je suis désolée je ne parle pas français

 Ok- so I'm not really sure how I got to be 2.5 months behind on this blog. Time is both flying and crawling at the same time! I cannot believe I get to go Stateside in a week! SO EXCITED. Its pretty much all I think about. Definitely going to bring my carry-on and one of my giant suitcases just so I can stuff it with fruit snacks, wheat thins, deodorant, candy canes and shoot, I know there is more but I can't remember. I keep telling myself I should write those things down! Alright so now I am going to try to get you all caught up on the last couple of months of my life in London- there have been some pretty big changes! I'm going to follow the wisdom of Maka Chee however and just write a whole bunch of smaller entries so I actually finish them because finding the time to do it all at once is proving impossible!

So when I last wrote I got all the way up through the end of September.  On to October!

First big adventure of October (and the topic of this blog!) was my trip to THE SOUTH OF FRANCE to visit my friend Anissa with my roommate Emily!

The adventure started early on the morning we were leaving for France because I knew I couldn't go to France without a camera (and remember that mine got stolen/lost) so I spent the morning following Googles wrong directions to the BestBuy equivalent so I could buy a camera and then I went on the wrong train to work... nothing like being 30 minutes late when you are already scheduled to leave a few hours early!

The next bump was that there was a mixed up and I ended up with 2 return boarding passes and no boarding pass from London to France. No normally this wouldn't be a big deal, you could print the pass at the airport and board your flight like a civilized person. But no.  We were flying RyanAir- which has amazingly low prices, but then screws you over by charging an arm and a leg for other trivial things- like printing a boarding pass. So after we had waited in line to get our passes stamped (that person apparently doesn't even look at the pass because they stamped it just fine) and waited in the security line we found out I had the wrong boarding passes and, after desperately trying to negotiate with the lady at the desk, I had to pay £40 (roughly $65) to get the pass reprinted. Keep in mind the price of the whole roundtrip ticket was only £60. Needless to say I was in tears, we were now running late and my roommate at just glared at the lady and asked "how can you stand working for a place that does this." Anyway- we took of sprinting through the airport and then RyanAir struck again. As we were sprinting through the airport a guy stops me and says he has to weigh my bag (because RyanAir also charges you about the price of the ticket if your bag is more than 10kg). He gets to randomly select which bags he weighs- so I was pretty pissed that he picked the only two people sprinting through the airport. Just not nice. But we ended up getting there just fine and then had the MOST amazing weekend.

We landed in Marseille and drove down to where Anissa goes to school in Aix en Provence and stayed in her apartment. Then the next morning we wandered around X (that's the nickname for Aix en Provence) and it was SUCH a quintessential French town.

Anissa and I in X

- After a morning in X (which included some of the best pizza ever from Pizza Capri) we drove about 20 minutes down to Marseille- which is on the water and was so gorgeous and SO windy. After walking around the harbor a bit we drove up to a church called Notre Dame (not the Notre Dame) at the very top of the tallest point in the city. It was hands down the windiest place I have ever been in my life. At one point I was trying to film a video of Emily and Anissa blowing in the wind and I had to stop to help an old lady because she couldn't get back to the railing. But it had the most amazing views of the water and the town. Absolutely incredible!

Me in front of Notre Dame Church

Me Emily and Anissa at a French Cafe in Marseille 

The incredible view from the Notre Dame Church

 

Welcome to the windiest place on earth!

-being in France made me realized I had never been to a country where I didn't speak the language (I had only ever been to English and Spanish speaking countries) and it was really daunting. I definitely recommend learning at least a few words before going somewhere. I made Anissa teach me how to say je suis désolée je ne parle pas français (I'm sorry I don't speak French) but it took me a while to remember how to say it.  At one point a man asked if I spoke English and I responded by saying Si- everyone got a riot outta that one :-). Haha it was confusing, but I definitely learned my lesson!

After Marseille we drove down to Anissa's hometown- La Ciotat- to stay at her parents house. Anissa's family is incredible- so kind and hospitable even through the slight language barrier. When we arrived we went to the supermarket with Anissa and her mom and her mom tried to buy the whole store for Emily and I. And of course cheese was a big part of it - learned that Camembert is my favorite type of cheese!!!)

Nightly "after dinner" cheese platter :-)

In the morning we headed up to a beautiful medieval village named Le Castellet and hung about a bit before going back to La Ciotat for Anissa's little sister's dance recital and checking out some of the landmarks there- including her parent's restaurant where we had a really good drink made out of some red syrup and water. Then we headed back to Anissa's for a crepe making lesson (I now have every intention of buying a crepe maker and perfecting the fine- and surprisingly difficult- art of crepe making)

Le Castellet

La Ciotat!

In front of  the Bec de l'Aigle (the eagle's beak)

My attempt at making crepes!

The next morning we headed to the local weekend market down by where the biggest yacht fixing yard is.  Then we headed back to Anissa's parents house for lunch and had a delicious DELICIOUS Moroccan pie called Pastilla.  Its an incredible savory sweet pie with chicken and what is kind of like a baklava crust and it is topped with powered sugar. Loved it to bits. And to top it off Anissa's mom hand made a raspberry tiramisu. (and the Salmon and spinach lasagna and lamp chops from the other nights were delish as well) Then we packed up, struggled through a "family photoshoot" using the timer function and headed off to the airport. 

PASTILLA!!!

Hand made raspberry tiramisu

My wonderful French Family!

All and all this weekend was one on of the best of my life. Surrounded by wonderful people, delicious home-cooked family meals, beautiful scenery. I'll definitely remember it for the rest of my life! Can't wait to go back in the spring/summer!

Autumn Awesomeness

I thought I was on par to update my blog once a month- just realized its now November and my last post only covered until mid-September! Ooops!

So, where were we? Ah yes- mid-September. Grandpa had just left London. That seems like SO long ago! That Thursday I joined everyone for "Thursday-Night-Drinks." Its a pretty big thing for everyone to go to drinks on Thursday and most of the interns in the program have done a great job adopting that customs. Its hard for me though because most people's jobs are concentrated in an area of London called "The City" (a big financial district) an my work is pretty far away. But this particular Thursday I decided I was going to go. It took me an hour and a half to find the place they were at- but it was worth it. Made it just in time to catch the end of happy hour and then we switched to another bar called Amber. Amber is a pretty interesting place. When you walk in you head down some stairs and it seems like a pretty normal bar. I was excited to go because I had heard that there was a roller-skating rink inside. And there is- sorta. Haha. What it really is is a raised dance floor with different colored light-up panels and a few girls dancing around on roller-skates where far to little clothing... But as the night progresses everyone ends up getting on the "roller-rink" and dancing to great oldies. It was a ton of fun!

None of my pictures did Amber bar's "RollerRink" justice so I had to get a stock photo. Now just imagine a few girls on roller-skates dressed in sports bras and booty shorts skating around with a bunch of British bankers and American interns... :-)

That weekend a group of us went to one of London's many spectacular markets- Borough Market (http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk). Its pretty much dedicated to delicious food (which is why we went there) and it has a lot of it. I thought before we went that there would be more vendors selling ready to eat food (and there might have been and we just didn't find them) but mostly we saw vendors selling tons of other delicious things- jams in every flavor you can imagine (all of which you can sample!), honeys, cheeses, chorizo, cookies, etc.etc. etc. I ended up getting a delicious burger with aged cheddar cheese (which seemed awfully blue-chessey) and grilled onions (cause I like onions now!) and a brownie. I don't have any pictures from this little outing though because my camera got stolen during my next adventure. (don't worry I have since bought a new one)

That night we went to a bar called Zoo Bar in Covent Garden- it was packed and a lot of fun (and we got in for half price) but it also proved to be a trying night on people's belongings.  My friend Jessica's wallet went missing and, even though the bartenders later found it, all the cash was gone. I am pretty sure this night is when I lost my camera, and one other girl lost her whole wallet that night. Not a highlight of the trip- but since it explains why my camera disappeared it needed to be included so that all of you who love to make fun of me for losing things can't. :-)

The following Tuesday my roommate and I skipped out of work early to go to Buckingham Palace before it closed for season. It is only open 10 weeks out of the year and we really wanted to go during this opening because Kate Middleton's wedding dress was on display! And the tickets are good for reentry for a whole year so we will be able to go again next year when it opens too! The palace was really really cool. Only some of the state rooms were opening for viewing- but thats ok because it would have taken forever to see all 775 rooms! (and 78 bathrooms!) 

They don't let you take any pictures inside the palace (and my camera was gone anyway) so this is another stock photo- but this room is really cool because the two long mirrors in the back are "trap-doors" and swing around to open into the next room!

My roommate Emily and I in front of the back of Buckingham Palace!

    Seeing Kate Middleton's dress was actually a lot cooler than I expected. I had no idea how much thought went into the design. It was perfectly weighted so that if the train of the dress was picked up it would fall back into perfect position! And all the lace was hand-sewn and in the shape of the four flowers of Great Britain (English Rose, Scottish Thistle, Welsh Daffodil and Irish Shamrock). Her shoes also had the same beautiful hand-sewn lace stitched onto them and the cake (which was something like 17 little cakes with 900 sugar flowers on it) also incorporated a ton of ornate flowers.

Ok and to round out September-  and this one is important- ANISSA'S VISIT FROM FRANCE!!! Anissa had a pretty good idea of the things she wanted to see while she was here and I think we did a good job getting to most of them. 

- Primark- a super cheap department type store in London that topped Anissa's list (haha) 

-We got super lost trying to find Notting Hill and walked around 3/4 of the perimeter of Hyde Park, found and walked around Notting Hill, saw an adorable antiques market and had cream tea

The scone, clotted cream (which is way way better than it sounds) and jam that comes with cream tea

- Camden Market - a giant market that has nearly everything you could ever want. It seems to go on forever. It has a lot of hippie type things, and then a lot of ready to eat food from all over the world and paintings and sculptures and its just giant. Anissa and I got a little fish pedicure (little fishes eat the skin off your feet and it tickles like crazy!) while we were there!

Anissa and I trying to smile through the tickle of our fish pedicure!

@ Camden Market!

- we spent a bunch of time trying to figure out my phone situation which was really annoying! But in the end I switched to a new phone provider and got a special plan that lets me call my mom and brother for free and provides me with an american number that links to my British phone so anyone can call me without worrying about international fees!!! (let me know if you want the number! I love getting calls!)

- we attempted to go to the top of the Tate Modern tower but it turns out that isn't really an obvious option so we decided to go get fish and chips from the Anchor (the same restaurant that Grandpa had wanted to eat at!)

- we each got a proper English breakfast (well we each got at least some of the main parts - baked beans, eggs, fried tomatoes and mushrooms, toast) from a little cafe near my apartment.

- oh and we had to deal with this CRAZY lady who lives in the building next to me. She normally doesn't bother me because my apartment doesn't face the other building, but we were hanging out in my friends apartment which its really close to hers. This woman hates Americans and deals with it by screaming bloody murder from her window while she is topless. She threw a chair and a lamp out the window proclaiming it to be America's electric chair, she yelled at my friend to close her window because she was ugly- she literally screamed for hours- on more than one night. Its crazy.

- oh and the best part of Anissa's trip is the following picture. Anissa has never been so proud of an idea in her whole life. It took her about 10 minute to get up the courage to ask someone to take the photo- but in the end she loves it to bits so it is worth it!

Note- Anissa is in the phone booth at the back, I am in the phone booth at the front and Big Ben fills out the picture nicely on the other side. Its a little blurry here because I had to make it big enough so you could tell what it is (not going to say I told you so Anissa)- but the idea really is great.

Well folks that rounds out September and my night of blogging! I'll try to get October updated ASAP and I'll even give you all a little teaser! Next months blog will include- my trip to the south of france, a Mountbatten led weekend to the English Countryside, my first weekend of class and Halloween! (wow that doesn't seem like much, maybe I'll just start a new blog right after this one and see if I can get all caught up!)

Some of September

I knew keeping up with this blog would be hard. There is just so much going on which means there is so much to write about but so little time to do so and it just gets tricky. But I have devoted tonight to filling all you loyal and devoted fans (shout out to JWalk) in on the enthralling events that have taken place in the last month :-)

Lucky for all of you, even though I haven't been writing blogs, I have been using those cute little computer Post-its to take notes of what to include when I do finally get around to writing so nothing important will be left out! So first thing on the list? (oh man- its a longer list than I thought! SO much has happened this month!)

Alrighty, so the second weekend of September the March intake of Mountbatten interns organized a boat tour. Sounds awesome right? Well it was for most people, I on the other hand spent the night maybe a little too drunk and severely seasick. I actually took to sleeping on the deck to pass some of the 4 hours. During an easy spell I did get a chance to steer the boat though! And the London Eye at night is pretty awesome!

That same weekend Mountbatten put on a Sept 11th Memorial Concert and there was a firework display on the Thames for the annual Thames River Festival. After having spent the morning in search of a burger (the first place was out and the second only had a Sunday menu of three items, but the third spot- a more classy than usual sit down kebab shop- served us up a great burger for a great price) and then lounging around watching Remember the Titans it was a bit hard to get going for the Concert. And once we finally did we ran into some roadblocks. The bus stop we went too wasn't in use, the Tube was closed and it started raining. After some luck and Iphone usage we found another bus stop and were on our way. Til traffic won and realized that sitting on the bus just wasn't worth it anymore. We got off and started walking which actually worked out well because we got to see a bit of the Thames River Festival parade (I personally wish we had gotten to see more of it, but we had to go to the concert). By now we were already late and had missed the snacks so we figured that we should just eat quickly and make it in time for the second half of the event. We found a Subway that was out of nearly everything and made two people sick and then were on our way. The concert was nice, in a beautiful modern but still old- feeling cathedral. It was a very interesting juxtaposition of traditional marble pillars and flat screen TVs.  (there is actually a lot of interesting juxtapositions like that- centuries old churches dwarfed by the erection of giant skyscrapers (Kind of a neat visual timeline). After the concert we headed over to the river to get a good spot for the fireworks. They ended up starting about half an hour late and we kept thinking that we were in the wrong spot, but in the end it was worth it. I was secretly expecting a little bit more, but I guess that's just because I have been spoiled with Boise's awesome Fourth of July show.

Also around the beginning of September I went on a few dates. Normally this wouldn't make the blog, but one of the guys was just so crazy that he has earned a spot. Blake Charles (if thats even really his name) is a ridiculously hot Australian that I met at a bar on my birthday. He seemed relatively normal and when he asked me to go get a drink the next week I didn't see any harm in it. Little did I know! Luckily he said that I should bring a friend because his buddy was coming along- because otherwise I don't think I would have made it. This kid was unbelievable. Unable to abide by a single social norm. He was yelling racial slurs, harassing the waitress (he bet himself he could get her number, was incredibly rude to her, followed her to other tables while she was trying to work and then made a scene of ripping up the number she gave him because she was "ugly") blatantly pouring whiskey into his coke and scratching the table with his fork. He tried to walk out on the bill and the night ended when he walked up and bounced my boobs. Honestly unbelievable. Don't really know what else to say about that one!

I guess now would be a good time to give a little update on my life as an intern at Sanders Lifestyle Footwear. I finally met Aunt Pauline (my boss's aunt who works Mondays at the store). She is a lovely lady- bubbly and loves to chitchat. Aside from that I have mostly spent the last month processing deliveries. Before we could finish one delivery the next would arrive- pretty frustrating. Because there is no free time from the day-to-day operations at the store I can't implement any of the things I would like to as an intern. Oh I forgot about a good work story! So the day that Grandpa arrive (more on that visit later) Rufus had to leave early. Within minutes of him leaving the phone rang and a man named Mr. Boyce was on the other end. Mr. Boyce told me that he had come in on Monday and ordered a pair of shoes and was wondering if they had been ordered and when they could be expected to arrive. I didn't know the answer so I told him that "the person in charge of deliveries had left for the day" and asked if I could take a message. Mr Boyce responded by saying "take a message! did you NOT just listen to what I said! I ordered shoes on Monday and want to know if they have been ordered and when they will arrive!" I was really thrown off by this, but kept my cool and apologized and asked if I could get a phone number so that Rufus could call him back in the morning. He sternly told me that I had taken his number when I wrote down his order on Monday and that since I had taken the order I should be able to tell him the information he wanted. I pointed out that I did not have the order book in front of me and although I might have taken the details I was not actually in charge of placing the orders. This is when Mr. Boyce really let loose. "This is London not America you brat. Stop being such a brat." I was so confused about what had made him so angry and apologized again, saying that I did not understand what I had done to offend him. He again called me a brat and I realized it was time to end the conversation because it was going nowhere. I told him that Rufus would be in contact with him the next day, goodbye. He quickly retorted that all he wanted was for someone to call him the next day with the information he wanted. Seeing as that was what I had been arranging the whole time I just said Ok, Bye. I was SO mad by the end of this, but there were customers to deal with so I just had to move on. I told Rufus the story right away and he was great about it. He called Mr. Boyce and told him that he could get his shoes elsewhere because he wouldn't stand for him mistreating his employees! It was pretty awesome to have my boss stand up for me like that.


Well that ended up being a long than anticipated story (as per my norm :-) ). Onto Grandpa's visit! So Grandpa arrived on Thursday the 15th and stayed through the 19th. He came straight to the store from the airport and hung out while I dealt with Mr. Boyce and a delivery. Then we closed up (with more than a few issues) and headed back to the hotel. We had a great dinner at the Barbican (the hotel he stayed at that is about a block from my apartment- the one I stayed at for the first week) and tucked in early. Because Rufus had left early and whatnot- he had told me that I could come in around 3:30pm for work. So Grandpa and I got up early, enjoying the wonderful hotel brunch and headed over to Sigmund Freud's house! It was a cute little house in a typically London neighborhood. It was extra interesting because Grandpa had been to Freud's house in Austria and therefore had a wealth of knowledge to share (as per most usual with Gpop!). Then we got a real treat- Rufus called and said that I didn't need to come in at all! So Grandpa and I boarded the train to Greenwich and the National Maritime Museum. Upon arriving after the 30-45 minute ride we were greeting with wonderfully crispy, cloudless weather that was truly in the best of early fall (autumn as they say here) weather. We had delicious and huge burgers topped with pulled pork at an adorable outside restaurant and then headed over to the museum. Unfortunately we arrived about 10 minutes before closing and were only able to see a few ship models. (Grandpa knew something about almost all of them.) We missed getting to go to the gift shop (Grandpa's favorite part of any excursion) so we stopped at a little nautical shop in town to buy some gifts.  The next morning we woke up and went to the science museum (which is awesome!) and then went and watched the Tempest at the Royal Haymarket Theatre. After that we walked around and saw some of the old places that Grandpa hung out at when he studied abroad in the 1953!!! Seriously how cool is that that he studied here way back then! He had a lot of great stories about it and it was so interested to hear him explain how it had changed. He really wanted to eat at the Anchor pub on the Thames (an old haunting ground) but unfortunately they were all booked for the evening. We found another place he used to frequent and had a great meal there, so it all worked out. The next day we quickly checked out the Victoria and Albert Museum (mostly the bookstore and cafe :-)) and then headed out to Heathrow so Gramps could catch his flight!

Grandpa and I eating dinner at the Thistle Barbican hotel

Grandpa in front of Freud's house

Ok, so that brings us half way through September. I think most of you have probably had your fill of my life stories for now, and I tired of writing, so the rest of the month is just going to have to wait! Hope everything in everyone's lives is going well and that you are all planning trips to come visit!

London Life!!!

Its blog time! I'm adjusting pretty well to life across the pond. There are still some culture shock and homesickness times, but hey- that's to be expected! I'm finally getting more settled into my apartment, got pictures posted and all my clothes unpacked and a bunch of kitchen stuff bought. I still need to get a duvet cover (the blue plaid they provide us with just isn't going to cut it for a year) and a hamper, but its finally starting to feel like "my room." I share my room with a girl named Emily from Wisconsin and we get along really well. Our room is one of the biggest in the program and it is set up so that our dressers kind of divide the room in two and we each get our own little space.

This is the view of my room when you walk in the bedroom door (Emily's side)

Dressers/Room Dividers

This is my half of the room!

My bed is right up against the window (on the 6th floor) and its really cool because I can see a little futbol pitch from my window! One annoying thing is that we can only open the windows (and balcony doors) 10cm. Its some dumb British rule because we don't have a technical "head of household." It can be quite a nuisance when we want to cool the room off and it makes for weird air flow so sometimes the windows and bedroom door with bang open and closed unexpectedly.

Its hard to tell with the glare but you can almost see the little futbol pitch in the middle left of the picture

My roommate and I have a bathroom in our room and our flatmates share one in the hallway. Its a really nice bathroom and its great because it gets cleaned once a week, but the shower has some issues. Mainly it has a serious design flaw and its really easy to get water all over the floor and then there isn't good/any ventilation so we are having some mold issues...

Showers should have walls- the water goes everywhere.
The little glass part is actually a door that opens so water can get under that too...

Here are some more pictures of the flat.

The view as you enter. The door on the right is the boys bathroom and the one straight ahead is their bedroom.
To the left is the living room and to the right is my room.

The living room. We got lucky and have one of the biggest apartments and more couches!

The kitchen at the back end of the living room

Our Washer/Dryer combo machine located under the sink. Haha

The weekend of Aug. 28-29 was what is called a "Bank Holiday" weekend over here. Basically like Labor Day weekend or Memorial Day weekend, expect all of them are called bank holidays. In addition to getting Monday off work this particular bank holiday coincides with the Notting Hill Carnival, which is the biggest carnival/festival in Europe with around 1million people attending. It is a Caribbean themed event and it was basically a gigantic (10blocks ish) club outside - music, dancing and drinking in the streets- mixed with a parade with awesome costumes and traditional Caribbean Food- think jerk chicken, rice, fried plantains! There were SO many people and everyone just left trash everywhere- lots of it was in neat piles, but still, so much garbage! 

People as far as you can see

Creative trashcan

My favorite parts of the two days we went to the festival were 1. the costumes and parade- we didn't get to see them the first day and I was really excited when we found them on the second day, although my camera died literally as soon as we saw the first float. My second favorite thing was when this girl climbed a tree next to one of the outdoor dance parties and the DJ stopped and started yelling for her to get out of the tree. She was really drunk and wouldn't get out of the tree and before long the whole crowd was chanting "1.2.3. monkey outta the tree" and the DJ was yelling "what country  you fink dis is?!?." It got scary when someone threw a beer can at her, but after almost 10 minutes someone was able to safely push her out of the tree. It was weird but definitely memorable!

On Thursday I had a work assignment to go around to other shoe stores and find out if they stock the brand my store specializing in, and to check out their customer service and prices. All in all it was an ok adventure. Did a lot of fake shopping by myself, including in overwhelming Harrods and Selfridges, but it was a good experience and a beautiful day so I was glad to be out of the office. I turned in the write up on my "market research" today and my boss really liked it so that was good too. Oh I also got registered for the National Healthcare System so that if I get sick I can see a doctor for free!

The next major thing was my 23rd birthday! We went out Thursday night to a local bar and that was really fun, Friday (my actual birthday) my roommate brought me a double chocolate cake and gummies, my friend made me nutella frosted cupcakes and we all went to dinner at this ADORABLE rooftop Italian restaurant! I had delicious delicious bruschetta and it was great- they even brought out a giant piece of tiramisu with a candle and sang happy birthday!

Birthday Presents!

Delicious Birthday Dinner- Bruschetta, cheese, olives, veggies etc!

Adorable rooftop restaurant where we went for my birthday dinner. 

Halfway through the giant piece of birthday tiramisu!

Lets see- what else has happened? Oh booked a hostel in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day! Pretty excited about that- there is a big group of us going and it should be really fun!

My friends and I have a favorite bar called B@1. Its great and we have decided that we want to become regulars and have the bartenders know us by name. It is the perfect blend of bar and club- you can stand or sit or dance or talk- the music is great (think chumbawamba, oldies like twist and shout, etc) and its just so fun!

 

Grocery shopping here is what makes me the most homesick. Its really not that different from home, but for some reason all the little differences about it really add up. For example most everything comes wrapped. Individual cucumbers, packages of 2 bell pepers etc. I miss big bins where you can just pick the produce that you want. Also, if you go on Sunday like I did there is a good chance that they will be out of nearly everything. Also all the stores have different deals and it is hard to remember where it is best to get what. And it is really a killer when you start converting pounds to dollars and you realize how much money you are spending! The end result is that I basically go shopping for a few things every other day (which is also needed because you have to carry everything home and it gets heavy) and then eat the same thing for a few days and switch. Its really not that bad, but since differences exist I feel like I might as well acknowledge them!

And the last thing for today's blog post is the story of my bus ride this morning! Got to the bus like normal, excited to be making it to work on time, but then, halfwayish through the journey, traffic is at a standstill. No idea why- there were just about 6-8 buses stopped in front of us. We literally did not move for 15 minutes. I was texting my boss to keep him updated but I still felt horrible because I was so late to work. I never saw what caused the delay because my bus ended up turning. I didn't even think about the fact that public transportation could make me late to work! Luckily my boss was super understanding about it!

Alright, well thats enough for now! Hope everything is going well for everyone! 

bus stoppage

Living In London

Well folks, I certainly have been bad about updating my blog. The tradeoff between spending time writing about whats going on or going out and living whats going on can be a tricky one.  But I have found some time now to write me first blog since arriving in London 13 days ago. A TON has happened in these last two weeks and I think most of you would be bored by a lot of the in depth details, so I think I will bullet point the highlights of each day and if you are interested in finding out more about something that happened then I would be delighted to enlighten you! :-)

Ok here goes.

Flying over (Aug. 12th-Aug14th.)
-smooth flying an on 6 legs of my trip!
-spent the night on a bench in the Chicago airport. There was a pretty good amount of people doing the same and there were no armrests on the bench so it worked out pretty well. There was a man who kept yelling names all night which I thought was weird until I saw the throngs of new Navy recruits boarding planes in the morning.
-spent Saturday in Boston with my Aunt Betsy and we had a terrific day of sightseeing and exploring! We went to so many cool spots- the Harvard Yard, Beantown, the Market (where there was the most amazing street performance) Bunker Hill and a bunch more.
-in the airport in New York there were ipads situated on EVERY table. It was crazy!
-on the flight over to London there was no one sitting next to me so I got to stretch out and enjoy Soul Surfer before snoozin the rest of the way over the pond.
-I arrived safely with only a slight bump (not being able to take the luggage trolley on the terminal transfer train proved challenging) and we bussed over to the hotel and I met my very first friends :-)

Sunday the 14th
-we arrived that the Thistle (not quite as glamorous as the excellent photography let on, but perfectly livable) and just as our group of over 80 people was arriving to check-in an equally large group of Spaniards showed up to do the same- needless to say we waited around for a long time before getting our room!
-a group of us went on a walk to find dinner and I was not overly thrilled with the area we were in (the hotel is less than a block from my apartment). We struggled to decide where to eat and I was left wondering why I didn't just go back to Spain. We did however find Kebabs!!!! (thank goodness because man-o-man do I love Kebabs. I am so looking forward to my first one!)
-in the end we just went back to the hotel to eat and it was ridiculous. Our server really didn't have any idea what he was doing and one girl never got her food. Customer Service over here is definitely different...

Monday the 15th ---I'm well aware now that this highlighting the days things is still going to be too long... but don't worry- I only wrote down stuff about the first couple of days- pretty soon I won't be able to remember all these details about every day.
-we had to be up for breakfast by 8am-which turned out to be less painful than I thought it would be. I was pleasantly surprise by how nice the breakfast was- yogurt, lots of cereals, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, fruit, and lots more.
-next we headed into orientation and found individually wrapped jelly bellys on the tables! We played a "get to know you" bingo game and I won twice! (first bingo and first blackout = 15 pounds to Boots the local Rite-Aid type place!)
-after Orientation we went exploring again (this time in search of cell phones) and found a super cute area around the Angel Tube Station that is really close by. Seeing that we were in fact close to a nice area eased some nerves for sure! Getting lost for over an hour on the way home did not. Haha. Tana, Kelly, Jessica and I got very lost on our way back and were given many wrong directions by many different Brits. Finally some guys googled mapped it for us. We stopped for dinner first and then made it back to the hotel safe and sound (and exhausted)
-we went and had a short little hot tub and sauna and then my roommate and I headed with some girls to the local pub on the corner. This is where it gets interesting! We were chitchatting away with the bartender when all of a sudden I realized there was a group of americans next to us. The recognized us as the new Mountbatten Interns and we got to talking. A couple of minutes into the conversation they asked us where we were living (there are two different locations where people in the program live) and when we told them we were living at Ability Towers they nonchalantly remarked that they lived there too and that the reason they were at the pub was because the grocery store underneath the building was on FIRE and they had been evacuated!!!! Don't worry though- everything turned out just fine. Super bummed that our 24hr grocery isn't up and running- but it will be soon!

K I'm tired of giving so much detail so I'm gonna condence it down a bit from here.

-Kelly, Tana, Mary Walker and I went to Hyde Park. And got caught in a downpour. (It pretty much rains everyday- not all day, but everyday for a while- normally during my walk to work) They all got trashbags to use as ponchos- the man wouldn't give me one.

-toured all (we actually walked the width of our map) of the touristy area of London with my roommate and her family which was super fun.

-after a week at the hotel we moved into our apartments. They are really nice- big and bright and modern . I share my room with a girl name emily and we have 2 guys that share our flat. One is from India and one is from Nigeria and they are both great!

-my work at the shoe store is alright. Its more shoe selling than I had anticipated, but we will see how it goes. I do enjoy by bus ride over there though! I get to sit on the top of the 2 story bus and see everything. My whole commute takes about 45 minutes, but since I don't to be until work until 10 its really not that bad.

-we have gone out 2 so far and its been pretty fun. Living in an apartment complex with about 50 other Americans is sorta like being back in dorms, which I kinda like. Everyone is close by and hangs out in everyones rooms.

Crossing the street here is trying- I have no idea which way to look and I pretty much just run scared every time.

I'm sure there is a bunch more I could write about but I can't think of it now. If there is anything you want to know about let me know! Sorry this entry was SOOO long- I'll get better! I'm off to go post so pictures!!

Prepping, Planning, and Preparing Part II

Its been a bit since I have posted, mainly because so many things have been happening and I figured that, rather than have a ton of short entries, I should just sum it all up in one! But then it became daunting so I kept putting it off. But now its time!

Where to start, where to start. Hm, ok yes- with getting my visa! So way back on the 18th I had my appointment to get my fingerprints and face digitally scanned for my visa- they call it getting your "biometrics." It was a really interesting experience- a. because I didn't even know Boise had a Homeland Security Office and b. because there was a citizenship ceremony going on when I arrived! It was really cool to see such a wide group of people all smiles and holding little American flags. Unfortunately, the place where I was supposed to drop my paper off was also the very front of where the ceremony was taking place. I told the officer I would wait until the ceremony was over, but he insisted that I go "put my paper in box 1." So I awkwardly waited for a little pause in the excitement (the actual ceremony hadn't quite begun yet) and ran up to put my paper where I belonged. Then I went and stood on the edge of the room where I had a good view of everything that was going on without being in the way. The ceremony began with everyone saying the pledge of allegiance- it was really really cool to see the whole room so proud to be American. Soon a guy came and grabbed my paper out of box 1 and somehow knew exactly who I was and stared me down until I noticed and realized I was going to have to march right up to the front of the ceremony! So I scurried up there only to find out that the form I had had to print didn't have the bar code on it so I needed to go the library to reprint it. After that was all said and done I went back, got my fingerprints and face scanned and was all ready to go - right as everyone was saying their citizenship oath. The guy told me to just go, but I said I would wait- no way was I going to interrupt people becoming citizens. It was interesting to me to see how disenfranchised the employees had become with something that, although routine to them, is still a very big deal!

From there I went to get a passport picture taken. Who knew it costs $10 a pop nowadays! And I had to get two because apparently you're not allowed to smile in the photos and the first one I took actually looked like a mug shot- a bad mug shot. Then I went to mail the stuff out. I opted not to pay $30 to overnight it like recommended- and it was a good thing too. I paid $16 to get it there within 4 days and it arrived in New York the following morning! When I first got the email saying it had arrived I was worried it was a scam! Mostly because the British visa websites have ridiculously fake names like Visa4you.com. But I checked the tracking I had placed on the package and it really had just arrived super quick! Soon I got the email saying my visa had been approved- which meant I could FINALLY buy my tickets!

I have been looking at ticket prices forever. I had figured out that it was cheapest to fly out of Boston on British Airways. And since I have a free Southwest Flight I am going to use that to get to Boston. On the day I was finally going to purchase my ticket I was more than frustrated to find out that the price of the ticket I had been tracking for the past two months went up $300- not cool! This little setback came after I had spent hours on the phone trying to get my loan figured out and I was not pleased. But I was able to make some calls, talk to a rude Irish man, and find a flight on Delta that was only $150 more expensive than the original flight- which in the grand scheme of things isn't really that much (or so I keep trying to convince myself- which became decidedly more difficult when learned how many places I could get round trip in Europe for only $50!) From there I needed to figure out the best way to get to Boston- which was a process in and of itself because we are using a combination of a free ticket from the old Southwest rewards program, a leftover credit from a canceled flight, and points from the new Southwest rewards program. I had thought for a moment that I was going to get to stay a night with my cousins in Phoenix on my way out- but that fell through. In the end my schedule is as following-


Aug 12th
     -4:55pm - Leave Boise
     -6:50pm- Arrive in Denver
     -8:50pm- Leave Denver
     -12:20am- Arrive in Chicago
      -spend the night in the Chicago Airport

Aug 13th
     -6:10am- Leave Chicago
     -9:20am- Arrive in Boston
     -find something to do all day in Boston
     -7:52pm- Leave Boston
     -9:20pm Arrive in New York
     -11:00pm- Leave New York
     -Overnight Flight


Aug 14th
     -11:05am- ARRIVE IN LONDON! :-)

Its definitely going to be a LONG trip over- but it saved me a bunch of money and will be a fun adventure I'm sure- I'm thinking it will remind me of all my crazy Spanish flying adventures! Needless to say I am really really excited. When we arrive we are met by people from Mountbatten (the program that organizes everything) and taken to the temporary housing (were staying in a hotel the first week for orientation and stuff) which looks awesome! http://www.thistle.com/en/hotels/united_kingdom/london/thistle_city_barbican/hotel_facilities/otium_health__leisure_club.html

Pretty sure this pool is my favorite part. Dealing with jetlag and recovering from the long trip can't be too bad if this is where I will be doing it!

Like I said before, I am SO excited to go and can't wait for my adventure to start, but I am also starting to realize just how long a year really is. I know parts of it will fly by, but I just think about how I won't really be able to make my flat a home during that whole time. It doesn't make since to buy "homey touches" since it will just cost to bring them back, but I wonder what it will be like.

On the flip side of that a year seems too short when I look at all the places I want to visit while I am there! I went on Skyscanner and found out just how cheap flying over there is. For example- here is the list of prices for roundtrip tickets- given, some of these prices aren't what it costs to get to the big tourist destinations, but it gives you an idea.

  I also got my school schedule- which isn't well organized and I have some questions about- so I should be able to start planning some trips in my free time. The first thing on the agenda so far- GRANDPA'S VISIT!! Gpa J will be visiting for a long weekend in mid-September and I am stoked. If our trip in Barcelona is any indication of how awesome this visit will be then I am in for a treat. He had already rattled off a grocery list of things we must do while he is there!

Ok- I don't think I have covered everything, but I also know that I have probably covered more than most of you want to know (but hey- I want to be able to look back and remember all this stuff!!!) The next time I write will likely be from across the pond (or maybe while I am bored in an airport somewhere :-) ) so until then- (dang I wanted to insert a good British saying here but all I can think of is Piss Off Boger hahaha) byeeeee :-)

<3 Lindsay Claire

Prepping, Planning and Preparing

Welp- things are in full swing. I'm getting emails on the daily (at least) and the to-do list just keeps growing. Three emails about getting my visa, two about money/loans and one about registering for school. Add that to researching to find the cheapest ticket, learning about international phones and the fact that I signed up for 6 mini classes and it pretty much equals a full time job.

Speaking of those mini classes- haven't looked at them all yet, but I did get started on Quantitative Methods. Turns out it is a compilation of all of the math classes you have ever had- and never paid attention to. Algebra, Stats and Calc should never all be in the same syllabus- especially for a voluntary class... we'll see how long I last.  I am, however, enjoying learning about IT concepts. Some of it is a bit confusing, and online classes really make you appreciate the value of the ability to ask questions face to face, but overall the material is interesting.

On the 4th of July my mom and I took advantage of the holiday sales and went to town working on my new business wardrobe (don't worry, my mom got some new stuff too!) Seeing as neither my mom or I is a shopaholic we decided to adopt the method of buying anything that fit well enough the first time and then trying it on again at home and returning a bunch of stuff. Overall it was a pretty successful day and I think I got some good stuff!

Well thats pretty much as far as the updates go for now! More later!

And so the adventure beings...

     Although this journey technically began in mid-February when I stumbled across the Mountbatten website, today is the day I am officially, for sure, headed to London for a year. And now that its official I can start writing this blog without fear of having to embarrassingly explain to all of my soon-to-be loyal followers that it didn't work out after all.

       A lot of you are probably pretty confused by now- which is understandable since I spent days telling any and everyone that I got into the London program back on April 27th 2011 when I got my acceptance letter. But, you see, the thing is, it's a two step process. First you have to get into the Mountbatten Program and then they send your resume and cover letter to a bunch of potential employers and you have to sit and wait for a company to want to interview you. And man-o-man does that waiting suck.

      That's why, two days ago on June 29th, while I was covering a receptionist job for my mom's office, I was so elated to finally get an interview offer. I can't lie though, when I first read the job description and company profile for the Sanders Lifestyle Footwear Sales and Marketing Executive position I was more than a little hesitant. One of the things that drew me to the Mountbatten Institute was the opportunity to network internationally- and seeing as Sanders only has 5 employees that didn't seem to be much of an option. But I also knew that being small could have distinct advantages- more responsibility and training for example. Keeping this in mind I decided to go through the interview and it was scheduled for 7:00am this morning.

     I woke up bright and early at 5:30 so that I could chug tea and review my notes before the interview. (Keep in mind- caffeine makes me crazy- so I was well awake by 7:00.) A little confusion and a realization that the interview was scheduled for Pacific Time later I had an extra hour on my hands. The interview went really well, I was able to talk the the intern currently working at Sanders and all of my qualms were calmed. At the end of the interview I knew I wanted the internship. And lucky for me I didn't have to wait long this time. Three and a half hours later I received the call offering me the position and I was STOKED. No more waiting and not knowing- now it was set. I'M GOING TO LONDON!!!

    I spent the rest of the day notifying family and facebook and working on setting up this blog. The next couple of weeks are going to be jam packed with planning- getting a visa, buying a ticket, finding the right kind of phone, shopping for an appropriate wardrobe- and always with studying. I signed up for 6 mini classes through Mountbatten and Harvard- Finance, Financial Accounting, IT, Spreadsheets, Math for Management and Quantitative Methods. All in all I think I'll have enough to keep me busy between now and August 13th 2011!!!!!