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.