240 pm
So I’ve been back from lunch for awhile now. Back to downloading pictures. I brought Hey Mercedes and the best of the Pogues with me. Some other people listen to headphones a lot but I’ve never brought mine before. Usually I’m doing something a little more active than this. :P
I got two real emails today, and was ecstatic! No mail for me in the box though (hint, hint).
I didn’ tgo to the Dropkicks show last night. I’m a loser. Haha. I was finally heading home after 7 when I remembered. But, I also remembered I had no idea where the club was, what time it started, etc. And I was huuuungry. So. I suck.
It’s not as cold here as I thought it was going to be. Plus, you are always either walking some where or inside, so if you’re cold, it’s not for very long.
The sun’s gone away now. It was sunny up untill lunch time or so. It’s so nice to get up on days like today and wander into the living room/kitchen and be blasted with sun!
HM is already over. Sad times.

345
The fire alarm went off about 20 minutes ago, for the second time today. But this time we actually had to go outside. No one was very happy abou t it, but it was nothing compared to the sound of that fire alarm in Maywood, or that time freshman year when we had to go out in the snow in pajamas at 5 a.m.

London, 11 am, January 31
I’m at work right now, downloading a load of pictures from this internet site, so I figured I’d type up something to post later.
It’s sunny in London today, which is nice. I think I’ll stand on the sidewalk for half of my lunch hour, soaking it up. I don’t miss it too much yet, but I feel like I”m paling out considerably, ack! It’s like being Michael Jackson... almost.
I guess there is a lot to write about since I haven’t really posted in over a week. . . but it’s always difficult to write about things so far after the fact.
Thursday after work, Kate, Bart, Erin, and I met up at the O2 center, next to Kate’s office, and went to see Harry Potter. Afterwards, we went to the Sainsbury’s on the LG level and I almost cried - - it was giant. Bigger than Big Y, and a heck of a lot bigger than Budgen’s - - thank god. I didn’t know they had real grocery stores here. We got stuff to make chicken parm with penne mmmmmmmm. Of course it was 11 o’clock by the time we got home and ate, but it was worth it.
This weekend was good. Friday night we went to a bunch of pubs near us. There’s a really nice place around the corner called Squared Circle. It’s sort of nowhere, and was really empty. They hav music sometimes, and I guess that’s when it fills up. Being so nice, it was of course a little more expensive - but definitely worth it. It’s low light and all nice clean lines. They had 6 or so little fireplaces and all these benches and big square comfy leather love seats and chairs. Mmmmm. It was rainy and it was a very nice place to start the evening. I want to go back there every single cold wet day I am here, and drink hot chocolate. Then it was off to The Surprise, which is about ten feet from our front door. The bartender, Ellen, knows us. It’s like that. Next it was the City Pride, which was great and classic pub-like, and then to Sir John Oldrich, which is a JDWetherspoons pub. Wetherspoons is a chain here, and they’ve got just about the cheapest drinks anywhere, and they’ve got tons of food. We made friends with the bartender, Jamie, and filled out applications to work there (they’re hiring).
We haven’t heard back from the manager yet. I would looooove to work at a pub one night a week. Maybe two if I had to, but that would be pushing it . . . I’m not sure if I’d do it. One night would be good fun, I’d get to meet tons of people! It would be a little extra money, which would be fun, but I don’t need it.
Saturday we went to the British Museum, which was cool. We saw the Rosetta Stone, which is all I wanted from life Saturday. It was pretty cool. I will admit to having nearly teared up at the sight of it. I guess it was all that time we spent studying Ancient Egypt in sixth grade . . . But it was just an amazing thing. All of the artifacts they have there are, they have a lot more stuff than the MFA or anything. The Rosetta Stone was just such a great discovery, it’s how they deciphered Hieroglyphics. Okay, I really don’t know why, but it was cool to see. They had bunches of mummies, and usually in museums they might have them opened down to the last layer of wrapping, but at this musuem they had one that was down to the body. It was really strange. It was just some unidentified woman. The museum also had statues from the parthenon and all kinds of other things from Greece, along with statues and sarcophogi (sarcophoguses?) from Egypt. That was really only where we spent out time. The museum was free to get into (most of them are!), so we can go back anytime. Next we went to Harrod’s and it was hell. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but I didn’t find it to be anything more than a giant Macy’s or something. Plus, their big sale was still going on, so people were ransacking those areas. We saw a £600 pashmina. Ridiculous. It wasn’t that nice. I guess I was expecting great big wonderful displays, or something... but it really wasn’t like that. Bart and I went to Tesco’s and bought food and we all made dinner together. I knew if I went home with everyone else, I just wouldn’t get up and would end up maybe having a bowl of granola for dinner. Dinner was YUM. Saturday night we all just sat around the flats, but it was fun.
Sunday we sat around till late and then went to this place called Paperchase which was AMAZING. Three floors of cards, giftwrap of all kinds, gifts, and art supplies yeeeeeaaaaaaaayyyyyy! I bought bunches of stuff to make some valentines. Tesco’s again after for some real shopping, and then home. I worked on valentines and went to bed.
This week has been the usual. In clas Monday we watched L’Appartement. It was good. That’s the benefit of a 3 hour class - you can discuss, watch a movie, and discuss some more.
Tuesday night we went back to the pub to see our new best friend Jamie, who invited us to a club with him and some blokes Saturday night. We’re to go back Friday and find out details. Then some boys well no they were definittely like 27, (so “guys”?), came over and asked us to help them out on this computer quiz game thing. I dont think we were all that much help, but it was fun. It was just fun to finally be meeting people and interacting. The pub was hopping.
The rest of the week has just been work so far. It’s been good though, I’m getting to know the people I work with and they’re joking around and stuff, so it’s all wonderful. The internet is insanely slow today though, and I’m stuck doing pics, but it has to be done.
Lots of love to you all, I’ll try to be better about emailing. Please write.
xoxo

so.... I never update. I have been better about emailing, however. BUT if you happened to have emailed me between Friday afternoon and Monday morning, I didn't get it because my email got all messed up.
Things are good here, aside from the fact that I'm the only one who never gets mail (hint hint) haha.
It's 6 p.m. And I'm about to head out from work. I made "mood boards" this morning, researched pictures, and fixed up business cards.
Look for a better update tomorrow, and some mass emails going out in the next day or two.
Hope you're all doing well. Write me an email or sooooomething. I'm beginning to feel out of touch.
Suite 411 - I need updates.
xoxoxo

wow, january 21 already. sorry about the ten day break since the last update, i've been quite busy.
i've been here two full weeks now, and i can hardly believe it. most of the time, it seems like i've already been here forever.
today was busy, i walked to school, had time to grab a snapple and kate grabbed a bagel, and we went off to class. it was pretty good, we watched long clips of old british films and he lectured some. next week he's assigning our first essay. other than that, no homework, we didn't even have to buy a book. walked home, made a sandwich, and tried to call some movie theaters. none of them turned out to be theaters. changed, came to work.
what i did today directly related to stuff we did in my graphic design class. it you have cynthia wilson's email address, could you please give it to me? as far as i know, she never gave it out, but i'd really like to send her a note. so i cut out printouts today and put them on white foam board and cut that out then eventually we put them on black foam board and packaged it all up. then i scanned and touched up pictures. work is going very well. friday, my supervisor even introduced me to someone as their first design intern, and said that i'm "really, quite good." i was happy :)
this weekend .... saturday we went to covent garden and shopped around. i swear, i don't think i will ever ever ever go back. it was SO packed you couldn't look at anything and it was all just horrid, but it was a fun day. wagamama's for dinner, mmmm - it's a noodle place. sunday we went on this pre-arranged tour to Oxford. it was really rainy, but not toooo cold. it was fairly interesting. after the tour there was free time, and i bought a couple of cds on sale, and we went to a free museum and saw some casts of dinosaur bones, which is always neat.
last night was pretty low key, watched jerry mcguire with everyone.
heard A Beautiful Mind won big at the Golden Globes. Russell Crowe definitely did an amazing job acting, and it was a great film.
i'm almost done Bridget Jones: the edge of reason. it's been really nice to read so much lately.
well, i need to finish reading emails, then get to budgen's to buy something to make for dinner, then i think we're going to see harry potter tonight. it will be my 3rd viewing, yes, but i hear the Brit one is different, and it's called "harry potter and the philosopher's stone" (as opposed to sorcerer's stone), so technically it's different.

Here I am in London.
I tried to post the other day but the computer wouldn't let me.
I'm at an internet cafe on Leather Lane, less than 10 minutes from home, and only £1/hour.
Things are great. We've been to a few pubs (there are tons), I had my interview at work, orientation at school, bought an alarm clock, went on a Jack the Ripper tour, and tonight we're going to Covent Garden and Leicester Square to poke around. If we stay out late, maybe we'll even take one of those famous black cabs back.
Those red phone booths are all over the place, and I love everything except not seeing the sun, but have been managing with that so far. I'm even getting used to them driving on the other side of the road. Their big joke here is "we don't drive on the right side, we drive on the correct side. (haaa)
I had my preliminary interview at work yesterday -- WORK IS A 3 MINUTE WALK -- no exageration. It's in this hip building. Up the street, right by work, is an area called Exmouth Market. There are shops and restaruants and a grocer. It's so nice to have so close by.
As for my job, it sounds pretty great! They've got a busy week ahead, so I'll mostly be doing some tutorials for software programs, which he says they have all learned at some point or another. Then I'm going to start doing other things, like scanning stuff, doing research for articles, running out to buy props or magazines for research. They do stuff like in-flight magazines, and little magazines for customers of the electric company, or teens, or for example, they do the magazine for people in the business of blinds and shades. They also do things like websites and logos, and whole package deals, and even orgainzed a conference for CNN/Time Warner, and did all the leaflets, etc. I'll get to go out on photoshoots, and eventually maybe be the designer or one of the designers for a mag project instead of just an all around helper. I think it will be very good though, and I will get to do all sorts of things. Their desks are arranged in pods of 4 or 5 and everyday you pick up y our phone and a bucket of your stuff and pick a new desk. That way, it's very easy to meet everyone, it keeps the office clean, and you interact with new people all the time. It seems pretty cool.
I think that's about it for now. Well, of course it's not, but that's all I can easily put into words.
Things are good.
love you lots!!!

jen

Okay, so, I just got my grades. The only surprise was the B- in French. A B-!!! What is that about? I emailed him being like "uhm, did I fail the final or something?" I was expecting a B or B+ which doesn't sound much different, but it totally is. I was expecting Bs in most of my classes, unless SarahMichaels loved my COMM webpage. But it's just different to see it written out like that. Oh well, it wasn't a semester full of things I am great at or anything. Next semester will hopefully bring up my GPA, not that it is low, I just want it up. Can we talk about how I didn't even learn any new info from that french class really, except a better understand of the subjunctive tense? And the year before was amazing. Ah, well. I think this entire semester has been about going to London, and now I am, and that's what's important, right?
Things are good. Work was pretty good tonight, and everyone had a big hug for me when I left, it was fun. They can't wait for stories.
Yesterday I had a cavity filled, which sucked. My face was numb forever. I went to Worcester in the afternoon and went to Panera Bread with Adam, yum! He gave me a wallet thingy for my tube pass and pounds and it's all slim and will be great for sticking in my pocket when I go off to the pub. Danielle got me a journal, mom and dad got me a camera and a watch, i've got all these clothes - man! everybody done set me up real nice.
OH! and LORI just told me she is also coming to London in March! Her friend Beth is at Oxford, so she's coming to the UK to visit us! Yeeeeeeaaaaaaay! I won't have any chance to miss hardly anyone! No tears tomorrow night (suuuuure).
time to go do getting-ready-to-go stuff
xoxoxoxoxo

Take the Which Empire Records Character are You? Quiz.

hmmmmm
i got that from jills.

So New Years was fun. I got to Worcester a little after 5 and left shortly thereafter for Big Y and State Liquor. I returned after 6 and Katie was there. We started in on dinner, which featured the tasty appetizers of chilled shrimp (a.k.a. shrimp cocktail minus the cocktail sauce untill about 1030 pm) and nachos & spicy cheese mmmmmmmmmm. The main meal consisted of a family size bag salad, biscuits and crescent rolls, and spanish rice with sauteed chicken breast chunks. YUM, we even got compliments.

The night was fun, watching Sex and the City, chatting, much blowing of the blowhorns, time spent on the porch (kelley took her dollar back), popping the tops off of cheap champagne and various other pursuits. oh yes, there was even a ltitle dancing. it was a great evening spent with friends. katiesibley showed me some pictures from her time in london. she also gave me a few last minute tips, which was great. everyone crawled into bed around 3 and i played with nico downstairs for a bit and talked to adam which was nice and went to sleep.

i woke up around 930 and could hear everyone in the living room waking. i decided to get up. i felt like craaaaaaaaap. we were all up within the next hour and were watching the second half of legally blonde, which i liked, and then chicken run, which everyone was hating, but i admit i like that movie. we went to bickfords where i ate some toast and cranberry juice - if you can believe it. i felt awful. i think it was because i broke my mom's cardinal rule of "don't mix mixed drinks." i not only had margaritas, but some punch made from blackberry merlot, champagne, and triple sec. i didn't even have exorbitant amounts! everyone else was in good shape. back to 40 and out soon after.

richard and brynnen are off to spain today. crazy. i have 4 days left. crazy

oh if you're coming saturday and need directions, email me.