Hi...and oops. This has taken me way too long to write because work (school and otherwise) still occasionally happens here in London, and this week has been a prime example of that...This update will be a random potpourri of London over the weekend, and then I'll get to that fabled post about Paris...I promise.
As I said on Friday, I had to meet with the internship program director, Cornelius, about BBDO and how things are going there. He was interested in everything I've been doing, especially in office interaction (one of the major goals of internships in the ND program is to expose students to "real Brits"...yes, they do exist!). I was extremely positive about the BBDO experience I've had, because it has been, in a word, superlative. We ended up digressing onto a series of discussions on the London Program in general, which got two thumbs way, way up from me...so weird to think that I only have a little over a month left in this amazing, amazing city!! :(
After Cornelius and I finished up, I downloaded almost a hundred different piano songs on sheet music blogs and played piano at the London Centre while it poured rain outside, hoping I could wait out the storm (I still hadn't replaced my beloved yellow J.Crew umbrella after spring break!!). After about an hour and a half of piano time (really, the first time I've played piano extensively since last December...felt AMAZING), the storm had blown over and I set out into a beautiful sunny, rain-washed London. The sky was absolutely riveting...think black storm clouds and blinding sunlight mixing to turn the whole city into this sparkling wet gorgeously brilliant place. You couldn't have helped but be happy to be alive. :)
Of course, I realized that I couldn't hope to get through five more weeks in London without encountering rain, so I stopped at a corner stand in Leicester Square and bought a really cute hot-pink and white striped umbrella...for the low, low price of three quid! I was excited, even though it's a total piece of crap that will for sure not survive its first real thunderstorm. Feeling on top of the world, I stopped at Ben and Jerry's for a kiddie scoop of cookie dough ice cream in a sugar cone and practically skipped home, loving the sound of all the different languages (I remember counting at least seven...), traffic and general London hustle-bustle.
Along the way, we always pass the Grey's Inn Gardens, which are surrounded by beautiful red-brick buildings and filled with gravel paths, benches, and absolute fields of daffodils...my absolute favorite. The problem is, the gardens are fenced off and the gate is usually shut and locked. Serendipitously though, it was open on Friday and I decided to take a ramble...I ended up off the paths just wandering through daffodils that came up to my knees. Needless to say, I was absolutely in heaven...I spend 45 minutes there before going home and got my shoes, socks, and jeans soaking wet in the flowers...so worth it!!
Friday night was a letdown. Think: really drunk college students trying to find a bar pretty far from the flats, without determining if that bar has a 10-pound cover on the weekends due to concerts. Then think: aforementioned college students discover aforementioned cover, get really upset (irrationally) and instead dive into the first dive bar they find. Then think: aforementioned dive bar is really gross and skeevy, and aforementioned college students are so weirded out they just go home without ever determining the name of aforementioned dive bar. That's basically our night in a nutshell. yupp.
Saturday dawned bright, sunny, warm and...homework-laden. I've got a big accounting paper due tomorrow night that required quite a bit of researching and background work before it could be written, so I hit the ground running with that and spent hours (literally) reading fascinating (not-so-literally) articles about fair-value accounting and its role in the financial crisis. Woo! Then I NEEDED a break so I went for a walk down Farringdon to St. Paul's Cathedral...just a 15-minute walk away for some beautiful architecture and views. I spent some time there just walking around, enjoying the sunshine, and ruminating on London and life in general. Then I went home and did more accounting until it was party time!
I mentioned that in Montpellier we met three other American girls: two of them were Laurens who were students at Syracuse and one of them, Lauren L, had already planned to celebrate her 21st at the London Syracuse program. Once we all connected over Facebook she invited us to join her, so Peter, Kate and I headed to the Syracuse flats near the British Museum for a night of good old-fashioned American fun...beer pong and flip cup followed by a night of clubbing! We met lots of really cool people from Syracuse, Maryland, Brandeis...and got to reconnect with our fellow Montpellier survivors, which was hilarious. We entered the party and were instantly famous as "the people who saved the Laurens in Montpellier," which was kinda cool :) I played a few games of beer pong before getting wiped out by two total hustlers, then enjoyed the rest of the party before skipping out of clubbing to go home and sleep. Mmm, sleep.
Sunday: Nicolle, Joanie and I decided to try to adventure to find a different church than the one we usually attend. Unfortunately, we still suck at getting around London even after two and a half months here, and wandered around the area where the church was supposed to be for like twenty minutes before we just gave up and decided we had ultimate-failed but God would love us anyway for trying really hard. Nicolle headed off to Brick Lane and Joanie and I started home. We were just casually walking along when all of a sudden I looked up and spotted a familiar tousled head of dark hair and some very familiar man-capris............
I immediately squawked out, "Oh my god...Steph!" That's right folks, I had just encountered the one and only Stephan Claridge IN THE REAL WORLD. (Steph=my "handler" and absolute favorite favorite person ever at BBDO, duh.) He was taken aback at first, I'm sure wondering "who the hell is this crazy girl talking to me" but as soon as he realized it was ME IN THE REAL WORLD we both got really excited and said a lot about "oh my god, it's a small world!" He then pointed out his flats...literally 25 yards from where we were standing...and I promised I wasn't a stalker. After a few laughs and small talk, we parted ways. I felt like SUCH A GROWN-UP. I ran into a work friend in real life, and even cooler, he introduced me to his friend as "his colleague at BBDO." That's right. I am officially a COLLEAGUE. Hahahahaha. :D
The rest of Sunday was uneventful...some work, some catch-up on cleaning and laundry, and of course Mr. Martin Colianni's 21st birthday celebration!! Homemade chocolate torte by Kayla, profiteroles and cream tarts from Tesco...aaah wait there IS a story left. And then this epic blog will be done.
I got asked out by the checkout boy at Tesco. (This is the part where you laugh...)
Tesco is a very ubiquitous, very cheap supermarket and we ND students are pretty well-known at our local Tesco because it is convenient, in our price range, and sells Lambrini, the 1.50 pound wine we all love and drink like water. I went in around 9 on Sunday night and was the only person in the store so the staff chatted me up a bit while I picked up sundry essentials. One guy, an Indian teenager who couldn't have been older than 18, was especially friendly, asking about my weekend and being generally helpful. He went to the register to check me out and when I gave him my card to charge the items, he commented, "Elizabeth, a lovely name...like the Queen!" I was sort of like, "Yeah, haha, it's nice..." and thought to myself, "Weird, but whatever, sweet." Then he looked at me and asked, "I get off work at ten, do you fancy having dinner with me?" I seriously was like... "Whaaaaat?" in my head and spent ten seconds wondering if he was serious, completely dumbfounded and amused by the situation...and then I was very polite and said I had a birthday party to attend and left. It was just very funny and ironic and amusing, and makes for a funny anecdote that is much better relayed in person.
Okay, now I'm done, because even I am bored of this blog at this point and I just need to stop writing it. If you finished this whole entire post, you need to go make yourself a cup of tea and have a few Cadbury eggs to celebrate. :) Much love and happy Tuesday to all of you!!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
catch up part 1: London Life Lately!
Posted by Lizzie at 3:43 PM
Labels: British-isms, pubs/bars/clubs, school, weather, work
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