London Fashion Weekend!

Thursday I had a study visit for one of my classes to the National Gallery. I got there beforehand and had lunch in Trafalgar Square. There were still a ton of tourists out, along with the pigeons. And this is what Trafalgar Square looks like on a random Thursday:


Through my school, we got to sign up for a cultural activity. The one a few of my friends and I signed up for was London Fashion Weekend, where we got to go through all sorts of designer's booths and clothes and we could buy whatever we wanted at discounted prices.

There were piles of shoes, mounds of clothes, racks and racks of bags and jeans and jewelry galore. It was seriously the biggest closet that I have ever wanted in my life. Some booths were all colors and patterns and other designers stuck with neutrals or blacks and whites. Still others had feathers on everything or sequins on things. Then the booth around the corner would only have items that were knit. The jewelry was just as vast of a collection as I could ever want. Then they had drinks and a show and makeup and mani/pedis and a place to get your hair done. They literally had anything and everything that relates to fashion.

It was definitely an experience and I had gone to my internship in the morning, then had my class study visit and then had to go straight there (we only got a four-hour slot to go through,) so I was definitely trekking around London dressed up all day.

But, we got to see up and coming designers, the runway, and all sorts of amazing fashion that I would love to be able to afford. I did get one thing - it is something I like to wear in one form or another daily and it is not a scarf. Can you guess what it is?

The runway right before the show!

Andrea and I testing out some rather classy hats. After this we got our eyebrows threaded - definitely a unique experience.

Pictures and updates on my weekend trip are coming up! In other exciting news, today I hit 10+ stories that I have written and have been published for IT PRO. Check them out on the sidebar if you get a chance and/or are interested! A few of them have been featured on the UK Science and Technology Google news site, which is definitely exciting to hear about and see when I go into work the next day!

Happy Birthday Kayla!

Happy Birthday Kayla!!!

My little sister turns the big 18 today!
She is a legal adult. Watch out world!

A few more pictures of Sweden.

Stockholm is such a pretty city - I felt like I couldn't deprive you all by not showing a few more pictures! It took me so long to narrow my pictures down for that first post that I feel like now that I am showing more, these may illustrate the trip a little bit better. Hopefully you feel the same way too. :D

The Irish boys traveled with their own Irish flag and hat. Seriously. Once we got to the Irish pub they hung up the flag and the hat was on everyone's head at one time or another - even the singers! (Amy and I)

Our very first look at Gamla Stan, or Old Town. It is in the distance. The plaza in front is outside of T-Centralen, Central Station.

A really pretty garden area at the entrance to Old Town from the bridge we crossed. There were many ways to get there from many different bridges.

This was on the boat, just waiting for the tour to begin. The architecture there was so pretty.

Seen while on the boat tour were many boats and ships. These just remind me of old-school Vikings.

What a pretty view!

Settlement on the cliff of one of the islands.

Another shot of when we were just relaxing by the water.

I think this is the longest street name known to man.

Erica and I chilling by a statue. We literally turned the corner of what we thought was a circular building and it turns out there is a courtyard in the middle of it!

Represent. Sam, this one's for you. Yay Japan!

All of the 7-11s were advertising "Coffee For Real." I'm not sure what kind of fake coffee the Swedish are used to, but 7-11s not messing around, apparently. Andrea and I (two of the biggest coffee drinkers in our flat) found these so amusing that we finally took a picture before our trip home.

That's it! Hope you enjoyed these extra pictures; I know I love them all. This weekend I am traveling to Bruges, Belgium and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Many pictures will come from this trip, I am sure!

And one last thing, I have updated "My IT PRO Stories" quite a bit this week. I wrote two stories on Monday and two more on Wednesday, so they are trusting me and my skills more and more. It has definitely been scary as I have had to call the Ministry of Defence, multiple government offices, a few corporations, and a very scandalous business to get statements and quotes and to ask more questions. As good of experience as I know I am getting, I always feel a little anxious when I am on the phone because they KNOW I am not from England, and question me extra hard for my credentials. Which, of course, are that I am a staff journalist for the online magazine IT PRO. No intern here while on the phone, by suggestion of my editors to get the juiciest news. Oh, technology. Not quite as scandalous as gossip and star news, but getting there day by day.

Wicked!

I went to Wicked on Tuesday night!

I have wanted to see this musical for a really long time, and this last year my roommate Jess and I listened to the soundtrack (especially the song "Defying Gravity") way too much for me not to have seen the actual show.

<-------Here is the theatre! Mary Kate, Veronica and I all met up after class and interning at the theatre. We had gotten the cheapest seats I could find online, and realized that we were actually pretty far back. It didn't even matter, though. We all came out of the theatre so enamored with the musical. The actress who played Elphaba was phenomenal. Oh, I could go on about the show for days, but instead I am just going to suggest that you all go out and see it if you have the chance!








<----This is my lovely roommate devouring our cup of candy! The gummies here are so good, but they really seem to like marshmallow-style candy a lot, which isn't my favorite. Biscuits (or cookies, as we call them) are delicious here, as well.







Here we are! Me, Mary Kate and Veronica all eagerly awaiting for the show to start.

Stockholm, Sweden

This last weekend, nine girls ventured all the way to Stockholm, Sweden! It was a random destination, yes, but the tickets were the right price and the fact that we knew very little about the country meant it was perfect for exploring. So, last Friday at 4am, we all started on our journey.

Literally the first thing I noticed about Sweden was that they drove on the right side of the road. I noticed this right as we were landing, and it was nice to truly know what way you were supposed to look before crossing the street! It was different though, because there were no markings saying "Look Left!" or "Look Right!" We have all gotten so used to looking the opposite way, we were in awe for a few moments.

We arrived Friday morning around 11:30 their time (they are an hour ahead of London) and went through customs. We got our first indication that we probably should have done a little more research on Sweden when we realized that none of us know any Swedish. Crap. Oh well. It didn't prove to be a bad thing as almost every single Swedish person we ended up talking to or asking for help knew English. The entire city of Stockholm (and country of Sweden, I'm assuming) seems to be bilingual! Not only are most of their signs using English right underneath the Swedish, but once vendors or store owners realized we were speaking English, they switched their English on faster than we could say "do you speak English?" At the first place we went to eat, I asked the man how to say hello, good-bye, and thank you. Thankfully he was nice enough to be my teacher and I relayed the phrases to the other girls. We all used "Tack" (Thank you) for almost everything from that point on.

We made it! Me, Banni and Mary Kate in Sweden!

Right after we stepped off the plane onto the tar we literally all stopped and smelt the air. The airport we flew into, Skavsta, is outside of Stockholm, but I think all of Sweden has incredibly crisp, fresh air, especially right now as the seasons are changing. It was a welcome difference from urban London.

We then made our way into Stockholm and found our way to our hostel. This was the first time anyone else on our trip realized that they don't speak English and that this might be a little hard to get around. Thankfully, I had print-outs of where we were going and we made it there safely.

And this is what we saw:

We were in a 30-bed coed room. Fifteen bunk beds from IKEA would definitely do the trick! (IKEA originiated in Sweden, so our beds, linens, everything was from IKEA.) You can see me, Veronica and Erica looking for which beds were ours. (Picture courtesy of Andrea.)

Friday night we met four Irish boys staying in our hostel, as well, and we ended up going out with them. It actually felt more like we were in Ireland this night than in Sweden! We ended up at an Irish bar, and around 11pm a man started playing guitar and singing songs - he even played "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz.

On Saturday morning we got up and decided to have a cheaper breakfast by getting things at the supermarket. We went in and found that we could get four pastries for a decent amount of Kroner (their money) and ended up all sharing. The croissants are so amazing in London, we didn't think they could get better, but they did. I had two really different pastries and both were fantastic. I love local bakeries. I can't wait for a croissant or baguette in France!

Stockholm is a fourteen islands connected by bridges to form the city. We realized that we really only had the entire day on Saturday to do all of the touristy exploring we wanted to do. So, we started out by heading to Gamla Stan (Old Town). This is one of the most beautiful areas. It is very old, (ha, obviously) as this is where the first settlers of Stockholm lived. The streets are all still cobble stones and the buildings are built to look like natural colors which would make it an ideal destination in autumn (see first picture.) Although, it would be a little cold. It was quite cold during the day, but got really chilly at night.

<----Here is a nice picture of me and a statue of King Gustaf III. They really seem to like the name Gustaf in Sweden. And Johan, too.

We then took an afternoon boat tour, which was a tour underneath the bridges of Stockholm. It showed all of the islands and major tourist sights while we sat and rocked away. It was a beautiful day (no rain!) and I got some really great pictures from it. I wish I could share so many more, but here are a few:



Me, Veronica, Mary Kate, Erica and Andrea before our boat tour.

Rows of houses on one of the islands.
A nice houseboat alongside fishermans boats.


After our boat tour, we ended up going to the island Sodermalm to eat. We wanted some Swedish meatballs, but apparently they are not as big of a deal here as we thought they would be. So, we ended up at a restaurant named Tiffany's for two-three hours just eating local cuisine and chatting.After eating, we walked around the island and decided to head back to Gamla Stan for the night. On our way, we found a candy vendor who was selling traditional sour rope candy, and we all got some and decided to sit by the water and enjoy our last few daylight hours overlooking the water. (Pictured are Erica, me, Andrea and Amy eating our candy.)This was our view. Not bad, huh? And yes, we climbed over that chain to sit there. Nobody said anything to us, though! (Heather, Emily, Veronica and Mary Kate.)

That night we walked all the way through Gamla Stan again, then back to the main island of Gallerian, where the bus station we needed to leave from was. We walked around this area for a while, and at some points, got a little sleepy.

These lion statues seemed to be everywhere! Along with H&M, of course.

The entire group outside of our hostel: Me, Mary Kate, Veronica, Erica, Banni, Andrea, Amy, Heather and Emily.

And then we headed home really early on Sunday morning! It was a whirlwind of a trip, but a really great one.

More updates of my week will be coming soon. This weekend I am going on another little trip, this time through CAPA, my school, so I am sure it will be much better planned than ours was. :)

Finally the Flat!

Welcome to our flat!

Here is the living room; we have three couches (the blue ones are the most comfortable) and a TV that is still not working correctly. This area is connected to the kitchen (as you will see in the next picture.)

Here is the kitchen area! The wooden door is blocking the refrigerator/freezer and then there is a microwave and oven there, as well. There is also a dishwasher, which is underneath the oven, but hidden by a door. (They really seem to like to hide the refrigerator, dishwasher, etc by making it have the same decor as the cabinets. This is done at my work, as well.) The kitchen has also become our place to do our hair because we don't have plugs in our bathrooms and the only mirrors are the two in our bathrooms. Therefore, we use the silver-looking area above the stove as a mirror to do our hair.

Here is the hidden washer/dryer. It takes about 3 hours to do one load of clothes.This is Heather's, Amy's and my room! We have four beds, so the one furthest to the right on bottom is used for more storage. We have two small closets that we use to hang things up and then two dressers, as well.And here's Amy in our room!Looking at our closets.

Here is Veronica and Andrea's room after our first cleaning day. Included in our flats is a once-a-week service for maids to come in and change our sheets and tidy up our place. It has actually been a lifesaver because the couches seem to collect dust really quickly so they would not be pretty if this didn't exist. We do all of our own dishes and laundry, though. This is Heather's, Amy's and my bathroom. This is one of the only mirrors - the other girls also have a bathroom with the same size mirror. There is not a full-length mirror in our flat at all.And here is further into our bathroom. The shower only has that half glass area to ward off water going outside of it. It is definitely an interesting take on showers.

The only room not pictured is the other girls' bathroom, which is just like ours. We have a hallway from the main door into the flat to all of the other rooms, so that adds some nice space to our area. That's it! What do you think?

Jumpin' Jack!

Tuesday night, I went on a Jack the Ripper Walk.

A group of CAPA students met up with a tour guide in the Lower East End (Whitechapel area) of London and walked around at night with this man who was telling us about the horror and mystery that is Jack the Ripper. We stopped at the sights of the murders, or the found bodies, walked through areas in which Jack the Ripper had supposedly ran through and were told quite graphically the state the bodies were in when they were found.

For those of you who are not familiar with Jack the Ripper, he (or she, or them, no one really knows) was someone who killed five prostitutes during the autumn of 1888. The walk was really interesting, and definitely creepy as we walked around a mainly deserted area at night. I am not going to spoil the end (in case anyone reading this is planning on going to one) but it definitely shed a light on a possible governmental conspiracy.

Oddly enough (and this never happens to me), but I woke up in the middle of the night really scared! I wasn't even scared during the walk, just intrigued, but when I woke up in the middle of the night I was terrified of getting out of bed. What an interesting affect a walk could have on me.

I didn't take any pictures, because they really would have just been pictures of the ground, but I know there is another walk set up for CAPA students next week, so if you are a CAPA student reading this, I think you should go! The next scary thing on my list to do is London Dungeon, which is supposed to be quite terrifying, as well. I have no idea why we all want to go so bad, but it seems as though when we finally do stand in line for it, there will be a big group of us all waiting to be scared.

On another note, I have added a section underneath the sidebar pictures entitled "My IT Pro Stories." I will keep this area updated with any and all new stories I write that are published on the magazine's website, so keep an eye on it to stay updated! (If you can't find it, let me know and I will move it closer to the top.) Even though I usually have to do a lot of research on the things they give me to write about, it is really great that they trust me enough to let me write pieces already. I know it is going to be a huge asset when I am putting together my portfolio for other internships or jobs. So in other words, I am very excited that I am getting to write, no matter what it is for! And if you look today, you will see two new stories that were published Wednesday, September 17. The newest stories will always be at the top, as well.

And one final side story - I was writing one of the pieces that was put up on Wednesday and included the word "unfolds." Well, apparently this is not really used in British English! I got made fun of so much for using that word - my editor even went so far to say that it wasn't English and told me that I should have used reveals, etc. (All of his suggestions were synonyms for the word unfolds.) It is definitely hard to get into the habit of writing things using British English, but I am trying - anyways, moral of the story is if you are reading any of the stories and see a word that you think is misspelled or really uncommon, it may just be that it is proper British English. We can all learn together.

Shakespeare and a surprise!

Monday night, we got tickets for A Midsummer Nights Dream at Shakespeare's Globe Theater! We were groundlings - the people who stand on the ground level throughout the entire play - and who were historically the poorer people (which actually doesn't seem so historical right now.)

I had read the play for a theater class that I took at SMSU, so I knew what was going on, but a few of my roommates had never really heard of it and were a little lost. The actual performance was amazing, though. The actors not only were dressed and acted fantastically, but they added in so much humor that I wasn't expecting. The Globe Theater was a little smaller than I thought it was going to be, but I think that may be because we all had to work/had class so we only got there about 15 minutes before the performance was going to start, so most of the people were in the theater already.

We had really great standing area on one side of the stage, so we were really close to the characters all night. What a great way to spend a night in London!

The stage!

The ceiling has all sorts of paintings and details on it.

Hello people. I don't think there could have been a bad seat in the house.My roommates and I during intermission!
This huge ball of light was in the middle. It got pretty windy near the end and it just kept flying. Thankfully, though, it didn't rain.



Here's the surprise!So, the picture is not very good, but this is the guy who plays Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies! He was in the top deck of the theater, making it hard for a good picture to be taken. For the entire first half of the play, we didn't even know he was there, but after intermission I just kept hearing people say "Malfoy!!!" so we looked around and there he was!

Camden Town and River Thames Festival!

On Saturday, the girls and I got dressed up and hit Camden Town. Camden Town is a different borough (neighborhood) of London than where we live. It is a very artsy area, and Camden Market is one of the coolest experiences. We got there just as the market was closing, but I am definitely going to go back sometime to walk through it. There seem to be so many little markets on the weekends in all different areas of London. I can't wait to explore those a little bit more.

We ended up eating at a pub called The World's End which flaunts the fact that it is "probably the biggest pub in the world." Obviously we were intrigued andI think it is definitely a contender, even though we just ended up eating. Afterwards we walked down to an area with a canal, which I think is Little Venice. We hung out on the bridge for awhile and took a roommate picture!

My roommates Amy, Heather, me, Andrea and Veronica! We are already wearing each others clothes; it's fate.

Camden Town! There are sculptures coming off of almost all of the buildings.



On Sunday Andrea, Veronica and I went to check out the River Thames Festival in the afternoon. They had a ton of booths set up to buy things (I couldn't hold back from getting a ring and a scarf...two of my favorite things.) They also had performances, a carnival parade and fireworks. It is historically a festival for Londoners to all come together.

Little girls are performing in front of City Hall.

The Tower Bridge!!!

Me and London. And the pickle (the odd-shaped blue and white circular building straight above me.)