Just an update

Over the weekend, I went to the Camden Markets.  It is made up of a whole bunch of stalls selling clothes, jewelry, food, purses, scarves, and more.  There were lots of arts and crafts things and a bunch of vintage stores.  There is also a small produce market.  On Sunday, I went to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.  I had gone to the National Gallery last Thursday with my class, but we didn't see everything.  The National Portrait Gallery had a display on Princess Margaret Rose!  It was cool to see what she looked like through the years since I'm a Margaret Rose too.  Then I sat in Trafalgar Square and did some people watching.  

I'm really enjoying work lately too.  I've started getting assignments for menu layouts, brochures and book bindings.  It's all going pretty well.  I have to get started on my research paper soon too.  I just went to the school library last night for the first time and did some reading for my class, but I should go back and see what sort of typography sources I can find since my paper is all about signage.  I have an appointment with the Mac store today because I have been having problems with my computer.  It shuts itself down for no reason and sometimes it won't even turn on.  Hopefully they will know what is wrong with it, otherwise it will have to be sent out and I won't have a computer for two weeks.  Once it's fixed, I'll get some more pictures online.

This coming weekend, some friends and I are going to Dublin.  I'm excited, but with the current American economy, the dollar is even worse to the Euro than it is to the pound.  This trip might be pretty expensive, but it should be fun.  

Photos

I was finally able to get my photos off of my camera and onto my computer.  I'm making photo albums in Facebook and I'll post the public links on here so that everyone can go and see them.  So far I have three albums completed but there are a lot more pictures still to come!  I'm putting them up in order so I don't have any from Norway ready yet.  Stay tuned for more!

Album 1:   http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033707&l=4fc2d&id=21503219

Album 2:   http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033709&l=b3370&id=21503219

Album 3:   http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033734&l=2e7e3&id=21503219

NORWAY!!

I went to Oslo, Norway this weekend!  We flew out of Stansted Airport Friday night.  We thought we were going to miss our flight.  We planned to leave our flat at 2:30 to get to the bus station and ride to the airport for our flight which wasn't until 6:55.  We left on time and took the tube to the station but had to wait for a bus and the ride took over TWO HOURS because of traffic.  There had been an accident on the road we should have taken so we had to go a different way.  We had to check in for our flight by 6:15 so we rushed to find the desk.  Once we checked in and went through security, we realized our terminal was all the way across the complete other end of the airport so we RAN through the airport to get there before the plane left.  When we arrived, there wasn't a plane at the gate!  There were two other people looking for the same flight as us and they noticed that the gate had been changed and was right behind us.  So then we got in line and got onto the plane with no problems.  We were even able to sit all together.  (There were six of us and Ryan Air does not assign seats, just first come first serve.)  We got really stressed for no reason, but at least we didn't miss the plane.  

The flight was okay.  I had heard lots of horror stories about Ryan Air but they didn't take our luggage from us and they didn't cancel our flights.  We did have to pay to eat on the plane but I think that's becoming common on lots of airlines.  The cabin pressure was really awful through the entire flight (about an hour and a half) and I already had a cold so that wasn't good.  Other than that, the flight was fine.

When we arrived at Torp airport, we had to take a bus into Oslo.  The airport is two hours outside the city so we didn't check in to our hostel until around midnight.  The hostel was really nice.  It wasn't in the center of the city but it was clean and pleasant.  We did have to bring our own sheets (which is a pain when you only have one backpack for the whole weekend) but it worked out.  That hostel had breakfast included which was really nice since food is really expensive in Norway.  We all packed peanut butter sandwiches from London to eat for the weekend.  

In the morning, we got up bright and early to make the most of our weekend.  We bought an all day pass for the public transportation.  We took the tram down into the city and nothing was open yet!  Most of the stores didn't open until 10 and some museums weren't opening until 11.  We decided to use our passes to ride the ferry out to "Museum Island" which is right across the fjord.  That was where the Viking Museum and the Norwegian History Museum were.  We walked up to the Viking Museum but you had to pay admission so we decided not to go inside.  Lots of the museums in the city are free and we wanted to spend as little money as possible.

We ended up riding the ferry right back and seeing the main part of the city.  There was some kind of fall festival going on right near the dock where people were selling pumpkins and apples.  There were singers and a group building some kind of shelter from sticks.  

We went to the National Gallery and saw Edvard Munch's "The Scream" as well as a bunch of other Munch works and more.  We also went to the City Hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded.  It was really beautiful inside there.  The ceiling was really high in the main room and there were murals painted all the way up the walls.  Upstairs were a whole bunch of rooms with even more murals.  I was really impressed by everything there.

We also went to Vigelandsparken, the Sculpture Park.  It was a really big park with a long walkway lined with sculptures of naked people made by Gustav Vigeland.  There were a lot of families around the park.  Lots of kids were riding bikes or scooters and it was a beautiful day.  At the end of the walkway is a hill topped by a huge monolith made of more naked people.  It was interesting.

Saturday evening, we went to see the Opera House.  It is the craziest looking building I've ever seen.  The architecture is stranger than the Sydney Opera House.  It kind of looks like a giant iceberg that you can walk all over.  The whole thing is white cement and you can climb up to the top and look out over the water.  We watched the beginning of the sunset from there, then we got on the subway.  My program director's husband told me that we should take a ride out into the country on the subway because it comes out from underground and you can see the whole city below.  The sunset was really pretty but by the time we got to the end of the route, it was down.  We ended up coming straight back since nobody wanted to walk around in the dark.

That night, we stayed at a different hostel (we couldn't get the same one for both nights because we booked late) right in the center of the city.  We slept in a bit more Sunday morning since we knew nothing would be open early.  We went to Akershus Fortress to walk around.  It is an old fortress that is still standing but no longer working.  There were lots of cannons on display and we could look out over the water from certain spots.  

We also went to the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art where there was an Andy Warhol exhibit.  There were a whole bunch of rooms with his movies playing and there was a room full of every book about him.  We were going to go see the Nobel Peace Center but there was a veteran's peace event going on in front of it blocking the entrance.  We had seen the parade going down the street and they were holding some kind of "peace day" display.

We walked up to the Royal Palace (which is right in the center of the city) and saw the changing of the guards.  We did a little souvenir shopping (I bought trolls!) and headed back to London.  It was a nice trip and I'm glad I got to go to Norway.  I never would have thought I'd go there, but Oslo was a really cool city.  There were old historic buildings, modern things and a beautiful view of the water.  It was fun!

The Hills Are Alive...

Tonight, we went to see The Sound of Music!  It was really good.  Captain Von Trapp didn't have the greatest voice, but everyone else was great.  I don't think I've seen the play since Julia played little Greta as a second grader.  Today was also my first class, Aspects of Modern Art in London.  There are only four people in it.  The teacher seems a little boring, but I think the structure of the class will be pretty cool.  Half of the classes meet at galleries or museums to go and actually look at art.  It won't be much memorizing slides.  Today we looked at slides, but I don't think we'll do it very often.  My grade is based on one short essay, one long essay and a final exam which should just be two essays.  There isn't any busy work like American classes.  We'll see how it goes.  Tomorrow, I leave for Norway and I come back late Sunday night.  It should be a lot of fun!

My First Day of Work

So today was my first day at Mystery!  Half of the office was out on "holiday" or a photo shoot.  I started the day making corrections on designs for Ponti's restaurant.  This is a restaurant that Mystery has had an account with and they are opening a second location in London.  My coworker JC designed a business card, a poster, and an invitation to the opening and had sent them to the clients.  I looked over their ideas and made all of the necessary edits such as typos and re-wording some sections.  It didn't take very long, but I had to ask JC lots of questions and he was busy with another project.  Once I was finished, he was in a meeting so I looked through some design books until I could review with him.  He sent them over to the clients and they only had one more adjustment and the designs are finished now.

After lunch, I started on my second assignment.  It is for a cafe in Exeter, England called Madison's.  The clients have an idea to create a New England feel.  The target audience would be middle aged women for tea, coffee, and simple healthy lunch options like salads, sandwiches and soup.  Since I am from New England, I was assigned to help out on this project with another designer named Steve.  To start, I did research and collected images for a few different concepts.  One is a garden theme.  I thought of peonies and lilacs as a few good New England flowers that the target audience would find nice.  The design would have a garden gate and comfy couches with large floral patterns.  (We work on the interior design as well.)  Another concept is a beach theme.  For this one, I was thinking light houses and sand dollars.  For generic New England, I designed a logo with a lattice background.  For some reason, I think a porch with a lattice base is a very New England kind of thing.  I also thought of a bed and breakfast or inn surrounded by fall foliage.  Another idea is to use a white picket fence.  We'll see where all of it goes.  For now, I have a few logo ideas and a large collection of photos from online.

After work, my friend Sarah and I went to get our hair cut.  We had both talked about getting some cool London haircuts.  There is a place called Mr. Toppers that gives men's cuts for 6 pounds and women's for 12 pounds.  We were going to go there, but we heard it was bad.  Someone recommended that we go to "The Academy" where beauty school students cut your hair for a pretty low price.  The other day, we walked to Covent Garden and saw a salon with a sign outside looking for hair models.  So we signed up!  They called us yesterday asking if we could come tonight at 7.  We went and got our hair cut for free!  We left tips, but it was free because we were models for them to learn on.  I said I didn't want anything crazy, but I did want something kind of different.  So I got layers!  At first, she was really careful to make it all even and the instructor came around and showed her exactly what to do.  Then he came by and started the layers.  I thought he said we were doing just a trim even though I said I was okay with layers so I was really surprised when he chopped a bit off.  It came out really good though.  I also said I didn't want to have to blow dry or straighten it to maintain it, so she scrunched it and used a diffuser to dry it.  It actually took close to 3 hours, but they told us it would take a long time when we signed up.  Sarah got a few inches off and she got bangs, or "fringe" as they call it.  I'm really glad we did it.

Tours of London

On Friday afternoon, we took a walking tour of Westminster.  Our tour guide was really informative, but not boring.  Unfortunately, it rained a little during the tour but most of us had umbrellas.  We saw Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and some cool old houses.  We also walked through Westminster School, which is a "public" school, even though that means private in America.  It's mostly a boy's school, but girls can go for their final two years of high school.  Lots of their students go to Cambridge or Oxford.  We didn't get to go inside the Abbey, but we walked all the way around it.  There's an area called "Poet's Corner" where some of London's most famous writers are all buried together.  We learned about why things have certain names.  Parliament was originally set up as the government building where people would go to talk.  "Parlia" comes from the word talk and "ment" means place.  Westminster is the name of the "city" and it comes from the church.  Minster is like ministry and this particular church was west of the City of London.  There are two cities, City of London and Westminster and then 32 boroughs inside of London including Knightsbridge, Camden, South Bank, West End and Bloomsbury, where I live.  

We also learned about a man named Guy Fawkes who attempted to blow up Parliament during a ceremony where the King came to speak to the house.  Luckily, his plot was found out and the police were able to catch him and his conspirators when they found all of the gunpowder laid under the building.  He was "hung, drawn and quartered" which is basically the most horrifying form of execution.  First he was hung, but before he lost all consciousness, his stomach was drawn open and his innards were held up for him to see.  Then he was dragged through the city so everyone could spit on him.  Finally, his body was decapitated and his head was put on a stake on a bridge so that birds could peck at it until only a skull was left.  As our tour guide told us all of this, we all made the most terrified faces.  They don't kill people this way anymore (duh) but Guy Fawkes is very famous here in London.  Since this would have been one of the largest acts of terrorism in history, it's celebrated every year that he didn't get away with it on Guy Fawkes Day in November.  People set up bon fires in all of London's parks and burn effigies of Guy.  

Today, we took a bus tour all over London.  We stopped at St. Paul's Cathedral to walk around and take pictures as well as Buckingham Palace.  I'm still having trouble loading my photos, but I'll get them online somehow.  We drove by Harrod's, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Prince Albert's Monument and over the Tower Bridge.  We also got off the bus down at the Thames river to take photos of the Tower of London and the skyline.  The Thames Festival was this weekend so it was really busy down there.  My friends and I went to the festival yesterday.  There were all kinds of vendors selling jewelry, clothes, hand made soap, toys and crafts.  I bought some earrings, a scarf and a few gifts.  There were also lots of street performers.  There were guys running up the sides of buildings and doing crazy somersault tricks over each other.  There was a skate park along the road too.  Tonight, they had fireworks but we were all too tired to go and see.  We start our jobs tomorrow and we all want to be ready to wake up early.  I was able to see a few fireworks from our window just over the buildings.  I'm really excited to start work tomorrow and I hope my first day goes well!

Booking our first trip

This morning, some friends and I decided to book our first weekend adventure.  We looked at costs for a bunch of European cities and decided to go to Oslo, Norway.  Ryan Air had some cheap flights, but while we were booking, the first few girls filled up the cheapest seats.  When I clicked the button to purchase the ticket, my computer froze!  I didn't want to click it again because I didn't want to get charged twice.  I decided to call the airline to make sure and they charged me 8 pounds for my phone call!  It turns out, the cheapest seats were filled up and I had to go back through the site to book one that cost 15 pounds more than the other girls.  I was a little bummed I ended up spending 23 pounds more than everybody else, but I'm still excited to see a new place.  We are going this weekend and hopefully we'll get to plan some more trips besides this one.

Ye Olde Cock Tavern

Jess, Rachel, Courtney and I went out to dinner tonight.  We decided to choose a pub from one of the travel books I had.  My cousin Andrea gave me one called "The Little Black Book of London" that is filled with spots the locals like.  This place was down in Holborn, so it was about a 15-20 minute walk from our house.  We picked a great one!  I got chicken kiev and an ice water, but one of the girls got fish and chips and two of the girls got draft beers.  We thought it would be fun to go to any old pub, but we made friends at this one.  The bartender seemed kind of crazy and he loved us Americans.  He kept joking that he was from America and that the man sitting next to us was his brother.  The man next to us was very friendly and told us all about the good spots to go in the Holborn neighborhood.  This pub was on Fleet Street and diagonally across the way was where Sweeney Todd had his barbershop.  He told us about this weekend's Thames Festival too.  Apparently, there are open houses all weekend where you can walk through Buckingham Palace and the Prime Minister's house on Downing Street for free.  There is also a fireworks display at night and lots of activity down by the river.  Hopefully, we'll get to do some of the activities.

School Orientation, London Eye, and Salvador Dali

This morning was the orientation for Birkbeck College.  We sat in a room and learned a little bit about the way the semester runs.  We were given the answers to some frequently asked questions, mostly about missing classes or bringing people from home to class with us.  Neither of these are allowed because participation and focus are really important.  They also told us about the library and it sounds like we won't have to buy our own textbooks at all.  They also handed out the student IDs, but apparently they never received my photo so I have to bring one to the registry office to get mine.  I know I sent one with my study abroad application because we had to submit 6 passport sized photos and one shrunken photo which would be for the ID.  I took mine and Jess's to the computer lab back at school to scan and shrink and she got her ID.  I'll have to talk to the study abroad office to see what happened.

After that, we had lunch and went out to ride the London Eye.  Elizabeth had messed up the tickets and I got one that she had drawn an X through.  I had to go to the customer service desk because they couldn't scan my ticket.  I guess she accidentally purchased twice as many as we needed and decided to mark half of them to not use, but then she ended up marking too many and I got one with an X through it.  After a few minutes, we were all set and got on to the Eye.  The view was awesome.  I took a whole bunch of pictures (which I'll figure out how to post eventually).  You can see Big Ben, Parliament and all around the city.  

After, I went to the gallery next to the eye which had a HUGE Salvador Dali exhibit.  The entry was lined with photos of him and lots of his quotes.  They had a large collection of his sculptures and they had some of the furniture his art inspired, including the lips couch!  They also had the actual lobster phone.  There was a series of pen and inks with gold glitter glue added that were pretty cool.  There was also a book that Francisco de Goya wrote and illustrated that Dali had reinterpreted.  He added color to the black and white images as well as adding some weird designs in the background.  When I thought I was finished, there was another room filled with his religious related pieces.  It was even bigger than the exhibit we saw in Bruge last summer and I'm glad I got to see it.  The only disappointing thing was that we couldn't take any pictures inside the gallery.

The interview!

I just had my interview and I think it went pretty well.  Elizabeth told me to meet her in front of the office at 1:50 for my 2:00 meeting.  I hadn't taken a walk that way yet, so I didn't know exactly how long it would take.  I wanted to get a more "professional but fun" purse for my job so I stopped on the street and bought a blue bag (with a zipper for safety!) for 7 pounds.  Then I was still early by three minutes.  As 2:00 got closer, I called Elizabeth to see where she was and she told me she was only 5 minutes away, but really she ended up getting there over 10 minutes past 2.  One of the guys that worked in my office had come outside to have a cigarette and talk on his cell phone while I was waiting on the stoop, so he can prove that I was there early.  Elizabeth told them that it was her fault we were late, so hopefully they won't think I was irresponsible by their first impression.  

Anyway, the building my office is in has 5-10 businesses working out of it so our room is tiny.  It's basically a computer lab with computers along each outside wall and then a row with back to back computers down the middle of the room.  I had decided to dress really nice for the interview and then see what everyone else had on.  When I walked in, everybody had on jeans and dark colored tops.  Most of them are men, so it's harder to decide what to wear based on their outfits, but I saw one girl with jeans, a black tunic kind of top and a scarf.  My supervisor's name is Dan and he said we could go to the conference room upstairs, but it is the only one for the whole building and someone else was already using it.  So he asked if we'd like to go across the street and have a coffee for our meeting.  We went to a cafe that is a chain around here called Caffe Nero and I didn't get anything and neither did Elizabeth but he got some kind of cappucino or something.  

So Elizabeth did most of the talking.  From what the other girls said, that's how their interviews went too.  I think I may be the first student to have an internship with this particular company because she asked him a whole bunch of questions about what they do, how they operate, how he started his own business, and what happens if we can't come up with ideas for projects.  I think part of it was for my benefit so I could learn more about the company but she seemed really curious too.  I was a little mad she took over the interview like that, but then I got to ask questions toward the end.  

I asked about the dress code because obviously, I could tell that I was overdressed.  Dan said that everyone pretty much wears what they're comfortable in and they look pretty scruffy most of the time but I can wear whatever I want.  I brought mostly nicer clothes but I did bring a bunch of solid colored t-shirts so I think they will be perfect.  

It turns out that one of the projects the firm is working on right now is for a food company where one of the other girls on the program is interning.  That should be pretty cool.  Another current project is to develop a cafe called Madison's in southern England.  They are currently hoping to create a New England country cottage cafe feel.  This is obviously going to be perfect since I'm from New England!!

I am going to be working 9:30 to 6 Monday through Wednesday, 2-6 Thursday and 9:30-2 Friday.  My class is 10-1 on Thursdays so my only free time will be Friday afternoons.  The only issue I have with the job is that it is currently located one block from my flat (which is perfect), but they are going to be moving to a larger office in Soho.  I'm a little upset that my commute will be longer, but at the same time I was a little disappointed originally that I wouldn't be riding the tube every day.  I think it will work out to be good.  They aren't moving until October so half of my semester will be in each location.

It sounds like I will be shadowing the main design director most of the time but I will be working on projects with everybody.  Dan said that they don't expect too much from me and I couldn't tell if it was British humor or if he was being serious.  He also said I could make tea for everyone and run out to get things (like the stereotypical intern) but again, I couldn't tell if he was kidding.  He said they always have music playing and I can bring my ipod in "so everyone can make fun of my music".  I'm pretty sure he was just trying to be funny on that one too.

I'm really excited to start on Monday and I think it's going to be fun!

Welcome to London

I'm in London!!  My flat is completely adorable and my housemates are all very nice.  Today, we had an orientation for the BUNAC program and got our work permits stamped.  We had to take the tube to get there.  We did well with our first tube adventure.  I couldn't get the ticket machine to take the cash or coins that I had, but a nice man came up and said he was all finished with his pass for the day so he gave it to me!  What should have cost about 10 or 11 American dollars ended up being free!  I got an international student ID card which I already used to get a 10% discount on some school supplies.  After that, we found an enormous grocery store.  The best one is called Sainsbury, but there is a health food store called Marks and Spencer Simply Food and a quick market called Tosco Express all close by.  The highlight of the day was finding out that my work permit is sufficient to allow me in and out of the country until October 31st.  Hopefully, I can go somewhere with my parents now!  My "interview" is tomorrow but apparently it is more of a briefing to get my schedule and meet my supervisor.  I'm looking forward to it, but I still don't know what to wear!!