Sydney Now in London

So... I am going to start from the end of my day and work to the beginning.

After work I went straight to London Bridge for our last program event. It was at a pub near the water and the whole top terrace was reserved for CAPA interns only. My roommates and I got a table and we all started talking about our last days of work. Lets just say... NO ONE'S WAS BETTER THAN MINE! I felt bad and didn't really share the extent of my perfect day because one of my friends supervisors didn't even say goodbye to her and she said she didn't care but I know she had too. The other ones got to go out for lunch or they got a lot of presents but my last day was the CLIMAX of my experience in London. Then a bird pooped on Lauren's head and that became the climax of London (jk, but it was pretty funny).

Now... The day started off pretty normal at breakfast with Chandra and Beckers (Becky). We made fun of my outfit (all of my work bottoms were still wet from the washing machine and we don't have a dryer in the flat so I put on black leggings hoping no one would notice and my black blazer) and I gave my department their presents and Thank You card. Then I worked on my internship assignments, had lunch and went back to my desk. random snacks kept coming my way so by about 3pm I was pretty stuffed on first class Lemon cake and cupcakes (man its nice to be in event planning).

Here are some pictures thank Chandra took of Marco, my husband at work watching me fondly while I grab some more cake to stuff my face with.

He kept walking up counting down till I left (ex. Only 6 more hours left... are you sad?) and even though I was on the verge of tears all day I played it off pretty well. That is until...

I asked the team if they wanted any tea and everyone did which I should have known was unusual because Beckers usually doesn't. I was in the kitchenette heating the water when Marco came in offering to help me. I should have known something was up then because he was being way to nice. We brought the cups back to the team and Sonja, Chandra, Becky and Brian were all kind of facing my desk. That is when I saw this!

And that's when I looked like this!

And then I cried (no surprise there) and looked like this...

That's right, my coworkers surprised the heck out of me with presents and it's not really that I was surprised they did something because I knew they would (they are the most plotting to surprise people ever) but I was surprised by what they gave me. These were the perfect little presents for my limited luggage but they really showed how much they cared. These weren't advertisement freebies like a Langham water bottle but they were thoughtful personal gifts. I was touched at how well they knew me: A journal because I love to write (and it was PINK... which is SO my favorite color), a beautiful beaded bracelet with pearls because I rock pearls on the regular, lip gloss because I can't live without my Carmax and the cutest card with flats all over it because I never wear heels and to top it all off they wrote ESSAY's in it.

The messages in my card are private but lets just say... I am definitely taking Marco up on his proposition!

I am so happy that this will not be the last time that I see them though because that would just be too much to handle. Tomorrow night is going to be legendary! Last night in London and first time out with my coworkers.

The rest of the office I had to say goodbye to today though. Man I'll miss my little desk and these faces.

Stay tuned ;^)

The last day of my British Pop Culture class was today so Mo (our teacher) took us on a field trip to The Diana Cafe. This was the cafe that Princess Diana frequented after she divorced Prince William and moved in to the mansion that Prince Will and Kate are moving in to now.

Everyone was ordering their lunch and I asked the waiter if they took cards because I did not have any cash and he said, "We take cash and dish washing as payment" so I got tap water. The men sitting on the other side of our table heard it and gave me their food to eat for free. All of my classmates were looking at me like "You B!tch, getting free food" lol. It was hilarious!

I did not really eat much though because I was going to meet my friends Sandra and Janice for the last time at an Indiana restaurant near Janice's work (the Barbados Embassy). This was the fanciest Indian restaurant that I had ever been too.

We sat and shared stories for hours over a fantastic meal of Lamb Rogan Josh and red wine. I will really miss these ladies aka my god mothers but I will definitely see them again.

After dinner I was supposed to go see Transformers with Patrick as our goodbye date but I was too late for the movie so we just went back to my flat and hung out with my roommates. He helped me pack a little and I gave him some things that I couldn't bring back to America.

All in all today was a long day of saying goodbye to people. Dear people that I will sorely miss.

Today was another excellent day at work. I came in at 9am, did the work of Langham (lol) and at 10:30 I went to the canteen to help HR decorate for the 4th of July. Now I had been in the planning phase this event with HR but I did not do much for the day of. All I really did was make the fact sheet about the history of the holiday and help plan the menu for lunch. Decorations were purchased by HR but I helped blow up balloons and stick tape on the wall (you know, the really important jobs). All in all I think it went rather smoothly and I must admit the Kid Rock sound track was a nice touch.

It was a truly tacky 4th of July and for a few minutes I felt like I was back at home BBQing with my usual crew.

The highlight of my day was finally sending out the newsletter that I have been working on for this whole internship. One of my main assignments was to correlate the first newsletter for the Communications Team. It does not look like much but trust me it took me a while to get this thing together (the email was more impressive).

And as if work was not nice enough, I had the pleasure of going to the theater to see Wicked!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

I LOVED IT! LOVED IT! OMG! LIKE.... OMG! NO U DON'T UNDERSTAND... IT WAS SO GOOD! shut up and listen to me! Seriously! O M G!

Did I mention that I really liked it?

Photo's were strictly forbidden but I snuck a shot of the stage before it started to give you a glimpse of the level of production $80 tickets will get you. And our seats were pretty decent this time! Second row in the balcony as opposed to the show last week but Les Miserable is still my favorite.

I left Wicked wanting to run home and Netflix The Wizard of Oz but I can't so I am just going to blog about wanting to do that.

The story line of Wicked and how it gave a deeper understanding of the two witches relationship was mind boggling. What a great script! And whoever the actress was that played the wicked witch.... speechless... words can not describe this woman's voice. My eyes would water before she even got to the second stanza's of every song and I AM NOT EXAGGERATING!

God bless America and thank God for London.

It is good to be an American and experience life outside of America because I am afraid that too many American's think that America is the end all and be all of the world. There is just so much out there to experience and I do not believe that you can truly be a fully developed individual with out traveling and experiencing other cultures.

I have only had a taste but I hope everyone is as fortunate to do the same before they die.

The world is definitely round, make the time and sacrifice to go around.

Just got home
from the club
didn't bring my camera so ur out of luck
and I'm eating some cabanara
so i dont throw up.

Shots of tequila kept me hype all night
i didn't spend any money so it was alright
some guys were pretty cool
and then there were the typical creepers
but i put on my poker face and said hasta la vista.

They played a lot of salsa
and they played some reggaeton
but i only got on stage once
before it was time to go.

We chased one bus three blocks
and walked back to the tube stop
then attempted to get a cab
but the fare was too much.

We wasted all our energy
and really had to go pee
so we got on a new bus
and rode it till we ended up
at good old Victoria.

Megan and I decided to sleep in and not go to Wimbledon at 6am to wait in line for 4 hours for the Tennis Championships. Instead we woke up when we felt like it and headed to Trafalgar Square for the Pride 2011 parade/festival.

Man...

This was the biggest free love feast ever! I loved it. Everyone was so hype and open to just embracing diversity and sexual freedom. It was beautiful. Speakers came on stage and spoke about equality for all and members of the armed forces supported the event by going on stage as well. There were no Bible thumpers protesting and hate groups congregating, it was just a fully supported national event and it was excellent (I wish America would get up to par).

We stood in the crowds and belted out Lady Gaga songs with the proudest gays in London. Megan was supposed to be my pretend girlfriend but I don't think we were very convincing. Oh well, enjoy the photos.

Since returning from Paris I have decided to devote the little time that I have left to getting to know London better.

On Monday the first play that I saw was 39 Steps (Check out this site for info about the play http://www.love39steps.com/) at Piccadilly Circus. That was very cool because the whole show was performed with only 4 cast members so each person played about three different roles and it was intriguing watching them change persona's. I loved watching the lighting and simple scene changes as well. It was such a treat for only 15 pounds and excellent seats (front row on the top balcony). I totally recommend it!

The next night (Tuesday) after we (the usual crew and I) all went to see Les Miserables, the famous French play/movie, at the Queens Theater in Piccadilly. We paid 25 pounds to sit in the very last row of the theater way in the nose bleed section. It was remarkable how far away we were from the stage but it was still a phenomenal show.

I leaned forward the entire time peering between the giant headed people in front of me, completely enthralled.

The stage had a turntable floor so it spun between the acts and a curtain would fall. I had never witnessed such technical innovation before in my life. And the actors voices when they sang gave me goosebumps! It was definitely one of the best things that I have done in London and I am a permanent theater fan for now on.

Wednesday night we all met up and grabbed some Thai food near Holly's internship. It was the best food I have had in London (also the most expensive = over $50 just for me) and the Godzilla drink is stronger than it looks.

Thursday night was the first day of the week that I did not work or have class so I planned to sleep in until Haley's internship event that we all agreed to help with. It was a charity event through Clic Sargent (charity for children with cancer) that was near Chelsea and Sloane Square with the top money earners in Britain as guests. Elton John, Uma Thurman, The Middleton's (Kate Middleton's parents), The Barclays (yes, Barclay the bank) and many more multi-billionaires were in the same room as me and it was my job to walk around asking them to purchase raffle tickets for 10 pounds. It was the most amazingly awkward experience. All of the raffle ticket workers had to wear all white so after the first 30 minutes all of the guests had learned to avoid anyone wearing a white dress. You could feel them resenting us walking their way. It was truly painful. And it was so embarrassing interrupting these important people having important conversations to ask them for 10 pounds when they have already paid a hefty price to attend the event. Most of them were pretty nice and politely declined (I only sold about 10 tickets) but a select few were pretty nasty when approached.

At 9:15pm we were allowed to turn in our clipboards and "go home" but my roomies and I decided to take off our badges and become one of the crowd. We kicked back a few cocktails, followed around a couple canape waiters and snagged the fancy horderves. By 9:30pm we had hit the dance floor and got all those stiff billionaires to loosen up to the beat of the salsa music.

Lets just say the last hour there was WAYYY better than the first three.

When the event ended we walked to the Botanist which is a very nice bar that is two blocks from our apartment. We pass by it everyday and always see all of the business professionals outside drinking there 20 pound drinks but we never looked up to par to walk through the doors. Thursday night was different though. We had brown-nosed with whose who in London and raised over 100,000 pounds in 3 hours so the Botanist was finally worthy of us.

Best night ever!

This morning (Friday) I had to wake up to go on our field trip for class so I was wishing I had not partied so hard last night. Class was at the Wallace Collection which is a private home in the city that was converted in to a museum. It was the residence of the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the son of the 4th Marquess and holds one of the largest and most valuable collections of 18th and 19th century art in Great Britain.

Our teacher lectured us before we entered to not lean against the walls or sit/touch anything because the least valuable thing in the museum is worth more than 100 MILLION POUNDS! Check out their website for more info http://www.wallacecollection.org/thecollection

After class my roomies and I went to Borough Market and pigged out on some amazing local food.

I ate tons of fruit and my entree was a venison (deer) burger, YUM YUM and the cheapest meal in London (to make up for Wednesday's Thai expense)

After we made our stomachs look 4 months pregnant we went home, took naps and changed clothes for the Choral Service at Westminster Abbey (the church where Prince William and Kate Middleton got married). O M G it was phenomenal!

The Choral Service is a tradition that has been kept by the Abbey for over 1,000 years and it was beautiful but we couldn't see the choir from our seats because we got there too late and the constant getting up and down for the service was a work out. Once it was over we decided to take some pictures at the big landmarks in the area before we headed home for the night.

Tomorrow is the Pride Parade and hopefully clubbing since it is our last Saturday night. Stay tuned ;^)

Today after we checked out of the hotel we went straight to the Louvre for 3 hours before it was time to catch the ferry back to London. It was beautiful and SOOOOOO HUGE! We hit all the 3 main halls as quickly as we could but just like Versailles it was super packed and hot. Here are some of the highlights from the museum.

Paris in A Nutshell

• I have never seen so many interracial couples in my life! It was refreshing.

• There is a lot of liter.

• The architecture seems random and goes in and out of different eras constantly.

• It seems pretty sketchy with all of the pick-pockets and prostitutes.

• The food taste like food everywhere else so I don't see what the big deal was about french food.

• People walking around look pretty normal but the clothes in the store are ORGASMIC!

• Food servers make you wish you stayed at home. They are slow and rude.

• DON'T GO TO PARIS IF U R AWAY FROM THE ONE YOU LOVE! IT IS MISERABLE WATCHING ALL OF THE PDA (Public Displays of Affection)

After our complimentary breakfast at the hotel we met our tour guide in the lobby for our day of touring. The itinerary started with a bus tour of main Paris where we passed many landmarks along the way but I found the random sights more intriguing. For example there was the living garden home...

The bargain shoppers....

And the awesome architecture...

After the bus tour we stopped and grabbed lunch near Notre Dame Cathedral (you know... from the Disney movie) which resulted in us running from the cafe because they were so slow and we almost missed the bus to Versailles. There is more to that story but I will share that in person when I get back home. Let's just say, our waiter chased us down after running about 2 blocks and we were forced to eat our meals on the corner.

Once we were done eating though we got back on the bus and headed to the Palace of Versailles which was a short 1.5 hour drive from the city. When we arrived at the palace gates I shamefully teared up. I could not believe where I was. I could not believe that at 21 years old I was about to walk through the gates of Versailles. It was overwhelming to realize that I was experience what thousands dream of doing and I can't tell you how grateful I was to be there. It was truly a dream come true!

097

However reality hit me smack in the face when we finally got in to the palace and saw that it was ABSOLUTELY PACKED! And it was over 90 degrees outside with every little old Chinese tourist in the greater European area smashed in to that 700 room palace. It was miserable getting through the crowd with no air conditioning and people pushing to take pictures of the immaculate rooms but it was still a breath taking experience. These photos do not do the palace justice so please don't rely on them solely.

Somehow I ended up making my way through the palace in about an 2 hours so I sat in the air conditioned bus for the other hour until it was time to go to the Eiffel Tower and Moulin Rouge. The Eiffel Tower was not as cool as people make it out to be. It just tall but it is just a huge a radio antenna. We did not go up it we just took a picture and kept it moving.

For dinner my Purdue friends and I met up with Alex's friend from IU that happened to be in Paris this summer. We were hoping she would know the good places to go for dinner but she wasn't much help in that department. It was nice though hearing about her experiences with Parisian boys and living with a host family. The food was good but incredibly over priced and I was still hungry after the meal.

It was a pretty long day of sight seeing so I went back to the room and called it a night pretty early. I fell asleep watching futbol (soccer) alone in my room and I must say I felt pretty Parisian.

I apologize to my avid blog readers for taking so long to write about my trip to Paris. There is just so much to say and I have not really absorbed it all yet even though I have been back in London for 3 days. I guess I have been dreading writing this because I know that no blog post will do my experience of Paris justice but I will try to give you a glimpse of my experience.

When I first arrived in Paris I was slightly disappointed. There was graffiti everywhere and the skyline was rather non-existent. As soon as we got off of the coach bus and started the boat tour though I started to get a better vibe from the city. Couples were kissing all over the river bank and the famous landmarks that we passed on our boat tour was more than impressive. After the boat tour we arrived at our hotel dropped off our luggage and followed our tour guide down a few blocks to where we could get a good traditional french dinner.

We ended up eating at Nicholas which was a very cute little Parisian restaurant with decent food but the service was less then tip worthy, however as silly American's go we left a tip anyway. I had the lamb risotto with escargot (snails) in a pesto sauce. The food seemed a little less then fresh but the wine was nice and the price was reasonable so no complaints.

After dinner we decided to grab a bottle of wine each for about 3 pounds and get on the metro towards the river bank. We went back to the area near the Eiffel Tower and sat along the water with all the other young hip Parisians. There were at least 300 people down on the river bank and all types of music was playing in the different circles of gathers. Then I really felt like I had found Paris and Paris had found me.

This week has been rough guys. Nothing serious has occurred I am just really having a hard time emotionally. I have been seeing a lot of movies this week because I do not have the energy for anything else. On Tuesday I saw Bad Teacher which was cute but nothing to write home about (Justin Timberlake was horrid) and tonight I went to see Bridesmaids.

Now Bridesmaids was amazing and super funny but the last 30 mins of the movie had a sudden turn and I honestly cried through the whole resolution of the film. I don't think it was the wedding that did it for me, I think it was the bond and the friendships that were depicted during that part of the movie. I won't spoil the ending by telling so much but I just want to say that it spoke to me.

First let me say that I love London and I am soooooo thankful for this experience but I miss home.

I miss my family and I miss my friends, A LOT!

It is interesting how when I went to China the first month was really hard for me. I cried all the time and wanted to go home but I stuck it out and ended up making friends after a while and everything was ok, but this time... the emotional roller coaster has been put in reverse.

The first month in London flew past and I loved every second of it but this final stage has been creeping by and I kind of wish I left on a higher note. Granted there is still time to turn things around and I am really excited about the last few weeks but right now I just really want my crew back.

I miss having my cellphone that connected me to the world and the freedom of jumping in my car whenever and going wherever I could afford in gas. I miss my little studio back at school that is always how I left it and full of just my good vibes and those vibes of others who are lucky enough to dwell in my quarters (lol).

I want my mommy to give me a hug and I want to go to church with my dad.

I think this week has been hard because everyone in my program has really come together and bonded since they go out and travel together but I have not really bonded with anyone from Purdue because I am never with them. I mean I got what I wanted, meeting real Londoners and branching out but at the same time when I am in class or doing stuff with my roommates I feel like the outcast because I am not "in the in crowd". It feels like middle school all over again.

Maybe I am just being really sensitive and acting like a huge baby right now but I just wanted to get that off of my chest.

London will be one of the greatest experiences in my little life (so far) but not for the reasons that you may assume. Not for the weekend excursions and the high society lifestyle but for the reality check.

Being away from home in an "ideal location" really helped me learn what is truly important to me. I never considered myself as the family type and I have always been pretty aloof and independent when it comes to relationships with those closest to me but I think I have reached a turning point in my development. I think I am becoming a more secure individual and getting my priorities straight.

I think I am growing up.