Saturday, December 15, 2007

No Longer the Intern

I'm back in the States now. Actually I got in late Thursday night, into Raleigh to spend a few days here with Greg. They trip home wasn't really too terrible, once I got to Amsterdam that is. I had to pay to check a 3rd bag, as what I was planning on being my carry-on was over size and over weight to be a carry-on. They made me rearrange my bags twice to make it all fit and not be severely overweight. Regardless, I still had to pay 140 pounds, or rather $280, to get all my things and gifts back to the States. This is after being told that our taxi was more than the Study Center gave Morgan and I for the taxi and only getting an hour long nap as sleep from the night before. And all of this before 6 am GMT. Once past security it wasn't too bad, even though I sat next to the most inconsiderate man in the world from London to Amsterdam. It was the shortest of the flights though, so not all that bad. My flight from Amsterdam was 10 hours, but it was super smooth and I slept for probably half and watched Ratatouille. Seriously one of the best movies I have ever seen. If you haven't seen it, then do, because it rocks. But anyways. I got an exit row seat on that flight, which meant plenty of room to spread out. The guy next to me was a really chatty fellow and charmed half the stewardesses to get us anything we could want. He was funny and made it easier for me to get through the flight as we all know that I HATE flying with a passion. Got into Memphis alright, Customs was quick and easy. Even though I checked a box (as a second bag, because the box was in the flat and no one else wanted to use it) and it got ripped. TSA said they'd tape it up for me, but they didn't end up doing it. Cheep skates, nothing is missing though, luckily enough. After my relatively short lay over in Memphis we left for Raliegh, and Greg was waiting for me when I got there. Even though the man I sat next to on the Memphis-Raleigh flight was making jokes that he wouldn't be. That guy was pretty cool too, I lucked out with sitting next to friendly but un-creepy people. We actually got into Raleigh 20 minutes early, which was really nice since I'd been in airports for nearly 24 hours at this point in the evening. And with that Greg brought me back to his new awesome apartment and I crashed. I'll be home on Tuesday afternoon, for anyone who was wondering.

This is a bit sad, as it'll be my last post here unless I get the RA position in the Summer. Ah well. It's not really appropriate anymore since I am no longer the American Intern. Or rather no longer an intern and no longer special for being American.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Last Few Days in London

So since the end of work I've been doing nothing but running around like a looney. Christmas presents and touristy things. I unfortunately don't have as many photos as I'd like because my camera decided that it was going to shit out and not work. I can't tell what's wrong with it either because of the busted screen. So any photos I have will be even more delayed than normal, as I have to wait to get them from different people. Which bites, but oh well.
Saturday was spent with Katie and Tracy in the pouring windy rain at the Tower of London. It was an amazingly cool place, with more weapons in one area than I think I have ever seen before. Most probably didn't work anymore, but still. Someone was getting married in the Royal Chapel there on the grounds, so we spent a while trying to figure out who in the Royal family you'd have to be marrying to get hitched there. The crown jewels looked so pretty that I would have sworn they were fake if not for the 2 ft thick door we had to go through and the men big scary men at the entrance and exit. The day was a stereotypical London winter day. Cold, soaking wet and miserable.
Sunday: Shopping and wondering aimlessly through London after waking up at noon.
Monday: Katie gave me a tour of Parliment in the early afternoon, which was really really cool. It's alot smaller inside than you'd think. It's a beautiful building though, as they rebuilt it after the war to look exactly as it had before the massive bombings. Westminster Hall though, the only orginal peice of the building from the King's Palace in the 1100's still stands virtually bomb-damage free. There was a choir in the hall, so we listened to that for a while. I got over to Westminster Abby directly after. It's such a beautiful place. There was a college choir in there too, and they were amazing. I'm not sure how long I spent in there, but goodness I could have listened to them all afternoon. They were setting up Christmas Trees too. All sorts of famous people are burried there, so seeing their graves was really really interesting. Like Chauser and Newton. I wasn't allow to take photos, but as my camera is dead that wasn't too bad for me. After that was shopping and Farewell Dinner with the Flatmates (photos ARE up from that). We made Paper Plate Awards for each other, just like the end of high school. They were all in good fun and everyone loved theirs. I got "The Official Seamstress of the Flat 8 Sweatshop" award. It's quite cute. The place we went to was really nice, even if my knees knocked against the table as it was too low to really eat at. The food was amazing, Moroccan, which none of us had eaten before. So tasty! We had a loud group of Spaniards next to us, and they were fun too. They were celebrating just moving to London and we were celebrating leaving.
Yesterday: Finished shopping, got to walk around Camden Town. It's one of my favorite places to go, a big flea market area with a ton of interesting things to look at and people. And really cheep chickpea curry. Last night I went to the SOT London performance. It was nice to see what all my Theatre friends had be working on all week. Then I packed. For a very long time. I think I went to bed at 2ish?
Today has been... interesting. Emma woke me up at 5am, because the taxi company was on the phone. They starting telling me how I needed to get downstairs because they'd be waiting for nearly and HOUR! Then I told them the that's because the taxi is for THURSDAY, not Wednesday. They finally realized that the taxi is for tomorrow morning and hung up. No apology to Emma or I. Effers. I promptly went back to sleep, only to be awoken by Cassie asking me if I wanted to get up to go with Katie to Portobello Road. Hell I didn't know if Katie was home, so I just said"nooooooooo..." and attempted to stay in bed as late as possible. Which wasn't too late, as I had to go to the main office to get my taxi money and take the big group photo. The group photo went well.. ish... One of the Resident Assistants got us all on the wrong train and we had to turn around and try to catch a train in the opposite direction. It mainly just wasted a lot of time. I think the photo went well, even if a number of kids didn't show. After photo time was big farewell lunch time. That was pretty fun, and has made me realize that it really is Christmas time. I can finally feel it. Missing Thanksgiving really messes up my internal Christmas Time timer. Now we're back, napping before Katie and I go out to see We Will Rock You a musical based on the music of Queen. When I get back from that I'll pack up the rest of my things like pjs and tooth brushes and get ready to really say good bye to my lovely London flat.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Last Day of Work

Yesterday was my last day of working at the Costume Shop. This makes me very sad. I even cried a little on the way home. It was a really slow week, not much to do really. I spent the work day taking my tiger mask off the mannequin head and plastering it to make it super strong. Now of course it doesn't fit your head, but Adrian said it wasn't a big deal. It really will be an easy fix. I am damn proud of that tiger mask, even if it is a bit cutesy for a soccer mascot called "The Terror!" Then after lunch it turned into play time because there is literally nothing to be done. We got a package containing fabric and a photo of Lyonell Richie from his music video All Night Long. So in order to see the photo better Ginny, Anna and I looked up the video. We died laughing at how totally, painfully '80s it was. Then I taught Ginny something very deadly to all of those whose computers she gets a hold of. How to change auto-correct options in all Microsoft programs. We spent nearly an hour playing around with that. Changing words like and to auto correct to arse, or but to buttikins. Then Adrian brought cake and bubbly wine. It was really nice of them, and kind of strange too, because the night before I was telling Cassie how I'd be happy with just having cake with all of them before I left. So we had cake, told silly stories and drank the bubbly wine. They gave me books as a going away present too, both of which are amazingly awesome. One was Fasion from 1800 to 1940 which is a book of fashion plates, and the second was a book of designs by a turn of the century Russian designer, Bakst. They are both beautiful books, I love them so! I'm going to miss that place so much. They've made me promise to come and visit if I get the RA job here next summer, which I would have done regardless. I cried a little on my way home to Waterloo.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

While waiting

I'm actually taking advantage of the school offered computer labs here for once. It's crazy. Really I'm just waiting for Cassie to get back from her expedition down to the Somerset House before galloping off to see Rhinocerus put on by the Royal Court. I was supposed to go for class on Thursday but woman flu set in and I was lucky to get home without killing something. Work hasn't been too crazy interesting, they have me cataloguing a bunch of old fabrics from the turn of the century for Adrian's fabric shop in Soho. It's taken me 3 days already and I've still got another one ahead of me. There are some peices that it makes me sad to cut, because the fabric is just so pretty and fragile. Others I can't wait to drop into the done pile because the feel so nasty and smell so bad.
Cassie's here. Post more later in the weekend.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Hilley & Co.

This past weekend was the busiest I've been in a long while. Russ, Hilley and a bunch of others came into town. They all got into London Wednesday morning and I was hanging out with them until late late late Sunday night. I did work Wednesday and Thursday a bit, only a half day Thursday really. Other than that it was hang out with them until about 3 am, come home, go to sleep and get up at 8 to do it all again. I brought Sara with me when I could as she went on a London trip with Hilley a few years ago and really wanted to meet up with them. When we could James, Casey and I split off from the group as we had a few people slowing us down a lot. I didn't realize how quickly I walk now until they all got here. I apparently walk very very quickly now, as does everyone in this city, especially in the Tube. We ran around Portabello Road Market, Covent Gardens, The Tate Modern, the Globe, the British Museum, the British Library and Harrod's. The British Library has the coolest free exhibit, with all of these originals of things like Handel's Messiah (an Original) and ancient religious texts. Harrod's was way too much for me. Huge and packed and way too many people moving around and too much to see, none of which i could afford. We had 2 hours to run around in there and most of us ended up down the street at the sammich shop an hour in. It was a great group that came with Hillley, a most of which I knew and had traveled with before. A few I hadn't and called me Mia's Sister. All in all though, it was a calm trip for a Russ trip. Lots of shopping. Lots of eating at dinner time. We ate amazing food every night and I spent more money on food in the past week than I think I have all semester. Really. But it was awesome and so was the company. I'm sad that they only got to stay for such a short time. They'll have photos up on photobucket some where and I'll probably steal a bunch to put on my Picasa.

On a completely different note I've got only 2 weeks left here in London~! It's finally hit me that all I really want to do is go home for a visit and come back to London. I love this city so much. I really don't want to leave. Honestly I'm thinking of applying to be an RA here over the summer, as they are looking for one. I really don't want to leave. Work may be a bit slow, Greg may be far away, but damnit... I fit in this city. No need for a car, automatic exercize, friendly people, terrible weather (but I can learn to deal with that). So Dad, you won the bet. I don't want to come home.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Hey guys....

The past week has been a bit of a whorl wind, I've been getting out more often. Just last week I went to two plays, out to pubs or clubs on two separate nights, went to a museum and a (failed) picnic in Hyde Park. Compared to the fact that normally I just sit at home on my laptop most of the time it's quite astounding. And that's my long winded excuse as to why I haven't posted more about Paris.
The plays I saw where Casanova by Told by Idiots (yes, that's the name of the Theatre Company) and Wicked. They were painfully bad and amazing in that respective order. Casanova had the chance to be so amazing and say so much about society as they cast Casanova as a woman and not a man. It tried to be too many things at once, ended up just being entirely too vague, strange and to top it all off spoken in 5 languages. It ended up being more of a performance piece barely, if at all, related to the memoirs of Casanova. Wicked though, amazing. Cute, smart, nothing at all like the book, fun... Musical. MOM: DON'T READ THE NEXT SENTENCE! The flying monkeys were frigging frightening. Seriously. OK MOM YOU'RE GOOD!
Going out consisted of drinks at the pub, and on Saturday night Cassie, Katie and I went out to a jazz club and drank wine. I am never drinking that much wine again. I just want that to be known. The cover was really quite pricey for the place, but the music and wine was good. We may go again, but when the cover is cheaper. It was specially high because the jazz performer was there as part of the BBC Jazz Festival this past weekend. This was all after the failed Hyde Park Picnic Adventure. It was too rainy, wet, and cold to deal with. Cassie and the boys played American football, and Katie and I left to go shopping for shoes. I managed to stay new shoe free, though I am definitely going to need a new pair of sneakers. These are near dead. She did show me a really awesome wine bar that I have to go back to just so I can get photos of it.
Sunday was the V&A with Cassie, to see the Golden Age of Couture exhibition. Well that was the intent. We didn't end up going to the exhibition, as we were told that it was going to be 10 pounds. It turns out that its really 5, so I may end up going back to see it. That museum has to be my favorite one so far. It has an amazing amount of information and things without being completely overwhelming.
The weather here is finally fulfilling the stereotype of what everyone tells you that British Weather is like. Cold, wet and just not happy. Blah, just in time for Hillley and Co getting into town. They'll actually be here in the morning, which I am super excited about. Mainly because they are bringing me goldfish crackers! MMMMMMM!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Paris

I wasn't too very excited when I was packing for Paris, even before I learned that I was going to have to pack all of my belongings up. I dunno, I'd never really wanted to go to Paris as I'd not heard amazing things about the people or atmosphere of the city, just nice things about the monuments. Really though, in all honesty I did not meet one person who was anything ruder than indifferent. Plenty of people who could care less, but no one went out of their way to be mean, and in fact most people where really nice. We traveled by Chunnel Train to Paris. Trains are my new favorite form of travel, and yes I know that they crash more than planes, but I just feel much more comfortable traveling across the ground rather than the sky. The train wasn't one of the new super fast trains, those started this week, but it still it didn't take too long to get there. When we got to Paris we were immediately shuffled onto a bus for a 3 hour long bus tour. It was fairly interesting and informative. Like to the fact that Marie Antoinette was beheaded across the square from where Louis the 16th was beheaded because the ground under the guillotine was becoming unstable as it was over saturated with blood and the rotting bodies where obscuring the view of the platform. Gross, but interesting. We did this long, sleepy tour because we couldn't check into our hotel . Everyone fell asleep by the end of it, me just long enough towards the end to not know where in Paris compared to everything else our hotel was located. When we all awoke at the hotel we got checked in and up to our rooms. You were automatically sitting next to on the train and rooming with your roommate from the study center, and as Emma stayed behind, that meant Cassie was sharing the room with me. Yay! The room was TINY. Not unlivable, but if you had tensions with your roommate the people in the hall would be able to feel it, because there was no room for it inside. But as we were only really in there to sleep it wasn't bad. Cassie and I ended up hanging out in there for a short time before heading out to dinner before the guided tour of the Louvre by one of the art history Professors from the study center. A number of us went, which is never good with me. I'm not fond of groups larger than four, as they tend to include more than one annoying person and no one will make a decision that the rest of the group will all unanimously agree on. Of course this happens when were are all cranky and hungry. Finally choosing a place that had a menu in English we sat down to one of the most strained meals I've ever had. The food was all pretty good, it was the company. Some times there are people you have in your life that you like alright, for small amounts of time and there is never any reason in the world that you want to have two of them in the same place at the same time. This is because you know they will feed off each other's annoying qualities. Which is what happened. I was about to punch someone. But we ate quickly enough and scooted off the Louvre without incident. We saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, an a bunch of other amazing pieces. It really made me sad that we ended up powering by a lot of wonderful art, but I'm telling you after 3 hours of walking around in there and not covering more than one wing I was art-ed out. I really didn't care anymore, which I acknowledge is sad. There was really just too much there to take it all in. They say that it would take someone years to look in to each and every peice in the Louvre. That and I plan on using it as an excuse to go back some day.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Return from Paris

I got in from Paris about 8pm my time Saturday night. I must say that I throughly enjoyed Paris, and hope to go again with a little more time. Four days is fairly long, but I feel as though I barely scratched the surface of everything available to do there. The food was amazing, the people were all very patient and very nice, and the company was top notch. I spent yesterday captioning, tagging, and uploading my photos to various places. Facebook has a good number, but my Picasa page has all of them. Even the repeats, as I am fond of taking five pictures of the same thing. I used both of my camera cards and had about 500 photos on them. A lot I deleted or were from other things like Emerald Banquet or Lake Ella (also posted up this morning for anyone who wanted them). Well about a hundred were. The others I've sifted through, leaving just about 350 photos that are of decent quality and clarity. I'll go into detail about my trip when I get home from work and the play Casanova tonight. Note to self: Get the new Casanova BBCTV series, as it is hillarious. We watched most of the first episode in class today.
Ok! Off to work!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Paris in the morning...

but I'm still pissed. Cassie realized yesterday that her bed had bed bugs, and last night so did mine. This is because 4 floors up two flats had bed bugs. And when they are flushed out of one flat the survivors apparently migrate down. Meaning out our first floor flat. So now WE have them. And that is why I am pissed. This means that on top of packing for Paris tonight I have to pack all of my belongings away into my suitcases and leave them in the living room so that they can spray the crap out of the bed room and the couches.Of course, this is a result of their useless bug bombing yesterday while we were all at work. Until I got here to London I thought bed bugs were a MYTH, a story to scare dirty little kids. But no, and the bites hurt like spider bites. Oh, and Ralph the Kitchen mouse is back. >.< This is why old buildings need to die or be made of not vermin friendly material. Now excuse me as I pack and itch myself to the point of bloody.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Back to the Model Comp

On Saturday we left Glasgow at the early early noon to set off for Sheffield. It was a gloriously beautiful day out, you could see the Scottish Highlands as we drove south. They looked to me just like the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. It was so mesmerizing though... it lulled me to sleep. Just in time too, as every coach I've gotten on lately has given me a horrible nauseating headache. I spent a good 4 of the 6 hour coach ride asleep or attempting to sleep. We did stop once, at the most beautiful rest stop I've ever seen. Really this country is just too green and beautiful to have people stay in the city the whole time. It is also covered in sheep. Cassie and I took a ton of photos of the lake and land behind the rest stop but it really doesn't do the area justice. After our short stop we climbed back on the bus to watch Zoolander with a group of models. The male models choose it. If you don't know, the movie is about a male model and does nothing but make fun of the industry and stereotypes that models are put in. They boys were the ones laughing the hardest. I'd never seen it before, but I liked it alright for a movie that is nothing but dumb the whole way through (Not near as painfully so as the Ballad of Ricky Bobby). We got into Sheffield late, but the hotels were ready for us. The coach ride was only supposed to be 4 hours and ended up being 6. We'd gotten in just in time for us to throw our bags upstairs, run out for Chinese and then pop into a pub to watch the very disappointing England vs South Africa rugby final. England had some great plays, but gave up after a goal-unit ( still unsure of the name) was taken from them on a technicality. That was at about half time, the crowd gave up around 3/4 of the way through the game. It wasn't even a good game, really. It didn't help that the refs were from the Republic of Ireland, so there was no chance for love there. There was a crazy lady sitting behind Cassie and I during the game too. We were standing behind a couch and had been before she sat behind us. She got up and asked Cassie to move several times even though the pub was too packed to go anywhere. We did our best to oblige her, but nothing was good enough. Then at half time she jumped up, shot forward and stood staring face to face with Jess, one of the models. She just smiled a scary smile then ran back to her chair, saying nothing. Jess was kinda creeped out, needless to say. We all walked the half a block home from the Old Monk where we'd been watching to our hotel all a little disheartened.
Early the next morning we went down to the Sheffield mall, where the bags were nice and close. Cassie and I were even close enough with our table and goodie bags to watch the show! This of course meant that during the show we had to yell over the music or talking on stage. The modeling agency actually did their best in Sheffield apparently, calling over near 30 girls in the 2 hours we were open. We had to shut down early because we ran out of goodie bags, even though we still kept taking applications until 3. Cassie and I got to walk around the mall a bit, but not too much because we had to go straight to Manchester that evening.
Mmmmm Manchester. The hotel was pretty damn amazing in Manchester. This is where we had the £900 credit for food at the hotel. Which between the two nights we consumed wholly, with champagne to top it off. That was the only good thing about all of Manchester for us. The first night we were there Cassie and I stayed in, as both of us had massive headaches from the coach ride that day. Everyone else who decided to go apparently went out to Canal St, famous for being full of gay bars. One of the boys didn't realize this, and I wish I had been there just to see his face. It would have been hilarious. They all had a good time though. Which was good, because the mall in Manchester was terrible. The mall manager would disappear for hours on end and wouldn't let us take the full number of boxes of goodie bags. This created a great, big mess. Cassie spent the entirety of the day running back and forth carrying boxes from the basement onto the mall floor to keep the table stocked. The mall offered no help, and the line was a big fat mess of a disneying line. The girl who was helping me with the photos thankfully wasn't the incompetent one. Another annoyance was the fact that it was near impossible to get up to the green room, as it was pass locked with only one pass to get through. They finally just opened the door in the last hour we were there. When we got back to our hotel dead tired Cassie and I each took naps before getting all dressed up for the worst evening of the trip. It started off very well, with the modeling agent Cesar telling me that he loved my outfit. That comment made my evening. We had a really long amazing dinner, then headed out to a club. This club was supposed to be TigerTiger, a very posh popular club. But we couldn't get in. So we went to a club around the corner that ended up being so horrible I can't even remember the name. It smelt terrible. HORRIBLE. The people were mean, they shoved you at every opportunity and I even got hit by a beer bottle when someone threw it at me. The music was random, sometimes good, sometimes weird. I didn't drink any while I was there, and that may have been the only way to make this club acceptable. Good God I was glad when we left. Also there was a minor panic attack across the crew because one of the bands had to withdraw from the tour... for personal reasons. It really sucked as the were generally a good group of guys. Bonus though? Minus IQ got to switch out with them and they are even better than the band who dropped the night before the show. Check out their MySpace as they generally rock my socks off, and by the way, sound warning.
The next day we headed out to our last stop before home, Norwich. Norwich was the most amazing place ever. When we got there the mall security had everything set up for us. Absolutely everything. Bags and all. The green room rocked out socks off, being perfectly located at the lift right next to us at goodie bag centeral. We were close enough to the stage to hear what was going on in the show, but no so close our ear drums wanted to die. Amazingly enough, we ran out of goodie bags by 1:30. An hour and a half after opening the line and we had no goodie bags. And every one of the girls where nice. Except for one overly pushy mother whom I wanted to deck for being snotty. All in all a really good way to end the trip portion of the Model Comp.
The bus ride home is another story. We left Norwich a little after noon and we didn't get into London until near 7. It was terrible. The models were loud the entire time and the traffic was backed up for miles on the motorways because of road work. :( Not nice. Jamie the world's best bus driver got us home safe though.
Thursday I slept and did minimal grocery shopping. That was all I was good for.
Basingstoke was so terrible I'm not sure I can post about it without going into a rage again. It started off that we had to be on the coach leaving London at 7 am. Which for Cassie and I means leaving at 6:30 am from our flat. Then sitting on a coach for a while, which wasn't bad, but then we got there. Our green room was a broken down disused shop. We were shoved into the tiniest space in the mall, and then finally given a better green room in which no one was allowed to talk above a whisper. At the end of the day we were told we had to have everything out of the green room by 3:30 or it would all be thrown out onto the street. A lot of Angry Mothers live there with Entitled Fathers. I was livid at the way we were treated. Really, I'm pretty sure Sucrose is never going back there. It was especially terrible after our awesome treatment in Norwich.
Watford was the absolute last stop on our tour. I have never seen a nicer green room. Free hot chocolate/tea/coffee machine and bottled water in a fridge. Huge room! Ah! The hotel manager was so helpful and sweet. The day went really slowly though, as they had never done it in Watford before. There was a time specifically where I wanted to punch Incompetent-Face in the face, but refrained. Really the day went well until the end where I got shouted at by an angry security guard for not saving him a bag or two. Twice. He wouldn't even shut up when we offered him on that we had been given for ourselves. Then when we left, he stole it. Not a nice guy. Then we were back home by dinner time and we helped unload the bus and said our goodbyes. I got a ton of free makeup and things. Most every one I worked with was super sweet and helpful. They've invited me to stop by the office anytime and I'm Facebook friends with all of them. Cassie and I have hung out with the Minus IQ boys once and are hoping to go to one of their concerts before we leave for home.
But that was my 10 day break in all it's glory. Dispite was the time stamp on this says, tomorrow I leave for Paris so I should have some good stories about that when I get back. For now: Sleep.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Weekend Update

Well this was a very productive weekend for Touristy-London-Things. Cassie and I spent Saturday morning going to Abbey Road and taking crazy photos. Those were really taken on Abbey Road, with different color sweaters and we're both barefoot on the correct one. We weren't the only ones doing it either, but we couldn't get a head on shot because there was a lot of traffic. The fact that we got all 8 shots without too many cars blocking was a miracle. Tiffany is also the most awesome friend ever, using her amazing photo shop skills to put all four pictures of me together into one.
After nearly getting run over 12 times Cassie and I proceeded to 221b Baker St. The non-existent address of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Apparently Doyle went up and down Baker St to make sure that the address didn't really exist so that no one would be bothered by people trying to get in touch with Sherlock Holmes. Years later (think 1950's) a bank was built at that address and was so flooded by people looking for Mr Holmes that they had to hire a separate secretary to tell people that he wasn't real. She apparently felt so bad that she ended up telling people he'd just gone into retirement and handed them a list of other real private detectives they could hire. We did get to go into the touristy museum to see the recreated flats of Watson and Holmes. We got to play with a lot of things in there too which made things a ton of fun.
Cassie and I then ended our day with delicious pasties and Harry Potter dorkiness by visiting King's Cross Station and Platform 9/4 which is not between Platforms 9 and 10 as there is nothing physically separating them, but the archway next to the entrance to platforms 9, 10 and 11. Again we weren't the only ones doing it, but it was still fun.
In the evening we attempted to go watch fireworks for Guy Fox Day, which is actually tomorrow, but that failed fairly miserably. We got lost when we were there, missed 75% of the fireworks and got on the wrong bus home. Thankfully we were dumped near a tube stop on the correct direct line to get us home so we were able to get back that way. But really the evening was a bust.
Today I helped Katie film a short video for her campaign for being VP of her sorority. We had fun making signs and going out to film in front of Big Ben and Parliament. I swear Emma, Katie and I filmed it 20 times before we got one down right without Katie accidentally deleting it or me flipping out signs upside down while attempting to hide behind Katie. We had a mini audience, the people in the park across from Parliament and the protesters. Afterwards Katie bought Emma and I lunch at a pub called The Silver Cross, very packed and very good food.
The rest of the day all five of us have just sat around the flat and cleaned a bit. Next week we go to Paris for 5 days. Exciting! And a weekish after that Hilley and Co will be here in London for Thanksgiving Break. Not too terrible long left here in London, and that makes me a little sad. I've gotta get on my list of things I still need to do!

Friday, November 2, 2007

Henges and other impressive things

So today I am posting about my wonderful trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury, photos for which are up and captioned. Stone henge was amazing, though admittedly smaller than I figured it would be. Still very impressive and ooooOOOOooooo. I have always been fascinated by it and was very sad to see that you can't walk up to and inside of it. I really wanted to touch it, even if legend says that it has magical powers to make you very fertile. Apparently people used to chip of peices and power it up to drink it as a potion used to make people have more babies in Victorian times. I took alot of photos of Stonehenge, though the one with the sunrays is my favorite. My SLR decided to be annoying and lock it self up so I need to go to the photo shop to get it checked out. It's not too big of a deal it just made me a bit sad. We stayed for about an hour at Stonehenge before heading to Salisbury.
Salisbury is a cute little town. They have the most legible copy of the Magna Carta, which I got to see, but not take any photos of. It was all in Latin so I couldn't read it anyways, but still very impressive. Salisbury Cathedral is very beautiful and huge, lots of stained glass windows. Graves in the floor, which I always hate, because the idea of standing on someone's grave bothers me. There is apparently a man burried there who was supposedly lost at sea, so his wife got engaged, then he showed up at the door on the night of her new engagement party. The next day he came down with a sickness and died. When workers opened his tomb hundreds of years later, around twenty years ago, a mouse climbed in and nibbled on his carcas. It died. Suprise, suprise he was murdered by poisin the night he returned from supposedly being shipwrected. We went for lunch at a rather expensive, but really good pub called The Haunch of Venicine. Where supposedly the found a man cheating at cards so they cut off his hand and bricked it into the wall. The food was good and we left with all limbs attached, we being Sara, Travis and I. We went to the bus after that and home. Now I'm home, and it has really not been too eventful.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Glasgow: One week later.

So enough dilly-dallying around! Time for some serious posting!
Let's start at the beginning: Thursday Oct 18
Trip to the airport started us off at a bright and early (only not so) 6:30 in the morning to get on the Tube to get on an overground train to get the bus to get us to the airport by 9 am. It was fairly uneventful getting there and even on to the plane, though I did meet almost everyone Cassie works with in that span of check in and boarding which made it kind of confusing when trying to figure out who people were later. The flight was amazingly short and smooth, I barely had time to realize we were in the air and freak out. We got to walk around Glasgow a bit once we got there because our hotel rooms weren't going to be ready for a few hours. They held our bags for us though, which was nice. Downtown was just a few blocks from our Hotel so we all headed out to get something to eat. After trying several places to seat 18 people we end up splitting up, Cassie, Aoibhean (Ee-Bv-an), Erika, Michelle and I ended up eating at a Spanish "Tapas" restaurant that was pretty tasty. Note: Tapas just means little appetizer sized dinner things that you are supposed to order like 3 of each I have Cassie begging me to make a Tortilla now because I got her to try one there. After lunch Cassie and I meandered around downtown Glasgow for a few hours before going back to the hotel for a quick rest before trekking out to find the Pizza Express. Which we walked 3 sides of a square to find. We were late, but we found it, enjoyed our pizza and most of us went home. It really wasn't that eventful, the next day though, that was crazy. Friday started my first, most people's second, Model Comp event. We got up early, had a hotel breakfast and all packed into the coach (bus). The mall we get too is really really nice, big open area with a glass roof and the goodie bag pallets are right next to the elevator. This is very important, as we discovered the boxes used to ship the goodie bags were not strong enough most times to actually hold what was packed in them, so they would crush or tear if you looked at them wrong. This naturally made it very difficult to carry. So Cassie and I found ways to worm out of it. We had to make Jeff's scripts and go sandwich shopping for the crew. By sandwich shopping I mean going into Marks & Spenser (think a step above JC Penny's but with a food store) and get 30 pre-made sandwiches of all varieties and bring them back along with at least 12 2-liter bottles of water. Pre-made sandwiches here are delicious, even if you have to HUNT for one that does not have mayo or a soft cheese on it. During this and most of our time working we were followed by the most incompetent and rude person in the group, who shall remain nameless. She made Cassie and I both feel very angry and unappreciated throughout the trip even when we had done twice the work she had. On more than one occasion she was snappy for no reason other than she was hung over and over bearing. I threatened to Cassie to stop working if her attitude didn't change, that's how bad she was. Thankfully we weren't the only ones who had problems with her and everyone in charge knew that. But back to Glasgow. I really felt bad for some of the girls who walked through the line, they seemed so hopeful to get scouted, but there was no way in hell that they would be models. This is coming from someone who will also never be a model, not even a plus sized one. I had to herd a number of girls past their tall chosen friend to stand beyond to wait for her when they would all pool up behind her waiting for their scouting. It literally left me feeling like the I'd just told them that Santa was dead or something like that. Not that too many girls in Glasgow got scouted. It was a rough town, which typically means rough looking people. Some of the girls were pushing baby carriages and you know that the baby inside was their's. This was a competition for 13-17 year old girls. A number had tattoos and badly done piercings, or where just plain missing teeth. Really some of them would have been quite pretty if they just took a squeegee to their face and got off the 2 inches of makeup they were wearing badly. Cassie stopped two girls who looked 14 easily with their height, clothes and makeup. They were 11. It made me want to dry inside, as there is no way I'm letting any 11 year old I ever have try to grow up that fast. I really like my mom's rule of one type of make up at a time starting at 13. Start with eye shadow, at fourteen get blush, and so on until you know... 16 when you start going to high school dances and really it's not crazy to wear. I'm not saying that you're a bad parent if you let your little girl wear makeup, just don't make her grow up too fast, you'll miss her. Anyways, there weren't many girls coming through and we ended up staying an hour after we were supposed to close, sending many a 8 year old through with a suspicious glance and a goodie bag, we finally closed up with an extra 100 or so goodie bags still in boxes behind us. We loaded everything back onto the bus and headed back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner. At this point Cassie and I got gussied up like no other to go out with everyone after more Pizza Express. We found the second Pizza Express much easier with 7 goodie bags in hand for our servers, managers and whom ever when we got there as we had a group of 26 people to seat and feed. Every one there was happy to have really started the tour and Cassie and I made friends with Xavier, one of the makeup artist. He and I ended up splitting 2 and a half bottles of wine before we left, making the evening quite entertaining. Dinner took a while because of the size of our group but it was all good fun. We left dinner to proceed to a beautiful Victorian building with a really cool little bar inside. Soho Bar, I think it was called. They played great music and I learned something important. American's dance like hookers. Feet planted, butt shaking. English? Think 1980's swinging arms and touch-steps. It's pretty difficult to try and change your style of dancing after 5 or so glasses of wine at dinner but Cassie and I managed it by the end of the evening. Everyone had a lot of fun, especially as we practically ran the bar. I didn't drink any at the bar because I didn't bring any cash with me, but it was kind of nice to sober up a bit before attempting to get home. When we all did decide to leave we tried to get a taxi for the 6 of us that were all going together. Cassie called a cab over and it's sat 5. So what does she do? She shoves us all in a taxi and walks off by herself! She literally shoved me in the taxi and shut the door, then made sure the taxi left before I could turn around and get out. I didn't want her walking home alone, but it ended up working out as she escorting two of our tiny female models home a block from where she shoved us in a taxi. I ended up waiting for her in the lobby of the hotel until she got home. But she got home safe and sound. We left for Sheffeild the next morning.

Friday, October 26, 2007

NOOOOO!

my turtle broke! the little stem holding him on the chain just broke in half today! i am devistated.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

**Names changed protect the innocent

I'm back from the first leg of the Sucrose/ Remmil** makeups tour. Updates on their way as we speak.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Ten Day Break! Exciting!

Tomorrow begins my ten day break. Really that's a day early, but I'm spending it with Cassie working a Modeling Competition all over England. Actually our first stop is in Glasgow, then to Sheffield followed by Manchester and then Norwich before a day off home in London. After that there are two smaller day trip things to cities I can't remember.
*** Because I will be traveling I will have very limited use of a computer, as such I won't be on AIM or Skype from here until Wednesday. I will try to check my email every or every other day. ***
Work was very, very , very slow this week. Adrian is in Holland and no one knows when he'll be back. Without him there isn't much work to be done. Though yesterday I spend the day turning a manikin into a dress form. That was actually a lot of fun and it involved power tools. I felt very proud when I was done. Chris is going to hopefully show me how to cover it in linen when I get back from break. Monday I spent in Shepard's Bush with Ginny looking for fabrics for a mermaid costume they are working on. She told me that it seemed like I was the one who had lived in London for 20 years, not her as she was very confused by the tubes we had to take to get out there. She hadn't ever been out to the shops there. It was actually kinda cool, because for once the shop keepers weren't all snooty. They generally are because they think I'm so little fashion student looking for free samples, when really I'm a work-study kid looking for free samples. I ended up staying up way WAY past my bed time last night as I had a paper due this morning. And I'm a terrible terrible procrastinator. But it got done and now I'm off to bed so that I can be well rested for tomorrow's journey. Which starts at 6:20 tomorrow morning. Gag me.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

So remember how I said my day Friday was interesting....

It just got weirder.
It all started with Alicia, Morgan and I getting all gussied up and attempting to find a bar or club we hadn't been to going to like crazy before the covers started. As we are cheap and refuse to pay cover. We ended walking around, getting badly hit on by 3 different men all trying entirely too hard to score with us. Alicia made the deadly mistake of attempting to be nice in telling them to go away. By nicely I mean by making eye contact, attempting to talk to them and not saying flat out that she wasn't interested or ignoring them outright like Morgan and I. They obviously had some liquid courage in them, and where rather persistent. That is until I gave them the Evil Eye of Doom (r). They left quickly after that. We ended up just stopping by a store, picking up some cider and going back to Morgan and Alicia's flat. Where Alicia proceeded to get Scwasted as she puts it. And that she did. Much tomfoolery happened. It was a fun evening, but no pictures where taken. Which really is better for Alicia, as she was not in a good state to have photos taken of her. Even if they were just to help her remember. I ended up going back to my flat just as she was getting sick and Shane and Willie are heroes because of how they helped Morgan and Paula take care of Alicia.
Saturday I went shopping with Morgan, bought a few things like a denim skirt and cute hoodie, and a few other things. Mainly just had a bonding day with my favorite Morgan. I helped her find a cheapish hotel for her and her boyfriend to stay in when he comes to visit that was close to the study center. After we went to a pub to watch the best rugby game ever. Watching England beat France and the Beast go down!( He's the guy in blue.) He's friggin scary, a caveman. Google French beast and you'll see who I mean. He's vicious on the field too. It was intense game. England own the semifinals and the finals will be played next weekend, while I'm in Glasgow with Cassie. Which maybe a little dangerous, as the Scots don't like the English. But I'm watching that game!
Today I slept in late, was generally pretty lazy. Morgan and I went to the Barbican to see their new exhibit, Seduced: Sex in Art from Antiquity to Modern Day, with the special event of a live quartet playing classically inspired soundtrack for them. The music was great, a lot of Spanish tango and similar music with Bach and Mozart mixed in. It was really awesome. It wasn't too long, but really really interesting.
Over all a really good weekend, even if not too eventful. Next week brings Model Comp, which means a lot of traveling and not much internet time. I'll explain more tomorrow for now, sleep. Night guys.

Friday, October 12, 2007

CRAZY Friday

Woah man! I showed up at work at 9 this morning, after leaving everyone still working at 7 last night, and everyone was there like they had never left. I was working non-stop (except for my 20 minute lunch) from the moment I got there until 5. Hand sewing, pinning, moving things, packing, counting, and other such jobs. It was a mad rush to get two shows out of the shop today, one had to be done by 3 as Boss had a plane to Holland and it had to go with him. The second was at 5, and it was the last of that show and I was in charge of finishing it up. 30 men's coronation robes, 8 Dukes, 10 Viscounts and 12 lower....guys.... I don't remember the name. All of them had to be assembled and finished. That was my job, the finishing. Finishing is trimming all the seams, tacking down the edges, and generally making sure everything looks nice and professional. In this case I had to fluff seams in fur (yes, more effing fur) and tack down the collar of the fur half of the robe over the stitching for the ties so they didn't look machine made. Time consuming and not very exciting. And dangerous to finger tips. I had to clean one of the robes today because I stuck my finger and didn't realize it was bleeding until the blood was on the robe. Thankfully the fur was fake and plastic is easy to clean. Still annoying though, especially as I proceeded to do the same thing minus the getting it on the robe 4 more times. Over all it was interesting to meet the new people they brought in just for the day and see every single person in the place on a sewing machine or at a cutting table working. Even Ginny who I had no idea even knew how to work a machine. Not that I didn't think she was capable, I'd just only ever really seen her walk through and work on her computer. It was really kinda cool. Once 5 hit though, everything stopped. Well, everything was done. Today was the first day in weeks where we reached a stopping point before dark. Which! comes at 6... in the span of 5 minutes. There is no transition, it's like someone flips a switch! It freaks me out! and this just started happening this week. Last week the sun would go down during my tube ride home, so it seemed like it would take longer.... I guess. I dunno, it just didn't bother me. I'm not sure why this does really. Anyways, I've no food in the fridge. So forage for food I must. Off!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Happy 4 Years to Greg and Me

Quote of the Day: "Well it's good for a woman to have a soft job like Theatre, you know, not a real job like men are supposed to have."
Gee Thanks. Make me feel good about myself. Ass.
I heard that from one of the fabric store owners that I visited today. I'm the company go-fer at the moment, but it's good because I'm learning London better. It's actually kinda cool to walk around with a big roll of fabric and a bag of notions feeling all important. Though they do seem to enjoy sending me out for the fabric that *no one* in London has. EVER.
************
ok, typing over. i just burnt the back of my hand on the oven door. I'm gunna go nurse that.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Brighton!

Hooray for Day Trips!
Today's trip was to the picturesque sea side beach town of Brighton!
Ok, never tell a Floridian kid that a bunch of wet rocks that happen to be on the edge of the water is a beach. It was a fairly pretty little city though, with the Royal Pavilion and the Brighton Pier. We toured the Royal Pavilion, but weren't allowed photos inside. :( Sad face. It was amazing in there though, Indian-esque on the outside and Chinese on the inside. With dragons and snakes all over the place, and the most beautiful wall hangings. It took along time to get through it, even though the Pavilion wasn't very big by Palace standards. After that I ate lunch with Bama, Travis, Courtney, Hannah and Rachel. We played on the "beach" for a while, fascinated by the stones and crystal clear water. Imagine, the Atlantic looking like the Gulf. No lie. We eventually made it over to the Pier that everyone was comparing to Conney Island. Having never been there it just reminded me of a permanent clean State Fair. I didn't ride any of the rides, not my thing, but I got a few good shots of others riding them. We didn't stay too long as we had to be on the bus by 3:30. I wish we'd had a little longer, even an hour more to stay. It was really just a little short. The bus ride was terrible though, so bad one girl got motion sick, and I nearly did too. I don't get car sick. Gah. But now I'm home, with work in the morning and pictures to caption.

Yesterday Cassie, Crystal and I spent a few short hours at the British Museum. We say the Asian countries, and we're planning on going back to see at least the African ones as well. They let you take photos in there too! So I have a feeling I'm going to have a MILLION! I already have near 100 from our short 2 hours there. Greg, there is a photo of a full Samurai suit of armor that I thought you would love. Enjoy.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Religion in Ireland

Sunday was a much more relaxed day for us. We got up a little early as we had decided to go to Mass Sunday morning at the Cathedral right near our hostel. Little did we know it was a Latin Mass with readings in English. The service itself was beautiful and uplifting, all about how God grants each person talents and how they should strive to use them for the good of the world. The boy's choir was amazing, they had apparently recorded a CD recently that was getting rave reviews all over the world. But before the service I had a very surreal experience. My grandmother died a few years ago, and due to summer classes I chose to not go see her at her death bed. It was a decition that I haven't really forgiven myself for ever since. A year later I went to Rome on a trip and started a ritual of my own. If I go into church and it has offertory candles I light one in memory of my grandmother. It's just what I do, and I hadn't explained this to anyone in my group, or anyone around me. I just noticed on my way into the cathedral that the candles where there. After my group set down I left my bag with them and went to the back. As I was kneeling to say my respects a woman comes up to me and puts her hand on my shoulder. "Today is her day" is all that she said to me before she lit a candle herself and kneeled down. At that I broke down in tears. For once though they were not tears of sadness, but relief and almost joy. I have no idea how she knew what to say, or even if she knew the weight of what she said. I was still in a strange state when we left so that is one place I forgot to take photos of.

Ireland Part Deux!

So one full week later I finally get around to this. I left off at the end of Friday night, right? Right. Saturday morning we got up bright and early to get on the bus that takes you to Limerick where we were going to change buses to go to the Cliffs of Moher. We had a slight freak out as we nearly missed the bus out of Dublin, but we didn't and had a fairly comfortable four hour bus trip. When we get to Limerick we realize there is something wrong. The bus to the Cliffs left just 10 minutes before we got there... and the next one leaves in a little over an hour.... but it wouldn't be getting back until AFTER our bus to Dublin would leave without us. Yeah. So we ended up just staying around in Limerick. A city we had never heard of. But it ended up being a very VERY cool place. We meandered into the best cafe in the world, Greene's. We all had Thanksgiving Dinner, no lie, only they called it turkey and bacon. Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, carrots and all of it was so tasty! I didn't have that, but a sammich with the turkey and salad and cranberry sauce. Goodness, it was so good I remembered a week later. Later in the day we went to King John's Castle, which was made fun by the fact that they let us climb all over every thing. AND the boys got to help the worker guy Sean launch the catapult into the river. I got a video of it, and here it is on Google Video. They'll be internet famous! If you listen closely you'll hear Sean say "thee" instead of "you" to Shane and Willie. He was pretty awesome. Sean let us climb all over everything we weren't supposed to climb on. We split up in the afternoon and Cassie, Shane, Willie, Emma and I went down along the river. The boys were looking for clovers. We ended up finding wild blackberries (Tasty!) and wild horses! Then it started raining. Hard. It was kinda terrible and then we lost the other girls, Katie, Shannon, and Alison. Cassie and the boys went down one side of the road and Emma and I down the other. Emma and I ended up going into a church to see if the girls had gone inside. Inside we found the nicest old ladies who hadn't seen our friends but chatted with them a little while. They told us to be careful, that Limerick wasn't what it used to be. We thanked them for their time and headed out to Cassie and the boys. When we all met up and went to a pub to watch the rest of the rugby game and warm up/dry off. Shortly after we headed back to the bus station, met up with the others and got on our bus home. We were probably the most annoying people on the bus, but it was a nice trip. Deffinately worth the bus trip, even if we didn't get out to the Cliffs of Moher.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Ireland Write-up: Part 1

This is the first free time I've had since returning from Dublin where I have not promptly passed out. I did manage to post some new photos, like Katie's 21st and a few of my co-workers and my place of employ. Ireland photos will be up shortly.

First off, Ireland is the most amazingly awesome place I have ever visited. The people there were the kindest I have ever met outside of small towns in the South. And this is in the biggest city, Dublin. I arrived, got a little turned around, but found my hostel and friends rather quickly. We were in a pub within the hour and enjoying very expensive drinks with a new person, Bryan, who was coincidently from back home. He was really really cool, but I don't have a photo of him as of yet. I'm still in the process of stealing everyone's photos from Facebook and captioning them all to be posted online. I had a grand ol' time with my flatmate Katie and a new girl, Alison. Never buy a drink in Temple Bar on Temple Bar. It's crazy expensive. I did end up drinking quite a lot of my cherished Cider. Mmmmm Cider. We went to 3 different bars, but I can only remember the name of the first, Temple Bar, and the last, Porterhouse. I remember the name of the last one because Bryan couldn't. We ended up meeting two Irish guys who were bound for NYC on Wednesday. I danced with one, whose name I never got. He was fun, very flirty. We were actually listening to a one man band, who played dueling banjos. By HIMSELF, and it sounded pretty damn good. We went home after last call, 3 am. We got in so late and after so much drink it was actually fairly difficult to set up my sheets. I ended up sleeping on top of my duvet covered by my sheet and trench coat.
Saturday we got up early, went down to discover my *lovely* breakfast. A cold slightly old roll with watered down OJ and a decent cup of tea. I ate as I knew we had a four hour bus trip a head of us.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

I'm home

and dead tired folks. Full write up tomorrow morning.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Dublin tomorrow!

Last Call for addresses if you want a Dublin Post Card! Leave it in a comment if you don't think I have it and I'll do my best (as I will only be checking my email before work in the morning), I have to moderate the comments so I'll make sure the whole of the interwebs does not have it.
Work today was uneventful except that I was one of the first there in the morning and the last to leave. Which means I'm cool to leave early tomorrow afternoon so I can catch my flight! yay!
I still haven't found my computer cord, but I will have it by Sunday night. Come Hell or high water! I will also be on Skype and AIM at 5 pm EST for those who where wondering.
More stories to come at the end of the weekend.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Skiving Work to Go to The Globe!

No photos yet, as I cannot find my effing camera cord! :( Very not cool, lemme tell you! I was a groundling in the matinee of Love's Labors Lost. It was very exciting. I got to be one of the front 25 people right against the stage, which was very exciting being as short as I am. The stage comes up to my chin! The play was HILARIOUS and amazing. I loved it, laughed so hard I thought I was going to pee. I did unfortunately see entirely too much of one of the male actors. Older male actor. Like he could be my grandpa. Gross, so very gross. Gah. All of the pretty people were very pretty people, even if one of the men had a ripped crotch. I felt bad, I really wanted to stop staring at it... but I couldn't. I think he thought I was obsessed with his.... well. And I am not! But really it was ripped the WHOLE TIME. They did all sorts of antics, with crazy musicians. Speaking of, during the interval (intermission) one of the girls called her boyfriend on her mobile and the drummer walked up behind her and started playing really loud. It made me giggle. :) I got a bunch of photos, and I will upload them as soon as I can to my picasa site. I'll be on the hunt for that cable. Damn thing.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

And I Get Credit for This:

9 hours worth of credit to be exact. This is the form I have to fill out, or something minutely different each week.


WEEK 3

DATE Sept 17- Sept 21 HOURS WORKED 31 1/2


Work responsibilities- what did you do this week?
I cut rabbit fur. I cut rabbit fur into capes and little diamonds to make ermine tails for coronation robes. I cleaned fur off of things. I hate fur. I did learn how to use an industrial sewing machine on Monday.

Are you beginning to achieve a better understanding of the mission as well as goals and objectives of your company/organization? Do you have an initial sense of how your company/organization fits within the broader niche of similar concerns?
We’re a costume shop. Our goals are to make costumes and make them well enough for more people to hire us.

Have you received any specific types of training and how does that relate to your work responsibilities? If not, is there additional training that you’d like to receive that would assist you in performing your job?
I’ve been taught how to read the industrial patterns, how to cut the leather on the back of fur without cutting too much of the fur off. Mainly I’ve learned how to deal with new fabrics. I’d like to work with the props master to learn how to make some of the things, like wigs and whatnot as it is not something I would likely learn to do in classes.

By contrast, do you find yourself providing informal training to some of your colleagues, particularly in computer or web- based technology?
We have one computer in our office and Ginny is the only one who uses it. The closest I got to informing my colleges on anything was telling them the name for a quilting needle. They just called it a half circle needle, as that is its shape.

What cultural and linguistic differences are you beginning to hear or observe? Be specific and compare with US culture and spoken English.
Trousers are pants, pants are underpants. Zippers are zips and scissors are snips. I’m comparatively more chatty then the others, but they are more than happy to talk with me. Theatre and the artistic communities seem very similar in both cultures. People seem a lot more open with curse words than we are in the States.

Name 2-3 new skills you have developed and how they might help you in the future?
I can now cut out patterns, guestimate yardage and use an industrial sewing machine. The first and last are really the most important, as those are the ones that will get me jobs but the second will help me keep them.

What previous skills or knowledge, either classroom or previous job-based, have you begun to apply in your internship?
Sewing is not too much different on a domestic machine from an industrial machine, and knowing how to hand sew has kept me busy the past few weeks.

After three weeks, to what extent are your ‘levels of responsibility’ expectations beginning to be met? Are there steps you can take to achieve gradual levels of responsibility?
I am gradually being given more and more responsibility, and hopefully by the end of next week I will be using a sewing machine for something other than just learning. I understand the hesitation, as there isn’t always a lot of time to fix something that I might mess up. I don’t mind what I am doing now as far as my responsibility but I will not turn down a little more.
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Anyways, after that bit of boring. My work week was filled with fur, nothing too different from day to day. There is more in store next week as well. 37 coronation robes to be made, but I'm not sure if that's just the mens or both men and womens. God, I hope it's both.
Friday night Flatmate K grabbed me on the way into the building and dragged me out to Islington to watch the France Vs Ireland rugby match. Real men play rugby. It's an amazingly fun game to watch, even if it is on TV. France beat the pants off Ireland, 25 to 3. The rules of the game still escape me exactly, as they seem to be somewhere between soccer and football. We also tried some awesome beer, Blanc, which was a white beer. Very tasty without tasting like beer. Kinda weird, and pretty expensive, but I hope it was just the pub we were at. I went home early, as I'd be standing all day at work.
Saturday I went out to Portobello Road Market. It's awesome, packed like crazy though. Anything you could ever want to buy was there. Some of the best street food I've ever seen and some of the most interesting antiques. I can't wait to go again when I remember to bring money with me. The produce there was some of the most wonderfully fragrant and the other things around where at stalls where you could haggle easily enough if you needed to. But I'll deffinately not bring my backpack again. I'm pretty sure someone tried to go through it while it was on my back and not in front of me. They didn't get anything, which is good, because it was all inside my sweater inside my bag. It was a beautiful day to top it off. So nice and cool and sunny. I didn't end up taking any photos because I didn't have anyone to watch my back and it was so terribly packed that you wouldn't have seen much. When I came home I was supposed to go back out to a bar near here with some friends but ended up stepping on a tiny sliver of glass from something we broke earlier in the week. We thought we'd gotten it all up. But apparently not. I attempted to get it out with tweezers then flush it out. I ended up having to walk to the store to get Peroxide thinking that it would be able to bubble it out. I thought I had, but when I woke up this morning I had to have C get it out for me.
Amazing Dr C got it out with very little pain or annoyance. She'll be an awesome mom. Today a small group of us went down to Camden Town to do a little shopping. I ended up getting a cute top and C got one too. There are a billion cool stalls there, but most didn't allow photos, and those that did didn't have anything interesting. It was also very very very crowded. Hello Kitty stuff all over! It was all so cute! I could spend hours walking around there. Even though I have. I didn't see half the market I don't think. I really want to go back to both of the markets I went to today. The weather this weekend couldn't have been better.
Next weekend is Dublin and Inverness! Yay exciting! I can't wait. :) If you want a postcard make sure to email me or comment if you don't have my email and I'll send it to you!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

For John,

Nonchalantly Eggplant.

beat that.

I Hate Fur.

The past two days have been wholly opposite. Yesterday I did absolutely nothing productive for the company, though had a very interesting day and today I did nothing interesting, but very productive for the company.

Monday I finally was able to get onto one of the industrial machines because it was me, my supervisor Lady and the Turk( mind the Turk not the Kurd). I made a bag actually yesterday. It's covered in crazy stitching that you can actually track my progress on the machine on. The industrial machines are still scary though, as they are very very fast and powerful. It really doesn't help that everyone tells me to mind that I don't stitch my fingers to it. The bag is pretty fun, covered in moderately straight lines, zigzags and sin waves. Yeah, I'm a dork. I put an A on it too, with the reverse pedal. For those of you who know or even care, you lift the foot with a pressure petal that you push with your knee, and you wind the next bobbin while you sew. There is no way to turn off the needle movement to make the bobbin. It was very strange. The slowest constant setting on there is the fastest I've ever seen any domestic machine do. The Turk showed me all the really interesting different machines they have in the back, like two button holers, one to make normal rectangular button holes and one to make "key hole" or the rounded button holes. And even a button sewer!! HOW AWESOME! NO MORE HAND SEWN BUTTONS!!! MOM WE NEEDS IT! (only not really.) Plus the three 4 string sergers they have in the back too. The pattern maker and Fashionista man Skinny came in to work really late in the afternoon and I did a little bit of cutting for him and a jacket and skirt he was making for a fairly famous person's entourange girl. It is covered in sparkles and really pretty. I got to see pictures of the Turk's granddaughters who are adorable. He's very proud of them. I like him a lot, as he tends to take care of me by helping me more than any of the others really seem to have time to do, even though they will when I need them too without letting it be a problem for them. Then I wondered down to the National Theatre to see Chatroom/Citizenship. Both where really good one act plays written for 14-18 year olds to do in High and Middle Schools. I enjoyed them. Came home and went to bed.

Today though, I cut out "ermine" tails from black rabbit's skin. I hate fur. It is the devil. It gets everywhere. I had to wear a woodworker's mask today to keep from stuffing my nose full of loose fur. Skinny said I looked like a cat the way I kept pawing at my nose. I felt like one , and by the end of the day looked like I'd shaved one. COVERED in fur. White fur, because I had to cut a caplet out of the white that the "ermine" tails were going to be attached to. We couldn't even turn the fan on in the shop because the fur fluff would have gone everywhere. Ugh, I am still finding it in places, like my socks. The only excitement there was to be had today was a mouse. That came from no where. I tried to pick the thing up and take it outside and it bit me! It didn't break the skin, but it took a mighty tumble down the pattern card stock and straight to the ground. I was apparently very brave trying to take it outside. We think it ate some poison because of how confused it was. Boss tried to get it outside humanely too, as it survived the fall, but it ran into a corner we can't get too right now. Which means it's going to stick to high heaven in a few days if it did eat poison. Skinny complemented me on my vocabulary today, as I was able to use the word 'colloquialism' in a sentence to explain how English works to the Turk and the Kurd.Until that point I didn't realize it was a word people don't use very often. Flatmate E has just informed me that WE have a mouse in our kitchen. Exciting. As long as it doesn't get into my cornflakes we're peachy. I'll probably end up going to tell the front office tomorrow. Tonight though was bowling! Amazing bowling! Flatmate C made a strike from rolling the ball between my legs! It was CRAZY! This place was really really cool, great music, a lot of fun without being as noisy as normal bowling alleys. There were only 4 open lanes in there actually and a really cool bar in the back. I actually didn't do too terrible and had only one frame where I missed on both balls. We've got some great photos that I am going to have to pilfer off Facebook when the others post them. I forgot my camera in the room, so I wasn't able to take any. And Babe, if you are able to come over, we are so going bowling. I promise.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Yay festivals!

So there are a ton of festivals here. Practically every weekend there is another one. This weekend was the Thames River Festival. It was very much like the art festivals around home, only much much more packed. I went with Cassie, which was nice to have such a small group. We saw a bunch of skaters, and as her boyfriend is a skater kid we went to investigate. She ended up with a skate board deck. She had to fight for it, but she won it. I am proud of her and her pineapple skateboard deck. We got the t shirts too, just because the puffer fish is awesome. We went home shortly after that on Saturday, but went back this evening for the fireworks. They were awesome. Not quite Disney, but really really really cool none the less. We were really close, close enough to feel the blasts when they went up across the river from us. I ate dinner both nights at a really cool resturant called Wagamama's. We had 2 for 1 coupons. That's the only reason we went, and honestly I wouldn't go again. It's really too expensive to go by myself with out that. But yeah, it's near 1 am so it's bed time. Enjoy the photos.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

And the weekend just started

I swear that if my ears don't stop ringing soon I'm going to go crazy. Seriously. But what caused them to ring was a ton of fun. Last night two of my flatmates and another girl got all gussied up and went out to a bar that we knew had a dance floor to have a little dancing fun called O'Neils. They ended up having a live cover band that was really really good, playing better songs than the DJ was before them. Apparently the Brits sure love the song Sweet Home Alabama which threw me off something terrible. Flatmate C got to dance with a really sweet cute kid for a while, I got harassed a few times, the friend got followed around by a creepy dancer guy and flatmate T... well... not too much for her I'm sorry to say. I'm not what about us made half the guys there think we were desperate for their not so sexy attentions. Maybe there have just been a lot of easy Americans in the place before. I dunno. I let it roll of my back, the guys stopped and left me alone when it was obvious that all I wanted to do was dance, not follow them home. I did have a lot of fun dancing real silly like with one guy, he was fun and not creepy. It was a silly Charleston/ Swing thing that was a lot more fun than the bump-n-grind everyone else was trying. He gave me his number with a little note that said I "Look lovely!" and asking me to text him. I don't think I'm going to, but it made me and the other girls giggle. We ended up leaving early because the other girls felt uncomfortable with their respective followers after a while. I was fine with that, I didn't want them to feel harassed or pressured by the guys, though I was REALLY enjoying the band. We went down one floor (the bar had 2) and ended up meeting a couple of banker men who gave T some attention. Which was very good, as she wasn't getting much before. We really did leave after T got the guy's business card! We all thought it was kinda weird, but harmless. After we got home I passed out rather soundly. Dancing is a lot of work, and work yesterday was a lot of work.
Well, mainly sewing a billion and one jewels onto belts and armbands for ice skating Native Americans. I got to design the pattern that was put on the front of the lead male's vest, which was very exciting. Near the end of the day one of my coworkers put on one of the skater outfits, and at first he tried to put on a ladies'. It was funny! He's pretty small, the same size as most of the skaters so it fit him well. They all just wanted to see how the pieces were coming together and how to attach certain elements. It's pretty funny though to see a skinny whinny PALE little British man in an outfit made to look like a Native American.
Thursday was the day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon. It was such a cool little town! It's where Shakespeare lived and died. We got to tour his house, but no pictures were allowed inside, of course some people snuck them, but I didn't. I may peruse Facebook later to see if I can't pinch any. I got a little bust of Shakespeare to put on my charm bracelet. We ate a a pub called the Black Swan, because it is across from the famous Swan Theater. The actors all call it the Dirty Duck so it actually has 2 signs, one on each side with each of the names. It was good food, but I hadn't had anything fried in a while, so it made me quite sick during the show that night. My camera batteries died half way through the day, so I had to take a lot of my photos with my film SLR camera. I'll be looking for somewhere with batteries and film development later today. The show we went to see was Twelfth Night with John Lithgow playing Malvolio, the head butler. He did a wonderful job, as did most of the actors. There was a lot of gender bending that I didn't understand, like casting Viola as a man. So she is a man playing a woman pretending to be a man. It wasn't even that all of the roles where played by men, as that would have made sense. It was very strange, but still enjoyable. I did end up buying a really cool t shirt at the theater. It's a white shirt with dotted lines as to where all measurements are taken. one across the bust, around the waist and arm, down the front from shoulder to wait and shoulder to hip. I thought it was quite smart. We weren't able to stay late to meet John Lithgow because of our 3 hour bus ride home for us. We ended up getting home around 1 am, and I couldn't get to sleep before 4 am. That really was what made yesterday so long, but man did I sleep well last night.
Today I have plans for laundry, then going out again tonight. Hopefully this time there will be a little less of an attempt on my honor as there was last night.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

St. Joan and the day at home.

As one of my flatmates described today I was "delightfully domestic." I washed the dishes, cleaned up my portion of the room, knitted a bit. Actually finished one of my wrist warmers, Dashing from Knitty.com. I had to change them a bit, as the are designed for a man, mainly just making them shorter. When I finish the second one I'll take photos of them.
I did have to go see a play tonight for my Intro to Theatre class. St Joan by George Bernard Shaw at the National Theatre. It was AMAZING. I loved it. The girl playing Joan was really good, and looked appropriately androgynous for being Joan of Arc. The set was really minimalistic and crazy. I actually may have to write an essay about it later in the week. But for now, bed. To get better, to go back to work tomorrow.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Flu

Doctors offices are horrid. Doesn't seem to matter if it's here or in the States. Walk-in Clinics are the slowest things in existence and half the people there don't seem to be sick. Just hanging out. I spent 2 1/2 hours waiting to be told that I've got a cold. Seriously. I only went today because I felt like I was going to die yesterday. Migraine so bad that even the flatmates talking in the next room made me cringe. They told me I have the flu and just need to rest up. So I went home and attempted to call into to work sick. But my supervisor wasn't in. So I went in to work. Three pounds and thirty minutes later I'm headed back out the door to go home and rest up. It was kinda annoying, even if they were right. So I'm home resting up. I may not end up going back to work until Wednesday. I really do sound and feel like dodo. My voice is slowly coming back to normalcy. Hopefully I have better news than this later in the week.

my weekend

Sorry, it's been a few days since I've posted. As always I've loaded up my photos from the weekend on my picasa site. Friday was fairly uneventful, crazy at work to get out an order of costumes by Saturday night. I did go out Friday night, though I really shouldn't have. I completely lost my voice that night and have yet to regain it. Have I mentioned yet that I'm a bit sick? I'm headed to the walk in clinic after class this morning. Saturday was pretty fun, we attempted to go to Buckingham Palace and ended up not waiting in the big butt line to get in. All my flat mates and I ended up hanging out in the parks instead. E and T ended up going to the biggest concert of the year held by BBC called The Last Night of the Proms. Apparently they had been holding concerts all summer and this was the big end all be all of the concerts. I wasn't feeling well and didn't want to pay the 23 pounds to get in. I did end up spending a bit of money, on a very nice pair of boots. The boots I have been dying for since I was 15. I found them, I love them, and they aren't going back. On Sunday most of us flatmates decided to try Buckingham Palace again. I don't have any pictures of the inside as the entire place is copyrighted. Seriously. One of the wardens told us so. Kinda crazy if you ask me. It was a really beautiful place though. They have a special events thing going about the Diamond Anniversary of the King and Queen. I was amused at the fact that mom has the exact same black Singer sewing machine at home as was given to the Queen as a wedding present. But I'm running late so I have to go. More later I promise.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Work

So Hurrah for the Tubes being up and running again today. It was my first full day of work today, working from 9 to 6. I spent most of the day tracing and cutting patterns for a new TV series. Everyone there is really really nice, and they are really patient with me. I love them. The fact that the head boss guy has my same name causes a few confusions. I've got them to call me a nickname instead to keep the confusion to a minimum. One guy calls me America. Seriously. I think it's pretty funny, he's enamored with the States apparently. I was attempting to explain where I was from to him, but I didn't have a map so it was hard. He was going on for a half hour about how BIG the US was. He didn't believe me that it takes more than a day to drive cross country. Everyone at work tends to treat me like a little sister. They've been keeping me busy too, little stuff mainly but I don't mind. The big industrial machines kinda scare me. I'll learn to use them next week.
But nothing too exciting has really happened around here. I've been to a few pubs, stayed in a few nights. We all plan on doing a bunch of touristy stuff this weekend like touring Buckingham Palace and maybe the London Eye. I really want to do that, so I hope we can.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Great nights and Terrible Mornings

Sorry that I haven't updated in a few days, it's been a bit hectic around here with all of our meetings and classes and more meetings. And the STUPID Tube strike making life around London hell. Monday was fairly uneventful until the evening, when we went to see Spamalot. AWESOME show, if you love Monty Python. Which I do. :) It was hilarious and campy in full form. While we were their a few of the kids in our group thought they saw Eric Idle. They did... and so did we!! We all waited around the stage door and waited for him to come out. I got his signature and a few pictures with him. I was the epitome of squee-ly fan girl. They are here in my flickr set of Spamalot (if I don't post for a few days, there will still probably be new photos in the flickr sets or my Picasa page. They have the same photos really.) I was giddy for hours. I swears.
Today though. It really could have been better. The tube strike made it almost impossible to ride the busses around town. EVERYONE was on the bus. I was able to find someone who was very nice and helped me find my way to the work visa office. That part wasn't too bad. Really it was just the coming back with two safety pins holding my skirt closed because 5 of the 8 buttons that are on the stupid thing decided to fall off. The three that remained? I had stitched them back on Monday afternoon when they fell off as I tried to wear it then. To make matters worse I got off on the wrong bus stop and got lost trying to walk home. I did find my way there after one phone call and 4 policemen (they travel in sets of 2). Work was alright, I met a whole bunch of fun people. I'll be working Monday through Friday, and maybe Saturdays when they need me. Mondays and Wednesdays though I'll be going in late because of my Theatre class. I'll actually be going to see 10 plays for that class, but I had no real inclination to see any of them on the list. I really want to see the big name plays that everyone else has probably seen. Roommate C has agreed to go with me to anything I'm going to though, which is awesome of her. She loves watching plays too.
I did book tickets to Ireland for a weekend the other day too. For the end of the month with most of my flatmates and a few kids from other flats. I'm really looking forward to that. but right now I need to sleep because I think I'm coming down with a cold. Gross. I'll try to post again tomorrow with any more London excitement.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Bus Rides and Street Festivals

Today I got up early. I am quite proud of myself, as I actually got up early enough to go on the 8:45 am bus tour of London that the study center provided. I took A LOT of photos too, a whooping 121 that if you click here you can view. They are under London Bus Tour. I was too lazy to move them over to Flikr, but I'll move my favorites over later. Our guide was an amazing little British woman who had lived in London her whole life. She showed us all the usual sites, and a few times we got off the bus to take photos. I'm really really glad I went on it. I took a bajillion (yes that is a real number) of photos of Parliament and London Tower, which by the way is not a tower at all. That confused me. Yes there are a few pictures of ducks in there for the sister. I hope she enjoys.
Well after that all my flat mates and I spent an hour viewing and labeling all of our photos while we could still remember everything we had seen. We had a don't-be-a-jack-butt-to-your-flatmates meeting at 3 and I had a Theater Program orientation at 5. All of the others left just after our flat meeting, as none of them are in theatre to go to the Regent Street Festival. I had to go to the theatre thing, so I couldn't. I just ended up hanging around my room and conference calling the Boy and the Parents + Sister before the meeting. After a fairly informative and quick meeting with the theatre crew I ended up heading out with a bunch of the theatre kids to find said Indian Street Festival. That we had heard was to be a Spanish street festival. It took us 45 minutes to walk there, but only 15 to walk back. We had inadvertently taken the really long scenic route. It was ok though, actually a pretty fun walk. The street festival was getting ready to close up by the time we got there, and we went into Piccadilly Circus to find a restaurant that our tour guide from earlier had told us about. We found it, and it was everything she said it was. Cheap, filling and awesome. It was called Stockpot. I didn't get a picture of the outside but I have a feeling that I'll be going back. After eating and talking there we all headed back and into our perspective flats.
But it's late now, and I'm dead tired. So good night all, and I'll post the rest of the pictures in the morning.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Uneventful night.... I could only wish

At 8 I decided that I couldn't stand it anymore, no one was going out to eat, so I was going to cook dinner. I had some left over curry that had served me from 2 previous meals (it was 9 pounds guys, I needed to make it last), eggs, rice and spinach.
Let me say that today has not been a good food day for me. I got rice today, because it goes with everything and I'm not as fond of bread or potatoes as my daily starch. Plus, I make awesome egg and rice dishes. I get ready to make my lunch, which was curry over rice, and I discover that everything in the little fridge on the bottom shelf has frozen. Eggs, spinach for salad, tomatoes, and my curry. Everything. I get annoyed so I move everything up to a higher shelf and hope for the best. I end up microwaving half my curry block and eating it over rice. Quite tasty. Though, we don't have a measuring cup, so I've managed to make rice on the stove with a glass. Half a glass of dry rice makes the perfect amount of rice for one person. Which rocks hard core.
Moving back to dinner. The eggs had dethawed, yay!!! Rice was well on it's way to done. Spinach... was... well... sparkly still. But I used it anyways. the pan was WAY too hot for my eggs so they started to burn. Just alittle at first, but then a decent amount of smoke. But! the fire alarm didn't go off! Phew! So I serve up my food and sit on the couch. Not five second later, the alarm starts. Shit. That's me. This was also followed by a string of non-parent-approved-words. I left my eggs on the counter, and everyone in my room resignedly put on their shoes and trudged downstairs, through the corridor, down another flight of stairs, through another tinier hallway, up a third flight of stairs and finally out. Did I mention that the fire escape and emergency exit doors don't work? If that had been a real fire, it would have killed us all. We all pool outside, and wait. The security guy turns off the alarm and yells out to whom ever lives in Flat 8. See? Told you it was me. I told him what happened. He told me next time to just let him know on my way out, he'll turn off the alarm and fix everything. The sensors are sensitive but kinda... slow. Gah. Mind you that this was the entirety of the program who wasn't out for the night that had to leave their room. I told most anyone who asked that I was sorry, but no one really seemed to mind that much.

I mean other than realizing that if one of the other buildings lit on fire, we'd all die.
And yes, after all this, I ate my burnt eggs. Wasn't too bad actually, the curry covered most of the burnt.

excitement

Today has been interesting. I woke up too late to go on another walking tour because of my still eastern central body clock. My whole flat was up until 3 am and no one got up before noon. Terrible. Anyways I was invited to go out to the shop to look around and get aquianted with the place before I start work on Tuesday. I grabbed my camera and Oyster card and headed out. The Tube was fairly easy to navigate, and really not that crowded. I got turned around leaving the Station, but figured it out pretty easy that I was going the wrong way. The section of town I was in was incrediably more residential than where I am living. Not nearly as many people walking around. Then I find the street the Shop is located, and evening the building. But there is no one there or around. I got a bit creeped out and called back to my flat for the number to the costume shop. I call and no one answers. I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures either, because...well... if I was taking a picture I'd look suspicious or just obviously a tourist.. Or so I think. I decided at that point to just go home and call again to see when someone WILL be there to answer the phone so I know it's good to go back out there. Thankfully the trip is only 2 trains and 20 minutes long. Unfortunately, now I have to up my Oyster card.

and it's only 3 o'clock.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Pictures!!

So here are the much awaited pictures. ^_^ Enjoy Momma. There are pictures of my bedroom, living room, kitchen, and front door. Sorry they aren't in any order. I'm not good with this right now. I'll get better and they are all at my Flikr account with comments.






Thursday, August 30, 2007

Here at last!

LONDON!!
Whoo!
ok, so that's the remainder of the energy I've got left. being up for almost 36 hours can do that to a girl.
After somewhere around 12 hours of straight travel I am all settled into my 2 bedroom flat. I've my Skype set up and will be on for a while. It's a pretty nice place, old but workable. I'm sharing my room with 2 other interns. So there are 6 girls in all in the apartment. my bedroom overlooks a courtyard and other flats, while the living room looks down into the street. we have discovered that my room is bigger than the other one. oops. oh well. I've met up with a few of my theatre friends who've already been here a week. tomorrow we have a walking practical tour of london. i'm not sure where all we are going to go though.I've gotta get my oyster(rail and bus) card and find the quickest route to the internship. It turns out now that I'll only be taking one class instead of two and 6 credits worth of Directed Individual Study as well as the 3 hour internship credit. Pretty exciting. Hopefully I'll hear back soon from the internship place to see when I'll be starting to work. I'll post some pictures tomorrow, as soon as I get around to taking them, Mom. Promise.