Jan 2007

On Wednesday, we went to Warwick Castle and Stratford. It was about a 2 hour bus ride which I luckily slept most of. Warwick Castle was inbetween Windsor and Hampton in terms of elegance and impressiveness. There was alot of remodeling and additions in the 1600s and 1800s. The last time anyone lived there was in 1971. One of the employees there told me that the Grenville family who lived there since the 1600s or so, just couldn't afford it anymore in the 70s. So they sold it off and was opened as an exhibition in the early 80s. Countess Daisy was responsible for much of its splendor. She was the lady of the house in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Also, I was told that Prince Charles' great great grandfather lived in that house, and that his mistress was Princess Camilla's great grandmother...interesting!
We then went over to Stratford, which is the home of William Shakespeare. He was born there, met his wife, Anne Halloway there, and his family lived there. We got to see his house and Anne Hathaway's cottage where she grew up. Ashley, Jamie, Aubrey, Tomoko and Haeli and I ate in a 500 year old pub. The fish and chips (and peas) were quite good I must say.
I wonder how much the organization makes off of tourists going through Shakespeare's homes. That is the question!
Side note: umm I don't have one today. Sorry.

Today i went into work, ready for my second full day. Well, right when i got there, Brian, a cameraman, grabbed me and asked for my help. For the next 3 hours I helped him and Chris, the sound technician, set up and watch 2 interviews for The Today Show. We interviewed two men regarding the trial of the accused men of the failed 7/21/05 underground/bus bombings in London. It was very interesting because I had only heard of the successful bombings on 7/7/05. So I not only learned alot about this topic, but I also learned alot about lighting. Brian was really cool and used alot of technical terms like "f***" and "shit." I was barely able to understand! Honestly though, he gave me lots of info today and that was great.
We also learned about the Library. The Library handles all archiving and retrieving past video. It also calls papers to try and buy their photos if NBC wants them. Plus, they do basic editing to help out editors and producers. So, today was a very interesting day.
Oh and... how could I forget. We do verbates, which means to watch an interview and write down exactly what they say, verbatim. Today, I did a verbate for an interview with a Dr. in the Middle East. I think she's Iraqi, but definitely Arab. I don't know her profession, but she had very strong opinions against Bush. She said that the Iraqi people want the US out of Iraq. She believes Bush is incompetent and should resign now. Very strong opinions.
Side note: Computer keyboards are laid out differently here than US keyboards. The left side shift key is about 1/3 the side of ours and the right side enter key is shorter but 2 rows tall. It was screwing me up today. Watch out!

Friday some roomies and I went to outer London, Southgate to be specific. It was about a 30 minute tube ride into suburbia. I dont know if its actually London or if it technically called Southgate. There were some cute shops and gas stations. It was the first gas station I had seen thus far. It was really just like Homewood, or any other town in the US.
Later that night we went to the Union Pub on campus. It was a fun time. We were playing drinking games with some football (soccer) players. They were really intense!
I spent Saturday freezing my booty off all day! We went to Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace. Stupid me thought I would be INSIDE a WARM castle all day...yeah right. We walked around the outsides of the castles alot. Plus, the inside was freezing. Had I been warmer, it would have been better. Windsor is plain stunning. Words can't describe the grandeur, history, and elegance of this massive place. Hampton Court Palace wasn't as impressive, especially for a palace. The artwork and gardens and shrub maze were pretty cool though. I also learned alot about HM (Her Majesty) The Queen and many other past rulers.
After being cold for nearly 8 hours, I made it home and warmed up. Ashley and i went back up to the Union Pub and hung out for a while.
Today was my first official day at NBC. Haley and I went up there for the nightside shift 4:00 - 10:00 pm. It was really slow and not that exciting. But we now know what we are doing - logging newscasts of other news bureaus - and met some cool people. Everyone there - all 8 of them - tonight seemed very nice and welcoming. I have a feeling I'm going to learn alot and meet some really talented/respected journalists.
Side note: Here are a few random differences I've picked up on the past 12 days...
1) All dressing rooms have curtains here while almost all in the US have doors.
2) Fudge here is a sugary, toffee, caramel flavored sweet.
3) You don't have to tip servers.
4) KFC serves french fries instead of mashed potatoes!
5) There is no sales tax.
6) You have to pay 8 GBP to drive a car in the "congestion zone" aka Central London. If you don't pay it by the end of the day, you get fined about 40 GBP!
Cheers!

On Wednesday afternoon, my BLC class went to the Museum of London. It was super interesting. It was like having a history class in one day to cover 2000 years of history. I learned about the Roman influence, the fashion of different periods, the creation of the underground, the Black Plague, the Great Fire of 1666 and so much more. i was there for about 2 1/2 hours. I think most kids left after about an hour!
Wednesday night we went to a club/bar in Leicester Square called Verve. Aubrey, Ashley, Ashley, Whitney, Sahara, Erin, Allie and I went. It was really fun. The club played American 80s music upstairs and downstairs it played new American music. It was fun. but since we left after midnight, the Tube was closed, so we took a bus. It was my first time on the bus and it wasnt as scary as i anticipated.
Yesterday, i started my internship at NBC news. It was really exciting. The people all seem really nice and have such extensive experience. There are about 8 other interns. Most are from the US but 2 are from England. Since they are my age, I'm pretty excited.
Last night I started researching trips that I want to take around Europe. As PJ is definitely coming to see me, we are planning to go to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. Hopefully it will be really fun without burnign a hole in our pockets.
Today, a few of my roomies and i are going to venture out of central london and go to outer London to see what there is to see. Hoepfully something's out there!
Side note: I've decided that london is similar to Chicago. London obviously is richer in history and has more impressive architechture. But when it comes to diversity, it is very similar to Chi-town. I hear other languages than English being spoken quite alot. And it seems that many retail workers have foreign accents. Interesting. Also in London's favor is that it has castles. Chicago can't even touch that!

My roomie Ashley and I decided to go shopping yesterday morning. Well, we ended up shopping for about 4 hours and went into about 15 shops. Yes, I know, we are very talented shoppers. We are also bargain finders. That is why we went to Hammersmith. It's about 4 tube stops from us and had sales everywhere. I only bought one pair of cute red shoes and a hair straightner. Ashley, however, bought alot more. On the upside though, these stores were cheap. My shoes were 7.50 GBP (Great Britian pounds) which is about $14. Not bad for a pair of shoes.
We got back in time to eat dinner and get ready for our first British Life and Culture (BLC) class with Dr. Patterson and assorted guest speakers. Wendy Stokes spoke last night who is a political science/international relations professor at one of London's universities. She was really cool and gave us a brief history on England, Great Britian and the UK. Yes, they are three different things. England is just England, duh, Great Britian is England, Whales, and Scotland, and the UK is Great Britian plus Northern Ireland. Got it?
She also talked about politics and health care and the welfare state. It was all really interesting and mostly stuff I didn't know.
Today all of the students on my program are going to the Museum of London which I think is a history museum. It should be interesting... hopefully!
I have my internship orientation tomorrow...wish me luck!
Side note: My hair is gross. I think its due to the lack of water pressure in our showers. I feel like the shampoo is still in my hair and that it never really gets clean. Kind of gross, I know. I don't know if all of London or even England has water pressure problems, but both of our showers definitely do.