Culture/history-filled weekend!

If you’ve looked on Flickr, you can tell I’ve uploaded about 1300 more pictures. I feel the need to upload them right away so I don’t get lazy and then never do it…so now those 12 on 12 are kind of buried. Looks like you’ll have to sift through all my adventures to get to them…or I could just cowboy up and organize them into albums buuuuut that day hasn’t come yet. Soon, dear friends, soon.

This weekend was fantastic!! Friday morning around 9am Laura, Liz and I went to the Wicked box office to try and get daytickets (on the day of the Friday night show, the box office opens up the front 24 seats for only 25 pounds) – which we did! We were the first people in line, so it was no problem getting our front row center seats! After we secured the tickets we came back to the a-p-t, had lunch and then headed back out to the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. They were really really cool. As you can see from the tons of pictures I took. After a few hours there, we came home and relaxed for a bit, had dinner (Sainsbury’s sells mini garlic and coriander naan, and these little packages of baby corn and asparagus...so don’t even think I didn’t have the best stir fry and bread EVER. ‘Cause I did) and then got ready for Wicked!!

It was SO GOOD. I have read the book (and now must go home and read it again) but hadn’t seen the show. To borrow from the lovely Meghan Housley: A.Ma.Zing. For serious. I think I might have been on the verge of tears during 90% of the show. Does that make me a little bit geeky!? Yes. Do I care about this? Not so much. After the show we went across the street to a pub called The Shakespeare. We got drinks and then these English guys tried to pick us up, and it was a little weird but I suppose a little fun. Consequently, this was the night that our aliases were born…Hi, I’m Christy West, nice to meet you. Ha. So ridiculous. Though CDubbs is my second draft, I was Beth that night…KK, that’s a shout out to you and that time we went to Clyde’s and those weird guys came up to us and you were Beth (I was Veronica, I believe?) and I told them I couldn’t dance because I had one leg significantly shorter than the other.

Aaaaanywho. So Saturday morning we got up and went on a BUNAC trip to Bath and Stonehenge! We went to Stonehenge first, for about an hour. It was a beautiful day for it! As soon as Laura Turner gets her pics on the world wide webs, I’ll have some seriously absurd jumping pictures for you, haha. We were THOSE people. Love it. There were also a lot of This is Spinal Tap references. :-)

Next came Bath, which absolutely deserves a return trip. Jenna, Billy, Justin and I grouped together and walked around, got some lunch from that Boston Tea Party place you see in my pictures. I took a picture, geekily, of the falafel wrap I got, because it was SOOO GOOD. That’s the best one I’ve had next to Amsterdam Falafel in Adams Morgan. So after lunch we went into Bath Abbey, then up to see the architecture at the Circus and Royal Crescent, then to the Jane Austen museum. We didn’t do the Roman Baths this time, but we’re planning on going back. We only had 3 hours there, and there is just too much to do to fit all into that time. It’s such a nice place.

After a two and a half hour bus ride, we were finally back in London. We stopped by our flats for a second, then went out to a pub down the street called the Eagle. It’s kind of dive-y in a hipster-y kind of way, but not full of itself. Is that the world’s most obnoxious description? Probably. But it was so much fun. They had a little cabinet set up with tons of old board games, so there were some rousing games of Connect Four and Sorry happening from our table! We stayed for a couple of hours and got home around 11. We definitely made the most of our day!

So I don’t have any clue as to what is in store today…probably just a museum or something. Again, we have to mentally prepare ourselves for another week of work!

12 on 12...ish.

Okay, so I didn’t really do a 12 on 12. My apologies. But I did, however, upload 12 pictures…so it will have to suffice! Some of them I actually did experience today…we’ve been staring at that film crew all night and day…we still haven’t seen them do anything yet. We are waiting patiently. And I went to work today. I was working on this really cool thing, actually – I was in charge of writing a position statement on London’s cultural legacy action plan for the 2012 Games. After what I’m sure will be heavy editing, it should be put in the NCA’s Friday Briefing that goes out to all its members (about 500 orgs/people). Hooray!

In other news, our whole apartment is abuzz because we allll just bought tickets to go to the Hard Rock Calling festival in Hyde Park on June 28th…Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Jason Mraz, Robert Randolph and more! We are SO excited…can’t even handle it.

Tonight we’re just hanging out listening to music (the aforementioned artists…we’re gearing up!!) because tomorrow morning we’re going to try and get discounted tickets to see Wicked tomorrow night…tickets are limited so wish me/us luck!!!

Saturday we’re going to Bath and Stonehenge, and probably going back to O’Neill’s that night. Consequently, Sunday will most likely be spent sleeping.

That is all from the UK, for now!

My quintessential London day, First day of work

We left off as I was headed out to Boots and Carphone Warehouse, both of which were very kind to me. I came back home, took a shower, packed a lunch and made my way to Hyde Park for an afternoon of relaxing, sunning, reading and people watching. There were a few different bands/concerts going on, and I found a nice spot under a tree to eat lunch and call the ‘rents. It was nice to hear their voices. After I spent the majority of my minutes talking to my parents, I moved to a sunny area and laid in the grass and soaked in the sun for a bit. It was a beautiful day so I decided to walk past the Hyde Park tube and just make my way through the city – ended up walking past Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Sq. on the way. No big deal. I got back home, had a little snack, and went with some fellow gmu’ers to the sports pub across the street (Offsides) to watch some of the Poland/Germany Eurocup game. Ellen, Traci and I left after Germany scored (YEAH) to go try and get on the London Eye…we didn’t get there in time, unfortunately. Instead, we walked across the Millennium foot bridge by St. Paul’s/Tate Modern, and had dinner at a pub along the Thames. I had dinner at a pub along the Thames. At sunset. It was so picturesque and perfect. We then walked along the river for a bit, considering walking to Parliament, but it was waaaay to much of a hike so we just picked up a different tube station home. Such a wonderfully Londonish day!

Today was great in a different way. I will address the only downside first: I was effing hot almost the entire day. I got on the tube just fine, ended up getting to work about 15 minutes early. I met Louise, the director of NCA, and Filiz and Neena, two of the interns. Neena is British and Filiz is Turkish. Both really nice, but I unfortunately didn’t get to spend much time with them. I went with Louise to a conference right away (or, straight away as my colleagues would say) in the Primrose Hill area. Very pretty! The conference was an initial consultation of a ton of different arts organizations around the country to discuss the creation of a national manifesto or agenda for arts/crafts participation. It was really interesting, and kind of funny in a way. The US is not so different from the UK in that when everyone gets together to discuss a particular item…that item is the last thing actually discussed, if at all. It was a typical conference; lots of preaching to the choir and passionately and intensely debating irrelevant issues which don’t directly contribute to actual progress.

For some ungodly reason, I decided to volunteer to be the person in our group to write our ideas on one of those giant notepad easel things – even though this country technically speaks English, I definitely worked on my listening skills. It was kind of a challenge but I’m glad I tried to help out. The conference ended at 4 and we went back to the office. I typed up my notes and started writing a narrative about the event to be put in the weekly Friday newsletter. Louise said it was excellent and right in line with what goes in the newsletter. Yay me! I think my biggest concern was (and still kind of is) that I have such a different background and perspective, that even if I work really hard and produce my best work, it just won’t have the right feel or the right tone - 'cause that can't be taught. But so far, so good! Also, at the conference, they were giving out those little flash drive things. SCORE! So to recap: it’s hot as hell but after my first day of work I already have a free flash drive and more to add to my body of arts administrative writing.

Good news bears.

I'm a tourist, I'm a tourist

(post title should be sung to the tune of Rock Me Amadeus)

I was a supertourist on Friday and Saturday. Friday we spent all day on a hop-on/hop-off bus tour of London – the pics are already on flickr. We walked around St. Paul’s, across the Millennium Bridge, by the Globe, and right in front of the London Eye. (Haven’t done the London Eye yet, but it’s on our lists.) Bus Tour was fun – we got to see evvvverything. Traci and I ended up staying on the bus for a little bit longer after a few of our friends left, so in total, we were doing this bus tour for a little over 6 hours. SIX. After we had gone around the whole tour about 1.4 times (seriously), we got off at Buckingham Palace, walked the mall road along St. James Park to Trafalgar Square, and took the tube home. Needless to say we were incredibly tired and didn’t do anything that night. Besides, Thursday kind of made up for it. Also, my camera battery unfortunately ran out of juice about ¾ of the way through so I don’t have any pics of Buckingham Palace or Trafalgar Square…but I’m sure we’ll be stopping by those places again!

Saturday morning we took a Boat Tour down the Thames to Greenwich. So great. It was nice to get out of the main city area London, though it’s not like I’m sick of the “city life” or anything. It was just cool to experience a different area. And stand on the Meridian line!! I was standing in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres at the same time, so…there. The official marking is at the Royal Observatory, which stands atop a hill in Greenwich Park. It was so beautiful! We then walked around Astronomy and Maritime Museums, and had lunch in a French café in the city, and walked through a local marketplace. So nice! It was such a great area, I would not be opposed to going back.

Next, we took the boat back to the Tower of London and did all the stuff there. That was one of the things I actually remember doing from the last visit, and it was equally good this time. Seeing the Crown Jewels is definitely worth the price of admission. That’s what she said.

Last night we stayed in, watching the Turkey v. Portugal Euro Cup game and just kinda hanging out. A relaxing night in after another day of walking! I can’t believe we’ve been here for 5 days now! It still feels like we got here yesterday.

Towards the end of yesterday, I developed some cold-like symptoms. I refuse to call it a cold because I will not be stopped. I think I might just not be used to the air here yet. At least that’s what I’m going to tell myself. Everyone is going off in smaller groups today, so my plan is to take it easy and run some errands and maybe hang out in a park or something. I’ve got to wind down and mentally prepare myself to start work tomorrow.

I’m excited about starting work, but nervous. Since being here, you kind of realize that you take your “comfort” at home for granted. Knowing the customs, the slang terms, how to do simple, everyday things, etc. That is all stuff that you learn from birth that you don’t really realize you have knowledge of. Does that make sense? It’s just, it’s an odd feeling to have to figure out how to do these mundane, simple things all over again – even when you’re in a big, English speaking city. It’s fun and exciting, but it can be kind of draining too. Maybe it’s the cold medicine talking, I don’t know. But I think that these kinds of feelings might be exacerbated by the fact that starting tomorrow, I will be surrounded with another aspect of British culture, dealing with it largely on my own (by that I mean, I’m not working with any other Americans). It’s just a little fear I’m experiencing now, but I am 100% confident that it will subside after the first couple of days. This trip is all about getting out there and experiencing it all and pushing fears to the side, yeah? Haha, it sounds like I’m taking a trip to some crazy outlandishly foreign place…maybe I should just get over myself, you think?

Okay, Boots and Carphone Warehouse open in a few minutes so I’m off to get my day going. Cheers! (HA I’m ridiculous! I can only type that…definitely not saying anything British yet)

I could get used to this.

It’s Friday morning, and I think I’m finally over the jet lag. I can tell this by the fact that I can fully identify that it is, in fact, Friday. I’m still kind of worn out, but it’s due to yesterday’s activities. I spent allllll day on my feet. I woke up early yesterday after an amazing night of sleep (thank you, Tylenol PM) and did a dry run to my office – found it successfully! It was absolutely beautiful outside so I decided to walk the majority of the way back – I think I was walking for about an hour. It was really nice and I was trying to soak it all in. My office is near the Oxford Circus tube station and I walked back to the King’s Cross (AHHH HARRY POTTER AHHHH) station to hop back on to the Northern line to Angel station, which is the one closest to our flats. (My, don’t I sound British) On my way back home I ran into Katie and Vanessa who were out searching for phones, so I decided to go with them – we went to a ton of stores but everyone was out of the phone we were looking for. We did a little shopping/walking, and went back home for about 20 minutes before we got a larger group together to walk around the Covent Garden area.

I should have taken more pictures. There were street artists, musicians, adorable and amazing-smelling cafes, and a ton of stores. We walked down the Strand and got some coffee from Café Nero, ducked into Topshop for a bit and I got a wrap to eat later from what might be my new favorite place to get food. (side note: there is one near my office and it might be a problem for me to not go there everyday. End side note) Still in search of phones, we took the tube over to Oxford Circus (my second visit of the day!) and pretttttty much dominated Oxford Street, and every Carphone Warehouse and 3 Store in sight. We went into a few stores, and found ourselves at Selfridges. Has anyone ever heard of this place?! It’s like Tysons II on CRACK. There are like 87 floors of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, etc etc etc. We saw an Armani cell phone. Seriously. WTF. As a girl who lives for Target, I obviously didn’t buy anything but it was kinda fun to look around.

From Selfridges we navigated the tube back to Angel, and went directly to Arc, the bar that is right up the street from our place. On Thursday they do 2-for-1 cocktails so…I don’t think it warrants any additional explanation. We stayed there for a while and then headed over to Piccadilly Circus, and went to a bar called O’Neill’s. We got drinks and some finger food and sat at a table in front of a floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked Chinatown. Hi, London. What’s up. I love you. About half of our group departed and 5 of us went to the 3rd floor, which plays live music after 11pm. I had such a blast. We had a few drinks and jammed out to an incredibly fun live band. We took the Night Bus home and finally arrived back safely at our flat around 2am.

If you’re keeping score, I was out from 10am to 2am. Walking. All day. Dancing. I’m just a bit sore today. But I’m not complaining. I was taking advantage of everything that was thrown my way and didn’t stop for a second – which is the goal of being here, really. Especially this week, when we don’t have to work yet. Once we start the ol’ 9-to-5s, things will naturally slow down.

I have no idea what the plan for today is, but I’m cool with it. Check the flickr for more photos of my London shenanigans. :-)

PS: Wednesday was busy too but not as much. We went to two orientations, ate at our first pub of the trip, and later went out for a drink in an Islington pub up the street from our place. Also, the restaurants here are AMAZING and I want to eat at all of them. The end.

I'm a Stereotypical American, Overpacking Edition.

[It’s about 3:15pm here…we’re all lounging around, napping, clicking away on laptops, whining about how tired/loopy we are – waiting around until 6pm when we’re going grocery shopping. I thought I’d take some time to get my first thoughts down]

This first part I wrote as I was waiting for my flight out of Dulles….

***

If you’re curious, the checked-bag weight limit for United is 50 lbs. Frank Benson told me it was 70 lbs – he is not what the youngsters call “with it”. As I’m checking in, the attendant says “well, your bag is over the limit” (No surprise there. No matter what limit they give me, I’m sure to exceed it – I’m American, I need EVERYTHING I OWN because it’s ESSENTIAL to my LIFE) and then follows that up with “aaaand I need you to take 2 lbs out”. The scale said 72 pounds!! Seventy-effing-two!? Did Frank slip in Parker when I wasn’t looking?!

…actually, that would have been awesome. I miss him already.

I took out a few shirts and a pair of shoes that brought it down to a healthy 70 – then I paid my $50 Heavy Bag fee and was on my way. Had I left those 2 pounds worth of crap in the bag, I would be out $350 bucks right now. Like 5 minutes into my trip. Yikes.

If we’re keeping track: in my efforts to become more cultured, so far I’m sticking to my superficial-materialistic-consumer roots like nobody’s business…not exactly the way I wanted to start out. At least it was still on US soil so maybe it doesn’t technically count?! Maybe?! Honestly, I’m a little bit scared about the return trip now…

Side note: who wants to bet I brought more with me than Rosa did for her traveling adventure?! I would not be surprised…so sad.

So for now I’m sitting in the waiting area in front of my gate, with my slightly heavier carry-on bag, about 40 minutes away from boarding dee plane. Then my real adventure begins as I have to navigate a bajillion pounds of ESSENTIAL PERSONAL ITEMS through the streets of London to our designated meeting point.

***

Our story continues as I am getting on the hotel shuttle bus at Heathrow. The guy took my bag and grimaced as he attempted to heave it into the back of the bus. He says “You know, most people come to London to BUY things! You came to sell?!?!” and then followed that with “we’re not a third world country yet!” With his subtle commentary of my packing skills, I then resolve to either throw away half my belongings, or seriously consider shipping some stuff home.

The running commentary in my head as I was taking the hotel shuttle bus into the city was as follows: “HOLY SHIT LONDON, good god I’m tired, I need coffee, HOLY SHIT LONDON, the store ‘Bathrooms etc’: what is the etc?, I am SO tired and the United coffee tasted like ass, Aww look at the London people crossing the street looking all cool with their Londonness, HOLY SHIT LONDON”.

Something like that.

Bye! More later, maybe pictures!

Happy Birthday Kelley!!!!!!!!!

update: the first few pics!

London Calling

Just wanted to get one last post in before I go – plus I said I’d write something if Dan updated theirs…and who would I be if I didn’t hold up my end of the deal?

Uhm, I would tell you what I’ve been up to since May 19th, buuuuut you all know that I’ve been spending a lot of time with my boyfriend West Wing. Well, I guess you could say we’re on a bit of a break. I finished with him last Monday, the day before my birthday, how do you like that?! Anyway, I’ve spent the past few days not knowing what to do with myself since he’s been – okay, I think the relationship nonsense has gone on long enough, don’t you!? I think it passed sad a long while ago. Oh well. We’re just gonna move right along now.

So! LONDON! TOMORROW! For first time in my history of packing I am ready over 20 minutes in advance. Crazytown USA. I’ve got everything in there except the stuff I need to get ready tomorrow. I’m leaving the house around 7pm but I’m probably going to spend the day running around frantically with last minute shenanigans.

Okay, that’s enough from me – this was completely pointless. Dan, even though I posted, I’m sorry it sucks so hard. (that’s what she said AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)