Yes, I am verging on the three week mark to being behind on my blog. I am sorry friends! These past 3 weeks have been full of good stuff, which is why I haven’t had the time to blog. So here is my attempt at remembering everything….
March 5th weekend
On Saturday I went to the British History Museum with Peter and Dan. They had a lot of stuff on display from around the world including pieces of the Parthenon and THE Rosetta Stone. Fun fact: everything in that museum has been stolen. Apparently people have been begging for the pieces of the Parthenon to be returned but the Brits are not complying. Of course we can’t go to a museum without posing with a few statues. That’s all fun and games until Dan decides it would be a GREAT idea for him to lift me up so it looks like my head is in this large lion statue’s mouth. Peter and Dan are certain we are going to get this picture before we leave the museum. I say of course I am NOT putting my head in this lion’s mouth……. So finally I agree to let Dan lift me into the mouth (I am not happy about it mind you.) We get to the lion and there is a huggeee group of people standing around it. So everyone was just standing around staring as Dan hoists me up and I lean over acting like this lion is biting me. The things I do for their enjoyment…. Sheesh.
Dan the #1 Rams fan
Peter and Dan horsing around (and copying the sculpture)
Me casually beating up Peter
"No Dan, I will not let you lift me up into that lion's mouth...."
.... With 50 people watching on....
On Sunday I went to Greenwich. Greenwich is a borough more on the outside of London. It was absolutely beautiful. I went with Callie and Jordan and we all agreed that we felt like we were in a little village more so than London. There was a market there (of course) with amazing food and cool trinkets. Other places we went to there included: The Maritime Museum, the Queen’s house and the Prime Meridian.
Guy who looks like Jude Law and makes chocolate masterpieces... Perfect husband material
YUM! chocolate covered strawberries with hazelnuts and marshmellows
creeping on a small child in the flowers
The Queen's house
view from the Prime Meridian
Me straddling the Prime Meridian
Jordan, Callie and I at the Prime Meridian
Chirizo and chips- fries=chips here. A traditional spanish dish and SOO DELICIOUS... I am salivating just thinking about it...
Monday March 7- Wednesday March 9- a.k.a. the royal wedding shoot extravaganza!!
This week everyday we had a shoot for our royal wedding packages. Fox has a contract with Paul Burrell who was Princess Diana's best friend and butler. We had him take a train down from Manchester where he lives to act as a Royal commentator. On Monday we were just doing a basic shoot with him at his hotel on some general questions about royal wedding details and protocol. Fox has him shacking up at the brand new 5 star “W” hotel. I even got some complimentary cucumber water which I enjoyed immensely. (It’s the little things.) We also got his opinion on Wills and Kate's relationship and what he thought Diana would think of it now. For this shoot I helped the cameraman a lot with the set up and mostly just watched and learned as Amy Kellogg conducted the interview. Paul confirmed my beliefs that, yes, Harry is the cooler Prince.
On Tuesday we went on a guided tour of London that highlighted places in Kate and Wills past and present. I learned some pretty nifty details about Kate and Wills’ relationship and other tidbits. Plus Paul was giving his two cents about when he worked at the palace. If you ever want to know some dirt, I got it baby, but I know wayyy too much to put it on a public blog. ;) I was a real intern that day and carried around the cameraman’s bag and the “sticks” a.k.a. the tripod and made sure bystanders didn’t walk into the shot of the camera. Tiffany, our producer (and my favourite) told me I was the Sherpa for the day. I had Amy’s bag on one arm, Paul’s coat on the other, Dave the cameraman’s backpack of stuff on my back and the tri-pod in my hands. Needless to say, my biceps were sore the next day. I could possibly be on national television because in the package, you can constantly see me in the back of the shot trying to tell people to move. I said I was like “Where’s Waldo” that day. Or if you’re British, “Where’s Wally.”
Then on Wednesday we did a shoot at a flower shop with the owner telling us what floral arrangements she thought the royals would use. The flower shop owner is Judith Blacklock and she was soooo cute! She has written a lot of best sellers on flowers and she used to do flowers for the Queen. She reminds me of everyone’s favourite grandma. (But never better than Grandma or Granny of course.) I helped decide what shots we would use and semi-produced the shoot. After that shoot I decided, who needs broadcast, I am going to become a world-renown florist. Judith proceeded to not only give us cookies, tea and coffee, but also everyone got their own bouquet (including the guys) and a Judith Blacklock Bag. Don’t mind. At all.
At the national history museum- he growled and moved... SPOOKY
shout out to Missouri!
The flowers Judith made me!
On the walking tour. Mahiki is one of the princes favorite nightclubs. William apparently racked up a bill of 11,000 pounds there the week after him and Kate temporarily broke up. From left to right: Hana the tour guide, Paul Burrell, Amy Kellogg, Dave the cameraman, Tiffany our producer
St. James Palace- Charles lives here, William and Harry work here
Paul Burrell and Judith Blacklock in her flower shop
On Thursday Dan and I boarded a bus to head to Brussels to visit SOPHIAAA!! Yes, I said a bus. And yes, the trip was 8 hours long. Instead of going under the chunnel ( the tunnel under the English Channel) on the way there we actually loaded up on a ferry which was comparable to a cruise ship on the inside. When we actually got on the ferry it was about 3 a.m. so we just slept but there were restaurants, game rooms and a casino there! We got into Brussels at around 5 a.m. All Dan and I had were the directions we had written down from Google maps and so we kinda winged-it to get to Soph’s flat. Sophia’s flat was massive compared to mine and everyone had their own bedroom WITH double beds. It’s OK. I’m not jealous…. On Friday we walked around Brussels. It was beautiful outside so we got a famous Belgium beer and sat out in the sun. (We also got a Belgium waffle with chocolate and strawberries… SOOOO GOOD.) Brussels has this famous statue that is a little baby peeing. His name is Manneken. Apparently countries pay thousands of euros just to put their flag on Manneken… why? I dunno. Saturday night everyone went to Sensation. Sensation is this huge rave that is put on several places around the world every year. They bring in some of the best DJs from around the world and it is an all-night dance party rave. It was one of the coolest things I have ever been to. Everyone was wearing white , the lights were so awesome and I got to dance the whole time, which I am never opposed to. Sunday morning Dan and I realized after we got on the metro to the bus station we didn’t know what other metro we were supposed to take. So again, we hoped for the best and hopped on the most familiar looking train. (I will credit Dan for this because I was just sitting there silently freaking out that we were going to miss our bus.) Then when we got on the bus the real fun started. We had several crying children, people who hadn’t taken bathes in 10 years (according to the smell) and some weird lady who kept looking at me when she was telling her stories LOUDLY. Need I mention this lady was wearing hot pants, had blue eye shadow UNDER her eyes and had her lip pierced. She thought she was 15, she was probably 50 something. Our bus driver, along with the rest of our bus, liked to take 20 minute smoke breaks everytime we stopped AND the seats were not comfortable so we couldn’t even sleep. It was so pleasant. But we made it home. On this trip we actually took the chunnel. Our bus loaded onto a train that went through the chunnel. Pretty nifty. The trip to Brussels was sooo funn and it was really good to get to see Sophia. Plus, I got to spend 16 wonderful hours on the bus with Dan. I am sure he would agree if he was reading this blog.
Sophia and Dan!
Belgium beer in this cool square they have in Brussels
Manneken
Outside the belgium waffle shop. Dan and fake, much larger Manneken
yummmm
The EU
What Dan wore to Sensation.... I couldn't get over it the entire night. Sinbad from Abu Dhabi. THE. PANTS.
Some the of Brussels kids
Sensation- there were about 40,000 people there
Week of the 14th—St. Patty’s Day week- Heyyooo
This week at work all I did was verbate the interviews we had done in the previous week. I also helped write a script on how Kate will deal in the limelight. Thursday was of course, St. Patty’s day. We had an “Irish tour” with our class that day. The tour guide was not too terribly interesting. And he had a bit of a spitting problem. If you were unlucky enough to stand within a 5 ft. radius of him you were in, as Peter so fittingly labelled, “the spray zone.” Thursday night I went out with the boys. We tried to go to O’Neil’s with the entire group but the line was too long so we went to Waxy’s instead. It was a great time completed with the night ending in “Cotton-Eyed Joe” and the whole club linked arms and was jigging. Afterwards a man was playing a bagpipe by a fountain near the tube station and everyone was dancing… including the girl who climbed into the fountain. I think I can safely say London enjoyed their St. Patty’s day.
Saturday, Jordan, Peter and I went to Borough Market, which I believe is the largest food market in London. There were a lot of free samples of things so we basically walked around and poached all of the samples off of the stands. I tried pate which is a spread made out of liver, it was surprisingly delicious. At one of the stands you could get a kangaroo burger. I resisted on that one. Plus the line was long…?
The Shard- it is going to be the tallest building in Europe when it's done.... or that's what Peter told me
Saturday night the girls (and Dan, much to the amusement of the other guys) stayed at Kelsey’s aunts house because Kelsey is housesitting for them. Kelsey is an amazing cook and made us all a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, sausages, crème broulee French toast and fruit (hence why Dan was no dummy and stayed with us.) It was nice to be at an actual house and everyone got their own comfy massive bed.
Sunday, we got up and went to take the classic walking across the cross-walk at Abbey Road pictures. Abbey Road is a few blocks down the street from our flat and right down the street from Kelsey’s aunts. It was absolutely beautiful and sunny outside. After that Dan and I decided to go to Camden Market. The borough of Camden is known for housing more of the punk crowd. A lot of people there label themselves as “cyber punk.” Think of weirdly dressed people, combine that with neon colors and you have cyber punk. One of the most popular stores in Camden is called Cyber Dog. It is popular not necessarily because everyone is shopping there but because it is so… weird. Everyone who works there is cyber punk and when you walk in the door they are playing techno (which is actually not weird for London) but they had dancers up on balconies. The guy dancer was popping and locking which was pretty cool. I could have stood there and watched them for a while but I would have looked (and felt) pretty awkward. They sold the most bizarre neon clothing I have ever seen in my life. And the workers…. One guy had piercings all over his face and he had dreads. Each dread was either neon blue or green. I don’t’ remember his clothing but it was bizarre too. Just picture Goth clothing but just with splashes of neon color. Camden Market was mostly clothing. There was everything from cute boutiques to Rastafarian to those weird graphic tees with howling wolves. There was also food of course but we resisted. I really liked Camden because it was literally a maze of these shops and stands, when from the street, it didn’t look like it went very far back. Sunday night Dan, Peter, Jordan, Emily and I went on the Jack the Ripper walking tour. We went with Donald Rumbelow, who is the number one expert in the world on Jack the Ripper. As we walked from site to site, Donald was so good at narrating the tour and made it sound like a story (a scary story of course.) We went to several sites where Jack actually killed his victims. The Jack the Ripper tour only happens at night so it was kind of spooky but very interesting and cool. Jack the Ripper only killed women prostitutes. Well Dan wanted to know why he only chose this particular group of victims but was too big of a baby to ask. So he asked me to ask Donald. Everyone else, including myself, in our little group was wondering so being the journalist that I am, I decided to buck up and ask the question. Mind you there were probably around 50 people in our group. So I asked Donald why he thought Jack only killed women prostitutes when he definitely had the chance to target other victims. Basically Donald either didn’t understand my question or didn’t know the answer because he didn’t answer it and after we went back and forth, me questioning and him not answering, it ended on an awkward note. I was “that girl” in the tour. However, I knew my questions were not dumb because other people in our group kept trying to speak up and help me ask him. As we walked to our next spot of the tour Dan said, “Well thanks anyways.” Yeah, you’re welcome. Despite the fact that I stumped Donald and he wasn’t appreciative of it, I definitely recommend this tour for anyone who comes to London and wants to do something like this. It was pretty rad.
Abbey Road Studios- Where the Beatles produced their album..... Emily has the pictures of us walking across Abbey Road on her camera
The Abbey Road crew- Emily, Dan, Kelsey and Jordan
My writing on the Abbey Road wall. Inspirational. I know
Weirdest. Store. Ever.
Dan picking the horse's nose. We're mature.
Tonight (Tuesday March 22) We are going to see Les Miserables with my class for freeeee! We had the choice of going to see The Lion King and Les Mis. I decided to go see Les Mis to culture myself since I really don’t know what it’s about and it’s supposed to be really good.
Welp, that was a lonnnnggg update. Hopefully I won’t put my blog off for this long again but knowing me….
I leave for Spring Break on Thursday night. I am going to Florence with Jordan, Emily, Dan and one of Dan’s friends Greg. Then Dan, Greg and I are going to Rome. Then on Wednesday, Dan and I are jet setting to Berlin to meet up with the other guys. We get back to London on Saturday because Sophia will be in town. I have a pretty exciting week to look forward to!
Ciao peeps!
