Bound for Italia

Another normal week in the work force here in London. After getting back from Paris, we immediately got acclimated into our London routine for the week. However, that will not be lasting too long, as me, Maddie and Lauren are now Italia-bound from Saturday for the following eight days. I’m really excited for Italy. We are going to Rome first, then Florence, then Venice. It should be quite a good time.

This week has been pretty normal. Instead of our weekly field trip on Wednesday we had our mid-term internship reviews. I cannot believe my time here is half over. I can already tell that it will be difficult to get acclimated back to the US, as I love London so much. My review went, somewhat surprisingly, very well. I really enjoy MSN and apparently they enjoy having me, which is always nice to hear. Afterwards, I decided to take the day for myself and treated myself to my favorite meal here—a full English breakfast. Then, I wandered around my favorite area of London, Covent Garden, Leicester Square (pronounced Lester) and places around there. I walked through some parks and through the area before retiring for the day to laundry and Italy plans.

This is unrelated, but I am very depressed that I missed the Oscars on Sunday. I would have had to come into work at 1 in the morning to watch it and stay up all night. With no Internet in the flat, I have not even indulged in watching YouTube clips of Hugh Jackman (who was supposed to be quite good) or hear any sappy speeches. You know how I feel about award shows. I’m still upset I missed it, but I guess there has to be a few downsides to life abroad.

Work has been the same as always. There is a celebrity who got her fame on a reality TV show here. Her name is Jade Goody and despite all her controversy on TV (it is reality TV, after all) she is 27 with cancer and is about to die within the next few weeks. All of England is very depressed for her, even though the press on her is kind of out of control, and she herself is feeding the tabloids much of the information. Very controversial. Anyway, I’ve spent a lot of time covering her death before the fact. Very depressing. For an article, I went through the MSN message board where people can post whatever they want to say about Jade. There were over 400 PAGES of messages! Many were very sad. That is an interesting story here that I believe is just beginning to get some press in the States.

Anyway, that’s about all that’s new here. Like I said before, won’t be blogging until I’m back from Italy a week from Sunday and will have limited phone/internet abilities. Ciao (goodbye in Italian)!

An American in Paris

A few friends and I finally embarked on our first out-of-London adventure to Paris. We booked through the same tour company that we went to the Isle of Wight with, however, I don’t think for this type of out-of-town trip it was fully worth it. Anyway, we knew we would have the majority time in Paris free, so I diligently prepared a list of stuff, with Metro stops, of must-see things to do. Besides that, not much preparation went into the trip besides a large amount of excitement.

I requested Friday off, so we left our London flat before dawn and hopped on the Tube to go to St. Pancras International. The Eurostar was very cool. Everyone always wants to know about the underwater tunnel that goes under the English Channel. Honestly, it was very anti-climatic, because it just goes black and you wouldn’t really know that you were under water.

Anyway, we got to Paris, where I was exhausted because I had not slept at all, until the last 10 minutes, on the train. We immediately went on the only touristy thing provided to us by our tour, which was a bus tour around Paris. We saw the must-sees, but in all honesty, I was asleep for a few moments of it. After we checked into our very quaint hotel, we immediately wanted to get to the center of the city.

Our hotel was very nice, and especially interesting because it was very, very hot in the rooms. English places are always cold; Paris was hot. It was evident then that we were on different territory. Our shower in the hotel was nothing less than Magnifique! It had good water pressure, plenty of room, and was hot!

Anyway, we were set to meet my friend, Alena, at the Louvre (the ‘r’ in pronounced). So we went about tackling the Paris Metro system, which Alena claims to be the best she’s ever seen. Their Metro system is a lot more reasonably priced than London’s, so we bought 10 single stop Metro passes for 12 euros, and we ended up using 11 total throughout the weekend. The Metro was my first and only experience with culture shock. Let me say firstly that their Metro is much different than our Tube—it’s not as nice in terms of cleanliness, the insides of the stations were heavily graffitied (to my surprise), and, the biggest difference, the doors did not automatically open: you have to lift a lever to open it or press a button. Mostly just the lever. We got used to it after the first few times, but being on a crowded Metro, different than anything I’d seen, with nothing but French all around you gave me temporary shock for a few moments.

It was also a bit of a shock to be in an environment, for the first time I realized, where English was not the predominant language. Knowing little French was difficult, but fortunately for us, and unfortunately to society as a whole, most of France has adapted to the fact that many English-speaking tourists visit their city, therefore many of the menus were in French and most people spoke English. So, we were okay language-wise, however it did make me sad about the world in general.

Anyway, we met Alena and went for dinner at a cute little café that was the cheapest we could find around the Louvre. I got a ham and cheese omelet (that came with nothing else) for 10 euros. The omelet was good. The price made me cringe a bit. We headed to the Louvre, which was free for students on Friday nights. It was pretty packed but we managed to make our way in. Because of our varying tastes in art, we all split up except for me, Alena and, one of my friends, Maddie. We immediately went to the Mona Lisa, which we had been warned by other friends was much less impressive in person because all the hype surrounding it builds expectations. However, Maddie and I loved it. The hype was true. Mona Lisa was haunting and gorgeous. We didn’t get super close because there were a ton of people, not to mention a barricade and glass put in front of the painting. But from what I saw, I can see why the hype was true. The rest of the museum was obviously huge and we obviously could not see everything, so we wandered a bit and were content to do that. Besides that Mona Lisa and one very famous statue that was there, the rest of the Louvre’s contents were not particularly memorable.

Exhausted, we headed back to our hotel where we immediately passed out and got a good night’s sleep.

Determined to conquer the city like the tourists we were, we awoke early and headed down to our complimentary breakfast. Although I do enjoy a big, hearty breakfast, the simplicity of the French breakfast was enjoyable to me. Especially because all it consisted of was bread—baguettes, croissants, pastries, cereal, and that was about it. All bread items. Delicious!

After filling up on breakfast, we decided to take the Metro to the famous statue garden near the Louvre. We walked through the garden where we stumbled across the first of many gorgeous, old-fashioned carousels, all abandoned in the winter. We continued our stroll through Paris by walking down the famous shopping street where we stopped by a few of the world’s most expensive shops. When we went into Louie Vuitton (just to look, as most of the stuff there more expensive than our entire weekend), not only were the doors held open for us as we walked in, but we also some good and nasty glares from the sales people walking in. My other friend, Lauren, touched one of the key chains on a little keychain rack, when immediately a salesperson sweeped in to put the keychain back into its place.

We continued walking on the street until we got to the Arc de Triomph, which was more gorgeous than it looks in all the pictures. The detail in all the architecture is really amazing. There was also a tomb for an unknown soldier, which was nice to see.

Let me take a moment to discuss the magnificent architecture in Paris. Everything just looked so stereotypically French, but it was so supremely gorgeous. London buildings are also very beautiful, but there was something about Paris that was just so breathtaking. It was beautiful.

After our long walk, we hopped back on the Metro and went to the island where Notre Dam sits. We spotted our first of many glimpses of the Seine River and walked to the cathedral. It was pretty for a church. It looked kind of like Westminster’s design, with statues all around it of notable people and everything. It wasn’t my favorite part of the weekend, but it was good to see. There was also a really cute flower market right near there, so we walked through that, which was enjoyable. Starving by this point, we fulfilled a life-long desire of mine and ate crepes on the side of a street in Paris. They tasted different than all the crepes I had had in the States. They were delicious though, with strawberry jam and everything. Yum! We also stopped by St. Chappelle for a moment, and that was also pretty.

I know it sounds like we’ve done a lot today already, however, by this point it was really only like 2:00 in the afternoon, so there was much more sightseeing to be done. One of the places we wanted to go to was this cemetery that had many famous people buried in it. So we got back on the Metro and headed towards it. It was huge and hilly and very difficult to walk on because of all the cobbled and uneven roads. Still, we had passed away stars to see, and were on a mission, so after finding our way we made our way across the entire cemetery to find the stars we wanted to see. Oscar Wilde’s grave was by far the most unique. It was a huge memorial and was marked because it had red and pink lipstick outlines of lips all over it. Seriously, the tomb had been “kissed” by hundreds of people, all wishing Mr. Wilde well. I do not know why this tradition is. I suppose I will Google it later, but it was very cool to see.

We made our way through the very non-traditional looking cemetery. All the tombs were large with family names engraved upon them. My theory is that anybody in there is either famous, or very, very wealthy, as it was no surprise to see such elaborate and non-plain-looking tombs. It was so interesting, and definitely something worth visiting. We visited Edith Piaf’s tomb (my pick), which was surprising simple, but had loads of roses on it, which was nice to see. We stopped by to pay our condolences to Jim Morrison and some other famous French artists and made our way out.

Surprising, still eager to see Paris, we did not stop and made our way to the Musee d’Orsee, which was something even a non-art-museum person, like me, was eager to see. We split up once again and explored for a few hours. I loved the Monet’s that were there and many famous Van Gogh’s as well. Every French painter you’d ever heard of was in that museum and it was wonderful to see.

Getting somewhat tired at this point, we decided it was time for the fancy dinner we planned on having that night. We were very picky about the place, but we eventually found one that sought our needs and went on into a cute little café and restaurant. It was a little expensive, but we were splurging. The waiter came to our table and we asked for dinner menus. The waiter looked surprised, but pleased. Not sure what to order (since I am a picky eater), I went with something not so safe. I ordered curry chicken with pasta. It was actually quite good. Aunt Donna and Uncle Jeff would be proud of me. We ate our hearts out and were happy to do so. Then dessert came, and instead of shying away because of price and fullness, like we usually do, we ordered dessert. No splitting, one for each.

I ordered another very untraditional-Hayley dessert. Chocolate cake was how the menu described it, but it was really chocolate soufflé, over loaded with fudge. It was pretty delicious, although it got too chocolaty and rich for me at one point. My chocolate-loving family would be proud. Now full, we paid for dinner and walked across the Seine at night and along the river to go on our River Boat Cruise. We saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle, as it does every hour, and went on the Boat and saw the City of Lights at night. It was a lot of fun. Exhausted, we went back to our hotel and took relaxing showers and fell asleep immediately.

Sunday we awoke to another carb-filled breakfast and went to the Royal Opera House, which Alena had told us was one of her favorite places in London. We had to pay to get in, but it was well worth it. It was so regal and was incredible. They had a little museum that was interesting, with little miniatures of sets from operas. It was also the place that The Phantom of the Opera was supposedly based on, and I can see why. So the opera house was very cool.

We then went to the place on the top of my to do list—the Moulin Rouge, which is a strip club in reality, but still something I wanted to see. I was imaging it to look like the way it was in the movie. It was not. I was very disappointed. It was touristy and fake looking. Almost tacky, like it was made of paper mache. It was pretty disappointing, but I was glad to have seen it.

We then went to the one place we had been waiting to go: the top of the Eiffel Tower. We waited until we couldn’t wait any more, and even though it was a bit cloudy and drizzly (it was nice on Friday and Saturday), we went up anyway. The view was breathtaking. There were a ton of lines, it took us a good 3 hours for the whole process to be done. We had to wait in a long line for tickets; then to take the lift to the second floor; then the lift to go to the top; then the lift back down to the second floor; then the lift to the bottom. It was a lot of waiting. The second floor view was probably better than the top (and half the price). Because it was so foggy, we didn’t see much more from the top that we hadn’t seen on the second floor, so I’m not sure that was entirely worth it, however I’m glad we went to the top. It was a lot of fun. It was great to see the city we had just spent 3 days exploring from up high, where we could really appreciate the architecture and French-ness of the place. We saw the beautiful Seine in all its glory.

Exhausted, we found a café for our last Paris meal and French pastry and went back to the hotel for our return journey to London. Our Paris weekend was a lot of fun, as you can probably tell by this blog. Although now I am out of pockets to hold three different currencies I now possess (dollars, pounds, euros). Sorry, again, that it is so lengthy. I want to keep you all as informed as possible. Just think about how long my week in Italy blog will be. This trip was a good test run for our Italian journey, which begins this Saturday for eight days. 

Off to Paris!

Another week of excitement here in London. Not really, just another week, but no less exciting I suppose. Another flat crisis has been on our hands for the past couple of weeks. The fact that we have had 2 days of Internet in the past week in a half has not been part a pleasant study abroad experience. Having to do all my Internet-ing at work is probably not the best work ethic to have, but I have no other choice. Also, our shower, which has always had its quirks, decided to be unpredictable in terms of hot water and water pressure. Water pressure is of particular concern because there will literally be NONE. By that I mean, NO water coming out of the showerhead right when you’re in them middle of washing your hair. And then after a few moments of initial panic, it’ll come back on. Anyway, the real panic is that now our showerhead is broken, so no shower! Joy! Hopefully, it’ll be working soon and we won’t have to go to other people’s flats to shower.

Anyway, all my complaints aside, London has been the same as usual. I went to the premiere for a new television network called Blighty (which apparently is slang for English person). It was all British themed in this extremely retro locale. It was in a bar, I think, that was adapted into a bar from what used to be horse stables a million years ago. There were cobblestones beneath your feet and British themed everything. My goody package included a Blighty umbrella, Blighty tea, Blighty ginger, and Blighty bags. The entire room was decked out in lights and umbrellas. And we were served Blighty cocktails and Blighty snacks. It was so cool. I was glad to be invited.

Yesterday, for our field trip we ventured to Dover and Canterbury to see Dover Castle and Canterbury Cathedral. It took a while to get there, and I have to say I was no wholly impressed with either locale. The Dover Castle was kind of interesting and has a cool history, but it wasn’t worth a two-hour bus ride to see. Canterbury Cathedral was very pretty, but after about 6 weeks in London I am very churched out. That is an understatement—I am VERY churched out. I cannot take seeing many more churches. They are everywhere. Anyway, the church was kind of pretty, but I quickly walked through it because I was more interested in exploring the town of Canterbury. Our Italian lunch was very good, but besides that I was very disappointed. The town was very commercial. Even more commercial than Bath, which still kept much of its small town charm. However, Canterbury had very few small-town shops. It was mostly dominated by McDonald’s and H and M’s, which I found very disappointing.

I spent my evening using the Internet for a whole hour before it died again, doing laundry and counting down to our weekend in Paris for which we leave before dawn (literally) on Friday morning. Speaking of Paris, I am leaving Friday morning for Paris and will not be back until late Sunday evening, therefore I will most likely be out of contact until Monday, but I promise to blog as soon as I can when I get back. Hope everyone else has a terrific weekend!

Adventures in London!

Now that the glitz of my big star-studded evening has faded, life is back to normal here in London. On Wednesday, we took our weekly field trip to the British Museum, which was basically about ancient history—the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, etc.—and all the stuff that Englishmen have essentially stolen from them in terms of artifacts. I’m not big on ancient history, so I didn’t find it amazingly exciting although much of it was interesting and we had a very quirky tour guide who kept us very entertained.

Afterwards, some of the people from my journalism class and our professor went on an optional field trip to see the play Complicit starring Richard Dreyfuss and directed by Kevin Spacey. It’s about a journalist and anonymous sources after 9/11. It was a really interesting play that I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m pretty sure this is kind of the preview of it, so I bet it’ll be in the States sometime soon.

Besides that it’s just work as usual. That Bafta red carpet event was a very once-in-a-lifetime experience, but hopefully I will get further opportunities like that. This weekend, my friend Alena, who I know from Harand Camp, came to visit for the weekend. She’s currently working in Paris then heading to Berlin. On Friday night, we enjoyed the wonders of pub food (surprisingly we found a place to eat because it was a Friday night and everything was packed). We ate at a wonderful pub called the Shakespeare, appropriately.

Saturday was an awesome day, probably one of the most fun days I’ve had since being here. We awoke early to go to Tkts to get cheap tickets to a show later that day. We met at a musical camp, so NOT seeing a show didn’t seem natural. We wanted to see La Cage aux Folles, but it wasn’t available, so we got tickets to see Sunset Boulevard in the afternoon. I LOVED it. I love the movie and the musical followed basically the exact same plot line, only with lots of singing in between. It was great. I would highly recommend it.

Before that, in the morning, we headed back to Portobello Market, one of our favorite places in London. It was just as it was last week—bustling people, lots of street food, and lots to buy. We got cupcakes from Hummingbird Bakery, of course, and then picked up some street food for lunch. I opted for buying what they called salmon sandwich for 1.50, however, to me it was lox (bagel, cream cheese, lox). So, I got a bit of Jewishness at Portobello Market, which I found incredibly ironic, but tasted delicious. We also bought a ton of fresh vegetables because Alena, deprived of cooking in Paris, wanted to cook for all of us on Sunday.

Later in the afternoon, we walked around the area our play was in—Piccadilly was close by, so was Covent Garden and Leicester Square, so we explored a little before stopping for dinner at the Japanese restaurant I like. We then took a nice long walk around London at night. Alena pointed out that London is really much smaller than it seems on the Tube, and she was right, considering we walked from Leicester Square all the way across the Thames in half an hour. So we saw London and the River at night and it was pretty gorgeous.

On Sunday we had a very adventurous day. Wanting to take Alena to exciting places, we decided to go to Brick Lane, which is outside Central London near the financial district, but is supposed to be a bustling market place with more offbeat type things. We started at Tower Bridge and walked across that and around Tower Hill in London. We then embarked on a bit of a long walk to Brick Lane and discovered a very large Bangladeshi community. We curiously explored the neighborhood and their grocery stores, but still wanted to fine the supposed Brick Lane marketplace. As the street meandered on, I was beginning to think that maybe we were a little lost. However, we did see a sign for an indoor marketplace on Sundays and that is what we got. It had cuisines from all over the world (which I unfortunately did not sample due to my fear of nuts), as well as very different cultural clothes, jewelry, etc.

Thinking that was maybe all to the marketplace, we continued to walk down Brick Lane, only to find even more marketplaces as we went on. After lots of marketing, we started to see a different type of street appear before our eyes. Hungry by that point, (the others had eaten more internationally cuisine) I began to see many bagel (spelled beigel here) shops. So I stopped a picked up a bagel and cream cheese, which reminded me of home and made me happy. After we left the very busy shop, we stopped to admire the front of the building, which proclaimed “Britian’s first beigel shop.” We announced our skepticism of this, but a very friendly bobbie (English for policeman) behind us said, “No, it’s true.”

“Really?” we asked. He then proceeded to tell us the history of the neighborhood, which was once a Jewish neighborhood, but is now dominated by Bangladeshi people, which was no surprise to us. He said that 50 years ago this was a very Jewish area with many beigel shops and over 100 synagogues, however now there are only three in the area. So, I apparently cannot escape my Jewish heritage, having inadvertently stumbled upon a great piece of Jewish history (complete with lox and bagels) without any intention of that. It made for a very interesting day.
We then left Brick Lane and went on the more difficult task of finding a Tube station. It took some time, but we eventually did and proceeded with the next item on our to do list—Kensington Gardens for a nice English Tea.

A long tradition has involved my Mom and I going out for Tea every year, therefore I was curious to go to a REAL tea in England. After the shock of finding out that a FULL English tea was about 12-14 pounds (a little too much for a traveler’s budget) we opted to order a pot of tea (well…hot chocolate for me) and a slice of delicious cake. The girls had Belgian chocolate cake, and I had a delicious sponge cake with strawberry-based frosting. I know, all you chocolate-lovers (most of my family) will think I’m crazy, but I prefer the simpler stuff. We ate at the Orangary, which is attached to Kensington Palace, and Princess Diana had a tie to it. I would definitely recommend it as a great place for a traditional English tea. No reservation needed, just go in and enjoy!

We explored further Kensington Gardens, which is quite a lovely place to go with a Princess Diana memorial and memorial walk, a Peter Pan statue and many ponds with no shortage of geese and swans. It was a very lovely, fun-filled day.

We then went back to the flat where Alena cooked delicious stir-fry for all of us. Monday was back to work as usual, although today I am invited to a launch party for a new television network. It should be a lot of fun, and I get off of part of class because of it. Sorry I haven't updated my blog in a while but the Internet is currently out in my flat and has been out for almost a week now, so blogging has been limited.

Live From the BAFTA Red Carpet!

I spent last night…yes, that’s right at the BAFTA’s Red Carpet! I’ve written a first-person account of it for MSN with the photos I actually took, so you can feel free to check out that below, but I will also blog about the more personal details surrounding the day.

BAFTA Red Carpet Gallery:

http://entertainment.uk.msn.com/movies/specials/movie-awards/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=13919307

On Friday morning, out of nowhere my wonderful supervisor told me that MSN had been offered a spot on the BAFTA red carpet for bloggers. For those who have never heard of the BAFTA's (British Award of Film and Television Awards), they are basically the equivalent of the Oscar’s. They are by far no less prestigious than the Oscars. It was also a very English experience, since it was a British award show.

This was pretty much the ideal assignment because I didn’t have to blog (good thing too as everyone blogged from their phones, not computers) and there was no pressure to get any quotes, so I basically had to go and provide a first-person account of the affair on Monday. I was pretty excited. I smiled widely the entire day, but it wasn’t until I got back to the flat and walked in to find my flatmate Maddie and we screamed together in excitement.

For those of you who know me, you know that I handle important life experiences like this one with only one emotion—panic. I was pretty nervous most of Saturday and definitely while getting ready Sunday morning, but I was excited more than anything else. I also appreciate my flatmates putting up with me.

So the big day arrived. I was dressed to my version of the nines. I wore (this is for you Mom, as I hope the rest of you won’t care about these details) black pants with a green silky shirt with my brand new suit jacket and black flats. I borrowed a friend’s purse, another friend’s coat (because I only have a thin black one, and a not-award-show-worthy warm one), and another friend’s pearl necklace to match my brand new Isle-of-Wight-earrings. Someone straightened my hair and I even put on make-up. Like I said, all out for me.

Anyway, so I headed over to Covent Garden, which was still in the process of being transformed into a secured sight where cars could line up and cameras could be taken. I watched the scene a few hours beforehand with excitement. There were so many people, and policemen to hold the people back, that were watching the preparation and all I could think was that I wouldn’t be an outsider anymore. I would be on the inside of an award show. Kind of my dream come true.

I love award shows. I count down to them everywhere and watch all the red carpet and the before and after commentary. Most people think I’m crazy, but I suppose this time it actually paid off, so from now on I expect no such eye rolls stating my craziness. Therefore, I was probably the perfect person to be asked to a red carpet event, because they are my obsession. 

I met the group of other bloggers mostly from websites and some from newspapers at a fancy martini bar/restaurant in Covent Garden. I sipped complimentary champagne and ate free sandwiches like a pro and got my press pass (which I’m keeping forever) and ticket into the studio theatre in the Royal Opera House (where the awards were taking place) in order to watch the show on the tele. I clung to my press pass as we walked down the street to the red carpet. By this time, the crowd was securely behind barricades with policemen and people monitoring the event all around looking anxious and busy. I flashed my press pass and was immediately left in.

Then the BEST part happened: I walked on the red carpet! My shoes actually touched the royal carpet as the people behind the barricades looked on with envy. I wanted to tell them that I was just like one of them on the inside, but I walked on proudly. That was definitely the best part of the evening.

We were caged in a little pen (that’s really what they called it) and I was lucky to get up front. It was pretty cold and it poured rain almost the entire time. I got lucky enough to be partially covered by an umbrella most of the time, so I wasn’t soaked, but I was ready for warmth by the end. I made very close and fast friends with the people around me and all the other journalists were really cool.

My colleagues did look a little nervous when I got so excited on Friday because they didn’t want me to get my hopes up. They didn’t say it right out, but I knew they were thinking it. The other journalists were not very excited about it. They weren’t excited to be caged up in the cold and not see anything. But that wasn’t bringing me down, I was still too excited.

To be honest, it was very, very cool and I saw all the stars (please look in my gallery for those details), but it wasn’t as amazing as I thought it would be. Despite the fact that some of the stars (Daniel Craig, Emma Watson) were no more than a few inches away from me (literally!) they all seemed to have a big bubble around them. It’s hard to explain, but it’s true. It doesn’t feel like I actually caught a glimpse of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Mickey Rourke, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, just to name a few. I did basically see everyone that was there though. It was pretty cool, but just the atmosphere of being on the red carpet and in the thick of the action was the most incredible feeling. To see the journalists anxiously prepare and the stars freeze as they walked in skimpy dresses with open-toed, five-inch heels down the carpet was really amazing and what it was all about.

We were then led by our own chaperones back out onto the red carpet and into the studio theatre of the Royal Opera House so I got to watch the ceremony on the big screen. The amazing thing about this particular award ceremony was that it was on the BBC, which according to my co-workers never has any commercials…EVER. It’s part of the taxes that Brits pay because it is a government-sponsored station. (That’s a whole other story about the British press system here, which I am learning about. Most are, yes, oddly tied to the government, but they have it set up so that they are just as independent from them like in the U.S.) So, no commercials!

The BAFTA's in general (which I had never before seen. Shocking I know!) was, firstly, much, much shorter and less dragged out (it was over before 9:00!) than the Oscars, but just as fun to watch. The cinematography was noticeably different from the US’ in that there were many more close-up side shots that was more artistic than in the US who just film it as an event, which is what it is, but this added a bit of pizzazz.

Of course, the minute the award show was over we were all exhausted and wanted to leave, but we caged into the theatre in order to presumably let the stars out first (they had a different exit). So we hung around until we were finally allowed to leave. We were even escorted past the theatre to about a block away from the Opera House. I joked that the stars were surely not taking the Tube, so we shouldn’t have any problems, but we were escorted out anyway. So then I got on the underground, still in awe of what I just experienced and headed back to the flat to an eager audience waiting to hear about my evening.

Anyway, I had a very successful Sunday. It was kind of the perfect weekend: some theatre, movies, stars. This is definitely an experience I will not quickly forget and I thank all the MSN colleagues for graciously offering me the opportunity. I highly recommend watching the BAFTA’s in the future if it is even aired in the States. I hope you enjoyed reading this hugely long account of the BAFTA’s and my red carpet experience. 

Another Busy Week

(Meant to be posted Saturday...(more to come on my BAFTA experience soon!)...)

Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while but I literally have not had a moment to sit down and write until now. Where did I leave off? Oh, yes, the snow. The snow is long gone from London, but it is still bad further north in Wales and Scotland and such. Other than that it has been very cold in London, but the snow seems mainly gone for the moment.

This has been a busy week at work. Most people were still not at work on Tuesday so I was getting a lot of projects via instant messager. I did discover a very good restaurant that has American cocktails, so that was exciting. Wednesday we had our weekly field trip to Oxford. It was pretty fun, but very, very cold. We saw some of the college buildings and learned all about the very intense college system Europe uses, which is surprisingly more intense than the US’, or so it seems. We did go to a very neat pub for lunch called the Eagle and Child. It is apparently where C.S. Lewis (wrote Chronicles of Narnia) and J.R.R. Tolkin (wrote Lord of the Rings) hung out. It was cool to eat where they once did. We had traditional fish and chips and wandered around the city of Oxford so it was an okay day.

Thursday was a very busy day. I was assigned to do a gallery entitled Rugby Studs. Being a great authority on sports (yeah, right) and attractive men, this gallery was a bit challenging, especially since I know nothing more about rugby other than the fact that it is a sport. It is probably the most challenging assignment I’ve had so far, but it’s up on the website, so I guess it couldn’t have been that bad.

Thursday night I went to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Despite the fact that we were in the very last row of the highest section, it was pretty good. It was definitely nosebleed seats, but I could still see, so it was fun to see. I figured I couldn’t really go to England and not see at least one Shakespeare play.

Earlier today, my flatmates and I went to the half-price ticket place and bought tickets to Chicago, which I have never seen live. Having now seen three theatre performances in a week in a half (saw Lion King about a week ago and seeing a fourth for my journalism class on Wednesday), I have noticed many differences between American and English theatre. The difference that makes me the angriest is that there is no complimentary playbill in England. You have to buy your own program. Also, the theatres are much more relaxed about food and drink. The past two theatres I’ve been to sell overpriced ice cream during intermission, and they have no problem with you eating it in the theatre. I personally think that’s a little strange, but I’m very much enjoying my London theatre experience. I’m definitely going to be a frequent visitor of the ticket place (TKTS in Leicester Square), so hopefully there are many more (hopefully reasonably priced) musicals in my future.

Earlier today, we decided to wake up early and head over to Notting Hill to go to Portobello Market again. We wanted the real market experience of bustling crowds and lots of vendors. Fortunately for us, we got just that. The place was packed and we wandered around before getting another delicious traditional English breakfast. We also went back to the cupcake bakery and got another cupcake, so today was a wonderful day—breakfast food, cupcake and theatre. What more could I ask for?

I suppose I have not mentioned the most crucial part of my week and weekend. I have been invited by my co-workers to take MSN’s press spot at the BAFTA Awards tomorrow night. I am so incredibly excited and nervous that I can barely contain myself. The award show fanatic inside of me has been screaming for 36 hours straight. I do not quite know what to expect, but at least I will be there in a pressroom getting to report, so I am over the moon. I will definitely be blogging about it on Monday! 

London Calling

Happy Snow Day to all of those in London right now. To all of those not in London, we got a record amount of snowfall today. Well, maybe not a record, but the largest amount of snow in 13 years. All of us interns woke up and thought it was pretty and went to work as usual. Most of the Tube (underground) was somewhat delayed, and the ENTIRE bus system was cancelled, but we played the role of dedicated interns and went anyway. We arrived at a nearly empty office, although people trickled in throughout the morning.

I was getting assignments from my editors working from home until about 11:30 when everyone told us to go home because the snow was supposed to get worse and the police were advising all of us to stay in. It was ridiculous in my opinion. It wasn’t even that much snow, but it was pretty thick. It would have been nothing in Chicago. It would have been a pain to deal with in Columbia but I doubt classes would have been cancelled So, we are all back at the flat now just hanging out and catching up on errands that we didn’t do over the weekend since we were gone.

The snow is perfect packing snow. All the kids are home and making snowmen and throwing snowballs at cars, which I think is rather rude, but apparently it’s perfectly acceptable here. Now that I have a whole day free with basically no transportation and my errands all caught up I have gotten to think about my time here in London.

I’ve become very accustomed to this city. I now call mailbox: the post box, line: queue. I have come accustomed to English money and no longer take a long time to pay for things because I don’t have to read how much is on each coin. I know the Tube well and the streets surrounding me. Confused Tube-goers ask me for directions occasionally, so I take that as a good sign that I look like I know where I’m going. My impersonation of an English accent has also improved dramatically, although it wasn’t that good in the first place. I’m settling in at MSN and know pretty much what I’m doing. I’m sure I’ll be a seasoned traveler by the end of the trip considering we’ve already planned our weekend in Paris in about 2 weeks and are beginning to plan our Spring break in Italy in about a month.

London is such a great city that is so international. There are all different dialects spoken all the time and it is great to hear. Being in a different country just puts into perspective all of the things about home. Home being the U.S. But working as a journalist in another city really makes you realize how much the world revolves around the entire United States. It’s no wonder that we’re stereotyped as arrogant because we are such a big country that there really is no immediate need to travel outside it. In the US, international news is rarely reported when it doesn’t directly affect US citizens, however, US news is always mainstream here. We are literally the center of the universe and everyone knows it except the people that live inside it. I knew how much of an effect the US has on the rest of the world, but not to the degree I realize it to be now.

Anyway, sorry if this was too analytical for anybody. It’s always on the lazy, snowed-in days like today that make you think about the greater world around you. 

36 Hours in the Isle of Wight

This past weekend some of my flatmates and I went on a somewhat spontaneous weekend getaway to the Isle of Wight. It’s a little island off the very southern coast of England, just a quick hour ferry ride away. We went with a travel agency, which I would definitely recommend if you’re ever in England. The trip was very reasonable and enjoyable weekend, so if you’re ever looking for day or weekend trips around Europe from London visit Andersontours.co.uk.

We left very early yesterday morning where the bus picked us up early just a block away from our flat. We weren’t quite sure who would be on the tour considering we found out about this place through our college, so we weren’t sure if it would just be students or just us considering we did book this tour less than a week before we left. It turned out to be quite a diverse mix of people—all different age groups, someone representing every single continent (minus Antarctica), etc. It was cool to talk to some of the people and get to know them.

Anyway, we got on our “luxury bus,” as the agency calls them, and began our journey to Southampton at the Southern tip of England to take the ferry ride to the Isle of Wight. It was a generally enjoyable ride. The ferry was pretty cool too and we got to know a kind of eccentric Australian woman on the tour with us. She had been in Europe visiting her daughter who lived in London for over three months. She was pretty cool.

Our first stop on the Isle was to Osbourne House, where we were fully equipped with all you ever need to know about the Victorian age. Queen Victoria built Osbourne House in the mid-1800s as a vacation home because she loved the island so much. The house and the grounds were quite awesome. The house was very preserved to what it looked like when Queen Victoria lived there and the huge land it was on was simply breathtaking. We also visited the church she attended when she was there. So we got a pretty comprehensive history on the Victorian age and its influence on the Isle. Queen Victoria was a very interesting person, so seeing her huge palace was cool.

We then made our way south to the center of the island where we stopped in Godshill for a long overdue lunch break. Godshill is by far the smallest town I have ever seen. It was literally only one road with about 10 shops on it, most of which were not open because it is the off-season. We settled at a cute little place with amazing-looking desserts and ate a quick sandwich before exploring the little of the town there was to see. It was a cute place with some cute stores, but it was the smallest place I had ever seen.

By that time, it was late afternoon when we began driving to our bed and breakfast in Sandown, on the eastern coast of the Isle. It was a cute little place with little heat where our group was the only guests. The evening was free, so eager to explore we left our hotel in search of things to do. Like Godshill, most everything was closed, so we walked the very short walk to the beach. It was not very pleasant because the wind was blowing so hard sand got in our eyes and hair, but we were eager to see the Channel so it was pretty. We were desperate for some warmth and saw a very modest building with flamboyant lights advertising “family fun.” So we went in. It was kind of a bar/restaurant/casino/arcade with hardly anyone in it at 6:00 on a Saturday night. It was pretty cheesy, but we walked around and saw mini golf for just 2 pounds. We figured we couldn’t pass up a random game of mini golf in the middle of nowhere, so we played a round. We then went to a pub for some dinner and drinks and hung out there until we called it a night.

Despite the fact that our room was freezing, the bed and breakfast was very nice. They even provided us a full English breakfast the next morning, which was delicious despite the fact that, like the last English breakfast, I did not eat half the things on my plate. We then said goodbye to Sandown and made our way to the southeast part of the Isle to Shanklin to see a ravine there. It was probably my favorite part of the trip, definitely the most beautiful thing there. It was a gorgeous view of the sea (the Isle is surrounded by the English Channel) with beautiful cliffs all around it and a ravine off the side. The view was simply extraordinary. The pictures I have of it do not fully capture how gorgeous it was.

The Isle of Wight is very, very small. It is only 26 miles across the whole thing, so getting from place to place was relatively fast, although our big coach on the tiny, mountainside roads was a little scary. We then went to the highly talked about needles, which the Isle is famous for. The town we went to in order to view the needles was a ghost town. It looked to be like a miniature version of Coney Island but everything was closed. We saw the needles and they were okay, but nothing special after seeing all those cliffs, so we left a little disappointed.

The next stop was not something you would expect to do on a tour, but it was a fun thing to do, especially on an island. We went to the Isle of Wight Pearl. It was part museum about pearls and where they come from and what famous people like wearing them and mostly a jewelry store with all pearls. If you are a fan of pearls, then this would be to die for. There was ever a place with fresh oysters in water where you could go and pick out your oyster, have the pearl taken out of it in front of you and keep the pearl. I know this is shocking, but I ended up buying a pair of blue-pearled earrings that were the cheapest thing in the store. They are very pretty, so I’m glad I have a souvenir from this gorgeous Isle.

Almost done with our day, we went to our final stop at the town of Yarmouth—the oldest town on the Isle that was a marina and port. That was another highlight of the trip, because that was a very quaint little town with plenty open and much to see. We stopped for a little snack in this cute seaside café that was literally almost right in the water. Waves literally crash into it. It was the perfect restaurant. We only ate scones and Cadbury hot chocolate, but between the Mamma Mia! music playing in the background, the sign that said that the restaurant was a nut-free facility, and the view out my window, it was the perfect place for me to be. We then walked down the pier and took pictures of more cliffs and beaches when out of nowhere a wave came up and splashed all over me! I was not drenched, but I was definitely wet. I joke that I had been touched by the Channel. I didn’t touch the Channel, but the Channel touched me. It was a pretty funny moment. We walked around the town and made our way back to the bus where we waved goodbye the Isle of Wight and headed back to the bustling streets of London.

The weekend was very fun and much better than I expected it to be. It was the perfect getaway from the city with a perfect blend of scenic beaches and cliffs, but also traditional rolling English hills with sheep and trees, and quaint little villages, houses and stores. It may also be the one place in the entire world (literally) with no Starbucks. It amazes me how little commercialism was on the Island, or at least the parts of it we saw. The Island is so small that we actually covered almost every section of it, or at least drove across the entire circumference of it. There were a few grocery stores that we knew were chains in England, but no Starbucks or McDonalds, and no Costa Coffee or Pret (2 of the biggest chains in London). It was a nice weekend, but definitely a place you really could not visit for any longer than a weekend. Anyway, I’m sure I have bored you long enough with this blog. I admire anyone who has actually gotten through the entire thing. Hope everyone else had just as fun of a weekend!