Yesterday was a great day. I woke up around 7am, took a shower, got dressed, ate toast with butter and strawberry jam, and headed for the train station. On the way there I stopped to get Leanne and I 10GBP tickets to the London Eye for next Wednesday. I then saw a homeless man sleeping on the sidewalk next to Waitrose. He was the first homeless man I have seen in Kensington and it brought back all of the negative feelings I had towards the Royal family yesterday. I then took the train to work, which seemed to go amazingly quickly. I did sudoku on the train and was there about 7 minutes early.

I got an office introduction to the 7 or so other people who were in the office today and then I learned how to answer the phone properly, signed paperwork, etc for the start of my employment. I then learned how to access accounts on the software we use at work called “Curtains”. I spent the next 2 hours or so looking for discrepancies between the print outs of what transactions should have gone through, and what transactions had gone through. I did this with my new colleague Ky who is a volunteer who lives in Croydon. This was an interesting time as he has a very thick accent. It was interesting work. Then at one point the MP for our area came in to the office and started chatting with us about stuff he need to get done so he could open his accounts. I was introduced as the intern from the States and he said that he had an American intern who went to Tufts University working in his office this summer at Parliament (hmm hmm Josh, what are you doing next year?). I then asked him if he was an MP why he hasn’t been sacked yet, to which he laughed and said because I’m one of the honest ones and he shook my hand. It was an interesting exchange.

Then, I had my one-hour lunch break where I bought a sandwich and wandered around the town of Croydon. I found a local outdoor market, with food stands, fresh produce, and other stalls with many things for sale. All of this was about 2 blocks from my office. I then continued walking from there and stumbled upon the most amazing thing- the largest shopping area I may have ever laid eyes on, only 4 or 5 blocks from my office. The only store I made it into was Mark and Spencer’s where I managed not to buy anything, but it would take me days to get through the whole mall, or maybe just 15 1-hour lunch breaks.

After this excursion, I went back to work refreshed and finished looking over accounts. Then, around 20 minutes later I learned how to open new accounts and I spent the remainder of my day until around 2:45 opening new accounts. I got off work because it turned out that Martin, my boss and the guy who runs the Croydon Savers Credit Union as well as one in Islington did not plan on coming in to the office today and was paranoid about the tube strike that is apparently going to happen tomorrow night. This 48-hour tube strike should prove to make my travels to the England v. Andorra World Cup interesting.

I then came home and took Leanne out to dinner at Gloucester Arms to celebrate our new jobs. After that we came home to digest our food before going on a run. We both almost threw up because we ate too much. We then came home where I wrote my blog post for Sunday, but my internet ended up crashing and I lost about 2 hours of work. Cameron and I then stayed up way later than we planned talking about politics.

Then this morning I woke up late, bought a croissant and a sandwich for breakfast and lunch from this store at the end of the road before heading off to work. I then started my day looking for discrepancies in accounts. Martin called around 11 and gave me a new task though. My new project is to design a marketing plan for getting parents to save for their kids. This is a good thing to do because people who learn how to save as kids usually are better with managing their finances/debt later in life. Thus, I spent the rest of the day crunching numbers and trying to figure out from what angle to approach this. I will have to present my idea for the plan to the board of directors next Tuesday afternoon as well. Tomorrow I will be going to a meeting with the local housing authority with Martin and that should be interesting too. On the train ride home I did more sudoku and then I wandered the streets on the other side of Kensington for a while before finding my way back to the apartment.

There are no plans for the rest of my day as I am quite tired, but I am sure you will hear about them tomorrow. I will only have a half day of work tomorrow, so I may write before the soccer game, but who knows.

Days 9 & 10- The Neighbor's Have Way Better Cars Here

So, yesterday I woke up and Leanne had wanted to go to a palace since it was supposed to rain, but I decided we should go to the Portobello Market instead. Leanne gave in, but it was amazing. Cameron came too for part of the time, before heading off to a friend's house in Surrey. There were a ton of antique dealers, leather dealers, used clothing vendors, fresh food merchants, etc. It was the epitome of an outdoor market. It took us a few hours to walk through and I ended up finding a replacement watch for my Ben Sherman that broke earlier this semester. It was really cheap, and this one is waterproof, so the band won't rot this time! We spent most of the time parousing the market looking for a bag for Leanne to take to work, some sort of England apparel for the soccer game on Wednesday.

We never did find a bag for Leanne, but we did find scarves. We bought them too because they were cheap. As well, there was an amazing, old (like 1970's) Aston Martin there. So I took a picture. Apparently you can rent it for a day though, which I think is pretty sweet.

We then stopped and got hot chocolate on the way to the train because someone forgot her jacket at the flat, and we ended up taking the wrong train home, going the wrong way at the split on the district line. We then came home and relaxed and made burgers for dinner. They were yummy! Then, we went to the pub in the mews across the street called "Queen's Arm". It sucked. It was too expensive and didn't have any televisions to watch cricket on. This is important since Twenty20 is going on this week!!! Anyway, we then went to the Gloucester Arm, which is now by far my favorite pub in London. We watched Australia lose to the West Indies in cricket, and Leanne and I shared a bottle of wine. It was a great evening. Also, apparently classes at the Imperial College of London don't get out until 11:30 on Friday nights, because right about that time about 30+ students came rushing into the pub with their school bags still on and all. It was quite an interesting sight.

Then, today, well... I will edit this tomorrow and finish it before strarting tomorrow's post. I have to wake up for work in 6 hours. Good night!

The End of my First week...

Sorry that it has been so long since my last blog post. I started writing one on Saturday, but then I realized that I had lost my camera... so here is that post, and then I will continue with the rest of the week:

Today started much better than yesterday. I woke up on time, and made it downstairs to the charter bus that was waiting to drag us all over town. Cameron, who had decided to go out last night, which I did not do due to a lack of rest, did not quite make it to the tour. In fact, he did not quite make it out of bed until well after noon. The rest of us on the other hand got up and went on a tour of the city with our amazing tour guide Sarah. We started out in Kensington and were cut off quickly on our way to Buckingham Palace by soldiers on horseback. A few hundred of them actually, who were doing a practice run for the Trooping of the Colors, which is an annual celebration of the Queen's birthday. The actual event will be taking place on the 14th of June, which unfortunately is when Leanne and myself will be in Paris. Even though the garb was intriguing, the procession looked as though it would be far to long for my attention span. Due to this slow procession of horses, our bus took a detour and drove us through Piccadilly Circus and down Regents Street, where there is amazing shopping, and to St. Paul's Cathedral, which Leanne and I saw last night. We took a coffee break at St. Paul’s, where we got coffee from small restaurant called Pret A Manger, and then we were off again. We went by the original gates to the city, and the place where Sweeny Todd is suggested to have actually happened.

From there, the bus traveled to some places that Leanne and I had journeyed to last night, only by a different route before returning to Metrogate for a short break... (This is when I realized I lost my camera, and so I continue). We then went to this cheap, but delicious sandwich shop down the street and all of us got sandwiches and took them to the park because it was sunny out. For the first time in a while I didn't turn red after spending a couple of hours in the sun! It was very relaxing.

We then continued on a walking tour of Kensington with our guide Angela. Angela had lived only a few blocks from where we reside now, only in the 1970's, and so she had some very funny stories about her very old landlord back in the day. She told stories of how she used to travel the world and how she lived in Paris, Brazil, etc. We learned that Lord Snowden, Princess Margaret’s ex-husband, lives about three blocks from us. She also informed us that the cars left on the street over the weekend were the families’ leftovers since they would surely be in the country at their second houses for the weekend (yes, we live in that part of town... how I would love to be able to afford that lifestyle). We then took a tour down the mews, and through the quiet neighborhoods surrounding us until we ended up on High Street at a rooftop garden owned by Richard Branson. It was very cool. It had a church brought in from Spain on it and wonderful views and a fountain. Also, there is a nightclub there at night, which would probably be very fun. It is apparently a very popular club for celebrities.

She then took us down the mews on the other side of High Street and found these lovely little shops that are owned by locals. There was also a small, very old church hidden behind the new shopping complexes. Then, as we came out of the mews, we ended up on a private road full of embassies right next to Kensington Palace. After that, we went back to Gloucester’s Arms, the local pub, and watched what was left of the FA Cup Final match before coming back home and making fajitas. Then after dinner, we had a few drinks and went out to Club Sirocco near Piccadilly Circus. This is where I learned that I favor the pub culture to nightclubs.

Now, continuing with the week:

Sunday Leanne and I decided to go to Harrod's, a very large and expensive department store, but I managed to get us lost, and we eventually ended up on Regents Street where we did some window-shopping. The street there was also closed off for a Spain festival, so the street was incredibly crowded. We had a long fun conversation with a man working in the lower floor of Burberry about Croydon, which is where my internship is, and upon finding the Nike store, Leanne found new running shoes because in the UK the Nike Frees have the foam sole that they have replaced in the States with a heavier, plastic sole. We then took the tube and found where Harrod's is located, however it was closed.

Monday we spent at Harrod's, which I must admit was one of the best window-shopping experiences I have ever had. They had everything you could think of, and it was a fantastic time. I was tired after leaving there, but I had to run to Croydon to make sure that I knew where my internship was, since my interview was on Tuesday. Leanne and I took the tube to Victoria Station, where there is a National Rail Line service to Croydon, and we bought tickets and hopped on the above ground train to the East Croydon station. We proceeded to walk 10 minutes in the wrong direction before turning around and heading to the right place. All of the walking I was doing was killing my feet, even in my flip-flops, which are usually very comfortable. The worst of it was still ahead though; because as we got off of the National Rail train and headed for the tube, we saw that the tube station was closed, apparently due to a power failure. So Leanne and I were forced to set off on foot, in an area we did not know, without a map. About five minutes later we figured out where we were as we stumbled upon Buckingham Palace. This is a great place to be lost if you know London because you can simply walk the short distance across Green Park to the tube station, and off you go. For us however, this was a bad decision because when we looked at the map in the park, it looked to be a shorter distance to walk in the other direction towards the number 9 bus, which as I knew from getting us lost the previous day looking for Harrod's would get us back home. Eventually we got back home, where we finished leftover fajitas and called it a night.

Tuesday I had my internship interview, because apparently my job could not take me without meeting with me face-to-face first (it's a shame they had to waste their time doing that, but then again it's not their fault they didn't know me already). Anyway, I have my internship now, and I am the sidekick to the man that runs both the Croydon Savers Credit Union and another credit union outside of London. I will be making a marketing plan for the credit union, meeting with the board of directors and presenting it to them, as well as meeting with investors so that the credit union can look at expanding. After my interview, I returned home via the train, and the tube and then Leanne and I went shopping again, because I decided I needed more comfortable shoes and a briefcase and Leanne needed a bag for work. We headed to High Street and we looked at Marks and Spencer, TK Maxx, and then to Hornett's, which is where Cameron bought his briefcase for work. While there, I bought a dress shirt, Burberry cufflinks, a briefcase and a pair of Bally loafers (all of which was slightly used, but still in really nice shape) for 80 GBP. We then went to the Longchamp store to look at bags for Leanne and learned that before the exchange rate plummeted it would have been a good deal, but we were a few days too late, so she still doesn't have a bag for work...

Leanne and I hung around and relaxed for a while and ate dinner before we met everyone else at a pub about 15 minutes from the flat for drinks. It was a good, relaxing time, and some of the others were quite drunk. We then decided to chug what we had left after about an hour so that we could catch the tube home before it closed for the night. The drunkies ended up singing showtunes, which was fun for me since I grew up with musicals. Then we headed home and hit the hay.

Wednesday, it was decided that I would take it easy because I had been going a million miles an hour since arriving here, and so I woke up late and lounged around before attempting to solve my missing camera dilemma. Turns out that my camera was gone, so we went shopping for a new camera, since the bus company didn't have mine. We went to a sketchy part of town and bought a replacement camera for a pretty good price, and then went to see "Blood Brothers" at the Phoenix Theatre. It was a very good musical, and is in its 20th year of production. We all sat in the second row and got really freaked out at the end of the musical when police officers came down the sides of the theatre and fired guns (it was part of the show).

Then yesterday, I woke up around noon and went to class, where we talked about analyzing images. This was the first time my art history classes proved to be helpful in another type of class. It was great. Then, continuing with this theme of images, we walked the 3 blocks from our flat through the Imperial College of London campus to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which proved to be very large and full of art. It was great. The only downside was that we arrived there around 4:15 and it closed at 5:45, so we didn't have much time there. From there, we headed to the Royal Parade Grounds just down the street from Buckingham Palace, where we went to Beating Retreat. This was something I had read about in a monthly London hand out, and it turned out to be a much bigger deal than I expected. There were bomb sniffing dogs everywhere and at the last minute we found out that we needed tickets (which luckily were only 5 GBP). We had some time to kill before hand, so Leanne and I did our favorite thing and headed across the street to a pub where Leanne tried her first fish and chips and where I met a funny old man from Indiana. We had a great time with food, drink, and sudoku. Then, we headed back across the street to watch Beating Retreat. This is an annual presentation and marching concert of the bands of the cavalry, home guards (troops stationed in London), and this year the troops of the Royal King of Norway. It was very interesting, and at one point the home guard even played Eleanor Rigby, which was fun. Princess Anne was in attendance since she is in charge of the cavalry, and the ceremony was very interesting. Also, the soldiers from Norway had an amazing routine and the whole thing seemed a lot more important and interesting than anything we have in the States. I learned about the history of the bear skin hats and how to tell different divisions both by plume or by the buttons on their jackets from the ex-military guy seated behind me.

And finally, today, Friday, June 5, 2009, I woke up around 8ish, went to class, and on the way saw the bus that I had lost my camera on. So, I inspected the inside of the bus, but my camera was nowhere to be found. Now at least I know that it was stolen at some point. Then in class we watched a movie titled "This is Britain", which was about the skinhead subculture, and its roots. It was an interesting commentary on the political divisions within Great Britain, as well as on what life is like in the midlands of England, and how loyalties are known within Great Britain to the people of the four countries that make up the nation of Great Britain. Following this, I came back to the flat and took a nap, and made a sandwich before heading off to Brick Lane, which is a part of London comparable to Ellis Island in that it is a place for immigrants to London to go while assimilating to the culture and get on their feet before moving to other parts of the city. It was previously home to the French Huguenots escaping religious persecution, followed by Jews escaping from Poland and Russia, and now a large Bangladeshi population (the sun dial shown is on the Mosque on Brick Lane, previously a synagogue, but it bears a Latin inscription which translates to "We are shadows", from when this building was home to a Huguenot's church some 300 years ago). We then walked some more through the east end's markets and streets before setting off back for the flat and grocery shopping.

Now that all of the drama is done with my camera, I will start posting on here more often. Highlights of things coming up to be excited for are touring palaces, the England v. Andorra world cup qualifying game (which I am going to), a cricket match I will be attending, more museums, a tour of Parliament, a Dublin trip, Oxford, Bath, Stonehenge, and Paris).

The pictures in this post from top to bottom are: 1) Buckingham Palace with the Queen Victoria statue in the foreground, 2&3) Richard Branson's rooftop garden at 99 High Street in Kensington, 4) The Gloucester Arms aka best pub ever, 5) our neighbor's Aston Martin, 6) soldiers on parade at Beating Retreat, 7) The sun dial on the church/ synagogue/ mosque in on Brick Lane.

Fish, Chips and Tower Bridge- Day 2

My day today began with Cameron asking me what time it was. I responded "9:45". We both jumped out of bed cursing because we thought we were late and shortly realized that we had until 10:00 to get to our first meeting of the day. An adrenaline rush is always a good way to start the day.

Our first meeting was an orientation meeting about living in London. Jet lag, a stiff neck and an empty stomach combined and created the only outcome such a situation could; I fell asleep briefly during the meeting. After finishing with the meeting Leanne, Rachel Jobes and I went to eat at a cafe. I had a sandwich and forgot that people in Europe tend to put butter on their sandwiches. The result of this is a fantastic sandwich. Following lunch we took the tube to High Street Kensington and went to Mark and Spencer's to take care of the errands we did not complete yesterday. The prices there were very cheap and made things seem reasonable, even with the conversion rate as bad as it is. I also came home with a new pillow for 2.5 GBP to combat the neckache from last night with the run down pillow. We then proceded to TK Maxx to try and find the girls a hair straightener. After asking for help, we found the girls a straightener for very cheap and I ended going home with a pair of Burberry socks. This was a reactionary purchase to my fear of immediately being spotted as an American. Don't worry, they only cost me five dollars.

We then ran back to Foundation house (where we study, have meetings, etc.) and ordered our tickets to a cricket match before our general meeting about internships. After the meeting, we ran home to drop off our purchases and Leanne and I headed back to Foundation house again for a 4 o'clock small group meeting about our specific placements. Mine actually seems that it will turn out to be better than I initially expected. I will be the assistant to the acting manager of the Croydon Savers Credit Union (http://www.croydonsavers.co.uk/). My responsibilities there may include reviewing accounts and business plans, helping on relevant projects, helping with loan applications, and doing office administation work/ database work and learning how to use a specific set of software for credit unions. These are much more than I initially expected to be doing, and for that I am quite happy.

Leanne and I then headed to the grocery store that is "just next door" from Foundation house (turned out to be a 10-15 minute walk) and spent the next hour or so trying to figure out what to buy to cook, and what we needed to buy that we didn't have around the dorms (coffee press, glasses, etc.). Then, we attempted to walk home from there with our nine bags of groceries and case of water. This did not work out very well, and we ended up hailing a cab to get us back to our flat.

After cleaning up a bit, we then headed out to dinner at Glouchester Arms, which is a pub just up the road. There I had fish and chips (which was delicious), and watched a cricket game on the television. This is where my fear to be detected as an American in Europe come back to play. Shortly after explaining the rules of cricket to Leanne, while glued to the television, a man walked over to me and asked me a question about the numbers on the screen, which I answered. Turned out he was from Colorado, but he thought I was British, to which I laughed. He didn't believe I was from Texas either though, due to the lack of an accent.

This would seem like the end of a great day right? Wrong. The evening was only starting. Leanne and I took the train straight after dinner to the Tower Hill station, where we saw the Tower Bridge, London Bridge (which has NOT fallen down), and of course the Tower of London. We then asked a security guard at the Tower where Big Ben was. He told us it was about 4 miles down the river and I decided it would be a fun place to walk to, which it was. We passed St. Paul's Cathedral , the Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern before we headed to the London Eye, which was disappointingly closed. From there, we crossed the Westminster Bridge where the street vendors were cooking sausages and onions and headed to the Westminster tube station to catch our train home.

My day would have ended much better than it had started had I not tried to order the tickets for the Polo World Series, but I tried to order them, and my credit card would not work. I then spend about 45 minutes chasing and answer from Bank of America before pawning off my problem on my father. Eventually it got handled, but I will be without a credit card for the next 24 to 48 hours. Now, I am in my room and ready to catch some Zs on my new pillow. So cheers for now!

Hopping the Pond

At the end of Day 1 in London, the only way to describe it is brilliant. Leanne and I flew British Airways from Philadelphia to Heathrow, and our flight was incredible. It amazed me how BA spoiled us, even as a passenger in coach. The flight ran as close to on time as is to be expected when flying to Heathrow, and the staff on the flight was very kind and very helpful in dealing with Leanne's allergies (BA does not serve nuts on any of their flights). We were given a variety of goodies including complimentary blinders, socks to keep your feet warm, and a toothbrush and toothpaste. The food was delicious as well. I ate chicken and rice, with a salad, a roll, chocolates, a slice of chocolate cheesecake, tea, and complimentary wine. Leanne got drunk from the complimentary alcohol, which was entertaining until she fell asleep.

At first on board, I tried to learn some french for our upcoming excursion, but eventually gave in to the on board entertainment system. On the flight, you could choose what to watch or listen to from a very up to date, and well selected library. Although I did not venture into the music section, the movies and television sections were great. You could choose from new movies such as Valkyrie or Gran Torino, British movies, or classic movies such as Ferris Bueller's Day off and Good Will Hunting. I chose to watch Gran Torino after dinner, and a sports news segment about the Rugby Sevens tournament, after a short nap in order to prepare myself for the British culture.

After landing and going through border patrol, Leanne and I were free to find our way to our new residence in Kensington, and thankfully I had spent some time on the plane figuring out trains from the airport to the flat. We were able to get from Heathrow to our flat via two trains and a short taxi ride. It turns out that there was a stop closer to our flat than the one we got off on, but I still can't find it on my underground maps.

After arrival and checking in, I unpacked and then went out around Kensington to run errands. This took a while, and as I was trying to adapt to the new area, I was not incredibly productive (I still don't have any towels). It could have also been attributed to being distracted by the absurdly expensive cars here (I believe I counted 8 Bentleys, one of which was an old one, all of the others new, 2 Maseratis, 3 Aston Martins, and could not count the number of Porsches, BMWs, and Land Rovers). Needless to say, I am living in a decent part of town. We did take a tour later in the afternoon and I feel that I will be able to complete my errands tomorrow. After our walking tour with our RAs where we met "Bertha the Bouledogue", a local character, Leanne, Cameron and I went out to out at a pizza place called Da Mario, which Princess Diana used to frequent (it is at the end of our block). The food was delicious and the Italian waitress had the hots for Cameron, the gorgeous American. After dinner, we walked to Hyde Park which was full of people playing soccer, cricket, doing yoga, running around a lake, and other such things. We relaxed there for a few a short period of time until it started to get cold and then we returned to our flat.

I spent the rest of the day resting, touring Metrogate (our residence), watching BBC News, and trying to determine what things Leanne and I will be doing around London in place of our weekend in Rome. So far I have selected Polo in the Park, which is part of the Polo World Series and features teams from London, Buenos Aires, New York, and Moscow; a Kanye West concert in Hyde Park, and possible the Wembley Cup, if I can find tickets.

I am looking forward to my weekend in Paris, and my weekend in Dublin, as well as our programs trips to Bath, Oxford, and Stonehenge. Mostly right now though, I am excited to get to know this city more through the bus tour on Saturday, and through the cultural experiences that I will have in the weeks to come.