Ye, Me, and Julie!

My dearest, athletic, tan friend Julie Thompson came in to town on June 16! She's been to London many a time and, with a free plane ticket, found the perfect excuse to come back and see my pretty face! (insert huge cheesy smile here).
the second she landed we hit the ground running, going to Covent Garden for dinner with my fried Lauren and taking telephone booth pictures - surprisingly the first I've had since being here. We stopped by the Nag's Head (I know very appealing sounding) outside of Covent after dinner for a pint and to make a game plan for the rest of the night. I should note here that Julie kept joking how she was going to run me ragged while she was in town, disclaimer: she was NOT JOKING! In the middle of planning our game, an interesting, wobbling, businessman asked to take a seat at our booth; couldn't really say no...could we? This escalated in to a few more of his friends joining and chatting about life in London etc. etc. To make a long, awkward story slightly less long but just as awkward, this gentleman wanted us to join him to a club "where Prince Harry would be," you see they were sort of friends...but just in case we actually ran in to him we weren't supposed to say he said they were friends...riiiiggghhhhttttt. Dodged that bullet thankfully and instead when to a recommended club that turned in to an American hot spot, because, well, it was American themed. The big give away was the Harley Davidson in the middle of the bar. After dancing to the familiar sounds of Rihanna and JT we ventured our way back to the hotel and called it a night. A few hours later we were up and off to Dublin!
After a sleepy train ride and a ferry-that-looked-like-cruise-ship ride we were in Guinness country. Unbeknownst to Julie and I a huge English, pop, boy band called Take That was in town for the weekend and every hotel/hostel was booked to capacity. Except of course the one we booked which was, according to many a taxi driver, in a drug infested neighborhood of Dublin. With 10 other girls. Bathrooms not connected. Score. We had gotten lost for two hours walking up and down O'Connell Street and were a little flustered by everything so we hopped in a cab and went down to a popular area called Temple Bar to find Julie's sanctuary: Hard Rock.

Julie and I in the beautiful Irish countryside!

After a decent cocktail and burger, and a really funny/sassy waiter, two hours of iPad searching and phone calls to Julie's parents found us a hotel off of Portobello Road - a nice area, not drug-infested. A comfy, unquestionable bed to share, and a tub. Score!
Saturday was spent with Joe, our lovely tour guide to Glendalough and Kilkenny (think P.S. I love you, yeah that's right!). The Irish country side is beautiful! Absolutely stunning, the only draw back would be the excessive amounts of cyclists...yeeaaahhhhh.
That night we met up with some friends of friends, as anyone who know Julie knows that she manages to make friends from every country and continent. We had a great time with them and it was nice not to worry about where to go and not go, just follow the Irish leader!
Sunday morning was painful, we had been going to sleep past midnight every night and waking up before eight every morning for several days - we were running on E. What to do? Grab an Irish breakfast of course!
Irish Breakfast:
baked beans
grilled tomatoes
Irish black and white pudding (did NOT eat that)
Bacon (aka good ham, they wouldn't dare eat American bacon - its supposed to be from a bad part of the cow or something?...still would eat it, just saying)
eggs
toast
After a quick stop at Starbucks around the corner, my favorite Chai latte ok - none can compare - we were reenergized and ready for our final day in Dublin. A hop-on hop-off tour was a God send, we managed to see a lot of the city in a short amount of time and got to do the thing I really came to Dublin for - the Guinness brewery! Beautiful, elegant, informative, a free pint, it was wonderful.
As we headed for the ferry around 8, little did we know our real adventure of the weekend was just beginning.

Guinness = Irish water

Let me preface this adventure, the man behind the counter at the train station asked if I wanted to take the night train, I said what were the time? He said the ferry left Dublin at 9 p.m. and the train go in to Euston at 5 a.m. I was like ok that'd be a long night but we could sleep on the train and have a whole extra day in Dublin we otherwise wouldn't. WRONG. We reached Wales at midnight, where we were informed the train to London in fact did not LEAVE the station till 5. Score. After trying every position of sleeping in the book and probably inventing a few new ones 5 a.m. creeped a long. Luckily because I think we were beginning to contract pneumonia. We arrived back at my house close to 9 a.m. Thirty minutes later I was off to work. Starbucks run? YES.

First Week on the Payroll (not really)

After joining in the celebration of her majesty's official birthday I went to work Monday ready to give a full week of unpaid labour! Love being a student intern :) And by a full week I mean Monday to Wednesday from around 10 a.m. to around 6 p.m. with an hour lunch break. My office is close to Oxford Circus which is a huge shopping area and has about a million and one cafes and restaurants within a block or two. Soho park is also a stroll away but the pigeons here, as I said before, are mutated demon pigeons and I prefer my life as well as my Pret sandwich to be intact coming back to the office. Schön! (the magazine I work for) is revamping their website and I am basically in charge of uploading content to that website. I've put the latest issue up, created introductions for the spreads in the magazine, and made tags for the designer and photographers featured. I also create summaries for the home page of the site and thumbnails to each spread. It's pretty interesting and, thanks to my blog work at The Alcalde, (Texas Exes shout out, woohoo!) I basically know what I'm doing. As much as I hate to admit it the era of the newspaper, or paper in general really, is being outsourced to the web. You have to know how to work with multimedia in journalism to stay connected and reach as many people as possible and I'm really glad I have that opportunity here. My friendly Londoner friend at work is Neesha (I'm not sure if that's the proper spelling but that's how you say it). She is very outgoing and very spunky, always comes out with me to lunch and we end up roaming the streets up and down trying to decide what to eat, then figuring out where the office is again.  

Amnesia and a Birthday

Well it's been awhile since my last entry, the past two weeks I kept telling myself, "oh hey I'll just write for a few days when I get the chance," no big deal right? WRONG. I don't really remember much of the weekend of June 10, not necessarily because I was out all night but because time really flies by here. Even the day just seems to be in fast forward mode. So the quaint little details I would have for whoever reads this for that weekend are, well, lost to me now. I'm sorry! But I'm sure it was a great weekend because if it wasn't I'd probably remember that...

Coffee = life

Oh good grief what was I thinking! The Queen's Jubilee was that weekend! Yes I believe it was Saturday June 10 and I was exhausted from the night before trying to get home from Soho! The Queen's Jubilee is basically an official celebration of her birthday (her real birthday is in April) and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh turned 90 a few days before that. I watched an interview of him on BBC, he's very witty, had plenty of little quips for the interviewer. Anyways, we, meaning myself, Kate, Lauren, Katie, and Janel, got up at the crack of about half past 9 (9:30) and headed over to the underground. We were struggling by the time we got out of the tube, it has a tendency to dehydrate you to the point of fainting, so we made a be-line to the nearest coffee stand and grabbed some lattes and crescents.
The actual procession at Buckingham was short and difficult to really see anything because we were on the opposite side of the entry gates. We did it a small glimpse of her majesty (I feel other worldly using that term) and Camila and Kate Middleton I THINK. I'm basing this off of the color of their hats so don't get too giddy about it just yet.

The Royal Mews making an entrance.

The real excitement was when one of the horses in the Royal Mews - the mews or stables of the Royal family - became spooked or agitated and could not stay in line with the other probably 100 horses. He would flare up and kick and the audience would gasp. His poor rider did his best but there was one point where he was basically bucked and the horse came down on top of him. However his training, stemming from hundreds of years of training, served him well. He got back up and a fellow officer helped him mount the horse again. There was a moderate applause from the crowd, people were unsure whether or not to do so, I guess so the officer could maintain face. The uniforms of the Royal Mews are something to behold as well. Ornate and regal, their helmets come to a point in the center of their heads with red tassels hanging down, I don't know what purpose that once served but I'd be interested to find out.

WORKin' hard every night and day

So my first day of work was yesterday! I was very excited to get started but still a little nervous. Although we technically speak the same language English culture and mannerisms, particularly in the workplace, are very different from the familiar American counterpart. People socialize in and out of work a lot more here, they go to the pub at lunch break even! It's not to say that I don't like it (I love it) it's just a new experience I'm looking forward to understanding better as the weeks progress.
I arrived at 58-60 Berners street a few minutes before 10 a.m. yesterday. My editor, Raoul, who is currently in the states for an exhibit, gave me specific instructions not to arrive earlier than 10 a.m. For the first day, I wasn't sure of how serious he was being so I walked down the street, grabbed a coffee, and leisurely walked back. On my leisure walk I looked around at the other businesses and buildings on Berners. There is a GUESS headquarters (random but ok I'll go with it) and an exclusive boutique called Lilly something (not Pulitzer ladies, put down the pink floral print). I say it was exclusive because it appeared you needed to be buzzed in from the outside and because the vibe coming off of the window displays made you feel like you didn't want to disturb them inside unless you had an appointment.
I finally made it to the office AT 10. I had to be buzzed in, which gave me a sense of satisfaction. There are several companies that operate in the building where the magazine headquarters. Above the offices of Schön! is a designing office for a company that produces garments for retailers around the globe. There are desks lined up with MACs and rows of clothes on the walls as well as sketches covering every inch of that office, I love walking through it.
When I reached the magazine's offices I was greeted by the assistant ed chief, Zohra. Another intern, a real Londoner, came in for her first day (I remember her name but don't have a clue as how to spell it) a few minutes after me and then we started our day. Me and the other newbie went through every issue of the magazine since it started 2 years ago. Zohra wanted us to take note of the style of the mag, how it was layed out, what they like to cover in editorials, and what designers they like to feature in the photo spreads.
It was nice to have time to familiarize myself with the magazine but after 7 hours with a rainy lunch break in between I though my eyes were going to start to bleed. Luckily we were let off a little early. I said goodbye to my new peers and ran to the tube. I had only an hour before my class and I really, really wanted to change - besides I had endured looking overdressed at work all day and could endure it no longer.
A little after 6 and I was out of breath but in the classroom for my first day of "Diversity in the British Workplace" or something along those lines. The class title is a little misleading, as the professor said, but based on the first day the class seems to examine the development of the British workplace from earlier centuries to what it is today and what aspects of (to put it broadly) culture shaped it. It's very discussion-oriented which I like because people can then offer up their own opinions of their work experience here as we move along in to the summer.
A little before 8 the professors decided to let us out early and call it a day. I think I will too on this entry, also I'm really hungry...chicken pot pie sounds good. 

A Catch Up



Second floor of The Pembrooke

After my interview I went back to Thoresby on the tube (and figured out how all by myself). I changed, had lunch then walked over to City University where I'd be taking some classes. The interns in the program all gathered for a kind of orientation then we split up for a scavenger hunt across the city. I teamed up with some girls from Lehigh, Lauren and Katie, who also live at Thoresby. Their friend Michael and a girl named Dominique later joined the group. From there we covered the hot spots - St. Paul's Cathedral (across the street is the Millenium bridge from HP!), Covent Gardens, a great market place where we had some delicious ice cream at this kind of fetish styled shop called "The Icecreamists" (the servers wore leather military hats and tights), Charing Cross, where we browsed through the halls of the National Gallery, Westminster and finally Parliament Square, home of the Houses of Parliament (Big Ben too) and across the street to the London Eye.
My feet were killing me and I was exhausted (still sniffling) but Katie, Lauren and I headed back to Thoresby to clean up then go down to our local pub, The Eagle. Where we also spent our first night trying out the different beers (none of which I had ever heard of before except Guiness). Michael came down from Earl's Court to join us, he's a hoot is all I can say.
The next day came with a short meeting then lunch at Dabucka, a Lebanese restaurant, that was dimly lit with blue sashes covering the ceilings and walls. Lunch was followed by more sightseeing and later more drinking, this time at a club on Shoreditch (an area right next to Hackney with bars and clubs). It was a 10 pound cover to get in to "Favela Chic" but the cocktails were good and the music was even better - lots of reggae tone/infusion style with a few random American songs thrown in.

First Official Day

My first official day in London was a little overwhelming. Interns were having interviews this week and of course mine was first thing in the morning during orientation for all the students (summer interns as well as the London now kids who were taking courses). I left Thoresby an hour and a half before my interview at 10:30 a.m. because we had yet to use the tube or underground (subway system). I looked over my London map as well as the map for the underground and then double checked it...and again checked it. I picked out a route that could get me there, I didn't know if it was the fastest but I knew I had to change directions on the Northen line to get from Angel (my stop) to Goodge Street (still can't pronounce it right on the first try). My day pass would not work though, I kept trying to scan it through but the tube doors would not open. People were beginning to pile up behind me and I could feel their eyes burning in to the back of my head (FOREIGNER). I stepped out of the way of the morning traffic to recollect myself. I walked over to an underground worker and explained to him the trouble I was having. Well my punctuality got the best of me. It was 9:15 and day passes did not go in to effect till 9:30. I was flustered. Luckily the nice man could tell I was flustered and ushered me through the doors with his own pass. He then asked where I was headed and immediately gave me a much easier, and quicker, route to take to get there. All in all my first tube adventure was a success. Streets in London seem to enjoy changing names every few blocks so I got a little turned around finding the offices of NINETEEN74, the company that publishs Schön! magazine, where I'll be interning this summer. Schön means beautiful in German according to my editor, Raoul.
I opened the doors to the office which looked somewhat like the doors to the kitchen of a trendy restaurant, sweating and still sniffling. I felt much more relaxed however when the receptionist, a chic young Londoner, greeted me with a relaxed smile and asked me to take a seat - Raoul had not yet made it to the office, I was a little (punctually) early for my 10:30 appointment.
As I flipped through the pages of past issues girls came in and out of the office, dressed very fashionable and hip but never looking like they tried to. It reminded me of something Alexa Chung was quoted on in a magazine. Londoners don't try as hard as Americans do, they just roll out of bed and grab what they can reach. It seems true and the wonderful thing about it is, no matter what you are wearing whether a leather choker or a leopard jumper no one looks twice at you. In the states, and especially at home in Texas, people want to look good but they also want to fit in. If I walked around Houston in a leopard jumper I would get so many strange stares and quizzical brows I'd probably rip the thing off and replace it with a brown paper bag (several probably). My point is people in London seem to have such a free spirit and don't really seem to care to try and knock others down.
Anyway after a few minutes Raoul came in and took me across the hall of the reception to a meeting, lined on the walls were rows and rows of clothes. We talked for a bit, he explained I'd be writing for the next issue and what my hours would be like and that was that - simple. I asked about the office dress code seeing as I showed up in a rather tight wool pencil skirt and black heels, he said whatever I felt comfortable in - so maybe I'll give this effortlessly hip fashion sense that everyone seems to have here a try...should be a great summer :) 

Settling In

Well I have been in the city of London for five days now and am starting to settle in to my new home. I live in a "flat," it's just a house really but how many times can you say flat and get away with it, in Hackney on the edge of the Islington area in north London. In the days counting down to my departure from the Lone Star state my allergies got the best of me and, of course, I was sick on the plane rides over. Luckily those rides - from Houston to New York City then New York City to London - were probably the easiest plane rides I have experienced.

A break from the scavenger hunt in front of Big Ben

When I arrived a bus took me and other kids in the program, mostly from the Midwest or Indiana, to our "flats" which would be our homes for the summer. When I got to Thoresby house, my flat/home mentioned earlier in Hackney I struggled to get my luggage up three flights before yelling for Kate (my dear, sweet roommate and fellow Longhorn) to come help me before I passed out. She had arrived in London the day before and was eagerly awaiting my arrival (she told me so).
The rest of my first day was spent sniffling and running errands. We went to a kind of Walmart esque store that has catalogs you flip through featuring various products from housing appliances to linens. Kate and I bought Burnt Orange (yes they were listed as Burnt Orange! So crazy) sheets for our beds, a little scratchy but they'll do. We attempted grocery shopping but ended up just buying snacks, shampoo, and sandwiches to last us through the next day or so - got to work on that.