Dear all.
I am going to BRUSSELS, BELGIUM. I will not have my computer over the weekend, but I will update pictures and my blog when I get back on Sunday night.
Everyone - ENJOY your weekend.
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Sunday, 5 July 2009
the weekend of JULY 4TH :)
Hello all. It's Sunday afternoon and I cannot get over how amazing this weekend has been. (Yes, I have abused the word amazing while in london but everything is AMAZING). So I just got back from eating my 1st full english breakfast (toast, sausage, canadian bacon, scrabbled eggs, baked beans, grilled tomato, and mushrooms). I also had tea!! It's all about the EXPERIENCES :) ..In a half hour, we are meeting to go visit Kensington Palace, so I am going to write this fast!
Friday, July 3rd - We headed to a pub called "The Globe" and had our NEW favorite pub dish, sausage & mash!! (Try it, ITS INCREDIBLE!!!!) Then we went to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. So crowded, but SO much fun! I enjoyed taking pictures w/ the famous wax people. Then we went out for drinks in Covent Garden. Maybe my favorite area in London!
----> Me feeling much better about my butt size next to Jennifer Lopez, haha.
----> SHREK :)
----> Too bad Prince William will never know how cute of a couple we'd be.
Saturday, July 4th (INDEPENDENCE DAY) - May possibly be one of the best nights of my life. I cannot tell you with words how much I LOVED last night. We all got dressed up and went down to the pier & boarded our boat for the evening (7 PM - 11 PM). We all got drinks on the upper floor of the boat where there was a wrap around deck. Then we had dinner downstairs. And when we came back up to the 2nd floor they had opened up the roof ..so here we are cruising down the Thames as the sun is setting, you just look up & you will never be let down by the scenery. I am kind of thinking about getting married on a boat now, hahaha :) All of us sang & danced ALLLLLL night long. IT WAS AMAZING!!
----> The girls w/ Big Ben & Parliament in the background :)
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----> The DANCE FLOOR!!!
----> Kelly, Amanda, & I watching the sunset behind Tower Bridge
----> The London Eye at night <3
----> PS - I found a man w/ zebra print pants!!!!! HAD TO get a picture :)
I am OFF to Kensington Palace. I will take mucho pictures, don't you worry! And I will probably update my blog later tonight. Have a WONDERFUL day everyone. CHEERS :)
Friday, July 3rd - We headed to a pub called "The Globe" and had our NEW favorite pub dish, sausage & mash!! (Try it, ITS INCREDIBLE!!!!) Then we went to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. So crowded, but SO much fun! I enjoyed taking pictures w/ the famous wax people. Then we went out for drinks in Covent Garden. Maybe my favorite area in London!
----> Me feeling much better about my butt size next to Jennifer Lopez, haha.
----> SHREK :)
----> Too bad Prince William will never know how cute of a couple we'd be.
Saturday, July 4th (INDEPENDENCE DAY) - May possibly be one of the best nights of my life. I cannot tell you with words how much I LOVED last night. We all got dressed up and went down to the pier & boarded our boat for the evening (7 PM - 11 PM). We all got drinks on the upper floor of the boat where there was a wrap around deck. Then we had dinner downstairs. And when we came back up to the 2nd floor they had opened up the roof ..so here we are cruising down the Thames as the sun is setting, you just look up & you will never be let down by the scenery. I am kind of thinking about getting married on a boat now, hahaha :) All of us sang & danced ALLLLLL night long. IT WAS AMAZING!!
----> The girls w/ Big Ben & Parliament in the background :)
.jpg)
----> The DANCE FLOOR!!!
----> Kelly, Amanda, & I watching the sunset behind Tower Bridge
----> The London Eye at night <3
----> PS - I found a man w/ zebra print pants!!!!! HAD TO get a picture :)
I am OFF to Kensington Palace. I will take mucho pictures, don't you worry! And I will probably update my blog later tonight. Have a WONDERFUL day everyone. CHEERS :)
Thursday, 2 July 2009
love thursdays. LAST DAY OF THE WORK WEEK :)
I love Thursdays! (I love every day here, but Thursdays mean the weekend is upon us). SO before I tell you about my jam packed weekend ahead ..I'll tell you about my day! (lucky you)..
This morning we all met at in our usual lecture hall on the University of Central London's campus for our FAVORITE activity, british life class. hahahaha. Actually I can speak for almost ALL of us when I say we dread it coming every week. Because we are American students traveling here on a visa, we are required to work 25 hours a week and have 15 hours of british life. SOO every Tuesday we have a tour of something/somewhere in London and every Thursday we have british life class. This morning our lecturer was a MP in the House of Commons (Parliament). It was pretty interesting, even though I have not yet had my tour of Parliament and I know NOTHING about the british government but nonetheless interesting.
Then I went to work from 12-6. But today something exciting happened, kind of. Yesterday I wrote a press release for my manager. His request was that it was titled "Promotional Staff Central London" and had those 'key' words within the press release as much as it would make sense (the whole point was so Google would "cached" the words so when someone searches for the phrase our company will come up on the first page). Well today we tested our google search and to his complete AMAZEMENT, we were the SECOND company listed. He was jumping up & down, yelling "UNBELIEVABLE". Then he proceeded to tell me "I pay companies SO MUCH MONEY to get me on the 1st page of Google searches and you did it for me FOR FREE". I'm like SAY FREE ONCE MORE & i'll CHARGE YOU. hahaha. No, it was honestly awesome. I loved how excited he was over my work! I was pretty excited myself. (the link to my article is .. http://www.staffwarehouse.biz/ap/promotional-staff-central-london/ ) So today he had me write another press release, titled "Brand Ambassadors". We're still waiting to see if that one gets "cached", but the link is .. http://www.staffwarehouse.biz/ap/brand-ambassadors/ . Kind of exciting, right?! :) I made another small achievement today. So over the past 3 weeks I have begun to pick up and make sense of words the British use, like rubbish is garbage, soft drink is pop/soda, etc ..well they tend to say "cheers" in place of "thanks". So today I was on the phone calling a list of people helping the StaffWarehouse side of our company staff an event next weekend. AND I USED THE WORD CHEERS. Yes, minor accomplishment to those of you in the States but I did a dance, I was so proud. Yesterday one of my coworkers, Kevin (my absolute favorite) ..him & I spent the majority of the day going over American vs. British words. Who needs British life class, I learn it all at work!! Check out my company's website (all I have is the UK link, but I know you can get to it by Google search). Google - Blazinstar Experiential .
Also - I did not take any pictures today. Obviously it was a day of lectures & work. But I have kind of decided I cannot post a blog without a picture. So I ran to the 24/7 Beer & Wine about an hour ago (in the US it would be a convenient store) and I bought some beers ..Amanda, Kelly & I are just going to stay in & hang out tonight. But I thought my beer selection was somewhat entertaining so I took a picture ..
---> Stella Artois (5.2%). Carling (4%). Fosters (4%). Carlsberg (3.8%)
dear america, catch up w/ the alcohol content. thanks!!
----> I just got off skype w/ my parents. & this is a picture from that (it might not be the BEST quality) ..but this is my MOMMA T & my little baby MEEKO :)
& real quick ..tomorrow (Friday, July 3rd) - The morning will be spent at the famous Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. (about 10 AM to 1 PM). Then we are headed to Shakespeare's "As You Like It" at the Shakespeare's Globe (where we have STANDING ROOM tickets, all 2 1/2 hrs WOOT WOOT). We will then spend the night out on the town celebrating Kelly & Gillian's birthdays, that were actually on Monday & Tuesday night. Saturday, July 4th (INDEPENDENCE DAY, not here haha) ..I am taking myself on a Beatles tour (you'll see when I upload pictures) and SATURDAY NIGHT ....ahhhhhh...our dinner & dance cruise on the Thames River. I am SOO EXCITED.
I'll keep you updated :)
To my family in Iowa - LOVE YOU ALL. Have fun @ the Cahill Family reunion. Wish I was there or better ..all of you were here!!
This morning we all met at in our usual lecture hall on the University of Central London's campus for our FAVORITE activity, british life class. hahahaha. Actually I can speak for almost ALL of us when I say we dread it coming every week. Because we are American students traveling here on a visa, we are required to work 25 hours a week and have 15 hours of british life. SOO every Tuesday we have a tour of something/somewhere in London and every Thursday we have british life class. This morning our lecturer was a MP in the House of Commons (Parliament). It was pretty interesting, even though I have not yet had my tour of Parliament and I know NOTHING about the british government but nonetheless interesting.
Then I went to work from 12-6. But today something exciting happened, kind of. Yesterday I wrote a press release for my manager. His request was that it was titled "Promotional Staff Central London" and had those 'key' words within the press release as much as it would make sense (the whole point was so Google would "cached" the words so when someone searches for the phrase our company will come up on the first page). Well today we tested our google search and to his complete AMAZEMENT, we were the SECOND company listed. He was jumping up & down, yelling "UNBELIEVABLE". Then he proceeded to tell me "I pay companies SO MUCH MONEY to get me on the 1st page of Google searches and you did it for me FOR FREE". I'm like SAY FREE ONCE MORE & i'll CHARGE YOU. hahaha. No, it was honestly awesome. I loved how excited he was over my work! I was pretty excited myself. (the link to my article is .. http://www.staffwarehouse.biz/ap/promotional-staff-central-london/ ) So today he had me write another press release, titled "Brand Ambassadors". We're still waiting to see if that one gets "cached", but the link is .. http://www.staffwarehouse.biz/ap/brand-ambassadors/ . Kind of exciting, right?! :) I made another small achievement today. So over the past 3 weeks I have begun to pick up and make sense of words the British use, like rubbish is garbage, soft drink is pop/soda, etc ..well they tend to say "cheers" in place of "thanks". So today I was on the phone calling a list of people helping the StaffWarehouse side of our company staff an event next weekend. AND I USED THE WORD CHEERS. Yes, minor accomplishment to those of you in the States but I did a dance, I was so proud. Yesterday one of my coworkers, Kevin (my absolute favorite) ..him & I spent the majority of the day going over American vs. British words. Who needs British life class, I learn it all at work!! Check out my company's website (all I have is the UK link, but I know you can get to it by Google search). Google - Blazinstar Experiential .
Also - I did not take any pictures today. Obviously it was a day of lectures & work. But I have kind of decided I cannot post a blog without a picture. So I ran to the 24/7 Beer & Wine about an hour ago (in the US it would be a convenient store) and I bought some beers ..Amanda, Kelly & I are just going to stay in & hang out tonight. But I thought my beer selection was somewhat entertaining so I took a picture ..
---> Stella Artois (5.2%). Carling (4%). Fosters (4%). Carlsberg (3.8%)
dear america, catch up w/ the alcohol content. thanks!!
----> I just got off skype w/ my parents. & this is a picture from that (it might not be the BEST quality) ..but this is my MOMMA T & my little baby MEEKO :)
& real quick ..tomorrow (Friday, July 3rd) - The morning will be spent at the famous Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. (about 10 AM to 1 PM). Then we are headed to Shakespeare's "As You Like It" at the Shakespeare's Globe (where we have STANDING ROOM tickets, all 2 1/2 hrs WOOT WOOT). We will then spend the night out on the town celebrating Kelly & Gillian's birthdays, that were actually on Monday & Tuesday night. Saturday, July 4th (INDEPENDENCE DAY, not here haha) ..I am taking myself on a Beatles tour (you'll see when I upload pictures) and SATURDAY NIGHT ....ahhhhhh...our dinner & dance cruise on the Thames River. I am SOO EXCITED.
I'll keep you updated :)
To my family in Iowa - LOVE YOU ALL. Have fun @ the Cahill Family reunion. Wish I was there or better ..all of you were here!!
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
two posts in one day. GO ME!!
I went to ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS w/ Amanda, Kelly, Meghan, Allison, and Rachelle. The coolest part about it was that Abbey Road studios have a live camera feed on their website of the famous crosswalk 24 hours a day (the website is .. www.abbeyroad.co.uk/visit/ ). My dad & Jeff both saw me on the camera!! :) ..I am continuing my "Beatles Mania" by hitting all of the well-known Beatles spots in London this Saturday. (ALL FOR YOU DAD). Also important ..today around 4:30 PM, my boss walks into the office w/ a bunch of bottles of wine. It was one of my coworker's last day today, so we drank wine & sang for the last hour & a 1/2 of work. Never in the states, right?! Hahaha. Definitely one thing I love about over here.. they are much more laid back. Anywho ..here are some of my Abbey Road pictures :)
---> walking "thee crosswalk"
----> we kind of look like them, right?! hahaha!
----> I wrote on the wall .."for you DAD, <3 chels"
---> walking "thee crosswalk"
----> we kind of look like them, right?! hahaha!
----> I wrote on the wall .."for you DAD, <3 chels"
the 1st day of july!!
So yesterday's catch-up blog stopped on June 23rd. I am going to finish getting you up to speed REAL QUICK ..
Thursday, June 25th - A whole ton of the University of Dreams people got together and organized a "Pub Golf" game. Which entails 9 holes (or 9 bars) and you have 20 minutes in each bar and within those 20 minutes you must drink your drink & count how many drinks it takes you to finish your drink because there is a PAR at each hole/bar. We had three people per team ..& only one team member had to drink at each bar so everyone wasn't chugging drinks every 20 minutes. We had an absolute blast! There is even talk about us doing another towards the end of our summer in London.
----> This is my team ..Amanda, Me, & Kelly ..we called ourselves - TEAM BA (bad ass) hahaha. yes clever we know!!
Friday, June 26th - STONEHENGE & BATH. Stonehenge was exactly what it looks & seems like in pictures ..a bunch of rocks standing up w/ a couple laying across the top. Yes, it was cool. And yes, I am glad I got to see them and can say i've seen them. BUT ..not my favorite. The city of Bath on the other hand was AMAZING. Everything had me in complete awe. What an absolutely gorgeous city! When we got there we were beyond starving, so we stopped at pub for lunch. Followed by some shopping/sightseeing (including a trip to the local fudge factory YUM)..we even had our 1st afternoon TEA while in the UK :) ..Then we got to tour the roman baths. So incredible. EVERYTHING ABOUT BATH IS AMAZING. Another "must-see"
----> All of us girls in front of "the rocks" ..Stonehenge :)
----> ME at the Roman Baths!
Saturday, June 27th - We went for our 1st official fish 'n chips at a pub called "Hung, Drawn, & Quartered". Pleasant? Yes. It was right by the Tower of London if that makes it more acceptable. Hahaha. Then we took our tour of the famous Tower of London (which is not a tower at all.. I would call it the Castle of London, but supposedly when built it had the tallest tower around). Anywho, the tour was fun. So much history in that place ..most of the history consisted of someone dying. But we got to see the CROWN JEWELS. Oh MY gOSh! Words cannot describe the SIZE & AMOUNT of diamonds we saw that day. And we couldn't take PICTURES, grrrr. We got to see all the crowns, including the one that the current queen wears. And all of the "coronation" diamonds. Just amazing! Oh and then we went to the London Eye. We bought tickets for 12 pounds cheaper than they were at the ticket booth by some random girls that didn't have time to go anymore. THEN I GOT "SICK" ..yes sick sick!! & everyone else being the nice friends they are decided not to get on the eye that day & wait til I was feeling better. I still don't know what was wrong w/ me? Amanda speculates it was dehydration. I blame the spanish tapas the night before, ick.
---> Us w/ one of the "Beefeaters" ..hahahahaha thats what the guards are called @ the Tower of London!
Sunday, June 28th - HAPPPPPPPPY BIRTHDAY DAD <3 ..Since we had such a long, eventful couple of days we spent Sunday shopping at Portobello Market in Notting Hill. Although I didnt buy anything, such a cute area! AND I took my Uncle Craig's advice and tried a crepe w/ nutella. It was delicious but suppppppper rich.
----> Making my crepe :)
AHHHHH We're caught up. Monday, June 29th & Yesterday (Tuesday, June 30th) spent WORKING. lovely. No it really isn't that bad. Yesterday, I got to write up something that is now posted on my company's website. woot woot. It's the little things in life, right?! And today, I get to another posting. I really love my coworkers. They are a blast, but alot of them have the day off today. boo! Last night was Kelly Stevenson's birthday (we went to high school together) ..and so I met Amanda & Kelly out for dinner in Picadilly Circus after work. DELICIOUS. Then we headed to the "pubs". We ended up going to this sports BAR, so totally American. Hahaha. They had a beer pong tournament starting at 11:30 PM (we didn't participate). But alot of the people in our program met up with us and we ended up having a BLAST. But I must get ready and head to WORK. (Tonight the girls & I are headed to Abbey Road. To reenact the Beatles cover! ..It will be around 8:00 PM our time & 2:00 PM IOWA TIME, so if you are on a computer around that time get on this website ----> http://www.abbeyroad.co.uk/visit/ ..it is a LIVE video of the crossing in front of Abbey Road. LOOK FOR ME :)
Thursday, June 25th - A whole ton of the University of Dreams people got together and organized a "Pub Golf" game. Which entails 9 holes (or 9 bars) and you have 20 minutes in each bar and within those 20 minutes you must drink your drink & count how many drinks it takes you to finish your drink because there is a PAR at each hole/bar. We had three people per team ..& only one team member had to drink at each bar so everyone wasn't chugging drinks every 20 minutes. We had an absolute blast! There is even talk about us doing another towards the end of our summer in London.
----> This is my team ..Amanda, Me, & Kelly ..we called ourselves - TEAM BA (bad ass) hahaha. yes clever we know!!
Friday, June 26th - STONEHENGE & BATH. Stonehenge was exactly what it looks & seems like in pictures ..a bunch of rocks standing up w/ a couple laying across the top. Yes, it was cool. And yes, I am glad I got to see them and can say i've seen them. BUT ..not my favorite. The city of Bath on the other hand was AMAZING. Everything had me in complete awe. What an absolutely gorgeous city! When we got there we were beyond starving, so we stopped at pub for lunch. Followed by some shopping/sightseeing (including a trip to the local fudge factory YUM)..we even had our 1st afternoon TEA while in the UK :) ..Then we got to tour the roman baths. So incredible. EVERYTHING ABOUT BATH IS AMAZING. Another "must-see"
----> All of us girls in front of "the rocks" ..Stonehenge :)
----> ME at the Roman Baths!
Saturday, June 27th - We went for our 1st official fish 'n chips at a pub called "Hung, Drawn, & Quartered". Pleasant? Yes. It was right by the Tower of London if that makes it more acceptable. Hahaha. Then we took our tour of the famous Tower of London (which is not a tower at all.. I would call it the Castle of London, but supposedly when built it had the tallest tower around). Anywho, the tour was fun. So much history in that place ..most of the history consisted of someone dying. But we got to see the CROWN JEWELS. Oh MY gOSh! Words cannot describe the SIZE & AMOUNT of diamonds we saw that day. And we couldn't take PICTURES, grrrr. We got to see all the crowns, including the one that the current queen wears. And all of the "coronation" diamonds. Just amazing! Oh and then we went to the London Eye. We bought tickets for 12 pounds cheaper than they were at the ticket booth by some random girls that didn't have time to go anymore. THEN I GOT "SICK" ..yes sick sick!! & everyone else being the nice friends they are decided not to get on the eye that day & wait til I was feeling better. I still don't know what was wrong w/ me? Amanda speculates it was dehydration. I blame the spanish tapas the night before, ick.
---> Us w/ one of the "Beefeaters" ..hahahahaha thats what the guards are called @ the Tower of London!
Sunday, June 28th - HAPPPPPPPPY BIRTHDAY DAD <3 ..Since we had such a long, eventful couple of days we spent Sunday shopping at Portobello Market in Notting Hill. Although I didnt buy anything, such a cute area! AND I took my Uncle Craig's advice and tried a crepe w/ nutella. It was delicious but suppppppper rich.
----> Making my crepe :)
AHHHHH We're caught up. Monday, June 29th & Yesterday (Tuesday, June 30th) spent WORKING. lovely. No it really isn't that bad. Yesterday, I got to write up something that is now posted on my company's website. woot woot. It's the little things in life, right?! And today, I get to another posting. I really love my coworkers. They are a blast, but alot of them have the day off today. boo! Last night was Kelly Stevenson's birthday (we went to high school together) ..and so I met Amanda & Kelly out for dinner in Picadilly Circus after work. DELICIOUS. Then we headed to the "pubs". We ended up going to this sports BAR, so totally American. Hahaha. They had a beer pong tournament starting at 11:30 PM (we didn't participate). But alot of the people in our program met up with us and we ended up having a BLAST. But I must get ready and head to WORK. (Tonight the girls & I are headed to Abbey Road. To reenact the Beatles cover! ..It will be around 8:00 PM our time & 2:00 PM IOWA TIME, so if you are on a computer around that time get on this website ----> http://www.abbeyroad.co.uk/visit/ ..it is a LIVE video of the crossing in front of Abbey Road. LOOK FOR ME :)
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