I'm an emo kid

**This is not the immediate past weekend, but the one before. I will update this weekend shortly since we went to Stonehenge.

Just a quick update for your reading pleasure...if you even find it interesting...haha...because you know I probably leave the juicy stuff out. Just joking...there is only a little bit of stuff I haven't added...LOL. Sorry all, I’m in a funny mood. So what happened last week? hmm...

The week was normal. Work, home, play, sleep, work, home...the same routine. Although Jason, Bomo and I met for dinner in China Town one night. It was rather tasty. I love Chinese food...especially authentic Chinese food.

Even though there are over 7 million people in this large city, we continue to randomly see the same people over. It's happened to me several times as well as Jason. That night we went to get Chinese a kid he had seen in passing earlier that day (in an entirely different section of town) was eating in the same restaurant. What are the chances really? I've seen this one person on the tube several times and randomly see him on the street miles away! This seems to happen all the time with little things. It makes you realize just how small the world really is....and not just in little Minerva, Ohio!

Wednesday night we had our mid-term review meeting with the placement agency. They fed us free Dominos. It was tasty to have American pizza...although Dominos was never a favorite of mine. In the large room we were broken off into groups to play a trivia game. It was me, Alex, Jason, Veronica and some other girl I didn't know. After the first few questions we quickly realized this was going to be a hard game. The winner got a free gift (untold to us until the game was over). We accepted our fate that not matter how hard we tried, we weren't going to win. We either knew the information or not.
Surprisingly when we all revealed our scores WE WON! We each got £4 gift certificates to Starbucks. Free lunch so I was not about to complain!

Friday night we went to Fabric. One of the well known clubs of London, normally costing £15 to get in. We had bought tickets in advance for £10. I had personally been looking forward to Fabric for a while. I've heard great things about it from several people.
We left to enter the madness around 11:00pm. I don't even know how to describe it, so refer to Jason's blog for a better detail, but it was fun. Three huge rooms of a massive amount of people. Each room bearing its own distinct sound of music and crowd of people. Large crowded hallways connecting the rooms, with stairs other rooms and utter confusion everywhere. I loved it. People everywhere you turned. It was probably the largest club we've been to yet. You turn the corner and you've lost your party. So we didn't even try to stay together. We just set up a meeting time to make sure we were all okay and we went and did our own thing. It is nights like Friday night that reassure me that I am destined to live in a city. I love the craziness.
Everyone bailed at different times throughout the night, but Veronica, Paul and I ventured to stay until 6:00am. Luckily for us, when we decided to head home the tube was running...so no adventures with the night bus. We decided that we need to just stay out every night until then because getting home was sooooo much easier.




So obviously, I slept all day on Saturday. After a lazy day of catching up on some much needed rest from a crazy night of dancing, I went to the 0-2 festival at Hype Park. James Blunt was playing so I had bought tickets in advance.
I went to the show alone because no one wanted to go with me. I didn't care. I still had a great time. It was one of the best concerts I have ever seen.



When I got home I quickly got ready to go to this party/club that we got on the guest list for. It was 20 pounds to get in originally, but Bomo knows this girl he works with whose boyfriend manages thee club, so we got on the guest list, paid nothings and jumped the queue. Sounds great right?
It was. It was a great time. Originally it was supposed to be all 5 of us, excluding Erin because we didn't think she would want to go, but at the last minute Jason, Megan and Alex bailed and Erin ended up coming. I guess you know who the true partiers are....lol.
Anyways, they missed a chance of a life time. This was an exclusive POSH party. Everyone there was beautiful. It was a beautiful people only club, I think. They had dancers with perfect bodies on little stages in the club, confetti fell on us randomly and beautiful ornaments hung from the ceiling.




It was a good time. Plus, the night bus that runs right in front of our apartment came right in front of the club. Easy enough! Saturday when we woke up Bomo, Jason, Erin and I went to Spitalfields Market. It was cool. It wasn't really anything that special though.
Overall it was another great week in London.
I will update soon to fill you in on the most immediate week and weekend.
CHEERS!

My New Boyfriend

Jessa first introduced us, but we hung out at the England/Sweden game last night. He seems pretty nice. I'll keep you all posted as to how it goes.

An ordinary weekend in an unordinary place.

For my birthday last weekend, Jason surprised me with tickets to a show. He had never heard of the performance. He bought the tickets on recommendation form his fellow peers at work. Once researching into the show I wasn't sure if I was going to like it or not. Now that it is over I can say that...haha...sorry Jason. I read up on the reviews and learned it was an hour long standing show where the performance was all around you, above you and in between us. What? I am going to stand in a crowd of people for an hour looking up. It sounded like a pain in my neck, literally. But, with the theme of the entire trip, I approached it with an open mind and was honestly a little intrigued. Making sure I wore comfortable close, as suggested by the reviews, we headed off to see this unusual performance Friday evening.
Bomo decided to tag along and buy a ticket at the door, for he too was interested in the show. Fortunately when we got there the line was long. You probably wonder why I said fortunately, but if we had not been waiting, then the man selling extra tickets for half-price would not have approached us. Bomo got his £20 ticket for £10.
We headed in and the show began. I can't even describe it...so I am not going to try. You wouldn't even begin to understand what was going on. All I will say is that they incorporated the entire show around the audience, in the audience, above the audience. You moved several times during the show (you literally moved feet away from where you were), you could touch the props that were used and etc. At one point there was a huge take of water inches from our heads above us where they were doing performances. I think the entire show was about a man who after death had to struggle with the forces of good and evil. I am not sure though. lol
I think we are going to try to go back sometime and scalp tickets for cheap. I would recommend the show.
Oh yea....and in the reviews is said to intend to get wet and dirty. We did get misty from water and pieces of paper and cardboard fell on us, but I also got splattered with blood. When the guy got shot in the back, the blood (FAKE BLOOD) splattered everywhere. It hit probably five people total...and of course I was one of them. Right on the head. I had red dried blood in my hair the rest of the evening. FUN.
Here are some pictures. I stole these off the internet. I did not take any pictures of my own. If we go again I am going to sneak my camera in because they never searched up. After the show, we went to a pub that was relatively close and had a few drinks. It was a calm, but very fun night. Thank you Jason for taking a risk on the birthday gift. It was very interesting and a lot of fun.

This shows the take of water above us. You could touch it.

This is a man on the wall.


Saturday:
I went to Portobello Market. I love markets. It was a giant flea market. You had new things, old things, antiques, produce, and anything you could ever want. If I lived in London I would do a lot of my shopping here for all my needs. I walked around for 4 hours. I was completely exhausted when I got back. I am going to try to go back, but there are several more markets I want to check out. The pictures below just gives you an idea of how crowed it was. It went on for what seemed like miles.
I have realized that if you claustrophobic, a big city isn't for you.



That night Bomo and I adventured to the complete opposite side of London. We live in the south-west end and our destination was in the north-east end. We were going to a house party of some people we have been hanging out with. It was a lot of fun. It is things like this that allow us to really see the culture, where they live and how they live. I did however find out my friend Laurence's mother does hair and make-up professionally for Harry Potter. I think I need to keep in touch with him. haha. Anyways, after bonding over X-Files, Harry Potter and Stella Artois, we headed to Old Street to a warehouse party. Unfortunately when we arrived, the police were there. So we left. I have always seen scenes like this in movies, but never in real life. The streets were crowded with any type of person imaginable. Drag queens, transvestites, emo-kids, normal-kids, young, old, every type of person imaginable. People crowded the streets, drinking and socializing openly. The park had not a bare piece of green for everyone was hanging in the park on a warm night partying together. People were kissing, singing, laughing, dancing and having a good time. After enjoying the reality of where I was, we headed home. This is where the real adventure begins.

It was three a.m. The tube closes at 12:00, so we had to take the bus. This is nothing abnormal since every night we go out we take the bus. The only problem was how far away we were. Neither one of us wanted to pay for a cab, so the bus it was. Half way home, the sun came up. The sun rises around 4am here and doesn't set until around10pm. It is really nice having that much daylight. But not when you are really tired and just want to go home. Needless to say, after three buses and two hours, I was home. The bus isn't scary or anything, it just takes forever. But we made it....and didn't pay anything.

Sunday:
I warned Bomo before we went to bed to not even think about waking me up before 12pm. He waited until 11:50, so I wasn't too made at him. haha. I woke up around 10am and was so mad so I made myself lay there until noon.
We got up that morning and headed to Covent Gardens to get our palms read. I had previously seen a booth for £5 palm reading so went there. The Asian man was difficult to understand but really nice.
Nothing too excited.

After that we headed to Earls Court to see the Bodies Exhibit. I was sad I never had the opportunity to see it in Cleveland. Fortunately it came to London. After seeing every single part of inside of the body, we headed home to freshened up before dinner. YUM....we were both really hungry after seeing all the muscle and liver and etc that looked like food. (in case you can't tell I was being sarcastic)

This is of the arteries and veins.


This is just a picture of one of many of bodies that were there. Each had a theme, showing the muscles, tendons and etc...


Everything was real. Real parts of real bodies.


Alex's dad was in town for the weekend and wanted to go to dinner with us. His dad was really nice and even bought us dinner. I really appreciated that this since food is so expensive.
After dinner Bomo and I split a cheesecake...literally we each ate half (and I wonder why I have gained weight?) and headed home. That is when I had the conference call with my family. It was nice talking to you all. Aunt Eve, I hope you have a great trip. Tell everyone I said have fun.
And then the weekend was over. Time to start it all again.

Finding my way to the Ministry of Magic

This is the entrance to the Ministry of Magic. Alex and I tried to dial the code to get in but I think there were too many muggles around to witness. We are going to go back sometime next week.



As you can see...too many people. haha (The guy in the blue suit was our tour guide. I am not sure if you can tell but he was a character)


This is the real Diagon Alley. People kept getting in my way so I'll get better ones soon.


I hope you enjoy Jessa!

Also, I want to say Hi to everyone.
I hope, family, that you all have fun at Eve's this weekend. Tell the boys that I said Hi. Please tell PapPap and Cole I said happy birthday too....also tell all the men (that are fathers) that I said Happy Father's Day. If someone could, please email with what time you are all going there. If I can, I'll try to call. Happy Friday and I hope you all have a great weekend.

Ohh..PS
I forgot to mention something in my last blog. The people we met on Saturday invited us to leave the bar with them and go to a party. After a little while, they received a phone call. They told Bomo and me that they decided not to go to the party because it was too crowded. Why was it too crowded?? Because Kelly Osbourne was DJ-ing it. HAHA. That would have been sweet.
Anyways, talk to you all soon.

PSS.
Hi Brandi and Katie Z. I hope all is well. :-)

A Birthday in London

Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. It was very happy, so thank you.

Friday: Friday at work my co-workers took me to lunch to grab a meal and a few beers. It was a beautiful day of almost 80 and sunny. The work day was also very light leaving me completely stress free and eager to go out. That night we went to a club called The End, recommended to me from a fellow young co-worker. We left early to make it there before ten o'clock to beat the outrageous cover charge of £10, but of course we were late. So after being frisked from head to toe and forking out 20 dollars, we headed down into the underground club. When we walked in we were the crowd. There were no more than 4 other people there. Of course, this is extremely early for a night club. So I grabbed myself a drink and headed toward the leather couch to grab a seat. After chilling for what seemed like only a few minutes, the places filled up rapidly. Next thing I knew it was packed. I know others in my party will disagree, but I really enjoyed it. One side was complete hard core techno with people on any drug imaginable, and hip-hop free style on the other. There was a group of young boys who were circled around each other performing free-style break-dancing to the rhythmic beats. It was much like a rave as Jason described. Don't let him fool you, he hated it. I met a nice man from India. He bought several of my drinks. I think I should pretend it is my birthday everyday so my nights are much cheaper! LOL Anyways, don't worry family...even though there maybe have been drugs everywhere, I do not do them. (I just wanted to throw that in there so you don't worry). I guess what the real question is...how did they sneak in all there pills, bags of drugs and weed??? Every part of our bodies were search, including every crevasse of my purse and every flap of the boys' wallets. Think about that...that is gross enough to encourage you not to do drugs! HAHAHA.

Saturday: I woke up decently early and decided that I wanted Chinese food from China town. I rounded everyone up who wanted to go and we headed to grab some delicious grub. Authentic Chinese food is amazing in every sense of the word. So after we ate, we all split up to do a little shopping. Bomo and I went together. All I will say is that we got robbed...literally. Don't ask me questions because I won't tell, but we got robbed. It was a very interesting and heartbreaking story that we swore we wouldn't talk about again....now that I have your minds wondering....lol. It isn't bad I promise. Just embarrassing. So after that interesting day, we headed home and met up with Jason. The three of us went to get me a cake and them some ice-cream. We walked down to the park to enjoy the birthday treats. After that, we headed home to get ready to go out.

Jason was going out with Mark so he went his separate way. Alex, Megan and Veronica stayed back to watch a movie, so it was just Bomo, Erin and myself. Erin left earlier to go to a party before and Bomo and I left a little later. We were heading to a pub on the east side. Bomo and I met a friend that night. Her name was Stella. Stella Artois. We met her at the beginning of the trip, but she became closer to us that night. In fact, she made the night turn out to be a lot of fun. The night was completely backwards...in every sense, but a lot of fun. Different fun than Friday night, but just as equally enjoyable. After dancing and mingling with native Londoners, my glass seemed to have slipped out of my hand. Unfortunately, about 5 minutes prior, I slipped off my high heals and put on my flip-flops. In the event of having my feet exposed when I dropped the glass, a small little chip lodged itself into my toe. I just looked at Bomo and said "I think it is stuck in my foot!". At any rate, I removed the glass and placed my high-heals back on. Luckily I had a few drinks in my system so it didn't hurt that bad. After slipping out the fire escape in the woman's bathroom, I found Bomo and we headed home. Surprisingly, we found the buses that we needed and made it home safely to our hostel.

Sunday: I again woke up rather early. Megan and Alex went early to sightsee so Bomo and I decided we would look for a place to swim. Jason was not where to be found, so we left without him. Once we realized that everyplace cost money to swim, we just ventured off into the city to allow fate to take up where we needed to be. We ended up exploring down by embankment, going to the Temple Church and chilling in Leicester Square. Again, a lot of walking.We headed back around 3:00 so I could change my shoes before the Harry Potter walking tour I was going on at 5:00.I quickly change, grabbed a bite to eat and was off to walk around London and visiting sites mentioned in the Harry Potter books. I met Alex at the tube stop and we anxiously awaited to get an earful about the adventuresome books.

Here we are...like big nerds waiting....
The tour was only five pounds and worth it. It wasn't quite what I expected though. Instead of going to places like King's Cross to see the platform and etc, he took us to places where a lot of JK Rowling's characters were based off of and the folklore behind it. It was interesting and educational. After the tour, Alex and I decided we need to complete the tour on our own, so we went to King's Cross to take a picture of platform 9 3/4. Even though you aren't allowed to take pictures in the station (apparently, but no one told us), we did it anyway.


I think you can tell what this is...



This is inside the station...I know, I’m a nerd, but it was a lot of fun.
Anyways, we came back from a long day and went to bed. It was a nice way to end my fun filled birthday weekend.

Oh, by the way the entire weekend was absolutely beautiful. It was 80s and higher and sunny the entire time. Today was another beautiful. Unfortunately though it is supposed to rain tomorrow. At least we had some wonderful weather.

I was riding the bus today and it was funny how it occurred to me that how quickly you can get used to something. Looking right to left when I cross the street has become natural just as looking left to right. Seeing the cars on the other side seem normal. I wonder when I come home if that will seem foreign? This entire trip has been so surreal. It is also amazing to see how Americans really are ignorant...not all...but just a generality. We know our culture and that is all. Here you are so close to everything that you learn and understand about so many other people. Anyways, here are a few random pictures. I'll try to post a few each time I post.


Bomo and I playing in the fountain that I mentioned in an earlier post.


Jason...sleeping. I thought this was hilarious.


Knights of Templar tombs in the Temple Church for all your DaVinci Code fans.


Me...playing tourist...haha

happy early birthday to me...

Today we went to get lunch and have a few beer on work. It was pretty damn fun. We sat outside since it was so beautiful. I enjoyed lunch and a few beers as the breeze flew through my hair. It made me realize how lucky I was. This experience is one in a life time. I love every moment of it so far, even the less than pleasant. I am learning and experiencing life. What else could I ask for? Isn't that why I am here?

Alex, Me, Megan, Bomo and Jason. We are all close...as you can tell.


Megan and I in front of the tube.


Big Ben


Me with the river and Big Ben in the background.


This is my new car...a Lotus.


Jason, with the Tower Bridge in the background.


Tower of London


Bomo, Alex, Megan and I at Trafalgar Square.

i believe...

If I could have a pound for every man wearing a pink shirt today and for every pregnant woman I saw, then I would be living a great life for the summer. I’m not sure what was going on, but I saw more pink shirts and pregnant women today than I think I have in my entire life.
Any ways, something a bit more relevant I guess…sorry to everyone who has been reading for my lack of updating this blog. Getting to a computer isn’t easy for me. My computer barely works and I do not like to use my computer at work for items like this. The library is a pain because you have to call and sign up for a computer in advance or you may not get one. Plus they close only an hour after I get home from work…and it seems that I don’t want to go there straight from work to up date my blog. Anyhow, it has been over a week so A LOT has happened as I’m sure you could imagine. I will try to briefly go through the days to catch you all up.
Last Tuesday 30/5/06:
My first day of work. When I arrived, everyone was extremely friendly, but half of them were out of the office. I spent the first day working with only three of the seven people (six of which are male, and the only female works limited hours). The first day they had me working on some media research for a Foreign Exchange service looking to move from the B2B market to the consumer market. I spent most of my day acquiring information about certain press that I felt would be suitable for this particular client.
Wednesday 31/5/06, Thursday 1/6/06, Friday 2/6/06:
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday kind of run together to me in terms of what I actually did specifically at work. I worked on putting together a schedule for the magazines that I researched and complied. I do know that on my second day of work my boss told me that I was going to be calling these magazines trying to negotiate their rate card prices. I was going to call a magazine in the UK, to talk about their circulation and a company that I knew nothing about, and try to negotiate prices?? WHAT? LOL. It turned out to be okay though. I just realized that if I screw up it doesn’t matter. What do I have to lose? I’m here to learn and the only way to learn is to screw up and do it better next time. I did learn in my first week of work that British men cuss…A LOT. Every other word is fuck. It really is just a part of their language. They even talk like that to clients. They are also much more laid back in general. People wear jeans to work, have beers at lunch and chat. Seeing that the only girl in the office was on vacation last week and myself being the only woman, there wasn’t too much chatting. And even at that, she isn’t really that chatty at all.
They also paid for my lunch a few times and then for several coffees. I really appreciate it since everything is so expensive. The only thing I can foresee as a problem is that they are busy. Almost so busy that it is easier to do things themselves then explain to me how to do it. Plus, why would they want to invest their time into training me when I’m leaving in 7 weeks? I really appreciate them trying to help me learn. But I am slave labor really. Haha.
Friday Night 2/6/06:
After getting off work 15 minutes early, I quickly ran down to a thrift store by my work to see if I could find a cute top to wear to the clubs that night. We were planning on going to G.A.Y. We weren’t sure exactly what a gay bar would be like here, but we imagined it would be fun. I ended up finding a really cute club shirt for only 4 pounds, so I bought it. I got home around 6:30 walked into the room about to lay down for a quick nap and the fire alarm went off. So much for sleeping. So we all made our way outside for 20 minutes while the kitchen was being cleared on the 10th floor. Once we were allowed back in it was time to start getting ready. Going out is much different here. Everyone goes out really early. Plus, if you wait until after 11pm your cover charge almost triples. Jason and Bomo headed to the bars earlier than Alex, Megan and I to meet Mark. We wanted to pregame a little since alcohol is quite expensive. Of course we started drinking and lost track of time so we were almost 1.5 hours late when we were supposed to meet up with them. They weren’t very happy. (Jason was nice in his blog. He was really pissed). But anyhow, the night went on so we headed toward the club. Somehow Mark and I lost everyone. One minute they were there, the next they were gone. So we decided just to go to the bar anyway hoping we would see them. From an act of God, there they were. How we found them I do not know, but we did. So we headed to the bar. Some people didn’t have the best time, but I had fun. How could I not? Madonna on the radio, vodka in my system and hot guys everywhere…..well….even though they were all gay, I can still look, right? Any ways it was a lot of fun. After dancing all night we adventured home. The night bus home is always an adventure on its own.
Saturday 3/6/06:
After sleeping the crazy night off, I woke up around 10:30 after a frustrating fight with my alarm clock when it went off at its normal time of 7:00am. Once Megan and I got out of bed and showered, we decided that greasy food sounded amazing, so Bomo, Alex, Megan and I decided it was Pizza Hut buffet time. After we ate, we went sightseeing. It was a beautiful day of 70 degree weather and sunny, so we went to Buckingham Palace, walked up and around Westminster (seeing again Big Ben, Westminster Abby, Parliament and etc) and down to see the London Eye. Another long day of walking, but definitely well worth it.
Later that night we decided to go to dinner. We were all starving. Getting 5 people to agree is difficult. Enough said. Although, once we did FINALLY find a place it was the best dinner I’ve had yet.
After, we were all exhausted so we went back home and went to bed. Boring Saturday I know.
Sunday 4/6/06:
I woke up around 10:30am. Sleeping in on a sober night felt really great. I got up and dressed then Jason and I decided to head out for another tiring day of tourism. I figure I need to do it, so why not get it over with so then I can “local” things…haha.
We went to St. Paul’s Cathedral, walked the Millenium Bridge down to Tower Bridge, then over to the Tower London, then back home. A lot of walking, but again it was another beautiful day. 70 and sunny. Couldn’t ask for anything better here.
We got back early evening and decided to go to the park to eat dinner. Once dinner time came around we were all tired and wasn’t sure if we felt like going. Erin was all about it, so we went…just to a close one. There were millions of pigeons around, so Bomo and I decided not to eat. While the others ate their food, Bomo and I played in the fountain with the children. We took our shoes off and played twister in the fountain. I know why the Britains call us stupid Americans…haha. We had fun thought. I’ll post some pictures.
When we came back we decided to watch TV or a movie. The floor that we went to had a dvd player already in it, but of course the cable wasn’t working. We were all too damn tired to move so we sat there and watched a fuzzy TV. Finally Alex showed up with his DVDs, but we were all so apathetic about life that we couldn’t decide what to watch. Of his large collection of DVDs we are limited because they do not play here…unless they were illegally burned…so there isn’t a country coding…I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, but that it what they told me.
If you know me then you know that Harry Potter is my favorite movies ever…so I’ve been going through withdraw. Of course Alex had them, but the original copy so they wouldn’t work. I found a movie store that was selling movies for 5 pounds so I bought one. To end our Sunday night we watched a Harry Potter movie. It was great. Apparently there is a Harry Potter tour around London on Sundays. Alex and I are going to do it this Sunday. I’ll let you all know how it is.
Monday 5/6/06:
I hate Mondays. It was actually a good day. It was again warm and sunny. Perfect really. Rather boring. I finished The DaVinci Code. I know it took two weeks….but I haven’t had much time. I am upset I didn’t have time to read it until then. It was a great book. I suggest you all read it before you go see the movie. Well actually I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’m sure it won’t be as good as the book.
Tuesday 6/6/06:
The day of the devil. Hahaha. Work again, the same. We took a trip to Asda to buy some groceries. Asda is like Wal-Mart. I don’t necessarily like it but it is cheap…..so we go. We just need to go shopping a lot because food spoils so quick here. There are no preservatives in their food. And apparently none of their cheese is pasteurized (sp??). But I am not sure what that means exactly. Then when we got home we went to bed. The evenings go sooo fast.
Today, Wednesday 7/6/06:
Work was good today. I went to a sales pitch meeting for an online client. It was interesting. It has only been a few days working with online, but I don’t think I’m going to want to do it as a career. I think I prefer more traditional media. But I am open to anything really.

So in a nutshell, this is what happened. It was a good week. I can’t believe it has been almost three weeks that we’ve been here. I like it a lot. I can’t wait for this weekend.
It is my birthday.
Things are gonna get crazy.