I think I definitely miss my sister

I mean yeah, she's cute and small and I always miss her, but I had such a typical "Robyn" day today it is a bit out of control.

Of course every Robyn day starts out slow. I had the day off of work (and Amanda didn't, neener neener neenerrrr) so I took my sweet time getting up, and eating breakfast whilst watching "Gilmore Girls". Once I was finally ready I grabbed my book and headed over to the tube to go to Kew Gardens, which is home of the Royal Botanical Gardens and a palace along the southwest bank of the Thames. This is where I spent my morning hours wandering around taking pictures of FLOWERS, mixed in with a bit of chillen in the sun, chasing peacocks, and reading with a Starbucks Chai Latte in hand. Here is a little sample of some of the pictures I took:




Sidenote: a weird happening at Kew Gardens - as some of you may know, today is my Grandmom's birthday (the one who passed away this past October), and when I was sitting on a bench reading this really annoying bird kept chirping at me... but then when i looked at it, it cocked his head, stared at me, and then silently flew away. To make matters even more strange it was a cardinal bird, and my mom has seen cardinal birds in the past and has thought they were signs from my Grandmom. Coincidence, or fate? Who knows. Either way, you were in my thoughts today, Grandmom <3

After a couple of hours I got back on the tube and headed to Kensington to check out the Victoria and Albert Museum of Art and Design, which was awesome. It covered areas such as British theater, the history of British fashion from 1500-1900, jewelry, stained glass, and more (but those were my favorites). I really liked the museum because you didn't have to do a lot of reading to figure out what things were, and it wasn't your usual art museum collection. And now I have retired back to the flat, laying on the couch enjoying an afternoon snack and watching "Glee" and "Friends" on TV. Wish you were here, Lil Robz.


In case you were wondering, yesterday wasn't such a bad day either. Went into work and hung out with Leah, and we took an extended lunch break to enjoy the National Gallery and some Magnum ice cream bars! I ended up recognizing many paintings in the National Gallery, including works by Van Gough, Monet, Renoir, and Rembrandt. I'm guess I'm a little more cultured than I thought I was ;)

Top 10

Because I have only 10 days left in London (!!!), I decided to share with you some of my "top 10" lists that I have been compiling on my laptop. Anyone who has ever seen my computer knows that my desktop is flooded with millions of sticky notes - well, here is a sneak peak to what these stick notes currently say:

10 things I still need to do before I leave London
1. Visit a soccer stadium (most likely Wembly Park)
2. Go to the Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill
3. Go to the National Gallery
4. Go to the Victoria and Albert Museum
5. Go to the Churchill War Rooms
6. Go to the Imperial War Museum
7. Hang out in Regents Park
8. Visit Kew Gardens (apparently they have beautiful flowers there... so this would be for Robyn)
9. Peruse the Borough Market (apparently known for its fresh food!)
10. See a West End show! But never fear, Amanda and I have tickets to see "Chicago" on August 1st!

10 places I want to eat as soon as I get home
1. In N Out Burger
2. Chipotle
3. Mongolian BBQ
4. Yen Du
5. Casa Flores
6. Costco (for hot dogs...obviously)
7. Grandma's house (spaghetti please!)
8. My house (Mom, you know what to do. I would start shopping now.)
9. Chandni's house (Indian food here doesn't even begin to compare)
10. Bob's at the Marina

10 songs that will forever remind me of this trip
1. Take On Me (A-ha)
2. Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)
3. One Week (Barenaked Ladies)
4. Move It Like Bernie (don't know the artist, but look it up on YouTube)
5. Show Goes On (Lupe Fiasco)
6. Wonderwall (Oasis)
7. Graduation (Vitamin C)
8. Kids (MGMT)
9. Black and Yellow (Wiz Khalifa)
10. Who Dat Girl
... and every Jason DeRulo song ever.

10 things I am going to miss about the UK
1. My job, and my coworkers
2. Living/traveling/spending every moment with my partner in crime, the wonderful and hysterical Miss Amanda St. Hilaire
3. British accents and slang
4. British snacks and candy
5. Being able to frolick around Europe on the weekend
6. Having cool pubs to hang out at
7. Having new places to explore every day
8. Fish N Chips. Enough said.
9. Cornish pasties. Yum.
10. Being conveniently located to everything on the Tube

10 things I am NOT going to miss about the UK
1. Conversion rates... I love it when my money means something!
2. My uncomfortable bed
3. Being across the ocean from everyone I love
4. My crappy cell phone
5. Seeing the same "Friends" episode on TV like 5 times a day
6. Having limited Internet usage
7. Not having beef hot dogs... anywhere.
8. People who lack self awareness on the Tube
9. Night buses
10. RAIN.

In case you were wondering, not much has happened since my last post on Sunday evening. Monday was pretty uneventful - went to work and enjoyed a picnic in St. James Park because the weather was a BEAUTIFUL 72 degrees and sunny, and spent the night in watching "P.S. I Love You" with Amanda. Tuesday was even more uneventful than Monday, seeing that I was deathly ill, presumably with food poisoning, so I ended up calling in sick to work and alternated between sleeping and watching some of the DVDs my dad sent me, including the movie I watch everytime I'm sick without fail, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".

Luckily this morning I felt a bit better so I came back into work, and went with Leah to the National Portrait Gallery during our lunch break! Since I have so much I still want to see and so little time to do it (and since Leah is secretly a nerd and loves museums), we've agreed to eat lunch in the office and use our lunch hour to explore free museums! Pretty sweet deal if you ask me! Also as we were walking by Trafalgar Square we peeked in to see a big press release about the Olympics, that is apparently officially one year away as of today! Kinda exciting, although if you ask any Londoner they are plotting to leave during those 2 weeks so they can avoid all the chaos the Olympics will bring to the city.

Tonight is my weekly stay-in night, and I am determined to get a lot done on my research paper (that I have not had much time to work on recently...oops) because my friend Peter is coming to visit this weekend (yay!). Because of this we will get to see him along with a bunch of other friends I went camping with in Cornwall the first weekend I was here. I guess it's appropriate that I spent my first weekend in the UK with them, as well as my last :) Until next time!

"No one provokes me without punishment!"

Just to clarify, neither Amanda nor I had violent outbursts this weekend. That is just the translation of Edinburgh Castle's motto, "Nemo Me Impune Lacessit", and we thought it was absolutely brilliant. Anyways...

Thankfully, the overnight bus to Edinburgh was exponentially more pleasant than the overnight bus home from Liverpool. In order to ensure neither Amanda nor I sat by gremlins, we decided to switch off on the window seat (me on the way there, Amanda on the way back) and sit in the same row. Also, the bus to Edinburgh didn’t have other stops to pick up additional passengers, so it was a lot smoother ride than before.

When Amanda and I finally arrived in Edinburgh, we were surprised to see SUN! And no rain! For those of you who aren’t familiar with Edinburgh, apparently it is almost always rainy and foggy there, but we were lucky enough to have good weather for the entire weekend! We were also excited to discover that our hostel was very close to Edinburgh castle, which means it was centrally located and close enough to walk to everything.

Before setting out for the day Amanda and I grabbed a full Scottish breakfast, which is basically a full English breakfast with a slight twist, and headed over to Waverly Bridge, where we decided to embark on city bus tour. Unlike the one we did in Lisbon this wasn’t one of those obnoxious red ones you see in every city with the audio guides – this one was much smaller, and had a live tour guide explaining the history of the new and old city of Edinburgh. However, like the one in Lisbon it was hop on/hop off, so we could easily choose what we wanted to see, get off, and easily get back on again.


First we chose to hop off at Holyrood, which is where the Scottish House of Parliament, Palace of Holyroodhouse, and Arthur’s Seat are located. The Parliament building was extremely strange – the design was extremely modern, and there was almost no security. This is in great contrast to Westminster, where security is extremely strict and the design is very sophisticated and elegant. The Scots currently have a bill going through Westminster petitioning to break away from the UK and have their Parliament be the sole ruling body… I guess only time will tell to see if that actually happens!


Next we wandered across the street to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is the royal residence for the Queen’s visits to Scotland, and most famously where Mary, Queen of Scots spent most of her time. The inside of the palace was beautiful, as expected, but even more Amanda and I enjoyed the gardens and abbey ruins outside of the palace. Apparently there used to be an abbey adjoined to the palace that was accidentally burned down, but the remains are still in tact. The gardens are HUGE, and with beautiful flowers and large stretches of grass everywhere. Walking through there you can totally imagine the Queen throwing a spectacular garden party!



From there we crossed over the Holyrood National Park, which is where Arthur’s Seat is located. The tour guide on the bus said that this would be a “gradual walk” to the top – however this was far from the truth. In true form Amanda and I got some soft-serve ice cream at the bottom of the hill, and started the ascent. As we got further up the path got steeper, which proved to be interesting for me especially because I was wearing my flip-flops. Despite the obstacles we made it to the top, which was DEFINITELY worth it because we got to see some beautiful views of the Edinburgh region.

At the end of our hike we were happy to re-board the bus, and head to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Calmly wandering around the museum was the perfect activity after our accidental hike. Plus it was awesome because there was an exhibit of portraits of important Scottish figures, so we got a history lesson along with the art.

When we were done at the Portrait Gallery we took a quick, but much needed nap, and embarked on a ghost tour that we had seen earlier in the day. The man giving the tour was crazy, but awesome – he was dressed in full costume and was acting in character the entire time, and had a good balance of jokes mixed in with his scary stories so we were fully entertained.


At the end of the tour we were pretty hungry, so we stopped at an Italian restaurant near our hostel. Amanda got a gelato meant for at least three people, and finished it herself. Epic win. When we finished dinner we happened across a pub that was playing Scottish folk music, so we decided to hang out and listen for a bit before heading to bed early (I know, we’re lame, but we were really tired from the bus ride and the full day we had!).


The next morning we woke up early to get the most out of our day. Since it was about midnight in California I thought it would be fun to call my sister Robyn and wish her a happy birthday. However, because she didn’t recognize the telephone number she decided to have her friend Frannie answer the phone instead, which thoroughly confused me. We ended up talking in the end though, which was sooo nice.

After a quick breakfast, Amanda and I took the short walk over to the Edinburgh Castle, and immediately hopped on a free tour to look around. Edinburgh Castle is apparently the second most visited castle in the UK (after the Tower of London), and we were quickly able to see why. The castle itself was beautiful, and since it was a clear day you could see all the way out over the city of Edinburgh, which was awesome. Not to mention that it was built on what used to be a volcano, and the mountain blends in with the castle, which looks really intense and intimidating. We also got to see the Scottish Crown Jewels, the Coronation Stone, and the Scottish National War Museum while we were there, which was very cool as well.




We grabbed a fast lunch right outside the castle, did a little shopping at the Grassmarket, and then continued on to the Scottish National Museum. Amongst other exhibits this museum basically gave the entire history of Scotland from prehistoric times to the present. While we enjoyed the museum, we were tired of being inside looking at exhibits so we left, grabbed our bags from the hostel, and hung out in Princes Street Gardens to enjoy the beautiful weather. We were lucky to happen upon a guy playing bagpipes in the street so we hung out for a while to listen to him. We also ended up meandering around Charlotte and St. Andrews squares before ending up at a pub, where we got cheap food (yay!) before going to the bus station to hop on the coach home. We were definitely sad to leave Edinburgh, and Amanda and I both agreed that this has been one of our favorite cities that we have seen thus far in the UK.



Today got off to a slow start needless to say since we were so tired. However we got it together by the afternoon, and went to enjoy the rare London sunshine out at the Camden Market! That place was insane, but definitely a good place to explore and people watch. It was also nice to be walking around after sitting in the bus cramped up for so long. We’re also done a fair share of movie-watching today, since my unlimited internet pass runs out tomorrow. Today’s viewings included “Notting Hill”, “Bedknobs and Broomsticks”, and of course this past week’s episode of “Pretty Little Liars” thus far, but I’m sure there will be more to come by the end of the night.

I absolutely cannot believe that I only have two more weeks left in London – the time has absolutely flown by! Even though I was only in Spain for five weeks last summer that trip has felt eons longer than this one. I still have a lengthy “to do” list of places to see in London before I leave, so I will be sure to keep you all updated as I check those off! Hope you are all staying cool in the heat waves!

Television

Not too many eventful things happened this week, but I figured I would make a quick post before heading off to Edinburgh for my last weekend excursion!

I think after two months of being here, I’ve finally hit a point of exhaustion. I know this is the case because instead of coming home from work and wanting to go out and explore or do something fun, I opt to veg on the couch and watch movies and television on my computer instead. Work has been pretty crazy this week too, which hasn’t helped the whole “tired” thing. I’m sure most of you have seen, or at least heard about the Murdoch hearings happening in Parliament, so needless to say the building was crazy for the first half of the week. On the up side, apparently I made a brief appearance on Channel 4 news in one of their shots! And I got to see Murdoch in person, as well as several famous BBC reporters.

In case you were wondering, to make my vegetation a little less lame, I did watch British movies and TV to make up for not going out. By British movie I mean “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (necessary throwback because of the premiere last week), and by British television I mean “Geordie Shore” (Britain’s knockoff of “Jersey Shore”) and “The Inbetweeners”. I highly recommend both shows, but for very different reasons as you may have guessed. Also, on Monday night our friend Spencer came over to hang out with us, and I introduced him to American macaroni and cheese, which he loved.

Thankfully today at work was a lot more relaxing, because the hearing was over and the House of Commons is officially on recess. Coincidentally this was also my coworker Grace’s last day in the office, so we had a really chill day in celebration. The four girls in my office shared a box of Krispy Kremes and hung out until lunchtime, where we met up with my friend Terra and her mom to give them a tour around the building. I also enjoyed the tour because I got to see many of the rooms for the first time as well, because we’re not allowed in while the House is in session! When the tour ended we met up with another coworker Dulcie for some tea, and soon after headed to the Sports and Social, one of Parliament’s many pubs on site, to have a quick drink to celebrate Grace.



Grace, by the way, is the lovely intern who takes it upon herself to insult me everyday (since I am American and need to be put in my place, obviously), and randomly gets into “pass wars” with me. Our Parliamentary passes are on retractable lanyards, and we quickly learned that “zinging” each other with said lanyards is quite fun. I am going to miss her terribly, and am trying to convince her to come get a job in DC next year so we can hang out again.



I am proud of how short this post is! But it is probably just as well because my bus leaves in two hours and I’m not quite packed yet. Pro of overnight bus: I will wake up in Scotland! Con of overnight bus: lack of sleep. Here’s to hoping that I don’t sit next to a gremlin this time!

PS. Happy Birthday, Robyn! Last year in Barcelona, this year in Edinburgh… maybe next year I will be home to celebrate with you. Love you, little sissy!

A magical weekend of wizards and mystery tours

This was a weekend undoubtedly full of obsessions – it was awesome.

Obviously Amanda and I had to get dressed up for the Harry Potter premiere, so we threw on some make-shift costumes (Amanda in a homemade deathly hallows t-shirt, and me in maroon v-neck, gold scarf, and a lightening bolt on my head). We purposefully took the tube through Kings Cross up to Camden Town, where we had reserved tickets for the midnight showing. Much to our disappointment, most of the crowd did not dress up – but it was alright because they were cheering just as loud as us in the theater. I had never seen a movie in a country outside of the US before this, and I noticed that the commercials were very different – they have an entire reel of regular commercials, then the previews, and THEN the movie. Needless to say we were extremely anxious and excited when the movie actually got started. I don’t want to ruin the movie for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, but I can assure you it was very good. I was overall impressed with it, and had trouble going to bed that night because I was on such a Harry Potter high.



The next morning Amanda and I got up early, threw together a quick overnight bag, and rushed over to Victoria Coach station to catch the morning bus up to Liverpool! I am definitely my mother’s daughter, in that I LOVE the Beatles, so I wanted to go to where it all started. Luckily the bus ride went fast because we were so tired from the night before we slept through it, and we were in Liverpool before we knew it.

After dropping our stuff off at the hostel we decided to walk around the city to gain our bearings. Let me tell you – Liverpool has an extremely strange vibe. It is definitely less refined than London, and has a personality of its own. We ended up at Albert Dock, which is where the “Beatles Story” museum was. This museum basically goes through the career of the Beatles, from their origins up until the band broke up. Amanda and I were both extremely impressed with the set-up of the museum – it was put together really well and gave a great overview of the Beatles in context of what was going on in the world during each of their albums.



When we finished at the museum we continued to wander along the docks, but when it started to rain we quickly wanted to seek shelter so we went over to The Cavern, which is the pub where the Beatles performed over 292 times throughout their career. We absolutely loved the vibe of this pub. To this day, they still have live music playing from 2pm until closing every day, and have had all types of groups from no names, to the Beatles, Queen, and Journey all play there. I almost wish there was a place like The Cavern in London to go hang out at.



On the way back to the hostel we saw a pub advertising two plates of fish ‘n chips for 5.50 (which is a steal), so we stopped for a quick dinner. Amanda made friends with a local there… although the friendship was very short-lived, since the local quickly moved on from Amanda to the random street performer.



Once we were revived after a quick nap, Amanda and I made friends with Kara, a girl from Australia who was also staying in our hostel, and the three of us took off to explore Liverpool’s nightlife. I have to admit, Liverpool has one of the strangest night scenes I have ever encountered. Everybody was extremely dressed up (we felt underdressed at every place we were at, even the more relaxed pubs), and many people were dressed in costumes to a point that we thought it was Halloween. There were also many older people out, which was surprising. We ended up going back to The Cavern for a bit amongst other places, and ultimately ended up staying at The Grapes, which is a bar that the Beatles would hang out at after their shows at The Cavern in order to escape the screaming hoards of girls. They sat at the same table every time, and we got a picture sitting at that table!



The next morning we woke up early, took advantage of the hostel’s free breakfast, and went back to Albert Dock in order to purchase our tickets for The Magical Mystery Tour, which was a 2-hour bus tour to all of the Beatles landmarks throughout Liverpool. Because we couldn’t get on the tour until 12:30pm (they sell out so fast!), Amanda and I headed down the pier to the John Lennon exhibit, which was created by his first wife Cynthia and his son Julian. They had a lot of extra stories and pictures of John, and spoke a lot on what it was like to be the family members of a Beatle. Also at this exhibit was collection of pictures called “The Beatles Uncovered” taken by a student photographer from Liverpool when the Beatles had just gotten together for a school project. He did not release them until this past fall, and there were countless candid images of them that have never been seen before, which was pretty cool.



After getting a quick cup of tea, we met up with Kara again and jumped on the Magical Mystery Tour bus! It was literally painted like the bus seen on the albums, and the interior had a very funky feel. Our tour guide’s name was Paul (coincidence?), and when he wasn’t talking, Beatles music was blasting. It was AWESOME. We stopped by many cool places, including (just to name a few):


Ringo’s house


Penny Lane (yes, all the places in the song actually exist)


George’s House


Strawberry Fields


John’s House


The church community center where John and Paul first met, and


Paul’s House.


When we hopped off the bus we grabbed a bite to eat, said goodbye to Kara, and then hiked up to the Liverpool Cathedral. It is at a high point, so you can overlook the entire city, and it is the largest cathedral in the UK and the fifth largest in Europe. Fun fact about this cathedral as well – Paul had tried out to be in its choir as a kid, and was rejected! They said he didn’t have a strong enough voice… boy were they wrong!



We meandered back down to city center and quickly realized that unless we wanted to go shopping, which we neither had the money nor desire to do, we didn’t really have much to do until our bus ride. To eat up time we decided to go to the movies and see “Bridesmaids”, which I thought was hilarious. Another bizarre thing that happens at movie theaters in the UK which I didn’t mention before is that they make you queue (or line up) outside of the theater and wait until literally the moment that the movie starts before going in to take your seats. It is kinda strange, and we were frustrated because we had done a lot of walking for the day and just wanted to sit down. It was alright though because we got in line just as the movie was going to start anyways so our wait was minimal.

For dinner we found a place called “MexiGo”, which was Chipotle’s lame second cousin. However, it did its job because I have missed Mexican food so much. We were absolutely stuffed, so we basically shuffled up the hill, through St. George’s place to the bus station to wait for our bus back to London. Amanda and I were thrilled to discover that her little brother Paul had put the movie “Dumb and Dumber” on her iPod, so we had some entertainment while waiting for the bus.



The bus ride would have been good, except for the fact that I sat next to a gremlin. Literally. Amanda and I originally thought sitting on opposite sides of the same row would be a good idea at first because then we would both have window seats, and potentially have room to spread out…but no. This little man would not stop talking to me (even though I was clearly asleep), was munching on the loudest food for hours, and felt the need to move around constantly. Not the best situation for trying to fall asleep, but it turned out ok in the end because we still made it back to our flat early enough to sleep some more before actually starting our day.

When we finally decided to get up, we walked over and spent some time in the British Museum. I don’t know whether it’s because it is a Sunday, or because of the rain, or what, but it was so crowded that I was having even more problems concentrating than usual. Also, the plaques did not do that great of a job explaining what each of the artifacts were, so overall I was a bit disappointed. However it did get a lot better at the end because we went on a guided tour of the Roman section, which was way more interesting, and then got crepes at a stand outside of the museum.



The rest of the day was relatively uneventful – we just did some grocery shopping and watched some movies/chilled after having so much to do over the weekend. I’m also actually REALLY excited to go to work tomorrow, because lots of stuff has happened with the phone hacking scandal over the weekend! I’m going to try my best to keep up this habit of updating more than once a week :)

A Spot of Sangria with Al

I don’t know what it is about Wednesday nights, but last night Wednesday night I stayed in to chill and blog, and this Wednesday night I decided to stay in and catch up on laundry/redoing my resume and cover letter for DC internships/call my family/breathe, and now update my blog after an insane week.

Thursday was not overly exciting, just went to work and went out at night with the internship students in our program to a couple of places in Picadilly Circus. Along the way we met some Americans from Bucknell University who are doing a summer program at the London School of Economics, so that was pretty cool. We were laughing because they were saying that they felt like they did not get to enjoy much of their time in London because they had so much class and homework (bummer…). I also discovered this night that I am hopeless at understanding Scottish accents, which will prove to be interesting when I go to Edinburgh in a couple of weeks. This poor guy and his friend were trying to talk to Amanda and I, and I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. I tried to convey this in the nicest way possible, which apparently he did not appreciate because he said that I was a “rubbish American”. Sorry bro…

Friday morning Amanda and I woke up early and went over to Tottenham Court Road, because we had scheduled ourselves to get haircuts at the Toni & Guy salon’s hairdressing school. This was a great idea because my bangs were in my face and SO annoying and it was only 5 pounds, but a not-so-great idea because it took a long time (3 hours!), and the Japanese guy who was cutting my hair interpreted me telling him to cut off as little as possible as four inches :/ Needless to say I’m not sure yet if I like it or if it was worth it, but I guess only time will tell.

After our haircuts we rushed over to Gatwick Airport, grabbed some McDonalds (I don’t think I’ve eaten so much McDonalds EVER in my life), and got on a plane to LISBON, Portugal! We were pleasantly surprised when they fed us on the plane, along with unlimited free drinks, coffee, and tea! As we were preparing to land over Lisbon I was completely shocked because there was a Golden Gate Bridge there! Well, it’s actually called Ponte 25 de Abril, but they look identical!



By the time Amanda and I got into the hostel and settled in it was already getting dark, so we decided to just walk around a bit to get our bearings in the neighborhood, and grab some tapas and sangria. We found this amazing viewpoint over the city, and hung out there for a while before heading to bed so we could get up early and explore the next day. We were happy to find that our beds in the hostel were more comfortable than our beds in our London flat!



Amanda and I thoroughly enjoyed our free breakfast at the hostel, and then set off to Costa de Caparica, a beach town just outside of Lisbon. We spent all morning laying in the sand, reading, and soaking up all the Vitamin D we have been so desperately lacking due to the London fog and rain. While I felt right at home and walked away with a nice sun-kissed tan, Amanda resembled a lobster… this New Hampshire girl need to learn how we do it in California!



We didn’t want to get back to the hostel until about 3pm, and we wanted to get going on seeing the rest of the city, so we took quick showers and hopped on one of those obnoxious red double-decker tourist buses. As cliché as it is, it was perfect because we got a taste of everything in a short amount of time, and it was extra perfect because the sites in Lisbon are relatively spread out. From the monastery at Belem to statues dedicated to various Portuguese historic figures, we got to see it all.



We hopped off the bus at the end of the tour in Baixa, where we sat outside in one of Lisbon’s many squares and ordered seafood paella for dinner. I made fun of Amanda because she looked like a lobster, and was eating seafood! :) But it was delicious. Paella is one of few foods I have missed since leaving Spain last summer.



Luckily for us, the Portuguese love siestas as much as the Spanish, so after dinner Amanda and I took a nap before getting ready to go out for the night. We were told by everyone we talked to about Portugal that we needed to go to Barrio Alto to experience the Portuguese discotecas, but they don't even open until after midnight so we determined that a nap would be necessary in order to survive the night. Barrio Alto was indeed lots of fun - there were loads of people everywhere, just hanging out on the street with lots of Portuguese live music. As Amanda and I were walking down the street we heard people speaking English with American accents, so of course we had to stop and talk to them. It turns out that this group were some of the US Embassy's foreign service officers and Marines, who were celebrating with one of the service officers, Rebecca, who was leaving the following week. They were all awesome, and knew all of the fun (and not sketchy) places to go so Amanda and I ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the night. We were grateful to find such awesome people to spend the night with, and on top of that we got a free ride back to the hostel from the Marine's personal driver (my tax dollars being put to good use, sweet!).



The next morning Amanda and I woke up relatively early again, and got back on the bus for the second part of our tour after a quick breakfast at the hostel. During this section of the tour we saw more of modern Lisbon, whereas the bus tour from Saturday focused on historic Lisbon. For example we got to see the facilities they built for the World Expo in 1998, which were absolutely incredible. We hopped off the bus at Se de Lisboa, which is the main cathedral in Lisbon. Since it was Sunday morning we actually sat in on a bit of the service, and listened to the Portuguese hymns (which were beautiful, by the way).



Lisbon is like San Francisco in more ways than just the fake Golden Gate Bridge - it is also built in hills, and they have trolleys going up and down the hills. Amanda and I didn't want to pay for a trolley, however, so we left from Se de Lisboa and started the hike up to the top of the hill to see the Castelo de Sao Jorge, a moorish castle and fortress. The views on the walk up were absolutely incredible, overlooking both the Tagus River and the entire city.



Castelo de Sao Jorge itself was definitely the highlight of Lisbon for me. It was absolutely incredible and beautiful. Out of all the castles I have seen so far in my life, this one is definitely my favorite. Amanda and I spent a lot of time there walking around and taking pictures and taking in the beautiful views. Robyn would have also been very impressed, because there were tons of peacocks roaming around as well! So random, but so awesome at the same time.



After descending from the top of the hill we returned to Baixa, and immediately stopped to grab gelato (which was exactly what we wanted/needed in the warm weather). We meandered around the little shops and downtown area for a bit before hanging out by a statue in one of the squares just to enjoy the nice weather for a bit more (and to people watch, obviously) before we had to get on the plane home. We encountered some strange people there, most notably a man who was very intent on selling us marajuana (after we said "no" for the millionth time, he screamed "I hate you both!!!" and ran away) and a foreigner (Italian maybe?) who wanted to take a picture with us. As a result of the latter we decided it was time to go, and got on the bus back to the airport.



The trip home was interesting, to say the least. Amanda was struggling the entire time because she was so sunburnt. As we were passing through security the guard screamed "Jesus! What happened to her? Has she ever heard of suncream?!" I thought this was all hilarious, but Amanda was not quite as amused by all of this. Then when we got on the plane I fell asleep immediately, where poor Amanda kept getting bothered by a Brazilian teenager sitting next to her who wanted to talk the entire way. To make matters worse our return flight went to Heathrow, where security back into the UK took an hour (as opposed to the 5 minutes it took in Gatwick coming back from Dublin), and by time we got on the tube to come back home they had closed parts of it down for construction, so we had to take night buses and a taxi instead. Needless to say, we were pretty miserable and exhausted when we got home at 2am (especially since in theory we should have been back at 11pm).

Getting back into the swing of work was quite difficult the next day, but I had to wake up quickly because there is a lot going on in Parliament this week since the term ends next Tuesday. After work on Monday we hung out with Zack, one of my friends from the program that left the previous week who was stopping through London on his way back to the US, and his friends. It was a lot of fun but did not help with the exhaustion factor at all. Then on Tuesday my friend Marc, who had been in Spain with Zack, also came back to London, so he met me for lunch at Parliament and then went to a pub with Amanda, Teal, and I after work. The pub we went to was awesome - it was called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, and it was rebuilt in 1666 after the Great Fire (but it existed before that too). It is in this tiny unassuming alley off of Fleet Street, and had a fun atmosphere. Fortunately for us Marc had to get up early on Wednesday too so we actually got a full night's sleep, but I wasn't fully recovered until now.

For those of you who are paying attention, yes I started this on Wednesday night, but ended up finishing it today (on Thursday) because I got quite distracted last night talking to friends on Skype/gchat/Facebook. No complaints though, because I realize I have been quite crappy at keeping in touch with you all, and I greatly apologize for that. But today has been quite interesting at work – I got to sit in on a debate in the House of Lords, and I got to write amendments for a bill that is going through right now! I would say that’s pretty cool. Hopefully the bill passes so my words can go down eternally in British history!

Lots of exciting stuff coming up this weekend… I am going to see that midnight showing of the last Harry Potter movie tonight (I get to see it earlier than you all! Haha!), and then tomorrow morning we are heading off to Liverpool! I will try my best to wait less than a week before my next post!

A transition from hardly working to working hard

I know it’s only Wednesday, but I have not been so ready for a weekend in a long time. I have honestly forgotten how much energy a full work day sucks out of you!

With that said, however, it has been nice to truly get into the swing of things at work. Being there all day helps me complete projects faster, and I have a better idea of how things run because I don’t have to run off after only a couple of hours. It is also nice to be on a regular schedule of getting up the same time every morning and eating around the same time everyday – something that has not happened since arriving in London. Because of this it finally feels like I am a Londoner, as opposed to an American who is just here temporarily.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on how you look at it) for my readers, I am not allowed to talk about what I am doing at work. Rest assured though, I am keeping very busy. This is definitely not your average internship where I am expected to make coffee and deliver mail – I am constantly on my toes, expected to rise to any challenge that is thrown my way. I love it, and I could not have imagined a better internship for me to do this summer.

Even though I have been spending most of my days at work now, I have been still up to fun things after work. On Monday there were obviously no 4th of July celebrations (much to my dismay), but Amanda and I met up with Spencer, one of the British friends that went camping with me on the first weekend in Cornwall, in Oxford Circus. Spencer just moved to London for a new job, and needed some fashion advice so he took us shopping with him. This ultimately ended up as a failure, so we went to a few pubs in Covent Garden just to hang out and talk. Highlight of the night was that we saw the actress who plays Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter movies walking by! It definitely made Amanda and I more excited for the movie premiere that is coming up next week!

Last night I met up with the rest of the students who are still in London for the internship, and headed over to Westminster Pier for a cruise on the Thames! For one of the class presentations we went to the Adam Smith Institute, and they were so impressed with us that they invited us on their “River Boat Party”. We had to dress up in cocktail attire, and were hoping to schmooze with some “posh” British people (if you asked the MP I work for, he would tell you that he was sending me in as a secret spy to gather information from the Conservative party, but this was not the case). Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, all the people on the boat were VERY full of themselves, therefore not that great to talk to – but we had each other to stay entertained so it was still fun. Since we were dressed up nice we did not want to go directly home after the cruise, so Amanda and I met up with Spencer and some of his work friends who were out on Liverpool Street.



Today after work was also exciting, because my friend Jessica (but I call her JBK) from my sorority was in London, and met me at Westminster to hang out with me! I took her and her boyfriend Dave into the Westminster Palace to show them around, and then we explored down around Waterloo. Sadly they had to take off relatively early to meet up with other friends for dinner, but it was so nice to see a familiar face from home.

Due to sheer exhaustion, I have decided to spend the night in, taking time to call my family and Chandni at home (my MagicJack finally works, by the way!), vegging out in front of the TV (there is a special on about the Royal Family, which makes me miss Jennings!), and obviously catch up on the blog.

Seeing that I haven’t done as much cool stuff between this post and the last post as usual, I figured I would write about some broad generalizations I’ve noticed during my stay in the UK:

1) People look at me funny when I say “please” and “thank you”. Apparently please just doesn’t exist, and you say “cheers” instead of thank you.
2) British people LOVE to make fun of each other. This is referred to as “taking a piss” out of someone. However, making fun of Americans is their favorite pastime.
3) You don’t say hi, you say “hiya” or “ello”. You never ask “how are you?”. Its “all right?”, and you are expected to respond “all right”. If anyone told me that they were “all right”, I would ask what was wrong!
4) Everything is “nice”, not “cool”. Beautiful people are "fit", not "hot".
5) Tea time is real. And awesome.
6) Going to a pub is normal. When my dad was here he commented that I always write in my blog about going to pubs. Let’s be honest, he is right! But everyone in England is always in pubs. People typically don’t hang out with each other at home in their flats, they all just meet up in pubs – after work, at lunch, later at night… it’s always socially acceptable.
7) Fries are chips, and chips are crisps. This can get really confusing.
8) Supermarkets as we know them in the US simply don’t exist here. This is good because everything tends to be fresher, but bad because you have to go shopping more often.
9) It always rains. Always. Even if the weather report says sunny, it’s a lie. So. Much. Rain.
10) Public transportation is actually functional. It is an amazing concept.
11) However, on said public transportation, no one has ANY sense of personal space, and has no problem hitting you with their briefcase without apologizing. I really want to shout in some people’s faces YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THE WORLD.
12) On all the electrical outlets, there are little switches to turn them on and off. Such a genius idea to save energy, not sure why the US doesn’t have that.

I know there is a lot more, but that is all I can think of off the top of my head. I will be sure to add some more in my next post as I think of them.

PS. To everyone who has asked me about this (especially you, Mom and Dad!), JBK told me what the jagged street lines are (like the ones on Abbey Road)!!! Basically it is just a warning that a crosswalk and/or traffic light is coming up. Not so exciting, but still – the mystery is solved!

Goodbye my lovers, goodbye my friends

So last time I blogged I signed off with a complete lie. Little did we know, the George Bar closes at 9pm (weird, right?), so we did not get to go to Shakespeare’s favorite place. I guess that will have to wait until another night.

This week was a bit abnormal because it was the last week of classes for the program, so after this we will have no more presenters/daily meetings. On Tuesday I went to work in the morning (with my new spiffy security pass!), but left around lunchtime to join the class on a trip to OFCOM, which acts as a regulator and competition authority for UK communications industries. Like the PCC who we visited earlier in the trip, a major part of their job is reviewing complaint cases and determining whether or not the station broke any rules, and if they should receive sanctions. I loved this presentation because it was very interactive, and the class got to see the difference in broadcasting ethics between the US and the UK. I honestly could see myself working in an office such as OFCOM, which is good to know in case I want to intern at a place like this doing policy in Washington DC during grad school.

Tuesday night continued a trend that lasted the entire week of hanging out with our friends in Flat 10. We have spent a ridiculous amount of time hanging out with the residents of that flat, and realized that their trip was quickly coming to an end so we wanted to spend as much time with them as possible before they left.

Wednesday was extremely uneventful. Basically just went to work, and came home to hang out in Flat 10. I told you this was a habit! Funny tidbit – apparently I went through the entire day of work at Parliament wearing my dress inside out. Probably made a GREAT impression that day. I just hope that since I didn’t notice it until I got home that no one else did.

Lucky for me, I had Thursday morning off so I got to sleep in! At lunchtime though Amanda and I headed over to Parliament to eat with my coworker Sarah, since it was her last day. I am really sad that she is leaving because she is absolutely amazing, and has made my time as an intern so much fun and insightful. A perk about food at Parliament (not sure if I have mentioned it before), but it is delicious, and cheap! Amanda was instantly jealous that I am able to have this food every day. They have different specials featuring English dishes from different parts of the country, in addition to sandwiches/other normal everyday stuff. Even with a soft drink and dessert, the entire meal was under 5 pounds, which is basically unheard of. This is definitely a plus for me, especially since I can’t make that much of a variety of food myself, so I don’t get tired of eating pasta every day.

From Parliament we traveled up to Maida Vale, also known as Little Venice, which is where our British professor lives. As a fun almost-last-day-of-school activity he wanted to take us on a walking tour of his neighborhood and give us a brief history of it. A part of this tour was a boat ride down the Canal, and dinner on Primerose Hill. We ate at a Greek restaurant called Lemonia, and literally had a feast. I thought the meal was done, and was informed that we had only gotten through the appetizers. Needless to say we were all extremely stuffed. The conversation also took an interesting turn, as our American professor started telling us stories from his college and fraternity days.



Friday was also a laid back day, because in lieu of having a last class, our American professor decided to take us on a field trip to Bath and Avebury. We had to get up early to go, but we survived and stayed awake because Amanda and I had just enough time to grab some McDonald’s breakfast on the way to the bus, and the ride to Bath was two hours long so we had time to sleep. By the way, everytime we get McDonald's breakfast, the professor makes some kind of comment about how much he loves McDonald's breakfast, and then awkwardly stares at us as we eat said breakfast. Since Amanda and I had already toured the Roman bathhouse and abbey with the Primack clan last week, we decided to enjoy the nice weather and wander around the town, do a little shopping, and have a proper afternoon tea.



Honestly, Avebury was a bit of a let down – we were told that it was an older, cooler version of Stonehenge…this was definitely not the case. Yes, there were rocks that were erected similar to that of Stonehenge, but there was not much else to do in the town, and there were sheep EVERYWHERE. There was also an old burial chamber and the (apparently) oldest mound in Europe (yes, it's a big pile of dirt). The highlight from this excursion was seeing the boys running around trying to herd the sheep. Embarrassing? Just a bit. Entertaining? Absolutely.



Since it was Sade’s birthday on Friday, we attempted to go out to Sky Bar, which is on the top floor of a building near Westminster, but that plan quickly failed because the tube had shut down. Instead Amanda and I came back to spend our last night with Flat 10, and of course grabbed some McFlurries on the way home. We literally sat up there with them as they packed, listened to music, and reminisced about funny moments from our trip. We also did our meditation routine that we have adopted, called “simply be”, which was the perfect way to end the night.

Saturday morning was quite depressing for Amanda and I because we had to officially say goodbye to our friends in Flat 10, and everyone from our program who was not staying for the internship program. On the plus side, we acquired all of the food and household items that all the other flats had left over, so we have enough pasta and laundry detergent to last a century! We took the morning pretty easy, and then in the afternoon headed over to Trafalgar Square for the London Gay Pride Parade! I was really excited because the Pride Parades I had been to in the past were an absolute blast. However, I have to admit I was quite disappointed at this parade. No one was dressed up as crazy as I’m used to, the people weren’t as friendly and not down to meet new friends, and it was contained into an enclosed area so it was more compact and less people were allowed in at one time. With that said, for my gay friends that requested a hot British man, I am sorry to report that this mission was a failure. I will have to try a little harder to find them elsewhere.



After a bit Amanda and I left Pride, and decided to explore Kensington Gardens. We were confused at first because Kensington Gardens is more like a park – more green than bright colored flowers, but it was still beautiful. We ended up walking around for hours, and saw the Peter Pan statue, Kensington Palace, the Princess Diana Memorial, in addition to several other statues and memorials I forget the names of. It was a nice low key activity to do, since it was too late in the afternoon to visit any museums and the weather was nice.



Saturday night we decided to just stay in, cook dinner, and watch some movies because we had been so exhausted from the previous week, and because we wanted to get up early to go to Westminster Abbey for a service. This ended up being an epic fail because the service wasn’t in the actual Abbey this morning, and we didn’t want to sit through the service if it wasn’t in the Abbey. However, the day got better extremely fast because we went out to Wimbledon with Tory, and watched the championship games! The three of us were shocked that we got tickets because it was Wimbledon’s last, not to mention cheapest, day of the season! Our seats were in the sixth row on Court 1, so we were literally front row center, which was awesome. We also got to see some of the Djokovic v. Nadal match on the Centre Court, which was cool.



At the moment I am mentally trying to gear myself up for my first “real” workweek, which starts tomorrow. Yes, I have to work on the 4th of July. Apparently the Brits don’t celebrate it or something… can’t imagine why. I can’t believe I am missing one of my favorite, hotdog-filled holidays for the second year in a row! Hope everyone eats an extra dog for me, and enjoys the day!