Cupcake Fail & Valentine's Day Movie Premiere

Wednesday really wasn't that exciting for me.  I went to my advertising class where we sat and listened about advertising for two and a half hours.  Next week our prof says he is taking us to an exhibit of the 100 items that have shaped society.  That should be interesting.  I'm not used to his teaching style of lecturing and using absolutely no visual aids.  You really have to listen and it doesn't help that his accent is so thick.

After class I ran to the stationary store to buy some post cards and a journal for my art class.  I got a pretty good deal I think.  I was hoping to get those postcards sent out today, but maybe not.  Art class was held in the British Museum and that place seems really cool.  There are a lot of old wonders to look at.  I will have to go back there because as a class we only focused on a very small amount of artwork.  It was awesome to see the Rosetta Stone and part of the Parthenon though.

The British Museum

After leaving the Museum, Joe told me of a cupcake place that was supposedly close by.  We searched for the better part of an hour and couldn't find it.  It was a total FAIL.  I had really started to crave them after he mentioned sweets, and then let down when we couldn't find them.  Story of my life.  Joe swears that we will win though.  Sometime while we are here we will find the cupcake shop on Bloomsbury St. and the other 4 cupcake shops and show them who is boss!  But for now the score remains cupcakes - 1, Joe & Rachel - 0.  When we got back to Vandon House everything became instantly perfect because I discovered that I had a package.  It was from my parents and contained all the essentials like pickles, pickle chips, hot cocoa and chocolates!

The real exciting stuff was yesterday.  The European premiere of the movie Valentine's Day came to Leicester Square.  Three of us got out of class at noon and went straight there.  It was only two tube stops away so we were really hoping for good spots, and luck be known, we got em, sorta.  They seemed like good spots but we found out that if we had been only 20 ft right of us we would have got a ton more signatures.  The actors liked to skip us, but I'll go into detail in a bit.

So we arrived just after noon and people from the Central program slowly started finding us from 1-3pm.  It was freezing outside.  Luckily the package I got the day before also contained a throw blanket, so I wrapped it tightly around me.  Good timing Mom and Dad!  They didn't role out the red carpet until 5:45ish but the tween British girls behind us felt the need to try to shove to the front at 4.  There was almost a mini throw down.

The stars arrive right about at 6 and included Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Topher Grace (Eric Foreman from That 70s Show), Jessica Alba, Hector Elizodo (Driver from The Princess Diaries), Emma Roberts (Nancy Drew), and Director Gary Marshall (He directed Pretty Woman).  Topher went straight to the media but Ashton and Demi went to the crowd first.  Demi went inside before getting to us but Ashton came to us and stopped signing just as he reached the Iowa girls.  I yelled at him "We're from Iowa!" and Held up a makeshift saying just that and he paused for a second before saying "Really?  What are you doing here?" and then he moved on.  Sad day that I didn't get his signature.  I did get Topher's and Gary Marshall's but the rest all skipped over me.  Bailey got pics WITH Topher and Emma Roberts.  Lucky girl.  Now for the Pics!

Director Gary Marshall.  After he signed my sign that said "We're from Iowa" he offered up that he was from New York.  He was really such a sweetheart!

Ashton Kutcher.  Sorry Demi was inside already.

Topher Grace!!!

Emma Roberts.  The girl is so small she barely hit 5'6'' in 5'' heals.  She signed the girls' stuff on either side of me but not me.

Hector Elizondo.  Nice Guy, but skipped over me for signatures.

This is the best I could get of Jessica Alba.  She really didn't come to close to us.

When we got back we were all so exhausted and cold so we basically ate a huge warm meal and then I crashed like none other.  Today we went to Greenwich.  Update you on that very shortly.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Internship Day 2

I woke up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy.  That's a lie actually.  I didn't want to move.  I hope I get used o getting up early everyday.  I thought about it and I realized that if all goes as planned, I may not sleep in for the rest of the semester.  Eeek!  Ask my mom, I need my sleep.  I'm an 8 hours girls.  Need that beauty sleep.  (Long tangent, time to move on)

So today was Day 2 of my internship and good stuff happened today.  At 9:30 we reviewed my first press release and I was happy to hear that I actually did it well.  After a few minor corrections (like changing a few spellings from American English to UK English) it was sent out to the appropriate media.  I forget what those were, but it's still exciting.  I also read through the food watch magazine to find articles that were of the most interest to me to see if there was anything in there we could work with.

We went out for lunch to a place called Mooli's.  It was an Indian style Panchero's of sorts.  They make Indian flat bread wrap.  I had the pork with a pomegranate sauce and it was so good.  The "chips" of sorts and the "salsa" that came with it were interesting.  I ate them, but they definitely aren't something I would seek out.  The wrap was yummy it.  It had a nice natural spice to it.  On our way back we got stuck in traffic.  It turned our half hour lunch into and hour and half lunch adventure.

After we got back I was given the briefs to the cases that I would be working on.  I'm really excited to get my hands into them.  I need to research the products before Monday.  I would give you more details if I could but branding and advertising is a very competitive business, so I'll just give you the basics.  I also got a few welcome e-mails from people in other offices.  It made me feel special!  Everyone in the office is really nice, and they want to help me, not only with the business but with London.

Classes for the week start tomorrow, and I've still got to do some reading.  Have fun everyone!

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Internship Day 1

I'm extremely tired right now, but I promised my Mom that I would post about my first day at tdg The Design Group that day.

The first day wasn't too strenuous for me, but that doesn't mean that I didn't do stuff.  I started the morning by reading a bunch of trade journals; Marketing weekly, Design Weekly, Management Weekly and Grocers.  Marketing weekly was my favorite.  It broke news of new campaigns and conducted interviews with industry leaders.

We had a breakfast meeting with our team at the Clerkenwell Kitchen, which is just across the courtyard of sorts.  If I had known I wouldn't have eaten breakfast before I came so I just ordered hot chocolate and a croissant.  It was more of an introduction of me to the girls.  We talked about a lot of random stuff, like why there is no Turkey in the UK, and if/why Jersey Shore is so popular in the US.  We also talked about the upcoming London Weather.  Apparently we are going to get some snow on Wednesday.  It snowed a bit today, it wasn't cold enough, and didn't snow enough to stick.  One of the girls was already calling it a Blizzard even though they are only expecting a few centimeters.  I had to laugh internally because back in Iowa right now they are getting inches upon inches and I'm not even sure we would consider it at "blizzard" status.

After breakfast, my new boss, Patrick, took me aside to discuss some of the things I might be able to assist with and different projects that I would be a part of.  On Thursday of last week I had asked to be more involved in the account management/client services side of things, so they have placed me in three different upcoming projects.  Along with that I will be writing press releases which I have never done before, so that will be a good learning experience.  I will also be writing "thought" pieces once a month to comment on the industry, trends and where the industry goes if I heard correctly.  If I write them well enough I might be able to get them published in industry presses, and that would be incredible for my portfolio.  I'm really happy with my placement and the opportunities that will come of it.  I can already tell that I will learn more at this internship than most classes I have taken thus far.

My first assignments were to make a short intro of myself to be sent out to the company, and to write my first press release.  I wasn't given much information, and there doesn't seem to be much to work with but I hope I write it alright.

Tomorrow, first thing, we are going to review my press release and after that I get to hang with Sonny, the account manager of sorts.  She said she would show me the town around the office and also brief me on our first project.  Wish me luck!

This weeks updates include our classes on Wednesday and Thursday, and the Valentine's Day premeire after class on Thursday.  Hopefully its not too cold.  Friday we go to Greenwich on a ferry down the Thames river.  I'll wrap up the week on Saturday with hopefully a trip to Stonehenge and BATH, and some markets and a museum on Sunday.  It's a big week ahead.  Can't wait to experience it : )

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Chester & Liverpool Weekend Trip

Liverpool.  Home of the Beatles.  Masters of the Maritime trade.  Home of the Liverpool Football Club and it's many, many fans.  The city has a lot going for it and perhaps a lot going against it.

This tale begins on the morning of Friday, February 5th.  I was the first to wake in my room.  I was also the first to go to bed the night before, so this wasn't much of a shock.  What was a shock was the feeling of nausea that overwhelmed me.  At first I thought it was the same nausea that had held me for a short time before I came to London.  A combination of nerves and excitement.  I was wrong.  Let's flashback to the night before.  I made myself a small humble meal that consisted of a chicken and cheese pita sandwich.  However, the chicken I used had expired on the 3rd of February, a whole day before.  The sealed chicken seemed fine even when I opened it, but in retrospect, I don't think it was.

An example of the Medieval structures through Chester.

The most photographed clock in the world.  Move over Big Ben!

The three and a half hour bus ride to Chester was a struggle.  I couldn't stay awake because I thought I might get sick, and I suffered from what seemed like hot flashes that could only be cured by the coldness of the window.  Needless to say, it was not a fun coach ride.  Chester was a unique little town.  It has the most photographed clock in the world, the most complete roman wall in the UK, and Medieval buildings in its center.  I thought it was quite cute, but didn't explore it much.

Pretty self-explanatory.  Penny Lane was on Paul and George's bus ride to school.

When we arrived in Liverpool around 5, I was feeling tons better than I had before.  We had about 2 hours to explore until we went on our first organized group event.  A few girls and myself found a fabulous open air mall and went to town.  Bailey bought a whole bunch of stuff, but I decided not too.  I am not a fan of our exchange rate.  Fifteen pounds might seem like a good deal, but that's really $22.  I will have to budget better.  Anyway, our first activity was called Shiverpool, and it was a walking ghost tour of the city.  I found it quite entertaining, especially with since we had a guy named Benji in our group.  They picked on him quite a bit.  After the tour ended we had beers at the Philharmonic Pub.  I got back to my bed at the hostel around midnight I believe.  We had to walk about 2 miles back, that was fun.  I thought my bed was pretty comfortable.  I had nothing to complain about because I slept like a rock.

Also pretty self-explanatory.  Strawberry Field was a boys shelter that was and still is run by the Salvation Army, but also sports strawberries.

The Beatles Story Exhibition.

The next day marked our Liverpool and Beatles tour.  It was a 2 hour coach ride and I got some amazing pictures.  It was a good thing the tour was early because by the time we were done, a crazy fog had moved in and we could no longer see across the Mersey river.  Bailey and I went through the Beatles Story, which is an interactive museum of sorts.  I learned a lot about the Beatles that day.  Afterwards we grabbed lunch and went shopping a bit.  I got some new flats.  When we got back to the hostel around 5 people were preparing for the night already.  They wanted to to Liverpool like a true Liverpoolian.  By 7 we were a a pub called the Flute celebrating Michelle's 20th birthday.  It was a good night for a lot of people and a not so goodnight for others.  I was again back at the Hostel by 1am after meeting a bunch of friendly Liverpool men.  They were all really willing to chat.  All proudly claiming to be "scousers" and extremely lively in their conversations.

The next morning, after hearing some crazy morning after stories and hearing people piece together their nights (One girl didn't get back to the hostel until 7 AM, and one girl was brought back by the police because she got lost while following someone she thought she knew) we all boarded the bus.  This time my bus ride was quite enjoyable, but I don't think I can say that for too many others.

Liverpool was quite an interesting city.  Here are some of the observations that I have made. 1) It has a lot of History that is hidden throughout the city, and the modern parts are really cool as well. 2)  All that History seems to be buried in dirt.  I can't believe how industrial and run down some parts of the city actually were.  It was much "dodgier" than any part of London I have spent a significant amount of time in.  3)  People in Liverpool have a much more relaxed fashion than those in London.  I saw a lot more sweatshirts, skaters/punks, and girls wearing tights or leggings as pants.  4)  The men are much much friendlier.  Like I said before, they were not afraid to come up and say hello or start a conversation.  They were funny, and very animated with everything.  If I do say so myself, the men were also more attractive, and all the girls would agree with me.  5)  The streets were louder.  People were not afraid to yell across the street to say hello or tell someone off.  On our Ghost tour someone yelled from a car that we should all "get a life, you twats".

OH Liverpool.  You have given me some fun memories.  To see more pictures follow this link: Pictures

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Internship Interview

Thursday seems like so long ago, and yet I had such a good experience at my interview that it still sits pretty freshly in my mind.

I had two classed Thursday morning, my British Experience Seminar and Contemporary British Culture.  In BES we talked about our trip to Liverpool that was to come.  I'll post the details and pictures in my next post.  In CBC we got a breakdown of the course, but ended with group seminar where we talked about things in British News.  I actually enjoyed that because I am a freak who likes news and current events and hearing other peoples perspectives on the subjects.  Apparently the Tiger Woods ordeal was just as big here as it was back in the states.  Right now the big scandal story is about the English Football (soccer) Captain who cheated on his wife with a teammates ex-girlfriend.  Fun stuff right?  The nation is arguing about whether or not he should step down from his captaincy.

Anyway, after class Bailey and I went back to Victoria Station to return our Coach tickets to Dublin.  We solved our Dublin Dilemma and now we are going sometime in March and we are bringing our new Central friend Abbey with us.  They charged us 25% of the ticket price to return it.  The website made it seem like we could get a 100% refund, so I wasn't very happy about that, but I did it anyway.  I want that Greenwich experience on Friday, and then on Saturday we are doing a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath.  I'm soooooo excited about Bath.  I have wanted to visit there since I read my first Jane Austen novel.  Hitting up the Jane Austen Museum will be a must.  Plus it's still a traditional looking town.

But I digress, this post is supposed to be about my Internship interview.  Well, my interview was at 4pm so I had to leave Vandon House around 3pm.  It didn't help that the easiest way to get there by tube had severe delays so I had to head in a different direction.  Once I got there I was sweating from hot tube and slight nerves.  I'm pretty sure that my perfect hair was pretty messy at this point (I'm giving up on it.  It just doesn't want to cooperate at all, but hey, that's life).

The office for The Design group is just a room.  I was shocked at how small the organization was, but I would later find that TDG that I will be working for is just the London branch.  There are only 4 people in the office.  Three girls and the director Patrick.  Patrick was the one who took me to the coffee shop next door for my interview.  In some ways it was an interview.  He asked me about my strengths and weaknesses.  He also asked me about my life goals and where I want to be in 10 years.  But the other part of the interview was asking me what I wanted to get out of the internship and what sorts of jobs I might perform.  He told me about the company and even said that he plans on taking me to some of the other offices in the EU and UK.  I'm all for that!  Some of the other offices include Newcastle (the headquarters) and he mentioned Geneva.  He said he would reimburse me for travel and food that I eat while I work.  That makes the whole thing worth it right there.

There was only one awkward moment in the whole ordeal.  He asked me if I skied but with his accent and I totally misheard him.  I thought he said "Daewski" and I told him that I had no idea what "daewski" was.  Patrick had to use hand motions for me to figure it out.  I was quite embarrassed, and I had to tell him that I have no idea how to ski and haven't tried to yet, but I have tried snowboarding, and that's a bit of a lie because I don't think plastic snow boards down 100 ft hills count.  I would definitely be more than willing to try though.  Conversation came very easily and I'm excited about what I will be able to do for TDG and what they will be able to do for me in experience.  I start tomorrow at 9 am, which means catching the tube at around 8.  The good news is that dress is "creative" when we aren't speaking with clients.  I'll let you know how my first day goes.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Nighttime Stroll & Rainy Day Exploration

Last night Joe went to his first theatre production for his British theatre class so Bailey, Alex and I wanted to do something to get out of Vandon House.  Our original plan was to go to the Angel tube stop to see the longest escalator on the tube, but we got sidetracked taking awesome pictures of London at night.

The Eye was all red for national heart month.

I make it look so Big!

The Tower of London at night.  Kinda creepy.

It took us somewhere around 6 tries to get this shot and by the end my catch phase was "Well we can't fix me so let's move on"

The River Thames all lit up.

The London Bridge looks a lot more awesome at night than it does during the day.

So far today we haven't done much.  Alex, Joe and I hopped on a tube and went to Notting Hill.  None of us knew where the famous places were so we just walked and came upon the Kensington Palace and gardens.  We strolled for a while and it began to rain.  Way to go London.  It completely poofed out my hair.  Proof in the pictures below.  There were some differences between Notting Hill and Westminster that I noticed.  First thing, a lot more housing.  It seemed like a mainly residential area, but the stores that they did have were all about interior design and home furnishings.  The other thing was there were a lot more dogs in Notting Hill.  I'm surprised I didn't see more dog poop on the ground.

A sweet statue.  Doesn't he just look like a BA of the olden times?

We found an empty tube car so I had to play!

My wonderful rain ruined hair.  See my bangs curl?  Pure Awesomeness.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Dublin Trip Dilemma

This week I don't have classes until Wednesday and then I have my internship "interview" on Thursday, and that's when I will find out when I work and more of what I will be doing.  I put "interview" in quotes because it's not really an interview, it's more of a formality to make sure they think I will fit in and give me a sense of what I will be doing.

Since I have haven't had anything on yesterday or today, we've just been exploring.  No tours, just getting off at tube stops and walking around.  Yesterday our first stop was at Victoria station so we could refill our Oyster cards (tube passes) and buy tickets to Dublin for the weekend of the Feb 11-14.  When we got back later that day I realized that we had a planned, but optional excursion on Friday the 12th to Greenwich.

So here's my side of the story...
I want to go on the optional Greenwich excursion.  It's a riverboat ride that's already paid for and we won't experience it like that again.  We can still get refunds for our tickets up 72 hrs in advance of our trip.  Dublin isn't going anywhere and we can just reschedule that trip for the weekend after without too much hassle.  Plus I think we can get to Dublin cheaper than we thought before.

We were also planning on coming back to London on Monday morning.  After some serious thought I've decided that there is no way I can travel until Monday and then rush straight to my internship.  That's no way to live, I will need some downtime.  So I am going to come back from every trip by Sunday night, even if it's by myself.  It will be good experience either way it works out.

Also, I need to make a correction for Alex.  He thinks that I was biased in my account of the Couch Surfing concept.  There is a website called CouchSurfing.com where everyone has a profile and you look up the people that you would be staying with.  They come with references and reviews from people  who have stayed there before.  I've still skeptical though.  It's a good idea in theory.  Perhaps we will try it out, and perhaps not.

Leave a comment if you think that is still a biased account of Couch Surfing or how you feel about my Dublin Dilemma.

Pip Pip Cheerio!