What it means to "live in London"

Since starting my blog I am now dependent on it, so much that my urges to blog resemble chocolate cravings or something like that. I should be working on my 8 page paper but blogging seems more enjoyable at the moment.

Wednesday night's production of The City was pretty good. It was at a tiny theatre in northern London in a really cool area that I had never been to before. We navigated our way there successfully and Tom saved me from getting run over by a motorcycle. The performance was very modern and unique, they referenced texting and even played Nicki Minaj during the play, crazy stuff. Thursday, I survived classes once again. I realized I always refer to classes as though they are intense and arduous but only having two days of academic classes a week is anything but arduous. I guess it just distracts me from this 4 month vacation that I am on!

Thursday night, I saw Much Ado About Nothing in the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. The Globe is magical! I can't believe I get to start acting on that stage in about a month! I really don't know what strings Notre Dame pulled to give us that opportunity. The performance was hilarious (we all fell in love with the guy who played Benedick) and they finished off with this amazing dance routine that we now hope to replicate when we get on stage. We stood for the entire play (3 hours) which only served as an annoyance a couple of times. The majority of the time I was completely engaged. During intermission, we stepped outside and sat with our legs dangling over the Thames looking out at the night skyline. I wasn't mad to say the least.

I get to act here!!!

Thursday night we went to O'Neill's and I had my first experience of unwanted attention from British men. Too aggressive. The boys rescued me eventually. Moving on...

Allison did take cute pictures this night though...

Friday morning we awoke late and decided to conquer the bikes. There are these bike stations all around London where you can rent out a bike (practically for free), ride all over and dock them wherever you wish. We decided to ride them to Primark during rush hour in downtown London. It was super fun! We are now addicted to the bikes because they get you places so much quicker and all the drivers pretty much give the right of way to bikes. I did have a close call with a giant truck but I lived to tell the tale. Also, biking across the bridges both during the day and at night is one of the coolest things ever. We arrived at Primark and I was in heaven. Primark is this giant department store on Oxford Street with ridiculously cheap clothing. I'm taking 8 pound dresses and 4 pound sweaters. It was also packed but not unmanageable. We all came away with multiple items of clothing and Collin finally bought collared shirts! Yay! I must go back there, it was definitely retail therapy at its finest. We continued biking around Hyde Park which is absolutely beautiful! A new item on my bucket list is to have a day-long picnic in Hyde Park with a frisbee. Pure bliss.

We then stumbled upon Trafalgar Square which was having "Malaysia Night." We decided to be adventurous and try out the Malaysian cuisine. Allie and I bought two dishes and one was so spicy that we nearly dunked our faces into the fountain. Luckily we headed over to Chandos, a nearby pub, and downed a pint as to eliminate the fire inside our mouths.

Bowl on the left: "Spice bowl of death"

Friday night was pretty silly. We bought a lot of wine, bread and cheese and attempted to be classy before heading to Picadilly Institute. The Institute is just a guaranteed good time. I have also decided it is never a good idea to wear tights out at night. They are too easily destructible.

Saturday morning, a group of us checked out Borough Market. Jon and I took the bikes and got there in about five minutes. The market is amazing. Free samples galore and food everywhere. I will definitely go back there multiple times, ideally to pick up some fresh ingredients for a dinner sometime. I bought a delicious berry smoothie and ate as many free samples as I could find. Major win. The ND game was on at 5pm so we watched that. We won but it felt like we lost... terrible game. However, there was this excellent food festival going on by South Bank. I bought a sausage roll, a cheeseburger and a piece of cheesecake... gratuitous, I know. I mostly bought the sausage roll only because the man selling it was wearing a Notre Dame tshirt and I felt obligated. The cheesecake was also ah-maz-ing. The rest of the day on Saturday I didn't feel too hot so I did a lot of sleeping and lounging around.

That leads me into Sunday where I literally slept until 4pm. Let's just say all this London excitement is catching up to me. I managed to rally and go grocery shopping and make dinner for Zack and myself. I also went back to South Bank to buy some cupcakes because I had been craving them all day. I then booked my trip to Barcelona for the first weekend in November! Quad reunion in Spain!

Monday at NBC I participated in a software workshop with a bunch of editors and producers. I learned a lot of useful stuff about the programs we use in the newsroom. They also talked a lot about the new emerging technology that is entering the broadcasting industry. Video needs to arrive faster, transfer quicker and be of better quality, in a nutshell. The level of HD that is now expected is getting ridiculous! It made me think a lot about the amount of time and effort it takes to coordinate all of this technology between so many bureaus. It's not as though video in New York is able to arrive in London by snapping your fingers. It takes extremely calculated steps and innovative technology. NBC is kind of a big deal.

Also on Monday, I returned from work to hear dozens of screaming teenage girls. Turns out Taylor Lautner was attending his movie premier directly across the street from the flats at the IMAX, casual.

Classes were relatively painless today. Instead of going to my theatre class, we took a tour of the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane, which is technically the longest standing theatre in London. The tour was super cool. We got to see all of the places where royalty hang out prior to the performances and we toured the underground tunnels (where, apparently, former kings used to meet up with their mistresses). The place is also said to be crazy haunted. My classmates and I have also decided that our teacher works for the CIA. He is so allusive! He meets us at the door of the theatre, disappears, and then reappears at the tour's end as though he never left. (He also does this kind of thing during performances). He is definitely a secret spy or something which makes him even more cool. I am in love with him. Keep in mind he is at least 60.

Royal Theatre

The London weather this week is unreal! It is in the high 70s and the sky is completely blue as I speak. After the tour, we stopped at a cafe for coffee and then walked back across the Waterloo Bridge to the flats. As we were walking, I had a bit of an epiphany. This whole experience is essentially about "living in London" and immersing yourself so you feel as though you are a part of a different culture. After being here for a month, I realized I have been completely obsessed with doing things, checking things off my list, hitting up the hot spots, etc. However, living in London doesn't always mean you have to be "doing big things." Getting coffee and walking across the bridge under the sunny skies today was ridiculously enjoyable yet ridiculously mundane. Living in London doesn't mean always having something to do. As I sit here writing this, I am living in London. Every minute I breathe the air I am a Londoner regardless of the task at hand. I don't have to feel guilty for sitting down and reflecting on where I am as opposed to constantly penciling things in without a second thought. To live in London means to embrace it fully. It means to live in the present.

Moral of the story: It is okay to sit down. You can sit down and still be living in London.

I'm off to Oslo, Norway this weekend! And fall break is now completely booked! Cheers! Good luck to my Womb bozos this weekend at Whitesmoke! (Translation: Good luck to my frisbee team at our first home tournament this weekend back in South Bend!)

Everyone speaks English in Berlin

Before I update my weekend travels, there are some necessary things to mention about the end of last week. On Wednesday night, Crystal came over again, only this time she was lugging around two bottles of wine. We had a family style dinner with the five of us plus her, the boys cooked up some delicious food while the girls drank wine (standard) and we had some general bonding. We then went out to a little pub called O'Neills (not the usual one, a different one, turns out there are about 100 with the same name). I introduced Crystal to the glory that is the Clover Top beverage and we had a good time. We then spent some time haphazardly strolling around London in search of somewhere else to go, but Wednesday just didn't feel like the appropriate night to pay cover and go hardcore clubbing. Therefore, we went our separate ways.

So many friends!

On Thursday, I somehow survived class after passing out in the basement of the London Centre for two hours during my break. I then proceeded to chug a Diet Coke and eat a candy bar in preparation for my arduous three hour Shakespeare class on Thursday afternoons. Luckily, the nap time/caffeine/sugar worked wonders and I stayed awake and alert the entire time. After class, Allie and I had this mysterious meeting with Greg and Cornelius (two of the program leaders/professors) at the London Centre. We decided to stick around for it. Turns out they wanted to hear about some of the new professors they have brought on board. Allie and I cut our theology professor some slack and gave them some general pointers regarding the class. The most notable thing about this event, though, was the ridiculous abundance of wine. We quickly finished four bottles between four students and two professors. There was actually an entire bottle left when we were about to leave but Cornelius told us not to be wasteful. What is this place?! So my calm Thursday night turned out differently than expected as I was full of wine and Pringles. We had a great talk with the profs and I returned home to pack for the weekend. Side note: packing is also much harder after being forced to drink wine with your professors for a couple of hours. I pulled it together and was social inside the flats on Thursday night before taking a two hour nap and waking up at 2:30 a.m. to get to Berlin. There were a few yawns involved to say the least.

Berlin was super fun! Zack and I took EasyJet out of the London Gatwick airport. I had heard sketchy rumors regarding airlines like EasyJet because they are ridiculously cheap, but the flight went quite smoothly and wasn’t too sketchy after all. We arrived on Friday around lunch time, conveniently checked into our hotel early and went out to explore the city. It was not a problem that I didn't speak German because literally every person speaks English and/or everything is translated in English everywhere... The perks of America. That was after we bought baguettes, cheese, meat and candy for 6 Euros for lunch. Berlin was definitely much cheaper than London and I am beginning to realize how expensive London actually is. Friday we walked around a lot of the city. Initially, we checked out this giant thrift store called The Garage that sold clothing by weight in kilograms, awesome. We walked through the Tiergarden, found the parliament building, some downtown areas and some not-so-downtown areas. In fact, on the way back we definitely walked through the prostitution section of Berlin as the sun was setting. I will definitely not forget that. We were pretty tired but luckily we took some convenient breaks/naps in scenic locations and survived the day successfully. After attempts to mobilize and go out that evening, we ultimately ended up sipping champagne, ordering room service and watching German channels on TV. It turned out to be an ideal night staying in.

Oh hey Berlin

On Saturday morning, we checked out of our hotel and literally walked two blocks down the street to our second hotel, the Crowne Plaza. It was the definition of classy. We grabbed a bite to eat and went exploring in some of Berlin’s markets. A lot of them had old antiques and delicious looking food. The freshly squeezed orange juice was a good call. We also stumbled upon this awesome waterfall/park area that we hiked up to see a cool view atop the city. We met up with Zack’s mom later in the day to do some touristy activities, including a trip to the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall, things you can’t not do while you’re in Berlin. Dinner that night consisted of true German delicacies: weinersnitchel, some other German food that starts with a K that I can’t remember, and German beer. It was delicious and we were able to sit outside in a really cool setting.

The next morning, we took advantage of the hotel pool and sauna (classy, like I said) before heading out for breakfast at this place called Einstein Café. It was literally packed so we knew it had to be good. We ordered some lattés and delicious breakfast food. A lot of places are closed on Sundays in Europe, but we managed to check out the Berlin Museum and the Berlin Zoo. I am obviously overtly obsessed with zoos so Zack agreed to take me. It had a great array of animals but was one of the hardest zoos to navigate, ever. They do not believe in maps in European zoos, clearly.

This day, I also realized something funny. I had taken fifty Euros out of a German ATM, and the ATM ended up giving me 40 Euros and 10 Deutch Mark, aka the old currency that is no longer in circulation. I didn’t realize it until the next day, and I figured I would keep the weird currency as a souvenir. The German ATM smoked me!

After the zoo, Zack and I searched for far too long for more champagne. Turns out, every grocery store is closed on Sundays. After searching for a solid half hour, we found a sketchy “ethnic” store that sold alcohol. We were elated and obviously bought a bottle. We drank that while getting ready to go out that night. We meant up with Zack’s mom at this extremely nice concert hall filled with chandeliers and overall classiness. We sat through some of the conference and mingled amidst some people while taking advantage of free wine and hors d’oeuvres. We then went to dinner across the street at a nice Italian place that had really good food and excellent gelato.

(note the chandeliers)

We got up at 5am to catch our flight the next morning, and took a taxi to the airport and made it back to London without getting detained. I have now realized one of the more fun aspects of flying is passing through the cheap Duty Free shops. We returned to the flats on Monday morning, and I made it to NBC by 4pm. I may have wrote about this in an earlier post, but getting driven home by my own personal NBC driver at the end of the late shift is by far the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. I feel so important. Monday was my mom’s birthday so I had a Skype date with her that night. Happy birthday Mom love ya! Monday Night, we also headed to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a really historic pub in London that made me feel like I was in Harry Potter. Charles Dickens apparently went there all the time back in the day, along with lots of other famous people.

Tuesday, I survived classes (a professional stage manager gave a talk in my theatre class, pretty cool) and I actually stayed in for my first night of legitimate academic work. Luckily, I still know how to crank out a five page paper in a few hours. We also planned more fall break plans on Tuesday night. Planning trips feels great once it’s done but the actual planning process is super tedious and time-consuming!

Tonight, I am headed to the Almeida Theatre for a production called My City followed by a production of Much Ado About Nothing in the Shakespeare Globe on Thursday night. I am looking forward to sticking around London this weekend with most of my friends! Norway the following weekend should also be very neat.

The weeks are going by so fast. One second it is Monday morning and the next it is Thursday night and already the weekend once again! I am loving everything as always, although I have been missing frisbee a bunch recently! I MISS YOU WOMB! Allie and I played frisbee on Tuesday and I realized I am already so excited for this spring with my team. Also, the UK women’s frisbee team finally emailed me back and said they are starting open practices in London in mid-October. Looks like Allie and I are going to playing with some top notch players for the second half of the semester!

Red carpets on the way to school

On Saturday, the trip to Stratford-upon-Avon turned out to be pretty cool. We took a bus for a couple hours and made it relatively quickly. We snapped some photos and took a tour of the town, getting the chance to see Shakespeare's home he grew up in, his school, etc. We also saw his grave in the cathedral there which was interesting. We saw Macbeth that night performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Shakespeare always makes way more sense on stage as opposed to on the page, so it was a relief to see the performance after reading the play last week. The acting was fantastic and the director took some liberties with the play to keep it entertaining. After a long day, we headed back to London. The Notre Dame football game was on at 1am, so I went to sleep without watching it. However, I awoke the next morning to countless messages talking smack about our last second loss to Michigan. Once again, classic Notre Dame. Whatever, Fighting Irish for life.

Shakespeare's house

On Sunday, Allie, Crystal and I spent the entire day shopping! It was awesome! We spent some time on Oxford Street which has major brand name stores along with about 100 H&M stores, no joke. I swear, the Brits love H&M almost as much as they love tea. We bought some key purchases including a neon pink fanny pack at Urban Outfitters for 5 pounds. I can't wait to rock that on spring break this year. We continued to the Covent Garden and Soho area where I proceeded to buy more items. Covent Garden is definitely one of my favorite areas of London so far. It has both mainstream shopping as well as a market and the Covent Garden Piazza is this open area with really cool restaurants and buildings. After buying the biggest sandwiches ever for less than 5 pounds each (major win), we hit up the Thames River Festival. Since we live 2 minutes from South Bank, the festival was conveniently next door. We each bought dresses from these cute vendors on the river. There was a deal where you could buy 2 for 25 pounds, so I obviously bought two dresses and I am in love with them! Crystal came back with me for a few hours and then we spent time that night at the festival as well. We checked out this performance where artists painted a mural to music (really cool/hard to explain), then watched fireworks over the Thames! I have officially had my first firework experience in London. Overall, Sunday was one of the best days I've had here so far. The boys returned from Paris that night and it was good to see that they made it home alive as well.

Crystal!

Monday, I worked the late shift at NBC from 4-10pm. The late shift does more work for the Nightly News so I verbated some tapes from Libya about Moammar Khaddafy, no big deal. The late shift is cool because the personal NBC car takes me home at night so I don't have to walk plus I just feel official. We started booking fall break on Monday night, which somehow has turned into a trio in Rome, Paris and Amsterdam. It is going to be an unreal week.

Classes resumed on Tuesday with my history teacher being awesome and my theology teacher being crazy. After my theatre class, we took a tour of the National Theatre at 5 followed  by our second play, The Kitchen, at 7:30. In between the two, we walked outside the theatre to find a red carpet movie premiere going on (literally right next door to where we live). The red carpet area served as an obstacle I had to walk around on the way to school, not real life. It was a premiere for some British movie but we recognized a few famous people, including Colin Firth. There were photographers and fans everywhere and the scene was crazy. I snapped some photos and then we went back inside the theatre. Unfortunately, this week's performance was extremely lackluster and paled in comparison to last week's hilarious play. The group consensus appeared to be disappointment. Therefore, the only thing to cheer us up was to go out. Everyone headed to Sports Cafe (Tuesday nights are students nights) and we had a really good time. It was a little rough when I woke up at 7:30am for work this morning, though.

Red carpets impeding my way to school

I am currently writing this at NBC because I have some down time. I just went over some tapes of this guy who is doing research on extending the human life span, freaky stuff. I have decided one of my favorite things about working here is being able to watch the Today Show every morning on my computer screen. Not only that, but we get to see the camera view the entire time, including during breaks and commercials. It is honestly so entertaining to watch Matt Lauer drink his coffee and Ann Curry primp her hair. I feel like such an insider. Also the lady next to me was making calls to Ann Curry (who is reporting in Libya) a minute ago which is also unreal. For those who don't know me well enough, Ann Curry is the head female anchor on the Today Show and happens to have my dream job.

I'm planning on meeting up with Crystal again tonight, and tonight and tomorrow night seem like promising nights to go out as well before I leave for Berlin on Friday.

After being here for three weeks, I have compiled a mental list of things I love about London which I now feel the urge to put in print:
1. Dressing "smart casual," so fun and it gives me an excuse to buy clothes
2. Weather, it is overcast and rainy a lot of the time, but it is much less extreme than South Bend
3. The location of our flats, we live in the dead center of London and we are neighbors with South Bank, the British IMAX and the National Theatre
4. Cider, particularly Bulmer's, the girly alternative to beer
5. Traveling, I haven't gone anywhere yet, but currently have multiple trips in the works and am so excited! Europe is my playground!
6. NBC... enough said
7. Night life, for reasons like the fact that it is appropriate to go out on Tuesdays and I have had some absurd nights of clubbing
8. Notre Dame catering to us with field trips and awesomeness all around
9. Tea time, I quite enjoy the strawberry tea variety
10. Walking to work, it's relaxing and I will probably never be walking distance from work in the future
11. Meeting new people, even though we're all from ND, I've met a ton of awesome people since I've been here
12. Cooking or attempting to cook, it's going better than expected
13. Getting lost on the streets and stumbling across awesome places accidently
14. Actually feeling like I live here and transcending the role of tourist!

Cheers from London! I'll update this again after the weekend.

Three Thursdays in a row at O'Neills...

Another week down!

Last Saturday, a bunch of us from the ND program took a trip to Stonehenge and the city of Bath in England. We got up pretty early and walked like zombies to the bus where every single person proceeded to pass out for the entire ride. It was definitely necessary. We arrived at Stonehenge on a typical London overcast day. They tell you Stonehenge is a bit underwhelming, which it is, but nonetheless I'm glad I saw it. We spiced up the trip by taking ridiculous posed pictures with the rocks, planking, mocking the entire experience, etc. It was good time. Since we meet at ND's version of Stonehenge to play frisbee on Fridays back at school, we got a kick out of taking pictures saying "meet at the real Stonehenge for frisbee golf."

The frisbee team at Stonehenge

We then continued on to Bath, and as expected, everyone passed out again on the bus for another two hours of nap time. Bath was super cool and I had never even heard of it before. It's a very quaint community and also houses the Roman Baths which I now know are very historic. We got to walk around the Baths themselves and check out a museum that surrounds them. Afterwards, we explored a bit around the city and did some frolicking in a grassy area.

Romans Baths

We returned back to the flats that night for the first ND football game. We thought they were streaming the game at a local cafe, but buzzkill, they were not. However, a bunch of the guys streamed it in the flats on their computers so everyone was able to watch... or should I say, watch THE HORROR. Classic Notre Dame to lose game one of the season. We better beat Michigan tonight!

Sunday was a fairly lazy day. I feel like am constantly busy here 24/7 so it is nice to literally just sit around for a few hours. Allie and I began planning some trips that day and we began to gear up for our second week of classes.

Monday, I worked 9-5 at NBC. I have learned I am one of four interns at the London Bureau. There are two other American girls (studying abroad for the semester like me) and one British guy. They are all super nice. Monday I grabbed lunch at this Vietnamese place with the British intern and we talked a lot about the differences in the education systems between England and the U.S. To my dismay, they asked me to go out on a shoot for the Today Show on Tuesday, featuring Sienna Miller, but I have classes all day Tuesday! I was pretty bummed but my supervisor has promised me I will get out on another shoot very soon. I guess I'll have to meet Sienna Miller another time. I am definitely liking NBC a lot. Since NBC is an American company, all of the work we do in London is specifically geared towards American programming, like the Today Show and the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. For instance, at work on Wednesday, I transcribed interviews from people in Kabul, Israel and Palestine regarding their views on the tenth anniversary of September 11. It was actually very interesting to hear the misguided opinions people have of America all across the world. I also transcribed some clips from marines over in Afghanistan (which apparently Brian Williams is going to be using for a documentary in remembrance of 9/11). Just the fact that I am even allowed to contribute at all to something like that is really awesome. Although I have to put in a little more work (I have about 11 hours of class and 14 hours of interning a week, whereas most people just have 15 hours of class) it is most definitely worth it.

Some other notable weekly events:

We went to the Brazil vs. Ghana soccer game on Monday night at Fulham Stadium. It was insane! It took us a long time to get our tickets since it was a mad house so we missed a bunch of the first half, but it was really cool. Fans were going all out and we sat in the Ghana section and pretended to be hardcore fans too. Brazil won 1-0, and Ronaldinho was so ridiculous with the ball I was in awe. I also took the tube this night for the first time, and Allie and I maneuvered our way home all by ourselves using the underground. We felt accomplished.

Tuesday night, I saw my first of many theatre performances. It was a play called One Man, Two Guvnors. It was literally hilarious (definitely British humor, but funny nonetheless). My whole class seemed to enjoy it. It was at the National Theatre which is literally our next door neighbor here by the flats.

I have accepted the fact that my theology teacher is a crazy man. I am now 2/2 in having crazy/confusing/don't-know-what-they're-talking-about theology teachers at Notre Dame. Allie and I brace ourselves every time we enter class. Flipside: it is probably going to be very easy.

On the other hand, my other classes are great. We visited the National Portrait Gallery in my history class on Thursday since it's down the street, no big deal. We did some improv/acting stuff in my theatre class on Tuesday which I absolutely love but the rest of the class was sweating bullets from what I heard. Today, I am traveling to Stratford-upon-Avon (famous touristy Shakespeare town) to explore and see MacBeth for my Shakespeare class.

We have planned a bunch of trips as well! Next weekend, I am heading to Berlin with Zack for a romantic weekend visiting the Holocaust museums! Just kidding, it will be awesome and I'm very excited. At the end of September, I'm going to Norway and staying one night in Oslo and most likely camping out at one of the beautiful national parks over there on the second night. Fall break has finally been narrowed down to Italy (Rome, Florence and Milan) and Amsterdam to catch the David Guetta show Friday night over there. We will hopefully be booking it for sure in the next couple of days. The mere thought of traveling is so exciting I can't wait!

To recap the last couple of days, on Thursday night we went to O'Neills. Again. Obviously. I have been there the past three Thursdays, haha. We have now learned that it turns into a rager on the third floor after the second floor dies down. Who knew?! We had a great time on Thursday, maybe too much fun, seeing as the majority of the program was struggling on Friday morning. Too many Clover Tops, which are officially the most delicious drink in existence.

Friday, we managed to get ourselves up to go to Windsor for the day. Allie and I originally booked tickets just for the two of us but word spread so we went with about 12 others which was fun. It was about an hour train ride, which was super easy, right from Waterloo Station. We explored a bit and took a tour of the castle/tower. I always enjoy anything to do with English history so it was definitely cool to see. We toured the royal apartments inside the castle which are so elaborate it is ridiculous. I couldn't believe I was touring the castle that the Queen herself lives in part of the year. We took a bunch of pictures, grabbed some ice cream at a local cafe and headed back around dinner time.

Friday night, I was pretty worn out but still managed to meet up with the one and only Crystal Dolis who is staying in London for the week! After getting a bit lost, we met up and went to a pub near the flats called The Mulberry Bush. Allie and I introduced Crystal to the wonderful invention that is cider and had a couple of pints. It was a relaxing atmosphere and the perfect way to spend Friday night (too much dancing the night before and all I wanted to do was sit). Crystal headed home and I nearly got peer pressured into going to Fabric (the #1 club in the world, casual) but decided I should save that for a different night when I am better well-prepared!

My bucket list for things to do while I'm here is so long it is a bit overwhelming! As much as I am missing my friends back at ND and football season, the London program is where it's at. It still reigns as the best decision I have ever made.

The newsroom of all newsrooms

 Classes have begun!

As I sit here after a week of classes here in London, I am pretty excited about what the academic realm of my experience is going to entail.

London, why are you so pretty?!

On Monday, I ventured to the NBC News London Bureau. It is about a 30 minute walk which was extremely enjoyable, so I think I am going to end up walking most days. I popped into Starbucks on the way there (It's hard to branch out when Starbucks always hits the spot), and found that my cashier was Hispanic, the customer in front of me was checking her Twitter page in Japanese and the man who made my coffee was French. I have never really felt like an outsider here, mostly because there are so many cultures it is virtually impossible to feel like a minority. I also enjoy walking to work just to see what everyone wears to and from the workplace. London's professional wear, known as "smart casual," has quickly become my new love. Ideally I will keep up this level of fashion upon return to the U.S. Everyone is just super cute all the time.

As it turns out, Monday was a Bank Holiday here in England (the Brits have a gratuitous amount of holidays) so I pretty much just took care of a few security things and left. I went back on Wendesday, however, and officially got settled in. I have my own NBC email (kelly.taylor@nbcuni.com - BOOM), along with a fancy photo ID security card. I spent the morning meeting a bunch of the staff members and getting a tour of everything. NBC News shares their facility with ITN, which is the main broadcasting agency in the UK, so the newsroom is massive. It feels 100 times bigger than the newsroom that I worked in this summer and it's super cool! Every desk has about 6 television screens streaming various NBC content. It actually makes me giddy. At one point I was watching the BBC, ESPN and the Today Show simultaneously. Good thing I'm a TV major.

That morning, the London bureau was busy cutting two packages for the Today Show in America. One was on the foreign conflict in Libya while the other was on Prince Harry's drunken escapades in England, fun stuff. A woman from the foreign desk was showing me the ropes, and she followed the package on Libya from the beginning to the end, making sure the live correspondent was in proper position and sending the video feed to various outlets. We went out to lunch and she gave me the inside scoop on all the surrounding cafes. I feel like I will go out to lunch most days because it's doable to get a really good meal at a cafe for about 4 pounds a day. Plus I just feel like a real life working Londoner by doing that.

I spent the rest of the day with Elaine, another intern, who introduced me to their iNews and Avid software which is a bit overwhelming but I'm sure I will pick it up fairly quickly. Also, the tea and coffee station was by far the most popular part of the newsroom. Londoners love tea more than anything else. I can definitely handle free coffee and tea at work though. It looks like I will be working around 9-5pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. I'm pumped to get going and actually contribute a little something to a television superpower such as NBC.

On Tuesday, I had my history class, 17th Century England, and my theology class, Development of Doctrine. My history professor is this Irish guy who I can already tell is a great professor. I was already highly immersed in his lecture by day 2 of class and am definitely looking forward to it. All the silly English royal family stuff is always fun to learn about.

My theology professor is definitely a bit off his rocker. He was kind of a last minute replacement and has never taught American students before, but he is entertaining nonetheless. Allie and I will survive that one together!

My London Theatre class, which I have for 3 hours on Tuesday afternoons once a week, is probably my favorite. We basically attend some form of London theatre or tour a theatre venue once or twice a week. Our professor is a former big time director/stage actor and definitely knows his stuff.

My last class, Playing Shakespeare, is on Thursday afternoons. We are studying Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Tempest for the first half of the semester and seeing all the performances on stage. Between this class and my other theatre class, I am seeing 10 theatre performances/tours before fall break. That is ten in the first half of the semester! I am so excited! Our first performance is this Tuesday night, and next Saturday, we are traveling to a Shakespeare venue in Stratford to see Macbeth on stage. Playing Shakespeare is also the class where we act in the Globe Theatre for the second half of the semester. Class doesn't get much better than that. I better warm up my acting chops.

I emailed the national women's frisbee team, Iceni, to see about attending a few practices of theirs, but if that doesn't work out I will probably end up playing some pickup on the weekends. There are dozens of teams of all skill levels here in London which is quite promising. I've already played frisbee in the park by the London Eye as well as in Green Park in between classes the other day.

Allie and I have also successfully cooked another meal: chicken parmesan. We didn't poison anyone and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. The whole trading off meals thing is seeming to work, that way I will be eating more than cereal and sandwiches every day.

We've also had our fair share of going out this week! Monday was half price margaritas at this place called Benito's so we hit that up and then had a good time at a pub nearby the flats. Tuesday, we headed to Sports Cafe which is right by the London Centre, and they have college night every Tuesday. There was a giant beer pong tournament and it was ND overload as we took over the place. Wednesday, we just chilled at the park by the Eye after dinner and ended up meeting some fairly sketchy London characters that left us with a good story by the end of the night. Let's just say Allie and I were glad the boys were with us, however.

Last night, Thursday night, we again traveled to O'Neils. It is definitely going to be the go-to Thursday night pub. The live band is awesome and there are a lot of drink specials. After being there for a couple hours, however, the band proclaimed they were having "technical difficulties" and everyone had to leave the venue. We exited and saw dozens of police outside and heard murmurs of a stabbing, not so good. We were not going to let that get us down though. The boys worked out some deal with the bouncer at a place called Club One so we got in with a good deal and got a free drink once inside. The dance floor was empty when we arrived, but was definitely full when we left. We spent a few hours there dancing with a bunch of people from the program. Thursday might be the new Friday, considering we got home around 3am. Sorry for partying!

Before O'Neils with the roomies

Today, Friday, after catching up on some sleep, we walked around Eastern London a bit, checking out some markets and thrift stores and doing a little grocery shopping. Tomorrow, we are going to Stonehenge and the Roman Baths during the day then returning to Sports Cafe to check out the ND football game that night. It should play around 8pm our time which works out perfectly. The Irish better kill it this season! Sunday, we are hoping to check out St. Paul's Cathedral (you can get in free during mass) and maybe some different markets/parks. It's looking like we are going to an England destination next weekend (maybe Brighton or Windsor Castle) Spain the weekend of Sep. 23, perhaps a little Ireland or Wales trip thrown in, and then fall break which is up the air but will probably consist of Italy or Greece or Amsterdam or all three. We will see! Planning travel is a new adventure we need to get on soon.

Other things I've noticed about London:
1. The cafe to person ratio feels like it is 1 to 1.
2. The pub to person ratio is also obscene. Pubs on every corner.
3. People complain about London food but in reality, there are so many cultural hubs here that the variety of cuisine is huge and it is so good! Everything I have had to eat has been excellent so far.
4. First Cape champagne is my new favorite thing ever. It's always a celebration when you're living in London. Bottles are popping.
5. The corner outside our flats always has a lot going on. These wall jumpers, known as "Parkour," jump up and around all of the walls and railings outside our flat. It is highly entertaining to watch from my window. The other day there was also a beat boxer directly outside our flat. Free entertainment is a common thing.
6. People generally like Americans here. One of the sketchy London characters I mentioned earlier probably told me he liked my accent 100 times. It's funny because we Americans love the British accent way more than our own!

It hasn't rained hardly at all in the past week after we were getting poured on the first couple of days. Everything is so fantastic, merely looking out the window and embracing that I live here is fun. My coworker, Elaine, assured me that I will undoubtedly fall in love with London after a semester here, and never want to leave. I think she might be right.