Sunday, September 28, 2008

I love this city

So I guess quite a bit has happened in the past few days, so I'll try to just do the highlights. I started my internship on wednesday at the Witt Library in the Courtauld Institute of Art at the Somerset House. So far the people have been really nice but the work's kind of mundane but I'm thinking it'll get better as time goes on. I work a lot with these boxes that are sorted by artist and it pretty much catalogues the history of tons of artworks. The library is in the basement which is rather narrow so it's a bit of a maze and I've gotten lost a few times in there. I felt like such a little adult when I was walking home on Wednesday. The schedule is pretty nice, I work Monday through Thursday 10am-6pm, so I can definately handle it.
That's about all I can say for the internship so far, so on to other things. I've been having quite some fun this week. On Wednesday night at ISH there was a free Bollywood themed dinner so there was some tasty indian food and some entertainment and whatnot. Thursday I worked and then I went to Tesco (the grocer I go to) and I was really excited because I found peanut butter, which is kind of like finding gold. Then later that night I headed over to karaoke at the ISH bar. That's the busiest and usually most fun night there. It's always a good time to watch your friends sing cheesy fun songs.
Friday I worked again and after work I met up with Jon Marx (he was in my previous London group and he lives here now). We had dinner and went to Admiral Duncan which is a bar in Soho, it was a real good time. It was fun to see him, especially in London. Then I came back home then went to the ISH bar because there was a charity drag show. It was fun but not as much fun as I thought it would be, I missed the best part I think. I hung out there for a while then after a bit a group of us went to Koko in Camden. It's a cool music venue, it's an old theatre but with the seats taken out so there's just a giant area. Every Friday there they have a few small bands play so we saw them and then there was a DJ after them. I'm going to see at least 2 concerts at Koko so I'm pretty excited about that.
Yesterday I woke up kind of late and slowly got ready then a few of us went to a cheap asian buffet for lunch then I split and walked around the city. I had bought at cd to a band I'm planning to see (The Kills) and listened to them as I walked around. I made my way to Oxford St but it was way to busy to try to shop so I wandered down smaller streets into Soho and went to Covent Garden and got a cookie from Ben's Cookies (the best cookie in the world) and wandered to Trafalgar Square then made my way back home. Then I went to dinner and came back then figured out my plans for the night. I was going to go to a club that was having inflateable Twister and other fun stuff like that but decided against spending even more money so I went with the ISHbar and had cheap drinks and a lot of fun. There was a good size group of people from the group who went to the bar so that was fun just hanging out with them. Then instead of walking back to my building by myself a few of us had a sleepover at the girl's room who live in that building.
This morning we woke up ate a little breakfast then went to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. It was alright, but rather anti-climactic. Then most of the people went inside the Palace since today was the last day it was open then another girl, Emma, and I walked back home. On the way we stopped by Speaker's Corner, that was a fun. There was a good amount of crazies talking but one was especially funny since there was a lot of people talking and arguing with him. After that we came home and I just cleaned up a little since my area of the room was a total mess since I just throw my stuff down when I get home and haven't had time to clean up after myself. Then I did a little laundry and and doing fun things like posting pictures and updating this bad boy.

here's the link to my new photo album http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2096016&l=f242c&id=219703240

p.s. thanks for all of the comments, I love them all.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Pictures

Here's a link to my facebook album of my pictures so far, I hope it works.

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2095702&l=1a891&id=219703240

I'm Finally Back

On Friday the 19th of September my mom and I drove down to Chicago and then had a lovely last meal of pizza before I headed out. I went through security and found the gate just fine then I waited around for a few hours. One of the other interns on our flight, Kimberly (who turns out to be my roommate), sat by me in the gate so we talked for a bit then got on the flight. I flew Air India, which I never had before, so I didn't know what to expect but it was just fine and the flight wasn't very fully so luckily I wasn't crammed in between people or anything.
Once we landed the 4 of us that were on the flight met up and made our way into London. I was a bit tired since I slept maybe an hour so I was glad to have made it to ISH (International Students House - where I'm staying and no I'm not in the Tower of the World this time). Then I unpacked a bit and we did some necessitites like phone and oyster card then went back to ISH and napped. I met my other roommate, Helen, who's from Australia and was the roommate of Amy Snyder when we were here in 2007. Later we headed to the Green Man for dinner. It was pretty good then on our way back we saw that the rest of our group had arrived (they had been traveling the continent for a few weeks). I met some of them, headed to MTH (the building where I'm staying). I ended up just hanging out at MTH in the guy's room downstairs then headed to bed early.
On Sunday Kimberly and I walked around for a few hours. We went from ISH to Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and Picadilly Circus then over to St. James Park and over to Parliament then crossed the Westminster Bridge to the South Bank and walked down to the Tate modern and crossed the river on the Wobbly Bridge to St. Pauls. There was a lot of stuff going on and it remined me why I love this place so much. Then we came back home, and another group meeting. After the meeting we had a little picnic in Regent's Park and sat around until another group meeting that night. Then after the meeting a few of us headed to Big Ben and walked around there then went to Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square then headed back to ISH.
Yesterday I woke up and ran a few errands with Kris then the interns had a meeting at the place that set up all of our internships. After that a few of us went to a pub and had a drink then Kris, Kimberly and I went to Oxford Street to look for some necessities, and I ended up getting a pair of ridiculous sunglasses. Then we came back to (ISH) had yet another group meeting then headed to the ISHbar. It was pretty mellow in there, but they did have a jazz trio playing and cheap jugs of Pimms and Lemonade. After hanging out there for a while a group of us went out because it was Mike's birthday. We headed down to Soho and went to some bar then we made our way to Zoo Bar, oh boy, that's all I can say about that.
Today I just relaxed, ran an errand and got the internet finally set up and am just getting organized since I start my internship tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about that but a bit nervous since I don't really know what I'm in for, but we'll just see how it goes.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Less Than a Week

I'll be leaving in one week from yesterday, so I'm really starting to think about packing and all of that fun stuff. It doesn't seem real yet that I'm going back, but once I head to the airport I think it'll start to sink in. I'm definately nervous and excited but it'll be good once I get there. I'm especially a bit freaked about working since I have no idea what I'll be doing, but I'm sure I'll get a hang of things pretty quickly then hopefully it'll just be a fun time. Also, if anyone would like a postcard or something then feel free to leave me or email me your address. Hopefully this time I actually send out postcards, I only got as far as buying them last time I was there. That's all for now, next time I post I'll probably be in London. Oh my.