London puzzles me...

Throughout my days here in the UK, I come across certain things that puzzle me about London. Each time I find something, I think, "Geez, that would be funny to write about." So here they are...some things that puzzle me about the land of London.

1.) EVERY girl here wears heels. Like, it's always raining, everyone has a 100 gazillion mile walk to wherever they need to go...why the heels???? I don't get it.

2.) Everyone is always in a hurry. I know it's a city, but where are they always rushing off to? Like, the train comes every 5 minutes. Why the hurry? The FUNNY part about it is that while I was questioning myself about this today, I CAUGHT MYSELF RUSHING WITH THEM!!!

3.) No one talks or makes eye contact on the tube. I'm a sociable person. I find this very hard to deal with.

4.) It's always raining. Seriously. It's not just a myth, people. It's real.

5.) The tube closes at 12:30 typically. It's the major form of transportation in London. Why close it so early?

6.) The drinking age is 18, yet they card you when you don't look 21 years or older. I don't know about you, but my looks didn't change THAT much from 18 to now. And you can drink at 18, so why card to see if you're 21???

7.) OBAMA-MANIA. Now, I love the man and all (I voted for him), but seriously, he's on the cover of EVERY magazine here. And about trivial things, such as "Obama can dance!" and "Obama has a long day ahead of him." Like, he's everywhere. The Brit's are OBSESSED!

8.) While on the topic of newspapers, why do they post nude pictures in the public Metro?? Seriously people. There are young children on the tube!! I'm sure they shouldn't be seeing Gwyneth Paltrow's boob!

9.) This city is the absolute CLEANEST city I've ever seen! I don't know how they do it! There are hardly any trash cans available either (due to bomb threats). It's like the magic cleaning men come out in the middle of the night and work their tricks on the streets. It's wonderful!

10.) Last but not least, the food. While it has a reputation of being pretty bad, I have had little problems with it. What puzzles me is that while the portions are so small, I'm rarely hungry afterwards! It's amazing! It's like a diet without any effort!

That, ladies and gents, is my "puzzle me" facts for the day. I'm sure to find more within my stay here in London. Keep an eye out!!!!!

...and so I'm a working girl.

Hey Everybody! My internet in my homestay crashed last night, so I'm in the computer lounge at CAPA. I really hope the internet gets fixed soon...it's my only connection to the outside world. LOL.

So yesterday I started my internship. Boy was I nervous! This was my first time working at a REAL job...with a desk...and important work to be done...I left my house 2 hours early just to make sure that I arrived on time. Needless to stay, I got there WAY too early, so I stopped at a Starbucks, got a coffee, and read the Metro (a free newspaper they have here). Although the Metro isn't QUALITY news, it still entertained me a little. I then decided I'd just go to my internship early. It'll set a good example of my work ethic...When I first walked in, I got a visitor's badge and was told to wait in the lobby until someone came to get me. A young man, dressed in a nice tie and suit, working at the receptionist desk came over and asked me if he could get me coffee or tea. When I said "no thank you," he realized I was American and new right away that I was the new intern. He was so excited! He showed me the cafeteria, where they have a FREE starbucks machine. We chatted about America until Shahina, my Supervisor, came to get me. Shahina is 23 and beautiful. She's so sweet, and I can tell that I'll learn a lot from her. She showed me around the building, and I then went into the office of the main HR Manager, Cathy Wade. I can tell I won't be dealing much with Cathy because she's too important to deal with interns. While I'm filing, she'll be on the phone with other HR's in Dublin, New York, Hong Kong, etc. She's super nice, though. She told me the history of AIG Investments (oh yea, I'm with AIG Investments, not Insurance..oops haha), and she gave me an overview of what I'll be learning. They are going to include me in meetings, and will assign me projects so that I feel part of the HR Team. Very exciting.

For the rest of the day, I did mostly payroll work. I made labels for the payroll slip folders, which are divided into 4 sections: Investments, Real Estate, Engineering and Correspondence. Afterwords, I verified that those employees who were supposed to have deductions or bonuses were given the appropriate amounts. In the process, I learned about different benefits that certain employees receive, such as a Car Allowance, Gym Allowance, and ticket allowances. Because I was not set up in the system yet, they couldn't give me BIG responsibilities to do, so Shahina moved my chair next to her desk, and I watched what she did. I learned A LOT about maternity leave, and the certain laws and benefits that go a long with that. I also found out that I'll be a crucial part to helping improve and update their date system, which will fall under Organizational Development. Of course, with everything going on in AIG at the moment, I was given a brief lesson on "redundancy," or "laying off" as the U.S. calls it. Apparently in the UK, they are not allowed to let people go immediately. They are given several weeks of notice, which include plenty of meetings with the HR Director about possible alternative solutions, etc. Very interesting. Unfortunately, I have a feeling I'll be seeing a lot of that over the next 3 months...

So that was my work day. It wasn't much, but I learned A LOT. When I came home, Marie Lou asked me if I would go out to a pub with her on Friday, and then go shopping with her Saturday. Of course I said yes. It will be so much fun! I've been waiting to shop....Well, I'll check in later with breaking news and updates. Until then...

I have a new obsession, and it's a city called Bath

Hey everyone! I know it's been a while since I've blogged, but I've been SOOO busy the past few days. I guess that's a good thing, right? I'll start with Wednesday's events and go from there...

Ok, so Wednesday I had my theater class for a second time. We just talked about different plays we've seen recently. It was fun. Then I went on a huge book hunt around London for Shakespeare plays. Who would've thought that it would be such a difficult task?!?!? I went to a millionnn book stores before I finally found the plays that I needed. I'll tell you, that Shakespeare man is one popular fellow! haha...Afterwards, I went to my internship class, which was sooo much fun. Because we haven't really started our internships yet, we just played trivia games about the UK. HILARIOUS! I didn't realize how sheltered I was from other cultures....

So Thursday afternoon I had my International Business course. Surprisingly, I think I'm going to enjoy this class. I recognized one of the other students in there, so I sat with him. The professor said that he does not believe in tests, so we'll only have 2 case studies to do. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?! He also wants to teach stuff that has to do with what's going on in the world right now, so we'll be focusing less on textual issues, and more on real life issues. It should be fun. After class, that kid, Mike, and I called Matt and his roomate Nick to go out to dinner. I finally had fish and chips!!! It was soooo yummy!!! We then went back to Mike and Nick's apartment to meet their other roomates, and see where the other CAPA students are living. Their apartment was so nice! They said they lucked out, because a lot of other students were put in smaller apartments. We all then went out to a pub which is near their apartments, where we had the luck of meeting John and his lady friend....We think John and his lady friend were homeless, which is kind of sad, because they were the nicest people. Very drunk, but nice. His lady friend (we never got her name) thought I was from Australia. LOL. They were good folk.

Friday I had to wake up at 6 am to go to the Stonehenge and Bath (look at my facebook photos!!) It was so much fun!!! I couldn't believe I was standing 15 feet from the stonehenge. It was unbelievable. And Bath...Bath is the most beautiful city I've seen so far. The history of the city is just overwhelming. Most of the buildings are in their original condition, which was so cool to see. A lot of movies are filmed there, such as Vanity Fair, because the city looks like it did hundreds of years ago. I also saw Nicholas Cage's new apartment he bought. He also bought a castle not too far away from Bath...you know you struck it big when you can buy a castle. Enough said. We then went to the Roman Baths, which is what the city is named after. These were places where the Romans used to bath. Afterwards, you could drink water from the bath. We were told it tastes like rotten eggs; hence, I refused to drink it. Matt and the guys, however, sucked it up and tried it. It apparently makes you live longer and heals you. The other girls we were with (all from Mississippi...soooo cool) refused to drink it as well, so I didn't feel left out. When we got home from the trip, we all went to a little pub where we met a British guy named Stewart, an Irish girl named Carolyn, and a Swedish girl named Emily. It was so interesting hearing what their countries are like. Stewart was a character. I'll never forget that man...

Well, I'm off to get ready and go to Westminster today with Matt. We're going to do tours of Parliament, the Big Ben, and things like that. Maybe we'll even ride the London Eye???? I can't wait...

email to my mother

This was an email that I sent to my mother this morning:

Hey Mom,

So I just finished my first class (Intro to Shakespeare) and now I'm just relaxing in the computer lab until my next class. It's kind of a drag because my Shakespeare prof says we probably won't ever last the entire 3 hours, so we get out early. But my next class is only 2 hours later, so I can't go too far. I guess when things pick up and I have more assignments I can do my homework in the downtime. I just ate some lunch and now I'll just email and facebook until class...I had burger king for lunch because it's close by: I'm starting to think my stomach isn't used to American food now. All I had was a whopper and I feel like my stomach is going to explode. Davinder's healthy Indian cooking is doing me some goood...haha

My Intro to Shakespeare class is AWESOME! There is about 18 students, most of which are male, surprisingly. I met two girls who sat next to me, both of them named Rebecca. The one girl actually said she heard of me already from another student that I met at a pub. When I introduced myself, she goes "Do you live in a homestay, and they cook you Indian food?" I was like, "yea...why?" and she responds, "Because my friend Darron came home talking about you saying how cool of an experience you're going to have here!" I'm glad I made a good impression. I also met this REALLY cute boy who is an English Major at Pitt. He also did some theater here and there. He's really nice.

My Professor, boy, is he hilarious! He's very energetic and passionate about Shakespeare. He's kind of old, but really laid back. Because I got to class early after my police speech, I had the opportunity to introduce myself and talk with him. He seemed to take a liking to me, which is great. He talked A LOT about Shakespeare and how the theater itself will play a huge part in our lectures, so I'm excited about that. He's already booked us a tour of the Globe Theater, and we will be going to see some Shakespeare plays in the city. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?! Also on a good note, most of the plays on the Syllabus that we have to read, I've already read. So I have an upper hand on that. We already signed up for 10 min presentations on characters from certain plays; I signed up for the character that I wrote a 10 page research paper on last year. So hopefully my paper is still saved on my computer, and I can just use that information. LET'S CROSS OUR FINGERS THAT IT'S STILL THERE BECAUSE THAT WILL SAVE ME SOOOO MUCH WORK! He also gives opportunities for extra credit, such as re-writing a scene from a play. If he likes it, we get to become director, cast the rest of the class in the play, and perform it! I love this teacher...he knows JUST what I like.

Davinder and I had a good talk, just the two of us this morning. She was asking about you guys ( you and dad), and she says she can tell how much I miss you from the way I talk about you. So feel loved, Mom. Haha.

Ok, well I'm going to facebook now for a little. OH! Mrs Seibert must've read my blog, and she said she's in Human Resourcing too! So I asked her if she could help me get a summer internship where she works, and she's going to look into it!!! Wouldn't that be nice?!?!

Ok, for real this time. I'm going to go. I'll talk to you both later tonight. LOVE YOU!!!


BABYDOLL


So after I sent this, I watched some of President Obama's Inauguration in the CAPA lounge. Then I went to my Living London in Theater class. My professor is OLD, but really sweet. There is virtually no homework in the class. It just consists of us seeing plays every Tuesday evening and discussing them on Wednesday morning. I'm beginning to adore CAPA....

I get a desk?!?! yippy!!

So today, I had my interview for my internship at AIG Insurance. Boy, was that overwhelming. But we'll get to that later...Let's start with yesterday's adventures, shall we?

So yesterday (Sunday), Matt and I decided we were going to find where our internship sites were so that we were not late today for our interviews. Finding my site was a piece of cake; we simply hopped on the District Line (tube) and took it right on in to Monument Station. When we walked out of the station, we immediately realized where we were. WE WERE IN DOWNTOWN LONDON. This part of London is hopping with excitement and big businesses. We looked to our left, and to our great surprise, was the monument for the Great Fire of London. It is made out of one of the only surviving columns from the Great Fire. And there it was, only 10 feet from us. We could not believe our eyes. I realized then that I lucked out with my internship already. We soon discovered that we were also close to the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. I scored big time.

After finding where the location of my internship was, we then hitched the tube to Matt's internship site, which was Zone 5. I'm going to break down my blog here and give a lesson on London: There are 6 Zones. We live in Zone 3 on the other side of London. My internship is in Zone 1, the heart of London. Matt's internship is in Zone 5, the outskirts and poverty part of London. On this particular day, the tube was not going to Matt's station. Therefore, we had to figure out the bus routes to his internship site. This process ended up taking us forever and a half. Seriously. It was interesting though, seeing the OTHER side of London that many tourists never get to see. Eventually, we called it quits and headed home. I got such a good workout that day. All the walking here better get me ready for bathing suit season if you know what I mean...

Later that night, we joined just about every other American in London at an American Sports Bar to watch the Eagles game. It was PACKED LIKE SARDINES! But it was very fun. I met more CAPA students and bonded with other Philly fans. Even though the Birds lost, it was an amazing night.

So this leads us to today. First, Matt and I woke up bright and early to hand in our trip forms to CAPA. We ended up joining every trip offered this semester, which includes: weekend trips to Paris, Amsterdam, Oxford and Whales. These trips were EXTREMELY cheap, and they include transportation, 3 star hotels, and food. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!?! We are extremely excited. I can't wait. Want to know the best part? The Paris trip is Valentine's Day weekend. Yea, top that! LOL.

After all of that, I headed to my internship interview. Wow. THIS was overwhelming. It's a HUGE corporate office with lots of businesses people doing real life business things. I'm in the REAL world now...who would've thought?!?! I found out that I have my own desk with a computer and phone!!! I feel so important!!! I'm in the Human Resource Department, so my boss says that she hopes I'm friendly and chatty because they like those people in their departments. Obviously this women doesn't know me. If she talked to my mother, she'd know that I never shut up! I think I'll fit in well there. I'm just nervous about all of the work I'll be doing. It seems VERY professional and I'm new to this. Oh well, that's why it's an internship. I'm learning...

Alas, I'm going to call it quits for the night. I have a police talk at CAPA early in the morning, and then I have my first 2 classes. It will be QUITE the day again. And so the madness begins....

"I hope you can swim. If not, don't fly US Airways..."

Hey everybody! So yesterday was a MUCH better day than the one before. CAPA took all of us on a sight seeing bus tour which was AWESOME! Our tour guide was hysterical and really knew his facts. Think, what do you see when you hear the word "London?" Is it the Big Ben? Buckingham Palace? Tower Bridge? The Eye? Well, take all of those sites and more, and THAT'S what I saw on this tour. It was absolutely breath-taking. Now, we could only get off of the bus for the Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, and St. Paul's Cathedral. Oh, that was a beauty. Did you know that when London was bombed during WWII, everything around St. Paul's Cathedral was destroyed, excpet for the actual cathedral? They say it's a symbol of England's strength and pride, and in my opinion, one heck of a miracle. He also showed us where all of the celebrities live, where certain movies such as Notting Hill were filmed, and where the Royal Family like to party. Because we only got to stop for 15 minutes at these locations, Matt, Ryan and I decided we are going to go back sometime soon so we can spend more time there. Once I figure out how to post pictures on here, I'll put them up so you can see everything.

So later that night, the boys and I went into Picadilly Circus to hopefully meet up with some other CAPA students. However, we found out that they were heading to the Electric Birdcage, which is a club. After standing in line for some time, we were told that we were unable to enter the club because the boys has sneakers on and I was not wearing heels. Are you kidding me?! I wanted to tell that bouncer that HE should try walking around a city in heels...not fun. So after getting kicked out of line, we decided to find an American Sports Bar that we could go to tomorrow (which is actually today, Sunday) to watch the Eagles game. Fortunately, we found one right in Picadilly Circus, so we're extremely excited that we can still show and support our Philadelphia pride. Should be loads of fun. Well, I'm off to meet Matt at the station. We are going to find both of our internship sites today so that we can make our interviews tomorrow on time. LOL. Wish me luck!

PS: The title of this blog is a quote that our tour guide bus driver said as we were about to cross the Tower Bridge. Apparently the bridge can open from time to time and he was making a joke about us knowing how to swim, which then turned into a joke about the plane that landed on the Hudson River. Nice.

throwing hysterical fits helps?

Wow. It has been a CRAZY past 2 days. It's about 2:00 am here on Saturday morning, and I'm JUST getting time to blog. I had quite the adventure tonight, but we'll get to that later...

So Thursday consisted of orientations with CAPA. I figured out my commute to CAPA fairly easily. I have a 10-15 min walk to the nearest TUBE underground stations. I take that to the next stop, which is Matt Nixon's closest underground. I then get off there, meet with him, and we hop on the next train to CAPA. It's good because I have someone to talk to on the train. HOWEVER, British people DO NOT talk on the tube!!! I am so surprised!! Everyone keeps their heads in their newspapers or looks up towards the ceiling. It's so weird! Naturally, I'm always the loudest person on the tube, so I get a couple stairs per day from people who want me to shut my mouth. But what can I do, I like to socialize...I guess I'm "American" that way...

So at CAPA, I had my Internship orienatation. It was funny. I kind of felt like a baby with some of the things they were teaching us ( I mean, dressing appropriately on our interview day seems a given to me...haha) but other things were fascinating. Apparently, I have to learn how to make a good cup of tea in order to be successful in the office! They have frequent tea breaks. Looks like I have some more learning to do...

The other Orientation was nice because it taught us important things about London culture, such as tipping being not important (wish I knew that when I tipped the cab driver...) They also gave us major safety tips, such as which cabs to take and which cabs to avoid. There are some unlicensed cabs that are driven by criminals. We have to check the lisence plate of each cab to see if they are legit or not. Kind of scary. But makes sense. This orientation was very clutch.

Later that night, I met up with the other 2 Ursinus boys and we checked out a college pub. We belong to Imperial University here, so we can join their activities and get their perks, such as discounts at student pubs. We went hoping to make British college friends, but alas, no luck. Everyone was very close to one another, and TRASHED beyone belief by the time we go there. So we went to a restraunt bar and met some older locals, and then went home.

Today (Friday), Matt and I went to the National History Museum. Boy do I have some good pics to put up! This museum was not only HUGE, but it was also free!!! My favorite word! We ate at Burger King for lunch because we were a bit homesick already. Guilty as charged. Hey, you move across an ocean where people operate differently and you don't know a single person!! It's hard!!! Nonetheless, I'm having an amazing time. It's all about the learning experience...

Which leads me to tonight. So we had a CAPA reception dinner at a pub in central London. We met a large group of students, and we eventually went to a nearby pub in order to meet locals. (We're all about meeting British people here...haha) So I had a blast at this pub called The Castle. I met loads of people and got major advice from some fellow Brits. It was awesome.

Unlike my ride home. So, I took the tube back to our normal stations. Everything was going fine. I then walked out of my station and saw that the bus that stops near my home was RIGHT there, almost like it was waiting for me! So I hopped right on. A girl noticed my enthusiasm, and sat next to me. We got talking about this and that (mostly America), and before I knew it, I PASSED ME STOP! I ran up to the driver, who basically told me tough luck. He dropped me off at the nearest bus stop that could take me back to where I needed to go. This stop I call MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. So, being the drama queen that I am, I cried. I walked up and down the street screaming in a fit of fear. Here I am, an American girl, LOST in the middle of nowhere. Poor Matt stayed on the phone with me until someone else came. This someone else was a bus driver. Not MY bus, but a bus driver. He was going to leave me, until he saw my tears. He sighs, "Oh please don't cry! You're the second American girl to cry on me! I'll help you. Don't worry!" MY HERO. He took me on his random bus and found another bus stop for me. He then got off of his bus and waited for the new bus to pick me up. In the meantime, another man came up to us and sat next to us. He recongnized my American accent, and asked why such a pretty American girl would be crying. The bus driver told him my story, and he agreed that he would not leave me until he also knew I was on the right path home. I'll never forget these men for the rest of my life. They were my angels.

Alas, I made it home after a bus transfer and a 10 min sprint back to my homestay. I then skyped my parents so they could hear my story and calm me down. This was about a half hour ago. So, on that note...I'm going to call it a night. Tomorrow I take a double decker tour with the other CAPA students....to BUCKINGHAM PALACE, THE BIG BEN, AND MORE!!!! Stay tuned....

And so it begins...

Guess who's in London?!?!?! You got it! ME! I have just completed my very first day in London, and naturally, I HAVE to blog about it! Since I will be sharing all of adventures throughout these 3 months and 10 days (who's counting?) , I decided that I will share EVERY detail of my travel to get here. And so it begins...

Saying goodbye at the airport was not how I imagined it all along; it seemed a bit rushed, and my emotions were all over the place. I could not decide whether to just quickly say bye to my parents and skip the mushy crying, or hold on to them for dear life, knowing it would be my last time touching them for a long time. I decided to go with the latter. Letting go of my parents was hands down the hardest thing I have ever done thus far in my life...but I haven't experienced my first underground trip to the city yet. LOL.

After waiting an extra 45 minutes to board the plane, Matt, Ryan (another Ursinus student) kissed the United States goodbye and finally got on the plane to begin the adventure of our lifetime. British Airways has awesome planes; we had our own television screen in front of our seats, blankets, pillows, headphone, and a sleeping mask. It was great. I listend to my ipod, and then tried to sleep. I finally started to go into a deep sleep when BAM...something jolted me, along with many others, almost out of our seats! Turbulence. Not one of my favorite things. Luckily, I fell asleep again and did not wake up until it was almost ready to land. In typical London fashion, the sky decided to sport rain clouds, midst and fog, so our plane had to hover over the airport for a while. Matt also did not get to see London from the air as we had hoped. Regardless, we landed, got our bags, and hailed a cab. The cab took us to our homestays, and my nerves too hold of my body.

My home is a flat, located on the first floor. It has 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, toilet room, and wash room. My room is the daughter's (Indiana's) room. However, I will be moving out of this room in February when the other French student moves out, and I'll be taking her room. Davinder, my host mom, is amazing. She is so sweet and funny, and I can tell she loves having abroad kids around her all of the time. She immediately showed me the closest railway station and underground, and we even went shopping for a little while in town. (No, Mom, I did not buy anything yet...I'm being thrifty haha)

The rest of the day, I unpacked and got to know the family more. They were fascinated by MY accent. YES YOU HEARD IT! MY ACCENT! haha. The daughter, who's 15, kept making me repeat words, as she giggled herself to death on the couch. She told me I talked "cute." I'll take that as a compliment. Right now, I'm watching the daughter's favorite soap opera on the television. I can tell we're going to be great friends. The french student also told me that she could not wait for me to arrive because she wants me to go out with her in the town. She's been waiting for a girl to bond with. I feel like I'm in high demand here. Maybe this place isn't so bad....haha.

Well, tomorrow I begin my orientation. I have a tour of some of London, and then a tour of my internship. Should be exciting! I'm going to walk with the French student to the underground station in the morning because she has to go to work the same time as my orienatation. Works out perfectly! Well, jet lag is setting in...perhaps I'll close my eyes...