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.

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.

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.

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.

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.