Busy Bee

I'm on my lunch hour at my internship now, don't know if I've mentioned my job yet. Its at Mission-21, a small public relations company in central London.  Its pretty boring but okay, my coworkers are all cool.  This week should prove tiring indeed, as yesterday consisted of getting up for work at 0730, going at that all day until about 1730, rushing home to make a quick dinner before class at 1830, which ended at 2100 hours.  Then I had several things to take care of before going to bed, knowing that I wouldnt get much sleep as I had to get up at 0440 hours this morning to be at an event for my job.  So its noon here and I've been awake 8 hours.  The event was a tv broadcast of a youth science competition that takes place today; it was for a morning show and had to be filmed before hand so before sunrise it was. When I leave work again today at 1715 or so, I will again have just enough time to cook myself a dinner before a large group of us take off for our first British football (soccer) match, which won't get us back to Vandon House til about 2300 hours. I'm real tuckered out already but its pretty good fun.

Port Wine

We just got back from Switzerland this weekend. Last night all seven of us slept in the Geneva Airport. It was terrible. I got about 2 hours of "sleep" (more like just laying there with my eyes closed) from 2-4am, because it didn't get very quiet until about two and it started getting loud again at 4. We just hunkered down for the night in a little corner next to some expensive watch shop in the concourse on a cold, hard tile floor. We had five people attempting to share a blanket made for one. I am so tired and sore.

We got into Geneva, Switzerland Thursday night and then took a 2 hour train ride to Interlaken, the town we were staying in for the weekend. We stayed in our hostel that night because it was late and spend all day Friday in the Swiss Alps. They are amazing. I thought the mountain in Wales was cool, but it was a little baby hill next to the Alps. Everyone went skiing except for Kathryn and I, we thought it was too expensive and decided to just ride the cable car to the top and look around. We actually ended up higher on the mountain than the skiiers, so we've got that to brag about. The view from the peak we climbed to was incredible, there were mountains in every direction, some across a valley that was more than a mile wide and deep. Our peak was a little over 7000 feet. The next day we went to the other side of Interlaken (which means 'between lakes') to a lake and sat there for a while and ate our lunch. It was a very picturesque lake, surrounded immediately at its shores by vast snow-capped mountains. The water there is a wondrous shade of cool blue and pretty clear.

Both nights I was there, I spent some time at a Portuguese bar because the beer was cheap. The first night, I spent about an hour and a half having a couple beers and watching football (soccer) with a man named Jose. He told me all about Portugal, and was very nice. The wine made in Portugal, especially Port Wine from Porto, is the best he said. He kindly had the bartender (who did not speak any English; I had to have Jose order my drinks) to pour just the smallest amount of Port Wine into a glass for me to try. It was every bit as good as he said. Like he told me, it really is a taste I'll never forget.

I am doing well, eating good enough, and getting some sleep. Things are going swimmingly here; We have already been here more than 6 weeks. It is going too fast. Take care All.

Blimey pidgeons

More pidgeon encounters of late. Blake, Amy and I went running through the beautiful and large Hyde Park, which includes a lake, which includes lots of birds. Ran through a bunch of them, and when they took off one drilled blake in the side as if it were blind. Flockers. Then, when we were resting on a bridge, blake got air-bombed by one that left a little white smudge on the top of his head.

Went to Wales this past weekend, which was amazing. I put all of my pictures on Facebook, so you can see them there. Uploading them on this site takes forever, even for just one. I climbed a mountain and walked along the coast of the Irish Sea, which was quite stunning. We went to Lover's Island on Valentine's Day, which was cool. I petted a wild pony, and one even ate a Mento out of my hand and then thanked my by nuzzling my chest. I almost fell to my death (not really mom) while relieving myself over a cliff into the sea. I learned part of a Welsh drinking song, and slept on a hard floor for three straight nights. I am still recovering from that, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I'm doing well here and have had no homesickness, though I love you all back in the states. The time here is going very quickly, as I've already been here about a month. Though I do miss The Office, my friends on campus, my family, and the Togetherness House.

Long Weekend

Friday we took a day trip to Greenwich. Took a riverboat down the Thames there, which took about an hour. River trips are great, you get a lot of good views of the city and its major attractions (the stuff of postcards) and as a bonus, I love the water, so that was great. Whilst there, we climbed the hill to the Greenwich Observatory, which is where GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) is measured. Its on the prime meridian, so i took a picture standing with one foot in each hemisphere. Saw the first shop in the world (Longitude=.001 or something like that). We were so tired from that day that we took 2 hour naps when we got back and still went to bed early. Saturday Nick and I went to Stonehenge and Bath with our friend Pete, the bus driver who took us to York. It pays to make friends with "the UK's best coach driver/entertainer", as he let us on board for a 100% discount and tells us many interesting things, as he himself knows much of the countryside. That was a long, really rewarding day. Stonehenge is great and all, but you get there, take pictures for 15 minutes, stare for another 5, and then kind of wonder what to do. You have to see it, but only once. It was still worth it. Bath though, was what made the trip for me. Its beautiful architecture is unique as it is probably the only UK city to use that kind of limestone, which has a honey yellow tint to it and is gorgeous in the sunlight. Today a group of us went to Hillsong church again, which is more like a Christian rock concert with a message in the middle. Its loads of fun. Its actually tiring, singing that hard...and then today we ate lunch at a pub and had yorkshire pudding for the first time, which is basically like a wad of pancake batter stuck in the oven instead of fried up...pretty good but nothing special.

Sneak peak! : Going to Wales next weekend, and in two weeks going to Switzerland!!!

My first day at my internship

Today was my first day at my internship, which I'm at 9:30-5:30 Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I was a few minutes late because of the weather slowing the trains, but most of my co-workers were an hour or so late, so I was excused. The weather I speak of is about 8 inches of snow yesterday, which is slush and ice today. London hasn't had snow in this quantity for 18 years. Its amazing, this is normal to us Iowans but here, time stops. The underground was closed in many places, all buses were stopped, most workplaces closed and of course, we did not have classes. They just don't know what to do when this happens. It would be similar to Orlando, FL getting a foot of snow overnight. We saw people scooping their stoops with egg cartons and pieces of cardboard boxes.

I <3 YORK

York was awesome. Its a city about 5 hours due North of London, population about 200,000. It doesn't seem nearly that big though, more like a larger Pella/Perry. Its because the area of the city with everything in it, and I mean everything, is inside the old city walls which is the area of about one square mile. I didn't get a lot of great pictures on account of me forgetting my memory card for my camera (it only holds like 20 pictures without one) but I saw some awesome things. We saw the castle, the castle museum, the yorkshire dales (from Wuthering Heights!) which look boring in photographs but are really cool in person...you feel really distant from everything and it is really quiet, despite the highway noise..
We also walked along the canal in Skipton (nearby market town) and I fed the ducks and the swans! I even let one swan eat out of my hand, which I wasn't sure was a good idea, but he didn't bite hard. Just a little pinch. We stayed at Bed & Breakfasts, and had real english breakfast in the morning, which included black pudding (disgusting, oatmeal mixed with pig blood and fat) and fried bread, which is not toast and i thought was good.

York Weekend

Today we leave for York for the weekend. We won't have internet access, so I won't really be reachable until Sunday afternoon at three o'clock. At that time, I may reconnect with the world if I so choose. We are going to see a pantomime tonight, and on a Ghost walk tomorrow and bus tour of the area. It will be nice to see some of "real" England on the ride there and back-about 4 and a half hours. We leave in 35 minutes and I have not packed, so I've got to split now. Cheers.