LONDON FASHION WEEKEND!!!!

Today was awesome!!! Chelsea and I got to the Somerset House just before noon and went straight to the catwalk tent. The fashion show we were seeing didn't start until 12:30 PM but we decided to go take our seats early and its a good thing because we got in the front row!!!! It was an Autumn/Winter trends show featuring British fashion brand Jaegar London, celebrating its 125th anniversary as a luxury fashion house. It also featured the Indian designer Manish Arora (picture 4). The trends the show included were big shoulders (picture 2) and prints (picture 3).

After the show we went to the other location, 180 Strand, just up the block to get our gift bag and wander through the designer booths. We went back over to the Somerset building to check out the designer booths there later on. Chelsea bought a cute bag from an animal friendly brand called Rubber Cow. I grabbed something to eat from the cafe inside and we sat in the courtyard in the back overlooking the Thames which was really nice because the sun was out and it was just good to relax after all the walking around so much.

We headed for home around 5 to drop our stuff off and went back out to the Regent Street Festival. That started at noon as well, so it was kind mellow when we got there even though it wasn't over until 8 PM. We just wandered down the street into Piccadilly Circus and over to Hyde Park looking for some dinner. We ended up going to Satori, a Japanese restaurant that has little dishes on a conveyor belt so you can just grab what you want. New things go up as they are made which is cool too. We both had a noodle dish with chicken. I tried some wontons off the belt and she had prawns. Then we shared a really delicious chocolate mousse for dessert. An awesome ending to a great day :)

Busy Week in London Town

This week flew by! I can't believe its almost October; I've been here for a month already!

Work went by fast this week. I stamped some more envelopes, about 500 of them!!! And I did some research on the internet for my window project. I have to bring my ideas to Rachel in about 3 weeks. We'll make sure we're on the same page and we can bring my ideas to John. John asked me if I wanted to go to dinner on Wednesday with everyone. One of the shop girls is going back home so they were going out for a goodbye dinner. We left from work on Wednesday and took a cab to Upper Street, between the Highbury and Islington (my work tube stop) and Angel tube stations. First we went to a pub and had a drink then we walked down the street to Desperados Mexican Restaurant. The food was EXCELLENT!!!! Spicy and just really good, I will definitely be going back there. I got home around 11 PM and went to bed because Chelsea and I had a packed schedule for Thursday, galleries for class and shopping!!!

Our first stop Thursday was the Magnum Gallery for Jim Goldberg's Rich and Poor exhibit. It was all photos taken in San Francisco. It started with photos of poor people and ended with rich. Each photo also had a quote written on it by the subject. The quotes made a much bigger impact than had it just been a photograph, I think especially with the rich people photos. Many of the rich people said things like 'the poor have it easier'. Their quotes really added to the picture, I think without them they would have been kind of boring. The poor people's photos were interesting looking and the quotes made them that much more dramatic. From there we went to PROUD Gallery where they had photographs of The Who on tour which were pretty cool to see. Our last stop was the Photographers' Gallery where there was an exhibit called When You're a Boy: Men's Fashion Styled by Simon Foxton. That exhibit was really cool because it was different photographers' works but all styled by the same guy, Simon Foxton. There was also an exhibit called On Reading by Andre Kertesz where all of the photos contained books as either the subject or an object.

After the gallery tour we went shopping!!! We started at Gap where Chelsea found some cute jeans for tomorrow. We went to a bunch of other stores and finally ended up at H&M where we found the rest of her outfit for tomorrow!!!

Friday we had class in the morning. We talked to our professor after class and explained our situation to her, so now she knows not to expect any work from us! After that we talked to our other professor about the galleries we went to. We also told him that we won't be able to see him next week because we'll be going to Paris!!!! So he gave us a few places to check out in Paris and told us to take note of the differences in the city planning. After class we had lunch and went to Hyde Park and took a nap on the grass which was soooooo nice. We've been really lucky with the weather lately so we wanted to take advantage!!!

Friday night, Chelsea, Eyaluta, Christine, Rebecca, and I decided to go out. We wanted to go to Fabric which is a club that's mentioned on a lot of sites and in books. Its also really close to where we live and next door to the bar we went to for my birthday. We turned the corner that Fabric is on and the line (the que!) was ridiculous!!! It was practically around the corner!!! We decided that it might be a better idea to go back another night and leave earlier. So we went back to Beduin, the bar from my birthday. The host recognized all of us right away and we told him we had to pay to get in so he gave us all VIP passes for next time!!! We stayed there for a while and then decided to try Fabric again. There was no line this time, but we stayed outside until it was EXACTLY 3 AM so we could get in for a much cheaper price (the bouncer was pretty strict about the time). How glad we were that we waited until 3 AM to get into that place. Its in an old factory, which is a cool concept except that the dance spaces are kind of small and there's a lot of stairs. It was very smoky too. The music was pretty terrible and not once did we see a bar. I think we were there for 30 minutes before we decided to go home.

Today we got kind of a late start. Chelsea, Bridget, Eyaluta, and I got some breakfast (it was after breakfast time, but the first meal of the day). We found a cute cafe on Leather Lane, a street parallel to ours. Eya and I had omletes which were delicious. I also had a mocha which was really good too. From there we walked to Covent Gardens to wander the markets. We stopped at a really cute cupcake/ice cream shop and then at a frozen yogurt place. After that, Eya, Chelsea, and I went to Oxford Circus to go to Primark which is a store Chelsea and I have been trying to find. Its gigantic and a little overwhelming. Everything is really cheap, definitely a good spot to know if you need something fast. Before heading home, we stopped at a grocery store to buy some dinner. Chelsea and I made quesadillas which came out really good.

Tomorrow is our London Fashion Weekend event!!!! I'm so excited!!!! Afterwards we're going to head to the Regent Street Festival, so we will definitely be busy again tomorrow!!!!!

Two Day Tour

This weekend was amazing! All of the little villages were so cute! A lot of them are used in movies like Harry Potter and Pride and Prejudice. Chelsea and I met the coach bus outside the Great Portland tube station at around 8:30 AM Saturday along with about 15 other people. We booked our tour through International Friends and if you go to and go to "England's Green and Pleasant Land" you will see an overview of the tour we went on.

Our first stop was Oxford which was very much like a college town. The students at Oxford University are not back yet so the town and the university grounds were kind of quiet. Our tour guide was a graduate of Oxford University. He explained to us the collegiate system that is used at Oxford and Cambridge. Universities have colleges within them, for example, Oxford contains 38 colleges. Students live and are tutored at these colleges. Lectures are given at universities. After the walking tour, we were free for about an hour and a half so we went to the top of the Abbey because we were told it had great views of the city! We had to climb some creaky old stairs to what looked like an attic space and then wait in line (or a que!) because there were a ridiculous set of spiral, one-way stairs up to the top!!! Came close to the staircase in Barcelona Lisa!!!! But when we got up there finally, the views were really nice. You couldn't go all the way around the top so there was a little traffic jam at one point, but we survived! Before we left I picked up a baguette and we were off to Burford. Burford is a part of the Cotswolds section of England. Its very much what you would typically think of as the English countryside. Our coach driver told us about a bakery in town so we stopped in there and I bought a mini lemon tea cake. All of the shops and cottages seemed really tiny, especially the doorways.

Next was Stow on the Wold, also a part of the Cotswolds. This was our lunch stop on the tour so we had a little more time here. Chelsea and I found a tea room that looked really cute. She ordered these awesome looking like ham and cheese sandwiches that were grilled, yummy!!! I got a scone with clotted cream and jam and we both had tea!!! It was really good and our first time really having tea in a tea room! After that we were off to the Slaughters, Upper and Lower Slaughter. It was a really cute village, nothing around, really suburban like. We took some pictures and relaxed-watched some ducks swimming in the creek! Our last stop for the day was Bibury which had a trout farm. There was a wedding taking place at the church in town, the bride was outside as we drove by. We stayed overnight in Bristol which is about 20 minutes outside of Bath. We stayed at a Holiday Inn, which was pretty nice. There was a pub basically in the parking lot of the hotel so we went in there to eat dinner. We had to get up early the next morning so just laid in bed and watched TV. We saw the X Factor which is like the British American Idol (not as good though, it was weird actually, although Simon's the same). Then we watched a British Grey's Anatomy which was interesting. In the morning, we at some breakfast and got on the bus to head towards Bath.

Bath is really beautiful, I would definitely love to go back there one day. Its a good mix of city and country, which I love. We first took a driving tour around part of the city. We saw where Nicholas Cage just bought a house. And our driver took us around to see a lot of the Georgian architecture. There was one building, the Royal Crescent designed by architect John Wood, that has 1,000 rooms and only makes up 30 houses. Wood only built the facade of the building, so that's what was sold to buyers!!! Just the front of a house!!! Pretty crazy but still amazing to look at. He took us down into the city (Bath sits in a bowl, there are around 7 hills surrounding it). We started off by taking a tour of the Roman Baths which was pretty cool. The spring still brings water up to the baths and they don't treat the water so you are not allowed to touch it. You are allowed to have drink some of the water that has been filtered in the Pump Room after your visit which we tried and did not really like. It was pretty warm and just had an odd taste but at least we tried it. Then we wandered around, taking pictures and grabbed something to eat.

After Bath we made two more stops in villages of the Cotswolds, Castle Combe and Lacock. Castle Combe was a pretty little village. Really tiny cottages and a nice church with a pretty big graveyard. Lacock was a really cute old village, the newest building was built in the 1800's. Pride and Prejudice was filmed there too.

Our last stop was Stonehenge. That was really awesome to see in real life. Our diver told us a little bit of the story behind it. It was built in 3 phases and some of the stones are from over 200 miles away!!! There were a lot of visitors there at the same time. He told us they have private, after hour tours too, during sunrise and sunset which I think would be really cool to do but it might also be a little scary!!! We got on the bus and headed back to London. Took over 200 pictures this weekend!!! It was nice to get out of the city.

Today was back to work. I had to go to the post office, which was in a convenience store, to buy stamps for the catalog mail out. I put stamps on about 300 envelopes!!! After work, Chelsea and I went on the hunt for dinner and a grocery store, a real grocery store, unlike the little 7-11 like things around us. We ate at a really good Italian place and then walked to Waitrose grocery store, which isn't too far from our school. It was like a REAL grocery store. It had carts!!! So Chelsea and I bought actual groceries, we haven't really done that yet because of the stores' selection and because of space issues in the flat. But we found some good deals so we're set for a little bit. When we got back we mapped out the places to go for our independent study course. We will probably go Wednesday after work and Thursday during the day to be prepared for Friday when we meet him. We're also going shopping Thursday!!! Chelsea wants me to help her find an outfit for the London Fashion Weekend event on Sunday. Looking very forward to that!!!

Window Shopping

This morning we had our meeting with the professor about the independent study course. He was really funny. We told him how we are interning here and that we are required to take classes and he says to us "So you want me to make your lives easy" and we were like "YES!". It was pretty funny. He was really laid back and understanding of our situation which was nice. He asked us what we were interested in. I told him I was interested in fashion and that I'm interning at a clothing company and that I also like photography. From that he gave us a few places to check out over the next week. We have to keep a diary about what we observe and do and we will meet with him next Friday. He told us he wasn't going to give us the usual sights to see, which was exactly what we wanted; things off the beaten path!!! We were excited about that. And its good that Chelsea and I are pretty easy going and into some similar things!!!

After the meeting, Chelsea and I booked a trip for this weekend!!! We're going to Oxford, Bath, and Stonehenge, and a few other little villages. We leave Saturday morning and come back Sunday night. We also booked tickets for London Fashion Weekend which I am so excited for!!! We get admission into the tent, a gift bag, and we get to see a show!!! There will also be designers featuring their collections at discounted prices!!! It should be really fun!!! Then we got an email from Global Experiences about our Paris trip. She told us to go ahead and email her partners about wanting to book it so we should be receiving confirmation before next week!!!

After all of that, I went to check out some of the places Rachel told me about. I took the tube to Oxford Circus. That area is constantly packed!!! Its a huge shopping and pub scene. My first stop was Miss Selfridge, which is kind of a mix of H&M and Forever21. Then I wondered around until I came to Carnaby Street where Liberty department store is. I was in Liberty for at least an hour-I hit every floor!!! It was amazing!!! Really awesome displays throughout the entire store. My first picture is a display from the store. Liberty is collaborating with Hermes for a special scarf collection and in the center room was a chandelier of Hermes scarves!!! It was beautiful!!!

I met up with Chelsea after that and we wondered around some more. We headed toward New Bond Street. We passed the Moschino store, which always has very cute advertising campaigns, so of course it had a cute window display!!! That's the second picture. Then we found the Vivienne Westwood store which we do not have in America!!! I was really excited about that one!!! She is crazy!!! She's like a British Betsey Johnson. And her clothes are amazing, really unique. Then we grabbed some dinner and came back to the flat. Tomorrow we have our Multicultural London class. Wish us luck!

PROJECT!!!

(MOM, LOOK WHO I FOUND TODAY!!!!) I started work at the Camden store today. I met the shop girl Anna and we started straight away filling in the store. She just received the new men's and some new women's clothes from the fall and winter collection. I changed all of the mannequins; tried to lighten them up a bit, winter colors are always so dark. Rachel called and she asked me to come back to the warehouse after lunch so I could begin working on sending out the fall and winter catalog. She also told me that she and John had a project for me!!! She said that they want me to design a window installation for the store!!! I'd come up with the concept and how it would be implemented and everything!!! And if they like it they will execute it!!! Then they would take pictures for me and send them to me so I could use them for my portfolio!!! I'm so excited!!! It was really nice because she said they wanted to come up with something that would be able to help me in the future with what I want to be doing and its something that they were looking to do for the store as well, so it just fit :) She said we'd talk more when I got back to the warehouse. I hung up the phone and my mind immediately began to race!!! Before I left for the day I took pictures of the entire inside and outside of the store. Then I grabbed lunch and was off to the warehouse!

When I arrived at the warehouse, John and Rachel went over with me what they wanted me to do and the ideas that they had already. John said eventually they would like to and are now in the beginnings of re-branding the Braintree name. On the front of the building it says "Hemp Store" and has Braintree underneath. He said they did that in the beginning because they thought that would grab people's attention, make people come in, interested. But they've realized that people associate it with little knick-knack items and not necessarily clothing. He said eventually he sees the brand being an eco-friendly, sustainable fiber fashion line. The actual windows are a bit complex. There are 3 sets of 3 windows, 2 to be mainly focused on and 1 of those the priority. He said he would really like to see the use of imagery, evoking the eco theme. They both said it needs to be something realistic, easy to install and interchangeable with the season if possible. Right now, there are blinds on the windows that go down when the store closes. There is nothing that attracts people's attention to the building at night (the area has a big pub scene at night). He would like to see images illuminated so they could be seen down the street. Words and products would not work, you wouldn't be able to tell what they were from far away. He said that they could get images printed on the blinds, so if I came up with something for that, they're are interchangeable, seasonal. They seemed to like the blinds idea and I have to agree, for the amount of space they have, the blinds are probably the best way to go. He doesn't want me to rebrand the company, but just to keep in mind that they are planning for that. Rachel said that I can work on this throughout my time here and that I should come up with a plan that I'll share with them several times over the course so we can ensure we're on the same page and going in the right direction. I'm very excited for this!!! I have to do some research on illumination and fabrics, get some ideas. I'm going to make a trip to Ikea, check out some wall hangings, see what they are made of, how light filters through them. And the other great part about this is that even if they do not implement my plan, I can use the plan in my portfolio because its my design!!! So I think it will help my portfolio either way!!!

Tonight, Chelsea and I went to a tapas restaurant. It was pretty good and kind of cheap. It was good to have different food. Then we headed to the pub that's around the corner from our flat so we could use their free Wi-Fi!!! Our roommates met us there. We kept getting pointed and laughed at because there were 5 girls, each sitting on their laptops, not speaking to each other!!! It was pretty funny.

Tomorrow we have our meeting with the professor about the independent study....hope it goes well!!! Then we're free for the rest of the day. Rachel gave me a list of a few shops I should visit to check out their windows and displays so I'll probably end up doing that most of the day, taking pictures and window shopping!!!

Fireworks and Work

The fireworks at the Thames Festival were awesome! We got some really good pictures. We left to grab some dinner before they went off and so we could secure a spot on one of the bridges on the Thames! The show lasted about 10 minutes and it was freezing!!! But well worth it. After the show we went home and headed to bed.

Monday I went into work and met my supervisor Rachel and the owner John. I talked to both of them about what I want to be doing in the industry but also how I'd like this experience to add to my range of skills to better my resume. I spent most of the day in the showroom. Their showroom is pretty small and doubles as a storage space with old marketing campaigns, their fabric and color libraries (which I spent most of the day organizing), and other resources. I also helped Sarah (the production manager) spec some samples that came in from the factory in China (making sure the samples were the right measurements as per their instructions to the factory). Rachel and Sarah also asked my opinion about some changes on the samples. John seems interested in getting my "visual" opinion on a few things which is awesome!!! He wants me to look at old catalogs and pictures from their tradeshow booths to see what I think. He said I would also be able to merchandise the showroom and the store.

I ate lunch at the cafe on the complex (Braintree is in a warehouse located on an industrial complex). REALLY CHEAP REALLY GOOD FOOD. I got a sandwich, chips, and a drink for under four pounds! I got ham and cheese with cucumber and mayo (of course!) on brown bread....mmmmm Cucumbers on sandwiches are pretty common here and its pretty tasty.

When I got home from work I ate dinner quickly and ran out the door with Chelsea to meet a group at Anglo for a walking tour. It started at Bloomsbury Square and took us all around the city. We walked down Fleet Street (Sweeney Todd) and I saw the Twinnings Tea company headquarters! I have to get a better picture of it, it was too dark! We came to Somerset House where they have a lot of exhibits on fashion, film, and music and there was a London Fashion Week tent!!! I immediately took pictures of that!!! It was about half the size of one of the Bryant Park tents and there was only one!!! I'm not positive what is being shown there but I still needed a picture. Later on when we came home, I looked it up online and found out that there are a few things we can buy tickets for to do there for fashion week so I'll probably be writing about that in the next couple of weeks!!! He took us along the river and into Covent Gardens and ended up at Trifalgar Square. It was a really nice walk, especially at night because there were not that many people out so we could hear him and see a lot.

Today, I did a lot of filing at work. When I was done with that I went back to organizing the showroom. I ended the day with pulling the winter '09 collection for the showroom so I can merchandise it for some buyer appointments. Tomorrow, I'm starting at the store. I'll meet Anna, who is one of the shop girls. She's supposed to be very good with merchandising so we'll be able to work together to fix up the store! Today was also our first rainy day! It poured all day!!! I didn't get to try out my trench but I did put my new "brolly" to use!!!

Tonight, Christine made everyone spaghetti and meatballs and Bridget made brownies which were delicious! I told Michael that she was making brownies and he asked if she was American and I said yes, why? And he said I knew it because Americans are crazy for brownies, its so bizarre! I thought that was pretty funny!! Then I found out there are a few Wholefoods here!!! A REAL grocery store (well hopefully its similar to home and not like the rest of them here!). They're south of us so it would be a trip but hopefully it'd be worth it :)

Chelsea and I looked at our calendar some more tonight and we think we are going to go to Paris the weekend of October 2!!! It will be partially paid for by Global since we want to go on the weekend trip and not just a day trip. We might be able to do a 2-day trip this weekend to Bath, Oxford, and Stonehenge; we have to look into it Thursday. We also marked our calendars for the opening of Parliament, which has a parade with the Queen in it!

We were able to drop the two intense classes (YES!!!) and we are now enrolled in the Multicultural London class which takes place on Fridays. As of right now we don't have anything Thursdays, but this week we are meeting with a professor that offers an independent study course which the dean said involves visiting museums and such, so we'll se how that goes!

Our 6th roommate arrived Sunday. We found out that the 7th roommate is no longer coming so it will stay 6 in our flat which is good news.

Markets

Friday night, Chelsea and I went to Covent Gardens, which is a little market and shopping center area with a few restaurants. We ate at a cute Italian place called Pontis. I didn't eat dinner but I had an awesome slice of carrot cake and a latte of course. After dinner we went outside where there was a street performer playing guitar and singing. It was really cute because a few couples were slow dancing behind him. One couple was even ballroom dancing, definitely showing off some dance lessons!

Saturday morning I went out to a cafe up the street from our flat and when I came back I noticed I got a package!!! From Jim!!! He sent me a birthday present which was really sweet :)

We decided to go to Camden Market so Chelsea and Bridget could look for dresses to go out in. The market is PACKED on the weekends; there were so many people there! They had a ton of stuff too, clothes, jewelry, leather goods and food everywhere. After picking up a gift :) we went to Regent Street and Oxford Circus. That's a very fashiony area, a lot of stores, a lot of people. Gap was opening a pop-up store in Kingsly Court (a little mall section in Oxford Circus) during fashion week for their 1969 denim campaign. The store is only opened for 19 days and 69 hours and everything that is sold in the store is 1 of 69 pieces made and that's it. Pharrell Williams did a line of jeans and Pierre Hardy designed a pair of boots. A few artists were commissioned to do t-shirts too. Chelsea, Bridget and I each got a t-shirt that were also a part of the (red) campaign which donates part of the proceeds to the Global Fund to help fight Aids in Africa. The store had a live band playing downstairs and its scheduled to have live performers throughout the opening. Since we can't get into any fashion shows and they don't have tents like fashion week in Bryant Park I thought the pop-up store was the next best thing. And now we each own a limited edition t-shirt!

From there we took the tube to the Tower Hill station and walked over the Tower Bridge to the Thames Festival which runs all along the river only this weekend. There were tons of people and so many, many things to look at. A lot of the vendors show at other markets in London too, like Camden and the Greenwich market. It was beautiful out yesterday, really warm, so we were out all day and we walked a lot (the river is pretty long!). We ate at a pub and then got to see Big Ben and the Eye at night which was really cool. Coming home from dinner was not so cool. Apparently, this city likes to close a lot of subway LINES on the weekends for engineering work. We had to take 3 lines to get home! But we got back eventually and we were all exhausted from the day so we stayed in for the rest of the night.

Today, Chelsea and I wanted to go back to the Thames Festival to check out a few vendors that we missed yesterday. Tonight they're setting off fireworks!!! We're heading out soon to catch them. The show was designed by Mike Jones who is supposed to be one of the best in the fireworks industry so it should be really good!

Tomorrow I meet my supervisor and the owner of Braintree which I'm looking forward to.

UK Birthday!!! And Classes too

Woke up yesterday early for our first day of class (yippee!). Good start though because it was my birthday!!!! 24!!!! Had some breakfast and off we went to Hult University for Debating American Power. Everyone was asked to introduce themselves, where they're from, what their specializations are in. Literally, every single person's specialization was in International Relations, Political Science, PR or they were looking to go into Law. The intro's come to me, a Marketing and Fashion Merchandising degree holder, not enrolled in any kind of graduate program at home, and generally not interested in pursuing a career in international relations!!!! Chelsea had the same kind of introduction too. The professor thought it was kind of humorous. The class seems like it would be interesting though, talking about Anti-Americanism and American Nationalism. After class, we went to see one of the dean's and talked to him for a little bit then went upstairs to get our student ID's made.

After class we went back to the flat to drop some things off then headed back out for lunch at a pub where we had our first Pimm's!! Pimm's classic to be exact. I couldn't finish it though, funny taste, but now I can say I've tried it. Christine (one of our roommates) said its better another way; there are several variations of Pimm's drinks so we'll have to try it again. From the pub we took the tube to go to Buckingham Palace. The State Rooms of Buckingham Palace are only open during the summer so Chelsea and I wanted to take advantage of the tour while we can! We weren't allowed to take pictures but everything was really beautiful as I'm sure you can imagine. Really ornate, gold leaf everywhere, silk everything, paintings, etc.

After the tour we came back to the flat and got ready to go out for my birthday!!!! The club that we wanted to go to is not opened on Thursdays, so we decided to check out some of the bars/lounges that were on the same street. We all got dressed up and headed out!!! We found a cute Italian restaurant on Cowscross Road for dinner. It reminded me of the restaurants in Italy!!! Excellent dinner and dessert and free dessert wine for my birthday!!! They even sang happy birthday to me!!!!

After dinner we walked down by the club and came to a lounge called Beduin. It was really nice inside. An upstairs balcony section with cushioned seating and a bar and dance floor downstairs with a disco ball. It reminded me of a Red and Ashes atmosphere. They had an awesome DJ (reminded me of Jay, Lisa!!). It was 80's night so he played a lot of good music. We instantly made friends with the Manager/Bouncer. Later on in the night he asked if we wanted to go downstairs and he kicked people out of a table so we could sit there!!!!! We got some looks from those people!!! We danced the night away and eventually Harry and some of his friends met up with us. We were out until about 3AM. Chelsea and I didn't have class until 1PM today so we got to sleep in which was good.

Class today was a little intense. Its Conflict Management and Resolution. The professor kept going on and on about "In your career in IR..." or "Your boss at the Peace Institute..." and all I kept thinking was no! That is not the direction I'm headed, what am I doing here!?! After class Chelsea and I went to see the dean again and we basically told him how we felt. And he was shocked to find out that we did not pick our classes let alone see a course schedule. I told him that I was not even planning on going to graduate school when I got back home and that I was in London purely for the work experience. He was really nice about the whole situation and told us that we could easily switch to more "visitor friendly" courses like Multicultural London. He gave us a course schedule for the undergraduate program and said to look it over and we could talk next week about switching us around. He even told us that we could simply not do any of the course work for our classes since we're not worried about the credits transferring over!!! That was "under the table" information he said!!! Pretty funny coming from a dean!!!!

Oh, did I mention that we are expecting TWO more roommates????

First Day in the Warehouse

Today was my first day in the warehouse. I took the tube to King's Cross where I changed lines and got off at the Highbury and Islington station. There was still no one in the office. I helped Michael and Alberto (the warehouse manager) fill wholesale orders. I took an order form and pulled the number of each size and color the customer wanted for each style they ordered. I boxed them and go onto the next order. That lasted all day which was good because it kept me really busy. I also filled a few online orders from Braintree's website.

The complex that Braintree's office is in has a little cafe. I had spinach and sweet potato soup which was really good and it was really cheap. I had a latte from there in the morning as well (much cheaper than Starbucks! and more convenient because its literally out the front door!). I got a good feel for the warehouse, it kind of reminded me of being in Banana Republic's stock room. Once you get a feel for where everything is its much easier, you can get your job done quicker. I like that I'm getting to see more of the wholesale side of the industry. I did learn some at Triple 5 Soul, but I never had to deal with filling orders and I'm sure I'll learn a lot more as the weeks go on.

The other day when we were at orientation I picked up a brochure about day and weekend trips that Anglo-American offers to students. Chelsea and I looked at our calendars and picked out what weekends would work for us to go to Paris, Bruges, and Amsterdam! And we think we might be getting part or all of the weekend trip to Paris for free! (Actually that its included in what we paid Global Experiences) We're still working on that bit of information.

Tomorrow I have my first day of class. And its my birthday! Chelsea and I went to Pizza Express again for dinner tonight. We went to the one that is right near Farrington tube station on Cowscross Road. The area was really cute; a lot of bars and places to eat. We found a club called Fabric that sounds awesome in the guide books (but of course isn't open on Thursdays. It is open until 5 AM on Fridays and until 7 AM on Saturdays though!). We saw some other bars that looked cool so we might head over there tomorrow night. Still have to talk to Harry and the roommates to see what's on their agendas!

First Day @ Braintree!

Today was my first day of work at Braintree! I didn't need to be there until 10 so I had plenty of time this morning; I got there with 20 minutes to spare. I met the co-owner and manager Michael. He wasn't expecting me until tomorrow! My supervisor Rachel and the other owner John (Michael's brother) were at a tradeshow about an hour away until Thursday. The Production Manager, Sarah, who I will be working with, was at their Camden store because the shop girls were both on holiday. I talked with Michael for a bit. He showed me the winter catalog I will be mailing out, pointing out what was wrong with it and why it needs to be fixed! I told him about where I'm living and my schooling and what I want to be doing in the industry. Since he didn't have anything prepared for me he had me go meet Sarah at the Camden store and help her. He gave me 10 pounds for my tube fare and off I went!

The Camden Lock Market is a very well known market in London. A lot of tourists, bohemian and very, very interesting people walking around that area! The market looked really cool though, lots of different things. I got off the tube and made a right out of the station down Camden High Street towards the lock and saw the store! Just up a few steps and into the store where I met Sarah. Very nice girl from New Zealand! The company is originally from Australia. John, Michael, and Rachel are all from Australia. The shop girls are Spanish I later learn.

We had to take stock of the entire store. Its done every Monday or Tuesday, after the busy weekend. I went out for lunch in the market. She told me to ask for a traders' discount. All the traders in the market get a discount at all of the food shops so my lunch came to under 4 pounds. We pretty much did inventory all day because the sheets were very hard to read. I was there until about 6. I talked to John on the phone. I'll see him at the warehouse on Monday and we'll talk about what I want to get out of this internship and everything else. Sarah told me about how small the company is and how I'll be able to do a lot of different things. She also said how good London work experience will look on my CV!!!

I got home about 6:30 and my roommates were going out because it was really nice out, actually kind of hot. I stayed in but met them for dinner at the Cittie of Yorke pub, one of the oldest in London. I had country vegetable pie which was excellent! Lots of potatoes! Soooo good!

Tomorrow I'm going to the warehouse to work with Michael so it should be interesting. I like that everyday will probably be something different and I'll be able to help with a lot. And my roommates, Harry and I need to start making plans for my birthday on Thursday!

Forgot to mention yesterday we got another roommate. Her name is Christine from Mason University. She's studying Anthropology. That makes 5 of us and I think we're expecting at least 1 more....

Night Before Work

Orientation was interesting. I found out that Chelsea and I are the ONLY Global Experience students here. She said that because of the new Visa regulations, Aubree (our program coordinator) said a lot of people were put off. Anglo-American (that is Global's partner and our placements' contact in London) offers discounted day and weekend trips to Paris and Bruges which we're going to look into. We start classes (!) Thursday. We are taking Debating American Power and Conflict Management and Resolution (sounds fun right?). We'll be taking them at Hult University, which is an international business school in London, not too far from our flat so that's good. After orientation we did a few errands (like bought some hangers for our "closets") and went back to the flat.

We did some more wandering around this afternoon. We saw St. Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge. We had an EXCELLENT dinner at Pizza Express, which sounds like it would be a fast food place but its actually very nice and reasonably priced. I had a really good thin margarita pizza...yummy!!! Then we walked to see the Tower Bridge which is really cool. After we walked over the Tower Bridge we took the tube back to Farringdon station, which is the station near our flat. We bought Oyster cards for the tube and buses. Its a monthly pass that gives discounted prices on the tube for our flat (1) and work (2) zones (the tube has 6 zones or areas the different lines runs to and tickets are priced according to zone) plus all of the buses that run through London. And it comes in a cute little Ikea i.d. pouch type thing so you can just scan the card to get into the tube station, sort of like an express credit card key chain. Now I'm all ready for starting work tomorrow!!! We were told at orientation that regardless of our placements' dress code we should wear our "smartest" outfit for our first days!!!

Welcome to London!

I made it! From the airport to the Umi Hotel for my flat keys and to Flat 2 in Hatton Gardens! I found out I had two roommates besides Chelsea (who I'd been talking to through email for the past two months) when I walked into the flat. They're on a study abroad program from Mason University in Virginia. When I got into the flat I picked the middle bedroom which had two beds (its a tiny room too!). I waited until later to unpack my things into my "closet" and dresser with drawers that do not function! I didn't do much Friday because I was pretty tired from the trip over.

Saturday Chelsea and I decided we wanted to find our internship placements. We went to mine first. We hopped on the tube (subway) went two stops to the Islington section of London. My internship is about a fifteen minute walk from the tube station and at most a forty minute commute from our flat. The neighborhood is really nice, a lot of shops and places to eat including Starbucks and a little place with a cat inside!

Chelsea's internship is at the Westminster Hospital. We got off at the South Kensington tube station and wandered around until we found the right streets. That area is very nice, much like the Upper East Side in NYC; big brownstone homes, fancy cars. The area right around the hospital is full of shops and places to eat too.

We went to our first pub Saturday night, The Sir John Oldcastle. I had excellent fish and chips and my first English beer, a John Smith's. We'll definitely be visiting there again, good food and good prices!

Sunday Chelsea and I wanted to visit some of the parks before the weather turns too cold. We took the Circle line to the Westminster tube station which is right outside Parliament and Big Ben! We saw the London Eye too, which is gigantic! My friend Harry who's studying abroad in London from Temple University in Philadelphia met us in front of Big Ben. From there we walked to and through St. James Park to Buckingham Palace. Then we walked through Green Park to Piccadilly where The Ritz and the Hard Rock London Cafe are. We walked past the Duke of Wellington's house to Hyde Park which is huge! We walked all through that, saw people feeding squirrels and geese who were eating right from people's hands! We walked past the statue of Peter Pan and eventually came out across from the Lancaster Gate tube station on the Central line. There are street vendors all over the place selling oil paintings, magnets, t-shirts. I saw a couple oil painting I LOVED, just 400 pounds, roughly $650, not too bad right? I'll be getting a t-shirt and some magnets eventually at least.

Chelsea, Harry, and I parted ways there (Harry is staying right near Hyde Park). Chelsea and I took the tube to Oxford Circus which is a big shopping area. TopShop, H&M, Gap, and lots of other stores all over the place. It was about 6:30 when we got there so everything was closed already. We've noticed a lot of things close early around London, especially around our flat. Our neighborhood is all jewelry stores. Its like the diamond district in NYC. There's no one on our block after 6:00 PM (or 18:00 I should say). Its kind of nice because its quite but when we need to go to a drug store on the weekends its a pain because they're not open on Saturdays or Sundays around us. Tube ride it is then!

Today Chelsea and I decided to see how the commute to our placements would be during regular work hours. We got up at 7:30 and were out the door by 8:00. The tube is pretty crowded and the stations are too, which is not unexpected. I need to give myself max forty minutes to get to work in the morning depending on tube times.

Back at the flat now and will soon be off to orientation at the Anglo-American School.