Hello America!

winding down

Sunday afternoon I went to Grinwich to visit the Prime Meridian. While it was not the highlight of my trip, it was something that I really wanted to do. I got to stand with one foot in the right hemisphere and one foot in the left hemisphere - two places at the same time! I also got to see the clock from which all time zones are based from. 

Also, I had to put this video up because it brings me so much joy. We spend so much of our time traveling back and forth on the London underground tubes that we have memorized the recordings that they say in between each stop. The other night on a trip downtown for some wine and cake (aka the usual) I captured this moment on my camera. 

I feel so blessed that I was able to form the friendships that I have with these girls. It is amazing how close you can become when you are eachother's security blankets (and only other American accents) for more than two months. London would not have been the same without them! 

not as glamorous as you thought

I spent all day yesterday on the production sets for three different British television dramas. I was extremely surprised by the lack of glamour that was present. Huge warehouses that looked run-down and shady from the outside housed huge sets surrounded by every type of lighting device you can imagine. My boss and I sat and watched as the director had the characters shoot the opening credits against a blue screen- then watched as the digital graphic coordinator created a title behind them within a matter of minutes. Ten people with clipboards stood around a small TVs which showed play-back from each camera. After each shoot, all ten of them would give their opinion on which angle was best (which was usually none of them...) and then they would scribble notes down on their boards and the process would continue. Members of the production crew entertained my numerous questions and acted unbothered by my avid picture taking.
The actors changed clothes in a corner of the warehouse that was allocated as "wardrobe space." This wardrobe space consisted of a few hanging clothing rods and mismatched suitcases filled with shoes and accessories. A large table occupied the other corner of the warehouse which was filled with personal size bags of chips, cookies, a few apples and a kettle to make tea (because we are in England, after all). Not quite the catered feast I anticipated film sets would have. This just goes to show that Hollywood is not quite as glamorous as we all would have hoped.


Last night my program hosted a dinner boat cruise down the Thames River. I got to see all of the famous London landmarks (Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abby, Tate Modern...) lit up at night and it was sort of like my trip had come full circle. I spent my first morning in London visiting all of these hot-spots. Tomorrow starts my last weekend in the United Kingdom. All day I've been having small panic attacks as I write the first of August on loan agreements and script requests at work. How could I possibly be approaching the end of my summer in London? Didn't I just get here?

keeping myself occupied

It has been a week since I last posted, but that is certainly not from lack of note-worthy material. One of the perks of my internship is that I get to attend events sponsored by my company's clients. Last Wednesday night Lotus cars threw a huge event in correlation with the International British Motor Show. This was where they unveiled their first new car model since 1995 and the hype behind it was unbelievable. British television stars and aristocrats crawled out of the cracks to be there when they took the cover off of the Lotus Evora for the first time. In addition, luxury automobile companies from all over the world had their latest models on showcase - and being shown off by models. And, as if that wasn't good enough, UB40 was also playing a concert at the venue. 

Friday I woke up with an eye-splitting headache so I called in sick to the office. After a large dose of advil and a few more hours of sleep I was feeling much better so I took the opportunity to explore parts of the city that I never get to see during the day while I'm at work. I got a coffee from the corner bakery and walked to the British Museum to say hello to the Rosetta Stone. Then I visited my new favorite, the Tate Modern museum (home to Monet's Water Lilies). I then met a friend that I worked with at Kanakuk at Harrods for a delicious seafood and champaign lunch and then I laid in Regents park and read magazines. A GLORIOUS day of hooky, if I do say so myself!

I spent Saturday in Brighton, England...which can easily be compared to New York's Coney Island. While I enjoyed the sun and the beach and the seafood, the type of people that Brighton attracted were a breed of their own. The main tourist attraction is Brighton's Pier which houses numerous carnival rides and junk food kiosks. 

Today I spent the day in Oxford, England. This was one of my favorite places I have visited yet. The whole town is centered around the University - for obvious reasons. As we strolled down the street we kept passing stone plates marking the home of the man who discovered the first living cells and the author of Alice in Wonderland and various other remarkable bodies. We paid a high school boy to chauffeur down the river on a punt (sort of like a very unsafe gondola) which proved to be the best idea ever. Then we dragged our damp selves to Christ Church (where Harry Potter was filmed) for an Evensong service, followed by dinner in the oldest pub in Oxford. Even though the bus  to Oxford took nearly two hours it was well worth the adventure. 

the maltese holiday

As I sit writing this it is difficult to tell the difference between myself and a tomato. Both a tomato and myself share the same red, shiny exterior. My sunburn, however, is worth it for the Maltese holiday I had this past weekend.

I have discovered that no one outside of Europe knows where/what Malta is. So please, let me enlighten you. Malta is an island on the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Africa. They used to be part of Sicily a really long time ago but then the icebergs broke it off...or something like that. Most of the people who live there are from Italian or Greek descent. They speak a language that they have invented and is spoken no where else in the world. It has beautiful coasts and the clearest water I have ever seen. The middle of the island, however, leaves a lot of be desired. In fact it quite resembles what I would imagine the middle east to look like.

The oldest Cathedral in the whole world is in Malta. We went and walked around it on our first morning there and were in awe of how something so beautiful could be built without any modern machinery. Mdina, the historic area of Malta, was full of buildings like this...and people in historic costumes trying to convince you to buy into their touristy gimmick. Those who were not in costumes were bathing nude on the beach - which was quite the surprise! We were lucky enough to be there during Malta's huge summer jazz festival which took place right on the shore of the sea.

After convincing the worker at a water sports rental company to take us out on a boat for free and spending hours sunbathing on the beach we made the excruciating long trek back to London. I opened my bedroom door at 3:30 am and left again at 8:30 am to head to work. Needless to say coffee has been my best friend for the past two days.

Gypsies and McFlurrys

"I cannot prevent the french from being french" - Charles de Gaulle

I spent a wonderfully rainy weekend in Paris last weekend. We took the 6:00 am train and got there in time to do a handful of sightseeing before lunch. In my mind, I had pictured Paris to be filled with glamourous people who walked poodles down flower decorated streets. While I did see one poodle, my Parisian daydream was far from accurate. We visited the Louvre - whose biggest attraction I've decided are all the people shoving eachother out of the way to see the Mona Lisa- and Notre Dame, and Montmartre, and the Eiffel Tower, and the Arc de Triomphe, and the Latin Quarter, and the Palace de la Concorde. They were all filled with beauty and history but my favorite part of Paris were the gypsies. They suffocated you at every street intersection and at the doorway to nearly every building. "Do you speak English?" they would ask; knowing your answer would be "yes." If you were naive enough to respond, their children would swarm you and pick your pockets while the gypsy mother tried to get you to help her with some english phrase. Very clever! The only thing that would have made these women more interesting would have been if they'd been wearing hundreds of dangling necklaces and came complete with their own pirate ships. 

In contrast to London, Paris was a city of organization. In Paris each tree was exact the same distance apart, each street on a perfect grid, and the people perfectly groomed. London, on the other hand, loves mayhem. Trees sprout in unwelcome areas. Streets dead-end or change names. And many of the people seek "coolness" in their fight against being perfectly groomed. While both are different from Kansas (and by different I obviously mean better), I was ready to come back to the mayhem. 

Tonight I went with one of my flatmates to scalp tickets for the Deathcab for Cutie concert in the ghetto of London. Purposely taking very little cash with us proved beneficial, as we paid nearly nothing for our tickets. They give an amazing concert no matter how many times I see them live. Being the ghetto of London, not many cabs drive out there and tube had stopped running for the night so naturally we did what all American girls do to try to fit in: we went to McDonalds and got McFlurrys to eat while we waited for a cab to come. Oh London!

Sometimes we go on walks together, the city and I