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.