Friday, July 31, 2009
We've Caught the Pig. ♥ 4:03 AM
Well, I think I can easily catch you up on the week after Ireland starting with Monday, July 20th ine one blog post quite easily and then we'll be nearly caught up!
When we got home, our entire flat began coughing and sneezing, loosing our voices and drinking tea to make it all better. Needless to say, it put a bit of a damper on our week and basically all we had the will to do was to go to work and school.
Monday at work we finally finished up our spreadsheets and Jenni finally said the words we'd been waiting to hear, "This afternoon I want you to do a bit of writing." So, Claire and I - and unfortunately the new intern who in our opinion has not been there long enough to be able to write with us, especially considering that she has yet to go to university - are working on very short (about 200 word) stories on unusual jobs that beauty therapists have. I'm writing about Cirque du Soleil make up designers, Claire is writing about a business called Cassinosage that does massages at the tables in Vegas, and Michelle is writing about Pawdicurists (pedicures for dogs).
Tuesday at work we picked salons and spas to be on our reader panel for the month and sent out emails, generally spending the day trying to pass the time as Jenni was our of the office and we didn't really have much to do. We even organized the magazines to put them in order of publication and cleaned off our desks.
I can't really remember what we did Wednesday, but given the way we were feeling my guess is we just stayed home in the morning and read our books and slept until we had to go to class in the afternoon. After class it was most likely more of the same.
Thursday we had to put a few finishing touches on our spreadsheets, and at lunch time Claire and I begged Laura's permission to go home because we were feeling miserable and she gladly let us go. So we spent the rest of the day at home checking the email and trying to recover.
Friday we had our British Life and Culture class and afterward we went home and rested, talked about one of the projects that we have due in the coming weeks. Claire C.'s sister and friend Carlyee came to visit for the weekend, so that night we went out to a club called Cargo with them. Linden and I left pretty early with some other girls in our program, but we ended up taking the wrong bus and it took us quite a while to get home.
The End.
They Speak Irish in Ireland ♥ 2:56 AM
On our last day in Ireland the tour bus took us on a route back to Dublin. The first place we stopped that morning was at a fairy ring. For a country of very Catholic people, the Irish are the most superstitious people I've ever met. Fairy rings are the rings left by temporary houses that people living there many, many years ago had built and long since abandoned and now fairies supposedly live there. If you walk around the fairy ring, which is a bit raised from the ground and thank the fairies as you leave, they may grant you a wish. However if you go inside the fairy ring, you will forever have bad luck. The legend/story is that the Kennedy's must have had a relative who walked into a fairy ring and their family is cursed because of it.Next we stopped at at Poll na Bron, which is a portal tomb. It is a very old
tomb, there are others across Ireland, that they think must have been used as a part of a pagan ritual due to the way that people were buried in them. They are supposed to create a portal for the dead from life to after life.Then we got back on the bus and drove to Clondmacnoise, which is a very old monastery that has a big graveyard and the monastery itself is in ruins. They also have two of the old Celtic high crosses there. It was really cool and scenic, even though it started to rain on us a bit while we where there and Claire took a fall down a little hill.
Then our tour took a different turn and we s
topped for a tour of an old distillery - John Locke whiskey. They no longer make the whiskey there and they only distill a small amount, but they've kept the brewery mostly as it was many years ago and turned it into a museum.Overall, it was an absolutely amazing weekend. Ireland is a beautiful country and I'm so glad we went, and I also thought that our tour was great because it gave us an opportunity to go and see places in Ireland that would have been nearly impossible and so difficult for us to go to on our own. Here's my photos from the trip, I took a lot be prepared for a lot of the same scenery.
The End.
The Gift of Gab ♥ 1:56 AM
Saturday (July 18th) morning we woke up bright and early and first thing our tour bus took us up a hill to where we had a beautiful view of Ireland. Then they took us on a scenic drive that I believe they called "Devils elbow" however after a few minutes Kevin realized that it was too foggy and rainy our for us to see much of the sights that they normally point out.So he suggested that we stop off at a beach instead. Apparently the myth goes that if you dip your feet into the water of this beach, you will leave a part of your soul there and you must return to get it back some day. It was quite cold with the rain and the wind, but we braved it and walked down some old, slippery stone steps and took our shoes off to dip our feet in the even colder water. As you can tell from my photos, it was an absolutely
beautiful beach. I definitely don't mind having to return some day, I only hope it's a nicer day!After we finished up the drive we stopped for lunch in a town, grabbed some water and snacks for the rest of the day and got back on the bus to head to the Cliffs of Moher. However, to get there we first had to take a ferry across the River Shannon. It was pretty fun, freezing and really windy again but it was a good experience.
We were really excited about this particular part of the trip because they are the "Cliffs of Insanity" in the Princess Bride and they are newly in the most recent Harry Potter movie where harry and Dumbledore go to Voldemort's cave. However when we got there, we were excited for another reason. They are an absolute natural wonder. They are so beautiful and
it's such a stunningly long drop from the top that it really just kinda takes your breath away. There was also a tower on the cliffs at one point built by a man who lived there many years ago that was quite full of himself. It was kind of coll to see, but the cliffs were the real sight here.After the cliffs, we got back on the bus and only had a short ride to Dulin - the little town that we would be staying in that night. Exahusted and cold as we were after the long day and previous late nights, we decided to go to a pub nearby for dinner. The majority of us (my flatmates and our new Aussie and Canadian friends)
got beef stew for dinner, and it was amazing. It tasted great and warmed us to the core. We stayed there for a few hours to wait for the live, traditional Irish music to start. There was a hen and stag party there that night (bachlor and bachlorette parties) and betweent that and the general atmosphere of a small town pub it was a great experience. Everyone was talking and knew eachother, dancing, singing and drinking to much. We observed all of this in our half asleep state and realized that going to countries tends to reinforce stereotypes rather than dismiss them, but they're good stereotypes. We also talked to a few locals, and whether it was the amount of Irish beer they drank or their accents it was nearly impossible to understand them.We then went home and showered and went to bed. Finally. Our hostel wasn't quite as nice as the night before, but there were just enough beds in our room for us and the new friends we had made which was nice. No strangers this time.
The End.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Welcome to the ShamRocker! ♥ 8:01 AM
Friday morning we woke up at 7 after very little sleep to check in with our tour group. After trying to figure out a most annoying shower where you would have to push a button every few minutes to keep the water running, and having some toast for breakfast we ambled onto the bus.Our bus driver Kevin was a bit odd, but still cool and had a very Irish accent. It was a nice bus, big and comfy though after a day or two we found it much less comfortable. Our first stop of the day was the Rock of Cashel, which is a really cool old castle but we weren't given time to go into because of time constraints at getting to Kilarney where we were to spend the night.
Next we stopped at the Blarney castle to see the castle and of course, to Kiss the Blarney stone. It's a really cool old castle that you can actually walk through all of it and it seems like it's just been left from exactly the way it was however many years ago (minus the furniture and stuff). Kissing the Blarney Stone was quite the experience, you have to lean over backwards and have some guy that works there hold you so that you can't fall over.
After Blarney we went to Mitchelstown Cave, which w
as really really cool. It was quite a huge, expansive cave with three different caverns. There were stones that looked like faces, and one of the caverns has amazing acoustics so they use it for choral concerts. It was a very old and beautiful cave, but we weren't allowed to take photos so I don't have any to share with you.We then got back on the bus and headed to Kilarney. Kilarney is a little town where we stayed the first night. Then we went out to dinner with a few of the people that were on the tour with us. Then we went out to a local pub and a club there with everyone from the tour. It was a lot of fun, the Irish are pretty much exactly what you would expect - crazy and fun. We got back quite late again and were pretty exauhsted. Our hostel was interesting - it wasn't dirty or anything but the bathrooms, showers and dorm rooms were all unisex.
The End.
The Terrible Thursday. ♥ 4:30 AM
Thursday, July 16th - The day we leave for Ireland...
Thursday morning we woke up for work feeling exhausted from our lack of sleep the previous night. We dragged ourselves along with our duffel bags packed for our weekend trip to Ireland to work and Claire and I spent the day working on spreadsheets. At about 5 Sara, the only person there besides us interns, told us that we could leave to make sure that we made our flights - especially since we weren't doing anything important.
So Claire and I got on the tube and headed to the Victoria train station where we bought our tickets on the Gatwick Express and waited for Linden who had to run hom
e after work because she forgot her passport. Looking back on it, we should have known then and there it was going to be a terrible day.Once Linden got there, we grabbed some food and went to the platform to wait for the train. A minute or so later they announced that due to the fact that a person had died on the train tracks all trains were being diverted to the London Bridge train station. So at about 6:30 we had to get back on the tube and go to the London Bridge station along with hundreds of other people. It was a very cramped trip, and when we got off we dashed to the first train we saw headed out to Gatwick. For some reason, the train sat there for about 45 minutes to an hour before leaving and then it was about a 45 minute train ride. We ended up getting to Gatwick Airport at about 8:30 and our flight was at 9:15.
We hurried over to security and when we got to the front he looked at our tickets and said we needed to go stand in another long line first to get a "visa check" which turned out to be some guy writing okay on our boarding pass. Finally having made it through our visa check and security it was about 8:50, just when our plane was supposed to start boarding so we stood in front of the board to wait and see what gate it would be at. Unfortunatley, it couldn't tell us and said it would announce it in 10 more minutes. 10 more minutes turned into our flight being delayed until 10:30. Left with no other option for food, the three of us headed upstairs to have some delicious McDonalds for dinner. It is slightly different than in America, but still not delicous by any means...
Well just as we were finishing a meal, our gate showed up on the board and said it was boarding soon so we headed down over there. We got on the plane with no problem, which we were somewhat concerned about because the agent at STA made a big deal about how RyanAir has very small carry on size limits. Once on the plane and steated, they made everyone get out their boarding passes and delayed us further because they thought there were extra people on the plane (RyanAir doesn't do assigned seating, you just sit where you can. Oh the joys of discount airlines!). Once they finally got it sorted out we move out onto the runway, where we proceeded to sit for another hour or two - I've lost count by this point - due to bad weather.
We landed in Dublin at 1 AM and by this point, the bus that we were supposed to take to the area of our hostel had stopped running. Luckily we caught someone at the service desk just as they were about to leave and they directed us to another bus that went to the same spot. So 2 AM and we get off of the bus and find ourselves needing to walk around Dublin to find our hostel. We went the wrong direction for a minute or five, but then turned around and after about a 15 minute walk managed to find it.
However, upon giving the man behind the desk our booking reciept from STA he told us he couldn't find us on the reservation list. We nearly burst into tears considering that it was now 2:30 AM, we'd had no sleep the night before and couldn't handle one more thing going wrong. After about 5 minutes, he did indeed manage to find our reservation and we were given our keys and I fell asleep nearly as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Back to my paper! I will, slowly but surely, get this blog caught up I promise!
The End.
Step Into My Time Machine.... ♥ 3:20 AM
Ready to go back in time again? Close your eyes, take a deep breath aaaaand..... TA DA - it's now Monday July 13th!
On Monday, Professional Beauty got another intern. Her name is Michelle and will be working there until about a week after we leave. She is 25 and is wanting to go to university to study journalism, so we spent some of our time at work that day showing her around and telling her what it's like to work there. Then we left for class, which was at the BBC. We listened to the editor of the website tell us what the BBC online is like and how it all works and gave us quite a lot of good information. Afterwards Linden and Claire C. and I decided to go to Nando's for dinner considering that we didn't have any food at home. Nando's is a wonderful place because it is the only place we have found in the UK with free soda refills - probably the thing I miss the most about the States... Then the three of us were planning on going to quiz night at The King's Head, a local pub, but all the tables were taken so we decided we would come back another Monday night. Instead we headed home to watch a movie together in the living room.
Tuesday was work as usual. There really isn't very much to say about it, we had to use our laptops and work in the cafe because the designers were in and were using our computer so we spent the whole day working on spreadsheets.
I spent Wednesday morning packing, because I believe I forgot to mention this but Claire C., Linden and I were leaving for a weekend trip to Ireland Thursday night. So while Claire did her laundry I packed and then we went to class. Claire C., Linden and I were all very excited when we got back to class because we had tickets to see the new Harry Potter movie at 8:30 in Leicester Square(because apparently they don't do midnight premieres in England...). At about 7 the other Claire decided she might want to come with us, so we got online to look and see if there were any seats available next to us, because the Odeon theaters do assigned seating. As we were looking it became obvious that the Odeon in Leicester Square wasn't even playing the new Harry Potter movie...after a moment (or more) of panic we realized that there is in fact a town in London called Leicester and we had booked ourselves 3 tickets to see Harry Potter in it.
Now considering that it was a 2 hour train ride away, we spent the next 20 minutes frantically trying to find a theater that still had tickets since we didn't want to wait until we came back from Ireland to see it. We finally found one at 10:30, but they didn't have assigned seating so we got there at about 9 and waited, apparently needlessly since we were the first people in the theater. It was a great movie, obviously not as good as the books because they never are but as a movie it was the best one so far. Then because the movie was so long we had to take the night bus home, which was fine until we got on going the wrong direction and had to switch. We didn't make it home until about 2, but it was well worth it.
Now, I must continue writing my final paper for my British Life and Culture class which is a 3,000 word essay on how the British media differs from the American....I'm sure I'll be taking another break soon to catch up on the blog!
The End.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
My Deepest Apologies. ♥ 2:29 PM
Alright, there's no excuse for how long it's been since I last blogged. Way too much has happened for me to cover it all in one blog post so I'm going to break it up like I did for Paris. The good news is that I now have my iPhoto fixed! So let's go back in time. Allow me to transport you back to July 9th, 2009...It started off as a fairly dreary, chilly day in London town. Claire and I headed back into work with the knowledge that we would be working on the Insider again for the large part of the morning. After calling salons and spas for an hour or so, Jenni had us add more salons and spas to the excel spreadsheet for the Insider. Luckily, the girl who is normally in charge of the Insider came in just before lunch and took over. After lunch we were sent out to Regent's Park to do more vox pops, which are still one of the worst assignments out there. But we did get to go home a bit early because by the time we finished we wouldn't have made it back to the office before our editor went home for the day, so that's always a plus.
Friday after class Claire C., Linden and I headed down to the southbank to take a flight on the London Eye. The London Eye basically looks like a huge Ferris wheel with observation pods that moves very slowly and gives you a great view of the city. So we waited in a huge line and got on. It was actually pretty cool, you could see a lot of the city and we got some good pictures, the only negative thing were the loud tourists in the pod with us. It probably would have been a better event for the earlier days of our stay so that we weren't yet annoyed by tourists. Then we were starving so we s
topped at the nearest place to eat, which happened to be an all you can eat Chinese buffet. Needless to say, it was not delicious but we were so hungry it hardly mattered.Saturday we continued on with the touristy theme. We started off by going to a Marylin Monroe and Audrey Hepburn exhibit that we had heard about. It was pretty cool, they were all great photos and it was in a cute, small gallery where we were the only people there. Plus it was free! From there we stopped at Waterstones, their version of Barnes and Noble, and bought a few books each because a lot of reading gets done on all the tube and train rides we do here and our flat library has just about run out of new reads for us all. From there we c
rossed into Trafalgar Square and decided to go to the National Gallery which is just filled with a ton of art.That night the three of us went out to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. After getting lost for about half an hour and waiting in line for about 2 hours, we finally got into the restaurant at about 10 or so. It was totally worth the wait, the food was amazing (and very American) and the decor of the restaurant was amazing. They had a ton more memorabilia than any Hard Rock I'd ever been to. It was also the first one opened.
Sunday Claire C., Linden
and I tried once again to go to St. Pauls Cathedral for the guided tour, however we found that due to services they don't do them on Sundays. So we got back on the tube and headed back to the flat to pack a picnic and books to head out to Hyde park. We spent a few hours out there reading and snacking before the clouds started to roll in and made it home just in time for the rain to start. We then spent the rest of the evening working on homework.Okay. I'm running out of steam!!! I'll continue as soon as I can, hopefully tomorrow but in the meantime...Here's some new photos!
The End.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The Dark Lord Has Arrived... ♥ 8:04 AM
It looks like I'm down to just one blog post a week. Normally my photos encourage me to blog right after I upload them, however I still can't get them to upload so I'm less enthusiastic about blogging without those photos. So now, all the way back to last Thursday...Thursday was our flatmate Kristin's last day in London because, as I think I've said before, she was doing a different program than our internship program. So we went to work and we had a picnic lunch in the park with our editor, assistant editor and news writer. It was quite a lot of fun, we all brought some food items and talked about everything from places to go out to Michael Jackson and his kids.
After work, we went home and got ready to go out to this dessert/hookah bar that Kristin had picked out for her last night. It was an interesting experience. First, the tube line that we needed was suspended because there was a person stuck under the train. Then when we finally got there the hostess told us we had to be 21 to be there, but then talked to the manager who said we were all close enough to 21. So we found some couches outside and ordered some drinks and hookah and eventually some dessert. It was really fun, but once
we left we were very away that we were pretty far away from home and in a rather sketchy part of town. We also went out of our tube zone, meaning we had to take the time to add extra money on our card while feeling uncomfortable, but it was a fun night.Friday night we finally found a club that locals hang out with nearby where we work called the Underworld (not a gothic club, just a club owned by the pub above it called At Worlds End). They played 80's music all night long and we had a blast. It was a ton of fun.
Saturday I went out to Portobello Market with Claire C. to pick something up that she had bought, then we were going to picnic in the park for the 4th of July but it started to rain instead so we did a bunch of shopping on High Kensington Street because of all of the sales. That night we picked the most American thing we could think of to do - we went bowling at a 50's themed alley. It was a bunch of fun as well, I guess fun is the general theme of this blog.
Sunday Linden
and I went back out to Brighton since she couldn't go last weekend because she had a friend visiting. It was very nice, but she looks like a lobster right now, so I've been teasing her calling her the Linder Lobster. I only got a little burnt, but it's all better now.Monday was life as usual. Work was the same as always, and during class we went to tour The Guardian, which is a newspaper here. They have a very cool building, with lots of multi-media rooms and appear to be very into using technology so it was really interesting to see. They also had an amazing interior decorator.
Tuesday. Tuesday Claire and I got off of work early for two reasons - 1. we asked to get off at 3 to make it to the Harry Potter premiere, 2. there were no desks for us to use because the designer was in so we actually got off at 12. Then Claire and I made our way down to Leicester Square for the premiere and got there at about 2:30. It was not as fortunate as the others. People had been arriving since very, very early in the morning and it was packed. We had a horrible spot which we were eventually moved from into only a slightly less horrible spot. Then the rain came. At first it was your typical London sprinkle.
Then it turned into a torrential downpour with heavy winds. There were rivers of water running through the square, and even wearing my rain coat I got soaking wet and was f
reezing. This persisted for quite some time, and we even tried to leave but were trapped because they closed the gates. Eventually they started letting people out and Claire decided to leave but Linden and I stayed. A lot of people left so we got up quite a bit closer, but still not very close. Of course the rain damaged my video camera so that stopped working and I'm still hoping it will magically work again, and since I don't usually take pictures at the premieres my camera battery died. So I didnt' get any good pictures or footage or autographs - but we were there. I saw Dan Radclife, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, AND JK Rowling. So despite the wet and cold, it was still really fun.Today at work Claire and I had to clean out some filing cabinets and then call salons, spas and nail salons to ask the monthly insider questions. Basically we had to ask them about business in the last month and what they think about certain trends and beauty products. It isn't too bad, most people are used to it and willing to talk but they are difficult to get a hold of.
Hopefully I'll get my technology fixed soon so I can get up some pictures for you guys. Only four weeks left! I'm really sad, but trying not to think about it and just enjoy my time here. And at least I get a week in Italy with my mom to soften the blow!
The End.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Heeeeere's Johnny! ♥ 8:01 AM
Well, Monday my flatmates and I went to another premiere. This time it was for Public Enemies, a new gangster movie with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale that looks absolutely amazing. We got there around 4 and waited until about 6 before anyone showed up. The first famous person we saw was Jamie Campbell Bower, from Sweeney Todd and who is also going to be in the upcoming Twilight and Harry Potter films. I was pretty disappointed because he came really close and only didn't sign my notebook because I didn't have a pen out there and he didn't have one on him. Oh well, hopefully he'll come to the Harry Potter premiere and I can get it then!The next person to arrive was Freddie Highmore from Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Spiderwick Chronicles, and August Rush. He is about 17 a
nd was so sweet, he signed my notebook for me and when I said thank you, he looked up and said your welcome. It was cute.Then Johnny showed up. He was the only cast member to show up (or so we thought, it turns out Marion Cottilard was there as well but she basically just went straight in) and he took hours signing autographs. When he got by us he turned around to go back towards inside and everyone was very disappointed, but his bodyguards told us he would come back, and so did he! He turned around and yelled that he would come back! About an hour later he made good on his promise, and I now have in my possession Johnny Depp's autograph. It looks like gibberish but I don't even care. He was shorter than I expected but he was so nice to everyone and so super cool and he's Johnny Depp! I could barely walk I was so star struck by him and Claire C. had to help me get my pen cap back on. We spent the rest of the night in disbelief! Tops Transformers hands down!
Back to normal life: Tuesday was a pretty calm day at work. Claire and I started crea
ting spread sheets for the different categories of the Beauty Awards and putting salons and spas in each category so that they can be mailed out in a month or so. We also turned in our blogs and mine is up on the website now (please don't leave any comments on it!!!! That's just too embarassing, it's for real readers to do guys!).Today I didn't have to work in the morning but I had my midterm internship meeting with Boyana so after that I just went home, ate lunch and worked on my BLC paper some more before class.
Oh also I'm having troubles with iPhoto right now, so there will be more pictures added to the album later, but you can see all of my videos including the one from this premiere here.
The End.