Where is the Candy Bar for Women?

Why is this candy not for women? Where is the bar that's not kosher for men?

Did They Like Blowtorch?

So after several grueling days, they finally told me where I'm interviewing. It's a local production company called White Coat Productions, eerily reminiscent of what I spent the last 5 months working on in capstone (my client was Blowtorch Entertainment). They're redoing their website right now, so I can't research much before my interview, but from what I've been told they do final production for clients like Nintendo, Ford Ranger, Skype, and some others. They do a lot of creative already and need more help on the Account end, which is what I'll be doing...

Come back for more.

Castles, Old Houses and Hay Beds!

So we've been out of the city seeing lots of old stuff lately. The first is St. Paul's Cathedral, all artistic like.

On Tuesday we went to the Globe to see a Midsummer Night's Dream. It was amazing! We had "groundling" tickets, meaning we were standing in the area right in front of the stage — great view but hard on the legs/feet. The show was hilarious. This is a shot of the play within a play, two of the players kissing.

Next is Warwick Castle, where many of the Dukes, Duchesses and Earls, etc lived a long time ago. I believe they filmed Monty Python here :) Next is Anne Hathaway's Cottage. No, not the star of Devil Wear's Prada. This was Shakespeare's wife, and this was the house where he courted her. We learned a story about the idiom, "Upper Crust." The nasty, burned, bottom half of the bread was given to the servants...

Hever Castle

Today we took the train to Kent and Hever Castle, where Anne Boleyn grew up. There were all sorts of festivities for the Bank Holiday weekend, including the "arrival" of King Henry VIII and Queen Anne. They showed up and we watched all sorts of jousting, birds of prey training, archery and other such activities on the lawn. Side note: at these festivities I saw a little British boy wearing an Orange Iguanas shirt (Legends of the Hidden Temple, anyone?) - made me very nostalgic!

Here is the inside courtyard of Hever, looking up. It's deceiving, small on the outside but there were about 4 floors inside (refurbished by J. J. Astor around 1905) with portraits, libraries, etc.

Around the time the furniture was redone, they built gardens all around the place. There's a Rose Garden and also an Italian garden with statues and little olives growing. They're all beautiful, lilies everywhere!

Bank Holiday = Ghost Town

So today was the first day of the Bank Holiday, which is when the entire world shuts down here! Monday is supposed to be the day off, but everything was already closed tonight. We made it to the Tate Modern though - very cool art museum.

We watched a VERY modern exhibition by Susan Knowles, "Making a Salad." It's just what it sounds like — old lady chopping several kilos of veggies, which she then "tosses" over the bridge into a giant plastic sheet and pours dressing over it. The orchestra is playing in the background... they served salad to about 350 people! Now that's art.

At the Tate Britain there was a gallery of Greek sculpture. They kept yelling at me about taking pictures so I bought a sketch pad and sat for an hour just drawing the ones I liked. This one is Psyche. The story is that she fell in love with Cupid but he would never let her see his face. She's holding a butterfly that represents soul, but she always chased her desire.

These are a couple pieces I really liked that I snuck a pic of. Something about this women looking at herself in a cafe mirror...

There was also an exhibit on street art, and there was some of it painted on the walls of the Tate. I'm in the line of fire here...

More Off-Beat London Sightings

So tonight we saw Spamalot — I hadn't seen Monty Python since 7th grade, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Fortunately London Theater far exceeded my expectations! Beautiful theater, talented performers, and they involved the audience. "Moving musical theater back 1000 years..." and "Since 1075 AD (Some jokes are older)" are just a few taglines :)

That's Kelsey and I at the pub (with our pints) watching Chelsea get their butts kicked.


This is Imperial College, where we have class. Very pretty, this is the quad, where kids come to have beer with lunch between classes.


You can "hire" binoculars if you're sitting in the nose-bleeds like we were

I Wore Black

So we went to a pub to watch the Chelsea v. Manchester UTD game the other night. These Brits are serious about their football (soccer)! We live in Chelsea, so I thought it would be 100% blue jerseys. Not so much. The pub was literally divided, like people rooting for different teams can't stand next to each other. When one team scored, one side of the bar cheered and jumped and cried.. no joke.

Day 2

So I'm kinda in the swing of the things now. Know some names... I think they put us together because we're all pretty sarcastic. We had our first class today at the Student Union/Beer Garden. I've seen more Minis and Smarts than I can take pictures of (without giving myself away as a tourist).

I'm showing yall all the weird stuff I've seen ;) Orange Juice with pulp, for example, is called Juicy Bits. Bart Simpson's face on a cookie (including the Fox logo). Cars park in the middle of the street.

The first night we went to an Italian restaurant. My fish came with its face on it. Suffice it say, that helped me get over my weirdness about food being "fresh"

Also, a pic of my flatmates

Stoop Lady?

So I never had a problem with missing the group flight and showing up after everyone else... just me. I looked at it as an adventure. I did fine jumping in a cab in finding the flat (not a chance I was lugging a 150 lbs of luggage through the tube). No one was home when I arrived, though, and the place was locked! The cabbie pulled away and left me on the stoop with my 4 bags. I tried to ring every room, but everyone was out exploring. Figure maybe I'd just sit there and read..

My Dream Car

So I found my (almost) dream car parked at the mall the other day. It would awesome to get a convertible Mini.. but this one is just as cool.

I also want to share that I saw a SmartCar in Columbia, MO. That means the Revolution has arrived. For someone who hates big cars, this is very exciting!


I leave tomorrow. The rest of the group left today (I was graduating). Hopefully I'll catch up with them... somewhere!

12 Days Out

So I'm not quite in London yet... still cramming for a client presentation, Italian oral exam and a cappella performance. This is difficult with really bad senioritis - all I want to do right now is clean and take pictures of the flowers everywhere. 

Which brings me to packing... packing for London is depressing. I was standing in my closet putting tape on all the hangers of clothes I'm taking. I'm sending home about 85% of my closet! I got sad so I just stood there in heels and one of my dresses. Last chance to wear them maybe...