Week 12: The end of an amazing summer abroad.

This entire week was a blur, so I decided that instead of writing by the day, I just would write about everything we did during the week. I don't know the exact order of occurences, but deal.

We went out to lunch as a flat to this Japanese resturaunt near the West End. Their specialty was these pancake like things. I still don't know how to describe them other than delicious! They were so good, so different, and very filling. Walking back to the bus stop, we got gellato and walked through Trafalgar Square to a bus stop we knew would get us home.

My last day as an intern. I was really sad, but I got up early to make cookies for everyone. They were still warm when I got them to the office. The champagne I was worried about, mainly because I'm not an alcohol connoisseur. I think that they enjoyed the cookies, and hopefully were laughing about the champagne. When it was time for me to leave, we toasted and they gave me a book of London's history (which is amazing) and a London sweatshirt. I was touched, because I wasn't sure if they would get me anything. I didn't need it, because my memories were so awesome, but I'm glad they appreciated me. I was definitely sad to leave.

Meara, Meg, Becky and I went on a ghost bus tour around the city on one of our last nights here. There were actors and everything, and we were told all of the haunting secrets about the city. VERY scary... sort of. It was good for a laugh though. Definitely had the cheesy factor that's always appreciated. I'd suggest it to someone who will be in London for at least a few months.

The very last night, Meg, Becky and I went on a boat tour of the Thames. Obviously we'd seen the sites along it before, but it was a great end to our time in London. The city was beautifully lit up, and when we got off, we went to Gordon's Wine Bar for the last time. We got our final looks of Big Ben. I shed a tear, and we then headed to Platform 9 3/4. After we had our photo shoot, we headed back to our incredibly disasterous flat to pack everything we could locate. We also started to clean, so it wouldn't be as much of a hassle in the morning.

The morning was incredibly hectic. We were tired, crying, freaking out about the plane ride ahead. Eventually, we made it to our flight, and I cried to the Last Song (yes, Miley Cyrus is in that) before falling asleep only to wake up in Chicago and head to St. Louis where my mom picked me up and drove me to Columbia.

Cheers London.

Week 11: 26/07/10 - 01/08/10

Wow, I can't believe it's the 11th week I've been in London. It's been such a whirlwind summer. This is the account of my last full week in London, England.

26/07/10 - Well, we had to wake up early this morning to get the Metro and get to the airports to fly back to London in time for class. It's baffling to think that I can fly to Barcelona in a few hours and be back to my home. I want to go home, I've missed London so much. I'm not sure I'll be able to handle it when I get back to the US.

We got to say good-bye to our favorite hostel-desk person. He actually road with us on the Metro for a bit on our way to the airport. It was a little stressful because we were tired from the weekend, but we made it to our plane and got back to London just in time for class. Well, some of us made it to class... a few of my commrades weren't feeling well, so they didn't make it, but Meg and I walked into class with our bags and sunburns and acted like nothing was wrong. Oh, no big deal, we just got back from Barcelona where went on a weekend holiday. What we talked about, I have no idea, I was tired, coughing (I had a wierd cough... it was pretty painful), and crusty from a recovering sunburn, but living the high-life. After class, Meg and I headed back to our flat and got ready for the Harry Potter tour later that night. I was looking forward to it, because... it's Harry Potter for crying-out-loud! It's kind of a big deal, at least it was for me and a few others in the group. It was basically my childhood and is probably my favorite books. I don't know what that says about my reading repitoure, but oh well. I love Harry Potter.

So, we headed to the tube and got off in the financial district. I had been there once before because of an event I was covering. There was the Bank of England and huge infrastructure surrounding us. There was the largest skyscrapper (I don't think in the world, but definitely in the area) being worked on, and then just down the road, a building that would be taller than that one was being built. We saw The Gerkin, or the Giant Innuendo, look it up and you'll see why. We saw a bunch of the buildings that made their mark in the Harry Potter movies, especially the recent one with the opening scene in London and the Wobbly Bridge (it's actually the Millenium Bridge, but the aptly named it the Wobbly Bridge because it did just that, wobbled.) We found out that the Bank of England's front doors were the inspiration for Gringotts. We didn't go in to see if there were goblins guarding it, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was. We eventually found ourselves by Borough Market and saw Diagon Alley. We saw the original Leaky Cauldron, which was an eye-glass store. I think that after this tour, my Harry Potter experience is almost complete. Now I just want to meet JK Rowling.

27-28/07/10 - Some of my last full days as an intern at AP. I was really sad thinking about it, and also trying to figure out how to celebrate my last day... I'm thinking cookies...

29/07/10 - When I left one of my final days of work, I had to book it to the outskirts of London, to where the Olympic park is being built. I couldn't get there by tube, I had to use an over-ground train. Almost an hour later, I made it just in time for the tour. It was cool to see all of the complexes being built and we learned about the controversy surrounding them. Our guide was a local to the area, so that was a great perspective. I can't wait to come back and see it all finished, because I am coming back for the Olympics. Even though I switched majors, I'm coming back.

30-31/07/10 - Our last full weekend. We celebrated Michelle's birthday and had lots of fun. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to all of the musuems I wanted to, but that just means I have to come back! We also worked on our projects for class.

01/08/10 - We went to the Ritz! Talk about luxurious. I felt like a million bucks, and I think that we all did. The food was delicious, but we were all distracted by the decorations, the amount of scones at our fingertips, the fact we all looked fab, but most importantly because it was our last Sunday in London. Meg literally started crying at the table. I felt like I wanted to cry. The tea I had was amazing though. It was fruity deliciousness that I knew I'd never find again in the United States.

Week 10: 23/07/10 - 25/07/10

Barcelona!!!!

23/07/10 - Our first day in Barcelona! The hostel was advertising a free Gaudi walking tour that started at 11, so we got up and made our way to the square where they meet. The square itself had great architecture and even included, as we found out later, Gaudi designed lamp-posts. After we found that out, it made total sense. They weren't your ordinary lamp-posts. I never thought that something so simple could be so interesting. It was a good start to the tour, that's for sure.

Our guide led us to the first sight. It wasn't too far away, but it was under construction. The Palau Guell, our first major sight that Gaudi laid his hands on. It was fairly obvious once you got in front of it, the entrance was exquisite. But the chimneys were amazing as well.

Our adventure led us to the Metro for the first time. It's not the most exciting thing except you had to be VERY aware of who was around you, because it was a picked-pocket waiting to happen. I relaxed once we were far away from the Metro, and at our next stop, the Casa Batllo. There were a ton of amazing buildings on that block including this building and the building next to the Casa Batllo. I was taking so many pictures, and though I had a legitimate excuse of being a tourist, I still felt odd. It was surreal to see these buildings that made Barcelona, Barcelona. We moved to the Casa Mila. It was supposed to look like the Casa Batllo, but Gaudi did what Gaudi did best - totally disregarded the agreement with the investor and made what he wanted to make. The owner and Gaudi didn't get along, so there were a bunch of hidden taunts towards the owner in the metal work. While I don't remember the stories behind the bird and mask, they weren't nice. Our last stop was the one I was really excited to see, possibly the most famous sight in Barcelona. The Sagrada Familia. Immediately after getting off the Metro, we were met with this spectacular sight. It was truly amazing. There is so much detail in the front of this building, I didn't know how it was still upright. Granted, it's not going to be finished for at least 30 years, the whole thing was still enormous. I felt so insignificant, I can't imagine how I'd feel if it was done.

We were all slowly dying from a long night and a lot of walking, so we went to a small cafe where they only spoke Catalan (different from Spanish). Thankfully we were able to figure out something to eat. Slowly fading, we tried to figure out what to do next.

In an attempt to stay awake, we made our way to another famous landmark (that was also touched by Gaudi) Parc Guell. The trek up the hill to the park was enough to sway us, but some how we made it! We got separated, but Becky, Kristina and I kept climbing to the very top. We got a 360 degree view of Barcelona, the ocean and it's surroundings. Talk about beautiful! Thinking that we should try and find the others, we kept walking, following the path until we found what made the park famous. Of course, we had to walk around and see everything!

For dinner, our hostel called an Italian restuarant and said that "7 beautiful women" wanted a table, and we ended up getting free champagne! The resturaunt was so much fun and the food was fantastic! It was the first time that I tried sangria, and it was pretty darn delicious!

It was truly an amazing first day in Barcelona!

24/07/10 - After finally getting an acceptable amount of sleep, we wanted to relax, make this a REAL vacation (mother, I'm talking to you!). We were headed to the beach! In common form, our hostel suggested we take a short train to a small town outside of Barcelona, called Siget. The beaches were supposed to be much more beautiful than the Barcelona beach. It cost us 3 euros for a one-way ticket to Siget (I realized how excited I was to go back to US dollars after buying this ticket).

A short ride later, we arrived in the coastal town of Siget. Not knowing which way led us to the beach, we followed the crowd. Turns out, we could have turned right at about any time in our little walk and found the beach. It was beautiful white sand and the water looked so inviting! Not to mention that the architecture of the buildings... it looked like a true Mediterranean village. To lie in the sand was so relaxing. It was incredibly hot, but it didn't matter, because a quick run to the water cooled you off instantly. Thankfully, the water wasn't freezing, but a perfect temperature to just float and talk to friends.

Successfully fried from our hours outside, we got hungry. It was fairly obvious what we wanted: seafood and paella. When in Spain, do as Spainards do! The food was incredibly intense, with Meg befriending a shrimp that was in her dish. After dinner, the seven full, fried, and exhausted London ladies made our way back to the train station to head back to the hostel and Barcelona.

25 /07/10 - Our last day in Barcelona, we wanted to go to the market and see the Picasso muesum. Unfortunately, the market was closed, so we satisfied our shopping hunger with the daily market on Las Ramblas. No one got pick-pocketed (everyone went to bed thanking God they didn't get robbed, and counting the days they had to still get their pockets picked), one vendor shooed away a suspicious person, obviously a pick-pocketer, when I was near.

After we were done at the market, we headed to the muesum. I'm not a huge art person, but even this museum kept me interested. I learned so much about Piccaso and his work, as the museum was organized so that it went in chronological order. It was extremely interesting, and I would definitely call it a success.

That night, we decided to head to a fort where we could see Barcelona during the sunset. It was an amazing sight to see. Walking down the mountain, we were looking for a huge water show that only happened on the weekends. It seemed like a perfect end to our days in Barcelona. Unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties so they had to stop. We waited a while, but ended up leaving. It wasn't a perfect ending to the trip, but we all had a ton of fun!

Until next time.

Week 10: 19/07/10 - 22/07/10

This weekend, I went to Barcelona, so I put that weekend in a seperate post.

19/07/10 - Work went well. For class, we skyped with someone who's basically a social media expert. It was interesting to see how there are so many ways you can analyze something like Twitter. After, we went to the BBC center. It was the same that I went to at 4:00 in the morning earlier in the summer. They do tours of the facilities, but they didn't know a lot about the operations. Being journalists, we were asking questions that they weren't prepared for, and that was rather unfortuate. The tour wasn't that great because they couldn't answer pretty basic questions. Oh well, I'm glad that a few of us were able to go and watch a newscast take place and talk to a presenter. That was much more informational.

20-21/07/10 - Work, work, work! Though nothing changes from day to day, I'm starting to realize how much I'm going to miss it. It's gotten more interesting lately because people who were working on the World Cup were starting to come back.

22/07/10 - Class was really interesting today. We got to talk about the infamous Margeret Thatcher. I'd heard a little bit about her and had a bad feeling about her. Our class basically confirmed that. She was a tough cookie, which I definitely respect her for, but her policies were terrible. Our professor said that you either love her or you hate her. It's definitely the later for me. After we talked about Thatcher, we talked about the Olympics. Before long, class was ending and we were heading to the airport to go to Barcelona for the weekend! After a quick airplane ride, we were landing in Spain! The taxi ride was a little long, but we got to the hostel. The person greeting us was Alexis, and he turned out to be amazing. He was so funny and knew us as the 7 girls. Everyone that worked there knew our group as that. It was going to be a great weekend!

Week 9: 12/07/10 - 18/07/10

12/07/10 - Today's my birthday! I'm no longer a teenager anymore! Whoohoo! I had to go to work today and then we had class, both were weird to do because I usually, if anything, work on my birthday. I've never had class because it's July. Study abroad is just full of knew experiences. After work, class was meeting at another Public Relations firm, Ketchum. It definitely wasn't as interesting as the last PR firm we went to, but it was good to see the differences. After, I went to meet my family for dinner. They were at the Churchill War Rooms, so I met them there and we went to the West End because my class was going to see Mousetrap. It is the longest running play and the play can't be published in London or adapted into film until six months after its last show. Dinner was good, it was nice to see my brother and dad before they left the next day. The play was... interesting. I was sitting with my flatmates and at intermission we guessed how it was going to end. I can't say how, because they said to keep it a secret, and even though it was predictable, I'll respect their request.

13-14/07/10 - Nothing too exciting happened. I worked both days, unfortunately I found out that George Steinbrenner died. As an avid Yankee fan I was sad to not be with other Yankee fans during this time. But on Tuesday, a few of us decided to go to this club that celebrities went to and the Princes used to go to. Aka it was really posh. To top it off, our DJ was Macy Gray. Pretty cool! On Wednesday, Meredith, Mom, and I went to Wicked! I had heard the music, but never saw the musical. I was really excited because I didn't really know what to expect! Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. It was great. Definitely in my top three musicals!

15/07/10 - Happy Birthday Brendon! Sorry I couldn't be there! Work and class, once again, not terribly exciting! I got to eat dinner with my sister and mom for the last time before they went home. It was at a pretty nice Italian place, not quite the same as the French restaurant we went to early in the week which was amazing, but still quite good. I was sad to see them leave, but I would be coming home soon and would see them again soon too.

16/07/10 - Today was exciting. I did a little shopping, but then I went to the Globe with Becky for the performance of King Henry IV Part 1. We originally wanted to see King Henry VIII, but that wasn't showing. We weren't disappointed. It was a really good show. If you were to read the play itself, you wouldn't be impressed, but the acting was superb and made it absolutely hilarious. I wanted to see Part 2, but I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe I'll read it and imagine the actors I saw in Part 1.

17/07/10 - Today, I met up with Becky, Michelle, and Chelsey and we went to lunch at a place called Sketch. It had great food and was pretty posh, but it felt like you were in a Woody Allen movie and on acid. The bathroom had bedazzled toilet seat covers. There were turning doors and mysteriously covered entryways. After lunch, Michelle, Chelsey and I went to Portobello Market. It was cool to walk around Notting Hill. It felt like we were in a different place. There was no sense that you were in a city. It was cool to see the different stalls. I actually found a Les Mis book that was published in 1955. I was really excited to find it, as I had been thinking about getting a copy, but it's cool that it's an older copy... very vintage. We went to the Hummingbird Bakery to get some cupcakes. They were famous, and they were very good.

18/07/10 - Today was a lazy day. Lazy days are so much better in London if I do say so myself!

Until next week

Week 8: 05/07/10 - 11/07/10

05/07/10 - It was an early day today because we had to catch our train at 6:59 a.m. back to London. To be safe, we got to the train station at 5:45 a.m. and ate breakfast at a cafe. At 6, we made our way the dreaded desk to get seats for the train. We were informed that second class was full, so instead of getting seats in the very open first class, we were placed in seats in between the train cars. Yeah, I didn't know those seats existed. After we got through customs, the officer said welcome back to Britain. I wanted to cry. I didn't, but I never felt so excited to be back somewhere! We tried to get as much sleep away from the questioning eyes of the other passengers and I literally wanted to cry again. I learned that I loved London so much that I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to react when I got back to the states.

We hit rush hour in the tube, but I didn't care. I was focused on getting back to Edgware Road to our flat and to my bed before we met for class at 11. We were visiting Fleishman Hillard, a Public Relations company. Seeing as I was debating switching from Broadcast to Strategic Communications, this was really important for me to get to, even though I had so little sleep the night before! After dragging myself out of bed, Meg and I headed to met the rest of class at Fleishman Hillard. We sat through a couple of presentations that each of the departments put together. Though they were very long, they were interesting and confirmed to me that I want to go into Strat Comm! We headed back to CAPA to meet up with someone who is part of the newspaper complaint committee. They basically make sure that the newspapers are following certain rules, especially privacy ones, when it comes to the people in the stories.

When we got home, I started on a list for things to do with the family this weekend! There's so much that I wanted to get done with them and that I wanted to see myself. It was getting stressful deciding what to do on each of the three full days I had with everyone!

06/07/10 - Internship day! Not much happened today.

07/07/10 - Today was the Five year anniversary of the London bombings. I didn't realize that one of the bombs that went off was at the tube stop that I use almost everyday. It was pretty crazy to realize that one of the bombs went off there. No one in our group knew that, so they were pretty shocked to find that out too.

After the internship, I went to meet my family for dinner. They had just gotten in, so they were pretty tired. It was great to see them, even though they were pretty out of it.

08/07/10 - Internship and then class! We got to go to the East End for a walking tour. It was really interesting to hear about the way the area developed with immigrants moving in. It's a pretty hip place to be - we saw where Keira Knightly lives, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately we didn't see her.

09/07/10 - Shopping! Whoohoo! I met my family for a full English breakfast near their apartment. After, we headed to Harrods to hit up their sale. It was ending on Sunday, so we had to go. Everyone was in awe of it. I don't blame them, every time I went it was pretty shocking. We slowly made our way through, and ended up getting my birthday present there. After, we went to Lillywhites for the boys. It was kind of a disappointment because there was very little selection. While we were in the Piccadilly area, we went to Her Majesty's Theatre to get tickets for Phantom of the Opera. We got them for Saturday night. I was really excited because I wanted to see it really badly while I was here, and it was perfect that everyone else did too!

10/07/10 - Today was full of sightseeing. We started early, meeting at the London Bridge and heading to Borough Market. I thought it would be a good for everyone to see a London market. I absolutely love Borough, and we were going to be in the area, so it was perfect. We headed to the Globe for a tour. Though it isn't the original, the history that they discussed about Shakespeare and the Globe was really interesting. After, we went to the other side of the river to go to Westminster Abbey. Outside of the Abbey was crazy. There were so many people around it was stressful. Once we got into the Abbey, it was easy. We got audio guides that took us around the entire Abbey, it told us the history of each crypt we saw, who the person was, etc. The church was extremely impressive and was so historic. It was huge and amazing.

After a quick lunch, we headed to the Tower of London. I was particularly excited to see the Crown Jewels. What can a girl do? When we got to the Tower, we were in time for a Yeomen tour. They're the guards of the Tower and actually live inside of the Tower. The guide that we had was really great. He was absolutely hilarious, but was really informative. He told us about the entire complex, the different towers, the famous ones and stories about people who were executed on Tower hill. After, we headed straight to where the Jewels were being held. There was video playing of the Queen's coronation and during the ceremony it showed the different Jewels being used and described them. We finally got to the main part and I was incredibly impressed. I found my engagement ring. Just kidding. But what was really intriguing was that some of the Jewels were missing because they were in use. I assumed that it was because the Queen had opened Parliament not too long before and was doing some Queenly duties, but I don't know. Very mysterious. After the Crown Jewels, we went into the chapel on the grounds to sit down for a bit. It wasn't huge, but it had some memorials to people and was cool to look around in. After, we went to the White Tower. It held suits of armour that were owned by past monarchs and it was cool to explore.

We were a little close on time, so I went back to the flat while my family went to their place to get ready for the Phantom later that night. It was an amazing performance. My favorite musical is still Les Miserables, but this was a very close second.

11/07/10 - The last full day with the family and today we were meeting at the British Museum. It is apparently the oldest museum in the world, and it was huge. After two hours, we made little progress so we decided to cut to the chase and go straight to the Rosetta Stone. I didn't realize how big it is, but it's definitely impressive! Eventually, we got out and went to meet Becky for tea at the Orangery. I was really excited about it because I loved it so much when I went with my flatmates. And because they're in England, they had to experience cream tea. I think that they enjoyed it. It's an interesting experience, but it was really great. After the Orangery, we went to the Kensington Palace to see the Enchanted exhibit. They had taken away all of Princess Diana's dresses because they were doing work on the Palace, but the exhibit was really cool. Each of the rooms were connected to seven princesses that lived in the Palace. The other rooms were decorated with some sort of theme. One had just one chair in the center and if you sat in it, you were supposed to feel powerful. For some reason, I did feel a little more powerful. After a long day, I headed back to the flat with Becky and I watched the World Cup final with the flatmates.

Until next week

Week 7: 02/07/10 - 04/07/10

I decided to put this trip as one post, as there is a lot that happened during the weekend and it would be unfortunate to break it up.

02/07/10 - It was an early morning to get to the train. We got up just after 4 and got to Kings Cross/ St. Pancras and our train left at 6:30ish. Though it was really early, we were both excited to ride through the Chunnel (a personal goal of mine, I'm not really sure why, but ever since I saw Mission Impossible I've wanted to go on it) and go to a really random place to visit. We got a decent amount of sleep in on the train which was much needed, but as soon as we pulled into the train station, I knew it was going to be a shock.

The shock came slowly. At first it was partially masked by excitement. Then it got worse as we made our way through the station. I realized that they spoke French and Flemish in Belgium, but for some reason, it didn't really hit me until we got there. But it wasn't just the language, it was the whole environment. For the first time this summer, I realized that London and England are not really Europe. They're a separate entity. It's part of the mindset, but it's really striking comparing the differences between Brussels and London. I gained a huge appreciation for London that day.

We weren't going to be able to drop off our stuff off at the flat until 1:00 and it was around 10:00, so we decided to walk around and see some of the sites. We went to Gran Plas, basically a huge plaza with cool old buildings. After, we had to get a waffle at a place called Elisabeth. It was amazing. It was fresh and hot with chocolate and fresh strawberries on it. Definitely the best I've ever had and probably the best in all of Brussels. We then went to the only working brewery in Brussels. It was cool to walk around and see how making beer works. Their beer is different because it ferments spontaneously and they don't add yeast to it. It tastes sour, but it's pretty good. And it was nice to sit down for a bit because we did a lot of walking.

After, we headed out to the inferno to find the mysterious frites that Belgium is famous for. I got a suggestion to go to a specific place that was award winning, so we searched for them high and low... and we found them! They were absolutely delicious and we got so many of them for a serving, I couldn't eat all of them! When we done with our frites, it was time to continue our trek and meet Becky's friends who are from Belgium. They were really nice and showed us to the very famous statute of the boy peeing. I'm not kidding. They like to dress him up too.

By the time that we visited Gran Plas a second time, it was time for us to meet up with Becky's friends from Mizzou who were giving us a place to stay in for the weekend. It was such a long day and we were going to go to Brugge in the morning that we both crashed.

03/07/10 - Brugge!!! I was so excited to see more of Belgium and just discover what it had to offer. We didn't have any idea of what it had to offer, but we were going to find out. We were planning on getting up early so that we could get a free train ride, but unfortunately I forgot to change the time on my phone, our alarm, and we woke up an hour later than we anticipated. In a way I'm glad, because we were both dead tired.

When we made it there, it was much cooler and a little rainy. It was like we were back home in England! After getting to the center of town, we walked to try and find the canal tours that they have. It was really cool because there were so many old buildings lining the canal. They call Brugge - Venice of the North, and from what I've heard about Venice, I think Brugge is better. It doesn't smell.

After our canal adventure, it was raining a little harder so we decided to try and find a place to eat along the canal. There were lots of options that we saw on the boat ride, but we didn't end up finding any. We did find a nice restaurant that had some outdoor seating (with a awning so we didn't get wet) and looked out to the quaint little plaza. Becky ordered mussels and frites, a specialty and so I had to try mussels for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised at how good they were, but I really enjoyed my salmon pasta. Delicious!

After a successful lunch, we wanted to find the carriage rides that passed by while we were eating. On the way, we had to stop by a chocolate shop. It claimed to be the best in Brugge, where the chocolate is even better than Brussels. There were lots of tempting options, but we stuck with a sampler box.

Finding the carriages was a task, and after a lot of searching and asking, we went to the plaza where we started. We had a great guide who told us about the old buildings that we passed and our horse was great. It definitely made up for the one we lacked in Kent. We also found out that the chocolate we got was, in fact, very good from the guide who lived in Brugge.

After our ride, we went back to a Plaza we passed that was Burg Plas... I insisted that Becky had to get a picture with the sign! It was lined with really old buildings that were used for the government, including one that was built in the 9th century.

We made our way back to the main Plaza to take pictures and climb the tower to see over Brugge. Unfortunately, the 366 step tower was closed so we didn't get to work off any of the delicious food we ate! Our substitute? Visiting a very fancy chocolate shop we saw earlier in the day. They were so good that they had cleats (football cleats) along with jersey's and footballs made of chocolate. I was tempted to get one, but I decided against and got two pieces that one worker suggested. One was milk chocolate and carmel. The carmel literally poured out of the chocolate. The other was just as delicious. It was a hazelnut chocolate (no actual nuts in it, so all the better!) but was so creamy and perfect I wanted more! I resisted, but they were very good!

Becky and I were both so exhausted that we fell asleep the moment we found seats on the train. They like to overbook, so for a part of the trip, we sat in the entrance of the car until enough people left there were seats available.

04/07/10 - Happy Fourth of July! To celebrate the joyous occasion, Becky and two girls who we stayed with went to where the Tour de France would end. I didn't realize that the Tour went through other countries besides France, but I was not going to give up an opportunity to see it even if we weren't in France! It was reported that this was going to be Lance Armstrong's last Tour, so, being the sports fan I am... this was even more of a reason to go! I was also able to write a story on Mark Cavendish, a British sprinter who is trying to win the green jersey (given to the best sprinter of the Tour) so seeing him in action would be great too!

It was an extremely sunny day, but with the wind it was beautiful. We got to see the Atomium, basically a huge silver structure that looked... well... it's hard to explain! Here's a link to the picture. We walked around the festivities for a bit, looking for souvenirs. Slowly we made our way to the finish line to get as close as we could to the barricade. We eventually found a really great spot and reserved it. I ended up going to find a shirt and bottle of water because it was very sunny and without the wind, hot. Eventually, floats made by the sponsors of the Tour started to come, which meant the team cars were starting to come. It started to get really exciting, even though it was one of the first stages of the race. The riders came whizzing by, so quick we didn't know if we saw anyone famous. Becky got brilliant pictures and as they started going by, we saw Lance Armstrong and I could have sworn I saw Mark Cavendish who I was able to interview not too long ago! As soon as they came, they were gone, so we headed back to the tube to go back to the flat, grab our bags and head to the train!

When we headed to the train, we realized that it left earlier than we expected. Thank goodness we left in plenty of time! It still got us a little frazzled, so we ran to the departure gate. As we got to where Eurostar's terminal was, we saw a couple going through right before us, feet away. When we got to the entrance, one of the workers was closing it, so even more perfect! We just beat it! Apparently not. She directed us to the desk (we had 10 minutes to spare) where they informed us that we were too late. "No more Americans allowed," they told us. As this went one, both Becky and I were getting upset. I looked at her and saw that she looked like she was going to cry, and then she looked me and saw the exact same thing. So out of strategy and pure frustration, we both started to cry. The one guy who was being an arse left, so one of the ladies was able to give us comp tickets for the next morning at 6:59 a.m.

When we left the counter, there were no words to describe the frustration we felt. We walked out of the station to a random, dirty, concrete block and just sat down. Neither of us could form a full sentence for at least a half an hour. The only consolation was that there was a crazy, drunk person running around the entrance and I realized that life could have been worse. After offer up our first born child to our Brussels hosts, we headed back to their flat to crash and get some sleep before our early departure the next morning.

Week 7: 27/06/10 - 01/07/10

27/06/10 - I can honestly say that I don't remember what I did today except watch England get pounded by Germany. It was terrible. I seriously felt sorry for the English because they got so destroyed. I could feel the English hopes get squashed around me, and it wasn't fun to experience, that's for sure.

28/06/10 - We had a day off from work and class today, so Meg, Becky and I decided we wanted to get out of London and explore the county of Kent. Specifically, we really wanted to go and check out Groombridge Place where parts of Pride and Prejudice were filmed. A cheap train ride in the morning, we were at Tunbridge Wells. We had to navigate the transportation system to get us outside of the entrance to Groombridge. Thankfully, the bus stop literally dropped us feet away from the drive. We were actually between counties: Kent and East Sussex. That was kind of cool.

We were very excited to see the house where the Bennetts lived in the movie. We all love that film, but Meg was particularly excited. We walked for a few minutes and then we started to get a glimpse through the trees. It was so beautiful and just like what is in the movie. I felt like Keira Knightly running through the field to the house, minus the running and add a lot of heat. It was incredibly hot and sunny, but we didn't notice. After taking pictures of the front of the house, we moved to uncover the famous gardens the house boasts. We weren't disappointed. They were picturesque and I now know what I want my garden to look like. They put most gardens to shame. It was really indescribably how beautiful those gardens were. And they had a gigantic chess board! It was pretty perfect.

After our fascination with the home was filled (at least mostly, we had to tear Meg away) we went to find a place where we could ride horses. We were going for the full Pride and Prejudice effect. Unfortunately, Kent is fit for the English who want to bring their own horses to ride, not to rent and then ride. We were successful in finding a place to park your horse trailer though, just in case you want to know.

Giving up on our dream to ride through the countryside, we decided to get some of the touristy stuff done in London. We visited the oldest wine bar in the city, got dripped on by stalactites that were forming in the cellar, but it was so cool to see all of the old wine and the decorations. Their walls were full of headlines and clippings from the past who knows how many years. Needless to say, the Queen looks a lot younger than how she looks now.

After a quick pop in, we headed to the London Eye. We got 10 % off by booking online and we timed it so we would see the sunset while on the ride. It was pretty brilliant. Very touristy, except at night (that's when you should go) and the view was spectacular. You could see everything in London. I'm pretty sure we found where we are living. It was definitely worth the price!

29-30/06/10 - Internship!

01/07/10 - First of all, I can't believe that it's July. Secondly... we had class today. Third, I can't wait for tomorrow because Becky and I are going to Brussels for the weekend! I've never even thought of Belgium as a place to visit, but Becky has friends in Brussels on the Mizzou program there, so that meant a free bed! I'm all about getting stuff for free. Unfortunately, it was a long night because we were packing and getting ready and even more unfortunately was the time we had to get up the next morning.

Week 6: 20/06/10 - 26/06/10

20/06/10 - Today was a rather restful day. It wasn't terribly cold, so after we checked out of the hostel we headed down to the beach. Michelle, Lauren and I fell asleep on the beach but after a while, we needed food. The Brighton pier lacks food that isn't fried, so we had to venture out of a pub and try to find some sort of fresh food. Amazingly, we found a grill not too far away. I never wanted healthy food so much in my life before. The salad bar never looked so good. After a much needed lunch, we met up with the guys at the bus stop, trying to get an earlier bus home. Unfortunately, the bus driver decided to be dumb and not let us on the not full bus. Very lame. Instead, the girls and I headed back to the beach because the sun finally came out and fell asleep again until dinner. At the restaurant we went to, we watched rugby league (which is different from rugby union) and met a Queen's guard who was part of the machine-gun brigade or something. He showed us a picture of himself in full dress and I remembered seeing a group dressed the same way during the parade. Very cool to meet one in real life though! Lauren informed me later that there was a list of the Top 10 bad-asses that you don't know about and the Queen's guards are one of them. Who knew? Needless to say, I'm not sure I want to get my picture by one anymore.

21/06/10 - I got to cover another event today for AP and it was about how the London 2012 Organising Committee announced it's theme for the Open Weekend at the end of July. It marks the count down until the actual Olympics with different events and challenges all over the country for people to participate in. They partnered with Parkour UK, a group that is hard to explain. I'd suggest going to this website to get an idea. I got to talk to the chair of LOCOG and an executive from BP. Pretty intimidating, but it was cool none the less. Before the event even began though, I started talking to some of the press officers that were working for LOCOG. Then, it came to me. I could totally do that. In fact, I want to do that. I would describe the moment like an epiphany. It's not a feeling that I could describe. The sensation is pretty crazy, but after experiencing it, I felt terrified. I know nothing about public relations. Lets just say that my head was reeling with questions to throw at my roommates when I met up with them later in the day. After rushing back from the event, I wrote up my notes and basically had to leave for class. We were meeting at VML, an advertising agency and then were going to go to The Bush House where BBC is. Considering my "epiphany" I was excited to see some strategic communications (which is the major that incorporates public relations in the journalism school) in action. I was mesmerized, mostly by the free gifts, but also the cool factor that the office had. It was a very hip place. I was looking forward to the BBC though, because I had seen one newsroom before, and considering the fact that I just started thinking about switching, I looked at it as a way to reinstate the feeling that broadcast was for me. The tour was disappointing though unfortunately. I learned a lot about being a correspondent in countries that don't have protection for journalists, but I saw no newsroom action, something that I was looking for.

22/06/10 - I didn't go to work today. No, I didn't skip. I didn't lie and say I was sick. I asked for it off. Why? Why a Tuesday? Because it's Wimbledon. One of the first days of Wimbledon. Not only did I get to go with Becky and her friend, but we got to experience an event that basically makes England famous during the summer. Everyone in the sporting world, tennis fan or not, knows about Wimbledon. I mean, the Williams sisters have faced each other around four times in the finals at Wimbledon. That's where Nadal beat Federer to become number 1 in the world. Stuff happens at Wimbledon, every year.

Being the tennis guru that I am (just kidding folks, I actually thought before this that it was one of the most boring sports to watch, thus, didn't pay attention at all) I thought that it would only be natural to go. The only natural thing that happened was the sunburn that I got. Unnatural is normal at Wimbledon. I saw serves go more than 120 mph. That's fast when you're feet away from the person serving. On the court just a hop, skip and a jump away was Serena Williams, and then Nadal. No big deal. The strawberries and cream... also unnaturally good. The queue to get tickets, very unnatural. It was like people were trying to get tickets to a huge football (American) game in the States, people camped out. For tennis?! One more thing that was unnatural about Wimbledon that I've seen: John Isner's three day, eleven hour match. It happened the day after I went, but even I can understand the significance of that feat. Unfortunately, he didn't make it past the second round (who would when there was no skin on their toes because of blisters?).

Needless to say, Wimbledon was an awesome thing to experience, especially because I'm pretty sure I won't go back. I've experienced it. I came, I queued, and I conquered.

23/06/10 - It was painful to go to work today. And it was all because of what happened at Wimbledon. Literally, I blame it on that. I couldn't sleep because I got burnt so badly. It was a burn on top of a healing burn, which was on top of another healing burn. I'm going to be peeling for weeks. It hurt to bend my elbows to work on the computer! Why??? But, I suffered through with the knowledge that later tonight, I'm going to the musical: Les Miserables with my flatmates. What also kept me going was the USA game versus Algeria. At the time, the people working in the department were British, therefore, we watched the England game on the two big screen TV's in the office. Not fair! So, I was shunned to my computer that has no sound, watching it live, but it was really choppy. I was giving my co-workers my own commentary, and I'm pretty sure they thought I was ridiculous. If you've seen me at soccer matches, you'd know why. When Landon Donovan finally scored in the 92nd minute, I literally jumped out of my seat and yelled "YES!!!!" Simultaneous to my scream, my co-workers grabbed their heads and said "NOOOO!" England won, but because the US won, we won the group and they had to face Germany. I then preceeded to do a happy dance and they watched the replay :) That was the highlight of my internship, so I'll move on to later in the day.

I was meeting up with my flatmates in Piccadilly Circus. Why of all places we decided to meet up there is beyond me. To put it into perspective, it's basically the Times Square of London, but a circle, so it doesn't end. But, we found each other, and we headed to get drinks and so I could get changed before the show.

Les Mis is my favorite musical, hands down. I've probably seen it a ton of times (none on Broadway unfortunately, but now I basically have to) and have loved every second of it. What was especially exciting about this performance though was a special guest is playing Marius. Yes, that's right, the Jo-Bros have infiltrated the musical stage. Actually, Nick Jonas, who was playing Marius, started his career play Gavroche on Broadway. I was nervous, if anyone has heard the Jonas Brothers and Les Mis, you'd know why. But I was amazed. He was a little too quiet, but it fit his role. And he was just a really good singer, so props to you tween pop sensation.

I just love that musical so much, and it didn't disappoint. It's definitely up there on my list of highlights of the trip, mainly because that musical is my all time favorite.

24/06/10 - I had another event to go to today, this was a round table with Mark Cavendish. "Cav" as the Brits call him is arguably the best sprinter in cycling. He talked about the very big crash in the Tour de Suisse that people blame on him to what he's looking at for the Tour de France in a few weeks. It was cool being so close to an athlete of that caliber, and I got a great breakfast out of it as well. When I got back to work, I whipped up a story and headed to the Churchill War Rooms for class. I love WWII history, so this was a huge thing, especially because the British love Churchill and WWII is arguably the turning point for British power in the world. But they put their love for Churchill is a huge. I've never seen so much pride put into one person. We have a couple of big heroes: Lincoln, FDR, JFK, etc. They put all of their stake into Churchill. It's a little over kill, but still cool to see his entire life (and death, they showed a video of his funeral) and his contributions to the war effort.

25/06/10 - Because I went to Wimbledon on Tuesday, I offered to work on Friday, my usual day off. It'd definitely a different atmosphere on Fridays. It's very relaxed (I didn't think that was possible) but everyone's tired from the week, so there isn't a lot of chit-chat. One thing that they do have on Fridays that I never knew about (and it's a good thing that I don't normally work on Fridays) is "treats." Someone, probably a gnome of some sort, brings in a sorts of goodies to eat. I had a delicious cookie, and it was a great afternoon pick-me-up.

26/06/10 - In preparation for USA's game against Ghana, Meg and I went to Hyde Park. We walked by the Serpentine and spontaneously, we decided to go paddle-boating for an hour. It was really funny watching the people struggle with row boats. And we're pretty sure we saw a naked man laying out by the lap swim area. As Meg said, you'll never be bored at Hyde Park.

Sports Cafe was our destination for the game because we would be surrounded by fellow Americans. Wearing our American flag as my scarf, we headed about two and a half hours early to make sure we got a table. Thank goodness we did, because a lot of people were depending on us for getting a table.

We all know how the game ended up going, but the atmosphere at Sports Cafe was cool to experience, even though we lost. I was extremely angry (Meg thought I was going to punch someone, or her because she was sitting next to me) but looking back it was fun to see among fellow fans.

Because of the result, I was extremely emotionally spent and was not in the mood to stay out longer. I had a lot of emotion that I needed to let out, so I contemplated a run, but it was really late, so I decided against it. I'm just glad that we got as far and I think it was a great team that took us there.

'Til next week.

Week 5: 13/06/10 - 19/06/10

13/06/10 - Road trip! Off to Oxford where great minds come together in halls that inspired the set directors of Harry Potter. It was a fairly early morning, but because my entire flat decided to go along with another person from our group, it was nice to be able to depend on each other to stay awake. We should have known that it was going to be an interesting day when we got to Paddington train station and there was no specific place to meet up with the rest of the group. Paddington isn't a small station either. It's got the Tube station and the overground train station. It looks like what you would see in Harry Potter almost.

But anyway, about fifteen minutes late, our tour guide shows up without having bought our tickets for the train already. So it makes perfect sense to have about 20 college students up early in the morning to catch a train run through the train station only to miss the train and to blame it on the students. Am I missing something? We had to find a new platform for the new train and of course it was basically packed so we couldn't sit by anyone we knew or like. Becky ended up across the aisle from me sitting next to her twin. Same coat, same purse, enough said.

After a fairly quick train ride, we arrived in Oxford at the train station. I wasn't impressed because there were no buildings that remotely resembled the ones I saw in pictures. Thankfully, my qualms were squashed when we took a short walk to the main street. I think it was the main street. Looking back, I'm not to sure. All I know is that the beautiful buildings were there and very few cars were on the street. We saw the cross that was made from brick in the street a martyr was killed. We made our way down the street and around the different colleges in Oxford University. Random fact: there are 39 colleges in Oxford. Each offer the same educational opportunities. Needless to say while we explored their different "campuses" (I'm not sure how else to describe them) I found my new home. Tuition is 3,000 pounds a year and housing is 4,000 which includes food, a maid service, a single room, ... need I go on? I'm serious about the new school. Mom, if you're reading this, I may actually decided to go to grad school.

Throughout the colleges we saw everything that was brought into Hogwarts. I was in Harry Potter nerd heaven. We saw/walked up the stair case from the first movie where the first years walked up to meet Professor McGonagall. It was awesome. There was so much history with the University and the colleges and so many famous people went there to study. It was pretty inspiring.

14/06/10 - Half day at the internship! Lots of fun still and I'm learning a lot. Today in class we presented out projects that we made about Camden. It was interesting to see what everyone decided to take pictures of.

15/06/10 - Today I was up at 2:00 a.m. to go to the BBC to watch the morning show newscast. I wasn't tired when I got up, probably because it was so early in the morning, but I didn't stay that way. I went with two people from my group and my professor, which was really fun to experience. It was pretty intimidating. The newsroom itself could have fit all of Mizzou's different newsrooms in it. The anchor (my professor compared him to Matt Lauer... the BBC anchor was much better) was so great. He took us around, answered our questions and introduced us to a lot of different people working there. The whole thing was pretty indescribable. I learned so much about journalism and the BBC in general while there, and everyone was really nice! Work was a little difficult because I had already been up for about eight hours. It wasn't as bad as I anticipated, I was probably a little more on edge than normal, but I never felt sleepy!

16/06/10 - Internship was great, once again. It has never failed to impress me with the different stories that come through the wire and what I learn on a daily basis.

17/06/10 - Horse racing never looked so good. Today, my roommate Becky and I went to the Royal Ascot. Some compare it to the Kentucky Derby. I would hardly say it equals anything like that because I don't think the attendance of the Kentucky Derby includes royals. It was a beautiful day to spend relaxing by the race track, and I couldn't wait, even though I know nothing about horse racing. Is it really that hard to understand? It didn't matter, because I just wanted to experience it all. The tradition at such an event is to wear a fabulous hat, even if you are in the cheap seats (like us). I borrowed the biggest flower headband that my friend owned and Becky had a fantastic hat that she got from Harrods. We were flying high. Making our way to the train was half the fun. We got looks, who wouldn't at 8:00 in the morning wearing big hats and nice dresses, but we also got, "are you going to the Ascot?" Yes, yes we are.

Sunny and beautiful, the day couldn't have been more perfect. Deciding to really get into the racing spirit, we tried our hands at a little betting. Our strategy? The coolest name of the horse, from the US, or coolest jockey uniform. Amazingly enough, our strategy proved sound and we made it out just ahead of what we put in! It was fun being able to cheer for something so you weren't just staring at the horses going by. Needless to say, winning bets or not, it was a brilliant day. Being surrounded by people in crazy hats that come from all over the world was a cultural experience in itself. Becky and I ran into two Aussies and we hung out for most of the day. It was fun talking to them and getting to know their culture while experiencing the British and their finest. The British definitely know how to party, and when they're drunk and sunburned, it can get a little crazy. Lets just say the stiff upper lip is long gone.

Returning to the florescent lighting of the tube station, Becky and I realized that we came home with a little more then we bargained for. As my other roommate put it, "I left a human and came back a crustacean." We were burnt to a crisp. It was painful and we had some seriously awkward burn/ hopefully will turn into a tan lines. But, we couldn't focus on that. We were still riding high at our amazing time at the Royal Ascot. We got looks on the way back as well, but it could have easily been from our burns. But because of the stares and questions, we met a guy who went to school in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. Small world. All in all, a great day.

18/06/10 - Today I got to sleep in a bit, but I had some work to do. The game was on at 3:00 p.m. so I needed to be home by then, but I had to prepare to go to Brighton for the weekend. Brighton is a coastal town with beaches and is apparently like the San Fran of England. Except the beach is a rock beach. I'm not sure I'm going to understand it, but we shall see! Our bus left at 5:00, so the seven of us met at a pub near the station to watch the game. We met another American who was on a European tour and just got off of a 22 hour bus ride from Germany. Ew. He was nice, so he joined us watching the game. Frustration wouldn't properly describe how I felt about that game, but I was focused on getting everyone to the bus on time. Thankfully, after tearing people away from the television, we made it. And the bus was a half an hour late. We could have watched the end of the game. Oh well.

We made our way on the coach to Brighton and just talked the entire way. It was pretty gloomy out, but when we got there, we had to explore. We found our hostel first and put on proper clothing for the night and headed out. Brighton is a really cool city and it was going to be a great weekend.

19/06/10 - In an attempt to try and use the beach, Michelle, Lauren and I headed to the beach with a blanket and ready to soak up the sun. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of sun to be had, and we basically froze. We slept, but when we woke up, we were freezing. It wasn't the greatest plan in the world, but eventually a storm was coming in so we decided to walk and get a sweatshirt or something to keep us warm on the pier. After, we went into town. There wasn't much to see, a lot of shops and some cool architecture, but it was nice to keep warm by walking around. The guys were finding places where they wanted to go, so we got ready and met up with them for the night.

Until next week.

Week 4: 06/06/10 - 12/06/10

06/06/10 - Not much happened today. We were all lazy, but apparently the people of Edgware Road did not share our sentiments. After a quick "breakfast" at around 3:00 p.m. we were relaxing in our living room, catching up on what not when we heard a low rumble. Not the usual subway rumble that you hear everytime you enter an old building, definitely a rareity in a place like London, but one that can be experienced if you look out for the opportunity. Anyway, it sounded like voices and lots of them. As the rumble became more coherent, it didn't sound like English. Once you are on Edgware Road, you'd see why it wouldn't sound like English, but those who won't get that opportunity, if you haven't heard me say it before, it's like the Little Middle East of London. Not that I'm opposed, but most inhabitants in our area don't have convos in English. Anyway, the march slowly made it's way past our flat, we could see everything from our window. There were signs and people with megaphones yelling some sort of protest against someone. It was intense, and in Muslim form, all of the men were at the front of the line and the women were at the back. Definitely the first of many marches that I'm sure I'll see while in London where protests are stopped because they don't look pretty and kill the grass. (See stories about the protest infront of Westminster and Parliament. The members didn't want the protest to be there when the Queen opened Parliament because they didn't think she should see it. With Prince Charles as her son and World War Two at the beginning of her rein, I think she's seen worse. Just saying.)

07/06/10 - Half day at the internship, and I get to go to another event! This time, it's about the science behind the World Cup as it's going to be starting on Friday! Anyway, after walking by The Ritz to the venue, I got to meet with the person who helped design the actual ball, a doctor who discussed injuries that were sustained during football matches (there are 2.7 injuries per World Cup football match), a scientist who discussed the affects of altitude, and another scientist who discussed the art of penalty kicks. The latter was interesting because apparently England has a difficult time with succeeding in shoot-outs. After quizzing all of the panel members and getting back to the office, I was told to start writing an article about the science behind a penalty kick. This would be my second article so far, but I didn't think much of it. Needless to say, I found it on ESPN.com, the New York Times website and on Yahoo! News. I was pretty excited, needless to say. Later that day, the rest of my class came to visit AP and got a tour of the newsroom. I'm pretty sure everyone enjoyed it, because people kept telling me that "this is so cool," and "you're so lucky." Yes, yes I am lucky!

08-09/06/10 - After an exciting day yesterday with very little being able to top it, both Tuesday and Wednesday at the internship was just like any other day. I'm still learning a TON about the Associated Press and news in general, and I'm really getting a hand of the digest that I'm basically in charge of. It's cool to say that I'm in charge of something that is important (I think) to the AP. I mean, it's AP, so anything helpful is pretty darn sweet. On Wednesday, I was pretty excited to get done with work, because I signed up with some of my classmates to go on the Jack the Ripper tour. I was intrigued because a) nobody knows who he is, b) he's an infamous killer of prostitutes, and c) I love watching Law and Order: SVU and it sounded like a case that Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson would be all over like white on rice. I was right. I think that I've seen an episode of SVU that was basically like Jack the Ripper in a nutshell... oh wait, that's like all of them. But anyway, I thought it was interesting because East London is still kind of a shady place and that's where good ole' Jack haunted. We started near the wall that seperated East from West and travelled our way to a few of the places that the women were found at (dead, just in case anyone was wondering). It wasn't a typical walking tour because Jack didn't kill in the same area, and nobody knows who he is. They have ideas based on the speed he killed some of his victims (a surgeon) and they had three suspects, but it's one of London's greatest mysteries. Oh, and just to get a good look at his work, here's his last victim's picture. Please excuse the grain-y-ness because they didn't have a Canon camera like this one that's linked.

10/06/10 - Half day of work and class. At work, I basically realized that I was at the epi-center of all things news. It kind of blew my mind a little. Same-ole' same-ole' at the Associated Press sports desk.

11/06/10 - WORLD CUP!!! WORLD CUP!!! WORLD CUP!!! WORLD CUP!!! The World Cup began today. There was a big screen at Trafalgar's Square to watch the opening ceremonies, but I didn't go because I was getting a much needed manicure and pedicure. It's barely a month into the summer and my feet were looking heinous on a good day. I never knew a city could be so hard on someone's feet until now. I don't mind feet that much, but I truly felt bad for the women who had to deal with mine. I'm getting a shiver down my spine just thinking about it. I don't think they looked this badly though. Sitting in the massage chair, feeling like the Queen, I actually thought of the her. It's her birthday this weekend (tomorrow!) and everyone in our flat wants to go to the parade. A lot of our group is out of town, but I would NEVER miss it for the world! And then, BONUS! it's the USA v. England football game :) I'm very excited!

12/06/10 - Up we go into the wild blue yonder that is the sky for the Queen's "birthday" celebration! Birthday is in quotes because her actual birthday is earlier in the year (I've heard from multiple sources multiple dates, so who really knows) but it's always celebrated at the beginning of June. Very few people outside the UK know this, and so, in what should have been proper form, Hilary Clinton sent a birthday letter on the Queen's real birthday to Effie. Oops, major royal party foul. But I don't see why this was a celebration, because it's not like Effie is one to party hard in celebration of anything. She's rarely seen smiling for Christ's sake. But none the less, the British do what they do best, stick to tradition. And so, without fail, all pomp and circumstance was brought out. I've never seen so many red coats and was extremely tempted to yell that the British were coming (by land of course). Alas, I didn't have a latern to light, so I didn't follow through on my wish. What I did do was take around... 250 pictures. I was beaten to a Canon camera pulp by my good old roomie Becky. Her total for the entire weekend (Oxford trip included) was just under 700. Major burn. I selected my favorite 132 to post of facebook. The whole event took around four hours, but it was four hours of amazingness. There were lots and lots of guards that you can distinguish by the very small feather in their very big hat. But we had an amazing place on the barricade. When the Queen went past (notice the lack of a toothy grin), we were about 20 feet away. Before her, Prince William went by. I might have squealed... maybe. There was an amazing fly over that had around 20 planes total. After the celebration, we went to Harrods for a while and then went back to the flat to get ready for the game. Meara, Julianna, and I ended up going to a pub down the street called the Duke of York. In proudly sporting our red, white, and blue regalia, we walked in and were show stopping. Literally. Everyone stopped talking and straight up stared. Walking by one of the tables, I smiled and said hi. The bloke who was staring at me said "Well this is going to be interesting." After some of the awkwardness settled (and by some I mean very little, it was more of just the initial shock, then it was just... still shock) we got drinks and headed up stairs. Turns out all of the Americans were shunned to the second floor to watch the game. We all freaked out a bit when they scored. We also freaked out when one of the owners brought us free hot dogs. We were all freaking out a bit that night.

'Til next week.

Week 3: 30/05/10 - 05/06/10

30/05/10 - Seven of us decided that we wanted to go to St. Paul's for service. I wanted to see the inside of the cathedral, but I didn't want to pay to get in, so going to a service for free was a great option. Before the service, we went to a pub that Adam knew about for a full English breakfast. It had an egg, tomato, chips, Canadian bacon, sausage, mushrooms, and baked beans. I split it with Meg and so it was plenty of food, but a weird combination for breakfast. It was time to go, so we headed to St. Paul's which was just a block away. When we got in, it was truly amazing. The Cathedral was so intricate and huge. It was really incredible to see and experience, even though I'm not Protestant. I took pictures after the service, which I didn't know that you weren't supposed to do, but oh well! Meg and I went to meet Meara, Becky, and Julianna at Harrod's after we left the church. When we got into the megastore, I was in shock. It was a beautiful sight to see. One of the escalator shafts was decorated in a Eygptian theme and it was so intriguing. The clothes and other material items were another thing entirely. We played with one of the puppies in the animal part of the store. After our awesome discovery, we headed to Kensington Palace to meet Julianna (she wasn't able to meet us at Harrod's) for tea at the Orangery. It was in a building just outside of the Palace, and I felt like I was in Pride and Prejudice. We all felt very posh. Even though it was expensive, the tea and food were fantastic. I had chocolate tea with finger sandwiches, a scone, and two small desserts. It was amazing! I'm definitely going back with my family when they come.

31/05/10 - Today was a Bank Holiday, so we didn't have class and I didn't have to go into work. One of my flatmates knew of a curry festival that was ending and had a tasting, so we went to Brick Lane to check it out. It was a very different part of town, but it was cool to see, even though we missed the tasting. We went to an Indian resturaunt that was going to give us 25% off our meal. About an hour and a half later, we knew why. It was apparently very "busy" on the other floor so that's why it took so long to get our food. The curry I had wasn't very good, but by that time I was hungry and just wanted something. They then messed up one of our side orders, so they didn't charge the one that they got right, and we did get the 25% they promised. And it wasn't busy at all on the other level. In fact, I think there was only one table full.

01/06/10 - First day of June, and another full day at the Associated Press. I've been getting the hang of the list of all the stories that are being posted, so it's taken less and less time for me to do it. It wasn't a very exciting day, but that's okay because I wasn't feeling that well.

02/06/10 - Another full day at the internship! I was able to help out with phone calls for stories and the digest. There were a lot of interesting stories that I got to read, so that was cool.

03/06/10 - A half day at the Associated Press, and then to a field class for British Life and Culture. We were talking about Imperial London, and we met at Trafalger's Square. We learned about Nelson's Column, which was dedicated to Nelson, who defeated the French, but died in the winning battle. We took the tube to Hyde Park and walked through it. Unfortunately, we didn't see any of the sites in Hyde Park. We went to the Prince Albert statue and saw all of the places that he helped create. It would have been more interesting, but we had all already seen all of these sites and it was a lot of walking.

04/06/10 - I met up with Erin today to do a little shopping on Oxford Street but also to get our tickets to Paris! I was really excited, but then it was going to be over 300 pounds, and Paris is just not worth that to me if I was only going to be there for two days. I was really sad, but we went to Platform 9 3/4 and that helped! We went to get their bags at the hostel and then come back to the flat and just relax.

Week 2: 23/05/10 - 29/05/10

23/05/10 - We had a slow start today, and didn't get out until 3, I think. But Becky and I were able to go to Hyde Park, which I hadn't been able to see yet. I was pretty excited, because Becky knew about a cafe on the Serpetine that was cool. Walking through the park to the cafe was awesome. It was such a nice day, and it was cool to see all of the people enjoying the day. I was able to discover a lot of the park and relax. I actually fell asleep while reading!

24/05/10 - My first day at my internship and my first day of classes. I got my first assignment for Wednesday, and I'll be covering the torch relay that'll happen before the Olympics! I'm really nervous, but pretty excited. Class was nice because our professor combined the two and talked about what we'd be doing and stuff like that.

25/05/10 - First full day at the internship. It was interesting because I've been trying to learn all of the different aspects of what they do at the Associate Press. They use a system that I've never heard of before, and there is a lot that goes into it. I'm also starting to learn how to create a list of all of the stories for the day. Hopefully I'll be able to pick it up quickly.

26/05/10 - Today is the day! It's the very first assingment I've gotten with the Associated Press. I went straight to the event because it started only a little bit after I would have to go to the office. I was really nervous that I wouldn't be able to find the place, but I just followed some of the reporters. I actually met an Olympic reporter from the Daily Telegraph. She was incredibly nice and I was really exciting when she started to talk about plans that she had for covering the Olympics and it sounds really interesting and I really want to get involved. The event was really cool. There was a gymnastics event that ended with the gymnests forming a torch. I was able to interview the Sports and Olympics Minister and the head of the organizing committee, so the big-wigs of the Olympics!

When I got back to the office, it was just after 1:00, so I wrote it and had my supervisor edit it. One of my co-workers was surprised how fast I was able to write it, but that's the Missouri method for you! Here's a link to the article that was in Yahoo News. But it was also online at USA Today's website.

27/05/10 - I had a half day at work today, and it was the first day of our British Life and Culture class. The class sounds interesting, but we will see. There is a lot of work that our teacher is expecting of us. And we found out that the weekend that almost everyone is traveling, is the Friday that we're sheduled to visit Parliament. We weren't happy with the fact that no one told us before that class to not schedule anything on that Friday because they knew this before we got to London. Our teacher said that she'll try to see if there's a different time we can go, but Parliament tells us when we can come. I'm sad, because that would be really cool to see, but all we can hope for is that we can go a different time.

28/05/10 - Michelle and I went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. It was incredibly crowded with tourists, but we were able to get a decent view because we befriended some British people that were there. I thought that it was really cool, and the guard's band played Sweet Caroline, the theme to Jurassic Park, and I'm a Believer. There wasn't much to the ceremony, so I can see why people think that it's overrated, but it'd something that you have to do while in London. After the ceremony, we wandered around. It was fun because we found the Sherlock Holmes pub where we had spotted dick and chips. Spotted dick is like a raisin cake with pudding. It's interesting and I'm glad that I tried something very British, but I'm not going to have it again. After our snack, we walked along the river towards Parliament and Big Ben. It was cool to see them up close a personal and see different angles on them. We went on the bridge near both sites, so that was cool to see too.

29/05/10 - It was rather raining today, so our flat decided it would be a good museum day. We decided on the Tate Modern. I'm not big into modern art, but I thought it would still be cool to see. When we were trying to find it, we ran across the Borough Market. It had tons of fresh food that we were able to try. There were so many different stalls with delicious looking food. After wandering our way through the market, we went to the Tate. Modern art is definitely different, but I enjoyed the photographs that it displayed. It was very interesting to see.

'Til next week.

22/05/10 - Hipsters

After a fun night, our group decided that we were just going to chill and do whatever our hearts desired. A few of us decided that today would be a perfect day for Camden Market.

Since I work in Camden, I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to flex my directional prowess and show off a bit on my ability to get people places. Ha. That's a good one. It all started when the tube was closed and there was a bunch of confusion on the buses. But oh well. Nothing could distract us from an absolutely gorgeous day outside and lots of cheap buys.

Though I work in Camden and one of my co-workers showed me around a bit, the Camden I saw on the weekdays was not the same as the one on the weekends. It was crazy. I knew on my first day at AP that I would stick out like a sore thumb until I got into the building, but it was even more clear to me today. Seriously, I think people thought I looked crazy. It's not that I looked like a typical tourist. I've started to put effort into what I'm wearing everyday to avoid that, but Camden really slapped me in the face.

Everyone was dressed differently, but they had it really going on. They just looked straight up fabulous. Not in a designer-wearing way, but a "I know exactly what kind of style I like to wear, and I rock it" kind of way. I became uncomfortably aware of the fact that my "style" hear is very plain. It probably looks painful for most people.

But anyway, the walk around the market was pretty incredible. There were so many different kinds of vendors in so many different nooks and crannies that we got lost a couple of times. There is something there for everyone in that market. Whether different tastes in clothing or ready-made food, be prepared to get your mind blown. It was pretty awesome. The best part was, was that there was that diversity of people. Most knew exactly where to go, but others were exploring, just like us.

After we had or fill of the market, we headed back to get ready for the night. The big FA Championship game was on, and all of us were going to a place that was playing the game. My flat was slow, so we watched the game while we were getting ready, but missed the end when we were heading over to the pub.

'Til tomorrow.

21/05/2010 – Day 6 – Rocks and Water

It was an early morning today. We had to meet the bus in front of the CAPA Center at 7:45 am. The problems began with that meeting time and ended when the tube decided to sit for an extra long time at stops before ours. We didn’t leave the tube station until about 7:55, five minutes before we were leaving. It was a good thing that our whole group was all together so we were all late to the bus.

We had the same tour guide, Eric that we had on the city tour. He was really great. Not only did he know so much information about Stonehenge and British history in general, but also he recognized everyone’s need to sleep on the way to Stonehenge.

There’s very little known about Stonehenge except the general time that it was built and the kind of rocks that it’s made out of. The biggest rocks were from about 165 miles away from the actual place, which makes it a real mystery.

After finishing up at Stonehenge, we were on our way to Bath. I didn’t know what to expect at Bath except the fact that the Romans made a bath around a natural hot spring.

The town was amazing. It was all built in Georgian architecture, both new and old buildings. It was really cool being able to explore the city and just mosey around at our leisure. We saw some spectacular houses, including the area that Nicholas Cage has a house in.

But besides that, the small group that I was in (Becky, Adam, and Nick) decided to grab some Cornish pasties. They were like really good hot-pockets and I felt very Harry Potter-ish. Vicious and hungry pigeons that had some serious nerve attacked us while we were eating but then a seagull put them in their place… for about a minute.

We walked around and found a Belgian chocolate shop that had some amazing hot chocolate that Eric told us about. The drink felt like I was drinking straight chocolate that was melted. We split a small cup that was £1.50, but it was almost too much for the four of us.

We all met together again so that we could go into the Roman baths. It was really interesting and so cool that we got to walk on the same floor that was put down almost 2,000 years ago. The audio tour took us through the entire complex and told us the history of why it was made. It was believed that a goddess controlled the water and that it had healing powers. People would put notes into the baths directed at the goddess, and most of them were curses.

It was a pretty long tour, but it was cool seeing the different chambers and the plumbing system that they had. It was hardly modern day stuff, but the pools were still watertight and the drains worked fine.

We had about a three hour bus ride back to London, so everyone took a nap. It was nice because it helped us recuperate from the long day and get us ready for the night.

Becky and I researched places to go, but the cheapest was a place called Fabric and it costs about £11 to get in. Thankfully, people knew of a place called O’Neill’s that we decided to try.

It was jam packed, but tons of fun. The band was really good and played amazing music. We had such a great time dancing the night away.

'Til tomorrow.