Sadly today was rainy when I woke up. We decided not to let it get to us and we trekked to Camden Market anyway. It is such a cool place! It goes on for blocks and blocks with food, clothing, and vintage shops. They also had this stand that did fish pedicures where the fish eat your dead skin. I decided I had to be adventurous and see what it was all about. The place was so clean and also cool because I had a neat view of the market while I was sitting there. It also felt really funny. After that, we all walked around a bit more and everyone bought hats. I didn't realize that in Europe everyone wears them, so I of course had to fit in as well. Its a neat fedora.

Last night we went to a local pub we frequent and then to a posh club called plastic people. We took the bus for the first time too. The club was so different than anything Ive ever been to. It was super expensive and the place was located in a basement with very dim lights. It is mainly known for its djs, which is why we went and it was a lot of fun. Now I am going to take a nap and relax until tonight

I got my internship placement today!! I will be working at Westminster in the parliamentary office of Louise Ellman. She is a member of the Labour party, which the exact party I hoped to work for. I'm excited to work for a woman and even more excited to work for one who received so much support in the recent election. She was elected with over 59% of the vote, which is quite extraordinary since the next closest contender only received 22%. She represents Liverpool as her constituency. If you are unfamiliar, the UK is much more liberal in their beliefs than the States. The most left wing bordering on socialism is the Liberal Democrats, then closest to US democrats is the Labour party. They have become slightly more conservative in the past 20 years, which now makes them very comparable to the dems in the US. The Conservatives are of course the most conservative, but still reside very left on the political spectrum. I go next friday June 4th for my orientation and interview with a staffer in her office. The commute will not be bad, only about 25 minutes which is nice. I don't think it is possible to get as lucky as I was in Washington with a 3 minute commute, so I am pleased.

I know this because we went to Westminster yesterday and visited Westminster Abbey. It was such a beautiful church with so much unique history. The coolest part was definitely getting to see the coronation chair being restored. It was built in the year 1300 for King Edward I. Almost all British monarchs have been crowned in that chair since 1308. It is typically put away and rarely seen, so to get to witness its restoration was so great! I also saw the graves of Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, Darwin, and Oliver Cromwell. After we left the abbey, we decided to walk home and guess what we ran directly into? THE SEX AND THE CITY 2 PREMIERE!!!!! I was beyond words, especially because I have never seen a premiere before. I sat down at a restaurant right off of the main road where the premiere was so I could see everything while eating dinner. Sadly I did not stay long enough to see the stars because they did not arrive until close to 8pm and we had already made plans to go to a pub called O'Neils. However, when Twilight comes for its premiere I will be camping out to see Rob. I already did find out where his flat used to be here in London.. I may have stalked it just a bit. (I am kidding I swear). I am very excited for another weekend here to enjoy more of the weather. We decided to remain in London this weekend and take a few tours and go to the markets around town. I also really want to go see Diagon Alley from Harry Potter, which is an actual alley here in London and of course the sign for platform 9 and 3/4. Apparently people actually run into it and knock themselves out still... That should be a really humorous afternoon for me!

It has been a few days since I have last blogged, mainly because I have been very busy with class and Caitie is here! She arrived on Monday, but before her flight got in, I had the chance to truly enjoy the beautiful weather that London was having. We decided to go to Regents Park to listen to music and lay in the grass. It an amazingly large park for its location illustrated by how long it took us to find the hill that we wanted to lay on top of. Cait, Marty, and Jake decided to see how close they could get to the zoo, which is also in the park, so Dan and I headed on the long trek to Primrose Hill. On the way, we saw the royal gardens and the cricket and shuffleboard fields, plus quite a few ponds. When we finally got to the hill we wanted to climb it, but of course neither of us saw the trail to the left of the hill and we ascended the grass. The view was absolutely beautiful! You don't realize how high you are until you reach the top and turn to see Big Ben, the London Eye, St. Paul’s, and the overall London skyline. It was so great! Eventually all of the rest of my roommates arrived and we laid and enjoyed the weather until Caitie got here. After she arrived, they wanted to grab food and the only thing opened that I could navigate to was Subway (I know shocking). We then took her and her three friends to a pub so they could see the typical London pub and experience Carlsberg beer, which they had heard about.
On Tuesday, Caitie and I woke up early and had breakfast before I headed to class and she went to explore London. Class was of course very uneventful and long, but following it, we had internship orientation. Originally, I was really excited about that because I thought I would receive my placement. Sadly, I was mistaken and the entire orientation was how to behave in an office. Well I have worked in an office for years and coming straight from Washington I got annoyed very quickly at how repetitive it was. I do understand though that it has to be done. After class I came back to my flat to shower and wait for Caitie to return from the London Eye so I could grab dinner and take her out to a new neighborhood. We ended up at a really neat bar/restaurant called Sports Cafe which has student night every Tuesday. Everyone was young, but even better was the amount of futbol on! I have already caught the futbol fever here. I not only know some players, but I have a favorite team and I am beginning to learn quite a lot about England's team with the World Cup approaching. I definitely love Real Madrid, mainly because of how fun and recognizable they are to watch. In addition, it doesn't hurt that Cristiano Ronaldo plays for them. I will definitely return home with his jersey!

Today I had class once again, but after all of us went to a great restaurant that our sponsor recommended to us. It was great and fun! They don’t write down your order here, but instead they carry around what looks like a TI-89 calculator and they just punch in order numbers. They even use it as the credit card machine which is quite nifty as well. After lunch I came back to my flat to relax a bit before tonight. We are going to the London Open Air Theatre in Regents Park to see The Crucible. It should be a fun time, especially because we are picnicking beforehand.

I have just experience my first weekend in London and all I can say is that this city gets more exciting and fabulous each day! On Saturday everyone woke up late in the day because we went to the Zoo club for the first time which was a blast. I also took my first ride in the traditional black cabs. In order to qualify to become a cabbie here, one must graduate from a three year program that teaches each street and route around the city. You even see trainees on scooters with maps attempting to study and learn the city. After waking up Cait and I decided to go exploring and happened upon a quaint shopping center with an outdoor market in the center. The food here is not that appetizing, especially the english breakfasts, which are also quite expensive. Baked beans on eggs is a combination that I am content never trying again. We then browsed the shops in the area including one called New Look, which is more expensive version of forever 21. The fact that things cost more is a bit depressing, but we did hear about a burberry factory where all of their clothing and trench coats are half price. Even the boys were fairly excited about that. After browsing the stores we decided to sit and enjoy the weather. I have been here now 5 days and I haven't seen rain. The weather is a beautiful 80 degrees which is perfect for reading in the parks. After we got back from our walk everyone decided to sit in the courtyard here at Janet Poole and have crackers, wine, and cheese. It was so nice to sit outside under the stars and chat, especially because we are attempting to plan our weekend trips rather rapidly. Around 11:30 everyone headed to a nearby pub to celebrate Frank's birthday. It was a lot of fun, especically because there were british pool tables that differ quite alot from American pool.

Today we woke up and headed to the British museum. They house the Rosetta Stone there along with many artifacts dating back to 27oo BC. It was a really neat museum for Egyptian artifacts, specifically the mummies and preserved remains on display. I have determined that I definitely have a time limit for how long I can sanely stay in a museum. It is about 1.5 hours because much longer and everything starts losing its appeal to me. After the museum Dan, Marty, Kamel, Cait, and I walked around our neighborhood a bit and enjoyed the weather. Tonight everyone is going to a restaurant called Wagamama, which is apparently a great chinese restaurant that serves community style to your table. Everyone orders a dish and then you get 4 rice bowls and share everything with the table. Everyone is looking forward to this as our last hurrah with dining out. We have all had mild heart-attacks when we realized the amount of money spent since arriving in London. Although it is unavoidable to do so, everyone has spent a nice chunk of money because its our first week here and we want to experience everything we can. Tomorrow Caitie arrives to stay with me for a few days and I absolutely cannot wait to see her! We are going to book a ride on the London Eye at night to get a neat view of city, River Thames, and St. Paul's Cathedral. It should be really great! The last piece of news is that I have just about adjusted to the time change and fully recovered from jet lag! Now all that is left is allowing time for my legs to adjust to all of the walking. I walked about 1o miles on Friday, 5 on Saturday, and a few today. It is exhausing but so nice to learn my way around!

Today was the first day of class.. Definitely more work than all of us realized which put a damper on my morning. Once lecture ended we had the opportunity to explore the city and nearly all of our group took the tube to Borough market which is a great outdoor food market with everything from breads and cheeses to oysters and kangaroo burgers. We all grabbed a cheap lunch there and I had the most fabulous gnocchi with pesto of my entire life! It was so fresh and great. The serving sizes here are so much smaller, which I love. We then decided to walk around and see Shakespeare's Globe while walking the river and then by Big Ben and Westminster. The walk home took a few hours, but of course everyone got distracted with a great vintage store and then a really unique pub. I found a really neat vintage store with great blazers for 20 quid or less. I have also discovered a pear cider that is so tasty! It's called Magnerst and it restored my faith in the pubs here. During the walk home we passed so many of the great neighborhoods. One minute we would be in a very swanky area with stores like Baby Dior (yes that really exists) then five minutes down the road we would see sex shops. It is so odd the way the neighborhoods make a drastic change in just a few blocks! I walked about 10 miles today total which was crazy, but it truly did help me to get my bearings of London better. The tube is so nice and works a lot like the DC metro with these cards called Oyster Cards. The mayor of London is attempting to get all people in the city to get them and it makes the swiping in and out of the stations much more efficient. Eventually we all will get monthly unlimited passes when we start working since we will be taking the tube twice daily.

Tonight the group is planning to go to a pub and club for the first time. I didn't realize the way the social scene works here, but most people go to pubs straight from work around 5pm and stay there until 10 or 11 before heading to clubs until the wee hours. I am really excited to experience the nightlife here! One thing I am getting used to is how expensive things are here! I was bargain hunting at the grocery store because it is crazy how fast money goes with pubs, food, and topping off oyster cards. It still hasnt stopped me from having fun and tomorrow I think I am taking a boat tour of London on the river and visiting another outdoor market. London is known for them and tomorrow I am heading to one of the very best so I am so excited.

My first days

While abroad, many of my friends decided to create blogs so everyone could keep up with their travels and day to day life. I loved reading about everything so I decided to create one as well. Basically thus far I am soo exhausted! I arrived at my flat around 1pm London time (7am our time) and then had orientation and a brief walking tour of my neighborhood. I live on Gower Street which makes it really easy to get around. The first thing that was unexpected was that none of the girls hairdryers or straighteners work, even with adapters!! We all had to go to Boots, which is a lot like an upscale version of Walgreens, to buy new ones. Luckily they cost a total of 30 pounds. After we all got settled in and unpacked we decided the first to do was hit a true British pub. Half of us went to one called Court that offers 3.95 burgers, chips, and beer. I ordered Strongbow, which was so great because its cider and not beer! All of the guys ordered many rounds so I got to take a sip of each of the different pints they ordered. All in all I am not a huge fan of European beer. Its a little bitter for me and I can't get used to how flat they are. On the upside, the UK's diet coke is so great! Its less sweet than ours and there is almost no sugar. Plus, they serve it in glass bottles which is fantastic.

Day 2 began with a rough start. Nobody slept well because the time differences had us up most of the night. I am absolutely exhausted, but after I write I'm taking a long nap so I can be rested up for grocery shopping and exploring tonight. We did take a tour of the city today and I got to see so many of the places I hope to visit. Number one and two are of course the 5 level Burberry and Harrods. I also really hope to go to a true English tea. We saw the theatre district which just recently started playing Hair again, so I am definitely going to try to and see a show or two. The coolest thing that I saw today was the London Eye, the huge farris wheel at city center. I am so excited to go up in it because you can see Westminster Abbey and the London Bridge. I found out Vampire Weekend is also playing a London show in June so I can't wait for that. So much to do!
My room is great by the way! I love that I don't have a roommate, and somehow I struck gold and was given the largest single out of the group! It is quite odd in the way the rooms differ from the US. There is very little storage, very small closets used mainly for storage not clothing, and the drawers are very small and narrow. Needless to say that is taking some adjusting. The people I am living with are very cool and adventurous so we are beginning to plan trips. We already have one scheduled to Edinburgh in early July and we are planning a boat trip to Amsterdam before that. Brussels and Paris are also quite accessble via the train so those will likely be weekend trips as well. Its amazing how large London is while still remaining so close to other major sites in the UK. I am planning to go to Stonehenge and Cambridge on day trips and taking a quick flight to Ireland which is only about 15 pounds! Rhine Air is so cheap and luckily they fly directly into Dublin's airport! I am all in all so excited for the next few months! One of my best friends Caitie is coming next week to stay with me from Vienna and see London and we are both eager to explore together!

The goal is to give an update of life everyday or two so I will try to stick with that!