LONDON

TOMORROOWWWW

2011-04-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

TOMORROW IS THE BIG DAY!!! and it's also my last day in London :(((((((
So in preparation for tomorrow me and some of the girls (Tiffany and Jenna- producers) decided we had to get hats or fascinators because EVERYONE wears hats to the Royal Weddings (duh!) We ended up getting headbands (that look like fascinators/hats) from this store called Accessorize. It's like a MUCH nicer Claires because it has just a bunch of jewelry, headbands, etc. When we got back from buying the hats David Emanuel was in our tent. He was the one who designed Princess Diana's dress! Tiffany and I went up and showed him our hats and he told us how to wear them and do our hair. It was really cool. So because I so excited for this hat tomorrow (even though I have nothing to wear) I decided to give everyone a sneak peek.
SIDENOTE: Yes, I did take this picture myself. Please refrain from making fun :)

How fun is that hat!?!

Today when I was coming back from my last class and last presentation of the semester (!!) I saw people from Missouri camping out... which was pretty weird... especially since they were college students. As I was walking away from talking to them I saw everyone crowding around the Clarence House (where Wills, Harry and Camilla/Charles are staying tonight, Camilla and Charles permanent residence) I got front row seats and saw three cars drive by except the windows were so tinted you couldn't see anything :( bummer dude. That could be the closest encounter I am going to have to the royal family. Apparently Harry had already driven by though and that is the only one I care about. hehe

Anyways tomorrow is a HUGE day. I better go off and pack because who knows when I will be able to do so if I don't do it now. Look for me on T.V.!! (just kidding)

To leave you on an exciting note: We already decided Tiffany, Kim and I are going to use the advantage as being part of the media and watch Wills and Kate kiss on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. Hollaa!

this week in short version

2011-04-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

Since it is royal wedding week I figured I could do a royal wedding blog.....

This is the Green Park media station. Literally all of the big news stations in the States (and world) are here. We are stationed right next to CNN and CBS. NBC and ABC are right across the path. The big white building are our tents (which are more permanent than tents)

Inside our tent. The table right in front is where Martha has been sitting all day. All the tables are labeled for production, daytime, fox and friends, etc. (shout out to me. I made the labels)

That's the Master Control center where they are watching all of the different programs and talking to NY. The guy in the back with the dark hair and the mustache is Pierre. He is one of our cameramen. He's awesome. Tiffany, who is eating chips in the corner of the picture (she is not happy I am putting this up. teehee :) ) is our one of our producers and who I have probably talked about most in my posts. We were the only ones in the office who were actually excited about the Royal Wedding, so we had to share royal goss (gossip) with each other, quietly.

This is our big tent from the outside.

If you go straight down this path, CBS is at the end.

This is the back of the great big studios outside of Buckingham Palace. Everyone who has a studio in here had to pay the big bucks.

And this is the front of the studios. Our main studio is on the top floor, from the farthest away, three little windows over. We also have a smaller studio on the bottom floor. This is is the first closest open box on the the bottom.

looking out from the box on the bottom floor....

.... still on the bottom floor view

.... still on the bottom floor view. The if you see the flags on the left, that little built up shed under those flags is the stand up position.

Someone from NBC doing a stand up in the bottom studios.

A closer look at the stand up position. Most of the smaller affiliates use these more so than the bigger networks.

view from the stand up positions

inside the stand-up

outside of our studio on the top floor

the inside. The sun was really bright so this is kind of hard to see, but these studios really are not that large at all.

A better look.

I actually sat in this chair yesterday. They used me to sit in for Gretchen and Martha because I am the same height and have the same complexion apparently. I went live to NY, not on air obviously, but it was still really cool. They were using me to check lighting and their shots. I had an ear piece in and was talking to New York to check the sound. It was really cool. A girl can dream right?!

I just met Martha MacCallum today and am currently sitting about 5 ft. from Gretchen Carlson for all you Fox News watchers.

Another cool thing I did was go fetch Andrew Lloyd Webber's daughter, Imogen, from Canada Gate to take her to her interview. Apparently she has written some book that has been selling quite well.... regardless she has met the Queen a few times and a bunch of her friends were invited to the wedding. In about ten minutes I am taking Duncan Sandys, Winston Churchill's grandson, to an interview. So I must go. Duty is calling. Sorry I had to write this so fast. There are definitely spelling errors but I just really wanted to update you on this week at least since I have been so bad at updating you otherwise.

And to leave you on a good note here is what I walked out to at the tube station yesterday.... So London.

Got to get back to my duties! Cheers!

royal wedding week

2011-04-25T02:02:00.000-07:00

Going to Westminster Abbey today and all this week to start live coverage of the Royal Wedding! This is going to be an EXTREMELY hectic last week in London for me but it should be fun. Watch for my on the TV (yeah right)

My excuse for not posting in a long time....... I have been busy hobnobbing with the royal family!

Off to Westminster Abbey! I am going to try and put a post with pictures up soon! Ton of projects, work, etc. this week. Wish me luck!

longest post of my life

2011-03-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

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 5^th 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 14^th—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!

weekend in the life

2011-03-06T05:56:00.000-08:00

February 28

On Thursday my class went to brick lane. Brick lane has a history of being occupied by the Jews and is now mostly a Bengali neighborhood. There are Bengali restaurants lining the street (I believe 64 in all.) My personal favorite dish would be the chicken curry. Curry is huge here (and it’s delicious.) The club scene is quite popular right now in brick lane and at night the streets are full of lights and streets vendors with tempting food. Brick lane is also popular for a specific bagel store near the end of the street. They sell the cheapest bagels in Europe (you can get one for 60p.) Most everyone’s favorite bagel is the salt beef bagel. However, everyone failed to tell me that this bagel had a horseradish sauce on it that could literally burn your nose off. After my first (and quite large) bite I was seriously concerned my nose was melting off my face. I have never been a huge fan of spicy but this was RIDICULOUS. I couldn’t even finish my bagel but Peter and Dan had no problem taking it out of my hands. They are such good friends. A lot of famous artists and celebrities live on or right off of Brick Lane including Keira Knightly and some goober who narrated one of the videos we watched in class. There is a lot of modern art scattered throughout brick lane, along with some awesome graffiti. I really need to start taking more pictures. There was also a Queen exhibit that just opened. I have heard it was really cool and it made me think of good ol’ Wacky Zachy back at home.

Oldest Bell Foundry in London, also crafted the Liberty Bell

Keira Knightley's (large) flat

the Queen exhibit

Last Friday was exciting for me broadcast-wise. I helped write a script last week on who Wills (they say Wills here for short, not Will) and Kate invited to their wedding. Our producer originally wrote it and then I changed it around a bit and added some lines. They really liked my editing which was exciting. Then my boss told me since I helped write the script I could voice it for my resume. I was really nervous because you don’t go into this separate booth to voice a track. You are in the same room as everyone else, except in a cubby semi off to the side. Literally as soon as I started talking everyone went silent. I think my first read through was straight up robot style. But after Kim talked to me I eased up a bit and I think it was good.

On Saturday my friends went to Portobello Market. I said I was going to meet up with them later because I wanted to sleep in (surprise, surprise.) When I got up and texted them they didn’t have service. So I decided to go to Portobello alone. Portobello market is one of the biggest and well-known open markets in London. They have a ton of antiques on sale, which were really cool to look at. There was everything from watches to saddlebags to old wedding dresses. And of course there were lots and lots of fresh food stands. You could get fresh fruit and veggies, falafels, crepes, Belgium waffles, stir fry, etc. I treated my lonely self to a crepe. Let me tell you, people were not afraid to throw some bows in the crepe line. That place was dangerous!

the cute houses there were all different colors- side note: this is in Notting

Hill where that Julia Roberts' movie was filmed

Portobello

my crepe. Couldn't even finish it because it was so big

My flat is right next to Little Venice which is a river that goes all the way to Camden Market. There are a lot of house boats that sit on it all year round.

My favorite house near my house. So cute

Sunday was Jordan, my roommate’s, birthday. We went out to celebrate the night before so on Sunday me and 3 other girls went out to eat with her. We went to this Mexican restaurant next to Trafalgar Square, which was surprisingly good considering there are not many Mexican restaurants in London… because its London… and Mexico’s not close….not surprisingly the fish tacos were the best. We were slightly obsessed with our waiter who conveniently happened to look like Gerard Butler. James, if you’re reading this, no worries we are coming back.

I have found over the course of my stay here that I have absolutely no balance. Whenever it’s crowded on the tube and I am stuck in the middle standing with no bars near to hold on to I go into a stage of panic. My lack of balance could cause a terrible embarrassing domino effect if I fall. Last time I craned my arm into an awkward position around a man just to hold on to a bar. He looked terribly annoyed. Sorry guy. It would be WAY more annoying if I fell on top of you.

schtuff

2011-02-21T16:41:00.000-08:00

Things I don’t like:

- The people who named the bus and tube stops. I came across a Clifton Gardens when I decided to take a random bus home from work, which happens to be the name of my street. Do I get off? What are the chances that it will be anywhere near my flat? Slim people, slim.

- Smelly people on the public transportation system.

- When one entire tube line closes during the week… and it happens to be the one I take to work. It took me 2 hours to get to work. That is 1/4 of the time it took me to fly to London from Chicago. And I wasn’t covering nearly as much ground.

sd
Cold toilet seats. (my work has ice cubes for toilet seats.)

s
Six inch platforms and pink spiked mohawks.... but maybe that's just me...

Homeboy works at Sky which is the broadcasting company that we share a building with. He always wears the same outfit. One time when he sat next to me on the bus I tried to cringe my neck to see what he was listening to on his iPod... but failed. I expect he is probably a wannabe rebel with a Michael Bolton music taste.

Things I love:

- My co-workers. We are too fun.

Baz working at his station unknowingly being photographed from the back. Tiffany put the post-it on his back that says "Poop Step" because he came to work with dog poo on his shoe one day.

- How fascinated everyone is with Americans. It gives me a cool edge.

- …. What don’t I love about this place?

- The national wedding show. I went out on a shoot with Tiffany and Pierre to the National Wedding show to get some footage for a package we are going to do on the Royal Wedding. We interviewed a ton of cool people and got a lot of good footage. While Pierre the cameraman was getting some shots, Tiffany and I took the opportunity to try on the tiaras and veils...

there was also a fashion show. This was the most awkward model out of the whole group. She needs to work on her catwalk. I could probably help the girl out...

I had to log the tape today so I took a little snapshot of me doing my stand-up. This one's for you mom.

- Free chocolate in the national wedding show “swag bag.” However I did NOT appreciate the girl who was giving out the free gift bags and chose to give me the cheap one with no ponytail tiara . C'mon lady!

- The fact that The Telegraph (newspaper here) has a royal wedding tab on the website under “News.”

- Hobnobs and Digestives (cookies)

- How Peter and Dan are constantly making fun of me….ooh wait… no… this should probably go into the section above…

- London

I could write a lot more but alas, I am tired and a girl's gotta sleep. Goodnight London, Good evening Columbia!

lists because I'm lazy.

2011-02-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

I have been slacking on the blog. I am very sorry. I have been a little under the weather lately. No worries though! Still having a great time. Since it has been a while I am going to do this in list form. These are all of the things I have done, learned and witnessed in the past week that I remember off the top of my head...

1. Egypt, Egypt, Egypt. As I said before Egypt has been a big issue in our office and we have been mostly in charge of covering it. Our two correspondents, Greg and Olaf, were some of the journalists who made headlines for being attacked by the protestors. They were probably hurt the worst out of all of the journalists from the U.S. so they really made headlines… even Perez Hilton--> http://perezhilton.com/tag/olaf_wiig/ My dad said he saw the interview of John Roberts with Olaf and Greg. I was not actually in that day so I wasn't there for the taping but I heard it was pretty moving.

2. Apparently if you roll a clementine or orange around before you peel it the "pith" (the white part on the inside of the peel) will come off easier. Who knew?!?

3. Sorry Granny but... Larry King has flatuating problems. My co-worker has worked with him before and apparently not only did someone have the job to febreze the place after each take, but someone else had the job of briefing each guest before they went on about his, ahem, problems. HOW AWKWARD!!?? -- still funny though.

4. I am now on first name basis with my favorite person who works at my closest tube station. Tube Stop Tim is THE MAN!!

5. On Sunday I went to a football match with Dan and Peter. We got the tickets for free through CAPA. It was Division II teams. Queens Park Rangers vs. …. It’s slipping my mind now… It was cool to be able to go to a game, even if it wasn’t a big one. The game ended up a tie, 1 to 1. People really do not hold back on things they have to say. One of the things I have noticed while I am over here is cursing is regular and done often. This holds especially true at football games. People can say some pretty raunchy things.

"We're the best in the league, we're the best in the league. We're Queen's Park Rangers. We're the best in the league." - A cheer they did- insert english accent.

6. I planned my trip to go visit Sophia in Brussels!! Dan and I are taking a bus there on March 10^th and coming back that Sunday. I can’t wait!!

7. We visited the Soho area on Saturday and just walked around. Soho hosted the Chinese New Year celebrations in London (which I am so upset I forgot was going on-- love me some crab rangoon.) It has a huge oriental presence but also Soho is home to the gay community. Dan, Jordan and I were going to stop to get something to eat there, but everywhere we were going to go into Dan was a little sketched out about….

China town

8. I am watching Deal or No Deal right now on my tiny worthless box, I mean, T.V. The people who hold the boxes are not models, they are just regular joes. It makes the show that much more hilarious. Everyone is getting way too into it. I feel like I am watching a soap opera. British television does not pale in comparison to ours back home.

9. The weather has been BEAUTIFUL lately. High 40-50s and I don’t mind it at all.

10. I walked around Kensington Palace and gardens. Kensington Palace is where Princess Diana lived before her death. It was really pretty…. However… I couldn’t help but be distracted by the girl who kept talking to and taking pictures of the squirrels. SG (squirrel girl) kept laughing and cooing at this one squirrel and I kid you not, the squirrel JUMPED ON HER LEG!! What may be even more shocking was that the girl laughed. LADY! You have a squirrel attached to your leg! Last time I checked that wasn’t a regular occurence… SO. WEIRD.

Creepy squirrel girl on the search for squirrel.

side shot of Kensington Palace and some gardens

11. Alvaro’s friends from Spain came to visit last weekend. They were all really cool and most of them could speak English pretty well. No one was as fluent as Alvaro and I never took Spanish so gesturing was key to a conversation. I did find that because I have taken French, I could understand some of the things they were saying in Spanish because the language is so similar.

12. We have an inside source (kind of) coming to help us with our packages on the Royal Wedding. It is secret so I can’t divulge my information on my blog but I am pretty excited to get the ball rolling on this.

13. I cut Dan’s hair this weekend. It turned out pretty well I think considering I have never cut anyone’s hair in my life. This was not a buzz mind you. This was a straight up, borrow Demonica’s technicolored scissors and snip away haircut. I got assigned to do this without even volunteering. I was a little nervous at first but as Dan said, “The first cut is the deepest.” Now I am thinking about opening my own salon…. Any takers?

Dan post hair cut. Props to me. (with Jordan my roommate)

14. I walked into work today and was greeted by Tony Blair’s secret service. He had an interview with Fox’s morning show, Fox and Friends, and had to come into our office to tape it. Naturally I took some creepy pictures with my iPhone camera. When he left he smiled and waved at me. We are pretty much best buds now. I am going to ask Ton (we’re on nickname basis) if he can get me the hook-up with Harry. You gotta brush a few elbows, ya know??

Tony Blair with foreign correspondent Amy Kellogg

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY PEOPLE! Any excuse to eat chocolate and celebrate is fine by me!

protests

2011-02-04T03:39:00.001-08:00

We had kind of a scary week with the Egypt protests at Fox. One of our correspondents Greg Palkot, who I think is the greatest and a cameraman were caught inside a building in Cairo on Wednesday that was surrounded by protestors. We received news that the protestors were trying to break in and were searching for all journalists and westerners. The protestors are mostly thugs who are just taking this as a chance to violently loot everyone of their money and journalists of their expensive equipment. Greg contacted us to tell us he was stuck in the building and then we didn't hear anything the rest of the day. We tried to watch it on the news but that wasn't giving us any information on Greg. When I got in today (Friday) I found out that Greg and our cameraman had gotten attacked by the protestors. They had several broken bones, were bleeding and scratched up and had all of their equipment, passports, phones and money taken. They are headed back now. We have been focusing all of our time in the last week on the protests doing live shots and packages every day, but actually having one of our own hurt by the protests really hit home. I hope with Mubarak stepping down this can all come to an end.

My life...

2011-02-03T11:00:00.000-08:00

True story:

Right now I am listening to my friend on his very own radio show via his internship while sitting in my robin-egg blue colored cabinet kitchen. Texas Peter's American Country Hour- he is doing sooo good. and he is hilarious. I will post the link for the next Thursday he does it. I love it.

... Is this real life??

Paree zee citee of luv (pronounced like written)- Don't worry Dad, it is just a commonly used phrase.

2011-01-31T17:15:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went to Paris. I was excited to go considering I took French all through high school and was certain that it would all come flooding back to me as soon as I hit the streets. Alas non (no in french.) I had to ask for directions when we got there…. and that was about the extent of my french speaking. Ou est(where is).... (insert image of me pointing to the map with a questioning look on my face.) This of course was after 45 minutes of aimlessly roaming the streets because we were convinced the french hated us and wouldn't help with directions. People are good. Our hotel was a bit.... small. And the walls were paper thin. And the cleaning ladies like to talk/yell in the hallways at 5 in the morning about their problems in Russian. But our small hotel room felt like a safe haven from the bone chilling streets. The weather felt like a cool -46 degrees... and I forgot gloves. On the plus side we got to see all of the places we wanted to go in only 2 days. This list includes: the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur on Montmartre, the Louvre, Moulin Rouge, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, and more. My favorite place was probably the Notre Dame. I guess majestic would be the word I would use to describe it. It had a real presence as cheesy as that may sound, if it even makes sense. The architecture in Paris is amazing. Almost none of the buildings look modern, so everything matches and it was really pretty.

Yep, you guessed it. The Notre Dame

Asian being attacked by birds while smiling.

Some serious bling.

Casually posing near the Eiffel Tower

Yeah! Friends! (Me and Abi)

Garbage man saw me taking pictures and waved so I chased him down the street to get a picture.

Dan, Abi, Me and Jordan outside the Notre Dame. Those smiles are forced. We are actually freezing.

Inside the Louvre. Me purposefully looking awkward

Posing like the Eiffel Tower. Except for me (of course.) I am reppin' the STL posing like the St. Louis Arch. Dan looks on confused by my choice of pose.

We had to. Jumping for joy at the Arc de Triomphe.

Can-canning outside the Moulin Rouge

My large friend and I

At the top of the hour at night the Eiffel Tower glitters! Really pretty.

I found the apartment I am buying in Paris when I have multiple homes. Naturally it looks like a penthouse.

It's sooo me!

Every other store on every street that I visited besides Champs Elysees was selling souvenirs. Right next to the Eiffel Tower there were men set up on blankets and walking around selling tacky, mini Eiffel Towers. They were quite charming too (no) calling me "Lady Gaga" and telling me how beautiful I was. Then they would say get 1 for 5 cents! I don't know how many times the whole "beautiful" routine works for them but I think they should probably work on some new material. As for calling me Lady Gaga, I can personally thank them for getting "Bad Romance" stuck in my head the rest of the day. One would think, now why wouldn't you be a bit more creative than selling mini Eiffel Towers in front of the Eiffel Tower since that was literally what practically everyone was trying to sell. Well, some people were getting.. ummm creative..? And were selling "dancing" cows that looked like they were having a seizure rather than dancing. I was tempted to buy it for my family on the farm, but decided to save myself the extra dollars and them the awkward reaction when they opened it.

We got crepes (obviously) while we were there. I was excited to get my banana and chocolate Nutella crepe until I saw they only put a slab of Nutella on top. I wanted them to load that baby up! Nothing is worse than someone who is stingy with their Nutella.

I saw Mona at the Louvre. Good thing people prepared me for it because she was just a small ol’ painting. (I prefer to call her Mona now instead of the Mona Lisa because I feel that since I saw her in person, we are on first-name basis.)

Small Mona, Small girl near Mona. Check the size.

My personal favorite part of the Louvre, posing like the statues.

The Louvre at night

On the flight back, Dan commented on how it was the first time he had ever had a female pilot. Me too maybe, I am not sure. However I am sure that I hope she is not my last so I can regain my faith in women pilots. The flight back was fine mind you, nothing to be worried about. But boy did she just PLOP us down on that runway. I still laugh every time I think about it. Everyone was just bouncing up and down in their chairs trying to not look alarmed. Hilarious.

Overall, Paris was really fun and I am so glad I got to go and see all of those places. I was really happy to be back in London though because it is so much cleaner here. And the whole sharing the English language thing is quite nice as well. AND I got to see Grandad on Skype when I was talking to my family which was really awesome J

Today at work we had 2 people come in from the States to do some live shots on the riots in Egypt. Fox thought it would be nice to have our newsroom as the background. Here I am pumped that I will be looking journalistic in the background of a live shot on national television… but no. They moved me to the desk across from mine. Just a mere three feet away from stardom, rats. I kept trying to casually scoot my chair over but I never made it into the shot. Maybe next time…. However, I did help edit the package for the six o’clock news. So if you happened to be watching Fox at six and saw the story on the riots in Egypt and their President Mubarak, I helped with that!!

Well I am pretty sure I have about 83 run-on sentences in this post, but I am too lazy. Au revoir et bonsoir!!!

The Moscow terrorist attack

2011-01-24T10:58:00.000-08:00

I experienced my first serious breaking news at Fox today when Moscow's busiest airport was bombed. Our bureau ended being responsible for all of the live reports so we were busy watching the wires for updates. I had to call a contact concerning whether any planes from America had landed close to when the bomb went off. I figured out several different flights had landed in Moscow earlier that morning. It was really cool watching Greg report live on Fox in America the information that I had just fed him. Luckily so far no Americans have been among the victims. My prayers go out to everyone there.

2011-01-24T05:28:00.000-08:00

I am currently blogging on the bus. Thank goodness the Brits are lax because it is taking me FOREVER to get to work. I don't understand how people drive here because the roads are terribly confusing. Something I admire about the drivers here though is the fact that you virtually never see a wreck... that is, until today. I can honestly say wrecks here are comparable to blizzards in the south. Everyone goes slightly insane. The driving gets worse and the buses stop completely, hence me blogging during my commute. What is supposed to be a 15 minute bus trip took around 45 minutes to an hour. Again thank goodness everyone is relaxed and laid back. I called into work freaking out and my supervisor Kim answered and all she said was, "Oh, no worries. It took me an hour and a half to get to work today. Welcome to London." Truely.

Stonehenge and Bath

2011-01-23T06:02:00.000-08:00

We didn’t have our two classes on Tuesday because our professor from Mizzou was sick and unable to fly out of the States. So, we had our first class Thursday. Although the class is once a week and is going to be three hours long, I think it is going to be really interesting. For a lot of our classes we are going to be going out into the field and touring different sites such as where the 2011 Summer Olympics in London are going to be held. Pretty neat. Yesterday we went to Harrods, the world famous, AMAZING department store. Harrods is known for having the best quality EVERYTHING, spectacular service and if you want anything, literally anything, they will get it for you. It is said that Ronald Reagan once called for a baby elephant to be delivered to his home in California. Done. Harrods is extremely expensive, rightfully so since they have the best of the best in the world. However, this week they are having their big January sale and things were 80% off. It took more willpower than I knew I had to not shop my socks off. I did get a sub there from their food court. Chicken Bacon Club. Holy wow that sandy was GOOOOD.

Friday at work I got my official I.D. for Fox and all my log-ins taken care of. I found out I am going to actually get to go conduct an interview by myself with a cameraman. This is really exciting because something that I actually will be working on is going to be possibly on Fox News in the U.S. We never actually know if Fox is going to use any of these side stories though because they may have all of the slots filled.

Saturday we went to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge was what I expected. "A bunch of rocks." It was still cool though. I was more impressed by how pretty the country side was though. In Bath we saw the Roman Baths with the spring that has been heated since the Romans occupied there. Bath was quaint, yet had a lot of cool shops. I was freezing all day long which is not really my cup of tea. And I was wearing a groutfit (an all gray outfit) so I was exactly styling while I froze. Bad choice of wear all around. We went to eat at a cute pub in Bath called West End. Everyone at our table got fish n' chips. They were dank. So good.

Me and the rocks

Me hobnobbing with the sheep

On the way to bath. The small towns jail... It could fit 6 people. Hope there is not a lot of crime there...

Gigantic masterpiece.

Everyone ordered them and it was WELL WORTH IT!!

The Roman Baths. So pretty

Classic posing in front of the Bath

Bath is also the home of Jane Austen. Jane and I looking pensive.

Modeling at Bath

The countryside in Bath. This picture doesn't give it any justice.

Planning on watching the play-off games tonight at a local sports pub. GO JETS!

Caitlin is my life. (This post was named by Caitlin Adams... weird right?)

2011-01-18T16:56:00.000-08:00

The past few days I have spent getting settled in. Saturday morning we went on a bus tour through London and I saw all of the big places to site see, including my future home Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. It was really cool.

Attempting to spy on the royal family through the windows.

My future home

Peter posing so I can get a picture of the girl on the kid-leash. Classic.

Big Ben in the background. Side shot of Westminster Abbey

Caitlin came to visit me and got here Sunday afternoon. I think she is staying with me until Wednesday morning. We went to Chipotle for dinner (I happen to live only a few tube stops away from the ONLY Chipotle in England. Score!) and then we went to a small pub around the corner with the guys to watch the NFL playoffs and football. I called it soccer in the pub and the bartender (who happened to be listening into our conversations the entire time) told me to stop being disrespectful. --- I would like to interject here and say: GO JETS!

Caitlin on the luxurious bed I made her.

Getting to Fox News was quite the...event. My commute is mostly outside. Cold. It is also around an hour and a half long. Yuck. I have two stops on the tube and then I have to take a bus and then walk to the station. Not bad right? Well, it wouldn't have been all bad if maybe the Gunnersbury Tube Station had changed the signs saying the bus station was one way when really they had moved it to a completely different road. I spent about 15 minutes wandering aimlessly through a neighborhood. God bless the little old man who helped me catch the H91 bus just in time. The people here are actually extremely helpful and friendly I have found thus far. Once I got off the bus I got lost... again. I thought if I made it to Sky Broadcasting Group I would be good to go. Turns out Sky Broadcasting Group has about 15 huge buildings in the same general area. No worries though. I found the newsroom and was not late.

The newsroom is fairly small, but I really like the vibe in there. My supervisor, Kim Miller, happens to be the Head of the London Fox News Bureau, which is so awesome. She already had me logging tapes and calling places about stories, so I am excited to know I will actually be doing something during my internship. She said that since I actually live in the city she may be calling me in the mornings before I come into work and sending me out to actually conduct interviews myself with a photographer and doing stand-ups (so I will be on camera.) I can’t wait. This is going to be awesome for my resume.

Me looking like a tool in my interview outfit.

I took the wrong tube on the way home to which was LOVELY. I sat next to a few delinquents for half of my 2-hour journey home and a girl who liked to describe her last night in FULL DETAIL to her friend on the phone loudly.

Tonight Caitlin and I went and saw Wicked and it was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. The pipes on those people were fantastic. I had goose bumps almost the entire time. I am sad to see her go tomorrow morning L but we had a good time.

Classic step picture. Before our date night :)

When we said we wanted the sign in our picture, we kinda wanted to be in it too.

The Wicked set. The dragon moved. It was awesome.

Oh hey. My hot date.

Ladies be jealous. Me and the men on my trip. From left Peter, Alvaro, me Alex, other Alex and Dan

things I've learned thus far

2011-01-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

What I have learned thus far (mostly from a professor we had a bit of tea and crumpets with):

1. --Real Londoners don’t wear rain boots. Only tourists wear rain boots. And on top of that they are not called rain boots. They are “wellingtons,” but don’t call them “wellies”… just don’t.

2. --Some words have silent letters just to confuse the Americans. For example, the tube station nearest to --our flat is Warwick. It is pronounced Warick.

3. --The Brits have very VERY dry sense of humor.

4. -- Everyone else in the world knows A LOT more about America then we know about his or her country.

5. --Although some Brits may find Americans annoying. A lot of them are just fascinated by us.

6. --Americans are incredibly more noisy than the Brits… whoops.

7. --No one talks on the tube except for foreigners and tourists. Again, Americans are loud.

8. --Everyone here thinks all Americans conceal and carry back at the states. My roommate tiny, precious Emily Allen got asked if she had a gun back at home, which I found particularly hilarious.

9. --Mace is illegal. If they find it on you and you could spend up to 15 years in prison. So no Mom, I don’t think it would have been a good idea for me to bring the mace.

10--The roads are terribly confusing (especially when regarding one-way streets) as to which way the cars are going to come from. I have had some close encounters with some automobiles… eek.

11--According to the girls in the club bathroom last night, Simon Cowell is a very attractive older man.-- Yes, we went to East London last night to a pub and a club. The club was full of dancing and I was in heaven.

12--So far I have not been IDed anywhere where they serve alcohol, but my purse was checked and my guy friends were patted down.

13--You MOVE for commuters who are on the go. Otherwise they will not take kindly to you and will take. You. Down—No worries, hasn’t happened to me yet.

14--The men here are beautiful and I don’t mind it. Walking down the street with these people is like getting a free ice cream cone, such a treat. (Don’t worry dad, no boyfriends for me)

15--There are some weird people in this world.

16--There are a lot of people who put on acts to get money. Last night a woman came up and told us some sob story while fake crying (no tears) and told us she would pay us back somehow, she would even give us her engagement ring. UMMM no thanks lady, move along. Some of my friends gave her money. I am more of a scrooge. —Right after this happened a brit came up to us to check and make sure we knew it was a total scam, what a nice chap.

17--On page 3 of “The Sun,” a newspaper, there is always a naked woman. The professor told us that the other day she had a bikini top on and it was shocking,

18--EVERYONE looks nice every day. I have not seen one pair of sweats. It inspires me to attempt to look presentable.

I received some very exciting news today when we got our internship interview times. Boyana, our internship director with CAPA, pulled the three other broadcast girls who are doing NBC and CBS and myself aside today to tell us that our internships were going to be extra competitive because students from the EU and London all wanted jobs at our placements. I got news that I am going to have to take a train for 30 minutes to get to Fox so we will see how that works out… Anyways Boyana told me that Kim Miller, my supervisor at Fox News, was SO excited to meet me and have an American in the internship position. She said my interview was going to be more like an orientation meeting. When I tried to reach Kim she was busy at a meeting about the royal wedding (!!!!!!) so I emailed her and told her how excited I was and asked when we should meet. She responded with just as much enthusiasm and ended her email with directions and this glorious sentence: “We look forward to you being here - promises to be a busy time with the Royal Wedding coming up”

I just CANNOT wait to find out what my internship entails. I go in on Monday to meet people and sign up for accounts.

I will keep you all posted!

I MADE IT!

2011-01-12T07:39:00.000-08:00

After a change of flights, being stuck in the STL airport on a plane for 2 hrs. and 45 min. and flying 7 ½ hrs from Chicago to London I AM FINALLY HERE!! We got to London at 8 a.m. London time so it was only 2 a.m. back at home. The six-hour time difference is really getting to me. I couldn’t sleep much on the plane because my arm kept falling asleep (weird) so now I am extremely tired. Jet lag= blah.

Sidenote: none of the movies on the plane were any good, but I did read Jen Pham’s book by Chelsea Handler to keep me entertained. I laughed out loud the entire time and thoroughly enjoyed myself, regardless of whether or not I looked like a lunatic. Thanks pham. Oh, and I had to move 3 times because I was sitting in people’s seats. At one point a women caused a huge scene and I happened to be sitting in her son’s chair, cool. She started bawling to the stewardess about how people had been rude to her. (Not me, someone before she got on the plane.) Talk about uncomfortable. Bawlers are not my cup of tea.

Our van ride to our apartment was really cool. We had to drive from Heathrow airport, which is west of London to our apartment northwest of London. So we went through London “proper” and I got to see a bunch of museums, the tip-top of Buckingham palace (Helloooo Harry!) and some other cool things. The city itself is so beautiful. I am in LOVE.

All of the apartments are older and smaller than in America. In our apartments, every one in the building is different (that I have seen so far.) Ours is sort of a loft. Its small but I like it. Two other rooms on the floor below us are both Journalism people too so that’s awesome. Of course both of theirs have a HUGE (compared to ours) living room and kitchen with a vaulted ceiling. The only thing HUGE in our apartment is the incline of the stairs, which could pose a problem on down the line. However, I still love my apartment. I think it is very homey. :)

My room!! Check out those curtains. Whoever styled this room has a real knack for interior decorating....

the end of my bed, closet space and for Granny: see that special calendar on the bulletin board? :)

View from right when you walk in the front door. Our room is to the left. That is the bathroom straight ahead. And of course, the stairs of death that even mountain goats couldn't conquer. They lead to the living room and kitchen.

Our bathtub nozzle.... uhhh...

Our living room/kitchen. Mom will be glad to hear that currently the T.V. doesn't work. Don't you love the robin-egg blue cabinets?! Beautiful.

Me in front of the apartment. HOLLA!

Our neighbors across the street. Also, a very pretty apartment.

Going to tour the neighborhood now. Over and out.