Day 13: A night at the Opera

Today we started off the day by frantically ripping apart the aparment looking for our one roommate, Melda's wallet.We were trying to get out the door to go down and wait in line at the Royal Opera House in an attempt to get cheap tickets to see Macbeth. We ended up not finding her wallet, but we did find out that we didn't have to go down to the Royal Opera House until 3:30 to get tickets. I had class at 2 but my roommates were still able to get me a ticket later on.
For class today, we took a trip to Greenwhich (pronounced Grenich!) which was another part of town outside London where we got to visit things like the University of Greenwhich campus, the Maritime Museum (which was actually very pretty, and old!- built in the 1600s!) and  we also were able to see the great Prime Meridian Line! The line that separates the two hemispheres, West Longitute from East Longitude. We all took a picture standing on the line, one foot in the west hemisphere and one foot in the east hemisphere, which was kind of cool.
After class I was able to meet up with my friends in Covent Gardens (where most of the theatres and the Royal Opera House are located). From there we all got dinner at a small Italian restaurant, got a little dessert, and then headed over to the Opera House. Once we were there we checked out the place, including the fancy bar, where I decided to "live in the moment" and get a martini at the bar (which cost me 5 pounds and wasn't even in a fancy martini glass!-totally defeated my purpose). Then we found our seats, which weren't too bad, just pretty high up. Macbeth was an entire Opera sung completely in Italian (which I guess I should have expected lol) so there were subtitles throughout the entire 3 hour show, but I was actually able to follow along quite easily! Since I read the play in high school, the story started coming back to me piece by piece as the Opera progressed.
I must say, we have been doing a pretty good job of finding something different and unique to do each day we've been here in London! Which is good, especially since tomorrow starts my internship where I will be working every day, and not have as much free time to do activities all the time. But I am excited for my internship, it sounds really interesting and right up my ally as far as accounting goes. It is a bummer though that I'll be working over 30 hours a week and not getting paid! I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it goes tomorrow!

Day 12: Church at Westminster Abbey!

Today we woke up a little late, since we had such a long day yesterday, but a couple of us managed to put on our "Sunday best" and head out to attend a church service at Westminster Abbey. We first stopped at Tower of London and Tower Bridge because we wanted to take a tour around and see the crown jewels. However, we were unpleastantly surprised when we found out that it cost almost 20 pounds to enter! (which is a little over $30 u.s. dollars!) We also showed up an hour and a half before the tower closed and the woman informed us that we wouldn't have enough time to make our way around the whole place. So we decided to wait and see if we want to do towards the end of our stay (and to make sure we have enough money!) Then we grabbed a bite to eat and wandered into a couple tourist shops before heading over to Westminster Abbey.
Church was quite an experience! They actually had people outside of the church directing people who only wanted to take pictures away because Sundays are for church services only, no tourist visits. So unfortunately I wasn't able to take any pictures inside, but I'll definitely be back to do that and to explore the church a little more, including the special William & Kate exhibit! Speaking of which, I realized during the service that we were attending the church on the one month anniversary of the wedding! I thought it was a pretty cool coincidence that we were at the church exactly one month after. We actually sat right near the alter in which the Royal couple stood at during the service!
I normally don't do this since I'm Lutheran and we don't have this at my church, but I lit a candle in the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey in remembrance of my Grandma, Bernadette King Magnus (BKM) who was born on May 31st, 1934 and died on May 26th, 2005 because her birthday was a couple days later and I thought it was a very special and meaningful way of remembering her.
After church, Allison, Ashley, Chrissy and myself walked around a bit, took a couple touristy pictures and actually ran into a group of girls who asked us to take a picture of them in front of Big Ben, which led us to find out that one of the girls goes to Pitt! Talk about a small world!

Day 11: Stonhenge, Bath, & Wembley Park Stadium!

Today was packed with so many different things! First we started off at getting up 6am so that we could get to our school CAPA, where our tour bus was picking us up, in order to catch the bus at 8am. They told us Stonehenge was only 45 minutes away but it ended up taking about 2 hours to get there! It wasn't that bad though because we just slept most of the way there. Stonhenge was really cool, expecially because my travel buddy Chrissy and I took an astronomy class called Stonhenge to Hubble (which is where we met actually) so it was almost like our anniversary friendship haha I also felt like I appreciated the whole experience a little more since I knew so much about it. We stayed at Stonhenge for about an hour (the weather was pretty cold and windy) and then we moved onto Bath which was an hour away from Stonehenge. The whole trip was nice because we were able to escape the city for a while and experience the countryside of the UK.
Bath was really cool, even the xurrounding town of Bath was nice, the architecture and landscaping was so pretty! And we of course got to take a tour inside the Roman Baths, which started many many years ago with the Celtics and then the Romans who built an entire complex around this "Sacred Hot Spring." It was really pretty and the water was actually hot! (we got to reach out and touch it at one point)
After Bath we headed back to CAPA and from there we ended up going to Wembley Park Stadium to catch a glimpse of the UEFA league championship game! It was Manchester United vs. Barcelona and we went becase our one roommate Melda is a huge Barcelona fan and she wanted to go down so badly to check the stadium out and everything around it. Even though I'm not a big soccer fan I'm still glad I went because it was pretty much a once in a lifetime opportunity, considering it was like their superbowl.

Barcelona ended up winning 3-1 and Melda was very happy. Overall it was an extremely eventful and diverse day!... and I am exhausted!

Day 10: Camden Market trip!

Today Christian, Ashley, and I took a day trip to Camden Market, (sort of like a flea market) which has EVERYTHING! Everything from purses, dresses, t-shirts, accessories, and a bunch of little touristy london souvenirs! It also had a bunch of really cool and unique food shops to eat at. I unfortunately spent a lot of money, but the good thing was that I was able to scratch off a bunch of people off my "people to get things for" list. I got a lot of really nice things, mostly toursity things, but some other nice items for my self. I'm most definitely going to go back again towards the end of the trip, but I'm trying to save as much money as I can now!
Later on we went back down to O'neill's in Ealing for a couple drinks then came home early because we have to get up super early tomorrow for our trip to Stonhenge & Bath!
Night!

Day 9: Rain, Rain, Rain

Today it was a rainy day outside in London, as well as inside Flat 5, our apartment! lol The day started out with our bathroom flooding from above through the ceiling fan caused by the girls upstairs taking a shower, and their shower overflowing. I ran down to get our CAPA residential helper person, Bernie, because it was literally a steady waterflow coming out of the vent in the ceiling. Once I got downstairs I realized the same water was gushing out of the ceiling in the hallway! Bernie answered the door and was immediately fretting and freaking out about it, mumbling words in an Irish accent (because he's Irish) was really funny, but at the same time I did feel bad for him. haha The water leakage in our apartment also caused some of our electricity and outlets to lose power. Eventually the handy-people came and fixed everything, so hopefully we don't run into anymore problems. Its funny though because we've run into so many problems that people think our apartment is cursed!

After that mess, Melda and I met Allison down in central London to go see if we could get Macbeth tickets at the Royal Opera House. Unfortunately we did not have any success and learned that we have to go back at 10 the day of the show to get cheap tickets. After that we went to Oxford Circus which is another busy part of central London where they had a bunch of shops and restaurants. We stopped at the Nike store because Melda wanted to get a personalized Barcelona Futbol jersey. The store had many huge displays about the Barcelona vs. Manchester United futbol game, which is taking place this Saturday, here in London. It should be pretty exciting, although I've never been into soccer so I'm not really phased by it. lol Afterwards we walked down the street and stopped at a couple of touristy stores to pick up some little souvenirs. Then Melda took us to this Lebanese restaurant called Vanoosh, which is her favorite, to try a Lebanese specialty called the Shewarma, which is kind of like a pita with chicken but the chicken comes from a huge stick of meat that rotates around and is shaved off and placed onto a sandwich. The whole concept seemed kind of gross but the sandwich wasn't bad.

The whole time we were walking around Oxford Circus it was on and off rain, which was pretty annoying. I think that's  it for today! Goodnight!

Day 8: More walking

Today I had my first day of class! (Since I had to miss the first day for my interview) I'm taking European Government & Politics and today we actually got to go on a little field trip to The Imperial War Museum. It was really neat, it mostly covered stuff on WWI & WWII and the holocaust which I found really interesting. I haven't had a history class or anything like that since I was in high school, so this class is a nice way to refresh my mind about history, and it also helps me better understand the history, background, and culture behind the city I'm living in, and the places I will be traveling to. After the museum I had to head back to CAPA, my school in South Kensington, for my internship class that is mandatory in addition to our internship. Although, I have separate assignments I'll have to fulfill for the CBA (Pitt's school of business) instead of the course work in this class.

After that my roommates and i just stopped at the store quick and came home to relax. Oh and the reason why this blog is titled "More Walking" is because I spent sooo much time walking all over the city yesterday, and I walked almost the same distance today after the museum following these kids in my class who wanted to stop at some shop in Hyde Park, which we ended up not finding and was a complete waste of a trip. Needless to say, my feet did not have a good day today either.

Day 7: London Eye & Kensington Gardens!

Today was a lot more eventful than I was expecting it to be. I started off with a morning run, then got ready to go down to our school, CAPA, in South Kensington because they were holding this travel fair where students could go and learn about/plan different trips to places like Paris, Amsterdam, Scotland, Ireland, etc. (which is what my friends and I want to do) After that, a couple of us decided to head over to Kensington Gardens, where Kensington Palace is, and check it out since we hadn't done that yet. We also stopped at this little French Bakery on the way to get something to eat, which was amaaazing.
Kensington Gardens was absolutely beautiful. It was like something out of a book or movie. I've only been to one other city park, Central Park in NYC, and this was waaay better (although i did see central park during the winter). But it was absolutely gorgeous, and so cute! We saw the palace too but most of it was under construction, which was kind of a bummer. After that we headed over towards Buckingham Palace because mine and Chrissy's one friend, Audra, was visiting London for a couple days before she went to Florence, Italy for her study abroad program. So we met up with her and then ended up going over to do the London Eye, which was also an unplanned, but amazing activity to do. It was nice because I hadn't really been to that area yet, besides on our tour bus the other day. It was a such a cool experience, getting to overlook the entire city from that high up. (for those of you who don't know what the London Eye is, it's like a huge ferris wheel that overlooks all of London, but the seats are like big bubbles you can walk around in and take pics in etc. its really neat)
After that I was so tired and my feet were aching from walking around the whole city pretty much! But I ended up going out to eat with Audra and Chrissy to the Hard Rock Cafe, which took FOREVER to find, and we ended up making another huge circle around the city just to find it. Audra really wanted to eat there because she wanted to get something for someone from the souvenir shop. I didn't know this but it was actually the first original Hard Rock Cafe ever! So it actually ended up being worth the long trek!

All in all, it was a very eventful and fun day. (even though my feet feel like they're going to fall off)

Day 6: Got the Internship!

Today I woke up and went for a little morning run around the neighborhood and went to a part that we haven't visited before that also has some local shops and whatnot. But I got a little lost on the way back because the roads are a bit confusing here in the sense that they don't all connect? I'm not sure how to explain it but I eventually found my way back lol. Then I got ready for my interview, left and got there about 20 minutes early, which was definitely a first for me since I'm always late! ha! But the interview went really well, I did it with two people who were the heads of the Accounts Payable and Account Receivable departments, which is right up my ally in the accounting department! They were going through all the different things they'll have me doing and it all sounded really interesting actually! I'm excited! I'm basically going to be working everyday 9:15am-5:30pm except Mondays/Wednesday where i'll work half a day since I have class.

Other than that nothing else really exciting happened, I cooked dinner and went to the grocery store with some friends later on. Not sure what the plans are for tomorrow, we might go do the London Eye!
Also, no awkward situation today! haha

El Dia de Cinco (Day 5)

Day 5:

Since we didn’t go to bed until 5, we slept til 12. I finally uploaded all of my pictures and got caught up with everything else. I also looked up directions on how to get to my internship site. Then I did a practice run commuting to the workplace just to make sure I could get there alright. The commute was awesome! Only about 20 minutes by bus and walking (which is a lot better compared to other people who have almost 2 hour commute to their internships). Afterwards we came back and Melda, one of my flat-mates made us this crazy but yummy dish of  spaghetti and white/red sauce with ground beef. It wasn’t bad…

Awkward situation of the day: when we told one of our roommates that she can’t smoke in or around the building… fail.

That’s it for now! Got the interview for TNS, UK Limited tomorrow! Can’t wait!

Day #4

Day 4:

Today we had to get up early in order to make it down to CAPA to see the panoramic tour of London. It lasted about 3 hours and we got to see all the main attractions in London like Buckingham Palace and Big Ben. Speaking of Big Ben, I also (like a Pittsburgh dork) brought along my terrible towel to take pictures with at famous landmarks, which is why this blog is called what it is. The tour was pretty cool and our tour guide gave us a bunch of advice on things to do, which was kind of hard to remember. After the tour we headed back to the flat. I made dinner for the first time, pasta and fried veggies. Then we left for the night to go down to the Picadilly Circus/Leicester Square (which is like NYC’s Times Square) to check out the club/bar scene down there since we heard so much about it. It was a lot of fun down there but it was also pricey, and the transportation home was not fun either. The first club we went to was a club called Grace, where we were able to get in for free with these flyers. My first club experience was pretty fun, but it made me feel like I was at a high school dance because it was so hot! The best part was having somewhat of a dance-off with these other group of Brits which was really funny. The second club we went to was the Picadilly Institute which was crazy! It was huge and consisted of 3 levels, and about 10 or so large rooms, all themed differently! My 2 favorite rooms were the Chamber (which was like a science lab room where we got labcoats and goggles after ordering our drinks) and the music/record style room because it had a lit up square dance floor. That place was really fun, but then we had to make our way all the way back to Ealing, the suburbs of Central London which was very far and could only be taken by night bus since the tubes close at midnight. We didn’t get home until 4am. It was also freezing! Needless to say, we finally got to bed at 5am while the birds were singing and the sun was rising. Woof.

Awkward situation of the day for me and Allison: when a girl traveling to go out with us on the tube tells us at the stop right before the one we have to get off at, that she has to get off and go to the bathroom because she could not do it. It was awkward because we didn’t want to have to interrupt our route! Especially since we were only one stop away!

Still a successful day.

Day 3!

Day 3:

Friday, today we had another orientation on safety talks with Sergeant Paul. He was actually really funny and comical. Apparently pepper spray is illegal here and is considered a firearm, so good thing I didn’t bring mine! He told us some crazy stories but to be safe and behave as a bottom line. After that a big group of us walked down Kensington Street to the National History Museum. Not only was it so beautiful (Looked like a huge church kinda) on the outside, but it was also really well designed on the inside. It was so huge that we only got through the one half side of the museum. All of the exhibits were really innovative and interactive, some a little strange, but most were pretty interesting. Allison and I also had our “awkward situation of the day” which was when a couple of British guys asked us what we were studying while abroad and I made the mistake of saying that I was studying European Government and Politics; this was followed by a 10 min rant from the man about how horrible their government system is. Lol After the museum we walked over to the Regency Hotel, still in Kensington, to attend our CAPA afternoon tea party/reception. It was really cute, we were served tea and scones as well as other delicious treats!  Later on at night we went out for the first time to a local pub called O’Neill’s (sp). It was SO fun! It was an Irish pub that had live cover bands playing and a bunch of other stuff going on. We met  a fun group of British guys who ended up buying us a couple rounds of drinks (which was nice cause drinks are expensive! Lol) We stopped at subway on the way back where we met 2 other British guys who were imitating the people on the Jersey Shore. Lol All in all, it was a successful day/night.

Day 2 in London- PIPPA SPOTTING!

Day 2:

Today we saw Pippa Middleton!!!!!!!!!

We started off the day with our Pitt in London orientation at 9:30 am. We woke up extra early to get there but were still 15 minutes late since we’re still not used to the whole tube system yet.  We spent a couple hours at the first orientation at the actual school of CAPA and then we had a break for a couple hours until our internship orientation. So we decided to explore the area of South Kensington a little bit, and we ate lunch at this little (very authentic) Italian restaurant which turned out to be soooo delicious! I felt like we were in Italy, everything was so fresh! After that we headed back to our internship orientation which seemed like forever because it was so boring! Afterwards we left for home, when we got a bit lost finding the tube station, which led us to run into Pippa Middleton! Sister of Princess Kate Middleton! We didn’t actually run into her but we walked passed her on the sidewalk! I didn’t even realize at first since it happened so quickly, but then we noticed all the paparazzi chasing after her lol it was pretty neat for our second day in London! Afterwards we got back, did a little grocery shopping to get some basics, then we tried to figure our plans for the night which turned out to be a big bust when the girls we were planning on going with (who live upstairs in a different flat) all got in a fight together because they were drunk and someone spilled something on the other’s computer. Needless to say, me and Allison felt EXTREMELY uncomfortable standing (literally) in the middle of a fight. Ugh. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be more successful with the night life plans, and not get placed into any weird, odd uncomfortable positions!

Goodnight!

Day 1: Arrival in London

On the first day of my travels, I definitely experienced a whole new culture and travel experience. Not only was I traveling alone, without any parents or guidance, but I was traveling overseas to a country I’ve never been to before! My mom dropped me off at 10am 5/17/2011 at the Pittsburgh, commencing the start of my travels, which lasted until 10:30 am (London time) 5/18/2011. For being such a completely new and foreign experience, both mentally and physically, I did a pretty good job of successfully navigating my way to our destination, while also acclimating and adjusting the new lifestyle pretty quickly and flexibly.  Being in London still does not feel real; it has not set in yet that I will be living here for the next six weeks, and I’m actually anxious to see when it will actually hit me. Although many things still feel like home here, A LOT is different. Some things that seem to be the same are actually not. There are the obvious changes like the accents, and the driving on the opposite sides of the roads and then there are the less obvious changes like proper British etiquette/culture and basic living arrangements/everyday way of life. I am so eager to see the things I will learn and the new insights I will gather about these other parts of the world. I am also eager to see if I will fall in love with the city and experience, or if I’ll miss back home more deep down. Right now I’m feeling a combination of both. I guess we’ll just have to take it day by day. To give a little run down, this is what I’ve done/what has happened so far on our trip

Day 1:

I arrived at the Pittsburgh airport where I checked in, went through security, and met up with my travel buddy, Chrissy, who by chance scheduled the same exact study abroad program as I did, Pitt in London Summer Session 1. After arriving at our gate we quickly realized that our flight had been cancelled and we were immediately transferred to a flight to Detroit, where we would experience a longer layover (6 hours) than we would have with our original connecting flight to Boston. But we were able to adjust and went along with the new plan.6:50 we boarded our flight to London where we sat in the very last row, and became friends with a few of the flight attendants. The 8 hour flight was actually not that bad; first we were served dinner, then I watched one of the free movies that was provided on the tv screen in front of us. It was so pretty at different points of the flight where I would look out and be able to see the big bright moon reflecting down over the clouds and the Atlantic Ocean. I managed to sleep about 3 hours or so on the flight, enough to keep me going the rest of the day after we landed. We landed early at 7am and went to customs which took about 45 min-hour. From there we successfully navigated our way to the tube station and finally ended up at the Ealing Broadway station where we took a cab up the hill to our apartment flat at Newman Court.  From there we checked in to our flat and then took a tour of the surrounding neighborhood which consisted of many little shops, pubs, malls, and other things like that. Eventually my other roommates arrived, Allison, Rihana, and Melda. Chrissy, Allison, Christian (still hasn’t arrived yet) and I are all sharing the quad room which has 2 bunk beds. Melda and Rihana are in the other room. Our flat is very nice but it’s odd how everything is set up. Everything is closed off with its own door, including the kitchen and living room. It is fully equipped with appliances and basic needs which is pretty convenient.

To wrap up today, we actually had a funny story when we went to go eat dinner. Since it was our very first meal in London, we wanted to do it right and get the typical fish & chips. Needless to say we did not do it right, or moreso, the restaurant did not do it right. Not only was the skin still on the fish but so were the bones! It was disgusting trying to pick through. The chips, or fries, were bland pieces of nasty and the ketchup tasted like duck sauce. Lol  In an effort to try to get something else to fill me up, I ordered a piece of roasted chicken, which also turned out to be a fail. Finally I ended up with a plain toasted bagel with cream cheese. Lol The funniest part about it all was the weird and odd service that was at the restaurant. I can’t really describe it but we were the only ones in the seating area and the “waitress” stood at the counter watching us, constantly asking us if everything was okay. All in all it was just weird. Lol

We finally got home at around 8pm where washed up and got ready for bed. Tomorrow we have orientations for class and for the internship, we might be going to central London as well!