pictures

are updated in:

The Sites (from a historic walking tour of London)

Friends and Fam - just one picture of Spencer Kinard's twin..

Praha!

enjoy!

Praha!

I'll start at the beginning.....

our flight left from Stanstead airport, which requires a bus ride there. Check-in CLOSES 40 min before your flight at this airport, soo we had to be there by 430am to give us enough time to check in by the closing time. that meant getting on a bus at 3:10am, which mean getting up and showering by 1:30am.... yikes! Kay and I got maybe a 2 hour nap in on friday night before heading to the airport. We got to Prague around 9:10 and met up with her friends Tanner, Bradley and Alan. We actually went to their campus in a real car, driven by a real student at the college that helps the american students. It was weird - I haven't been in a real car since I left hte states. We passed through countryside and fields. We grabbed breakfast at a place by the college - I got a crepe with cinnamon and sugar. It was really good, but not very filling.  The boys had ice cream for breakfast, apparently ice cream and beer for breakfast is a normal thing in Prague.  We went to see the castle, old town square, Charles bridge and a few other things. We got lunch on the way - yummy penne pasta in a cream sauce with leeks, chicken and mushrooms. delicious!

Then we checked into our hostel. Our hostel wasn't too bad until we ran out of toilet paper at 4 in the afternoon. I figured they'd restock, but by the time we got back after midnight they hadn't. I went downstairs to tell someone and they completely ignored me. so we had to venture up another flight of stairs to pee.

After we checked in, Kay and I walked around. She got gelato, I got cheesecake from this place suggested to us and then we got some hand made bohemian crystal. so pretty! I got a necklace and earrings. Then we changed and went to dinner at a pizzaria which was so good.

There was a group of guys sitting around us and started up conversation. They were there for their friend's stag party (bachelor) and the guy's fiance had dumped him before the party. cool huh? best part is that he still came to prague, but none of his friends had seen him. 

After that we met back up with the boys and headed to a mexican place for drinks. We had a shot that tasted like christmas - or more like christmas tree. it was okay, not my fav.  Then we went to the 5 story night club. It was fun. at first it was pretty empty since we got there before cover got really expensive, so we just sat at a table at one of the bars and drank.

We took a shot of absynth - I was pretty scared. the guys kept telling me all day that it tasted horrible, that it burned, and all of this other stuff. So I'd really only had 2 drinks before that since I figured it would make me go crazy. Tanner and I took the shot and yes, it was gross and yes it burned, but it was just like taking a shot of anything else, I didn't feel drunk at all. so that's good, but a little disappointing since absynth has quite the reputation.

People in Prague speak enough english to try to sell you things, but other than that we finally felt like we were in a different country. It was fun and exciting and we made it through 24 hours without sleep, so that was successful. We got to the airport today and bought really good chocolate and a t-shirt for heath. there was a really cute coffee mug I realllly wanted, but you had to buy this plate that came with it and the plate was ugly and unnecessary, so I  just passed on the mug.

The town was filled with cobblestone streets, so our feet were in tons of pain by the end of the day. We had perfect weather - sunny and 65-70. We could walk around in our dresses and be fine.. all in all it was a good trip! I'd definitely go back.

Tonight I get to write a paper, relax and re-hydrate.  =)

I'm turning in to a video games expert...

I'm getting pretty bad at this blog thing - mostly because nothing too interesting happens during my days at work so I don't have much to write about.

So here's a brief recap of my week:

Monday I worked and then had a god awful class. A guy from Fox News came to talk to us and was soo incredibly cynical about journalism and life in general he was just horrible to listen to. he made me feel like he was constantly pissed off, oh and that the journalism school was absolutely pointless. GK kinda looked like he was fuming. He also made the comment that newspaper writing wasn't a task for geniuses - anyone can do it. that's not okay in GK's book. This guy did say that advertising is the most exciting part of the business right now - so that was good to hear.

Tuesday I went out all day to a live shoot for Live Hair color. Pretty much stood in the middle of a street lined with stores and picked pretty girls with pretty hair out of the crowd and talked them into entering our competition to be the next "Hair Icon" and get on a video camera, tell a joke and who they were and what they liked about their hair. (the videos are eventually posted online). So that was fun!   I didn't do too much tuesday night.

Wednesday after work Stew and I had dinner at an irish pub - O'Neil's and I had a great chicken and mushroom crock pot, with mashed potatoes and aged cheddar cheese melted on top. Then other people met up with us and we watched the Germany vs. Turkey football game. great game for those of you who don't know - 1-1 at half, then Germany scored at some point in the 2nd half. With two minutes left Turkey scored, then with 20 seconds left Germany got the winning goal.. it was great!

Today I was super busy at work, I didn't get off until  7:30! I'm working on a pretty big EA Games project right now and it requires a ton of work that we didn't anticipate until we kind of got hit with it today.. so Jennie (one supervisor) and I went to a good Italian restaurant for lunch (thanks Bauer) and talked through some stuff, then went back and did most of our project. 

Since I didn't get home until after 8 tonight, I just made a good dinner and relaxed. I chatted with Kaylin's family's friend's daughters who were in town - they were really nice and cute.

Now I'm going to bed.... tomorrow night I'm going to sleep as soon as I get home from work and pack because Kaylin and I are getting on a bus at 3:10am saturday morning to go to the airport and then to PRAGUE!!!!  I'm SO excited. So.. I'm sure the next time I post something it'll be about my weekend in Prague on sunday!

Cheers x

Brighton - a day by the sea

Brighton is a town right on the sea and is about a 45 minute train ride from London. We got tickets on thursday or friday and left this morning around 10 to head out there. Kay and I decided it'd be a great day too see a different part of London, and thinking about the few weekends left that we actually get to spend in London - we took full advantage of the opportunity. 

Brighton is such a pretty town - all of the streets are steep hills, not much fun to walk up and down but still pretty.  We walked to the beach first, of course, and there isn't sand. it's pebbles instead. It was interesting... not messy at all like sand is, but much harder to walk on and our legs got quite the workout. We saw the Pier from the beach and decided to go check it out, from far away we could see rides that looked like a ton of fun. We bought wrist bands and went on probably every single ride. There were 2 roller coasters, which were great for the small amount of space - and when you were on them it felt like you were going right into the water, it was so much fun. there were probably 12 rides in total and a haunted house and we did just about all of them, totally worth it. We stopped to get fried rice for lunch since they were making it at a little stand hibachi style. it was cheap and soo good. Then we ventured to "The Lanes" which are just little streets lined with boutiques.. I'm still deciding if that was a good or bad choice. But Kay and I made some fabulous purchases (including my shoes that I have posted pictures of) and I got a really pretty bright teal dress, and these shell things that hang from the ceiling to put in my room!  

After a LOT of browsing and shopping we sat on the beach for a little bit and then found a great italian restaurant. After that we found our way back to the train station and came home. We were told the night life is great in Brighton but we are exhausted, I don't think we would've lasted much of the night.

So all in all, GREAT day. We're going back for sure. It's so cheap to get there (12 pound train ticket) and quick, and you feel like you've gone so much farther away than that since you're right on the water in a smaller town outside of busy London. It was a great decision and one that we will be repeating. Plus - the shopping and food was cheaper than London! And so far everything we've done has involved some kind of tour and history lesson, which is always fun and good info to know, but we haven't had a day of just .... fun. We needed it and we enjoyed it!

Not much in store for tonight - I'm SO tired since I didn't sleep very well last night and we walked around a LOT today, so I'm putting in a movie and relaxing. Tomorrow we might do a historic walking tour followed by a market then a good dinner of fresh veggies and chicken... possibly some laundry since I'm running out of certain important items of clothing.

My Red Carpet Debut

AHHH!!!!

Tonight was the London premier of Hancock - and we got to go!! I didn't really think much of it, I figured we'd get to see the red carpet, and the movie. Instead we got to WALK DOWN THE RED CARPET!!! I was literally feet away from Charlize Theron - we shared a red carpet with her! and Will Smith, Peter Berg, and Jason Bateman were feet away from us in the theatre...

Here's the play by play:

We get to the reception, help out with the Bauer Winners that won tickets to the premier - had a glass of champagne, took some pictures, walked to the red carpet, hid our cameras and phones in our purses so they wouldn't get confescated, and then walked in!

When we walked in we immediately got to the red carpet - it was so great. I walked right past Charlize, but didn't see Will until later. He showed up about half way through the Bauer reception though - maybe around 5:45-6. He literally took 2 hours to walk down the red carpet. He shook so many hands, took so many pictures with people, he even pulled a little boy out of the crowd over the barracades and took professional pictures with him. We couldn't tell why but the little boy had a picture he had painted and I guess Will liked it! Will Smith is SO personable. He loves crowds and tried to seriously interact with most people he saw. We walked down the stairs leading to the longest part of the red carpet and our roommates were there! (by the way, "we" means me and Morgan) They took pictures of the two of us, and then with Glen - one of Denise's friends (Denise is our boss) and the VP of Warner Brothers - which was cool! I really wanted to discuss tv, specifically One Tree Hill, but she was too busy being important. Oh well.

We eventually got into our theatre and waited there for maybe 25 minutes. Then.......... the ENTIRE cast came in!!! And, being interns, we got the terrible front row seats in the theatre - but that was just fine with me because all of the stars stood right in front of us! Kate (another intern) snuck her camera in and was trying to take pictures from under her skirt, but I'm pretty sure Peter Berg saw her.. haha whoops! There were insane body guards everywhere, but surprisingly security didn't seem that tight. When I was supposed to get my purse checked for cameras and phones the guy just asked me if I had any, I said, "no, I assumed I couldn't take them in so I left them with my friends." and he goes, okay go ahead! and didn't even look in my purse.. I guess they're trusting at these events, I mean they are just movie stars, not like the president or something.

Then we watched the movie, with free popcorn =)

The movie was great! There was a HUGE HUGE HUGE twist I was totally not prepared for, and it completely 

changed the tone and theme of the movie - the previews definitely don't give it away, which was great. Kate and I looked at each other and go uhhhh WHAT?! I liked it. It was also a lot funnier than I thought it would be too, which was nice. It was a great combo of action, funny, sad, happy.. I really liked it. But then again, Will Smith makes pretty good movies, so I didn't expect to be let down.

Yesterday and today I worked on an entry for a huge award in the ad industry. We finally submitted it this morning - I hope we win!! But some aren't as optimistic as I am, they think we don't have a chance, but I thought it was a good campaign. Although, I've never seen the competition, so I could be very wrong.

So yes, the highlight of my week was walking down the red carpet and being practically next to Will, Charlize, Jason and Peter - they're on first name status now, I feel like we're almost friends. =)

Max has the brilliant idea of walking up to celebs out in public, just doing every day stuff, and acting like you know them. He went up to Cortney Cox once, who lives down the street from his grandpa in Florida and said, "Hi! oh my god how are you? It's been FOREVER! We should catch up, you look great!" and she had no idea who he was, but acted like she did! Celebs can't remember all of the people they meet, I think his idea is a great way of chatting with a celeb.. if you can control yourself enough to pull that off.

Tonight is the Chronicles of Narnia premier, I'm assuming another red carpet event, so I curled my hair again this morning and I have a cute dress on ... must look good for the stars! Especially since the premiers and red carpets are on TV.. yikes. I always thought the random people on the red carpets at events were friends and fam of the stars - not just randoms like me! From now on I won't think so highly of them... ha.

So, that was my marvelous night. Hopefully tonight is just as exciting! We haven't been told when the next event is though - so this week might be the one week we get to go to premiers.. I'd be okay with that I think.

I'm taking hip hop dance lessons...

I'm getting really bad with writing on here! Sorry to keep the few of you in suspense! I'll break my weekend into days....

SATURDAY...

started with the Queen's birthday parade. We got up SO early and went to get a great seats to see the Queen's birthday parade. Now, this wasn't the Queen's ACTUAL birthday, it was her "official" birthday. Some King years and years ago decided he wanted to celebrate his birthday in the summer, instead of the winter when his actual birthday was, so he created his "official" birthday and people have obviously taken after him ever since.

We saw William and Harry and the Queen herself.. along with about 50 bands and 500 soldiers.. it seemed like it took forever, but worth it. We had our own little tour guide in front of us, he was pointing out all of the important people and explaining why things are as they are.

We followed the parade with the purchase of theatre tickets - the best purchase so far I have to say.. (aside from travel) we went to see Into the Hoods. (intothehoods.com) and it was AMAZZZING!!!!!! It wasn't a musical even though that's how it's classified. It was a production. It was like a ghetto fairy tale, but absolutely jam packed with DANCING! It was all hip hop dancing, or something of that nature and it was incredible. I sat there with a smile on my face the entire 3 hours. I want to see it again and again and again!!!

So skipping back to before the best play ever.. we went to Portabello Road after getting the tickets to buy fresh veggies for dinner that night. Kaylin and I had a feast.... we made:

Marinated Chicken breasts - in the oven, Mashed new potatoes, garlic bread, fresh broccoli, fresh green beans, fresh corn on the cob. And we stopped at the famous Hummingbird Bakery to get cupcakes for dessert!!  sadly, we ate every last bite of it and it was delicious!

After the play I think we were all in such awe that we just wanted to come home.

SUNDAY...

We all slept in, and then Kay and I went shopping, though very unsuccessfully. I didn't buy a single thing. I really wanted a dress that I found but of course they didn't have it in my size! SO disappointing. After that we came home and made another good meal (I had fusili pasta with chicken and mushrooms in a wine sauce) and relaxed.

MONDAY...

started with work.. we worked on Hancock premier ticket winner stuff all day - and I did a few random other things.  Monday  night we were given tickets to the outdoor theatre again in Regent's Park and I have pictures to post eventually. We saw Twelfth Night - it was funny but I definitely liked Romeo and Juliet better.

TODAY...

I went to see parts of a Colgate TV commercial shot. It was interesting to see how the client, media planner, and account manager work and how differently their brains function, and how much BS the account manager has to give the client to make them happy. My future has a lot of brown nosing in it.... great.  Other than that, nothing too exciting.

Tomorrow is the Hancock Premier with Will Smith!! I'm verrrrry excited! I hope I get to meet some celebs!!! But I highly doubt that will happen...

So that about covers it... Ally, Emily, Morgan and Danna went to Amsterdam this weekend... they loved it but I think I've reached my spending limit on travel!

A head's up on my travels since they are all officially booked, in case anyone is keeping track:

June 28-29 - PRAGUE

July 5-6 DUBLIN

July 17-21 - BARCELONA

August 12-19 - VIENNA, VENICE, FLORENCE/TUSCANY, PARIS

<3

POETS day...

We learned a new saying at work the other day... Friday's are POETS day. This saying sounds quite romantic, but it is much better than that. POETS day = Piss Off Early Tomorrow's Saturday!  I love it!  I'm never saying TGIF again.

Anyway - thursday was a pretty jam packed day with work. Last night, after we booked our HOTEL in BARCELONA I went to pick up my AMAZING care package from my lovely mom. It was the best thing I've received all summer! I'm eating apple butter every day til it's gone. I guess no one answered the door upstairs, so they dropped my package off with the guys in the basement - luckily they didn't open it and steal anything! They admit they thought about it though. I shared either way. Then Max and I took a trip to Sainsbury's to get some food and had a wonderful rotissery (spelling?) chicken dinner. I of course provided chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Then we hung out, talked celeb gossip, watched youtube videos and relaxed. Then I came up stairs and I guess went to sleep... not very eventful. Most of the roomies saw Wicked last night and raved about it. I can't wait to see it in August with you mom!!

Today, as is normal on Friday's at Bauer, work was laid back and unproductive. I sat in on a client meeting though - that was interesting. I enjoyed seeing the PITA (haha... Dad I remember our saying!) client battle it out with the mags guys (and girl) about how she wanted her product shot and message portrayed and how they could and thought they were supposed to be doing it. She kept stressing, for literally 25 minutes, that she wanted a RED HAIRED model, only red hair, absolutely NO blondes. Then out of no where she goes, "Oh wait, blonde is okay, blonde is our best selling color right now, let's do blonde" I swear the guy almost jumped across the table at her. It was great. The meeting lasted soo long though just because this one lady had to interject her opposing opinion every 5 seconds. Which, I guess was as it should've been since it she is the client and it was her product and her campaign. but still. It was interruption after interruption. I felt bad for poor Ruth - the Account Manager, she was just trying to mediate and keep everyone on schedule and on topic. I definitely liked sitting in on the meeting though, so I could see what I'll eventually be doing! Gritting my teeth in front of the clients while making them happy and trying to keep the people I work with happy as well.

Oh - to add on to that, another lady in the room, also the client, was someone I was warned about. She is supposedly incredibly difficult. As soon as she walked in she asked for tea, from me. Seriously? Do you REALLY want an American making your tea? She goes tea, two sugars, strong. ummmmm what the hell does that mean lady?! So I brought her tea, with 2 scoops of sugar. She goes ummm where's my milk? I almost said, well I figured "Strong" was the equivalent to "black" coffee - no milk. But I would've looked like a colossal idiot so I just got her some milk.  I also got a major "are you serious" look when the girls asked me what kind of British food I liked and I said none.... whoops, bad idea. I recovered by describing how picky I am, but still. 

***side note - for those of you who don't know, or can't figure it out PITA = pain in the ass.

I love the girls I work with now. I definitely feel comfortable around them and I feel like every question I ask they give me a complete answer and throw in some extra knowledge I'll need too. And I feel appreciated. That's huge. I'm glad things are working out!

We decided to eat lunch out today because Max recommended a great crepe place.

***side note - Max is one of the guys living in the basement flat with the rest of the boys on the program. He also works at Bauer and this is his second summer doing the London program because they asked him to come back, and he also did last semester here too. He's somewhat of a seasoned vet.

So, he recommended this crepe place that was great! I had a chicken, cheese and mushroom crepe. Then we went to find gelato and found the BEST gelato place literally 3 minutes from Bauer, good and bad news. It was VERY reasonably priced and DELICIOUS!

Tonight we went to get Mexican because it sounded good. We had some margs and ate some decent, but overpriced mexican food and on our walk back got approached by some guy who apparently loves and is attracted to all American girls. Obviously he's never been to Yorker Porker County - haha! He was fun and his friends that were obviously a couple wanted us to join them at a pub.. but Ally, Morgan and Emily are leaving for Amsterdam at like 4am and me, Kay and Megan are all going to the Queen's Bday parade and we're getting there by like 7:30 so we can actually see her. We've been told people camp out all night... understandable, I mean she does SO much for the country --- not. she's more like a figure head, a mascot really. But we have to be awake super early for that, so it's an early night tonight.

Maybe Sunday I'll finally sleep in... I think we're seeing a show tomorrow night too. The plan is to make a good dinner at our place and during the day find cheap tickets to Into the Hoods - it's a ghetto show with dancing so I'm obviously VERY excited!!! 

Want to know what else I'm VERY excited about?? MY DAD AND SEAN ARE COMING TO BARCELONA WHEN I'M THERE!!!!! How awesome is that?!  

Dad and Sean - I'm so glad you're coming, we're going to have an absolute BLAST!! 

One last thing - I would like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my very special someone.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATH!!!!!!!!!!  well.. officially in 48 minutes in London... in KC it's more like 7 hours from now, but I get to be the first to officially say it! Have fun getting older.. =)   I miss and love you!

I miss and love the rest of you too!  Night

I <3 Advertising

So I've been getting a little lazy with my blog.. the end of the night I'm pretty tired...

Yesterday was great, as was today. My work load is getting heavier and today I got assignments that consisted of more than mailing magazines to clients, so that's good. I have to give a presentation of some sort tomorrow or thursday, so I'll spend tomorrow preparing for that. I'll also be putting together a powerpoint for a big Ford presentation on thursday.. among other little things.

I bought a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses today for prize winners. One of the girls just handed me her credit card and said just please keep it under 200 pounds.. thats $400!! on a prize... thats ridiculous. This company likes to throw around their money. But I guess when you own the best magazines in London, and the best radio stations in London you have that kind of money to spend...

I'm kind of helping to plan a reception before the Hancock premier for prize winners.

We have an intern lunch tomorrow at the Century Club, so that should be exciting!

Last night after work we got taken to Shakespeare in the Park with clients to see Romeo and Juliet - AMAZING!! I loved it.. I want to go back every week and see a play, I don't care what play it is. Romeo and Juliet was incredible.. It was held in Regents Park and it was in an outdoor theatre. It was a half moon stadium with an outdoor stage surrounded by trees and flower bushes. not so fun for my allergies... but I dealt with it.

I really can't think of much else to say... my internship is going much better - I'm starting to love it. I love the people I work with and I love all of the fun things we get to do! Plus - the area right around our office is sooo great, I seriously think there are 25 shoe stores within a 5 minute walk, and most are right across the street.. so that's dangerous buttttt I'll keep myself under control.

I think thats it... goodnight!

<3 

The boys were here...

Saturday morning while Kaylin, Megan, Chris and Steve went on a walking tour of London, I went with the rest of the girls to Borough Market.. it's the oldest market in London and it was PACKED. I felt like a sardine. People were everywhere. This market only had food though opposed to Portabello that has clothes, vintage stuff, antiques and food. It was fun. I bought a cheese burger for lunch with sharp cheddar cheese which was delicious, then I bought a big loaf of fresh ciabatta bread for sandwiches at work this week. After that we walked along the river Thames and went to see the Tate again - just one floor though. After that I wasn't feeling well still so I go the tube home. Well, eventually I did. I walked to one station and it was shut down so I had to walk to another one. London is not like NYC though, there aren't subway stations on every corner here, more like every mile, mile and a half. So that was fun =(

Last night we went to Cheers London. Named after the Boston bar / tv show Cheers. There was a Red Sox jersey hanging on the wall which reminded me of home and every single place we visit here plays American music, its all we hear! So we met up with a few guys from the basement flat and then girls from flat 1 joined as well and we hung out for a while. Eventually the techno music shifted to music thats a bit easier to dance to, so everyone headed to the dance floor. It was so crowded and so much fun. We danced for probably 2 hours straight - no stops. Then we got the bus home and didn't get lost! It didn't take long either, it was great.

Today we woke up and Chris and Steve made me and Kaylin onion, cheese and red/green pepper omelets - they were great! After that we walked to Hyde Park which was PACKED today since it was 75 degrees but felt more like 85. Everyone was outside, it was gorgeous! but a bit hot. We do live on the fifth floor - all of the heat comes to us and London doesn't believe in AC. Then we stopped by Imperial to show them around and went to get food to grill tonight. The boys stayed at this hotel/hostel that was amazing. It had a back deck/patio area with a grill we could use and a trampoline and a hot tub and picnic tables, so we grilled chicken and baked potatoes. it was fantastic. Then we went to a pub to watch the end of the Germany/Poland football/soccer game which is always a fun environment with people singing and chanting constantly.. it made me excited for our football season. After all of that we came back and played card games.. it was fun! something I definitely haven't done in a long time.  Now I'm going to sleep since my throat still hurts and I'm still stuffy.. I need to NOT be sick.

Oh yes... PICTURES ARE UPDATED!!!  

I added pictures to the following albums:

The Sites

Friends and my summer fam

Cinema and TV Benevolent Fund

Enjoy!  Goodnight

First day of work = first work party!

Yep, first day of work meant the first work party. We took our clothes to work so we could just change after. 

I got to work and my supervisor said he didn't need me, so I'm sitting at a desk with 3 girls, 2 of which are getting married. One this september, the other is next september. Arianna (this september) bought her shoes today for her wedding ... Louis Vuitton ... 300+ pounds. That's $600+. yikes! And she's getting married in Italy where she's from. These girls are so laid back though, very very relaxed about everything, makes for a comfortable environment. We're allowed to wear jeans, flip flops, whatever we want except for client meetings, then we dress to their attire. 

I got introduced to some people and areas of the building and started doing little stuff like setting up my email, phone, etc. I mailed some packages, looked up some videos for a campaign right now online. People can submit tips on how to make their lives easier - like freezing left overs for food for the week, or different ways of styling hair fast (obviously these are women's magazine sites) but tips need videos to accompany them. So I searched on youtube and googlevideo to find some "how to's" to match the tips people had submitted. 

We went out for lunch, grabbed a good sandwich and came back to work. A car picked us up (the 4 interns at Bauer - Morgan, Stew, Blake, and me) and took us to the hotel where the CTBF (Cinema and TV Benevolent Fund Party) was held last night. We filled some gift bags, decorated a few tables and then got changed and ready for the big event.

There were over 300 people there. Everyone from little film studios to Universal, WB and Turner. Since it was a film party, a lot of people cam dressed up as people from movies. They gave out best dressed and best dressed table prizes too, so I guess it was a slight competition. Everyone got served a 3 course meal. Tomato, parma ham and tomato with basil salad first, then a lamb chop or shank? with veggies and a dessert that was fab! It was super fresh orange sorbet on top of chocolate mousse cake with a graham cracker crust.. it also had this really decorative caramel sugar thing on it (pictures will be posted of my dessert). It was the best meal I've had since...... spring break when mom and dad cooked for me!

We helped with an auction - my table bid 21K (pounds) on some media package - INSANE. and then other prizes like tickets to a premier, dinner for 2 somewhere, nights stays in hotels, other random stuff. Len Goodman from Dancing with the Stars was there with another girl from the show. They did a few dances and then their first dance of the night was auctioned off to the highest bidder. keep in mind all of this money goes back into the CTBF fund for movie and film making. So they both got auctioned off for the first dance for 600 pounds... $1200! I wish a dance with me was worth that much.. haha.

After that we got to drink, dance and have fun!! It was great. Our lead supervisor at Bauer - Denise - kept making sure we had enough to drink and asked us where our drinks were when our hands were empty. She told Blake right away to just put it on her tab and she'd take care of it. I love my internship!!  We got to take a goody bag with us at the end of the night, it has in it: I am Legend DVD, Enchanted DVD, Seraphim Falls DVD, a beanie like the one Will Smith wears in Hancock, a Leatherheads t-shirt and lipgloss! How amazing is that? They just had left overs... no big deal.

So today I started to realize that not having 1 person to report to is not the best thing in the world. They tell me to come in to work whenever, but I kind of feel like they should be telling me when to come in, instead of asking. Also, I have to ask 5 different people for something to do when the few girls around me don't have anything, so I think if I don't have one set supervisor by Monday or Tuesday I'm going to talk with our team leader, and with IE. 

Other than that, we went to a pub/club tonight. some guys that were old enough to be our dads started chatting and joined our table. They did buy us a bottle of wine, but the one next to Morgan smelled prettttty nasty.. poor Morgan. Kaylin's 2 guy friends are in town this weekend.. we're doing touristy stuff tomorrow with them and then they are making us all dinner! sooo, that's pretty nice, I'm excited for a good home cooked meal. 

Blake talked to our head team leader and he was a bit tipsy/smashed but he was telling Blake how many connections he has. We can pretty much do anything this summer. He said we pay so much money - and honestly get a bit ripped off - so they make up for it with all of the stuff we get to do!!

That's the gist of my internship so far, hopefully I'll start working on some more substantial stuff and have 1 person to actually report to. We can take our lunch in every day. A lot of people have cereal at their desks because Bauer stocks the fridges on each floor with milk for us. They also have tea bags, hot chocolate packets and instant coffee =)) 

I'm starting to get a sore throat which isn't good. The London paper said that pollen counts are going to be out of control this weekend so that might be it... I'm hoping at least. I didn't get too much sleep last night since we got home pretty late from the party, but I reallllly don't want to be sick! I'm heading to bed very shortly. 

Goodnight!

BBC and Parliament

We started today with a tour of Parliament. It was gorgeous inside, very intricate. it reminded me of the inside of the Vatican, but not as tall and not as large. A small scale Vatican. We had a talk by one guy - he was soo monotonous it was awful, especially at 8:30 in the morning. After that we got to walk around and see the house of Lords and the house of Commons and the chair where the Queen sits when she's there - it's made of 22 karat gold - I've never seen so much gold in my life. its not like its just gold on the chair .. its gold on practically the entire end of one room, it's crazy. It was stunning. Then we went to the BBC tube stop, got off and ate lunch at a local pub. I had an awesome chicken and bacon melt with "chips" but while I was eating, the headline news came on and announced bird flu was found in chickens in Oxfordshire - pretty close to London. It's not the strain most deadly to humans, but still - it's the bird flu. They contained the area and said all food is still okay to eat, so hopefully my sandwich won't kill me.

We went to he BBC and went on a tour. We saw a lot of really cool rooms. The weather studio has 30+ reporters who use the room, so all they have to do is go in and touch their name on the touch screen and the camera automatically goes to their height, the lights automatically adjust to their skin tone and the microphone adjusts to their voice.. how cool is that? It's all perfectly ready for each person with the touch of a button.  Then we went to our own studio room and did our own game show. Me and 2 other girls (Caroline and Christy) were picked to be contestants and Carl was a newsperson. I won the contest =) and got a BBC Breakfast coffee mug! the perfect gift since I collect mugs =)

After that we came back, I fell asleep watching a movie and then Kaylin and Megan and I went to Da Marios (spelling?). It's a famous pizza place where Princess Diana always took her William and Harry to get pizza. It was fantastic! I want to go back. But pizza's cost 8+ pounds, and you don't have left overs. But I mean, for delicious pizza in London, I guess that's worth it. Everything else is outrageously priced, I'm slowly getting used to it. 

Not much else new, I start my internship tomorrow so I'm very excited and anxious for that, maybe I'll have time to ask  a few questions tomorrow, and then of course tomorrow night is the big party! Hopefully we'll only have to volunteer for the first half, or something, so we can meet people. 

I'm off to bed... goodnight!

Our first afternoon tea

The roommates, + Danna, decided to get high tea today at Kensington Palace - where Princess Diana lived, and once had high tea herself. It was raining today, but we all wore dresses anyway. I wore flip flops to match my new white dress - mistake. I got home and dirty water had splattered all over my dress from my flip flops flipping it up.. very upsetting. Luckily, someone from last semester left us stain remover.. so I used that and it worked pretty well, thankfully!

The room was so pretty though.

After that we stopped at the grocery store and then came home, made dinner and watched Sweeney Todd.

Sweeney Todd is a disgusting movie.. I'm not a fan. Yes, it's a love story which is cute, and it has a very cute little boy in it .. but there is way too much blood, and throat slitting. 

We have  a long - EARLY - day tomorrow, so I'm going to sleep.

The big scary Interview

So.. big and scary? not quite. Morgan and I both went around with the same woman today, Denise. Instead of asking typical questions like, "Why should we hire you?" or "What are your weaknesses?" It went more along the lines of, "Here's your desk, oh and here are the latest issues of all of our top magazines."

 

It was great! We got introduced to a ton of important people who all seemed really laid back and friendly. Most people were drinking tea.. Others had bottles of Pimms on their desks (liquor) - that was a little surprising. Almost everyone was in jeans and looked super cute, so I'll be going casual most of the summer! =)

We seriously had NO time to even ask a single question. I'm looking forward to Thursday - we work 9-4 and then go to the party where we volunteer for a while and then hopefully get to mingle! I'm anxious to see who shows up - I'm still not exactly sure what the party is for... might want to figure that out soon.

We had another British Life and Culture lecture today - I didn't hear a single word the guy said.. seriously. And our professors were all dozing off in the back of the room, it was obviously very intriguing.

Tonight, we had a guest speaker in GK's class. He worked for the Press Complaints Committee. In Britain they don't have a written constitution, so everything is just kind of unspoken, agreed upon, tradition - things are just the way they are. So, when it comes to media regulations a bunch of editors and publishers got together in 1950 to create this code of ethics. It was a code, or way of doing things without disrespecting people, their privacy, or accuracy (in a nut shell). In order to regulate this code that all journalists agreed to uphold, the PCC was created. anyone can write in and complain if the press prints a false or misleading or libelous story about them and the PCC looks into whether or not the press violated the code. 

Our guest speaker tonight, Will Gore, worked for the PCC. He was great! He was so interesting - it helped that the subject matter was entertaining though. He got us involved in a discussion, something GK doesn't do. and he made me want to go to Law school! I think I'd really enjoy doing media law - but I would definitely not enjoy doing the 3 years of schooling to get there. 

Other than that, we went to a local pub tonight to just relax, it was fun! Tomorrow we have all day off, so we're going to do something fun, possibly afternoon tea at one of the nice places, most likely get dressed up =)

Nothing else new.. I'm just super excited to get my internship started! I want to get in the routine, feel like I'm learning something new about the ad industry!

PS - Dad, I think you'll really need to have a stress free vacation after Honduras. There isn't malaria here, or people with worms. Let's take a poll shall we? Anyone who agrees my dad should come visit his lovely daughter in LONDON say "I"!

They shut down the tube system...

So, in London it is totally legal to have open containers on the tube, train, etc ...  at least until last night at midnight. The new mayor came in and changed the rules of the tube. No more drinking. So, the papers reported that 10,000 people were predicted to do the Circle Line Challenge - the circle line is one tube line. the challenge is to get off at every stop and go to a local pub, either drink a pint or just watch. either way, it's supposed to be really fun! So, a few of us joined the last night. We made it to the first tube... I have a feeling a lot more than 10,000 people did the challenge - more like 20,000. The tube was packed, people were cheering when it came into the station.. it was a blast. So we got off at the first stop, walked around, and then tried to get back on. We waited for like 35 minutes, just talking to locals, and I went to as a security guard where the bathroom was and if I had time before the next tube and he goes - there aren't any more tubes. They stopped the cirlce line. So the circle line challenge was ended at 10:00 last night when the tube normally doesn't shut down until midnight. Then they started shutting down entire stations. There are about 5 tube lines all over london, some stations shut down had connections to 3 of them.. so people were probably not too happy. This meant we had to take a bus home later that night - which was fun to figure out. We had to switch busses half way, odd. Then, a drunk guy got on the bus and started spraying beer on everyone, so someone kicked him off, at our stop of course, and one guy broke a beer bottle over his head. It was a bit frightening - we walked the opposite way of where we were supposed to go to avoid all of that. 

We went to a club last night to meet up with one of the roommates friends, it was an experience. 10 pounds just to get in, so that was fun, and it was at the end of the night so no one really drank. At least we know it's a fun place to go back to one night and stay all night.

Before all of the night's events took place, we all went to Portabello Road in the morning. We started with an amazing banana and nutella crepe. Delicious. Then we took our time shopping around. I'd compare it to Canal Street - but instead of all of the fake bags there were antiques and vintage shops. There were a ton of clothing places too. I got 3 reallllly cute dresses, a necklace, a clutch - and met the designer - a new wallet, and 2 scarves. I was very excited about my purchases! I can't wait to wear my dresses! if it ever gets warm enough here to wear them that is.

We came back, ate lunch, showered and got ready to go out. It was a good day! 

I think we all needed to catch up on some sleep today - I've been pretty lazy. We're making a good dinner tonight though - after our french toast this morning =) that's what sundays are for! I'll be researching and preparing for my "interview" tomorrow.. I'd say wish me luck - but we've all been invited to a party on thursday, and our interviews are monday, so I doubt they'll be turning any of us down as long as we don't butcher the interviews. I've been told my supervisor is totally laid back and chill, so I'm looking forward to meeting him!