Kung Fu Panda / Compliment

Kung Fu Panda
so i got to do something really really cool today. but first... the dramatic build-up. so i was at work and everything was going normally, not to mention a little bit boring. the past few days they've been running out of things for me to do. but i would hear random talk about going to see kung fu panda later on. i didn't really get the whole story of it, except later i learned that it was about going to see the premier. around 4:00 my boss stacy said someone's not going to be able to go and asked if i wanted to. i still didn't really know what was going on, so i kinda backed out of it, thanking her for the offer. besides, russia was playing spain tonite and they needed me to cheer them on. but i heard stacy telling someone else about it being a big deal and they have an extra ticket but people are turning it down bc of something else they had to do. all of a sudden, i felt this was a once in a lifetime kind of thing, so i asked if i could have the ticket. i've already watched the movie online so it's not like i would go just for the sake of watching the movie again. so we all go there and this is like a really huge thing. like this is the kung fu panda london premiere! the red carpet was there and there were reporters with cameras and mikes lining the carpet!! and then i heard the celebrities were coming!!! we stopped at a bar to kill time before we went in. everyone was sipping their champaign (sp?) and i had to decline several times. i did eventually agree to a coke though. i don't think i ever realized how much drinking is a part of social interaction in the business world. i didn't even want the coke bc i'd been drinking water all day and peeing all day and i didn't want to have to pee during the movie (do i sound like mom?). but i felt rude even refusing a coke from like the head head boss person. so anyways, back to the story... so i'm following the crowd from my work with my ticket in hand. we walk past the guys at the gate into the entrance of the red carpet. i walked on the red carpet! and it was decorated with a chinese kung fu theme and there were a few chinese people doing kung fu poses in little boxes along the path. then i notice someone point next to me. i look over and there's lucy liu about 5 feet away from me signing autographs. then i turn to my left bc i saw movement out of the corner of my eye and there is jack black doing some crazy little dance thing 2 feet away from me. seriously! he was talking with reporters so i know i got in the background of some tv stations. i sat there staring in disbelief until the guards told us to keep moving. we got to our seats like 45 min before it started and there was a goody bag in each seat with a few snacks to eat - unkown brand names trying to get their name out. before the movie started, the producer came out in front to welcome us to the show. then he introduced people as they came around the corner one by one. first he introduced the 2 directors. then he introduced jack black. this guy is like a ball of energy. he was non-stop moving and goofing off. then he introduced dustin hoffman. seriously... dustin hoffman! i got to see dustin hoffman in front of me with my own eyes! i never would've expected that. i didn't even realize he was a voice in the show. then lucy liu. then the guy who plays the villain who's british and all the british people knew him well. marianne and i didn't know who he was. they all said a few words each and sat down. i was pretty much sitting there with my jaw dropped. interesting note... they're all very short. then we all watched the movie which was much more enjoyable than it was online. but i really regreted accepting that coke. about 1/3 into it i had to pee really bad. and there were a lot of people to pass to get to the aisle so i held it. so the last 2/3 of the movie i couldn't think of anything except how great it would be to be in a bathroom. that kinda spoiled the wonder of the moment. but even still, what an experience!!! i can't believe i almost turned that down! heck, i can't even believe i got invited! it was only bc like 3 other people had other stuff going on and weren't able to accept the ticket. :) i also got to meet and chat with some dreamworks people. that might come in handy later...

oh, and of course i wouldn't bring a camera on a day when i'm 2 feet away from jack black and looking directly at dustin hoffman. someone once told me, "if you want an exciting life don't bring a camera. when you don't have a camera, big foot jumps out of the bushes." i've learned tonite this is very much the case.

Compliment
i have to take some time to brag a little bit... bc really that's what blogs are for. so last week i spent a lot of time looking at land before time children's books and coloring books. i would look each page over really carefully and compare it to the images we have on the styleguide and make sure they only used authorized images and such. it really reminds me of doing a puzzle. you look at the original image to find what it's supposed to look like. then you're looking all over the product concept very meticulously making sure the design is exactly the same. but anyway i enjoyed it. and i found a few very detailed things that i noted. that information got passed on to the licensor (paramount, i think) to double-check and make sure those things were okay. so anyway, i got to sit in on a meeting with the PD dept (where i work) and the head PD person at paramount. the first comment she made was to stacy on how she did a really great job checking the coloring book. and these are things they do every day so the fact that she made a comment about it is saying she did a REALLY good job on it. stacy told her the credit actually goes to her intern. so i felt all warm and glowy inside all day after that. so that's the compliment that i got.

the real magna carta! - then i found out i wasn't supposed to take pictures. :)

they set up a platform 9 3/4 at the king's cross train station, i.e. the train station where 9 3/4 is at in the harry potter book.

Churchy Stuff / Ice Bar / Greenwich

i've procrastinated writing long enough and now i have a lot to talk about...

Churchy Stuff
molly and i went to fhe and institute this week. i'm glad we did. i got to meet quite a few people that way. for all the people that come to church on sunday, i'm surprised how few actually come to these things.

there ended up being about 20 people there at fhe. and it's completely ysa run too which i was impressed by. met an american from arizona. she was really friendly. i appreciate those. although, i'm completely out of my shell by this time. i'm joining in conversations and know a bunch of people by name now. she's actually here on the BUNAC program working for 6 months - something i'm seriously considering. after our lesson we all went and played ultimate frisbee at the park. i once heard that girls bond through secrets and guys bond through competition. i believe it. afterwards we had snacks. the strawberries here are amazingly good! at least the ones i had were.

this was the last institute for a while and we had a very light-hearted book of mormon quiz. and out of the 30-ish people that were there i got 4th place. :) and i got a little box of chocolates for getting 4th. i was amused to hear the institute teacher sigh disappointedly (not on purpose) when he realized i only got 4th. i think he was rooting for me. i must've made a good impression on him in my two weeks that i've known him. institute was short and we played volleyball in the gym afterwards. it's funny - church volleyball here is exactly the same as halfway across the world. only about half the people actually know how to hit the ball the right way, and there's always at least one overly competitive one who will run to the opposite side of the court to hit the ball right in front of his teammate. it really amused me. and afterwards i got to chat it up with a few of the people around here. met another girl doing the BUNAC thing. she just got here last week, in fact. i think that makes 3 that i've met so far doing that.

Ice Bar
there's an Absolut Ice Bar in town that is seriously completely ice. well... more or less. the bar is ice and there's ice chairs and an ice table. the walls are covered in thick ice and there are ice blocks all around. they give you a big parka with gloves to wear inside. apparently it costs like 12 pounds to get in and you get one free drink but it was all included in our program cost. again, we're paying for alcohol that i don't drink in my program cost. but at least i got a free juice out of it. but the place was really really fun inside. i spent the whole time taking fun pictures with my other friends. it was worth it just for that!

i thought we all look like a freakish cult here.

Greenwich
i went to greenwich today with another girl in the program. that's where the prime meridian of the world is. and i took pictures there! i feel like i'm getting so much out of this trip! there's always something more to see and take pictures of. most of things i don't even realize are around until someone else says they're going to it, so i tag along. it on top of a hill where there's an old observatory. a guy lived there 40 years recording the stars and sun every day for the government. so the house he lived in was turned into a museum to walk through and see how he lived and such. but there was also a time museum. that was SO interesting. they talked about the progress of time recording with clocks. the big deal was that sailors could easily find out what latitude they were on but they couldn't figure out what longitude they were at. and that caused shipwrecks all the time for sailors not really knowing where they were. so the british government put up a 20,000 pound reward (worth more than a million pounds today) for the person to come up with a way of measuring longitude to half a degree accuracy. and the museum took you through the progress of those inventions. and you could see the clock getting smaller and more technical until it finally reduced to the size of a pocket watch. some things you just don't realize went through a major period of progress to get to where they are now. we take it all for granted now! really interesting museum. when i finally live here and y'all come to visit, i'll take you there. :)
just a garden that i like bc it looked really colorful

these partial numbers that wouldn't show up on the camera are all the numbers for the actual time of the world right down to miliseconds.

the line of the Prime Meridian on the ground with different longitudinal degrees of major cities (i think).

i'm being split by the Prime Meridian!

this is from a museum in Greenwich about ancient sailing. you might have to click on it to make it big enough to read. i was amused by the last paragraph. i do believe we have a little more insight than most as to the source of the "higher levels of technological and navigational expertise".

oh, and i did use my networking skills with someone i work with to pass along my resume to the marketing department of a local finance company. wish me luck!

Institute / Church Surprise

i have to back up a bit to write about what happened on thursday night first.

Institute
i was debating in my head whether or not to go to institute. i knew it would probably be worth it if i went but it sounded so nice to just go home and relax for the evening. i was literally in the tube watching the train come to a stop as i was debating this in my head. as soon as the train stopped i decided to just go home. but then the doors opened and it was so crowded and so many people were trying to get on that i just turned around and walked toward the train that would take me to institute. and thus i went.

i walked in and finally got that hello and welcome that i really missed on the first day of church. and it came from the institute teacher - a really nice older guy named Worek (sp?). he was like the epitome of an old British scholar. it was wonderful. and he introduced me to a couple of other guys in the room. i was early so there were only like 4 of us in the room. he also introduced me to one girl from texas. we really hit it off and fell in love and decided to get married. jk... i know someone was waiting for a story like that. ;) but we did have a good conversation, and i finally got the local friend i've been waiting for. she's been here 2.5 years going to a university here. she just decided to do it right out of high school. and i was talking to her about where i could possibly keep my luggage while i'm gone for two weeks - something that's been troubling me quite a bit. and she offered to keep it at her place. so that's wonderful! and a load off my mind! as for the institute class, all we did was watch the last ces broadcast by elder nelson. and we discussed it a little afterwards. next week is actually the last institute class and it's a quiz so i'm not sure if i'll go. we'll see.

Church Surprise
first of all, i got to be someone else's "friend" today. there was a girl by herself here from utah. she's in bath for 4 weeks and was in the area this week for church. so i got to show her where to go for everything and let her sit next to me and all. i also introduced her to the girl from texas so she had someone to go to RS with.

interesting note - the sunday school teacher was american and he asked the people in the class to raise their hand if they were american. 2/3 of the class raised their hand. he asked the brits to raise their hand. about 4 people did. he asked the people from anywhere else to raise their hand. about 6 people did. isn't that crazy? definitely not what i was expecting.

so after sunday school was over, i hear a faint "tom!". i turn around and molly beard is looking at me with a big look of surprise on her face. of all the places! we spent third hour just talking. turns out she's touring europe for the summer. she's a teacher now and gets summers free, so she's spending this one touring europe. she's been in london for 5 days and will move on to france at the end of this next week. the poor girl is going through the same stress i went through when i first got here but on a much larger scale bc she's alone. she's doing this alone!! she didn't like the look i gave her when she told me she was doing this alone (it was the look of 'you've gotta be insane'). she thought it would go a lot easier than it is. she was telling me she's seeing all these sights and can take pictures but can't point out things to anyone else. she said this is the most she's talked to anyone in 5 days. she said it's weird literally having no one to talk to. interesting point. so i suppose it was really helpful to her to have me to talk to today, not to mention just to see a familiar face. we're both gonna venture out to fhe tomorrow, and we'll probably meet again to do something on thursday. so yeah, that was a big surprise for me today.

saturday was a celebration for the queen's birthday so here's a few pictures from it:

Update

again, i don't really have anything fun to report except an update on how everything's going. it's going well. the end.

i'm finally breaking out of this cold. the past few days were the high points, and today i finally woke up feeling normal. i'm just coughing left and right and sniffling a little. but at least it's on the receding in. i'm glad i'll have already gone through it. when i am sick i notice all the germs i pass by in a given day. in the tube, i see people cough or sneeze into their hand all the time, which they then put back up on the rail. EWW!!!!!! i'm a good bit more considerate than that. and i only touch the rail if i absolutely have to. plus i brought antibacterial stuff over. i use it a lot... a lot a lot.

work was actually fun today. really it was bc i kept busy. i was given several long projects to do (and by long i mean a couple hours). i actually felt better knowing i had a good bit of stuff to do rather than finishing a small task and asking what they needed next. i did learn how to bind things today in this little black plastic rings with the 20-something loops. and i did a lot of scanning and printing. ha... i'm such an intern! one fun thing is learning about upcoming movies that i haven't heard anything about otherwise. there's a couple coming out next year that look pretty good - at least by the screen shots. there's one coming out next fall with mike meyers called The Love Guru. it's got jessica alba, justing timerlake, and the midget in Austin Powers. what was interesting was that each of those people have different licensing guidelines. like mike meyers will let people use his voice and image in anything. justin timberlake won't let his image or voice be used. i thought that was interesting. and bc of that, looking through the movie stills, there isn't one with him in it. he's only on the cover. bc those movie stills that we received are the ones that licensees can use to put on their products. i hope i'm not breaking any rules by mentioning all that. i just thought it was interesting. so you'll never see a product with The Love Guru on it that features an image of justin timberlake.

another movie coming out is called The Tale of Despereaux. it's computer animated, and it's about a mouse with big ears living in a middle ages type of world. i couldn't make out what the story was about, but the images look pretty good. it looks like one that would be fun to see at some point.

i'm also helping marianne off and on as she works on designing the new logo and website. it looks like the new logo is set and it looks really good. the website is coming together. i saw images of the options for the front page. if you want to check out the website now, you'll be able to realize the improvements that have been made when it's finished. it's http://www.cplg.com/.

i guess that's all the updating i have to do right now. feel free to ask me questions that i can answer on here.

Tower of London

i'm staying home from church today bc i got hit with a really bad cold. i stayed in bed 12 hrs, 11 of which i slept through. so hopefully this day of rest will be what i need to keep going back to work tomorrow.

Tower of London
i went and toured the tower of london with a few friends yesterday. the history of it is quite interesting if you want to look it up. built by william the conquerer. it housed many royalty but is well known for keeping guard over royal prisoners and executing them: anne boleyn and sir thomas more to name a few.

the tour guide was wonderful. he's a yeoman warder which are the people who keep guard over the tower. it's a prestigious role. i don't remember all the requirements but one is at least 22 years of military service. but this guy was just a hoot! he was so charismatic telling his stories and was telling jokes left and right. here's one: he was asking where people were from in the group (it was a large group). when he asked who was from the States, several of us raised our hands. he said, "so, you've come to learn a little history, huh? it could've been your history too if you'da just paid your taxes." he also gave us the history behind some of those phrases that you use that you never really think about. like there was a guy, last name scot, who was being help captive until his execution. through a well-devised plan he was able to escape to rome and live happily ever after. so he got off scot-free. stuff like that.

the place was fun to walk around, but it wasn't worth all the hype it gets (and the cost of entry). i did see the crown jewels. all the girls around me swooned. and i saw the torture chamber. something i never realized before coming here was how these castles are really like their own little neighborhood. there's different housing areas and yards and streets connecting them. they're just all surrounded by a common wall.

you can kinda see the yeoman warder on the lower bottom (the guy everyone is facing)

a gun rack?! i don't even own a gun, let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire gun rack!

protecting the crown jewels

Mom asked a bunch of questions that i'll try to answer here:

the ysa does have fhe and institute during the week, but i haven't been to either yet. i usually just end up hanging out with the friends i made here at the residency. since i'm around them all the time anyway we just keep doing stuff together. coming out here, i expected to make better friends through the church, but i guess not. i'd like to go to those things, but there always seems to be something else going on. i think they had a dance last friday but it's no fun going when you don't know anyone so i didn't really pay attention to the details.

grocery stores are definitely different here. there's just products i would never see in the states. like they sell blood orange juice here - something i used to love in the ukraine but never found in the States. their cereal selection is very limited, and a lot healthier. the only similar sugary thing that i've found is Frosted Flakes (called Frosties here). and all the containers here have more health information than we have on ours. almost none of the sodas are the same. they're mostly the same at fast food places, but at grocery stores 95% of their drinks i've never heard of. i usually end up buying a packaged meal that i heat up and eat. :) one of which was chicken kiev (sound familiar, mom?). others include shephard pie, cottage pie, pizza, and some sausage thing - all aren't particularly great but they fill me up. i did have a wonderful bacon and cheddar burger the other day at a pub. i don't know if i've mentioned that before but that is definitely the best meal i've had so far. the bacon is always a lot wider. not sure why. just a different cut, i suppose. i haven't noticed any new fruits or anything coming in for the summer season. of course, i never noticed any of that happening in the States either. ;)

Update

i haven't written in a while bc there reallly hasn't been anything too exciting going on. at least nothing that i haven't already done.

i did go and see A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Globe again. i might go again if i get the chance. :) it's pretty cheap when you get the yard standing ticket. it's worth it. it is such a good production. i'm in awe at the talent that is on that stage.

work has had its ups and downs. it starts to get monotonous after a while. i had to take individual pictures of boxes full of stuff that we get. that was annoying bc i had to stand up and squat down so much that my back was hurting. that's the only real complaint i've had of the place. i did more approvals of Pink Panther products. i did get to help out some more with organizing the new website. and by 'help out' i mean sit in the office while the other two people discuss it. that was fun to sit in on. you just don't realize what all goes on when a company decides what to put on a website.

i don't suppose there's much else to talk about. i'll just add some pictures and be done with it.

oh, and anyone not registered should still be able to post a comment. i changed the setting so you shouldn't have to be registered...

More pictures of the Globe, this time at night:

Hotel Russell, i just liked the architecture:

Church / Westminster Abbey

becky got it right... the 'tube' is just the subway here. and it's in the 'underground' - everything that's underground (stores and such) centered around the tube stops. and i do think of that last narnia movie everytime i'm standing there and it pulls up. the wind's gently blowing and there's a clanking sound, and i can all but see narnia appearing through the windows as it's slowing down. i'm going to have to watch it sometime again when i get back. that and the harry potter's.

becky and mom both asked the same question that i forgot to answer before... marianne was able to sneak her way into the company. her husband worked for a company in the US when a position opened up in London that the company shifted him to. so they pretty much took care of getting his visa and all. she, being his wife, is on the same visa. so she's set.

Church
interesting little reversal of roles today. i was the "friend". walking up the stairs to sunday school there was a guy and girl looking around wondering if they were going the right way. i told them to keep going up. small talk followed. turns out there were 11 of them here from utah for the week for some ballroom dancing thing. and no, they don't know robert. but i was the guy telling them where their classes were and letting them sit next to me and such. quite a difference from last week, eh? i just thought that was funny.

Westminster Abbey
after my church got out, i went and joined some others for a service at westminster abbey. the place is huge and so elaborately detailed. it was almost overwhelming. and it feels like the place is shrouded in mystery. walking through the corridor to get to my chair i felt like i was in indiana jones or something. there were random statues of people here and there, and there were random bits of writing on the floors and walls. and it is tall! everything that was done was done with an echo. the service lasted only 40 min. it wasn't like a real service, just like an extra thing for the evening. the guy talked about the biography of a few hymn composers. and with the echo i can only understand half of what he was saying. if there wasn't so much to look at while sitting there i would've been asleep in no time. but still, i'm glad i went. it was quite the experience.

Globe Theatre / Hampton Court / Tube Party

Globe Theatre
i saw a show at the globe theatre last night and it was amazing! the theatre alone was just a thrill - to experience the same theatre experience that people have experienced for hundreds of years. we were in the groundling section, i.e. we stood in the middle for the whole show. my back and feet were really sore by the end, but it was worth it. the performance was so enjoyable. they did a midsummer night's dream. the players were so energetic and every character had such good comedic timing. something i was impressed by was that the king and queen who start the play in british accents come on again later as the fairy king and queen with scottish accents to differentiate their characters. and they did a perfect job of it too! man, i just enjoyed that so much. i'm going again next week. :)

Hampton Court
i got woken up this morning by one of the girls here inviting us to go to hampton court with some others today. i wouldn't have known anything about this place had we not gone. but i'm glad she convinced us to go! the place was beautiful! and it had so much history to it. there were tour guides everywhere ready to throw out a few random facts. and at the beginning there was a tour guide dressed in period clothes who guided us along treating us like we were visitors in that time period. this guy was a character! he looked like he had so much fun with his job.

there was a whole courtyard area filled with different roses. it smelled so good walking into that yard!

Tube Party
starting tomorrow they're forbidding alcohol on the tube. they've been warning the public about this for like a month. so everyone has decided that tonite was going to be one giant alcoholic tube party. everyone's going down and riding around on the tube line that goes in a giant circle around and around whilst drinking merrily. and they're apparently dressing up in cowboy western themed costumes. i don't know what's up with that. i heard from a friend though that survived that line not knowing about the giant party that was going on, that they had to close down the line bc someone broke a door and something about there being a riot and someone getting arrested. i don't really know the details on that. i'll have to keep a look out for the news. but i just thought that was hilarious that they would spend their last day of being able to carry alcohol on the tube by having a party and getting drunk on it. go figure.

Work Continues...

just a quick note for today bc it's getting late.

i really enjoyed work today. basically i just really enjoy marianne a lot (the one from alabama), and it seems she really enjoys having me there. i'm officially helping out the product development department but she steals me whenever she can. today i had a valuable experience which she noted could be put on a resume. brom, i'd probably need your help to word this one well. but i got to sit in on a discussion between her and the international marketing lady - it was really by coincidence that it was my major but i might mention what a valuable coincidence that might be for the future. who knows. but anyways, marianne's the head design person (forgot her real title) and she and karen (int'l mkt) are designing a new logo for the company as well as placement of it on business cards and letterheads. and i got to throw in my "valuable" input. basically i sat there soaking it all in and they'd turn to me every now and then and ask my opinion on something. i felt so important. :) and i got to listen in on the phone conversation between them and the ceo (who's german and spends half her time there) as they discussed the designs they came up with. and on top of the logo, they're redesigning their website which i got to throw in a few more random comments for as well. aren't i special! :)

later marianne taught me how to check samples. basically licensees send in the design for a product which we have to check meticulously to make sure everything is done according to the standards the licensors give us. we send back our notes. then they create a sample product which they send to us and we subsequently check for the same things. i spent half the day going through pink panther products looking at all the details like coloring, legal writing on the sew-in tags, proper placement of the TM, etc. i don't know if i'll ever be able to look at a pink panther product the same way again! but all these samples are pretty much up for grabs once they're done with them. too bad it's nothing i want yet. :)

and i watched england beat the US in soccer this evening in a pub. it was a good game and England really outplayed the US. but still... it's sad to see them lose.

Church/Bank Holiday/First Day of Work

i'm a few days behind. i have way to much recording of events going on in my life. it takes up way too much time. but here goes highlights:

Church
i didn't know what time church started. i only knew the address bc it was listed in the packet of papers we were given in the list of places of worship. i figured the earliest it would start was at 9, so i planned for that. turns out i guessed right. i didn't know any details whatsoever about the singles ward. this was the family ward.

the church was just a section of a bigger building, so it was thinner but 3 stories high. the chapel and gym are actually parallel to each other. so the rows of the overflow, still in the gym, were actually angled to face the podium.

people still give the exact same testimonies over here. for some reason that amused me enough at the time for me to write it down.

and get this - the mass majority of the people i heard at church were American! the bishop is. so is the sunday school teacher i had. and so are almost all the people who gave answers during the lesson. i was rather disappointed. in priesthood all the visitors stood and introduced themselves. literally 9/10 of the room were visitors and all from america - maybe a couple from canada. a good chunk of that was byu students here for a couple weeks for something.

i found out that the singles ward met at 2:30, so i went back to church again at 2:30. :) it's a good sized singles ward here! again i think about 1/3 of the people were visitors - mostly american, otherwise canadian. and probably half of the regulars were americans/canadians. i actually overheard a girl's thick southern drawl so i went up and talked to her. she's from texas and is working here. the sunday school teacher was a hoot! she was the jolliest lady and had a thick lower-class british accent. then the priesthood lesson was given by a guy who used the recent soccer game as a symbol for his lesson.

i was kind of annoyed that no locals ever befriended me. i can understand it bc there were so many visitors but it just wasn't what i hoped. it wasn't like back home when a ysa visitor comes to the ward and everyone wants to talk to them bc they're new. so i never got to chat with any real locals. the only people who came up to me were a few american visitors. get this: one guy came up to me bc he recognized me from the b-ham stake! he's in another ward there. another guy who actually went to both wards just like me is here starting a 6-week internship through a different program. he's kind of older though, but still single. it looks like no one else in my program is mormon. :( speaking of which, it never takes long for everyone around me to learn i am mormon. interesting how that always works out.

Bank Holiday
monday was a bank holiday. and as tradition holds, when the banks close companies can't function so they close too. i don't know the significance of the holiday other than it's called a bank holiday. i think it's just coincidence that i falls on the same day as our memorial day.

did more sightseeing. it was rainy so we went to a museum. i also ate my first "traditional english breakfast". i had about the same reaction as i did to fish and chips. a lot of hype for a large lack of taste. traditional english breakfast = eggs + bacon + tomatoes + hash browns + sausage + baked beans. give or take one or two items, but the beans are always there.

in the evening i went to my first show here - Avenue Q. i don't remember the last time i laughed that hard! that was probably the funniest show i have seen in a long time. if anyone gets the chance to see it, it's got my recommendation.


First Day of Work
i went to work today. i met marianne who showed me around the office and everything. she's actually from birmingham, al and she was really excited to have another alabamian there with her. i'm SO glad she's there. she's really really happy and helpful. just the kind of personality i need to have around. i was actually in her office for like an hour in the afternoon just chatting. so get this... not only is she from alabama but she used to do theatre! she actually got a degree in voice, training to be an opera singer. but she got nodes on her vocal chords which basically restricts you from doing any regular singing. so we had a lot to chat about. and we actually got onto the topic of what my plans are after i graduate. i mentioned i'd love to find a job in london. she was really supportive about the idea and suggested i keep a look-out for openings in that company around that time. she said that the problems i'll have are getting a work visa and everything that entails. basically i have to get a sponsorship to work in the uk which sounds complicated enough as it is and i've barely looked into it. and this company won't do sponsorships bc of the huge hassel. apparently the company would have to prove that the job could not be filled by any uk citizen (basically impossible) plus mounds of paperwork on their part that they don't want to do. so it is possible but it would be really really hard. she gave me hope though with this program that she said a few of her friends did - http://www.bunac.org/usa/workinbritain/eligibility.aspx i'll have to do some more research on the subject. but that's more than i expected to get on my first day!

so all did all day was data entry - put information from business cards into outlook. then i was taking pictures one-by-one of the ton of shirts that were sent to us for one company. i'm working in the product development department and this was a way to get all the products from that licensee on the computer to look at simply. or something like that. i'm actually working with 2 girls younger than me and another one in her late 20's. i think about 2/3 of the whole company were women. and a couple of the guys, i question their sexual preference. and it's so diverse within the english language. in my department is one girl from south africa. there's already a couple americans there. there's a few there from australia. all we need is a canadian and we're set! so the work day had highs and lows. plus, first days are always annoyingly awkward... basically in anything. it'll be nice when i'm actually in the swing of things.

Tour/Eurovision

Tour

for all those who wanted, we got to go on a bit of a tour around london. we had a tour guide who was great and had some great stories for us. even though she took us to a couple of sights i had already been to, i learned so much having her there. tour guides really make a difference in enjoying a place. for example... they've really made security super tough at buckingham palace. apparently in 1982, a guy actually climbed over the front gate, walked right past the guards, wandered around the palace untouched for 3+ hours, found the queen's bedroom, and sat on her bed until she woke up. then he asked her for marriage advice bc he and his wife were having trouble. basically this guy was "looney" and put in a mental institution. also, there's a statue of queen victoria in front of the palace that someone actually climbed up and chiselled the nose off of. so they had to replace the nose and you can see the different shades of stone. of course, i never would've noticed if she hadn't pointed it out.

queen victoria is the stone image facing the camera

the current guards for the day are malaysian bc the royal army is apparently stretched thin with fighting going on in afghanistan and iraq. and apparently it's quite an honor to be allowed to guard the queen and promotes goodwill between countries, etc etc.

st. paul's cathedral (2nd largest dome in the world - it's huge!)

globe theatre!
tower bridge

tower bridge - do you see the smile? it really made my day. :)

i don't know what this sign was all about but it really amused me

Eurovision

i don't know if any of y'all have heard of eurovision, but apparently it's a really big deal in europe! i think there were 25 competitors across europe - one representing each country. and they perform a song in a really elaborate performance that makes american idol look like a streetside performance. at the end of all the performances, all of the european countries have 15 minutes to call in their votes, but you can't vote for the country you're in. then they make a big deal about a host in each country listing their country's top 10, and those countries are awarded points accordingly. 43 countries voted. at the end of all that they announce the winner, which is obvious bc we've watched the scores being tallied country by country. russia surprisingly won, ukraine was second, and greece third. and since russia won, they host the show next year (it only happens once every year). i watched it with a few friends in the cafe here but i was surrounded by greeks! and they were all about some eurovision!! they were rooting their country on quite enthusiastically. it was exciting. :) i was actually rooting for latvia bc i liked their performance/song, but ukraine and greece did well also. i wasn't a big fan of russia's but they did have an ice skater dancing around the singer on a really small oval. that was very original and i give them points for that alone.