The night before our interviews, john rick charlie and I decided to watch some quality British television. The first show we turned on had a bunch of naked people and weird weird things. The next one had the world dart championships.....At this point I decided that I needed some ice cream, which was incredibly hard to find. This is gonna be a problem, due to the love affair that ice cream and I are currently having. Once we did find it; it was super expensive anyway. I decided to settle for nutella, in the GLASS JAR. Its way better, but I cant find pretzels anywhere. (or whitening gum, for that matter ; / )
The next morning i took the tube with john to parliament. It wasnt too difficult and we only had to change lines once. We went through security and got visiter badges, then we waited for Elizabeth. John's supervisor, who is a very cute young lady, escorted us to an open area of tables and people having coffee etc. as we waited for Elizabeth to be finished with some other peeps. Since I was there early I got to listen in on John talk to his supervisor and stuff. I think he should have fun, and hopefully meet some peeps, as he has 3 other interns in his office. Eventually my supervisor, Monica, met with us. She is American as well, and seems very detail oriented and intelligent. She seems to have a sense of humor as well, which I think will be good. We figured out my official schedule which is as follows:
Monday- 9:30-1 at parliament 2-5 modern british politics class
Tuesday- 9:30-1 at parliament 2-5 British Media class
Wednesday-9:30-6 at parliament
Thursday- 10-1 Aspects of Modern British Art class; afternoon off
Friday- 9:30-1 or something like that at parliament (which my supervisor wont need me for every single week)
So thats a pretty jam packed schedule. After we went over everything that we need to go over, Monica asked me if I wanted to see Nick Harvey's office in the palace, because she felt like procrastinating. She took me to see the chambers of the House of Lourdes, and told me about the jobs and functions of different things. It was pretty awesome. Everything in parliament looks (and SMELLS) soooo old! Its cool. She also showed me the office that I would be sharing with her, it has a pretty nice view! Im excited about this whole thing!
After that adventure, I just kind of wondered around westminster, took some pics, tried to decide what to do. I was so HAPPY just wondering around not knowing where I was going, because I didnt feel lost or nervous, I felt kind of at home. Eventually I took the tube to picadilly circus bc I heard there were alot of shops and things there. I went in to a couple of them ; but i was real tired from walking around, so i decided to go grab something in Starbucks and sit down. I got a hazelnut hot choc, which was real good (and expensive; almost 3 pounds!) Some guys inquired as to whether I was Canadian or not, and I think he was kind of disappointed when I said that I was not. He told me to make sure I get to a christian church before I leave London, to which I am sure I responded with some sort of facial expression. I told him that I wasnt religious, and he replied 'me either, but i'm spiritual' with a smile. I said, 'okay, it was nice meeting you....'
I took the tube back home and exchanged some us dollars; I got like 67 for my 104 ugh. I needed to exchange some hair products that I bought and didnt like, so I did that, and also bought some more groceries. I stopped in a shoe store because Im in need of some brown boots, when I realized I had no idea what shoe size I wear here. One of the salesman helped me out; but it was def another n00b moment...I've been putting off buying an umbrella even though its been raining literally every single day, but last night the time had come. I stopped into a shoe repair shop bc they looked like they had some real nice ones, but when I saw that they were 15 pounds, I put them down. The shop owners told me in broken english that 'you use it how you pay for it' Meaning you get what you pay for, I believe.They told me that those are made in the UK, not in China. This was a bit ironic, because as far as I could tell, those men WERE made in China.
Last night was supposed to be our first big going out night, and it ended up being kind of a bust. For dinner I had an egg with a piece of cheese and bread and some boiled potatoes with garlic salt olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Interesting. I need to get my dad's sauce recipe ASAP. I got Caitlyn and I some mojito mix to help us finish up our bottle of bacardi (WHICH FROZE IN THE FREEZER, wtf?) Then we got ready and headed over to the boys flat where everyone was meeting up before we went out. The plan was, I think, to stick together. About half of us wanted to take the tube bc we already had passes from earlier in the day,and half wanted to walk, so we all ended up walking, but got split up anyway. In the end it was emily, john, charlie, conor and I wandering around not knowing what we were doing, and I was in the WORST mood. My dad called me and told me that me going to a bar in london was 'real nice Angelica, lets see where that gets you later in like" and I was like 'dad, its 11 o clock on a friday.....'
Eventually rick met up with us, somehow, and we actually went into a bar. People have a real good time after they hear us speak one sentence and in unison shout 'They're American!!!" Different people have different sentiments about it, and different things that they'd like to talk about. One guy asked me last night how close Pittsburgh is to San Diego. And I said prob about as close as London is to Sibera....dummy.....We left there to try to find a club or osmething, but at that point couldnt find one that had less than a 20 pound cover (some of them were even 40 pounds!!!) Thats like paying 70 bucks to get ina club in the US. So we WALKED HOME, and it took like 45 mins. We literally walked like 5 miles last night,and my hip is killlllinggg me like a little old lady. Everyone just left for these walking tours we were supposed to go on, but there is no way that I would have made it.
It was 52 degrreees last night; much better than the temps in the 20s and teens in worcester and pittsburgh! But then there IS the rain......
I think ill do some laundry and actually finish unpacking today while everyones gone. I have to go buy a new top up card as well, i need to be a little more careful with this whole prepaid thing.......
Who wants to make some skype dates?!?!?!?!
I miss everyone alot. Tonight is attempt to go out in London part two, and tomorrow we have a panorama coach tour of london, which should be pretty cool. Maybe i'll buy new boots as well.
<3
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