British Academy of Film Awards

Sunday, Erin and I attended the British Academy of Film Awards (BAFTA's), getting to stand along side the red carpet and be crazy fans! Attending a red carptet was on my bucket list, so the fact that I got to attend one (and a quite a major one I may add) is amazing! Some of my roommates and I had been thinking/talking about going to the BAFTAs throughout the week, but the closer it got they were all kinda thinking it was just going to be a waist of a day. Plus they really did't want to get up early to get in line for wristbands (to let you in the crowd gates). Erin, who originally proposed the idea, still wanted to go and I still really wanted to, so on Sunday morning we set off not knowing how anything would turn out, or if we would even get to see some celebrities and just went with it.

So, on Sunday you were suppose to get in line at 7:00 and then they would start handing out wristbands. We got up, and took a little longer than we thought to get ready, so when we got to .... it was around 7:15. When we arrived, you wrote your name down and got a number written on your hand. Mine was 639, so I was the 639th person in line. Erin and I walked down to get into the super long line that was wrapping around the building we were passing the wristbands out at. Around 8 o'clock the line started moving and we made it to the front by 10:30. 3 hours in that line. When we got to the front they gave us a wristband with another number on it. My number was 802, I don't know how 150 extra people got in front of me since my first number, but at least we got a wristband! They told us we had to be back between 12 and 12:30 to get into another line. We stopped back home got something to eat, I quickly showered and we returned to the location at 12:15. We were suppose to line up according to our wristband number, although it seemed like a lot of people who got wristbands in the morning didn't shown up. It was quite informal, so we were just asking people in line what their wristband number was and squeezing in where need be. There was only about 25 ft in between the 500's and where we were (start of 800's) so obviously not everyone showed up. They told us they weren't going to let us in until 3 o'clock, but actually started letting us in at 1. They went by wristband number, calling pretty much calling out in increments of 20 (Anyone under 200? Anyone under 220?..). The whole gated crowd section was open, so as you got let in you could choose where ever you wanted to stand. When they got close to our numbers they called out anyone under 800 (and Erin had #797) so she went, but was hanging back to wait for me. Needless to say they kept letting in more lower number people, random people coming up with wristbands in the 300's, or having to wait for people to get situation before letting in more. Finally we just convinced the security guy to let me in because I was with Erin and I was going to get in soon anyway. We rushed in and just started walking down the line. We walked down a bit and then got held up in a traffic jam of people, but realized the spot where we stopped was not that bad. We were about the 3rd row of people (the very front crowd, another row, and then us), but if I extended my hand out and leaned a bit it would just reach over the gate. Plus, we were next to one of the huge BAFTA flags and right down the line next to the flag was a tent where interviews happened. At that point it was 1:30 and we had to wait 3 and a half more hours until the celebrities started to arrive at 5. Around 4 o'clock it started to get a little more entertaining with staff, tech guys, E! news people arriving and getting stuff settled.

The first star to arrive was Will Poulter, a new actor who stared in "Were the Millers". I didn't have my notebook for autographs out yet, and I honestly didn't even know who he was at first. I tried to take a few pictures and realized this is going to be harder than I thought. I brought both my DSLR and little point and shoot camera, and started off using my DSLR. Its an amazing camera, but the lighting and was low and it would always focus on the wrong subject making everything else blurry! I got one clear shot, but he's making a funny face. After that it was pretty much a steady stream of stars. Some YouTubers came, Tanya Burr who is my beauty idol with was there and I got her autograph - she was so sweet! Jack and Finn from JacksGap were there as well. Then Steve McQueen and Lupita Nyong'o from "12 years a Slave" showed up. Barkhad Abdi from "Captain Philips" came and Erin was like, yell your from Minnesota! Erin ended up yelling "she's from Minneapolis, Minnesota!" and I repeated it, but he didn't come over to our little section. You know when someone good had arrived because the people ahead of you will start yelling really loud. Suddenly people started yelling and word traveled that Leonardo DiCaprio was here! He was the first real mega-star, so I got my notebook and camera ready because I was determined to get his autograph. Before the red carpet Erin and I were joking around, saying we thought Leo was going to be jerk because we heard he was stuck up; but actually he was really sweet! He went around to almost every section of the fans and signed as much stuff as he could - he wasn't really posing for any pictures, but he seemed like he cared. After that there was a lot of yelling, pushing, leaning forward, standing on your tippie toes trying to get autographs and pictures. I got autographs from Sam Claflin (from "Catching Fire"), Leo DiCaprio, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Tanya Burr. I got to see and take pictures of Tom Hanks, Bradley Cooper, Helen Mirren, Christian Bale, Oprah, Amy Adams, Christoff Waltz, Martin Scorsese and Eddie Redmayne. I even saw Oprah and Hellen Mirren give each other a hug. I couldn't believe 2 of the most influential women were in front of me! Brad and Angelina even showed up, who we didn't know were coming. They were so adorable in matching black tie suits, and kept looking back at each other when they were separated to sign stuff. Brad wasn't even going to come over to our little group of fans, but after relentlessly calling of his name we got him to come over! It started to die down after that, with majority of the celebrities already inside but then we got a little surprise at the end. Prince William showed up! We heard that he was going to make an appearance, but figured he wouldn't walk down the red carpet. Lo and behold when the carpet was all clear he came strolling down and even shook some fan's hands. Overall, all the lines were totally worth it and now I can cross attending a red carpet event off my bucket list! xx

2/10 - 2/16 Week 5

Monday started off normal with class, and then for my Art course we got to visit the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. I visited the National Portrait gallery last week at Trafalgar, but I still hadn't been into the main gallery itself! Of course it was huge and beautiful inside, probably the biggest art museum I've been to yet. We even had the opportunity to see Van Gough's Sunflowers (both the London and Amsterdam painting). It was a little crazy to think I was standing in front of a Van Gough painting, although at the same time it just looked like any other work of art! In the gallery I got to see more impressionist paintings by Monet, Pissaro and Renoir. That night I worked on homework and booked another flight for spring break! We booked our London to Venice flight; which is funny because the one flight we need to start our spring break adventure was the last one we ended up booking.
Tuesday I had my internship and for my Modern Brit class I got to present my Zaha Hadid portrait presentation. That night was actually the movie premier for "Monuments Men" which some of my roommates and I wanted to attend (it had Matt Damon, George Cloony, Bill Murray, John Goodman and Cate Blanchett!) but we actually had a meeting for our trip to Paris next weekend. We decided not to go to the premier and go to the meeting, which turned out to be a complete waist. Our program leader just talked about everything she had already emailed us about and there really wasn't any new information. My friend Martha stopped by the premier for a few minutes and arrived to the meeting 10 min late, but in that short time she got to see George Clooney! Needless to say we were a bit bummed we didn't go, but we vowed to go to the next big premier!
Wednesday I interned and had my theatricality class. For about a week I kept bring up the idea of going to see a play and wanting to check out the buy-that-night ticket option. In Lester Square there are quite a few places were you can go and buy cheep tickets to shows that haven't sold out yet for a current night. I had no plans that night and was trying to text some of my roommates to see if anyone would be interested, but to no avail. I decided after class I would just pop over there and check it out. I stopped at one ticket booth and was waiting for some girls to finish buying their tickets in front of me when I overheard they were paying £60 for a ticket! That was definitely not in my price range, so I left. I was thinking of heading back home when I decided to keep waking around and check out Lester Square. After walking down a bit from the original ticket place, I found another booth that I recognized from looking up online earlier in the day. I decided to pop into there and see what their prices were. The plays I want to see are Wicked, Le Mis and Book of Mormon - there are quite a bit of people who want to see Le Mis and Book of Mormon together so I figured I wanted to see Wicked that night. Even though I've already see it (I actually saw it for the first time just a few months ago!) I knew I wanted to see it again while I was here. So when I asked if there were any Wicket tickets left for that night the guy told me there was one on the top balcony for only £18.50. I decided "why not" and booked it! I heard that when you go to a show during the beginning of the week, there is a chance that a lot of seats won't be sold, so if you buy a cheep/far back seat they end up moving you foreword. I decided to ask the teller if he though that would happen, or if there was a lot of tickets booked. I think he misunderstood me and though I was asking if there was any closer tickets I could get, so he got on the phone and called the venue and ended up getting me a floor seat for the same price! I was quite excited and didn't even care that I was going alone. I quickly stopped home, changed, ate a little something and went to see Wicked. The venue was beautiful and the whole outside of the building was lit up green with a huge Wicked sign. My seat inside was actually at the very end of the row but as far as my view went I could see everything. Overall, I actually believe I liked the Minneapolis performance better (I absolutely adored the actor who played Fiero and Elphaba was amazing) but it was funny to see all the characters with british accents and just to see the play again was worth it.

 

Old schooling it with the camera selfie - I think I lost my touch a bit after getting use to the iPhone... 

Thursday I had my long internship day and just hung out in the flat that night. Friday was my long internship day again, and I got to work with Molly (another CAPA intern working with me) for the full day. We usually don't get to work very long together, and she is so fun to be around I'm glad we kept each other company on Valentines day! We were actually pretty productive and worked on poster ideas as well as getting to talk to some patients on the ward. That night my roommates and I went to Stop Light party (Wear red if your taken, yellow to "try me" and green if your single) to celebrate our boyfriend-less Valentines day. Cover was free (because CAPA was giving out tickets) and the music was pretty good, but it seemed like the whole club was either CAPA students or international students! We're finding that its pretty hard to meet british guys at clubs, were thinking bars or pubs are our best bet now. I meet a new guy from CAPA and we ended up dancing for good part of the night which was fun, but no british guys!
Saturday Tara, Gracie, Amanda, Erin and I went to the Borough market. We had talked about going to this specific market for a while and I was very curious to see what kind of things would be there. It consisted of mainly artsy unique booths selling jewelry, vintage clothing, and other little knick knacks. But after walking down a little street (where I though it would end) it turns out it continued down 3 more main streets! It was huge and so much jewelry! I definitely want to go back and check out some booths again, maybe spend a longer time looking at the clothes too.

 

So much cool jewelry…. 

After the market we walked over to Kensington Palace where we did a self-guided tour of the place. It was really cool and definitely worth it - it provided a lot of history along with each room/artifact we were looking at which made it all the more interesting. There was 3 main "exhibits" that we go to see; "Victoria Revealed" which took us through Queen Victoria's life, Fashion Rules which talked about the fashion of Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margret and Princess Diana while displaying outfits that they had worn, and the King's State Apartments which took us through 18th century rooms that made up the apartments. I enjoyed all the exhibits; learning the most in "Victoria Revealed" while marveling at the beauty of some of the rooms in the King's Apartments. While in this ornate, beautiful and large ballroom with waltz music playing (with Gracie and I being the only ones in the room) we did what any two people would do. We put down our stuff and started waltzing together! I had to teach her the steps, but right when we walked into that room we both said "I feel like we should be dancing!". Overall, pretty cool to see and even crazier to think that Prince William, Kate and baby George live just a few rooms over. That night we came home and relaxed while trying to muster up some motivation to start our homework.

This was hanging in Kensington - I almost died because this is the most adorable-ist thing I've ever seen

Sunday… check out my BAFTA post!

2/3 - 2/9 Week 4

Monday I started off the week pretty chill with my 2 classes. That night my friends and I sat down and tried to look at flights and get our spring break situated. We had an idea of what we wanted, but we also wanted to see what another group of people were doing (because almost everyone is going to Italy for Spring Break!), to see if we could meet up or if our plans would overlap. At the end of the night we only booked our return flight home (from Rome back to London) and a train ride from Florence to Rome. So we still have quite a bit to think about!
Tuesday I had my internship, and for my Modern Brit class we got to visit Trafalgar Square and the National Portrait Museum. It was freezing cold walking outside in Trafalgar, but the portrait museum was warm and toasty :) We got to look around, but also had to pick a portrait to talk about for class next week. I ended up picking Zaha Hadid's LED color changing portrait. Its quite unique, I wasn't even going to chose it until my professor nudged me over there and was saying she was surprised that no one picked it yet, and that is was her favorite. I decided to jump on that, only mildly sucking up - but after researching Hadid I'm glad I chose her portrait. After that I quickly went home, grabbed something to eat and was off again to see a performance of "Lady in Black" for my theatre class. My professor was quite enthusiastic to take us to this play, and after going I would have to say it was pretty good! I was a little skeptical, because I knew it was suppose to be a scary play (anyone see the movie version with Daniel Radcliff? - I didn't even see it because I herd it was so scary) and I have never seen a "scary" play before. Really, how scary can something be when its right in front of you and you can see all the actors with no "OMG what is going to pop out because of all these creepy jump shots". Needless to say, it was kind scary! Multiple times majority of the theatre jumped and even screamed at some parts. The play was pretty unique as well, because there was only 2 actors and they only had 3 props. The plot of the play was that these 2 guys were putting on a performance of one of the main guy's scary ghost encounter (so a play within a play). The men would then change characters to play different people in the story, and their props would just be moved around to become different objects. They excited it beautifully and definitely made it work.

Trafalgar Square

Wednesday was my intern and theatre class, but around mid afternoon I started feeling really sick, and by the time the theatre class ended I thought I was going to faint or pass out! I was feeling really dizzy and tired and a tad nauseous, that when I got home I just took a shower and went straight to bed. Which was around 8:30 pm, which could have been 4:00 because we stay up so late each night that it felt like I was going to bed very early evening.
By Thursday morning I was feeling pretty good again, it only left me with a mild sore throat.I had my long intern day (where I actually attended my first meeting!) with a chill night to follow. Some of my roommates and I went to Betsy Trotwood, which is a pub less than 50 ft away from our front gate. I'm surprised I hadn't been there yet, some of my roommates had, but that was my first time in there. It was cute, it had a piano in the corner and a lot of old time posters around. The bartenders were actually the funniest part; they seemed pretty drunk and proceeded to play ABBA music for the rest of the night periodically dancing with each other.
Friday I had off of my internship, so my roommates Tara, Erin, Amanda and I rented bikes and biked around Hyde park. It was a beautiful day and even sunny! We stopped at some gardens, Sperpentine lake (which the park surrounds) and princess Diana's memorial fountain. The fountain was quite unique, and looked more like a little circle stream rather than a fountain. While walking around we came up with a pretty deep analysis of the fountain, the way the water flowed, half laughing at how analytical and accurate we were. That night we got dressed up and decided to go to a fancier bar called Zenna. We all went in with no expectations, and it was super fun! They had really modern dance remixes and every song they played I knew. Some guy even started dancing with me and we ended up dancing the whole night - it was fun dancing too! We held hands like we were swing dancing, and he spun me a lot. Probably the best dance-night I've had yet.

 Hyde Park lake

 Tara bike riding in front of me - such a beautiful trail!

Saturday Erin, Becka, Amanda and I went to the National British Museum. We saw the Rosetta Stone, Easter Island head, a bunch of Roman statues and other old things. There was this one exhibit that really caught my attention. I walked up to this super long table trying to figure out what covered it (it looked like beads or something) but when I read the plaque about it, it was actually covered it medicine! The whole table was covered in pills (aprox. 40,000) which is how much 1 person takes in their lifetime. It was crazy to think about, and there was even pictures framed around the pills that people had submitted that made it feel personal. That night we found this cheap Chinese take away place up the road and brought it back to our flat and watched Slumdog Millionaire.

 So many pills….

On Sunday Tara, Becka, Gracie and I went to Greenwhich to visit the Greenwhich market. We had to take the aboveground train and head east to get there, which passed right through the "Business district". It was so cool! It was like we went into a whole new city, of which I had no clue even existed in London. We passed some of the rougher/suburbs of east London before arriving into the futuristic building utopia. When we got off in Greenwhich and went to the market, it was a typical cute market. I liked this one though because it had both food and artsy crafty booths. Even though it was only around 1pm when we finished up at the market, it was so windy and cold out that we didn't want to walk around anymore. We went back to the flat and took naps/worked on homework until later when Tara, Erin and I tried to go to mass at Westminster Abbey. I say "try" because even though we went, it was only a 25 minute service pretty much solely geared toward tourists. When I checked the mass times that morning I noticed there was "Eucharist" in the morning, and this evening service was just called "Mass" - so I figured they might not have the Eucharist but was a lithe disappointed by how short it was! I am definitely going back and attending an actual Eucharistic Mass some time. Although the service was short, getting to see the inside of the church was quite beautiful! So ornate and intricate, there are even graves right under the floor. The whole front half of the church was actually blocked off but that didn't even matter. I tried to picture getting married there and got overwhelmed - props to Kate for making it look so easy. Off to bed then to start a new week!

1/27 - 2/2 Week 3

Hello again!
Monday started the week of with my 2 classes. Although, for my 20th and 21st century art class we got to visit the Tate Modern Museum instead of having a lecture. We mainly focused on art by William Tuner and John Constable, who were traditional landscape artists. The works of art were quite beautiful, and because the pieces themselves were quite old the atmosphere was very professional - I felt like a classy person who goes to art galleries and stares at the paintings for like 10 minuets reveling in their meaning. Although some were quite boring, I tended to gravitate toward the very large, emotion stirring/story telling pieces. One of the pieces I chose to write about for my class was a large piece that depicted the Biblical flooding. After the museum I went on a tour of the "Old Operating Theatre" with some of my program-mates. The building was once a hospital/surgical ward around 1815 when anesthesiology wasn't invented yet. We got to walk around the top floor of this very narrow and steep building where tools, herbs, artifacts and some preserved body parts were on display. Then we went into the "operating theater" which was a room that consisted of a wood hospital bed in the center, with stadium seating surrounding it. During the presentation we learned that this is where people would go to have surgeries (usually bladder stone removals, or limb removal) using very rudimentary techniques (not to mention non-sanitary and no anesthesia!) while there was approx. 100 crowded medical students surrounding this procedure. Quite crazy to think about, and just makes thankful to be born now. We even got complementary wine after the tour, probably in an attempt to relax us after learning all that!

 

(How I would react to being operated on)

Tuesday I had a normal internship and class day, and that night my roommate Amanda and I went and saw the movie “Frozen” at Imperial college. My CAPA program has a partnership with Imperial - so we get an Imperial college ID and can go to their activities. I had already seen the movie before, but its just so adorable that I was exited to see it again! Wednesday was another normal day, but after class we heard that Matthew McConaughey was going to be at his movie premier for “Dallas Buyers Club”. When we arrived at the location, it was quite a small venue and we squeezed into the crowd gates but it was so cold and drizzling that most of us left after about a half our. I’m not a huge fan of Matthew McConaughey anyway, and some of my flatmates and I are looking up other movie premiers to try and see other stars next time!

Thursday I had my long day at work (aka my internship) so I took it easy, got some groceries for the week and watched Silver Linings Playbook with my roommates.

Friday was another long work day but that night my friend Gracie and I (along with some other girls from a different flat in my building) went to this “End of the World” party. It was Gracie’s birthday the next day, so she wanted to ring it in with a bang! I think it started because of the Mayan calendar thing in 2012, but it looks like this venue hosts them quite a bit now. It was fun - a bit pricey, but we got our faces painted in crazy glitter designs, and you were encouraged to wear kind-of cooky outfits. The dance floor was too crowded for my taste, and I probably wouldn’t go again but the people we went with made it fun. 

Saturday I went shopping on Oxford - which ended up just being browsing because I’m cheap! (Which is a good thing while I’m over here I suppose). Erin, Becka (my flatmates) and I went to Borough Market in the afternoon, which is a huge building where food businesses can set up a little tent and sell their stuff. Its really fun to see all these little specialty shops, and the best part is all the free samples you can get! We definitely tried as many bread and oil samples as we could, along with all the sweets tents. That night, although most of our friends went to a club, Erin, Becka and I didn’t want to pay and we ended up meeting a group of Irish boys! It was quite fun to meet some locals and it was the first time a guy bought me a drink. :)
Sunday was Chinese New Year, we went down to China Town and Trafalgar Square only to be swarmed by people and really not get to see any of the cool stuff. It was pretty to see the square all decorated, but we missed most of the performance acts. In celebration, we ended up gong to a Chinese restaurant and eating some pretty good food before heading back home where I had to quick start my homework that was due Monday. 

I’m starting to book some spring break flights and getting a bit more organized with my planning, but it feels like there is always something to do and not enough hours in the day! xx

1/20 -1/26 Week 2

This past week has been a whirlwind of classes, pubs, taking pictures, emotions and overall a bunch of walking! Monday was my first day of classes - I had my Learning through Internships class, which is only an hour and a half, and pretty easy. Mainly, we just need a class to accompany our internship in order for it to count for credits. Over the semester we will talk about what makes up companies, talk about our personal internships and write some reflective papers along the way. My professor is british and seems pretty chill. He went on a 10 min ramble about the name Jordan (which was a guy in my class’s name) and how if you asked someone here about the name Jordan, they would associate it with a very beautiful nude model. I could tell after that, that he’s going to be a talker! As well that day I had my 20th and 21st century art class. The professor is a british lady who seems quite sweet and exactly how you would imagine an art professor to be. That class seemed interesting and not very hard as well. Every other week we actually get to go to an art museum instead of having lecture (of course we have to write a short paper on a few pieces), but that sounds easier than having lecture every week!

Tuesday I had my interview in the morning and then my “Understanding Modern Britain” class in the afternoon. My interview went well and my supervisors seem very helpful and sweet (see my previous intern post!). My professor for my British class is actually Canadian (but she's lived in London for 15 years, so has a subtle accent) and is really good as well. She talks very proper and seems to know anything and everything about the UK. I was happily surprised to find out that we go on excursions for that class as well, which sound really cool. For example, one of the trips is taking a boat tour down the Thames river and then eating at a restaurant at the end! The whole idea of the class is that although London (and the UK) is a growing and modern city, it preserves the history that has lasted through the ages. I like the premise of the class, but she repeated that same idea over and over - so I hope the class isn’t to repetitive. That night I got to stop at Kings Cross station, at the Harry Potter 9 3/4 platform. I was quite excited and there was even a staff there waiting to help you choose a house scarf and to take your picture! They had a little gift shop as well, which I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a picture with some wands :)

Some of my flat mates and I were very hungry that night and decided to treat ourselves and go out. Our favorite pub so far is “Sir John Oldcastle” which has awesome meal deals throughout the week - that day we got a stake, chips (french fries), veggies and a pint of beer for 8 pounds! Can’t pass that up. After, we also stopped at “The Jerusalem Tavern” which is a very old pub right in our neighbor hood. It was more geared for older customers and I wasn’t really a fan of the layout but the authenticity and seeing how old it was added to the experience.

Wednesday I had my “Theatricality” class with a very enthusiastic british professor. He kind of reminds me of Ricky Gervais. Of course he’s an actor/director so his lectures (if you can call them that!) are pretty entertaining. That night my flat mates - Becca, Erin, Tara - and Kate from flat 5, and I went down to Millennial Bridge and walked along the Thames River. It was so beautiful and it was fun to go out and walk around without having to go to a pub or restaurant all the time (because who has the money for that!). We found a path that led right down to the river and even went in and picked some stones - which I know we never would have been able to do if we were on a guided tour. Plus lots of photo stops on the way.

Thursday was a free day! I woke up late, relaxed - watched some “Made in Chelsey” on TV, which is pretty much like a London version of “The Hills”. Quite hilariously scripted drama, but I love seeing everyone speaking in british accents. After getting a late start I headed over to the Natural History Museum and just walked around my myself. I don’t really mind doing stuff by myself, and it was kind of a test to let myself walk around and try to find locations on my own. The building itself is hugenormus and so beautiful - very cathedral-like. I only toured a few exhibits including the main dinosaur exhibition, a body exhibit and some animal features. Later we stopped by the Sherlock Holmes pub, but didn’t get to stay and have a drink because it was so packed. My original plan was to stay in for the night, but some of my roommates had friends over and were all pre-gaming before going to a club that I got exited and decided to go along! It was my first club experience here, so I was pretty curious. It was actually pretty fun, the club itself wasn’t super amazing and I probably wouldn’t go back, but the company was entertaining.

Friday was another day off, except for an hour orientation with my internship at 1 in the afternoon. Again, had a late morning and went straight to Whittington to have a really easy orientation. I met the girls I will be working with and it seems like we will get along really well. After, I met up with some girls from flat 5 at the National British Museum. I showed up a few hours after they arrived, so I only got to see a few exhibits with them before they wanted to leave. That night I went out again with the crowd from 5 and some other Kamen boys. We went to O’niells, which is a bar (vs. a club) but was really upbeat and was mainly a dance atmosphere. The bottom floor was a restaurant, the middle/balcony floor was a bar + played radio hits and the top floor was a live band with a big dance floor. This has probably been my favorite club/bar so far, and I got to dance all night!

Saturday was the big CAPA field trip. Starting at 8 in the morning we left to go to Stonehedge and Bath and returned by 6. Our tour guy was interesting and the ride to Stonehedge really didn’t feel that long. I finally now understand the history behind these big rocks and why they are so special. Initially I thought that it was a big deal because we didn’t know how the stones ended up there, but now I know that they are important because they are over 5,000 years old! I guess we don’t really know why this stone arrangement was built in the first place, but the fact that they have lasted this long and the different beliefs/ideas behind it is quite interesting. When we got to the site, the sun kept peeking through the clouds and made it truly a beautiful site to see. I can’t even wrap my head around the fact that they were here apprx. 2,000 years before Jesus. Thats just crazy. Then, just an hour away we arrived in Bath. Bath is such a beautiful city, when we were driving up it reminded me of how Italy would look, with all the old architecture pushed together along hillsides. The roman bath itself was quite pretty and just seeing something so old, yet so preserved it really cool. I had to laugh because the tour guide was saying that the Romans use to believe the bath water held healing powers, and the day before my flat mate Tara burned her hand on her straightener. When we got to the bath, and we were touching the water, she put some water on her wound and was like “it will heal me!” only to have one of the guys working there reassure her to wash her hands after because there are birds and rats who poop in there and the water hasn't been filtered. We were pretty much convinced after that, she was going to get an infection and Tara couldn’t help laughing at the fact she put this gross water on her wound. We actually got to taste the filtered bath water, which was pretty iron-y and kind of tasted like blood. We got to eat in this cute cafe after the tour, and then headed on the bus for our 3 hour return ride (in which pretty much everyone fell asleep).

      

Sunday I was so tired from going out the past few nights, and going on the tour yesterday I slept in and decided to forego a walking tour CAPA was hosting (which turned out to be a good idea because it was raining the whole morning and turned out to be kind of a bust). In the afternoon Gracie (from flat 5) and I went to Oxford Circus and walked the strip! Our goal was to stop at Primark, and of course after waking around and stoping in other stores (apple store, Gracie got some cute red rain boots at a shoe shop as well) we finally found it at the VERY end of the strip. It was worth it though, everything was so cheep and although we didn’t want to buy clothes we bought cute London pajamas, some underwear with the tube map on it, necessity hair brushes/mattress toper, jewelry and a wallet for me. It was pretty much a shopping day because we also stopped at Boots and Sansbury for some food and toiletries.


I’m going to try and do weekly posts from now on, so I’ll try to stick to my word!! xx

Get to know my Internship!

As you know, I am doing an internship while over here in London. Before I left, I was told I would be interning at The Whittington Hospital. I didn't really know what my exactly my tasks would be, but was exited to work with a hospital! On Tuesday I had an informal interview with my supervisors and got the low down on what's all going to happen. It only took about 40 min going north on the tube (which is my first time going further north than my flat, since my flat is quite north of central London) to reach Whittington. Both of my supervisors seemed really cool and I can tell they will be very helpful. 

So, wondering what I will be doing yet..... wait no further! My official title is "Service Improvement Team". Whittington is starting a new enhancement program that is aimed to improve patient outcomes, as well as the patient and staff experience. Myself and 2 other CAPA girls will be assigned a department/wing and help design and implement activities for these patients to enjoy. It could be anything from providing a daily newspaper, putting on a movie night or having a craft activity. This means researching activities, creating surveys, surveying the patients, surveying the staff, designing a program,  purchase supplies and hosting the program, seeing if it was a success and altering the program as needed. A bit overwhelming, no?! Since this is the first time trying something like this, my supervisors are pretty much giving us free range and just proving support when needed. Today when I went in for a short orientation Antoinette (one of my supervisors) was talking about hand washing techniques, learning to feed incapable patients, and even other small tasks we might get to do involving patients as well as the "service improvement activities". Although I was a bit thrown off with the whole management aspect of the these activities, I realized the patient interaction and catering to their needs will really help me as a future nurse. 

The 2 girls I work with are really sweet as well, and can't wait to get to know them. Thats all I know for now, but next week when I officially start I'm sure there will be more info to come! xx

Room Tour!

1/18 - 1/19

Days 4 & 5

Since we had been staying up so late each night, Saturday I finally got to sleep in! After waking up around 11am my flat mates and I bumbled around getting ready to go on our panorama bus tour. I was so exited to go on this tour of all the stereotypical landmarks because it almost felt like I wasn't even in London yet, just a really cool old city. Even when the tour started, our tour guide was like "If you don't think London is the best city yet, just wait until this tour ends" and I think she convinced me! I have to keep reminding myself that I've only been here for a few days and there is so much I have yet to see. In retrospect I had maybe seen 15% - 20% of London before the tour. After visiting Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge, seen the London skyline, and every little fact our tour lady could point out about each road I had finally realized this was such an old and intricate city. It made me happy to know I still have 3 months here to try and see everything! Plus, I finally got to take a significant amount of pictures to ensure the FB London album was started :)  After the tour, we went to Oxford Circus (which is a super big shopping neighborhood) and shopped in the 4 floored Top Shop. Top Shop is pretty much like a better quality/more expensive mix of Forever 21 and H&M. I knew about it before coming to the UK and was actually pretty exited to see it. Although I didn't buy anything, they did have a little cupcake and tea stand and I tried bubble tea for the first time! It was quite good, I got white peach and strawberry, and would definitely get it again. Some of my flat friends/mates were going out to a club, but I wasn't up for a hard night so I visited my high school friend who is also studying abroad in London. It was cool seeing her friends, especially since they were all so international! A few Americans, Australians, Danish, Brazilian and English students made up the mix. I caught the tube before it closed at midnight and called it a night.

Today (Sunday), was pretty chill because nothing was planned besides an optional walking tour around Camden and Primrose. I attended the walk which was quite cool, because even there wasn't many "kodak moments" just walking around in the morning when the sun was coming up, with the breeze of the park blowing around you felt great. At the end of the tour we ended up in the Camden stable market, which was a ton of shops (touristy, boutique, food stands) that were so unique. Plus I got a few cheap souvenirs out of it! It reminded me of the Bazar at the MN State fair. After the market we got to stop at the 99 pence store (aka the UK dollar store) which I was so exited for! I'm such a cheap scape, that I couldn't pass up getting quite a few things. Otherwise the night has consisted of getting hangers for my closet (and of course getting confused at which road to take - I was suppose to go west and ended up going north AND east before finally finding the correct road), eating a chill flat dinner and trying to make a list of all the sights/places I want to see/go. Otherwise, my interview is Tuesday so I should research my hospital a bit more and practice what I'm going to say in my interview. Early night tonight so I can start classes tomorrow! xx

 Primrose Park -

I think the authentic Britt added a nice touch :)