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.

20/05/2010 Day 5 – Oxford Street And A Lot Of Walking

After a long and exciting night, we took it easy and had a slow morning. We wanted to see something, so we decided on going to Harrods because that was a must do on all of the girls’ list.

Of course, to get to Harrods, it helps to know where to get off on the tube and which tube line to use. Though we all failed on both of those things, we all found ourselves at Oxford Street. I can’t complain, because Oxford Street is known for it’s shopping. There was an H&M store on every block and the beautiful Topshop that had four floors.

We spent about two and a half hours ogling at all of the amazing things calling to us to buy, but I didn’t give in. Sure, there were plenty of things that I would have totally bought, but I thought that I would definitely come back, especially after I found out what all of the stores had and the super sale in June.

We headed back around 5:30 to get ready for the night, because it was Adam’s birthday. We were all going to a sushi place that Adam found earlier and me and Becky thought it would be great to bring along a cake for him to make it a real birthday celebration.

The night was definitely interesting. We thought that some of the guys knew exactly where we were going, so of course, as girls, we wore awesome heels that were awesomely painful. Walking forever wasn’t added into the outfit equation.

After walking for quite sometime, we went to a pub called The Anchor. It was really cool because it was right on the Thames River and we could see St. Paul’s from the edge.

After dinner and singing Happy Birthday, we spent some time outside the pub talking until it got dark and we headed back. My feet were hurting so badly, I had to walk barefoot. Even though London is the cleanest city I’d ever seen, the bottom of my feet didn’t share the same story. I wasn’t the only one that had to take their shoes off, but it didn’t make it any easier.

After getting back to the apartments, we cut cake and had a bite, but because we were all going to Bath and Stonehenge the next morning (very early in the morning) we went to bed pretty quickly.

'Til tomorrow.

19/05/2010 - Day 4 – Internship!

I was so excited slash nervous for my interview. I decided to leave an hour before my internship and I’m so glad because the tube took about 45 minutes. I did get to go through King’s Cross station (9 and ¾ anyone??) but I didn’t get to see the very famous Harry Potter landmark.

When I got there, I was very lost. Camden Market was across the street from the Associated Press building, but it was very confusing trying to find the building. There was definitely no Oval Road and the Interchange was basically a big steel gate that I slipped through out of chance. There were stairs and I thought that maybe at the top the building I saw was it.

Thankfully, it was. I was about 15 minutes early, but still, I was flustered. I had to have a visitor’s card and all of the employees had swipe cards to access the rest of the building.

My supervisor came down and led me up to the third floor where the sports department was. I didn’t realize that the Associated Press owned the entire building, but it does. The way that the floor was set up was really nice because it had an open floor plan. Though the floor itself was huge, you were able to feel connected with everyone around you. I was introduced to the few sport people that were there. It was a fairly slow day, so one of them showed me the program that they used and also the rest of the office. I also saw the other departments and the TV portion. I didn’t know that AP has it’s own TV station, but I’m definitely going to get involved with that too.

I thought that I was coming in for just an interview, but apparently, they didn’t think so. I stayed until about 5:30, but I didn’t do much. I was able to write a brief about how the Queen is going to come to Wimbledon. Unfortunately, it wasn’t published because it had already gone to the press the night before.

When I left, Camden Market was starting to close down. It looked really interesting, so hopefully I’ll be able to come back.

The group decided that we wanted to explore the town. One person in our group heard of a place called Walkabout, so we decided to check it out. Needless to say, I think that everyone that came had a blast.

'Til tomorrow.

18/05/2010 - Day 3: London – The First Official Day

Today was so awesome. We decided that it was the first “official” day because we finally were able to go and see the big sites that make London, London. My flatmates Becky and Meg and I started the day off fairly early because we decided the night before that we wanted to go to the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum before we met to go on a city tour.

We thought that both of these places would be good to visit because they were the closest sites to the CAPA Center. When we got off of the tube, it was obvious that we were in the French part of town. We saw the French school and consulate on the way to the museums. We knew that we got to the Natural History Museum when we saw it.

It was incredible. The sheer size of the museum was impressive. It took up several blocks, but the architecture was so intricate and interesting. And there was a bonus; both museums are free!

The first hall in the Natural History Museum was huge. Inside was a grand staircase and stain glass and then the bones of a dinosaur. We started to wander, not having much direction, but eventually, we found our selves in the green zone. This zone was dedicated to the Earth. It talked about pollution, natural disasters and other stuff like that. The really awesome part of the museum was a part where there was an escalator that went through the Earth and there were constellations and other planets along the wall and leading to the escalator there were statues that represented different parts of the Earth.

We realized after that this part was the Science Museum. We then moved to the V&A. This museum had something for everyone. The way it was set up was pretty confusing, but the building was just as huge as the Natural History Museum. On the outside walls though, there were holes that were made from the Blitz. They left the holes there to commemorate what happened during World War Two.

As I said before, it was kind of confusing navigating all of the wings, but there was art and textiles from 300 AD to modern times. It was very extensive to say the least.

We realized that we only had a little time to spare before we had to meet up with the rest of the group for the city tour, so we headed out to the CAPA Center. Along the way, we stopped at an amazing French bakery. Lets just say that I plan to go back!

But the city tour was truly awesome. We saw the Natural History and V&A Museum again, but we saw the statue dedicated to Prince Albert and found out that the reason that South Kensington and that area is the way that it is, is because of Prince Albert. He wanted people to have the ability to get education from classical music that they could listen to for free and be able to have access to things that privilege people take advantage of.

After that, we drove into the actual City of London. The City of London is just over one square mile and the other city is the City of Westminster. The entire city of London (including Westminster) there is 32 boroughs. New York is 1 city and has only 5 boroughs. Just saying.

But anyway, as we made our way into the real city of London, we drove by Harrods, the most famous department store in the nation, and in my humble opinion, the world. We also drove by a hotel that if you got a certain room, it was £4,000 a night but you got your own Roles-Royce and a personal butler. We also saw the Ritz Hotel and I’m definitely going to be getting tea there… but you have to have a reservation. We saw where the BBC is and the Australia House which is what Gringotts Bank is based off of in Harry Potter.

From there we went to St. Pauls Cathedral. It cost to get inside the actual Cathedral, but we learned about how the architect fooled the new Anglican Church leaders into letting him do the building with a huge dome. He got King Charles II signature on some design that also stated that the design could be changed if it wasn’t going to work structurally.

We then moved to the South Bank where everyone makes their money (they spend it in the North Bank area). We saw the Tower of London and the London Tower Bridge along with the London Eye (huge Farris wheel) and Parliament. Of course, this means that we saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. On the lawn near the church, there was a huge protest going on that was anti-capitalism, so we saw some action to say the least.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the guards of Buckingham Palace or really any part of the Palace on the tour. It’s pretty difficult to get into the area where it’s at with a huge bus, but it was still cool to see a guard and parts of the Palace.

At the end of the tour, we found out that our guide was going to show us around Stonehenge and Bath on Friday. He was really great, so I’m very excited to go on the trip with everyone!

Tomorrow is going to be my interview at the Associated Press. I hope that it goes well, so keep your fingers crossed!

'Til tomorrow.

17/05/2010 - Day 2: London - Survival

It’s the end of the first full day in London, and I absolutely love the city. We were able to get into parts of London, but it was only around the CAPA Center because it was orientations all day. After a late night last night, it was hard to get up this morning, but somehow managed and my flat was able to get to the center successfully.

The orientation was long, and most of the information was pretty much common sense, but it was definitely good to have, just in case we forgot how to survive. Random survival fact though: Brits are 7% more likely to die in an emergency than Americans. Why? Because Brits’ queue etiquette. Example: The Titanic. More British people died because they waited in line to get on lifeboats while Americans pushed to the front. This is all according to our program advisors. Sadly, I think that it made everyone feel a little bit better.

But besides having to survive in the real world, I was trying to survive during orientation. I was ridiculously tired, but thankfully I found out later that everyone I was with was in the same boat. What helped was the awesome officer that came to “scare” us. Sergeant Paul was great. He was quick and to the point and made us laugh. Near the end, he said something so fast that we all stared blankly at him. Apparently it was something along the lines of “have you called your banks” but because of our reaction, he repeated it nice and slowly for us.

When we took a break for lunch, our group decided to make our way to Kensington High Street. It borders part of Hyde Park and has some awesome shopping too. But since food was on our minds, we meandered through the residential area looking for Kensington High Street trying to find a good food place. After our group split up, one half going to what looked like a French bakery/café, my group tried to find Kingston High Street on our own. We failed and ended up pouncing on a couple walking by. They pointed us into the right direction and we headed that way. Once we got there, there were plenty of choices, but we decided on the Goat Tavern.

After a delicious chicken and bacon sandwich on a baguette and with only five minutes to spare, we headed back to the CAPA Center. Along the way, we decided that the chances of at least one member of our group was going to be hit by a car were very high. Surprisingly not because of the driving on different directions, but because of the lack of walk/don’t walk signs off of busy roads.

We were about fifteen minutes late from going the wrong direction on Cromwell Road, but we were back to orientation, this time about our internships. Once again, it was kind of important, but fairly obvious information. I did figure out where the closest tube station is to AP, and I’ll have to go through King’s Cross (Platform 9 ¾ anyone??) if I take the tube. Tomorrow, I plan to time how long it takes to get to the internship on the tube and the bus, because just looking at the map, a bus or even walking looks faster.

Before dinner, we had about a two-hour break. Becky (my roommate) and I headed to the flat because there is a Carphone Warehouse near there and we were starting to get desperate for a phone. I wanted to go to the Apple Store that was on Regent’s, but there wasn’t a lot of time to go and clean up before dinner. My Internet didn’t work for the first few days so this is a late post because it took me until Tuesday to get it fixed.

But anyway, my flat and I headed (late) to the dinner, which was at Co Co Mo Mo Café near CAPA. We met the students who were here from Columbus State University (in Georgia) who are here for 3 ½ weeks. They’re theatre majors and are really nice and apparently have better accommodations than we do. I didn’t see them today, but other people on the trip did and convinced me to become part of their riot (just kidding).

After a long two days, everyone in the flat decided to stay in tonight even though some people were going to go out on the town. They’ll just have to show us around later this week and the weekend. I really want to be awake for the Panoramic tour of the city tomorrow. I can’t wait to see all of the sites that make London, London.

'Til tomorrow.

Cheers

It's amazing. I'm officially here in London. It took a good amount of time to get to this point, but hey, it took a while to get another post up too.
There were a few monumental things that happened today (and technically last night). First, I slept on the plane over. I did have some help from expired sleep aids and fairly bad movie choices, but still. My family can attest to the fact that I'm a terrible traveler. And this is probably the first time that I've been able to sleep for even a little bit on a plane. It's definitely helping minimize the jet-leg affect that I'm starting to feel at 8:00 p.m. in good ole' England. Random side note, they use military time, so I might reference it. I want to learn it, but we'll see. Also, 8:00 p.m. (20:00) in London isn't the same as 8:00 p.m. in the states. The amount of light that is still out at this time is crazy.
But anyway, the second miraculous thing that happened today was that nothing went wrong with traveling. I have never had something like that happen before. Granted, there are still 3 months for something to go seriously wrong, but touch on wood (as they say).
Trying to stay awake to minimize jet-leg, the majority of our group headed for the first bus taking us to our flats. Since there's been so many changes with where we'd be living, I had no idea where our apartments would be in the city. Needless to say, there's no Big Ben outside my window, but Madame Tussaud's is close and the view is nice.
After getting grocery's and failing to get a phone (the place was closed... on a Sunday? I don't get it), my flatmates and I started trying to figure out what to do.
After getting a suggestion from other people on the trip, we headed to Windsor Castle. A Thai restaurant, so I had fried rice. We sat at the table permently reserved for the Handlebar Mustache Club. Around the table, there were pictures up to the ceiling fan of members and gatherings that they have had.
The food was good, and it was great getting to know all of my new flatmates and the many different people that joined us throughout our stay at the Windsor.
Though very tired, I have had a great first day in London, and can see that it's going to be an awesome eleven weeks.
'Til tomorrow!