After some gentle prodding by a couple readers (well, actually before this gentle prodding), I've decided to do another post. Now, I'm just warning you: I suck at blogging. I'm terrible with frequency; anything that requires regular updates? NOT MY FORTE. Ok. Now that we've gotten that out of the way (that being, for those of you who didn't realize, a blanket apology for my bad blogging skills for the entirety of the semester)...
Internship update: I'm interning at a not-for-profit company called 4Children in their publications department. 4Children works to better the lives of families and children through numerous campaigns as well as via policy. They've got connections in parliament to make sure that any policy passed is "family-friendly." Their main goal is providing resources for parents and children such as information and accessible childcare, and making sure that childcare stays well maintained. What do I actually do, you ask? So far, I've done some website updating and some copyediting. As that copyediting included proofing an eighty-page document and I hadn'tt slept well the night before (who actually sleeps before the first day of work or school or whatever anyway?), I kind of almost fell asleep several times. One of the graphic designers told me I could look for pictures for one of the new campaigns they're launching under their "Give Me Strength" campaign. On my first day, I wound up getting through 46 pages of proofreading and I'd found 46 pictures. The matching numbers were completely coincidental and quite freaky, to be honest.
Also, I've made tea. My first go at tea was apparently acceptable because I was told "that was a lovely cup of tea!" by one of the graphic designers. SUCCESS.
I feel like I know what some of you unfamiliar with British culture are thinking. You make tea? They make you make tea?? You're the TEA GIRL??? No, it's not like that. Here, it's customary to offer to get something if you get up to make yourself tea and whatnot. And I've learned that tea-making can be quite a nice break from staring at a computer screen for a bazillon hours.
And the people at my internship are super nice. Like, I just want to give them hugs. I actually was sad that I didn't get to go back on Thursday lol. I think I would've rather done that than go to class. One thing I like about my internship is I feel productive with whatever I'm doing. Like, I can visually see what I've done. When I was updating websites, what I was doing was adding a yellow box on the right hand side of the screen and putting in hyperlinks to other websites people might want to visit. So I can pull up the pages and look at it and say "I put that there!!!" It's quite nifty. If you want to see what I've done, check here: http://www.4children.org.uk/Services/Detail/Featherbank-Out-of-School-Club, There's a bunch more just like this one that I've done, too, and I'll hopefully finish them next week. 4Children is making webpages for all the children's centres or day cares that parents can search for by location. Pretty nifty. And you can navigate the rest of the 4Children website from here, too, If you want a better look at what they're involved in.
Also, boy update: It turns out that I'm not terribly attracted to British men. They're all so freaking skinny!!! So my wish to marry a British guy isn't so fervent, at the moment. Which means, Mom and Dad, that it looks like I'll be coming back after all :P There are, however, a few exceptions. I stood next to a guy that looked like Ryan Gosling on the tube the other day. It was beautiful.
Hmmm...what else...Oh! We went to the British Museum yesterday. Frickin amazing. But we only got through, like, four exhibits: Medieval Europe, Ancient Greece and Rome, Ancient Iran, and Egypt (which was where the Rosetta Stone is). Funny story about the Rosetta stone, actually. We were in Medieval Europe or something and I asked Lindsey where it was, because, hey, the British Museum is legit enough to actually have something like that, and lo and behold they did!! They did not, however, have any jackal statues. I was pissed. Like, you think Egypt, you think mummy and then you think jackal. Apparently not if you're British. Wankers.
WE SAW LES MISERABLES YESTERDAY NIGHT. Amazing. I didn't think I would like it as much as I did, but it was bloody fantastic. The cast was phenomenal, the set was stellar, gah! I loved it. Now I can't wait to see Wicked, which I think we may try for next week sometime.
As always, Eleanor says hello to you all! I have some pictures of her in various places (including my internship) that I'll try to upload in the nearish future.
Another addendum to my inconsistent blogging: I'll have to start updating regularly for a class (which is obnoxious, if you ask me), but some of them will be actually assignments. Which you're free to read depending on how bored you are, but I'm just warning you.
Cheers,
Anna and Eleanor
Friday, January 27, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Hello, all! For those of you who've not yet met Eleanor, she is a beanie-elephant who hails from the St. Louis zoo. She protected me from the bug exhibit, and we bonded. So I figured I could take her to London and she could be my unofficial mascot! We are having a fabulous time in beautiful London! Pictures are up on FB, however there aren't any particularly fun/goofy ones as of yet, as I have forgotten to take Eleanor traveling around with me. But never fear, she'll go out soon, I promise.
We took our first walking tour the second day we were here, which was quite exciting, but also a bit exhausting, and last night we went bowling which was quite fun. The Brits are all typically a very quiet bunch--when they're not bowling. While pizza and bowling seems so iconically American to us, the Brits enjoy it as well, apparently. According to Mark, our programme director, it's actually a very "British" thing to do here. Go figure!
Another "British" thing to do is the pubs, let's be honest. I've been to two, Eleanor has been to none. We shall have to change that, I reckon. A popular drink is Strongbow cider, which is interesting. I also tried Foster's beer, which was kind of exciting. I felt very British, even if it is an Australian beer. Close enough.
THE TUBE. The Tube is crazy and very extensive and hot and crowded. It's ridiculous! There are lines under other lines and before you get on some you feel as though you've journeyed to the center of the earth! There's one line--the Jubilee line--that goes pretty far down there and you shouldn't be surprised if your ears pop. I get to take the Jubilee to my internship, and then I switch to the DLR, or the Dockland Lights Railroad or some such thing. Which is a driverless train. Nifty. Mark told me to get a seat in the front sometime. My internship is clear over in Greenwich, and it's about a 45 minute journey with three train changes. Hopefully I don't mess it up too bad. We did a trial run yesterday, and Lindsey and I can travel together for a little bit, but my internship's a little further than hers. She'll get off and take the overground, whereas I'll stay on the Jubilee line one stop farther, then switch to the DLR. It will be interesting for sure, but I must say, I'm kind of excited to take the train today!
For those of you who aren't familiar with Vandon House, it's a hotel-type thing in Victoria, which is a "posh" or upscale part of London. One interesting thing about London is there are no ghettos--Mark told us that because of social housing that was implemented earlier, very rich people live next to very poor people in the same neighbourhoods, so there really aren't any slums or particularly dodgy areas.
We also had a brief culture seminar yesterday, and something that the facilitator said was that we should embrace things that are different or outside our comfort zonese (unless our instincts tell us to cut and run, haha). She stressed the importance of saying things in the UK aren't wrong, just different. Particularly driving on the left side of the road. Who'd have thought crossing the street could throw you for such a loop! I'm quite proud, though. I've just about got myself trained to look right first, then left. It's not something you even think about until you have to do it differently. Anyway, the point I was getting to, Ms. Butters, a Scottish woman who spoke to us about culture and such, told us to stretch at the end of our exercise. She had us lock our hands together, palms out/facing away and bring our arms above our head. Then we brought our hands back to our center, still clasped together, and she told us to check which thumb was on top, and then switch and do the stretch again. At first it felt really awkward and uncomfortable, but when I did the stretch again, my back cracked and it felt a lot better. So just because something feels strange at first, eventually it will begin to feel "right." That's my goal whilst here in London--to make the different the new norm. And I shall leave you lovely readers with that to stew on for a bit. I'll try and upload some photos of Eleanor so you can meet her within the next few days!
Cheers,
Anna :)
We took our first walking tour the second day we were here, which was quite exciting, but also a bit exhausting, and last night we went bowling which was quite fun. The Brits are all typically a very quiet bunch--when they're not bowling. While pizza and bowling seems so iconically American to us, the Brits enjoy it as well, apparently. According to Mark, our programme director, it's actually a very "British" thing to do here. Go figure!
Another "British" thing to do is the pubs, let's be honest. I've been to two, Eleanor has been to none. We shall have to change that, I reckon. A popular drink is Strongbow cider, which is interesting. I also tried Foster's beer, which was kind of exciting. I felt very British, even if it is an Australian beer. Close enough.
THE TUBE. The Tube is crazy and very extensive and hot and crowded. It's ridiculous! There are lines under other lines and before you get on some you feel as though you've journeyed to the center of the earth! There's one line--the Jubilee line--that goes pretty far down there and you shouldn't be surprised if your ears pop. I get to take the Jubilee to my internship, and then I switch to the DLR, or the Dockland Lights Railroad or some such thing. Which is a driverless train. Nifty. Mark told me to get a seat in the front sometime. My internship is clear over in Greenwich, and it's about a 45 minute journey with three train changes. Hopefully I don't mess it up too bad. We did a trial run yesterday, and Lindsey and I can travel together for a little bit, but my internship's a little further than hers. She'll get off and take the overground, whereas I'll stay on the Jubilee line one stop farther, then switch to the DLR. It will be interesting for sure, but I must say, I'm kind of excited to take the train today!
For those of you who aren't familiar with Vandon House, it's a hotel-type thing in Victoria, which is a "posh" or upscale part of London. One interesting thing about London is there are no ghettos--Mark told us that because of social housing that was implemented earlier, very rich people live next to very poor people in the same neighbourhoods, so there really aren't any slums or particularly dodgy areas.
We also had a brief culture seminar yesterday, and something that the facilitator said was that we should embrace things that are different or outside our comfort zonese (unless our instincts tell us to cut and run, haha). She stressed the importance of saying things in the UK aren't wrong, just different. Particularly driving on the left side of the road. Who'd have thought crossing the street could throw you for such a loop! I'm quite proud, though. I've just about got myself trained to look right first, then left. It's not something you even think about until you have to do it differently. Anyway, the point I was getting to, Ms. Butters, a Scottish woman who spoke to us about culture and such, told us to stretch at the end of our exercise. She had us lock our hands together, palms out/facing away and bring our arms above our head. Then we brought our hands back to our center, still clasped together, and she told us to check which thumb was on top, and then switch and do the stretch again. At first it felt really awkward and uncomfortable, but when I did the stretch again, my back cracked and it felt a lot better. So just because something feels strange at first, eventually it will begin to feel "right." That's my goal whilst here in London--to make the different the new norm. And I shall leave you lovely readers with that to stew on for a bit. I'll try and upload some photos of Eleanor so you can meet her within the next few days!
Cheers,
Anna :)
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