Departure Dinner with CAPA

Elise Jordan and I with Anderson- the best CAPA advisor ever!!!

Steph, Ashley and I

Lucy and Elise

Elise, Jordan, and I

All of the food!!

With finals finally complete and our program almost over, CAPA decided to throw us a 3-course dinner celebration! All of the kids from CAPA were able to attend (around 250 of us!) and enjoy a nice meal and get a chance to say goodbye. The meal was really, really good and included all the London favorites from Chicken Tikka Marsala to Shepard's Pie and some Mash! They also served delicious salmon and a lot of other delectable dishes! After everyone finished eating, we had an award ceremony and photo contest! Sadly no one at our table took home any prizes.... They also recapped funny events that took place and gave us a really cool t-shirt to take back home! (You will definitely see me wearing it around soon!)

After the dinner ended, all of the CAPA kids made their way over to ISH for one last night of Karaoke. They opened up the bottom level in order to fit us all in! We sang all the greatest hits, ffomm Pitt's version of Sweet Caroline to the Spice Girls! It was fun to hang out with everyone one last time before we left London and ISH was definitely the right place to do it!

Bottom Floor of ISH!

Steph and I!!

Elise and Mollie

Roomies + our permanent fixture Steph!!

Last Week of Work

View of Tower Bridge from around where I work

Buildings where my work is located- right by the HMS battleship!

Tower of London across form where I work

Buildings where I work again- the funky building has offices of MPs (Members of Parliament)

Walking under Tower Bridge

So this past semester I have been busy with both classes and my internship. My normal week looked like this:

Monday- Internship 9-5

Tuesday- Internship 9-1, European Government and Politics 2-5, London Through Internships Class 6-7:30

Wednesday- Shakespeare 10-1

Thursday- Internship 9-1, International Marketing 2-5

I really got accustomed to to almost 9 to 5 days and it made me feel apart of London Culture. My work site (Research International/ TNS Global has been brilliant and I was sad to say goodbye this past week. They have really accepted me as part of their team and had me working on accounts such as Kellogg's, Cadbury, Fosters, Mueller's, United Biscuit, and Johnson and Johnson. I have really gotten to know the ins and outs of Marketing Research and am grateful for all of the opportunities my coworkers have presented to me. The internship has definitely made my time here in London more beneficial and exciting. Without it, I wouldn't have found out as much as I did about the city and the people. It was an amazing cultural and learning experience.

As my last day was this past Friday, my team (Jubilee!!) decided to take me out for a complete British breakfast and then have a little going away celebration. They bought me gifts that centered around all the clients I have been working with! I received Kellogg's mini cereal boxes, tons of Cadbury chocolate, Piggly Wigglies (we ate these every day at work, and I fell in love!!) and much more! It was surreal saying good bye, but hopefully I will visit them in the future!

My English Breakfast

Dig in!

6 More London Place- The entrance to where I work

My work tube stop

Some of my gifts!

British Museum

(In the movie, The Night at the Museum)

This past week was the last week of the program, so we had plenty of finals and things to do. It was also one of the last weeks to fit in everything we still had to do in London. I pretty much accomplished everything I wanted to do/see in London, but I still had to make a trip to the British Museum. After my Shakespeare class ended on Wednesday, I ventured over for a few hours. I got a map that had 4 self guided tours on it, which showed everything major located in the museum. My two favorite things were the Rosetta Stone (stone that had decipher for Egyptian hieroglyphics) and the big face statue that is found in the movie Night at the Museum. It was a really big museum and they have a lot of interesting things around the place. I ventured in the Egyptian, African, Asian, and South American parts.

The Portland Vase

Rosetta Stone

The British Museum

Volcanic Ash

So I know many of you have been asking about the volcanic ash, so I decided to give it a little spot in the blog. Sadly folks, there is no ash raining down on our heads! The only thing that is noticeably different is that our sunsets are prettier! I tried to take a picture of one, but its not one of the bests we had.

Hundreds of people were stranded in and out of London. I live really close to Victoria coach and train station and the lines for tickets wrapped around the block for a few days! We also had some fellow students get stranded outside of the UK. My one friend was stuck in Germany for a whole week! It was a crazy week and our school was scared for awhile that we would be stranded in London after our program ended, but everything turned out to be ok.

Weekend of Fun and Relaxation

Portobello Road Market

Johnson House view from our little park square

The fountain in the middle of the park

Jordan and I right outside of where we live!

Very nice landscaping!

This past weekend was a chance to get some minor tourist sights out of the way and to get ready for finals weekend. On Saturday, Jordan, Rory, and I headed to Port0bello Markets in Notting Hill. This is by far the biggest stretch of vendors in London! Imagine the length of 3 football fields of antiques, food, drinks, jewelry, clothes, and other various things sprawled out in front of you! It was a beautiful day! To end our perfect day, we ended up going to a pub for some pre-drinks and then headed to an invite only club, Quo Vadis. (with Rory and the studio) You had to follow a certain dress code and when you got inside it was an elegant lounge. Every group had an individual server and it was a really chill night. We just sat around and enjoyed each others company!

The next day I decided to venture off on my own to Hyde Park to enjoy the day of sunshine! I took a book, my laptop, and the mountain of homework I needed to do and picked out a nice spot. I grabbed a nice little picnic too, and I ended up spending 4 hours in the park! It was really nice to just sit in the park and enjoy it though. Afterwards, I ventured back to my flat (via the Rodeo Drive of London!) and started to work on my papers.

Horses in Hyde Park

Beautiful

My view from where I was sitting

Jordan- V.I.P.

Charlie playing Kiera Knightley...

More Cool Videos

Eiffel Tower in Paris lighting up on the hour, every hour

Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace

CHELSEA!!!

Concession Stand Menu!

They wave these flags for the entire halftime

The field

My future husband- Yury Zhirkov

Part of the team store

On Tuesday night, Jordan, Elise, and I went to a Chelsea game!! Chelsea is my favorite football team and I have watched numerous amounts of their games! It is also fun because my flat is located in Chelsea, so I see that it is only right to support them! The game was against the Bolton Wanderers and I can not begin to explain the excitement of the game. The stadium is huge and is located only a few tube stops from where I live. As soon as you get on the tube, everyone is decked out in Chelsea gear! Random people will just shout and give you high fives as you walk by. Being a girl in Chelsea attire is even better and the guys love to be your friend!! At the game, the excitement level is even higher and the amount of cheers the team have is impressive. I know quite a few, so I was able to join in on some! Chelsea ended up winning the match and everyone left on a happy note!!

Chelsea Match!! Listen to the cheer in the background!

The Chelsea Lion!!!

Just part of the team

Good action shot

Half of the stadium

If number 18 fails, I guess Ill go for him

Jordan and I