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.

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.

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.

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.