Day 19

This past week at my internship I felt like I was able to start working on more substantial tasks. On Wednesday, I spent nearly my entire time in the office working on powerpoints and updating information about market coverage on popular countries where my company partners with a bank. Every day I have meetings set up to meet different people and what role they have in the company. It is interesting to see the various sides to a general category of marketing. On Thursday evening we went to a restaurant called Cubana. We had been trying to make reservations for nearly two weeks, but they are also so busy. It was my first time having Cuban food and I order empanada de vegetables and falafel de cubana, which is a sweet potato base with a crunchy outside, very similar to a crabcake texture. We also had mojitos that were different flavors-- I had a grapefruit and a passion fruit. On Friday we had an English Breakfast from a restaurant called The Breakfast Club. I liked everything in my vegetarian breakfast, which consisted of scrambled eggs, mushroom, tomato, toast, and beans. We then went to Westminster Abbey and it was gorgeous. The ceilings were all adorned so intricately and it was interesting to learn more about the past royalty and see their extravagant tombs. The abbey was a lot bigger than I originally expected. At night we went to a club called Strawberry Moons. It was a lot of fun and they played a lot of fun music like Britney, Grease, and Christina Aguilara. There were a lot of people who were all very sociable and there with big groups of friends.

Today, Saturday, we had a very sports-filled day. First, we took the tube about an hour out to Wimbledon. We first looked at the museum and saw the evolution of tennis and tennis outfits signed by the tennis players who wore them. There was also a display of the trophies that are awarded to the winners of each event. It was pretty interesting to see everything and learned that George VI is the only member of the royal family to compete in Wimbledon. We then went on a guided tour of the courts, which was a great experience even for someone not interested in tennis. There are 19 courts total for Wimbledon and they are used only for the tournament and members of the club. There are exactly 375 members of the club and they partake in planning the Wimbledon tournament each year. We saw Court 19 where the longest game in history took place. It was over 11 hours and lasted 3 days. Islan was ultimately the winner. We also went to the Millennium Building where the players have their restaurant and balcony over the courts. From there, we walked through the tunnel that the players walk through to get to Centre Court where the championship game is played. The court has a retractable roof that cost 60 million pounds to build. The royal family also has their own wooden box where they sit, the Queen attended last year and the time she attended before that was in 1977 when the last Brit won. Beneath the seats, the walls are lined with the winners of each Wimbledon singles for men and women. The youngest person to win was J. Becker at the age of 17 years and 2 months. The player with the most wins is Pete Sampras with 7 wins out of the 8 he attended. In 2012, the tennis component for the Olympics will be played at Wimbledon just 20 days after the tournament. The committee first needed to prove that they could refurbish the grass and did so in just 2 weeks.
We left Wimbledon and went straight to Piccadilly Circus to go to a bar called Sports Cafe that we heard was a lot of fun. It was the UEFA Championship with Manchester United vs. FC Barcelona. We had to wait over an hour to get into the bar and we were let in just as they started role call. It was amazing to see how many people were there just standing to watch the game. All the bars in London had lines outside of them. Everyone was chanting the Manchester United fight song with the lyrics "Glory, glory Man. United" or Barcelona's fight song. Even though Barcelona ended up winning, it was exciting to be involved with the football culture during a major game. To Europe, football is like their Super Bowl. Unless you made reservations beforehand, you had to stand to watch the game. Afterwards we went to get dinner and then headed home. As we walked towards Piccadilly Circus, the Barcelona fans had climbed to the top of the statue in the center of the circus and chanted their fight song. Everyone was crowded around and cheering, and it was just incredible to see how emotionally attached football fans are to their team.

Day 12

Today was a very relaxing day. I looked through my travel book that I bought at the National Gallery on Saturday and saw a picture of the most amazing Italian food. I decided to go there since I didn't have any other plans. After walking what seemed like forever, I finally found it. I had been expecting some little unknown spot but it was far from that. There was a long glass counter of desserts, pizza, pasta, and salad. Everything looked so delicious. I decided on the margarita pizza and primavera side salad. It was so crowded that it was difficult to find a spot to sit. The vegetables in the salad were very fresh and the pizza was definitely one of the best I have tasted. The bread was delicious. After my meal, I walked back to Leister Square and stopped to get tiramasu ice cream on my way. Throughout the day I felt as if I didn't have anything to do other than read my travel book since I didn't want to waste my internet. I went for a walk in Hyde Park for a while. It was so much bigger than I imagined. I tried to find Kensington Palace, but there were so many pathways and when I though I had gotten close, it turned out that I was only about half way. I walked around the half of the lake that I had come to and saw the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. It was such a pretty day out and the water glistened under the bright blue sky. I ended up going back to my apartment for dinner. After dinner, I went on a walk with one of my roommates to Hyde Park again. We discovered a rose garden that had a variety of flowers in bloom and tunnels made out of vines and flowers. It blows my mind how big the park is and what an escape it is from the constant noise of the city. And no matter where I go in the park, I end up seeing something I hadn't seen before because it is just so massive.

Day 11

Saturday evening, while two of the girls were at Wales, another flat mate and I decided that we wanted to go to a club. We originally decided to go to one called East Village that we read about in Time Out, an online guide to various cities. However, a French guy started talking to us about all the posters that lined the escalators. It turned out that when we got out of the tube station, they guy and his 3 friends were there and they started asking us where we were going. They told us to go with them to the club XOYO because they heard it was a ton of fun. We ended up going there and spending the entire night with them. They bought us red bull and vodka and kept offering cigarettes, which they say is the worst habit of French people. The club had a basement level with live jazz music initially and then later a DJ, a ground floor with a bar, and a rooftop for smoking. It was sometimes very difficult to understand what the French guys were saying, but they were all a lot of fun. We ended up leaving at 3am and then befriended someone else on the bus home. He heard us say that we were from New York and started asking us questions about that and how we ended up living on Edgware. We told him how awful it was at night on that street and he agreed. It was definitely an adventurous night.

Day 10

To see the opening ceremony of the keys at the Tower of London, we had to arrive there at 8:45am on Friday morning. We all were sprinting there because we had the vouchers for the other three girls in our class that are from Utah. The girls from Utah seem nice, but they are very interested in what the professor says about archeology and laugh at all his odd jokes—which makes us seem uninvolved. At night, we went to a bar and restaurant on Edgware called Weatherspoon and got ciders, which were very delicious—Pear Cider and Summer Fruits Cider.

Day 9

On Thursday, it was nice being able to sleep in, since our class didn’t start until 1pm. For class each week we have to write a journal entry on a topic he assigns to us. For this week it was to write about a shopping experience and compare it to the US. I did mine about shopping at Tesco. In class he told us some history about London and its relations with Scotland and Wales. That lasted about 2 hours and then we went on a tour of the Museum of London. Most of the Museum of London is about the archeology and what they found about the Romans that had lived there. There were replications of the rooms that the upper class and lower class lived in and the heating system was developed by the Romans. There was also an exhibit about the Medieval Ages in London. It was ironic that the Romans’ homes were much more advanced in terms of number of rooms and heating compared to the medieval homes’ one room. After our class ended, we grabbed some food from EAT, a popular chain in London, and then went back to our apartment to get ready. A girl in our flat works at a PR firm and they were having a premier party for the release of the DVD Love and Other Drugs. It was a short walk from our apartment and it was held in the basement of an old theater. There were endless glasses of champagne, nail appointments, and chocolate truffles. We then watched the movie, which I thought was cute. It was exciting being able to go to a DVD premier.

Day 8

By the morning of my third day of interning, I still hadn’t received my computer from the IT department. Reading endlessly had gotten pretty boring so fortunately my computer was ready just before lunch. The day before, Tuesday, I helped one of the ladies, whose project I am working on, to edit the website before it went live. I went through and made clear detail about the errors, maybe even excessively since I am so conscious of grammar. When I showed the corrections I made she said it was just what she was looking for. She had looked at it so many times that she wouldn’t be able to recognize the errors. After work on Tuesday I decided to be adventurous and try to take the bus back home rather than the tube. Because Victoria Station is so huge, it is difficult to figure out which direction the buses are going in. I hopped on my correct bus, but unfortunately I realized too late that it was headed in the wrong direction and I was now in an area where I didn’t want to be wandering around looking for a bus stop that had the bus I needed. So I took it all the way to the end and then all the way back to where I lived. Apart from being on a bus for nearly 2 hours, my journey was a good way for me to figure out where I need to get on the bus after work.
On Wednesday, once I had my computer, I was able to check my work email and respond to events that were going on within my company. My primary boss is planning an event to present her research and I am helping her to complete all the necessary tasks associated with that. I put 2 files on 215 flash drives, which I did not mind since it was significantly better than reading. I also compiled a word document of the biographies of the speakers for the event with their pictures as they were sent to her. It is nice to finally be able to do things and contribute to the team. After work I was able to get the right bus home in the correct direction. It was a lot easier than transferring on the tube.

Day 6

We woke up early to go on a bus tour of Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge.  I left with another girl so that we could get coffee beforehand, but it turned out that we went to a different hotel than the one we were supposed to be picked up at.  The concierge at the wrong hotel walked us to the end of the block to direct us where to go and we ran there.  Once we arrived at the correct hotel, the tour bus hadn't arrived yet.  It was about a 45 minute trip out to Windsor Castle.  The bus parked in a parking lot outside some shops that were all very quite, but there were also chain stores.  Windsor Castle was set upon a hill above the streets and it is massive.  It seems as if it is its own little town-- there is even a church on site.  I walked outside in order to get to the entrance for the inside of the house and it was a remarkable view from the terrace.   The first exhibit that I saw was Queen Mary's Doll House.  It is a doll house that was made for her as a gift and all the best traders contributed in some way.  The rooms of the house were magnificently decorated and the maids all had their own rooms and bathrooms.  The king and queen each had their own bedrooms, wardrobe rooms, and bathrooms.  The dining room was set for 12 and had real silver plates.  I then went on a tour with the aide of an audio guide.  All the rooms were decorated with the finest material and huge portraits hung on the walls.  There was one room with the tallest ceilings and portraits of influential men in British history, such as Wellington who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.  Another room that was truly impressive was the living room.  There had been a fire in 1992 and the floors in that room were damaged.  To fix this, they took up all the floorboards and flipped them over.  The ceiling that was adorned in gold also had to be mended.

Day 4

We took advantage of our free Big Bus Tour vouchers and spent the day on that.  I felt that my knowledge of what I learned from the walking tours was enhanced and by the end, some of the things the next tour guide said I already had learned that day.  We went on a river cruise from the Westminster Bridge to the Tower Bridge and learned about all the buildings along the river and their history.  After riding on the bus for a while and realizing that we either saw the sites on our walking tour or would see the sites for our class in the future, we ended up at Buckingham Palace.  From there, we went to the Royal Mews and walked around the area and got on the tube to go back to our apartment.  We rested and then went to Chinatown for dinner and returned to get ready to go out.  The bar that we went to was called the Living Room and was an upscale lounge.  Most of the people there were in their late twenties to early thirties and were dressed in suits or casual in jeans like us.  We ordered cocktails and then went back around 11 since we were all worn out from the previous few days.

Royal Carriage

 

 

 

 

Big Bus Tours 

Day 3

Today we went on two walking tours, both set up by our program.  The first one was with a man from a separate company and he showed us the west end of London.  At the end of the tour, he left us at a farmer's market where we had lunch.  All of the food was very fresh and inexpensive.  I had a buffalo mozzarella and tomato sandwich and a brownie with Belgium chocolate and walnuts.  The second tour was with the man who will be our professor for our British Culture and Life course.  He was very enthusiastic about the history of London and about specific landmarks in London.  In particular, he claimed his favorite object in London is the canon that is rising out of the ground near the London Bridge, which was put there after the war with Napoleon and there was no use for as many cannons anymore.  Each week for our class we will have a day of learning in class and a day for visiting a place that relates to the lesson of the week.  In addition, we will also have an assignment of doing a certain task each week.  This week's task was to go shopping.  Once we got back, we went to the nearby grocery store, Tesco, and had an unusual shopping experience.  First there was an error when I scanned paper towels.  Then, I had to wait for someone to come over to take the safety off my wine. And third, whenever I use my credit card, the cashier must verify the signature on the back to the paper or to identification.  The credit card use here is much more strict than in the US.  Also, for dinner that night there was a 10 pound minimum for purchasing food.

View of St. Paul's Cathedral

Link to Pictures from Walking Tours 

Day 1

I arrived at Heathrow Airport at about 10:30 am on Tuesday morning and was able to find the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station as my dad had advised.  It felt strange being in a different country by myself.  I was extra cautious to ask before and after I got on the expressway to make sure it was headed to Paddington Station.  Once I arrived at Paddington Station, it was unlike any train station I had seen before.  The sunlight shown beautifully through the ironwork and there were vendors all around.  My first purchase was a small americano from a coffee place.  When I went outside I was unsure about how to hail a taxi because they all zoomed passed.  After walking around a while, I realized that there was a line of men and women in suits waiting for taxis that would line up, just like at Penn Station.

Paddington Station

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I rode in a taxi to my apartment where I would be staying, yet it took longer than expected.  Neither my taxi driver or I could figure out where it was.  Twenty pounds later and after calling the program director, we were able to find it.  Three of my four apartment mates had already arrived.  Once everyone arrived, we went for a walk in our area, which is right by the Marble Arch.  We live in a very ethnic part of London in which our street is lined with Lebanese, Moroccan, and Indian restaurants.  For dinner we went to a Malaysian restaurant.

The Marble Arch (Oxford Street)