.

I woke up this morning to a video message from my Little saying that AKPsi's Honor Court was happening last night so by the time I got it, they were all being initiated. I can't believe how fast this semester went by not being there. I remember when I was pledging, it felt like forever and here they were last night becoming Brothers. Weird!

Today I am going to the Oxford Street Christmas Market which the city set up for the holiday season in the center of Oxford Street with just rows and rows of vendors and food, and crafts. A Laura Mindell dream.

Cheers!

Last-Minute Trip to Dublin!

2009-11-16T12:51:00.006-05:00

In an attempt to squeeze one more trip into my abroad repertoire, we booked a weekend trip to Dublin, Ireland for this past week. There was a fear of "one of the biggest storms to hit the UK this year" but that theory fizzled into sun and a cool breeze so I'm happy that we didn't have to fly though that. Since Rebs went to Tel Aviv for the weekend, Mel, myself, and a few other AU kids descended upon the capital of Ireland this past Saturday morning. It worked out perfectly, our flight was at 8am out of Heathrow, we landed by 9am and were checked into our hostel and on our free walking tour by 11am!! Perfect timing. This walking tour was with NewEurope, the same company that we used in Paris, and it was aalllright, but it was free so whatever! On the tour, we saw the Dublin castle, a site of Viking remains, and Trinity College. The school was very beautiful and very old. They said it was ranked #4 in the entire world in terms of academics. On the tour, I stopped in a local Costa coffee and got a creme brulee latte which was genius!! That night we did a pub crawl with that same company again and ended up watching a "football" match between Ireland and France on the big screen in the first pub. Standing amongst actual hooligans was an experience. I felt very Irish at that moment. We walked around the section of the city called Temple Bar for a few hours that night and just had a great time laughing and wandering and I woke up the next morning having lost my voice.

The second day in Ireland, it was another beautiful forecast. I didn't bring my sunglasses because I was told it was gloomy all the time. Boy was I wrong. Anyway on that second day, we all met in the morning after grabbing breakfast and took a bus to the Guinness factory at the famous St. James Gate in Dublin. The whole factory (the part they let us see) was 7 stories high and you started at the bottom and worked your way up to the top. At the top was a glass ceiling and a bar/restaurant that provided 360 degree views of Dublin all the way around. It reminded me of Top of the Rock, only not as high obviously. The cool thing about the structure of the factory was that the whole thing was shaped like a giant pint glass. The glass walls at the bottom were narrower as in the center atrium as you worked your way up the 7 stories, the walls belled out and then back in to form the glass's shape. Very very cool looking. Included in the entry ticket price was a free pint of Guinness so naturally, I traded my ticket in for a nice 7Up because let's be real, Guinness tastes like tar with a splash of soy sauce.

After the factory, it was time to get back to the hostel, pick up our stuff, and head to the airport. Again, the flight was insanely short. I literally listened to 14 songs and we were back in London on the ground. A whirlwind of a trip, but I can now say that I have been to Ireland. Next trip: ROME in 3 weeks! Soooo excited for the sights and the amazing food in Italia.

I didn't take many pictures in Dublin so here are a few that I stole from friends.

J'ai aimé Paris y Adoré Barcelona

2009-11-08T05:03:00.003-05:00

PARIS: The city lived up to everything that I had heard about it and more. It was quaint, romantic, manageable, extremely picturesque, and best of all--sunny. The food was superb (I had duck, rabbit, and escargot no less than 3 times). The patisseries were straight out of a book with amazing baked breads and sweets to wake us up each morning that we were there. There is a company based in many of the major European cities that does free tours to all the major sights around the city. You basically meet in an agreed upon location and tourists just show up and are taken around the city by an extremely enthusiastic tour guide who does it solely for the satisfaction of talking about the sights (and the tips). Our tour in Paris lasted for 4.5 hours and was well worth it. We walked by the Louvre, the Musee D'Orsay, the Arch, Champs Elysees, Notre Dame, saw the Eiffel Tower, and learned about the history of the city along the way. Our tour guide's name was Chris and she opened her "about me" chat with the fact that she was 100% Armenian so naturally, we had something to talk about while walking to the next site. That same company also does organized pub crawls and night tours of Montemarte (the neighborhood that houses the Moulin Rouge and where my grandmother lived in her childhood). We had such a great experience with the day tour that we also did the other two over the next two days. At the end of the Montemarte tour, they take you to one of the highest points in Paris and you look down to see all of the city and the Eiffel Tower lit up in the skyline. Below are a few of my favorite pictures that I took while in France. Go past the pics to read (a very abbreviated version) about my time in Barcelona, Spain!

BARCELONA: By far my favorite of the two cities. From Paris, we flew to España and landed at night. Getting off the plane, it honestly felt like flying Newark to West Palm because the first thing you notice is the drastic change in temperature. It was actually WARM outside, and this was at 8pm so I was looking forward to the following day. Spain did not let me down. We were there for 2.5 days of sun, sand, and the most unbelievable food I could have asked for. I had paella at 4 different restaurants, that's twice a day. I couldn't get enough of it. The seafood was so fresh and the food itself was so cheap!! We stayed at the Hotel Roma Reial in Plaça Reial right off of Las Ramblas. It was a beautiful little plaza with a fountain in the middle with our hotel, a bunch of other ones and restaurants as well. In Barcelona, there was no free walking tour, but there was an open-air bus tour with a total of 44 different stops at various sights around the city that you could hop on and off all day for one low price. We did that bus tour for 7 full hours on the second day there and basically saw the entire city. While on the bus, you put in headphones and hear about all the history of the places you are passing. It was so much fun! For lunch that day, we got off at La Sagrada Familia and dined at a cervesaria that was literally in the shadow of the large Gaudí church. Speaking of Gaudí, his architecture was brilliant in real life. We saw the buildings he did in and around the city and went to Parc Güell one night! The second day there was about 75 degrees and we spent it on the water. In the morning, we had breakfast at the mall that the city build literally on the dock jutting out into the Mediterranean. After that, we took a rickshaw to the beach and played in the sand and surf for a bit before heading back to the docks by Colum. We then went on a cigarette boat ride up and down the coast of the city for a while where we met a nice couple from Oceanside, NY (Mel's hometown) so that was really fun for her. From the water, we had amazing views of the city and at that point, I decided that I didn't want to go back to London. Spain was just too tropical and beautiful to want to fly back to Kensington. On the final night before we left, I took some time to seek out my mom's family in the northern part of the city. Getting there was super easy, but they were unfortunately not home when I arrived. I went to a store and bought a postcard that I left for them in their mailbox basically saying that I had stopped by and my mom sends her love. I hope it made their day. Included below is a few more pictures to give you a taste of our amazing time in Spain!!!

coming SOON!!

2009-11-01T17:46:00.000-05:00

still settling in after getting back from Paris and Barcelona. Update soon!!

"I can't believe you're actually here" -------- Kelly's Visit to London

2009-10-22T17:00:00.007-04:00

FRIDAY: All of Friday I was itching with excitement!!!! I didn’t have class that day so I just tried to fill up my day by keeping myself busy. I went to the gym, did some work, got lunch, etc. FINALLY it was time to get on the tube and make my way to Heathrow to meet Kelly. (This is actually pretty hard to write now because she just left yesterday, but I’m doing it anyway). I picked up a nice bouquet of flowers and found her at the arrivals gate. She started sobbing and I realized that it was less about seeing me and more about the terrible flight she had on the way over to the UK. Whatever she was on the ground, it was in the past. We collected her stuff and made our way back to the tube and went all the way back to Kensington. We got a nice big burger at Byron because she was starving and then called it a night.

SATURDAY: Woke up and went to breakfast at a small French bakery and then off for a day of the sights. We began at Harrods so Kelly could see the store and the pet section. That was really fun to see these tiny tiny dogs and made me miss the Berra. After that, we went to Oxford Circus and then Piccadilly and then High Street. After a long day of running around, we went back to the hotel and rested a bit before getting some dinner at our local Italian restaurant and then getting all dressed to meet our friends and go out. I was able to get a bunch of us on the guest list at FunkyBuddha so it was really great that I was able to show Kel a good time while in London. We all got ready and went to the club, and got in right away. The place was waaay overpriced, but the music was good so we stayed a while. Kel and I ducked out early and went back around 1am. We were both exhausted after running around all day. That was Saturday.

SUNDAY: We ventured over to Covent Garden, a new area of the city that I had never been to yet. Narrow cobble stone streets with restaurants and shops with outdoor seating areas and street performers. It was a really eclectic area and we both enjoyed it. We sat down for lunch at a pub next door to the Lion King’s West End theatre. That day happened to the be the 10th anniversary of the opening of the show so there was a red carpet out front and a there was a celebratory afternoon performance happening. I actually saw Felicia Rashad (mom from The Cosby Show) walking in with her mother. After lunch, we met with Jeanie who was in town from Oxford, so we met her for a cupcake. Afterwards, we had tickets to go on the London Eye so we made our way over to the river with Jeanie and she wandered around while Kel and I went soaring hundreds of feet over the city in the biggest observation wheel in the world. I was honestly terrified, but how often do you go on the Eye so I sucked it up and took my pictures. After we were done, we had a bit of a photo shoot on the bridge overlooking Parliament and Big Ben. The sun was setting and it was just amazing. After it got dark, we met up with Jeanie again. Rebs and Mike Richardson (who is also studying in London) also met us for dinner in Leicester Square. We had really good pizza and then walking back to the tube, we past the red carpet for the new George Clooney movie that was having it’s London premiere. We missed him by a few minutes, but it was really cool to see it nonetheless!

MONDAY: Kelly and I went in the morning to get tickets to see Dirty Dancing at a same-day student discount price. In London, the show has been playing here for three years and has proved to be very popular. I have never seen the movie and didn’t know the story so she was really, really excited to see it and I didn’t know what to expect. (It was actually really great and I loved the special effects and scenery!) After we got our tickets for the show that night, we headed over to Sloane Square, another area of the city that I hadn’t been to yet so at least I wasn’t retracing my own steps with Kel… We walked around there for a while, up and down the street (a little like a trashier version of Georgetown) and took a bunch of pictures. From there, we hopped on the bus and nabbed the front row on the top level of the bus so we got a nice bird’s eye view of Knightsbridge on our trek to Piccadilly. We got off at Fortnum and Mason so Kel could get some souvenir teas for her roommates and we got a bunch of different kinds. That night we went with Mel to see Dirty Dancing back in Sloane Square and for the cheap ticket price, we actually had really great seats. They were both singing the whole time so it was fun for them. Everyone seated around us noticed that one of the judges from Dancing with the Stars was sitting in the audience, but I had no idea who this man was so I didn’t care. That was Monday night.

TUESDAY: My only day of classes. Except that I didn’t have class this week (really worked out nicely). Instead of my two classes, I had two field trips! For media, we went to take a tour of BBC studios and for BLC we took a tour of the Globe Theater and the Tate Modern art museum. Kelly was able to come to the first one because my professor had extra tickets so that was awesome to have her join my class on our trip. BBC is a really fascinating place and I don’t want to say too much because I’m afraid this blog post will never end but we say two shows being filmed and a lot of behind the scenes news-y things. Really really cool! After the tour, we grabbed lunch at the Westfield mall across the street that just happened to be the largest in Europe. It actually reminded me of Towne Center in Boca so I got a little homesick. I need to go back there, it was too American to pass up a walk around on a rainy day. At this point, Kel went back to the hotel to work on a midterm for one of her classes and I continued to the second half of my day. The second tour was actually pretty disappointing as it was just a lecture about Shakespeare IN the Globe. I felt terrible that she was alone for a half the day and so I rushed back as soon as the tour was over. We rested a bit and since it was her last night, I asked what she wanted to do for dinner. One word: Mexican. Good thing Chiquito was amazing Mexican right in Leicester Square! Going back to that part of the city, the film festival was still going on and a new red carpet was on this night. It was the premiere of “An Education”, an indie film. I ended up running into Emma Thompson and not even knowing who she was. Oh well! At dinner, we split chicken fajitas and pitcher of strawberry margaritas and discussed the future. It was a truly great last night!

WEDNESDAY: Woke up, breakfast at a cute restaurant called Med Kitcken by my building and then went back to Heathrow. It was a tearful goodbye, but what’s another 10 weeks right?

Thank you for keeping up, that took a lot out of me. I apologize for not going into my detail, but this post would have been pages upon pages. Basically, we had a great time and I was surprised with our March spring break trip to the Atlantis Resort!!! Cannot wait for that one, was my favorite vacation ever back in the day.

Cheers all!

UPDATE COMING SOON!

2009-10-21T18:06:00.001-04:00

Kelly's come and gone in the past week so I haven't been near my computer at all. I'll do a big update in the next day or so after the craziness of end of term work dies down.

intimidation takes the form of industrial-eclectic office spaces, stilettos, and Macbook Pros

2009-10-15T05:33:00.005-04:00

Yesterday. 2pm. My interview with Elemental.

I wasn't too too nervous because I had been hearing that these interviews were more like meetings than an interview, but nonetheless, I was still a tad nervioso. I took my route that I had practiced last week from my tube station to Temple. From there, I walked along the Thames for a few blocks to the overland train station at Blackfriars that takes me three stops to the company. Only thing was that there was some sort of malfunction on my train so it was delayed by 50 minutes. Long story short, I ended up waiting about 15 minutes, hopped on another train and basically found my way there with 25 minutes to spare. I took my notes on the company, did a last minute review of what I wanted to talk about, made sure I got my site supervisor's name right, got a cup of coffee and walked in.

To give you a sense of where I am interning, I'll try my best to describe the building. From the street you walk underneath a second story bridge that were offices above my head. It was a large courtyard with doors on all three sides, huge windows all up on the second level and brick walls. It looks like what the company did was take over the space of an old train station or something. It was really cool. From the bottom floor, I could hear hammering, drilling, sawing, men talking, etc. (I later learned that the store visuals that the company produces are actually all produced on site and this entire ground floor was their workshop.) There was a room that housed all the woods and metals, a spray-painting room, a fabric room, and a room for completed campaigns where I noticed logos for Adidas, Virgin, Louis Vuitton, and Topshop. The security guard at the entrance to the courtyard told me to take the stairs to get up to the second level where all the offices where. The stairs were all metal, very industrial looking. The only thing I was worried about was the suit I wore to the interview. So far I had basically only seen the workshop where paint splatters were the norm. Once I got to the door of the office, it was a whole different vibe. A very current, sexy office space with exposed brick and unfinished floors juxtaposed against perfectly groomed people and beautiful computer equipment and high-end technology. I was greeted by a secretary asking if I was interested in a drink. I declined and sat on probably the most expensive sofa I've ever sat on in the waiting area. In front of me, there was a huge ornate frame hanging on the wall, but no picture or mirror in the middle, just a frame. Taking a better look at this huge gold piece of art, I realized that the entire thing was made of high heels that were placed accordingly, paper mached, and then painted this brilliant shade of gold. I wish I could have taken a picture, it was so interesting. Before I got too comfortable on this Aston Martin of a couch, I was approached by a man named Richard Elmer, my interviewer and new boss. Very nice man and had an Australian accent, not a British one. We sat down in a conference room and talked over my experiences with the retail industry, marketing, and visual communication and design. After he realized that I was the perfect fit for the company (i kid, i kid), he let me know that I would be getting £50 a week plus lunch money. I had no clue that this was happening to begin with so I was stunned that I was even getting paid! Nice surprise to end the interview. I have to say, I was a bit intimidated. It sounds like I am going to have a lot of responsibility. He talked about me making coffee to doing a bunch of travel around the city to oversee client visits. I know I'm only there for a month and a half, but it's still crazy nerve-wracking!

After the interview was over, I went back to the train station and took it back into the city. I got back to Metrogate with an hour and a half before my class at 5pm so I just changed out of my suit and relaxed a bit and that was that.

Tonight we are going to see a show at the National Theater called Mother Courage for class. We found out it is 3.5 hours long so I will probably end up leaving at intermission because I cannot sit through a play for that long. We shall see!

Cheers for now.

Here Comes The Sun...

2009-10-13T18:28:00.005-04:00

I can see it. Just beyond the horizon line... but standing in between me and my metaphorical happiness is the next two days of stress. Well actually its just tomorrow, but for a dramatic flair I threw in Thursday as well.

Tomorrow is FINALLY my interview at Elemental Design!!! I am beyond excited about it and I can't wait to have a kick ass interview and eventual internship after I get back from Paris and Barcelona next weekend. I have sifted through all their archived case studies of window and store installations that they have done, the parties and events they have thrown, and I basically know what they expect of me at this point. I'm looking forward to having some responsibility within the company and going on a lot of site visits to the luxury stores that they work with. It is only about a month and a half, but I am so so excited. Who interns in London? so cool. After my 2pm interview, I have my class at 5pm where I have to give a presentation on the history of the Royal National Theater (which I visited last week and referenced in my last post). Since I was able to see the place first hand, it made the preparation for tomorrow's speech a lot easier.

This past weekend was basically parents visit weekend here in Kensington. I can count six friends of mine who's parents came to visit this weekend. Needless to say, those of us who did not have visitors saw a lot of each other. I'm not complaining though, Emily and Brian are good cooks. I mean I literally thought I would be dumpster diving without Mel for five nights, if we are being honest. I really need to learn how to cook for myself. I just am way too lazy and don't care enough.

The big event this past weekend that I can share with you all is that Emily Beyer turned 21! It was actually the first time that a friend of mine has turned 21 and I was there to celebrate. I have to say, it was odd that she was the one turning 21 and I was buying her the "first drink" ...at age 20. That's Europe for you. She can celebrate for real when we get back to DC. Anyway, about 10 of us went out for a fancy dinner and then to a few bars afterward to celebrate. Here are two pictures from the dinner table that night. Emily is in the pink sparkly hat (compliments of Paige).

Great food, great company, overall a great night. Emily got nice and drunk (as she should have!) and we took the bus home around 2am. Unfortunately for her, she had the interview for her internship placement the following afternoon, but was spot on and I hear did a great job! I am basically the last of my friends to still have an interview, but I was also the last to find out about my company as well sooo...

After tomorrow night, I will be a little less stressed and then only have one more day until Kelly arrives on Friday night!!!

Cheers!

Ladurée, Fortnum & Mason, and a Tour of the National Theater

2009-10-09T05:39:00.011-04:00

Wednesday marked one of the only rainy days we've had so far in the weeks I've been here. Instead of letting the bad weather get to me, I decided to go out anyway. Mel and I both didn't have our class until 5pm so we had a few hours to play with. This Wednesday happened to also be the final day of the Friends exhibit in London. The people at Warner Brothers set up a recreation of Central Perk on Carnaby Street where fans could go get a cup of coffee and walk around the set looking at memorabilia from the show. Unfortunately when we got there, the line was nearly 3 hours long AND it was raining. So we didn't want to wait and instead took pictures in front of it and our best to get photos of the inside when the doors swung open. Every once in a while, people who worked there would come around the line and throw "Friends" t shirts to the waiting crowd. Whoever caught it got to keep it, like a baseball game. We weren't in line or anything, but when we were walking away a shirt passed in front of my face so i grabbed it and I'm sure people were upset, but I now have a new gym shirt =)

Since Central Perk didn't work out, we still had a bunch of time to kill. Mel remember our bus tour guide from week one telling us about this French bakery called Ladurée between Piccadilly and Bond Street that apparently sold the best macaroons in western Europe. I googled the location on my Blackberry and we were a lot closer than we thought so we walked over to it and it was so cool looking!! The entire place was no bigger than a big walk-in closet, but the whole thing was just dripping in gold. It looked like a gold cave, with big curved walls of shiny gold putty or something. It was very cool. The mirrors even had a gold tint. I guess they were going for a very lux feel. Anyway, we got a table under the awning outside and ordered tea and a few of these macaroons that did not fail to deliver. The raspberry was my favorite! So so good. I can't wait to take Kel back there next week!! After we savored, finished, and paid, we walked across the street to Fortnum & Mason, a huge store that specializes in exotic teas, English tea culture, and great organic foods, as well as high end gifts and kitchen cookery. Basically, Mel's form of heaven. F&M is where the Queen actually gets all her tea from so you know its a well-respected establishment. The outside reminded me of one of the department stores on 5th in the city during the Christmas season with beautifully decorated and well-thought-out windows. Walking inside, I can honestly say this place put Harrods to shame. You wouldn't know it from the street, but it was 5 huge floors centered around a grand spiraling staircase that when standing at the ground level, you could look all the way up to the top where a painted mural of a scene out of Peter Pan was illuminated in the dome at the top of the building... It was just amazing! We walked around there for a while, me just stopping every five seconds to take a photo. At one point, an older gentleman walked up to me in a full blown tux with tails and everything and asked me if I liked oysters. I told him I did and he informed me of the oyster instruction/sampling happening on the top floor. Thanking him, I ascended the stairs and got myself one of the freshest oysters I've ever had. I knew Mel would be upset if she missed out on this since she was still wandering around the bottom floor in a state of shock. Before I got off the phone with her, I turn to see her huffing and puffing the stairs running toward the oyster bar. Needless to say, we were both pretty content with how the day turned out!!

Yesterday, the rain cleared and the sun was back! Our 1pm class was cancelled to be replaced with a backstage tour of the National Theater at 5pm. I got some work done during the day and then walked over to High Street to get a smoothie at Crussh (London's Robeks or Jamba). I was back in time to grab my camera and tour ticket and we were off to the National Theater! The theater itself is a really modern looking building that actually houses 3 separate theaters with 3 separate layouts so that a variety of shows can be put on there at once. It is right on the River Thames so from the inside, I was able to look out onto the water and see the London Eye looming over the building. We took a really fascinating 2 hour tour of the entire building and were backstage to see how everything worked and all that good stuff. I'm giving a presentation on the National Theater next week in class so I made sure to pay attention to our tour guide. (The last picture included in this post is of the outside of the theater that I took when we exited the building around dusk. How beautiful is that?!) Last night, we all went to a karaoke bar and then I came home and crashed.

After a really great night's sleep, I just woke up a few minutes ago to an email from my mom saying "I miss your blog". So now I'm updating. Happy? I was getting to it, I swear! I have my interview at Elemental Design next Wednesday so I'm doing a dry run today just in case I get lost and have a nervous breakdown trying to get there next week. Hopefully it goes well! It's another beauty out there today so I'm signing off on this Friday morning. oh and KELLY COMES ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!!!!!! Cheers.

From Queen's Gate Terrace to Avenue Q

2009-10-04T19:59:00.003-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, we ventured over to Leicester Square to hit up the TKTS booth to find tickets to last night's production of some show. I was really sick of the mandatory bad shows that I was seeing with our theater class so this was going to be a nice treat. We ended up seeing AveQ because Mel and Rebs both hadn't seen it and I had no problem seeing it for a third time. After seeing it twice in NYC over the past three years, I still found it hysterical and didn't mind sitting through it again. Luckily for me, they changed it up a bit for the London version so there was some new material. At intermission, I put my coat back on that was balled up in my lap during the show, forgetting that i had stuffed my scarf in my sleeve and it fell out at some point between me leaving my seat and me realizing I lost the thing at the end of the intermission. After the show was over, I went to the lobby and some kind soul had returned it. We didn't know it at the time, but during the bows the cast took time out to acknowledge that after a six year stint as the female lead in the show, Julie Atherton was saying goodnight for the final time and it just happened to be our show! That was pretty cool and she received flowers and got a standing o and all that good stuff. After the show was over, we were walking to our favorite bar O'neills which was around the corner from the theater and we past the stage door just when Julie was exiting to a swarm of fans and paps. I got a quick photo with her (even though I still have no clue who she is besides her name). For all I know, she's huge in the UK...

So we end up at O'neills and the bouncer at the door told us it was an £8 cover charge to which I responded "We are here every Tuesday night, fuck this" and proceeded to walk away when he realized we were loyal customers to the bar and said "You know what? Just go on in. Have fun" AND WE DID! I had a pounding migraine by the end of the night from before and there was no excedrin in sight. Fried rice from the chinese restaurant next door would have to suffice. We got back to the dorms around 2:30am after trying to find a taxi for no less than an hour along Regent Street. I ate my rice and went to bed (still with that migraine). Three hours later, I woke up and I thought my brain was going to explode out the left side of my skull it was pounding that hard. I made my way to the bathroom and ended up getting sick for a while because of it. Pleasant end to my night, I know. I popped an advil I found in our medicine cabinet over the sink and crawled back into bed and woke up around 11am this morning perfectly fine. I need to get professional help about my migraines. Its getting to that point.

Parliament & British Museum Trips

2009-10-01T07:11:00.004-04:00

Ok before I delve into my city visits, I am very excited to announce that in addition to Barcelona and Paris, we have added ROME and DUBLIN to our itinerary as well for sometime in November and the first weekend in December!!!!!!! To say that I am excited is an understatement. I haven't been anywhere ever so anywhere I go, I'm excited to say "wow, I'm here". AHHH! So that was last night's excitement after we officially booked the trip.

Moving on!

Once again, our British Life and Cultures class took another field trip! This time to the epicenter of British government: Parliament. The building was beautiful. The first "room" if you want to call it that was the size of a football field, literally. Made entirely of stone with a wooden roof that miraculously has not eroded or burned down in the oh 1,000 years or so that this one room was. The rest of the original complex was rebuilt after a fire, but for the most part, it was old. I wasn't allowed to take photos inside Parliament, but take my word for it, it was huge cavernous rooms filled with gold leafing and history. We sat in the seats where the Lords of the House sit across from the opposing parties and argue about laws and British society. It was really really cool to see the interiors of this building that was always just on a postcard for me. ANNND I got to see Big Ben again which was just awesome!

The next day, Mel and I didn't have class until 5pm so around noon, we went with Rebs and her friend Dan from back home who is studying at UCL to visit the British Museum. On the way, we stopped for lunch at a Thai restaurant that smelled like a wet dog. It was really grossing me out. Exiting the restaurant, there was a very fine mist in the air, the first bit of precipitation that I had seen here in a long time. It stopped after a few minutes and we made our way into the great hall of the museum that boasted a huge rotunda with a soaring glass ceiling. Straight ahead of us was the ancient Egyptian and Greek artifacts rooms that opened with the Rosetta Stone. Such a cool museum piece! From the Egyptian wing, there was a lot of things that were excavated from various tombs and a recreation of on of the temples way back in the day. In the Greek wing, they had a huge Parthenon exhibit where pieces of stone from the site where taken to this museum and recreated to give a feel of what they looked like up in formation on the wall. The picture of the stone statues that slant in height that I included in this post were the original carvings from the top of the parthenon under the stone awning. Amazing to see in real life! After the museum, we headed back to class, but I want to go back seeing as though we only had about 2 hours...

For the weekend, seeing a show tomorrow night at Shakespeare's Globe theater for class and then Sunday we are going to visit Oxford. Bringing my camera for that little excursion because they filmed a lot of Harry Potter there!! Cheers!

To My Loyal Followers...

2009-09-28T12:00:00.002-04:00

I know I've been slacking, but I have good reasoning. For one, I've been having computer issues and I can't upload photos because they get deleted. Second, nothing too interesting has happened in the last few days to post about. I promise I'll update again soon, but who really wants to hear about me going to classes in between lunch at Whole Foods?

:)

2009-09-23T19:47:00.002-04:00

I didn't want to say anything until it was official, but I am now NO LONGER the only person who wasn't going to have a visitor in London. KELLY JUST BOOKED HER FLIGHT!!!! I'm so over the moon right now its 1am and I am just not going to sleep I'm that excited!!!!!!!!

Class Trip to BanglaTown

2009-09-23T06:06:00.004-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, we hopped on the tube and headed toward Liverpool Street. This is where we met our British Life and Cultures professor who was waiting for us outside the station. The trip was to expose our class to the East End of London, where there is a huge Indian and Bangladeshi population. From the tube station, we walked through narrow winding streets that might as well be considered alleyways with little shops and pubs tucked away so that only a knowing local would be aware of their locations. I felt kind of dumb as I was wearing a backpack and carrying my camera. Oh well, I am a tourist. Our professor was fairly knowledgeable about the area and gave us an informative walking tour from the station all the way to Brick Lane, which was essentially the epicenter of Banglatown. Up and down this one street was shops and restaurants completely dominated by people of Bangladeshi descent. Although, I couldn't help but think that if I was Bangladeshi, I would probably find it offensive to be living in a neighborhood called Banglatown...but our professor explained to me that they embraced the name and created lucrative businesses in the densely populated neighborhood. We finally got to the restaurant and since there was about 25 of us, they gave us the entire top floor to ourselves. Let me just say, at this curry house I had one of the best eastern meals I might have ever had. It was really really nice because FIE was paying for lunch and there was no set menu or anything. Included in our "paid for lunch by FIE" was any starter we wanted, any meal costing under 10 pounds, a plate of naan, and either a pint of beer, a glass of wine, or a lassi - which was a yogurt based drink from India. I opted for the Cobra beer. I ended up getting great food and was pretty full afterwards.

We all dispersed from there and went back to Kensington to rest up for a few hours. Around 8pm, the five of us made a great fried rice / stirfry thing for dinner. After we cleaned up, Brian, Emily, and I walked over to Imperial to meet up with a bunch of people to go out for Paige's birthday. I got my usual snakebite and I'm convinced it was a lot stronger last night because when we left, I had only had about two and I couldn't walk a straight line. We all made our way to Piccadilly to the Sports Cafe (which was ironically directly across the street from TigerTiger haha). It was nice to be in an American-themed place with big screen tvs and a loud crowded bar. Brian and I basically split a pitcher of LIIT and we all just had a really great time celebrating with Paige who is now "no longer a baby" haha. I left around 1:30 with Em and Alyssa to catch the N9 back home. The bus picked us up and we walked right to the back and I ended up sitting across from this guy in a suit. We talked and he said that he works for the new A&F in London so we had a common job right there. He was just coming home from the "runway party" and I had no idea what he was talking about so when I asked he said he was invited to the Burberry show that night in London and was just getting back from the runway party. He then told me that VB told him to "lose the tie" and so he did. He said she was really funny and basically spent the night hanging out with her and the hubby. I just sat there mouth hanging open. And that was my night. ONE DEGREE OF SEPARATION PEOPLE! I'm getting closer.

Fall Break

2009-09-20T18:06:00.001-04:00

We just booked our trip to Paris and Barcelona in October!

Stonehenge & Bath

2009-09-19T19:50:00.002-04:00

Today we woke up at the bright and early hour of 7am to be outside for the coach pickup at 8am to be whisked away for a day of touring Southern England. Our first stop was at Stonehenge and about another hour down the road was the ancient town of Bath, which is now a thriving micro city chock full of Burger Kings and Gaps. But what was left behind of the beautiful Gregorian architecture was like nothing I had seen before! Anyway back to Stonehenge, it was a little anti-climactic I have to say because it was literally on the side of the road and all of a sudden it was just … “Wow there is Stonehenge, exactly how it’s been in all the pictures I’ve ever seen of it.” Don’t get me wrong, it was amazingly cool to be standing next to a monument dating back more than 5,000 years, but this trip was allllll about Bath for me. At first, it reminded me of Mont Treblant, the small resort town my family went to in Quebec a few years ago. Driving over the rolling green mountains of southern England and then all of a sudden, this huge bustling town that is now the home of Nicholas Cage, Johnny Depp, as well as the late Jane Austen. The town is famous for being the site of Roman bath houses (where it got it’s name) and for the hot bubbling springs that fed the baths way back when. What was amazing was that the museum that we visited that boasted artifacts and relics from the time was literally build on top of and around this original bath house that existed thousands of years ago! The water was still bubbling and running through the various pools and such. I was curious to the water’s actual temperature so I knelt down to feel it and I nearly burnt my fingers. I was impressed with this historical site and that’s a rarity.

After we were done with the museum, we ate lunch in one of the mews at a pub, which was delicioso. I got a hamburger and tried a new kind of cider because it’s pretty sad that all I drink here is basically Strongbow. After lunch, we walked around the city, took hundreds of pictures because we were granted the most glorious day as it was mid 70’s and sun all day. I picked up a souvenir for my mom, which was great to find – a 185 million year old chamber of nautilus fossil that they found buried beneath the city of Bath when it was covered by a vast ocean. As soon as I saw it, it just screamed Laura Mindell so I bargained and got it for 5 pounds. Needless to say, I was very proud of myself.

Instead of the bus that the school provided there, we took a train back to London and got there in half the time. The train was nice because we went a different route than the journey to Bath so I got the watch the English countryside rush past my window. It was an amazing and exhausting day.

With just two hours to rest in between getting back from Bath and going out to dinner, I uploaded all my pictures from the day and posted them online. For those of you without a Facebook, the pictures can be seen on the Smugmug account here → http://jodymindell.smugmug.com/Other/Bath-and-Stonehenge/9687703_ajfYF/1/654451116_ap7Dc

I just took a few of my favorites to be posted here on the blog page. Cheers!

So I ran into a Royal, dropped my glasses, and broke my phone

2009-09-18T05:05:00.006-04:00

Not in that order and not what you think. Let’s start a few days back…

I was Skyping with Kel when she told me to just look into prices of the hostel around the corner because she now might be interested in a visit. I hung up with her and called Mel because she told me a few days earlier that she wanted to do the same thing for when Will is coming over Thanksgiving. I told her I was going to get prices and would she like to take a walk down the street. Within three minutes we were out the door on this beautiful sunny afternoon, walking toward the end of the block with the hostel on the right and the brand new wing of the Natural History Museum on the left. We were across the street from the entrance of the museum when we saw a black Bentley waiting at the bottom of this long set of stairs, the doors at the top of the stairs were wide open (as were the doors to the Bentley). A few yards away from the car were at least 8-10 people with cameras as a crowd began to form. We kind of just shrugged and moved on. Walked into the hostel, got price quotes and left. At this point, we are walking back toward Metrogate and we pass the museum again. I noticed that the size of the crowd had grown considerably and there were now police and security everywhere. I had seen this scene play out many times in NYC and LA, I knew we were about to see someone. We walked up to one police officer and asked what was going on. Mel said to him “This kid thinks Victoria Beckham is about to walk out” to which he responded “Do you really think I would be standing here wasting three hours of my life on Posh? I thought we exported her to you guys (the U.S.)” He then told us, “Don’t worry, you will recognize who it is.” At that moment, we turned around to flash bulbs going off and at the top of the stairs stood Prince William. How London-abroad-experience was this? Of course it’s the one time that BOTH Mel and I forgot to bring our cameras so I have no pictures, but I’m still kicking myself, that would have been an awesome memory to have captured. Instead, I found a news clip from that afternoon that I have included for you to watch. WE WERE RIGHT THERE!!!!!!!!!!

That night, we had a welcome reception on behalf of FIE. It was seemingly lame at first, but they gave us two free drink vouchers at the door so it better than I thought. Interestingly enough, while waiting in line to get myself a Strongbow, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and it’s a kid that I used to tutor with back in high school! He was also on my program from Marist. Small world, right? For the rest of the night, everyone just hung out, danced, and then we left when it broke up around 10 or 11. Twas a fun night.

As for my next few days, I’m just really tired of talking thinking about it so I’ll try my best to keep this brief. The following two days consisted of my Blackberry malfunctioning and me paying some creepy man too much money to fix it for me, two doctors appointments on opposite sides of London (both of which I got no answers and they both charged me a lot of money because I’m American and don’t have a GP in this country), me having to walk in pounding rains for the entirety of one of those days because there was no tube/buses in that part of Kensington so that was awesome being soaked for 6 hours straight. On top of all this, I came to a painful realization that 1) all the contacts that I brought with me to London won’t be of any use since I basically have to wear glasses for the next few months and 2) I’m spending so much money without realizing it because of this exchange rate. I just bailed on evening activities that night and laid in bed. Literally, my only salvation was the new high speed Internet in our building so I watched Greek, uninterrupted by buffering. It was glorious. Ok, that’s that, moving on now.

Two nights ago, I wasn’t really feeling in the mood to go anywhere, but Rebs convinced me to go to this club in the financial district because they were having some “hipster” party or something. Right up her alley! Not knowing what to expect (or wear for that matter), I just got ready in 2 seconds and we went to Imperial across the street to just hang out until they closed and then we would go into the city. At the bar, we met 4 other FIE people from AU and the six of us decided to go. We got all the way to the other side of London and then we never got into the club because you needed VIP wristband or 1000 pounds. We ended up just taking two cabs back to the West End and wound up at O’Neill’s again (that Irish bar I’ve been going to a lot in Piccadilly). You know your going to have a great time when you go there so we went inside. On the top floor was the band again so I got really into the music and began jumping with the crowds. Little did I know, jumping into a mosh pit does sometimes lead to your glasses (only form of vision for the next two months in London) falling off your face and disappearing onto the floor. Let’s just take a step back here to assess my situation: I’m in a dark bar. There are at least 80 people around me who are drunk, belligerant, and wildly jumping around. I lost my glasses and am basically blind to the world. I begin to have a bit of a panic attack thinking that they have been crushed by hundreds of feet. The only thing I think to do is get on all fours and try to find them so that’s exactly what I did. Feeling around in spilt beer and broken glass from pints that have been dropped, I can’t seem to find them anywhere. Some guy come up behind me and violently picks me up thinking I was just drunk and had fallen and couldn’t get back up. After explaining to him that I couldn’t see, he literally did the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me. I think he felt my panic so he stood up and yelled for the band to stop, for the people to be quiet and stop jumping. He then announced that “THIS KID LOST HIS SPECS. EVERYONE GET ON THE GROUND AND WATCH WHERE YOU STEP. LOOK FOR A PAIR OF GLASSES!” All of a sudden, some random guy rises out of the crowd holding my glasses that were somehow come out of the ordeal without a scratch. I ran over and threw my arms around this guy and thank Jesus that I didn’t have to walk home without my vision. This is just going to turn into my best abroad story…

Speaking of glasses, I just got a new pair because I’m not in love with this current pair that I’ve had since high school. Since I can’t wear contacts for a while now, I wanted to get a nice new frame so I decided on the Ray Ban Wayfarer. No haters please, they don’t look bad on me so hey, why not?

Well that’s basically my life up until now. Tom, our friend that we know from back in DC who is the president of AKPsi at GW is arriving in London in about two hours from his study abroad program in Paris. He’ll be here for the weekend so that should be fun! Going to get myself out of bed now and outside on this Friday! Cheers!

We Had THE Most Amazing Day Being Tourists!

2009-09-12T14:33:00.003-04:00

Buckingham Palace. Parliament. Westminster Abbey. Big Ben. River Thames Waterfront. One Day. Gotta love it!

This morning, I set my alarm for 9am and the three of us were out the door by 9:30 Buckingham Palace-bound! We got tickets online to see the Royal Summer Opening of the palace state rooms. With our admission tickets, we saw nineteen staterooms, a bunch of beautiful gowns worn by Queen Elizabeth over the past 60 years or so as she travelled to countries around the world. From those countries, she was presented with a plethora of elaborate gifts and offerings that were also on display. It was unbelievable. The tour was guided by the cute little British voice in my headphones as I wandered through the palace. Room after room of gold, silver, silk -screened walls, ornate sconces, carved ceilings and crown moldings. Marble statues lined the halls and priceless paintings hung on the walls of her Majesty's predecessors. I think my favorite part was in the yellow drawing room, they pointed out this one floor to ceiling mirror with a wooden carved table underneath it, but this was no normal room fixture, the entire part of that wall swung open like a secret door to reveal the Queen's private living space behind it. I thought that was really really cool. It was something that I know we will never forget, so if you get a chance, I HIGHLY recommend seeing the interior of her Majesty's London residence.

Afer we exited the back of the palace and meandered through the 30 acres of Royal gardens in the back, we found the street again and made our way toward the River Thames. On the way, we past Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and Parliament. Luckily, we had the most glorious day which made for fantastic photos. We stopped when we hit the river's edge and just sat as we watched the London Eye make revolutions. It was so amazing and peaceful. We were fairly tired so we took the tube back to Kensington and now I'm here uploading a bunch of photos to facebook. Going out to dinner and then the bars later!!

Here are a few of my favorite photos from this afternoon!!

Photos from Bloody Good Night Out

2009-09-11T12:49:00.001-04:00

Bloody Good Night Out

2009-09-11T08:47:00.005-04:00

So I realized yesterday that the two pairs of dress pants that I got at the Zara in DC before I left for the summer that were meant for my internship in London are not in London. I think I remember packing them, but I don't remember unpacking them or seeing them at the hotel the first week or anything. I'm hoping that they were mistakenly packed in the Florida boxes or something because I hate to think that they were stolen. After class yesterday, I went to the Zara down the street here and got a pair of dress pants to make up for the fact that I was slacking. Class by the way...I really don't love this theater class. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was not this. Way over my head material. I would much rather take a business class, but of course I am barred from those because I'm in the comm program. I just feel really out of place in the class and for 6 hours a week, I'd rather enjoy what is being taught.

Speaking of British theater! Last night, we went to see Blood Brothers in the West End. Its the only show that we all get to see as a group that was organized by our abroad program, so the tickets were waiting for us in our welcome kits last week. We had great seats, row F orchestra to be exact. The show was classified as a musical, but only because it had "music" in it. It was definitely no happy Broadway show I'm accustomed to seeing at home. It was about these two brothers who were separated at birth and their mother can't afford to raise them both so she gives one baby away to her boss/neighbor. The mother has separation issues and basically follows her other son around for years to come as to not lose touch with him. He doesn't know that she is his mother though. It was very Deep End of the Ocean... Anyway, the two brothers become friends without knowing they are related and grow up together, end up fighting over a girl and in the last scene they both are in a heated argument over the girl and before one gets to shoot another one, a police officer kills them both. End of show. Curtains. It was terribly depressing and no one was really sure why we saw this show, but the acting was great. Not exactly the mentality we wanted as we were leaving the theater, but to lift our spirits we decided to go out! A group of about 10 of us walked over to Leicester Sq/Piccadilly and were assaulted by a bunch of different club promoters trying to get us all to come to their "very special" clubs at "very special" prices. We finally bargained with one promoter from Sound to let the guys in for five pounds each and the girls in for free. We thought that was a good deal and so we went to the top floor of this huge lit up building (after going through metal detectors and a good pat down???) and we were the only one there. It was us, the bartender, an empty dance floor, and a wall of LED lights. The club was owned by Christian Audigier and just like his trashy clothing lines, you can see why no one wanted a part of this place. After buying drinks and being disappointed with said drinks, we peaced. We ended up at this three floor irish bar called O'neills that Paige remembered going to so we all went there. THIS PLACE WAS SO MUCH BETTER!! cheapppp drinks, a bar on each floor, and on the top floor was a live band doing covers of songs from the Killers, Franz Ferdinand, and Jet. They were unbelievable. After we left O'neills, we went to KFC and I got about enough food for 3 people and we ended up getting pushed out because we stayed way past closing. Oops! We left around 2am and found a bus back to Kensington since the tube closes here at midnight. Such a fun night with great people.

Loving London!!!!
Pictures to come!

Yesterday and Today

2009-09-08T12:33:00.003-04:00

YESTERDAY: went 14 stops and two transfers on the tube to get to the IKEA in Edmonton. It was fairly far, but well worth it. Mel basically went to town and got everything that she could possibly need for the next three months. I got a new duvet/duvet cover because my bed is beyond uncomfortable so what I'm going to do is sleep on the duvet that come on the bed and use my new one as a blanket. I did it last night for the first time and it was far more comfortable so I'm happy.

Oh, quick update on my eyes. Two days ago, I had that doctor's appointment on Kensington High and he told me I had some sort of viral thing in my eye so I have these new eyedrops that I have to take every two hours for the next 48 hours. Oh and it has to be refrigerated. Talk about impractical. Anyway, I have a follow up on Monday to see how I'm doing. If it hasn't helped, I'm being referred to like an optic surgeon or something. Hopefully, it won't come to that. I just want to get my lasik now instead of later.

Moving on!

After IKEA, we got back, went to the gym and I ran a few miles before heading to Whole Foods to get a loaf of bread. I was waiting for Mel who was still back at the gym and it was a really nice night out so I decided to plop down on the side of the street and just hang out. A homeless man came up and basically tried to befriend me so I moved. I was singing when Mel finally walked up and found me. We all made a nice asian noodle stir fry dish for dinner and then Rebs and Mel came to hang out with my roomies and I in our room for a bit before going to bed.

TODAY: First day of classes. At 9am, we had Media in Britain, where I'll learn about British magazines, TV, etc. We have a scheduled field trip to BBC Studios (where my prof used to work). That should be really fun! After that class, we signed up for the trip to Stonehenge and Bath in southwest England. Can't wait for that one either! I had about an hour lunch break before my second class, British Life and Cultures. In this class, we have field trips to London's East End, Parliament, various restaurants, Shakespeare's Globe theater, and museums. This class will be awesome! Since the class is 3 hours long, and the subject matter is about British culture, what better way to spend our 20 minute break in the middle of class than at the pub across the street! We had a quick pint and then back to class. Cheers!

Going to the gym now for my first yoga class. The classes are free so why not try them all, no? We are going out for Indian food tonight too. Should be amazing.

Tourist Overload

2009-09-08T03:04:00.003-04:00

Here are a few pictures that I forgot to upload on here from our tour of London a few days ago! This city is beautiful. I'll update again later on today..

Getting My Ass Kicked

2009-09-06T12:29:00.002-04:00

This morning I woke up and walked to Boots to see if I could find myself an eye drop for redness because my awesome contact irritation thing is back. There was nothing but like eye "brighteners" and things like that. I've noticed that the British fascination with eye brightening products is like ours with teeth whitening. There was a huge section of the pharmacy of things to make your eyes "sparkle". Anyway, I was unsuccessful and the guy told me to see a doctor. Of course I'm all the way over here and I'm having a medical issue already. Ugh. Later in the day, I walked into an eye care place on Kensington High and made an appointment for tomorrow morning so I'm looking forward to that. I can't do 4 months with these glasses!

At noon, our class at the gym began. Mel and I were basically the only people in the class so it was pretty intimidating to have this British instructor on top of us for an entire hour. He really worked us though, I was exhausted after the class was over. It felt good though, its been a while since I was at the gym, so it'll be nice to get back into shape. After the gym, we walked to Mark and Spencer's for lunch and I had a really great salmon and cucumber sandwich on whole wheat bread and a tub of blueberries. I got a pair of trainers for the gym and a really cheap backpack to hold my books for class, and then I went back to Metrogate. After I showered I turned on the TV (we only get 4 channels here. Anyone who knows me knows that I am dying) I've never watched it in my life, but that ABC show Ugly Betty was on. I was so happy to just watch American television, it was great!

I'm now just in the basement of our building in the PC lab trying to kill some time. I have no plans for tonight and I don't want to go out-out, but I do want to leave the building. I hate the nights here, I still get really sad. They say that absence makes the heart grow stronger, right? I just try to keep that in mind.

New Ventures and Friends

2009-09-05T07:13:00.002-04:00

I know I've been slacking on keeping up with this, but we've only been at FIE now for two days and I've been really busy. We live (in what we learned yesterday) in South Kensington, the most exclusive and expensive area code in all of Europe. I knew it would be nice, but this place puts Beverly Hills to shame. In our neighborhood their are 70 million dollar homes owned by various Royals of other countries and at the end of my street is Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived. Her place is huge, but nothing really pretty to look at. We took a walking tour of Kensington today and saw many famous residences and historical sights. It was really a nice morning walk. In about two hours, around 2pm, we have a scheduled bus tour around London. Thankfully, we'll be sitting and getting off for "snaps" as they call photos here.

Last night: was feeling EXTREMELY homesick, but pushed myself to go out anyway. Really glad that I did! A bunch of us went to the university bar across the street where if you are a cardholder (and we all are bc it came in our welcome package) you literally got about 80% off at the bar. So instead of 8 pounds, a drinks was a little more than 1 pound. Very good deals when I am loosing money because of this exchange rate. At the bar, we met a bunch or really cool kids from Temple U. in Philthy. We talked with them for awhile, found out they were headed to Archangel, a bar/club on Kensington High Street, and we joined! On the way, we stopped at their flat. They are also in our FIE program, but aren't in Metrogate so it was interesting to see another form of student housing. There were about 20 people living behind one locked main door and then just a long hallway of just huge dorm style rooms with various hall bathrooms and huge kitchens and meeting rooms. Think Anderson 6 as one apartment. It was crazy, I would have liked to have lived there. I love my room though. I bought a few pillows at Mark and Spencer's yesterday to make a little nest for myself and I slept like a baby last night so that was a good investment.

I'm gonna walk to get a panini at a small shop down the street in a few minutes and then off on the bus trip around the city! Hopefully I'll feel less homesick as the days go on. There is just no Chipotle or Kelly here. :(

NEW HOME!

2009-09-03T14:15:00.003-04:00

Here are pics of my new room in London! I think its the biggest room in the building that I've seen. Then again, there are three of us. We even have our own bathroom which is a plus! My roommates Matt and Brian both go to AU and are really cool guys. The only thing that is not that great is the lack of storage space. I think everyone is feeling that way...

I Joined A Club

2009-09-02T12:15:00.003-04:00

Mel and I joined the Club Kensington gym about two blocks from our building today. They had a nice three month deal for us abroad students. Can't wait to get back into shape, this summer killed me.

A Comfortably Classy Tea at Harrods

2009-09-01T20:06:00.007-04:00

Today we ventured over to Knightsbridge to visit the infamous Harrods department store. We went with the intention of solely exploring the store and the new area that we hadn’t previously seen. It’s my new favorite area of London. It was beautiful and upscale and much more visually appealing than Bayswater. We walked from the tube a few blocks to Harrods, which was basically like Macys Heralds Square. I just realized that I relate everything back to NYC! It’s my point of reference, oh well. We walked into the store and it (once again) reminds me of the Saks on 5th. Everything was just glowing and immaculate, it was just so pristine. We made our way from the doorway through the various halls of food where there was a formagerie room, a chocolate room, an imported foods room, a tea and coffee room. It seemed to go on forever. You really didn’t appreciate the size of the store until you went inside. It was huge. We basically skipped the next three floors because we were starving, but vowed to work our way back down after our tea. We arrived on the top floor of the store and walked into the Terrace Bar at the Georgian Restaurant where we were greeted by a pianist playing various tunes from the Sound of Music. It was kind of cliché, but a lot of fun. Overall, the whole experience was extremely elegant and I can’t wait to go back. We ordered the Traditional English Afternoon Tea that included a variety of English teas (so Mel and I ordered the Victorian rose petal and Rebs opted for the green mint), and a tiered presentation of scones, miniature pastries and five or six different kinds of delicious finger sandwiches. The woman at the Clinique counter recommended this restaurant if we wanted the authentic English experience and we were so happy we listened to her!

After we left Harrods we did some more damage at the surrounding stores in Knightsbridge and on Oxford Street. I was pretty thrifty though, I got a really nice jacket for $17 American and a dress shirt for $11 American so… not to worry Mom!

After taking my first double decker bus way farther past Hyde Park than we wanted to go, we got out in a not-so-great area and reversed our route back up the street. The bus was fun, and free because of our tube pass.

Possibly joining the Kensington gym tomorrow? We shall see, I thought it was a lot more expensive than it actually is. Ohmygod South Park is on again. Brits just love this dumb show apparently.

This Ain't Your Grandparents' CARNIVAL!

2009-08-31T19:01:00.007-04:00

Today we woke up early and joined the masses as we lined the streets of West London for the city's Annual Carnival Festival. We learned that Carnival is London's annual celebration of Jamaican and Caribbean influenced food and culture. It was absoutely unreal. I've never been to anything like it, and we were told that it was Europe's largest outdoor festival! The only thing I can compare it to was like Marti Gras. Conveniently, it was just blocks from our hotel so we walked to Westbourne Grove again and got there just in time! The steel drums, confetti, and colorful constumes danced their way down the streets with bumping Caribbean dance beats blaring throughout the city. We just let ourselves get wrapped up in the culture and loved every minute of it!! All the store and restaurant fronts on the parade route had boarded up their windows because they apparently riot all the time during the festival. We only saw one altercation that I'll come back to later in the post.

For lunch, I got curried goat with salad and rice. Later, we tried stalks of sugar cane! I wanted to try something authentic as opposed to American food. Turns out I love curried goat! It was so good! On one block, there was a reggaeton DJ who was dancing in the streets and telling everyone who walked through the street to “shake what ya momma gave ya!” haha. It was a lot of fun and we danced and drank and I got it all on video. A carnival I will never forget.

After we had become exhausted from the Carnival, we walked back to Grand Plaza and took a quick nap. I uploaded a bunch of photos and then fell asleep on the couch. After we woke up, we went out to the other side of town to the now littered streets that we hadn't already walked earlier this morning. We stopped in a Chinese restaurant for dinner and while we were eating, a really really drunk kid burst into the place and started screaming profanities. The staff tried to shoo him out, but they realized he was just trying to get away from an even drunker angry black woman. Through the window, we saw her pick up an empty liquor bottle from the street and hurl it at him. The whole restaurant (including us) fell silent and basically freaked out. We didn't know if someone was going to whip out a gun or anything so we didn't move. The police instantly showed up and quarantined both people and took them outside. We later learned that he had yelled a racial slur at her and both of them being drunk, she literally attacked him. It was actually pretty frightening...Mel almost dove under the table. After dinner, we walked back to Kensington Gardens and got some gelato before turning around because it was getting dark and people were getting more and more rowdy in the streets. We didn't really want to go back to the hotel yet so we went into Whiteley's, a small three story mall next to our hotel. On the top floor, there was a Mexican restaurant so we went to the bar. Of course, just my luck, the bartender spills an ENTIRE plate of mixed drinks on me, my new pants, and my shoes. So now my jeans smell like coconut milk and my shoes are sticking to the floor. Other than that, we had a great day, an experience that not many people get to have because it only happens once a year in one city!

Tomorrow, we have reservations at Harrod's for a traditional English high tea at 3pm in Knightsbridge. Should be fun, we have to get dressed up. Until then, g'night Londy.

Photoshoot at the Palace and Gardens

2009-08-30T16:17:00.003-04:00

Today we got up late AGAIN and got ready and walked to the Kensington Palace and Royal Gardens. Today wasn't as nice, it was a lot colder and really overcast. No rain yet! (knock on wood) On the way there, we stopped at a persian food stand and got lamb and chicken pita pockets. Very very good. The guy was so nice and was happy to see we were from the States. We actually have had such a warm welcome from everyone we meet! Here are a few shots from the gardens and Royal grounds!

After we walked through the Palace grounds, we made our way down the pond in the center of the park and basically chilled with all the geese, ducks, and swans. I just died laughing at Mel and Rebs posing with dreary London scenery so I put together a montage for the blog! So funny, don't laugh too hard Tina Defeo...

Ping Ponging Between Piccadilly & Harlem

2009-08-30T04:27:00.015-04:00

Wow so much to catch you all up on! A lot has happened in the last 24 hours!

First night here: After our flooded fiasco (see leaky faucet post below), we got dressed and went out to dinner. Mel's bf Will got her this awesome London for Under $25 book so we found this amazing restaurant called Ping Pong which was in Westbourne Grove, a street/neighborhood one block away from our hotel. It reminds me a little bit of Greenwich Village, kind of quiet.

We got plate after plate of unbelievable dim sum and some delicious cocktails to boot. After dinner we went back to the hotel, turned on a movie and fell asleep about 15 minutes into it. We woke up the next day at 3pm. I guess that's jet lag for ya!

Since we got a late start to say the least, we left the hotel around 4 and took the tube to Piccadilly Circus which is basically the Times Sq of London. Coming out of the tube station to street level was really cool because we hadn't seen this side of London yet. It was the big, built-up, touristy area so it was fun to be in that kind of bustling environment. Sidenote: the weather was great too, sun and blue skies the whole time so far! Here are a few shots from the afternoon...

Sidenote: The bus in the first picture nearly killed Mel when she walked into the street and looked the wrong way for oncoming traffic. The three of us got a few stares as she screamed bloody murder and ran back to the curb. Thank god she was ok!!
From Piccadilly, we walked over to Leicester Square, which was a small park in the center of the city (like Washington Sq) and went to this mexican restaurant called Chiquito right on the park. We got nachos and a pitcher of margaritas as our late afternoon tie-over. Around 8, we left that area and tubed it back to Bayswater to make dinner back at the hotel. Rebs and I ran some errands while Mel prepared this amazing cheese and cracker spread and pasta dish with spinach and mixed veggies that was ready when we got back. We ate while watching some Chris Rock comedy special. They love their Comedy Central over here. We also stocked the fridge in the room since we'll be here for a bit.

After we cleaned up dinner last night, we went to the front desk again with the intention of having a fun night out on the town. We asked the concierge if there is a good nightclub that he would recommend for us, seeing as we were new to the area. He said that we "had" to go to Tiger Tiger back in Piccadilly. He said we would love it and we would fit right in. We said "ok, anywhere else we should know about?" and he responded by basically saying "no, go to Tiger Tiger". We went back to the room and we googled Tiger Tiger to see how to get there and to get a sense of the place before we went out. Literally, the first review that we stumbled upon, I have copy and pasted for your viewing pleasure:

"This big brash Piccadilly meat market is perennially packed with desperate tourists who obviously got turned away at all other nightclubs and other young drunk things of all ethnicities picking each other up"

Thanks asshole.

Needless to say, we did NOT go to Tiger Tiger, but we were all dressed up and wanted to go somewhere. We decided to walk back to Westbourne Grove and do drinks at Ping Pong again, but they closed at midnight so we found this bar next door called Harlem. From the outside, it looked like a typical sports bar and nothing else seemed to be open so we walked past the bouncers and actually went downstairs (which we didn't know about) to this really eclectic clubby environment (very similar to Andalu).

We got a few drinks, claimed a small leather hideaway right under the DJ booth, and mingled with the locals until about 2am. It was so much fun because we were the only Americans in the place. I talked to this one guy and his girlfriend who looked like they were in their late 20s who were so fascinated that we were from the States. He told me his ex went to Yale and he met her when she was studying over here as well. The girlfriend looked like a hot vamped up version of VBeckam and didn't really love that last comment of his. Mel and Rebs talked to the bartenders who gave us some names of other places to hang out. We were such obvious Americans though.. Mel brought a small notepad to the bar and Rebs spilled her entire Long Island Iced Tea on the guy haha. She was good about it and tipped him for the refill. We stayed a little longer, the girls danced, I got buzzed, and we bounced.

We got back to the hotel, made grilled cheese and went to bed. Can't wait to explore a little bit more tomorrow!

I Don't Know (American) = Ah Day Nay (UK)

2009-08-29T10:36:00.003-04:00

Apparently Two and a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond, and King of Queens are the only shows that have made it onto our hotel tv from America. Also, Scrubs is Scrubs Up over here. Weirdness.

So it's 3:30pm over here and we basically are just going out now. Got a bit of a late start because of our jet lagged sleeping patterns. We don't know what we are going to do just yet, but the possibilities are endless! Can't wait to see what today/tonight brings!

First Impressions and a Leaky Faucet

2009-08-28T13:20:00.003-04:00

Let me tell you about the drama that is jolly London. Let’s start from the beginning…

We took off an hour late last night from Newark. We were supposed to leave around 9 and ended up taking off around 10. I have to say the flight was just glorious. To get to our seats on board, we passed a bar, a lounge, stairs to a second level, two different sections of Upper Class and at least 8 bathrooms. It was basically the biggest plane that I had ever been on. Anyway! So we are on the plane, they dim the lights, the dinner trays come out, we eat, we watch free movies, it was great. After literally one movie, I looked at the screen and it said we had like an hour left on the flight. It went by SO quickly!

(This next part was my favorite) When we began to descend, it was like out of a movie. I, never having really been out of the country, slid the window of the plane open to see us coasting over the city of London. We past Parliament, Big Ben, we saw the giant London Eye ferris wheel, then we got lower and saw the Thames River snaking through the center of all the buildings and flew over the Tower Bridge. I don’t want to sound cliché, but it literally felt like I was in Peter Pan or something!! Just soaring over all these landmarks that I’ve seen a million times in pictures, it was surreal. Finally we landed and got our bags after Mel peed at LEAST four times between unloading and baggage claim…or Reclaim as they called it here!

The part of the trip I was dreading the most was next and I have to say, without exaggeration, it was 10 times worse than I anticipated. I knew that it was going to be hard physically getting from Heathrow to our flat, but nothing prepared me for public transportation with no less than 7.5 suitcases between the three of us. Holy God we wanted to just cry. Ok so from the airport, we had to take the Heathrow Express (which was a really fast train from the airport to Paddington Station.) From Paddington, it was the tube so imagine the three of us trying to lug all 8 pieces of luggage through the narrow ups and downs of the London Underground. It was ridiculous. Think NYC subway with all the pointless stairs going up and down… So that was us. When I asked an officer if there was a lift (elevator) that we could take to get down to the platform, he basically laughed and said no. So this is where I wanted to kill myself because we had 3 more flights of stairs going up just to come right back down on the other side. With 8 suitcases. Thankfully, there were enough kind people watching us struggle that made it bearable. Finally, we get down to the crowded platform and of course, its like rush hour packed. Of course, because why would life be any easier, right? The train pulls up, annnd its full, but this station was a big transfer point so a lot of people got off thank god. We managed to get everything and everyone on, but it was like all of our stuff in a subway car. We were only going one stop however so when the train stopped and the doors opened, we were the only ones getting off so no one budged. Awesome. Finally I just announced like “Passengers of the Tube, please haul ass, you can see how much stuff we have.” People moved and we got off and I just collapsed on the platform. We conveniently have another three flights of stairs to go up to get to street level. This was just not what I wanted as my first impression of the city.

From the tube stop, we walked a few blocks to the rented flat that my dad got us for the week before we move in to Metrogate.

We couldn’t check in until 2pm and it was only 11:30 in the morning so we dropped our bags and went to the pub across the street to grab some lunch and a brew. This is where exhaustion and jet lag just slapped me across the face. We stayed for a bit, ate, and peaced. We got to check into our room early because I begged the girl at the front desk to let us in so we could crash. The room was really weird. It was a split-level kind of thing with one bedroom and kitchen on the walk-in level and then stairs down to a second level with a second bedroom and a bathroom as well. After finding out that our internet, TV, and air conditioning where all not working, I just decided to deal with it after a power nap. Two hours later, I was woken up my Mel yelling for me. She got up to wash her hands and turned on the faucet in the bathroom only to find out that the pipe was not fully connected and was now flooding the bathroom floor…or so we thought. I’m still half asleep at this point and run downstairs to find that the water was going through the wall to the bedroom and soaking all of Mel and Rebs’ stuff that they left on the floor. Since our damn phones didn’t work as well, I ran down to the front desk and basically demanded a new room. They cooperated and we are now sitting in our cool beautiful new room that is not suffering from water damage =) Oh London, I’m not impressed so far. Mel wants to pop in Spice World later, HA! Hopefully we can sort shit out. MORE TO COME!!!!!

Changes, Changes

2009-08-24T12:13:00.010-04:00

I was going to wait to begin blogging until after I touched down in Europe, but so much has been going on in my life in these past few days that I wanted to get it out now. Alright so first of all, I just got back from my end of summer trip to florida -- it wasn't exactly a vacation according to me, seeing as I was at the pool once, only saw the ocean from indoors, dropped Jen off at UMiami, and was looking at real estate the entire time with my parents. That was my own fault though. I told them that I wanted to see as many communities as possible before heading overseas so that I could have some say in where they decided to buy a house. Ironically, the one day that I decided to sleep in, they went to a new community and found a house. They loved it so much that Jen and I went back later to get a second look and we liked it so they put a bid on it and got it! Long story short, we got a house WAY before we anticipated and now when I fly back to Miami from London, I'll have a home to go to instead of a stuffy condo. We only took a few photos of the house because the owners were there and it was a little awkward, but here is a view of the backyard!

Sidenote: Ina Garten is making spanakopita with lamb kebobs right now and I'm dying.

While down there, we also said goodbye to Jen as she started her freshman year in college. We met her roommate, Amanda, who later went out to dinner with us in Coral Gables so they could bond. Surprisingly, there were no tears as we left her and she seemed pretty busy in the next few days to distract her from homesickness.

Here she is with her new roommate posing in front of their dorm. I wish AU looked like that!

The only thing that was completely undesirable was the size and layout of her dorm room. I didn't know it, but I was so spoiled as AU with huge picture windows and built-in shelving and oh I don't know, maybe room for a TV. She didn't even have that. Her windows were significantly smaller due to the hurricane shutters they had on them. Other than that, it was a typical dorm room.

As of now, I'm back in North Jersey basically waiting to leave for England. I started packing today while simultaneously babysitting Bella for the next 2 days until Kelly comes home to say goodbye and then takes her back to the district. She's actually a fairly boring dog. I guess I just never realized it. She just stares at me and barks at the cardboard boxes strewn all over my house. She also woke me up at 7:30 this morning which was just AWESOME. Anyway, back to packing. I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what to bring. I'm going to be in London for a big change in temperatures so I need a variety of clothing. I only have 2 suitcases to work with so it's gonna be interesting. I might just end up pulling a Foster Curry and wearing half my suitcase on the plane. We shall seeeeee!!!!

I probably won't be posting again until we get closer to D-Day, but as of now, I'm enjoying my last few days in the great country of America. And speaking of, I have a Chipotle giftcard that is burning a hole in my wallet. God I'll miss that place.