England

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.

Ice skating at the Tower of London was really surreal. It felt like a fairytale, mainly because we were ice skating in a dried up moat. For those of you who don't know (i didnt either) the Tower of London is actually a castle. So the moat makes sense. Eight girls went: Me, Jamie, Ashley, Haley, Tomoko, Aubrey, Sahara, and Jules. We had a good time trying to do triple toe loops and spinning on one foot. Why we arent in the Olympics is a mystery to me.
On a not so exciting note, classes began today. I also had an internship orientation meeting. Pretty much, we are supposed to ask for only 7 days off the entire semester. Plus, I found out that I will be interning at NBC with another girl from Mizzou, Haley (not the above mentioned). I was told that I may have to work weekends and/or odd hours. So I'm a little nervous just because I would like to travel on the weekends. I have a meeting with Suzette at NBC on Thursday morning to learn the details. Suzette is a Mizzou grad...hopefully thats in my benefit.
We had our first Issues in Reporting class tonight with Mary Kay Blakely. We have a comparison/content analysis of the coverage of social issues in the UK media vs US media due at the end of the semester. So that should be interesting also!
Side note: people here don't say "Excuse me" or "I'm sorry" when you bump into them. I think its rude, but I'm trying to blend in by not saying those things either. But then i feel rude!
Cheers!

Friday night at the Union Pub was fun. However, we mostly met other Americans from other programs. Once the night got going, we headed next door to the techno dance club. It was amazing, but then again, I love to dance.
Saturday morning we were left to wonder this great city alone. We had no scheduled activities. So, a few of us headed up to Picadilly Circus to buy "mobile" phones from Virgin Mobile. We wondered around and ate some yummy pizza. My roomie Ashley and I decided we are going to go see Cabaret at the theatre sometime before we leave. I'm excited about that.
After getting home, we were going to go ice skating, but that fell through. So we headed to the Union Pub again. I hung out with other kids from my program and hung out at their flat after the pub. I think my flat is better, but they don't have to walk up 40 stairs to get to theirs.
Today I slept in til about 1:30 pm. Since, I have done nothing. But we are going ice skating tonight at the Tower of London. I plan on it being just gorgeous.
Cheers!