ITALIAN ADVENTUREEEE

SATURDAY

Left PC at 1pm and went to Victoria to meet Haley. We took the Gatwick express with a shitload of luggage to the airport, where I stored my giant suitcase until I leave Monday morning. Haley and I were hilarious trying to move around Victoria station with all of our crap – a porter told me there was NO way my bag was going to get on the plane because it probably weighed 90 pounds. For a guy who lifts things for a living, he wasn’t very accurate. It was 70. We went over to EasyJet to find that we had to pay 9 pounds per extra kilo to take our bags on because they were too heavy. We got to Rome, got our bags, went through customs, and got the train to central Rome, where we took a taxi from a guy b/c he was the only one around. He told us it would be 30 euro, which we thought was a little steep , but agreed. We had to stop at an ATM, so he charged us 40, then screwed us b/c Sharday gave him a 20 and he pretended she gave him a 5. What a jerk. Our hostel is really nice though, we went to dinner at a good restaurant down the street, then came back and waited for Courtney to get here before we went to sleep.

SUNDAY

We got breakfast from Bernardo, the front desk guy’s intern, at 8am, and barely remember eating it. Chocolate croissants and orange juice. We slept in until like 1030 then got up and got ready to go sightseeing, doing the ”Ceasar Shuffle” in our travel book. We started with a tour of the Coliseum, and learned all about the marble it was made of (our tour guide was obsessed with marble) and the gladiators that used to fight there. We then went on to the Roman Forum, where we had a great tour guide named Fi. She was hilarious and told us all about the religious, political, and cultural info about the Forum. She told us about a tour on Monday of Vatican City, which we decided to go on. After, we went to a restaurant by the Pantheon suggested by Rick Steves in his book, and he was there! Ate great pizza and had the owner’s special “sexy wine” and bruschetta (best tomatoes I’ve ever had, and that’s saying a lot), then went to the Pantheon, then got gelato and came home to nap, after stopping to get 4 bottles of wine and stopping at a Best Western to have them open the bottles for us. Woke up and drank wine and ate cheese before getting yelled at for being too loud and going to bed again. A cheap and hilarious night, great way to bond with the girls.

MONDAY

Did the Vatican today. Went to St. Peter’s Square, toured St. Peter’s Basilica, the biggest and most ornate church in the world, which was incredible. We saw everything (pictures on Facebook!!) from the statues and the altar over where St. Peter is buried to the place where you get confession and the mummies of famous popes. We had a pizza lunch at a VERY touristy café (everything was overpriced) and went on to the Vatican Museum to see incredible statues and paintings – they have the best collection in the world. There’s a tapestry gallery, which Fi hoped would make us all appreciate tapestries more. Each one was commissioned by Raphael and sketched by him, then sent to Austria to be stitched because there weren’t any weavers in Italy. It’s amazing that they all turned out considering there was so little international travel and communication back then. Also, the paintings go chronologically and show the different stages of Italian art; we saw realism and things commissioned especially by the church to make the saints seem perfect. We then saw the Sistine Chapel; totally incredible. The only bad thing was that photos and talking aren’t allowed, but it’s not enforced at all. It would have been a lot cooler if it had been silent and people were just appreciating it. But the paintings were AMAZING. It took Michelangelo 4 years on his back to paint them all; down one side is the life of Moses, and down the other side is the life of Jesus. The ceiling is of course Genesis, and the painting of God giving life to Adam is as cool as it looks on pictures. Nobody knows what gave Michelangelo the idea to paint it like that, since nowhere in the Bible does it talk about life going into Adam in that way; it says God breathed life into him. An interesting fact is that in the chapel is a painting of a man who walked into the chapel when Michelangelo was finished and said “it’s ok, but there are too many nudes.” Michelangelo got really mad and so painted him in hell, with donkey’s ears, and a snake wrapped around his body. The guy was really mad and went to the Pope about it. The Pope said “Well, if he had painted you in heaven, there’d be something I could do, but even the Pope can’t do anything once you’re in hell.” Nice. It’s raining now, we just stopped and got four more bottles of wine, cheese, and bread for dinner. We’re waiting for it to stop so we can to go the Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps, and hopefully go out!

TUESDAY

Well, it never did stop raining, so we had another night in. Not too bad, we saved a TON of money, and Rome is kind of sketchy at night anyway, we didn’t want to get ripped off again like we did the first night. We got up really early and went to the Trevi fountain, which was really cool, even though it was rainy, then onto the Spanish steps. They were so beautiful, with flowers everywhere, but out of nowhere we got a torrential downpour on us! Totally crappy weather the whole time in Rome, but it was a lot of fun anyway. After it started raining, we ran to McDonald’s. Rick Steves said it was the most lavish McDonald’s in Europe, and he wasn’t kidding. It was the first McDonald’s in Italy, and it had Grecian statues, a salad bar, curly fries, even shrimp cocktail! Crazy. We went home and got our luggage and went to the train station, then took a 4 hour trip to Florence. We got here and lugged all of our stuff to our hostel, only a 10 minute walk, but we have a LOT of stuff, and it’s GORGEOUS! We have a nice little room with four twin beds, murals on the walls, and a great view. We’re right in the center of the city and close to everything. Today, we went to a little market and bought some gifts, then got dinner at a little place with great calzones and got some wine. Tonight, we’re meeting Chad at the train station at 10, then getting ready and going out in Florence! It’s weird, just knowing a guy will be with us makes it seem safer, and Florence is a lot smaller than Rome as well, so we can walk everywhere. Tomorrow, we have reservations to go see the David at noon, then we’re going to a leather market to get presents. Thursday is our big day trip to Pisa, then off to Venice!!!!

WENDESDAY

Last night, we walked to a club called Space Electronics, which was hilarious. We had a great time dancing, and met a ton of Australian people who were doing a semester traveling across Europe hitting 17 countries, which would be really cool. The club closed at 2, and they let us behind the bar to help serve drinks for awhile, then thought better of it. We left when it closed, then Sharday and Chad went in search of kebabs while Haley and I came upstairs and went to bed. Woke up this morning to sun! (finally!) and went to see Michelangelo’s David. The statue was really cool, but we had to pay 10 euro to get in b/c we made a reservation (punished for making a reservation?) – everyone else had to pay 6. After, we went to the leather school of Florence, where I got presents for my sisters and friends, and a belt for Logan with his initials engraved in it. Then we walked around to a market and got a bunch of other cool gifts for people – I got an apron for mom with her name embroidered on it and some Italian writing as well. The weather here was so weird today – it would be incredibly sunny for a few minutes, then downpour, then repeat a million times. We came home after the market and all took naps, then got up and went to dinner. The seafood was great! I got lobster linguine, and we watched the Arsenal/Man U game during dinner. Tonight we’re all just hanging out in our room, because we’re heading off early for a day trip to Pisa!

THURSDAY

Today we got up after sleeping what seemed like FOREVER and went to the train station to go to Pisa! It’s only an hour away, so we grabbed breakfast and ate it on the way. We got to Pisa around 12:30, and went straight to the tower, about a 20 minute walk all the way across the city. When we finally got there, we took the obligatory tourist picture of us trying to hold it up. It really wasn’t leaning as much as I thought it would be. After that, we bought some really cool jewelry from a man who makes bracelets and rings out of utensils – I got a really cool fork one. Sounds really stupid, but it’s beautiful. The man selling them told us about a place where we could rent bike-cars, because we asked if there was anywhere we could rent Vespas. We decided Vespas were much too dangerous for us to be riding around in a foreign country with lots of cars driving around, so we got in the car/bike and rode around the city for half an hour! It was hilarious – Chad and Haley in the front like our parents, and Sharday, Courtney, and I in the back. After that, we got lunch at a little café (pizza and pasta, natch) and soaked up the sun that FINALLY came out all day today. We walked the 20 minutes back to the train station and grabbed a train home with about 100 scouts. Just got back to Florence for our last night here, and we’re hanging out for a little bit before we go to the park to hang out, then out to dinner!

FRIDAY

Wow, Venice is INCREDIBLE! We got up really early and all went to the train station to go to Venice. The train ride wasn’t bad, I slept a lot, but I woke up to the guy next to me TAKING A PICTURE of me while I slept! Creepy. It took forever at the train station trying to figure out tickets and luggage (of which we had a LOT). We finally got a water taxi (incredible, again.) and met Erin at our stop. Our hostel was perfect, again. We couldn’t have asked for more in hostels on this trip. It was right on a canal with gondoliers and people taking pictures, and a gorgeous bridge. We got settled, and immediately went out to explore. We had a great lunch at a little café, and I had the BEST salmon pasta. Wine was flowing, I was with my great friends, it couldn’t have been better. After, we took a gondola ride of course, and it was so worth it. We went through all the small canals, and saw both Marco Polo and Casanova’s houses, I took a TON of pictures, but feel bad because they could never compare to the real thing. We are all completely and utterly out of money, so for dinner, we all made it together. It was so cute, kind of what you picture a hostel to be. We all cooked pasta with pesto and had wine, and sat around a big table talking and laughing, it was perfect! That night, we went out to a bar and had traditional Venetian “spritz” to drink, then went to a dance club. We didn’t stay for long, because we lacked funds to get anything else to drink, so we went home around 1am to our gross bunk beds.

SATURDAY

Woke up to another gorgeous morning in Venice (80 degrees and sunny) and got ready after packing. We had nutella and jam on toast for breakfast at the hostel, then headed outside into the sunshine. We had lunch at a little pizzeria, then just browsed the markets and side streets for a few hours before we had to head to the bus stop to go to Marco Polo airport. I was told that the wheels on my suitcase only have about “a week left in them” and the strap on my carry on broke. I think it’s time to come home J. It was sad to say goodbye to Haley and Courtney, who are flying home from Rome, but I’ll get to see them this summer at least. Erin is a lifesaver, and let me stay with her in her new flat for a few nights until I fly out, saving me from having to get a hostel room. She also took some pounds out of my suitcase before leaving Venice, saving me from paying an overweight fee. Love her J She got hired on from her internship for the summer, which is really exciting. We’re just in her beautiful flat now, which is fabulous and is in Chelsea. We’re going to watch a movie (her, Chad, and I) and then hit the sack. Tomorrow will be nice and relaxing, I think we’re going to walk along the river, then maybe go and lay in Hyde Park all afternoon. I will miss this city so much – I don’t even know what to think when I think about the fact that I’ll be home in a day. Anyway, I’m sure you’re all tired of reading, but on the plane home I’m going to write a “final thoughts of London” blog and sum up everything! Stay tuned! Love you all!

QUOTES FROM ITALY:

“Why are our beds so close together?”

“I don’t like that joke, but I’ll have some wine”

“I have sharday up my nose and it really hurts”

“This is like the Titanic”

“Sometimes my brain looks at things, and then I say them”

“Nrrrrrr…hey that table is a door!”

“That lemon is nnnnnnnnnnnnnn”

“I had a dream that I bought a journal, and inside was an aquarium with a fish and a scorpion”

“I would really like to buy a journal, but I have no intelligent thoughts to put in it”

“Hey, four is better than…nevermind”

“How would drums have helped us in that situation?”

How can it be almost over?

WOW haven't written in forever. Last week seemed very short - our last day of work was uneventful, but bittersweet. I spent the better part of my week in that office, and it was sad to say goodbye to the girls, but I had a huge smile on my face when I walked out the door. After work, Elizabeth and I went for enchiladas with Faisal and his friend, then since it was already 11 met our roommates at a bar and had a great time together - our last going out together as hosuemates :( Friday, we went on a field trip around London with our marketing professor, then to a pub wtih him and his wife. After, Elizabeth and I went to Stella to collect our free things, which turned out to be only 2 things from a rack of Adidas stuff, but still cool that I got some free running gear with Stella's name on it!

Friday night, we went to a really cool club on a rooftop aptly named "Rooftop Gardens" on High Street Kensington b/c they were having an event - everyone there was super old though, so we left and went to O'Neils and had a GREAT time. On our way there, Kristin tripped and fell up the escalator, which ended wtih she and I spending half an hour in the tube station control room getting her bandaged up. I asked if we could rewind the security tapes and watch it again, while Kristin assured the man that she was "totally fine - I haven't felt that toe in like two months anyway." Elizabeth and I caught the night bus home (my first time - lazy me) from the bar and it dropped us off right near our house!

Saturday, we did homework and stuff most of the day, then the girls went to a pub together at night and split some Cuban punch and snacks before heading home and having an early night because we all had to get up and study for finals. Sunday, Kaitlin, Adrienne, Eugenia, and I went to the Flower Market. SOOO gorgeous and smelled great, then had lunch at a French cafe nearby. Came home and did a lot of paper writing, then went for a kebab for dinner with Adrienne. The guy behind the counter goes "you guys are still here? I thought you left already. You come your last day here and I'll take care of you." Kind of sad when the guy at the kebab shop knows everyone in your house huh? They should SO open one at home though - here there's one on every corner and they're unbelievable. Worked on a presentation for today most of Sunday night - one of our group members kinda fell off the radar, and she had written a huge chunk of our paper. We were scrambling for it, so we all took a part and rewrote it, sending her millions of emails and calls, only to find out this morning that she got hit while on a bike last weekend at her parents house in the country had had been in and out of consciousness for hte last week. Talk about feeling like a bad person. We told her no worries, if she did the final edit on the paper then she'd still get credit for doing her part. Life's too short ya know?

Today, I had my oral exam, kind of like defending my thesis for my dissertation, then had a presentation in my IHRM class, which went pretty well. After, all of the IU kids (we're all in the same class) went to a pub (notice a trend in my life here? my poor liver) and got some dinner, because some of the boys are leaving wednesday for a monthlong European adventure, so I wont see them until the fall. So strange that I wont bel iving with these people after this weekend. I packed today! One suitcase to store,a nd one to take to Italy. My room is naked, and it's weird and slightly depressing.

Saturday morning, we set off for Italy!!!!!!!!!1 Rome for 3 days, Florence for 3, and Venice for 2. Then it's home to see all of my friends and family! i'm getting SO excited to see everyone. Miss and love you!

34 page paper? check!

Sorry it's been so long since I've written, but I've been so busy writing my internship dissertation. This weekend I didn't do much; Thursday night I went out with the boys and their friends from home to O'Neils bar, and Friday and Saturday I watched movies with Bita and Audrey all night. Yesterday I went to Mass with the boys for Easter; it was very interesting. Morracas, tambourines, all kinds of stuff.

After Mass, I went over to Redcliffe and had a big cookout with the kids in their "backyard" for Easter, and we had cake for Vanessa's birthday. Then I came back here and worked on my paper a little bit, and talked to Logan before going to bed. Today, same old same old, but it's finally a pretty day again. Just got back from a run in Hyde Park, gorgeous, and am finishing my paper so I can just be done with it! I think I want to print an extra copy of my paper, just so I can burn it and feel the satisfaction. :)

Tonight, just more of the same. One more paper and a final left to go, so I'm going to get started on the paper. My last obligation is a week from Wednesday; my Marketing final, and immediately after I'm going to the Chelsea game!!! A ton of people are going, and it'll be such a great way to end the semster together, especially if they win.

Love you all! Happy Easter!

A 12 Hour Day

Worked for 12 hours today and just got home, but I MET STELLA! She was very nice, and super cool. We got to wear her clothes for an event tonight, a VIP thing for her best customers. Was super busy all day getting a million sendouts ready, and helping Imogen finish a bunch of stuff before she heads to Dubai on holiday. It was also a very destructive day; I broke the office digital camera and Elizabeth was wearing Stella jeans during the event and knelt down and ripped a huge hole in the knee. Nice - one point for the Americans. We're getting a lot of help from everyone with our papers though; they're happy to give us anything they know, which is great. ONly 5 more days of work, and 2 of them are half days! I can't believe how soon I'll be home.

In other news, I GOT AN INTERNSHIP! With News American Marketing in Chicago for hte summer. I'll be in the sales department, not sure doing exactly what, but I'm SO excited. Gotta go make dinner, get my class schedule in order, etc etc. Love you all!

"I'll have a coke light...with gas"

Title referring to the way they ask you how you want your water in Prague...with or without gas? What a perfect perfect weekend. Every single minute of it was fun. We stayed with Caitlin, who is Erin and Haley's roommate in Bloomington and studying there, which was nice because not only did we not have to pay for a hostel, but we got a personal tourguide for the weekend. We got up at 3am on Friday to take a taxi to the coach station to go to the airport, and finally arrived in Prague around 9am ready to rock n roll. Caitlin met us at the airport with tram passes for the weekend and we headed to her dorm, dropped off our stuff and hit the town. First we went to a really cool little cafe called the hanging cup, it's a tradition in Prague to buy two cups of coffee, and leave the second on the table for a homeless person to get to drink. Then we went to Prague castle and saw the changing of the guard. We walked along Charles bridge and shopped a little - there were a bunch of artists painting on the bridge. Then we went into Old Town, where they were having the Easter celebration - they have it for a whole month. There are handmade crafts, LOTS of food, and games for kids. We hung out there for awhile and watched the enormous crowd of Greek men dressed in football jerseys singing songs. Very cool to see people get so passionate about a sport. It's like American football on steroids. we walked to a really cool park with peacocks, huge ponds, and a wall made of dripped concrete that has secret faces built into it. THen we went to see the "peeing men," a statue by a famous contemporary artist of two men peeing. We sat at a cafe and had coffee and just people watched. People from all over the world got a kick out of the statues, and it was so funny to see their reactions. Then we followed a Hare Krshna parade down the street, which was really funny, and hung out around the bridge to watch the sun set. We took a short nap before going to dinner at a place called Beer Factory, where there's a keg under every table and huge taps for everyone. We met the boys who live in my flat there, and had a great time. There were kids from all over the world, and we talked to a bunch of Germans and Italians, and Brits who loved that we were studying in LOndon. After that we went to a club called Lucerna, which was having an 80s and 90s dance party. I, of course, was all over that. We left pretty late, and got Czech sausages before heading home. Saturday we got up and went to Bohemia Bagal, an American bagel place. It was so funny, it was just like being in Bloomington - everyone in there was American. We went shopping for a little bit, and I got another stein for dad and a present for Chris and Neil's newborn baby boy. Then, we took a boat cruise down the river becuase it was a GORGEOUS day. We saw a woman get proposed to! It was so romantic. After, we went shopping again for a little bit, and then rented a paddle boat and took it around the river at sunset because we couldn't get enough of the weather. It's like all of Europe suddenly decided to be sunny and awesome. We went home to shwoer and get ready, and went to an amazing vegetarian restaurant. I didn't think I liked hummus or grape leaves or things like that, but we got a great Mediterranean plate for an appetizer, then pasta (duh) for my main course. After dinner, we went downstairs to the club that was under the restaurant. It was hilarious - I have never seen so many interesting outfits in my life. Great people-watching. we met some Irish guys and talked to them for awhile, then danced our butts off the rest of the night. We stayed really late and the party was still going strong when we left. We got a cab home, and Haley, Erin and I shared a twin bed because Caitlin's roommate came back from Vienna early to see Obama speak in Prague this morning. There are hilarious pictures of us all snuggling. I couldn't believe how cheap Prague was - SO refreshing after living in London. Different currency too - they're in the EU but they used crowns instead of the euro - it's about 20 to 1 to the US dollar, so it was hilarious to have a 1000 crown note in your hand, feeling really rich even though it was only fifty bucks. Also, I never knew what a difference it made that London banned smoking indoors. My eyes hurt so bad whenever we went inside because of all of the smoke, and my hair still smells like it - glad it is banned at home too it makes such a difference. We flew home and were delayed b/c Airforce One was ahead of us on the runway, which was pretty cool, then got the Gatwick Express and caught the tube home. Now I'm just unpacking and catching up on things - only 2 more weeks of work and 3 more weeks in London - I can't believe it. Love and miss you all!

Obama came to town

All kinds of excitement in London today as Obama got here for the G20 Summit. There were all kinds of protests in and around London all day, and some of hte tube stations were closed. There were protesters dressed in weird costumes on the tube too, scary stuff. It was eerie to walk past the Ritz hotel and see all of the windows boarded up as a precaution, and the STella store closed at one becuase we are on the route they were planning to march, and they thought our windows might get smashed. THe Rolls Royce dealership down the street emptied all of its cars, and the restaurants adn pubs near work all closed at one also for safety. So far though, I havent heard of much damage being done - most of it was peaceful protesting, and all violence I've read about was directed toward the police officers barrcading the protesters from getting too close to bankers and other professionals as they walked into work. We were all discussing this morning if the "riots" came to Stella, we'd all head down to the archive and take cover under magazines and use the new Fall stillettos to protect ourselves. Our boss Imogen said she'd be like, "step away from the Plexi heel!!!" Also, our water was out all day in the office today; luckily Elizabeth and I got to leave at 12:30 for class, but they were stuck until at least 3 before it could be fixed. They should have just closed our office too, but Stephane is coming tomorrow so God forbid everything isn't perfect when he gets here :/ But on to better things..

I'm about to sound really spoiled, but there really aren't many things better than taking a run in the spring in Hyde Park in the evening. It was like my legs wouldn't stop going because they wanted to soak it all in. There are daffodils everywhere, and dogs, and people jogging and relaxing; it's perfect. I went on a run, then ran to the grocery to get my dinner, and it made for a great evening. Now, though, I have to continue work on my 30 page dissertation that is due in 2 weeks on PR in Fashion, ugh. Also, i'm heading to Prague on Friday morning! Can't wait to see what it's like there, but it's my last trip of hte semester before we're done with classes :( Then it's work, finals, and off to Italy for a week, then HOME!!!! Can't wait to see everyone I miss you all!

Wales: Adventurrrrrreeee

Just returned from Wales - when they called it an adventure weekend they sure as hell weren't kidding. Friday, because of traffic it took us almost 9 hours to get to Wales, so we just checked into our hostel, ate dinner, and hung out inside before going to bed. Our hostel was in the middle of nowhere, and up a tiny hill, it's a small miracle that our giant bus made it there without doing too much damage to the surrounding area. The only thing we did was knock down a fence, that Chad nicely said was the mountain lion pen to scare everyone :) It was pitch black all around the hostel, so I wasn't about to venture out in the dark, even if it was an adventure weekend. Friday night, we all just played cards and had a few beers, then went to bed early in anticipation for Saturday.

Saturday morning, we woke up early and hit the trail. We went to an outdoors adventure company, and split into two groups. My group sea kayaked in the morning, and it was such an arm workout. The wind was blowing really hard, and it was freezing, so we wore wetsuits and windbreakers and paddled around, even stopping in a lagoon to play polo! Nearly everyone tipped over into the freezing water because the boats were so little and unstable, and we got out a few times to go on "fun runs" to keep ourselves warm. Needless to say, when we came in after 3 hours, we were ready for lunch. After lunch, we layered up and went rock climbing in an old slate quarry! It's heyday was in the 1860s when it produced nearly all of hte world's slate, and stopped operating in the 60s, but rock climbers still come all the time. We put on helmets, harnesses, and started climbing with our guides teaching us how to tie proper knots and feed rope to people climbing. We also went down into a huge hole made by so much dynamite blasting and explored down there for awhile. After a few hours of this, it was time to head back. We were all exhausted and hungry; we took showers and had spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner, then all just laid around for awhile and went to bed early. Today was the best part.

This morning, we got REALLY layered up. By this, I mean I was wearing: 3 pairs of socks under hiking boots, 5 shirts including a sweatshirt, my northface, a windbreaker, and 2 pairs of pants, sunglasses, a hat, and thermal gloves, all of which were taken off and re-applied at various times of the day. We set off at about 9:30 int he morning up the mountain; it was 7000 meters high, so as you can imagine it took us awhile to get to the top. It was one of hte most physically demanding things I've ever done. When we got to the top, there was a little bit of snow and ice, the wind was blowing about 40 mph, and it was freezing. We ate lunch in a little manmade shelter out of rocks, then set off again. The views wer INCREDIBLE; some of hte most beautiful I've ever seen. It was like the last scene in the Sound of Music; you could see for miles and miles, and it was such a clear and beautiful day. We made our way halfway back down, then up a smaller mountain, then slightly down again before heading all the way down a few more miles back to the camp. THe whole thing was 10 kilometers and took us about 6 hours. Talk about exhausted. And, there were sheep EVERYWHERE. They just graze free, then at sheering time the farmers just each round up their own based on the markings. Every muscle in my body hurts. On the way back (a 5 hours trip this time, luckily) we stopped at a rest stop and we all got KFC for dinner. I got to the end of my drink, thinking there was ice in the bottom, only to open the lid and find the NOZZLE of the diet pepsi dispenser int he bottom of the cup. I took it up to the counter, and the girl laughed and said "oh yea, I was wondering where that went. Do you want another one or something?" Lovely. Chad and I, to end the adventure weekend on a proper note, then played shoot-em-up arcade games for awhile, which I proved to be rubbish at. I killed the wrong people on numerous occasions. Now back at home, and about to head to bed - can't wait to get a good night's sleep, but have to get geared up for the week - Stephane is in the office all week, so it should be very itneresting - lots of stories to tell I'm sure. Love and miss you all!

Due to a massive infestation of cockroaches, troubador has closed

That would be a reference to the small club/bar we tried to go to last night near Redcliffe. We've been there a lot, and it's always fun and cheaper, which is a plus. It was hilarious. The rest of the sign said "hopefully we can kill them all by MOnday and re-open" Not exactly great for marketing :)

This was the best weekend ever. I met the boys at the airport, and we came back here and I showed them around the neighborhood and we went for a pub lunch of fish and chips at the Champion, which they loved. It's totally stereotypical London, which was perfect. After that, we came back here and took naps because they were tired from their other travels, which was fine with me because I had gotten up early to go get them. Thursday night we went to Pizza Express (the London version) for dinner, which was really good, then hung out here and had some beer before meeting up with all of the other kids at a club called Roxy. It was great for Logan and LUke to get to meet all of the kids in the program, and we had a great time.

Friday morning we got up and had a nice big breakfast, the three of us then watched LOST which was so fun - they get to see how I have to watch all of my shows while I'm here. Then, we went touring. We went up in the London EYe, walked around Westminster, saw Big Ben, then got a personal tour of Parliament from Chad, which was great for the boys to see. The best part was going out on the terrace, where normally only members of Parliament and people who work in Parliament get to go, and had a beer! It's right on the Thames, and it was a beautiful day (we couldn't have had better weather all weekend). Made for a perfect afternoon. After that, we came home and went to Gourmet Burger for lunch/dinner, and got ready to go out with everyone. We wanted to beat the 10:30 cover, so we all rushed to get to O'Neils, a bar/club. We were there for 4 hours! It felt like 15 minutes though, we were having so much fun. Everyone loved Logan and Luke, and we all had a great time. We grabbed a cab home, and got dropped off one tube stop away, my new trick to save 5 pounds.

Saturday was Beatles Day! We went and saw Abbey Road, Saville Row where the rooftop concert was, and where JOhn met Yoko, which is next to where Jimi Hendrix played his first gig in England. After that, we ran home to get our Chelsea jerseys, ate fish and chips AGAIN and Champion (best food EVER) and went over to Chelsea to watch the game. We found a really cool place that was actually showing the game, full of true Chelsea fans. There's something very satisfying about being handed two pints from a guy wtih no teeth calling you "me love" and hearing old men scream "Come on CHELS!!!!" We had a great time, and even though Chelsea lost (1-0, devastating) it was so so cool to be there.

We got to go to the stadium after, which was really neat to see, and almost got the best picture ever of LOgan but my stupid camera of course died right before. It was a picture of the team with a blank space and a chair for people to be part of hte team picture. Oh well. Then we rushed home so Logan and I could get ready for dinner.

Last night was the best ever. We went to Gaucho, an Argentinian steak place that dad had taken me when he was here. It is literally in the shadow of Tower Bridge, the most unbelievable view I've ever seen. We had a really long dinner, and nearly forgot to eat (yes, me) because we were talking so much. Perfect, perfect night :)

This morning we got up a little after 5 (horrible) and went down to the tube station, only to find that the stupid thing was closed, so the boys couldn't take the tube to Heathrow. We convinced a cab driver to give them a discount, so it ended up costing them about 20 pounds each, which is pretty steep, but not unheard of. Plus, then they weren't late and went straight to the terminal. I was in a bad mood all morning, sad that Logan left, but it's so great that I only have a few weeks until I get to see him again! It was the best present ever, him coming here, and made it so much easier to cut the time we are apart in half.

Time to go finish a paper and get ready for the week! Love you all!

if I would have fallen through the floor just now, I would have squished a Beatle

So, today was kind of a big day at the office. PAUL WAS THERE!!!!! I didn't see him, of course, but he was 2 floors below me! Some of hte girls in the office saw him and flipped out. AND, I got to go to Stella's house, 2 blocks from mine, to deliver 5 bags of clothing for a dinner party tonight and interview tomorrow for her to choose from. I got to stand in her sitting room and talk to her nanny, and heard her kids playing upstairs! (Wow, that last one sounded stalker-ish).

Other than that, just a super busy day at work, with deliveries, send outs, you name it. And it's St. Patrick's Day!!! so we're going to an Irish pub in a little bit to have a few beers with our friends. Can't wait! AND Logan gets here Thursday morning! I took off work and opted to work two other half days to make up for it so I can show the boys around the city.

Love and miss you all!

Barcelona: The Most Perfect Weekend Ever

WOW! Best weekend ever. The boys, I found out, barely made their flight at O'Hare, and apparently home-aloned it to the gate, but it's all funny because they made it! Andrea, me, and our new friend Nick (went to high school with Logan and LUke) toured all day Friday, seeing the Sagrada Familia, Parque Guell, and other stuff before meeting up with our friend Steve for lunch (one of the best things I've ever eaten - kebabs in a dark little alley) - and waiting for Logan and Luke to arrive. I got so antsy and excited I couldn't sit still, but we waited at a cafe and each had a beer, becuase we had no way to contact them. Then I saw them, totally and utterly freaked out and tackled Logan, and didn't stop smiling for the rest of the weekend.

Friday night we went to see a fountain water show downtown, then went to a little bar for tapas before heading back to the hostel to change and get ready to go out. Our hostel was in an INCREDIBLE location - right in the middle of everything. We went to a bar, then thought about going into a nearby famous club called opium, but it was only free to get in until 2:30 and we just missed the deadline (nobody even eats dinner until 10pm in Spain) so we walked down to the beach and walked around and stuff (rough life) before grabbing a cab back to the hostel.

Saturday morning, we got up and went to a market and walked down Las Ramblas, an awesome street with performers and people dressed up everywhere, that turns "a wee bit dodgy" at night, but was incredible during the day. Fresh fish out of the Mediteranean, allk inds of fruits and juices, anything you could imagine. We bought some fruit and some beer (naturally) and headed to the beach for hte afternoon, where my skin thought it had gone to heaven. Not too much sunlight here in old London Town, at least not like that. Even took a dip in the Mediterranean!

After the beach, we all went back to the hostel and took naps, before getting ready for dinner - we went to a great little place and everybody just an entree and we all shared. We also got a pitcher of Sangria (delicious). After, we went to a place called the Dow Jones, which is a bar designed to (obviouslY) be liek the stock market. The drink prices are all listed like stocks are on Wall Street, and they continually change. A few times a night, the "stock market crashes" and everything gets really cheap, and everyone runs up to the bar waving money like on Wall Street. It was really cool to see, although we all agreed we could make it was more fun if we ran one in Bloomington. After, we went to the oldest bar in Barcelona for awhile. It was SO smokey - not illegal like it is in London and at home. On our way home, Luke got, well, solicited, which was interesting. We immediately walked away and went home, thens tayed up talking til about 5, knowing full well we had to get up at 9 to check out. Oh well, only young once! :)

Sunday morning we got up and checked out of our room, putting all of our stuff in the luggage room so we could go out and explore some more. We went to an outdoor cafe for breakfast, another unbelievably gorgeous day, then took a trolley up to the top of the mountain (Barcelona is conveniently situated between the mountains and the ocean) and walked around, actually it was more like a hike that Luke led us on, making Indiana Jones references the entire way up of course. The view was incredible - you could see all of Barcelona all the way to the ocean, and we had a great outdoor lunch up at the top before heading back, becuase Andrea, Tessi, and I all had planes to catch.

Logan made me a GREAT CD with songs that remind him of us, me, and stuff he thought I'd like with explanations of it all; definitely one of hte best gifts I've ever gotten, it was so thoughtful. And Sara made me a really cool calendar-like countdown until I come home with pictures of me and my friends for each day so I can get excited to see everyone again! Can't believe it's gone so fast - I've been here over two months!

Incredible city, but I was glad the boys were there wtih us, as it gets kind of sketchy at night. I can see why so many people have told me that they've gotten robbed while there. I just never took much out with me and stuck close to Logan. Couldn't have planned a better weekend though - and absolutely can't believe he came all the way to Europe to see me. I"m already counting down until he gets to London (Thursday morning!!!!!!!!) Saturday we've been dating for two years, scary stuff, but it was so fun to get to experience Barcelona with him, and be with him on his first trip to Europe!

Andrea and I sat at the airport for about 3 hours before our flight took off, and slept in a big heap with all of our luggage. I'm sure we were quite the sight. I went native Spain and ate, of all things, a hot dog for dinner. Gross, but it was the only thing I could get quickly :) Made it all the way to my house from Heathrow in an hour via the tube, a feat in itself, and went to bed so I could get up early to work on a presentation I had today (we did great!) Thats all to report now, stay tuned!

The Department of Horrible

So, a little passport trouble turned into a LOT of passport trouble, and I've been freaking out all day, but thank God it's finally being overnighted to Logan so he can fly out tomorrow. Stressful. Anyway, I'm glad I didn't have to call up the Dept. of State and whisper adamantly to them about how they should do their jobs better (just now getting my voice back).

On to happier things. After self-diagnosing myself with meningitis, the flu, and mono, then actually having tonsillitis, I think I'm going to hang up my stethoscope for awhile. And maybe get some placebos, because apparently I'm also a hypochondriac. Work's been cool because I haven't had to do anything hard. No voice = no phone, no callbacks, no answering the door, no deliveries :)

Class tonight was interesting on state welfare systems. Our teachers are SO smart, and love to get us debating. My teacher said I made a "valiant effort" for not having a voice. Now, I'm just about to go to bed. I've packed for Barcelona, got everything in order with Andrea, who is my travel buddy, and just need to get work over with tomorrow and stuff before we leave! it's supposed to be 70 and sunny! No posts until Sunday night when I get back, stuffed full of paella, sun-soaked (compared to here) and smiling!

All Quiet on the British Front

It's kind of nice not having a voice. For example, I can pretend to be listening to people, then blame my voice on not responding :) Just kidding, but it has been funny seeing people try to communicate wtih me all day. Usually, they just end up whispering too, which is really funny to watch their voices get lower and lower and lower.

Nothing really new to report; on the mend for sure (yayyy drugs!) and getting SO excited to see Logan. He's having a bit of passport trouble at the moment, but keep your fingers crossed it all works out. He's due to get to Barcelona Friday afternoon.

Happy birthday to mom! Yesterday was her AND Barbie's 50th birthday. Too bad I wasn't there to drink wine with her, but it's not like my throat could have handled it anyway. I've been wondering - why do they give the giant horse pills to people with TONSILLITIS? The name implies that it very well might be hard for us to swallow anything, like water, much less giant sized pills. Ugh, if only I ruled the world :)

Work is good, everyone feels bad for me so I don't have to do deliveries or anything, which is kind of nice. Found out today that we get to go into one of hte archive rooms at the end and pick 3 things we want! I think it'll all end up being Adidas stuff, she has a collaborative thing wtih them, but still really expensive and actually stuff I'll use. Her Paris show was yesterday and apparently it went very well. I personally wasn't floored by teh collection, but her stuff is never groundbreaking - that's what's nice about it I guess. Most of it is totally wearable by "regular" people.

Amy got her license yesterday, beware to anyone going near 275 for the next few months. So scary. I still think of her as a 6 year old. I'm just busy thinking of things to do when the boys get here and packing and laundry and getting better! Logan and I's 2 year anniversary (gasp!) is when he's here, which is convenient :) I got 12 hours of sleep last night, and think that definitely made a difference in my healing process. It's ten and I'm definitely going to bed soon.

Half an Hour in Paris

Well, I did actually go to Paris this weekend, technically, but started not feeling well right away. I was really achy after about 20 minutes of touring, so went back to our hostel to take a nap, which turned into a 7 hour sleep fest. I had a really bad sore throat, kept waking up really sweaty (attractive) and couldn't stop coughing. I woke up at 4am on Saturday and decided screw this, I'm not going to sit in a hostel alone and be miserable, I'm going home. I got my money back for Saturday night in the hostel and went home around noon, called a doc, and he came to myhouse with his little black bag (circa 1947). It reminded me of Father Tom. Every time I see him he tells me about how the first 8 kids were all delivered at home in his family, and they all thought that the doctor always brought the baby with him in his black bag. But when grandpa Paul was born, his mom went to the hospital, and they didn't know waht to think!

My doctor was actually from New York, and took one look in my throat and said "you poor thing, can you even swallow?" I have a touch of hte flu and a nasty little case of tonsilitis. He gave me drugs though, and I am now on the mend. So much for the National Heatlh Service, by the way. It's like the IU Health Center. They tend to believe that nobody gets sick except 9-5 monday through Friday. Zero doctor's offices were open yesterday, and I wanted so much just to pop over to St. Elizabeth to Dr. Kelly's office and get some drugs and be done with it. Geez. No voice to speak of, which is kind of funny. My friend Chad came over today and brought me popsicles, Sprite, chicken noodle soup, and crackers becuase I didn't want to leave the house, so so so nice. I actually have a tiny bit of an appetite, so I'm going to eat as much as I can because I have to take my meds with food, and I learned the hard way last night wht happens when you don't eat enough before taking the pill. Yick. All night last night all I wanted was my mommy :(

Anywho, just catching up on massive amounts of Grey's Anatomy, napping intermittantly (spelling? - I just realized how bad I'm getting at it), and getting super excited to see Logan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Still can't believe he's coming - it will be SO nice to cut the time we're apart in half.

Stella's F/W Paris Fashion Week show is tomorrow, so I'm sure everyone that's there is freaking out. Nobody will be in the office tomorrow, so I think I'm going to take another day off and rest and get myself totally better. I just always feel bad when I miss work or school - but I guess it's not like I'm being paid, or even missed. There are so many interns they don't know what to do with us. Besides, I definitely can't answer any phones, people wouldn't even be able to hear me! Maybe not having a voice for awhile will make me a better listener? Something I've been trying to work on.

Love and miss you all!

Stephane!!

HOw could I forget to write about meeting Stephane?!!! He actually wasn't that bad, just in a French accent yelled about getting him a ham and cheese sandwich, carrot juice, etc. He basically just ignored us the entire time he was there. Luckily we got to duck out on time because Sarah was here and Elizabeth had an interview to get to. Also, I SAW STELLA! Just the back of her head and one arm, but still. It's a start. Nothing else really new to report, just catching up on sleep from the weekend and doing some homework in anticipation of hte next few weeks. Paris, Barcelona, then Logan's here, then a million other things. AND research papers, finals, projects, oh my. Not that I'm complaining. I'm here! Hope everything is well with everyone! Sorry it's so short but there's nothing really to say.

PS- got an invitation to the Chloe friends and fmaily sale on Thursday and CAN'T WAIT!

Fat Kid Moments

I've decided to compile a list of our best "fat kid moments" of the trip, becuase most of them are from Kristin, and they're all hilarious.

1. Kristin finding onions and ketchup in her boots the morning after eating a hot dog
2. Haley and I EACH consuming an entire breadbasket and pasta dinner in Scotland because we hadn't eaten all day
3. Kristin, upon hearing that a place didn't have extra large ice creams, ordered a large AND a small
4. Me waking up with peanuts in my bed

**those are the best so far - stay tuned, because Paris is coming up :)

Last night we all just hung around here and went to different pubs. I talked to a gay guy about Stella's new line for about 20 minutse and felt very fashion forward :) TOday, Sarah and I woke up early and went on a Beatles walking tour. It was pretty cheap, and we soon figured out why. Not super great quality. But we did go to Abbey Road, Saville Road, and all the other cool palces and took pictures. THen we went to the GLobe Theater, but found out it costs NINE POUNDS just to get in and look at it! So we left, and went to the Portabello Road market by our house and got the best cupcakes in teh world from Hummingbird Bakery; Red Velvet, yummmmm. TOnight we got a coupon for a cool Italian restaurant nearby, so we're going to go there with some kids in our house, then maybe hit a pub for awhile. I can't ebleiev Sarah already has to leave :(, but it was SO great to have her here, everyone is jealous of me that one of my friends flew all the way here for the weekend to be with me.

"I had to take rhino home"

Last night was, of course, hilarious. We hung out here for a little bit with the kids in our house, then moved on to Redcliffe to meet up with the rest. We all just drank a little there in their "teacher's lounge" in the basement before heading to zoo bar. We knew it's always at least a good time, if not great. Lots of tourists, and they play 80s and 90s music, so we were there. We danced all night, but Elizabeth wanted to go home a little earlier than everyone else (wonder why), so Sarah stayed wtih all the kids in our house and I decided to take her home. We walked outside near one of the busiest parts of London, and could not find a cab to save our lives. We walked everywhere, finally finding one an HOUR later. They all had people in them! It was so sad, but we of course were cracking up the entire time. And since our phones are pieces of crap here, and I'm too lazy to figure out how to send texts, I always just leave up whatever the dictionary gives me and then send it. I texted Chad trying to tell him that "I took SHimma home" (Shimma is waht we call Elizabeth) and instead texting him, "thanks for baring (caring), I had to take rhino home". We all had a good laugh about that one today.

Our friend Kristin, who is always good for a hilarious story, went home by herself last night, and supposedly thought she was in a semi-sketchy area (she wasn't). So in order to "make herself as unattractive as possible so guys wouldn't talk to her", she decided it would be an awesome idea to buy a hot dog and carry it around. She is about 5' 10'' and eats more than all of us put together, and we always talk about her "fat kid" moments. Well, when she woke up this morning and went to put on her boots again, there was ketchup and onions in them!!!!

Today, we got up early and went to "tailgate" for the Chelsea game. It was really fun - seeing the atmosphere around the stadium was incredible. We didn't want to get tickets (they cost about 80 quid) so we went and got jerseys and hung out at a pub. I got Logan and Joey one too! Tonight, we're just going to have a more low-key night, and go to a pub or something. I cna't believe its already Saturday night! Having Sarah here is sooo fun but makes me really homesick. Can't believe she flew all the way here! WE're going to do more touristy stuff tomorrow before she has to go home :(

Tourists!

Sarah's here! Today we did all kinds of touristy things; we went to Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, then on a huge tour of Westminster Abbey, where we saw where all the kings, queens, and famous poets and writers are buried. There was a plaque commemorating it's 900th anniversary. Can you imagine? After that, we went to find a pub and had fish and chips and a pint (it is a Friday in Lent after all :) and then took a long walk along the Thames. Rough life. Also, I was SO excited becuase it was a gorgeous day; really warm and sunny, for Sarah to see.

Then Chad took us on another private tour of Parliament so Sarah and Evan's girlfriend Brittany could see it. It was just as cool the second time, and he wanted to practice b/c his MP is making him give a tour to a bunch of school kids this week. We learned all kinds of new stuff, like that the Lords can't step over a line drawn in front of their chairs, because historically then you'd be in range of the other party's swords. That's where "toeing (towing?) te party line" came from. Also, found out that the first working flushing toilet ever in the whole world is still in Parliament, invented by, get ready, Sir Thomas Crapper. We had a pint on the terrace overlooking the Thames, a place that "regular" people aren't allowed to go!

Tonight, we're having a party for Elizabeth's birthday, and going to Zoo Bar. All the kids in our program that we're friends with are coming with us, so it should be a great time. Love and miss you all!

Haley, Will you start my apple for me?

Title is in reference to the fact that since part of my front tooth is fake, I'm not allowed to bite into apples. Haley "starts" all of my apples for me by taking the first bite. Where was I? After the pub crawl on Friday night, we woke up very early Saturday to tour the Highlands. We first went to a church that had been built by just one man. It was huge! It took him 50 years, and he built it because his mother didn't want to walk all the way to the nearest church. She, of course, died a few years before it was finished. But it was SO beautiful, overlooking a loch. Which one, I'm not sure, because there are so many. After that, we drove through the mountains and went to Loch Ness! Didn't see any monsters, but got some great pictures and enjoyed the scenery. The air is so incredible clean there compared to London we all just wnated to stay and breathe for awhile. We had lunch near the Loch, the worst burger I've ever had, and I even tried haggus! It's traditional Scottish, so I felt like I should. Then I nearly puked. I've never had that reaction to food before, but maybe it was the whole "innards of a sheep's stomach" thing that threw me off.

After that, we went to the Ben NEvis whiskey distillery and saw how they make scottish whiskey. They bring their water in from the mountains, so it has a really distinct taste. Bought dad and Logan a bottle! Later that night we checked into our hostel and just rested for awhile before heading out to get some dinner. Some Scottish people that had met a friend of ours in Barcelona joined us, and we went to a really nice Italian place. They ended up being super obnoxious though, and continued to be loud and annoying the rest of the night. After dinner we went to a pub with live music, which was really cool. You could tell it was a local place, because we were the only people in there that didn't know a ton of hte locals. After that, we went to a younger place that had dance music and stuff, but left after awhile because we had to get up so early and because we were tired of spending a bagillion dollars for one drink.

On Sunday morning we grabbed breakfast at the hostel before checking out, then went to Lock Lomond. The only reason I can remember the name is because it is associated with a really famous song. Two Scottish brothers were jailed in London, and the guards said that only one of them was going to get to live and they had to choose which would die. The younger brother told hte older that he should live, because he had a wife and children to go home to. The older brother agreed, then in the middle of the night slipped the guard a note telling him that the younger brother had been chosen to live. The next morning, they took the younger brother away, and to his surprise they freed him! While in jail before his death, the older brother wrote this song:

You take the high road, and I'll take the low road
And I'll be in SCotland before you
Where me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonny bonny banks of Lock Lomond

In Scotland, to take the "low road" means the spirit road, so obviously he would get there first. Very cool story. After that we went to see Hamish the Highland Cow (yes, there were places for busses to stop and look at a COW) We of course did, and instead of paying for a turnip to feed him, I gave him some of my pistachio nuts. He seemedt o like those just as much.

Finally, before heading back to London, we stopped at the monument to William Wallace. We climbed all the way tot he top of a huge hill where his monument is and took pictures over the city of Stirling, then it was time to get on the bus and head to the train station. The train ride was hilarious, we had 5 hours so we all just goofed around. They double booked our tickets, so we had no seats and eventually got to sit in first class! Got home around 11pm and wrote a paper for my HR class today.

Today a nwe intern started at Stella! We're finally not the babies anymore, and since the archive room is finished and beautiful, we got to do actual work today, which was great. I finally feel like I'm learning stuff. And being in the office all day gives us a much better opportunity to bond with the other girls, whereas in the basement it was just Elizabeth and I all the time.

Time to write a marketing paper, grocery shop, shower, etc! Love you all!

Scotland: THe first, the biggest, the best

That was the mantra of our tour guide all weekend. It was hilarious; everything he talked about was either invented by a Scotsman, or a Scotsman perfected it. He was awesome though, and knew everything there was to know about both Edinburgh where we spent Friday, and hte Highlands, where we spent the rest of the weekend. He wore a kilt the whole time too! WE've herad true Scotsman go commando underneath, but didn't want to ask.

Our hostel in Edinburgh was SO great. Clean, comfy beds, a huge common room, and an awesome view of Edinburgh castle right outside the window! We got there in the pouring rain after a 5 hour trainride on Friday morning, and went on a guided city tour with Mike. We saw where the old gallows used to be and heard about all of the city's most famous, and infamous, inhabitants. One was a dog named Bobby who is one of hte only recipients of the keys to the city because he was so beloved and lived in teh streets after his master died. Also, about how it used to be a gated city and "the smelliest city in London" because of all of the people crammed in. There is a really cool heart shaped monument built into the ground outside of the cathedral too. It's where the prisoners were kept, and they were so often poorly treated that the heart is a reminder to treat people well and to not tolerate cruelty. Everybody is supposed to spit on it when they walk by. We saw Parliament, where the decision was made after SO much fighting to stay away From the English to form the "United Kingdom", statues of Adam Smith, all kinds of stuff. Also at the cathedral, we saw remnants of the punishment for smaller crimes. If it was big, you of course got hanged. But for lesser crimes, you had your ear nailed to the church wall, and you weren't allowed to have anyone help you get it off. People would come by and spit on you until you finally ripped it off of the wall, and there are a ton of rusty nails stuck in the wall still today.

In the afternoon, we went to the National Scottish Museum and walked around for a little bit. We saw the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book, and did some touristy shopping also. Friday night we went on a pub crawl around Edinburgh, which was SO much fun. The boys in our house were also in the city, and met us there. We went to 5 different pubs, and a club at the end. There were some interesting characters to say the least, and I swear I can't understand a word that most Scottish people say, but it was hilarious and we were all together, which is always good for a laugh.

I'll add the rest tomorrow i'm too sleepy :)

Things we learned:
-"Botched job" comes from a Scottish dude named Botch who built a really important bridge, only to have it fall down immediately
-The Campbell's still have the reputation of being the meanest clan in Scotland - there are still some places where they won't let you in the door if your surname is Campbell
-The huge fight scene in Braveheart actually took place around a river, it was really integral to the battle, but isn't shown in the Mel Gibson version
-You have to be really tough to live in Scotland; everyone looked like they could drink you under the table, and the weather nearly always sucks. They were all so nice to us though, and were genuinely interested in everything we had to say.

"I got a little label happy"

WE FINISHED THE ARCHIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pictures to come soon. It is so beautiful, it makes me want to cry to see all of htem agazines lined up so nicely. Need an Italian Vogue from March 2005? No problem, just go to I, then V, then 2005, then March. It's awesome. Our bosses were SO happy wtih us - they didn't imagine it would turn out so well.

After work, I changed and went straight to the Royal Opera House - and found out that I am definitely not an opera person. It was the 7 Deadly Sins, which I thought would be good, and it was horrible. Singing wasn't that great, couldn't hear the voices, the whole thing was just kind of blah. Dissapointing, because I really wanted to be sophisticated London girl who likes the opera. Oh well, I think I'll live. Went to Pizza Express for dinner (here it's a gourmet place - weird huh?) with Haley and Erin, then came home to pack for Scotland!

We are going to have SO much fun in Scotland. We're going to see Loch Ness, having a whiskey tasting on Saturday, all kinds of cool stuff. I'm about 99% sure I'll end up buying a kilt. :) Miss you all - lots of fun stuff to come on Sunday when I get back! If i could fit it, I'd bring my laptop, becuase it's a 4 1/2 hour train ride, but I don't want it to get jacked, so you'll just have to wait.

Love you all!

Real work? Nope, back to the archive

So, I tried to write an entry yesterday (sorry dad) but I guess it didn't post. Sunday I just did boring stuff like grocery shopping and laundry, and went on a HUGE run. Very uncharacteristic of me. Luckily, when I was still really far from home and wanting to stop to walk, one of those lovely surprise London rainstorms began, and it proceeded to rain sideways for the next half an hour, enough to make me want to haul ass home and get a great workout!

Yesterday, we got to actually do real work. We were doing inventory stuff, taking in returns and mailing sendouts, and it felt like a real job! In a gross story, a certain magazine returned dirty lingerie to us. Ewwwww. Today though, it was back to the basement for us. We're making real headway though, and it has to be done by next week because dun dun dun, Stephane is coming next Wednesday. He is basically the boss off of the Devil Wears Prada. I'm not joking. We also packed a HUGE box of stuff for people to wear when they all go to Paris for fashion week in a few weeks. We can't go because we have class, but it'll actually be nice to be in a quiet office, maybe have a chair to sit in? (We currently sit on a backless bench, that is, when we're even in the office and not in the dungeon :)

Just got home to a Valentine's Day package from mom and dad with ranch dressing! Yessss. Haven't been able to find it anywhere here. Also, got chocolates from dad, love you! Tonight I'm going to try and actually do some homework, considering I've done about a minute of it in the last month, I guess I'm due. Am SO excited for Scotland this weekend, and I'm going to the Opera on Thursday! Busy busy busy. Love you all!

Loving on the 'Henge

Friday night was pretty fun, we had to salvage it at the end though because the club we had planned on going to was REALLY expensive to get into. When we decided to get ou tof line and leave, a British girl who was about 7 feet 8 inches came up and accused us "lot" of stealing her phone. When I told her that was ridiculous and that we wouldn't do that, she said "well, you are ridiculous people, and I don't usually have to deal with people like you, but I'm being forced to." She then proceeded to stand creepily near us calling her phone over nad over hoping to hear it in one of our bags. Weird. Wonder what she meant by "people like us?" COllege students? Americans? Normal people? :)

Yesterday we got up reeeally early and went to see Stonehenge and Bath! The trip was about 2 hours to Stonehenge (I slept the whole way). Can you think of anything more romantic to do on valentine's day? We messed around and took a bunch of fun pictures, and of course bought postcards, then hit the road for Bath, where Jane Austen is from and where the Roman baths are. The Roman baths were awesome; thousands of years old and a lot of it is still completely intact. There was a guided audio tour by Bill Bryson, my favorite author, so I was all over that. I got a tile to add to me and my mom's collection too! We collecting tiles from everywhere we travel, then putting them together into a giant mosaic-y type thing. We went to lunch at a little pub and got fish and chips, then walked around until it was time to go. Bath would be one of the coolest places on Earth to live; it's very picturesque, with so much history it's ridiculous.

Finally, it was time to head home. There was no way I was going out, as I had gotten exactly 3 hours of sleep the night before from Haley's birthday. A few of us decided it would be an awesome way to spend Valentine's if we rented Spice World and made dinner. Unfortunately, they didn't have it, so we got Made of Honor (spelled honour on the cover here) and it made us SO excited to go to Scotland next weekend! After the movie I got to talk to Logan for awhile, then went to bed. He's pretty sure he's coming for his spring break, so I can't wait to start planning fun stuff to do with him!

Also, dad came home yesterday! Home with an awesome new heart on Valentine's day (sorry, had to say it.) I can't wait to talk to him and see how he's doing.

Today I have to do usual boring Sunday things (grocery, laundry, etc) and start writing a few papers that are coming due. I literally haven't done more than an hour of reading for homework since I've been here, so I think I can handle it :) Love you all!

Birthdays and Boots

Whew, just got out of a freezing cold shower! All of the bathrooms, with the exception of one, are currently "out of order," so we all have to use the same shower, and I got up too late for the hot water apparently. Today we are going to Parliament! Our friend Chad is interning there, and since he has a pass to get in he can show us some of the parts that the public don't get to see.

Yesterday we finished organizing the archive magazines! The piles are sorted according to country, magazine and date, but of course we found 4 more boxes of magazines when we cleaned the rest of the room out. I felt like a moving company all evening when we were moving like 100 boxes from room to room :) After work I found My Perfect Boots! They're beautiful and perfect and I love them and will wear them everyday :) We then came home and made dinner with everyone - it's kind of a like a sorority this weekend because all of the boys are out of town! Then we got ready and went over to Redcliffe for Evan's birthday celebration. We went to a fun club, lots of 80s and 90s music that we knew all of the words to (Chad and I had a battle to see who could get further into Ice Ice Baby - I won) There were a ton of people that came from a costume party beforehand, so it was hilarious to see Ninja Turtles and fairies running around the dance floor also.

The 5 girls from our house all got a cab home together, and everything was fine until we got home. We were going from Chelsea to our house, a ride we've made a lot of times before, and we knew that it's always around 10 pounds. The meter said nine when we got to the house, and I guess he thought we weren't paying attention, but he turned hte meter off so it was blank and when we gave him a ten pound note, told us that we owed 14. THen told us we were crazy for thinking that such a long ride (it wasn't long) would only be ten pounds and when we told him we weren't going to give him 14 becuase it said nine, he told us to F*** off and get out of his cab. LUckily it was the 5 of us together, and we just laughed it off, but I was really annoyed.

Time to get dressed to go hang out with important decision makers! I hear they have 2 pubs, a drycleaners, and all kinds of cool stuff in there!

"The Special Relationship"

Today had work, class, and class again. At work we read through some magazines and listened to our poor manager get yelled at for daring to send the same dress to two celebrities to try on, because they might both wear them during this awards season. Geesh. After a little while went back down to the basement, and got through the last few boxes of France. Tackling the good old US of A tomorrow and then they're ALL sorted! Only took two weeks :) THen we have to move htem all back into the room, oh joy. It'll be such a sense of accomplishment when it's finished though, weird as it sounds. Again, never thought I'd hear myself say this (see myself type this?) but I am SO tired of magazines!

We found out this morning that the exchange rate has dropped again to 1.43 so we made sure to get money out after work; every little bit helps! After that Eliz and I went over to where our college is and grabbed lunch at a Chipotle type place that was sooo good. A little taste of home. Then went to marketing class, which is always very entertaining. At the beginning of each class, we have to talk about an aspect of marketing that is different from at home. I whined about bagels that come unsliced here, and got made fun of for the way I say baaagel (apparently).

When we got out of class it was super windy and rainy and COLD. Basically, a typical day :) Went to our internship class to find out that the catering staff had forgotten our snacks again, for which our teachers were so angry that they let us out of class a little bit early! We talked about the "special relationship" between Britain and the states, and about how it gets talked about a lot more here than at home, at least to my knowledge.

I was in a very good mood all day because dad's surgery went so well and he's doing great! I gave some money to a homeless guy on the tube because I figured if I can take that much cash out of an ATM and everything, I can give this guy a little money. Got home around 9pm from class and found that our entire street was taped off with police tape! Eventually the cop told us that somebody on our street had a gun or something. (Handguns, etc. are all majorly illegal in England, along with mace, which is a huge crime) Came home and had an awesome dinner; I made ricotta and spinach ravioli with mushrooms and tomatoes on top. Yummmmmm.

About to read some stuff for school and maybe watch a tv show before bed!

And..Back to the Archive

First of all, thank GOD for good doctors. My dad is fine and just got out of surgery. It went textbook well, and he's still asleep but I'm going to call my mom for further updates later.

Yesterday and today we were back down in the archive (surprise surprise). It took us EIGHT hours today to get through the United Kingdom magazines; to sort and organize them by date. Almost done though; I'll feel such a sense of accomplishment to see all of them stacked so nice and neat. I never thought I'd say this, EVER, because I am a crazed magazine fanatic, but if I never saw a magazine again, I totally wouldn't mind.

VERY tired, and going to bed soon probably. More tomorrow :)

Back to the City

Just returned home from my weekend in the country with Chris, Neil, and Delphi. It was SO fun! They couldn't have been more welcoming, and Delphi and I had a lot of fun together. On Friday when I got there, I stepped out of hte trian into a good 6 inches of snow! When I had left the city, there was no snow on the ground and no sign of any to fall. After getting settled, we walked to the local pub and had a pint and I met some of hte people who live in their village and played with all of hte local dogs. When we got home I gave Delphi her book and she loved it! She is SO gorgeous: dark ringlets and freckles, and the cutest accent! Being around British accents all the time is so great; it seems like they speak the English language the way it was meant to be spoken, if that makes sense. She made me a keepsake box with my name written on it to put all of my memories from my trip in. THen we got takeaway fish and chips and ate it while watching Night at the Museum (Friday is family movie night.) Saturday, we went to St. Alban's Cathedral and walked around (it was beautiful) and then walked to the town of St. Alban's to go shopping, where Delphi and I got matching Beatle's t-shirts. We came home and watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks, then had a great dinner of soup, and bread with all kinds of cheese. We played Barbies and did their hair until bedtime.

Today, we woke up and while Chris took Delphi to her Irish Dancing class I stayed home with Neil and got all of my homework done (LOTS of reading). It was interesting to read about the "special relationship" that Britain and America have while sitting across the table from him - we had a lot of fun talking about how true some of it was. When the girls got back, we went on a long walk (about an hour) through fields covered in snow and muddy lanes to the pub for lunch, where we had the traditional Sunday roast. It was delicious!

After lunch we came home and made apple crumble, and Delphi and I played with some of her doll sets and watched High School Musical 2, which I had never seen. It was about what I expected, but she loved it :) Then, sadly it was time to go. It was the perfect weekend to be with family and I felt like I really was at home. I couldn't believe how much energy Chris has (she's 8 months pregnant) and how incredibly nice their family is. Neil and Delphi are planning on coming into London in a few weeks to go to a museum, and I'm definitely going to go with them. I can't wait to see them again.

In other news, on the subway to the train on Friday on my way to Harpenden (where they live) I open the METRO newspaper and what do I see an article about? THE CREATION MUSEUM! It was so cool to see "St. Petersberg, Kentucky" all the way over here, but so embarassing that that kind of crap made headlines across the ocean. The article totally mocked the concept of hte museum, luckily, and also made a joke about how he "waded through the flabby masses and their offspring." Sound accurate?

The girls were going to go see a movie tonight, but I'm actually really tired so we're going to go tomorrow instead and see "He's Just Not That Into You." Should be really funny. Thanks Andrea for being the first to comment - miss and love you!

Prawn Curry?

Woke up at 4am to my roommate yelling explitives in her sleep this morning! It was so hilarious; even Amy doesn't talk in her sleep as much as my roommate does. Got mom's package before work this morning! A little taste of home; skyline chili, oyster crackers, and spaghetti, and more cookies than I'll ever be able to eat. LOOOOOVE her (and miss her like crazy)

Went to work in the rain, (what? rain in London?) and was immediately banished to the archive room to work on our project. After nine more hours today, we FINALLY got through sorting the magazines by country, and even sorted some of the smaller piles by magazine and publishing date (who knew that people in Latvia read Vogue?). My boss was super happy, and I got to leave half an hour early! I used this time to further hunt for My Perfect Boots (yes, I capitalized that). I hoped that wearing skinny jeans to work would set the right vibe and they'd find me, but they continue to elude; sigh, maybe tomorrow. Had a great lunch with Kate today, the other intern that started with us. She's British, and is given more trustworthy duties like answering the phones, so we rarely see her and it was great to get to talk to her more.

After work, came home to make dinner and got out a prawn (not shrimp here) dinner I bought the other day. I followed the instructions, and when I got it out of the oven it was like prawn curry soup. YUCK. I took one bite and immediately made a turkey sandwich instead. So much for trying to be mature and expand my palate huh?

Tonight, most people in my house are going to Ice Bar, but I'm going to go do karaoke (spelled wrong) with some people instead because we're going to Ice Bar for Haley's birthday next weekend. It's weird to think that next weekend will literally be one of the last I spend in London, since I'm traveling so much.

In great, awesome, can't wait news, LOGAN IS COMING! Probably in March for spring break. I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. I'm going to save some of the cool touristy stuff for when he comes, so I don't pay to do it twice, and I'd also like to take him up to Liverpool so we can go on a Beatles tour together. Elizabeth left work early today to go visit her boyfriend who is studying in Sevilla and I couldn't be more jealous.

Can't wait to go visit Christy and Neil tomorrow! There may not be any more blogs until Monday, as I'll probably get back Sunday evening and will have a ton to catch up on. We're supposed to get a lot more snow tomorrow, and it would be SO fun to play with Delphi. That's all for now; stay tuned for more news from the archive dungeon and a Beischel reunion!

Final Thought:
Logan's roommate Zach, who I love, just wrote me this poem and I think everyone should read it (excuse the bad word at the end; I refuse to censor his beautiful prose)

Christiinnee chrisstine, how I miss you sooo
Christine ohhhh christine, how could you gooo
Christine babay babay i cry tears all the time
ohhh where did she go, my ray of sunshine
I hope londons cool and you really adorrre
itBut I hope you fuck up and get deeporrrted

PS - Will someone please comment at least just once? I feel like a loser; everyone else gets comments!!! :)

Tales of the Archives

LONG day. We went to work until 12:30 (archived the entire time and almost got through the first round of sorting!). There are about 6,000 magazines, not exaggerating, in the archive, and we're nearly done sorting by country. Unfortunately, once we have them all out in the hallway, there isn't anywhere to organize them because the archive has so much other random crap in it. I wore my brand new jeans today and it was really cold in the basement; that combined with squatting a million times to pick up magazines gave me, as Joey would say, the chafes. Lovely. :)

After grabbing a quick lunch we headed over to school and went to our Marketing in the UK class, which is always a pick me up. Our teacher is hilarious, and has all sorts of activities planned for every class session to make it more lively, since they are all scheduled to be 4 hours long. He even gives us a kindergarten snack break halfway through! My next project in the class is to write a loooooong essay pretending I own a company that rents private jets to business execs, rich people, etc and the micro and macro effects that would dictate how good my business would be. I'm going to try and have a lot of fun with it, and will probably end up spending more time thinking about what my planes would have in them (plasma tvs, chairs that recline into beds, hot tub, full bar,every movie ever made on demand, etc) than the effects of the economy.

After that, went to my NEXT class, for all of the interns, where we learned about "Britishness." What makes a Brit a Brit? It was actually really interesting, and we talked at length about citizenship laws and stuff, and got a copy of the citizenship test, which is total crap. They ask who the patron saint of Wales is on it! And when the first census in England took place! I've heard the American citizenship test is just as ridiculous.

After class, to which everyone comes straight from work, we all needed a break. We went to a place called Natural Burger and I had probably top 3 hamburgers of my life (it could have something to do with the fact that I was about to eat my arm I was so hungry.) Dad's is still the best though. Nothing beats one made on your home grill while you sit around with family and have a Corona. Miss you all!

Came home and grabbed a shower, now just catching you all up before I head to bed! I think we're going to try to hit up Ice Bar tomorrow night, if not then definitely for Haley's birthday next weekend.

Love,
Me

Talar Ut

Any idea what that means? Yea, me either. Polish? Swedish? Taiwanese?But I spent nine hours today sorting 5,000 magazines (didn't finish) into boxes according to country. I think we were up to about 25 different languages when we left today. Unfortunately, the only languages I can distinguish are Spanish, French, and English. But now, I think i'm fluent in about 40 more. This "archive" is the most unorganized thing I have EVER seen. It is in the basement of the building, and the whole place smells like gas. ANd it's cold - I wore my jacket and gloves all day. On top of that, everyone was stressed out all day because FedEx didn't run yesterday so we were swamped. (You know, they shut down completely because of hte 3 huge inches of snow :)
Anyway, we got yelled at a lot because people were taking their stress out on the two Americans in the basement. I got yelled at for "stealing" a sheet from a newspaper because it "might" have had a story about Stella in it. Really, I had already looked through every paper for Stella stories and just wanted a picture of a giant snowman in Hyde Park. Elizabeth and I had a great time though, and just can't do anything but laugh most of the time. It really is comical what we're doing - basically manual labor. But at least we have each other - I don't know what I'd do if I was the only one. Definite highlight of the day (besides nearly peeing my pants every 15 minutes from laughing so hard at our "job" - I think the gas fumes started to get to me) was my lunch. I ran out and got a bagel with bacon, brie, spinach leaves, and tomato on it and it was SOOO good.

After work, we were going to go to TKMaxx (like TJMaxx, but British) to pick up some Tshirts we really want. They are designed by Stella for Comic Relief, and feature the Beatles with red noses. All of the proceeds go to charity, and they're only ten pounds. Didn't happen though - we're going this weekend because we didn't get out of work until 7. Came home and made dinner and were cheered up by all of our roommates singing the soundtrack of Mama Mia until we couldn't stop laughing. Now I'm just taking a break from my paper on British family life, which I am amazingly nearly knocked out in about an hour. Tomorrow I have work until lunchtime then class all night, so I want to make sure I'm caught up.

I'm definitely visiting Christy and Neil this weekend! I'm going on Friday afternoon and Christy is meeting me at the train station. Can't wait to meet them and Delphi, and to give Delphi her book! Should be a nice relaxing weekend; I'm really looking forward to it. Miss and love you all!

PS- Anna told me last night that Megan (Walsh) reads my blog alot, so I had a dream that she was the Queen of England last night and I was her crown polisher. Art imitating life?

SNOWWW DAYYYYY

Yep, that's right, I'm sure you've all seen it on TV, but we had a massive snow storm here last night! (And by massive, I mean about 4-5 inches) It's the most snow LOndon has had at once in 18 years! We had to go to work today until lunch, but all classes at City were cancelled! It was amazing how unprepared the city is for snow. Nearly all of the tube lines were either shut down or severely delayed, the busses weren't operating, and hardly anyone showed up for work! Absoluutely ridiculous. The streets weren't plowed and the sidewalks weren't shovelled either, so everyone was coated in a nice layer of slush. We were looking all morning online for, you know, a sign as to whether or not we had class. No word until ONE PM. Ridiculous. I can't believe how unorganized this place is. It's a university!

After work, we all got bundled and went over to Kensington Gardens (attached to Hyde Park) and played in the snow for a few hours! It was SO much fun. There were snowmen and people everywhere, and lots of little kids who had never played in the snow before. We fed the swans in the lake (prawn chips, that's all we had at home). Yes, I said prawn chips. They have prawn (shrimp) flavored everything here. We tried to build a fort to protect us from the boys that live in our house, but it was no use. They killed us. How many people can say they spent the afternoon playing in the snow in London? Not many I'm sure. We got some great pictures!

After the park, we changed clothes and went to the pub for a pint to warm up :) Now we're all just hanging out at home, trying to get some homework done and hoping for no school tomorrow either. Not that it would matter for me, I have to work all day anyway. I'll probably turn in early tonight and maybe try to get a good crack at this paper tomorrow morning as well, since I'm not finding any inspiration at present.

In VERY exciting news and in the spirit of travel, I'm going to visit Chris and Neil this weekend! I can't wait to meet Delphi and see where they live, and it'll be great to have a taste of home and family while I'm abroad. For those of you that don't know, Chris is my dad's cousin who lives just north of London with her husband and daughter, with a baby on the way! Can't wait to see them and give Delphi the book I wrote for her!

Time to get to that paper - home and family life in the United Kingdom. Couldn't be more exciting. I would have written it last night, but wanted to watch the SuperBowl for the commercials, only to find that there were NO commercials aired here. It just played straight through! So we decided to book that trip to Paris for all of the girls in my house, and called it a night.

Love and miss you all!

What? A trip every weekend?

Just booked a trip to Paris with all 8 girls in my house! We're going March 6th, then the following weekend I'm going to Barcelona, then a weekend in London and then my adventure weekend in Wales! Whew. We all booked a hostel together (8 girl room, no worries mom and dad we'll be safe we're the only ones in it).

In other news, it is BLIZZARDING here! It's been pouring down snow for the last 4 hours, and people are freaking out. My friend tried to order in Chinese food for dinner and they said they wouldn't because of the hazardous roads. I feel like all of London will be shut down tomorrow. Unfortunately, it doesn't snow underground, so I'll still have to go to work. There are literally no cars on the road at all, very quiet and peaceful.

We're just sitting around watching the SuperBowl, hoping for American commercials and hanging out! More tomorrow - cross your fingers for a snow day!

"A guy a cop and another guy? That's practically a massacre!"

Watched Pineapple Express with the girls last night - SO funny (hence the quote). We went to rent a movie and went to Waffle House, a little hut on the corner that sells Belgian waffles with anything you can think of on them. Then came upstairs and watched a bunch of American TV shows (illegally because everything is blocked here) before going to sleep. It was nice to have a relaxing, inexpensive night. Woke up this morning and went to the grocery with Bita and Audrey. It SNOWED TODAY!!!!! Just a few flurries here and there, but still very exciting to me after hearing about all of hte blizzards you guys have been having. We went to Marks and Spencer for groceries - it's good because they mostly have organic healthy stuff, but bad because I needed some chocolate. Bad. :) So after Mark's and Spencer we went to Tesco, which sells a lot more American stuff and got my weekly stock of Diet Pepsi, only to find out that it is being discontinued at the grocery!!!! I might have to go cold turkey if that's the case until I get home.

Came home and did a mountain of homework. I had about a million pages to read for my international HR class (yawn) and have to start a paper regarding the differences between families in the UK and in America. Again, totally stimulating. Actually, the reading wasn't that bad, I just would rather be outside doing something rather than reading. I still feel like I"m on a four month vacation and shouldn't be subjected to homework while I'm here!

Tonight, I'm going to go get some sushi with the girls in my house, then watch the beginning of the Super Bowl! It doesn't air here until 11, so I probably will only watch until halftime. Gotta get up and go to work! I read an article in the paper last week entitled "How to Throw a SuperBowl Party" - the main requirements, according to the article, were to have plenty of popcorn and Budweiser on hand. :) Wishing I was at home to eat all of mom's delicious food and dad's "secret" chili! A lot of places in the city are having parties, but they all cost a ton of money to get in, and since the tube closes at midnight we'd have to take a cab home from wherever we went. No thank you.

Hope everyone has a great time tonight! Miss and love you all!

Tower of London

Today we went to see the Tower of London! Very cool and historic; right up my alley. We saw where all the famous prisoners were kept, the Crown Jewels (including the biggest diamond in the world) and the roayl armoury. The BeefEaters (those guys with the big hats) give the tours and are HILARIOUS. They actually live inside the compoud, and the gates are locked at 10pm every night! I got some really good picturs, and bought mom and ornament and a few postcards. Also a teddy bear dressed as a Beef Eater for myself. So cute.

Tonight we were going to go to Ice Bar, a club made entirely out of ice. You are only allowed to stay in for 45 minutes so you don't get too cold, and they give you big fur coats when you get there. It's definitely a one time thing, but an experience we have to have while we're here. Unfortunatley, you have to make reservations two weeks in advance! So, we're going in a few weeks I guess.

The boys who live in our house are all gone for their homestay this weekend, so we're going to have a girl's night and watch some movies and stuff.

Ahoy!

Last night was pretty fun. We went to a new bar called Ghost that was opening in a really rich area of Chelsea - lots of rich kids. The atmosphere was good, but even though it was free to get in, they charged like 8 pounds for one drink! Give me a break. We came home and all just hung out in the kitchen for a few hours, and I FINALLY got to watch some Lost before going to sleep.

This morning we woke up and I booked a trip to Barcelona with Andrea for March! I can't wait to go - she's one of my best friends from IU and is also studying in London, but not on the same program. After, Eliz and I went for a "run" in Hyde Park. (We ran about 1/5 of the time). We were inspired by a race that was going on though, in which 100 year olds were doing way better than I would have, so we decided we'll run again tomorrow. We saw the famous Peter Pan statue! It's so cool - we definitely need to start exploring Hyde Park more.

After coming back and doing laundry and whatnot, we went shopping for a little bit. I'm still on the hunt for my perfect pair of boots that dad is getting me for my birthday. I found near perfection, but they didn't have my size, so the search continues :) I did get a really cool pair of sneakers from a second hand store though.

Just got back and showered, and am getting ready to go on a boat cruise on the Thames with a bunch of kids. It's 007 themed, so we're all getting decked out (no pun intended). Tomorrow I think we're going to check out Portobello Road market which is really near our house and I've heard has some awesome stuff for sale (ie, I watched Notting Hill the movie and saw some cool stuff). I think we're also going to go check out all the places featured in the movie. I think the house with the blue door is currently up for sale and going for something like 4 million pounds.

Friends and Family

Worked the Friends and Family sale again today for NINE hours! It's exhausting watching other people spend thousands of dollars :) Also found out that since Stella is part of the Gucci conglomerate, we get invited to the sales for Alexander McQueen, Gucci, YSL, and a few others. Exciting! The best part about today was that we really got a chance to talk to the other interns and get to know them - they're all young girls, unpaid like us as well. All seem very nice and very willing to help us get acclimated. None of us can get over how unorganized our office is - nothing is on computer, all paper. It's ridiculous. We wish we could just take a few days and set everything up in Excel; we would literally save hours everyday that are spent just searching for invoices. Geez.

Also, met the head of operations for Stella, Fizel (probably spelled wrong, but pronounced
F-EYE-ZEL. He is absolutely hilarious, is a fitness instructor, and calls everyone dahhhling. He told us about some great restaurants and we all talked about what kind of men we like. He loves Germans :) He was great fun, told us about some awesome restaurants to go to on a budget, and we're going to make Skyline Chili next week in the kitchen at the office so he can try it! He's also never had deep dish pizza, so we'll have to find that somewhere. He in turn, is going to make us flapjacks, which apparently are like oat biscuits. Interesting. I wish Logan could mail me some Mother Bear's. Also, learned that here, a tank top is a "vest", a vest is a "waistcoat", and still can't bring myself to call a sweater a jumper.

Just finished dinner, and am getting ready to go out with the gang to celebrate surviving our first week of work and school! We're going to a place called Ghost Bar. Evan's internship is in music promotion, and he's getting us in for free, so that makes it all the more appealing. Still can't believe how much snow you guys are getting; I am SO jealous. It'll be really nice to have a whole day tomorrow to do laundry, go for a run, etc. I feel like such an old person complaining that I don't have time to go buy groceries!

More tomorrow! Love and miss you all so so so so much.

Mauled By a Shower Door

Yesterday was sooo long, but fun. At work, I got to work the "Friends and Family" Sale, where everything was 75% off. So many tall skinny women I didn't know what to do. And they all knew each other, it was so weird. But the clothes were gorgeous, and I was allowed to put aside anything I wanted for myself! Unfortunately, at 75% off the cheapest thing was still over 50 pounds, and it was a sheer tank top. Still, thought about getting a really pretty dress. After work Eliz and I grabbed lunch and went to our first class, Marketing in the UK. Our class only has 7 kids in it, all from our program, and I really liked how intimate it was. The teacher is great at keeping us engaged with different kinds of examples (classes here are 4 hours long - yikes) and it shouldn't be too bad. All of the classes here grade so differently though. Usually, your final is at least 70% of your grade. Can you imagine if we did that at IU? After that, we went to the Student Union and hung out for awhile (they have a full bar) and went to our intern class. The two guys who teach it are hilarious. We talked about leisure in the UK - how they spend their time when they aren't working, relationships, etc. Then took the tube home and finally arrived around 9:15. I feel like an adult and just wanted to go to bed! Bita, Audrey, Kaitlin and I went down to the Champion for a little bit and had a pint of Hoegaarten though before bed :)

Heard you guys all had snow days. Of course I'd miss that. It's warmish here! I'd like to see the snow this winter though, I miss it.

In regards to the title, it's pretty self-explanatory. I got out of the shower and shut the door on my heel, and have a huge gash in my foot now. Lovely. Am just about to head to work all day!

PS- We found out last week what our mascot is for City University. It is, get ready, a CARROT. Not just that either, one that looks like he's been smoking the reefer. Apparently, a long time ago, we didn't have enough money or a way to get our rugby posts to a match, so we had to have a donkey haul them there and the only way to get him to move was to dangle a carrot in front of him. Really?!

Why Send a Courier When We Have 2 Americans?

Wow. First full day on the job. Got to work and was told that Eliz and I were going to be taking 6 deliveries because there was a problem with the courier today, then found out that they were ALL OVER London. We thought it would take maybe 2 hours, and got back 4 hours later to be yelled at for not hurrying. VERY cool though, delivering to Vogue, Elle, INStyle, you name it. You walk around one corner from our store and there is a Porsche dealership, and another is a Bentley dealership. Is this real life? Many times though, we were asked to go to "the back", you know, where deliveries go. Can't be seen mingling with the pretty people. We were always asked what courier company we were from; people found it very hard to believe that we were actually working for Stella. After we got back, we had some more work to do (searching through rooms for "looks" from the most recent line to send to a magazine) and then after one more delivery got to go home. I honestly think I walked 8 miles today, but had to eat lunch on the run so grabbed a burger and proceeded to feel like a sourdough pretzel in a world of pretzel sticks (at least I'll always have my wit.) London is so old, nobody has ever heard of a straight street. I guess a 6 hundred years ago when someone built a house, they just built the road around it. Anyway, the numbers go up and down and every which way, and the streets end wherever they want, so we were insanely confused all day. When we tried to explain this to the girls we worked with, they just kind of looked at us.

After work, went to H&M to buy some black flats because my brown ones are giving me massive blisters, especially after today, and went to the grocery too. I bought a canvas bag for my groceries because I'm trying to become a friend of Mother Nature. (Actually, I knew the plastic bags would break on the way home because of all of my heavy crap, so I had too :)

About to try and illegally download LOST, my favorite show, and head to bed. Tomorrow I have work until 12:30 and then class until 8. YIkes! Sorry if I sound like I'm whining; I'm really having the time of my life. Can't believe I'm really here and doing all of this. Love you all!

PS- heard about all of the snow at home, and wish it would snow a little bit here! It's been around 45 (Fahrenheit- no idea how to spell that), and everyone here complains that it is freezing. I laugh :)

Final Thought: The only real bad thing, aside from carrying groceries 20 blocks home, that I have found about living in the city. You don't really notice it during the day unless you get caught behind a truck, but I just got home and blew my nose and had pollution snot. Ewwww