Just a normal week in London( :

This weekend was the first "free" weekend we've

had so far. That being the case, most of the kids took off for other countries for the weekend. I however decided to stay in London either because people were going places I wasn't interested in, it wouldn't be worth the money to just go a couple of days, and because there was so much I still needed to see and do in London. Working full time everyday leaves no time to see or do much since everything closes. So I stayed in London while my friends traveled to their various destinations.



Friday after work I headed to the Tate Modern art museum. It was a bit of a journey, but totally worth it. The museum is free and it had some of the greatest pieces of art; pieces I have studied and seen numerous times in books and such, but was finally seeing up close in real life. Most notably they had Matisse, Pallock, Rothko, Monet, Picasso, Miro. The museum itself was huge with 7 floors, with a beautiful restaurant at the top overlooking the River Themes, the Millennium Bridge, and St. James?? I hung out and looked at the art till about 9pm and then made my way back to the dorms. I got back around 10 and was going to go out with some people but it didn't end up happening so I just stayed in and wrote the Paris blog.

Saturday I spent the day outside at Portobello Road. Portobello Road is a street in Notting Hill that is bustling with people, vendors, stores, booths, etc. on Friday's and Saturday's. It is one of those must-go places. It was pretty amazing actually, must bigger and better than the largest open market in America, and I would know since it is in Portland.
I set off by myself, but luckily I ran into some people I know from my program so we all stuck together until they left; I wanted to stay longer. There were vintage clothing stores and antique stores lining the streets. In front of the stores were booths people had set up for the day selling more clothes and antiques, as well as scarves, souvenirs, fresh fruits and veggies, pastries, candy, flowers, and so on. There were also crepe stands, ice cream stands, hot dogs, and some ethnic foods like German, Indian, and Thai. I had some Indian food, (I think) I got peanut sauce chicken with rice, it was good. I also bought some nectarines, a cinnamon apple danish, and a red velvet cupcake from one of the best bakeries in London, Hummingbird Cafe. Don’t worry, I bought some non-food related things too lol. Everything began closing down around 5pm and I made my way back to the Tube station home. I ended up staying home that night as well and just talked to my friends back home on AIM (instant messenger chat) and got some sleep.

Sunday I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to get some more sights in. My first thing was to find some breakfast though and also try to find someone to go with since I was a bit socially deprived with all my friends being gone. I found this guy Nick, from New Jersey, who is on the floor above me. So we went down the street to a popular coffee shop, Coffee Republic. He got a bagel with ham & cheese and I got a croissant with ham, cheese, and egg. It was delicious. I also had an iced chi, but they do it different here. They blend it so its kinda weird but not bad. They also have a huge shake menu there, and really good ones too. For example I'm planning on getting the Forrero Rosche shake one of these days.
After that Nick went with one of his friends site seeing and I did laundry. When that was done I managed to find this girl Devon to go to the National Portrait museum with me in Trafalgar Square. We had a great day. We went to the square, took pictures with the lions, and then walked through the museum. After we wanted to do more, so we walked to the river so we could see Big Ben up close. So after a bit of walking and picking up a few souvenirs for friends, we turn a corner, and it is right there. It was huge and I was so happy because I love Big Ben. We took pictures and then took some pictures of the river and the London Eye Ferris wheel. Now we were hungry and we decided it would be fun to go to the Texas Embassy for lunch. So fun fact, listen up Norman, the Texas Embassy was really Texas' Embassy in London at one point when Texas really was its own country! Apparently them Texans were always very prideful lol. However, after Texas decided to let go of their superiority complex and join the rest of the United States, the building was turned into a TexMex restaurant! haha. And it turned out to be a tasty one too. I had a chicken quesadilla and Devon had chicken enchiladas. Afterwards on our way to the bus station we stopped at a waffle stand and split a chocolate waffle that was also delish. We arrived back at the dorms about 7pm full and satisfied with a fun day full of sights. It was another night in for me and I actually went to bed pretty early (10:45). Next day, back to work.

Work is going pretty well; some days are slow and kind of boring and some I'm really busy and barely have time for lunch and leave work past 6. I get an hour for lunch generally which is nice. There are a few good places around here that are affordable, as in Subway, McDonalds, a few cafes, and a pub that is pretty good. There are also lots of sandwich shops everywhere where you just go buy a pre-packaged sandwich and drink or whatever. I'll do that sometimes and then go sit in the park and eat when the weather is nice. There are always people everywhere, lots of fancy people too. Another big thing is that last week they got a new intern. Her name is Chow and she is from North China. She's been going to school here in London though and will be in her last year. She sits right next to me in the office and we often go to lunch together. So it's really nice having a friend in the office who is on my same level. So yeah, work is pretty good. I've done stuff for 4 different magazines now: the main one, Quintessentially I've done quite a bit with, I did the main fashion layout for Harrods Estates, I converted every page from the past 4 issues of Spear's Wealth Management into PDF's for a company who bought it to publish in Russia, and I spent quite a bit of time transcribing interviews recorded on tape, word for word, onto word documents! And I've done a few spreads for Private Sea magazine. The only thing I can hope is that they will remember to list my name in at least half of those.

Oh and two more cool things I must mention. Last Monday my friend Katie (the one with all the amazing job hook-ups) and I saw the band Death Cab for Cutie (really big in the US) at this really cool venue that looks like an old fashioned theater!! Not only that, but since Katie works at a PR company her boss was able to get us on the guest list… as VIPs!!!! It was spectacular! Not only did we bypass the huge line, but we were escorted in to a private balcony area on the side of the stage to watch the show, complete with a whole drink table. Naturally I went for the champagne and then the Vitamin water. And the show itself was amazing too, I loove Death Cab. Second cool thing, tonight (now last Mon) Katie got us on the guest list for this swanky club Dolce: www.dolcelondon.com
Yeah, Paris Hilton and rock stars hang out there. We were excited! Turns out it wasn't really our scene though. We hung out for maybe 2 hours, saw the rapper NEYO who rented out the VIP section for the night, and then we headed out to see what else we could find. Well knowing us, and knowing London, we found a lot. We ended up at 3 different bar/pubs and met three diff groups of people at each. The first place we met 3 American guys who were actually really excited to find American girls. Apparently Brit girls just don't compare lol. Then at the next place we met this guy from Verona, Italy who is now a cook/chef? at an Italian restaurant in London and invited us for a free meal sometime. Then at the third place we met 3 guys from Paris. We went to the American bar Cheers with them, and I danced a bunch with one of the crazy French guys, it was funny but fun. We did like swing-style dancing. After that our feet hurt so bad and Katie and I headed home. It was a Monday night after all.