They took me back to the states

Well, I arrived home Sunday evening and I've been fighting jet lag since, hence no post to wrap this all up.

I had a whirlwind type of last week in merry old England. Between Tez and I telling each other how much we'd miss each other and packing, I had work Tuesday through Friday which was rather typical. I got to train new interns and just finish up my different tasks. I did some patroling, I did some front of house, I worked in the box office. Friday was my last day and we all celebrated with cake! I got a chocolate roll from Marks and Spencers and a lemon cake as well and we all ate them during the last tour of the day. It pretty much didn't feel like it was my going away party at work! It just felt weird! But it was over quickly and it was time to change for my big night out.


Me and action Benjamin Franklin in the box office!

The girls from the BFH decided to go out to Nando's, a chicken place, for dinner first. Well, really we first went to H&M and then it was off to eat. Nando's specializes in peri peri chicken, which is a spice. It's pretty tasty! I like the lemon and herb chicken though, I'm not as hardcore as the others! After a delicious meal there, I scooted on over to the Big Chill House where I was meeting up with everyone.

The Big Chill House has all of these little nooks where you can grab a couch and talk privately with your friends. It's pretty awesome. We grabbed a spot in the basement called the Finlandia Cabin. As you can imagine, it looked cabin-y. We grabbed this area that was basically a big vinyl covered bed with a table in the middle of it. Way cooler than a table in a crowded pub. And for some reason no one really wanted to stay in the basement with us so we had the whole area to ourselves! We could actually hear each other. It was cozy! I also got to wear out my official Londoner party outfit, whoo hoo!


Everyone in our little Big Chill House nook!

Jassen, Jen, Iain and Ada!

Hollie, me, Lucy and Elspeth representin' the BFH!

We stayed at the Big Chill House until 10:30 and then took the Tube on over to the Metro Club on Oxford High Street for indie night. Ok, now I'm always accused of ruining the fun at weddings because I don't dance. People, I dance! I dance all night! It just has to be to music I like! Thems the breaks. As it was, the music at indie night at the Metro Club was fan-fricking-tastic so I got my dance on. It was a lot of fun. I never go out to clubs to dance with friends but now I see why people do it! You just have to have the right people and the right music. We all partied to the late hour of one am (haha!) before Tez and I had to catch the train home. We got home around three thirty and went straight to bed. It was an awesome send off from London.


Me and Tez at the Metro Club!


So many different poses here...

The Metro Club was getting crowded!

Saturday, as predicted, was a rather sad day. We slept in late and then I had to pack. After getting most of my things packed we went on a tour of Luton and got some ink for Tez's printer. The little outing did help us get our minds off my impending departure, so that was good. When we got back I made the Tsangs banana bread to say thank you for letting me crash their lives for three months! After that, there were some tears, some movie watching, some tears, some tv watching and some packing and tears and sleeping. Sigh.

Sunday morning we woke up early to a gray and rainy day and scooted off to the airport after Tez's parents went to the other airport themselves (they were going to Glasgow). The traffic was sparse so we got to Heathrow in plenty of time. Then the check in for Air Canada was quiet too so we had about an hour to blubber all over each other. I went and bought a book and got Tez and I some Krispy Kreme donuts. You know, to drown the sorrow!


Told you we were blubbery!

Anyway, the time came for us to leave and we teared and snotted all over each other and then I went through security. Security was ok, got the gate ok. Actually got the remodeled Air Canada plane so I had a new seat and tv and movies on demand! I landed in Toronto on time and that whole experience was ridiculous. I had to go through US border patrol and move my luggage and turn it back in and everything. And then security freaked out on me because I left my laptop in my bag and they're like WHAT IS THAT?! Ok, whatever. I had to sit in a tiny tiny terminal to get my propeller plane back to Detroit. I couldn't get on the internet or call anyone because neither of my cell phones worked! Then my plane was late.

I finally made it back to Detroit and was heading down to the luggage claim when I heard my dad call my name. My parents were upstairs rather than downstairs and it was confusing! But we were finally reunited and we grabbed my luggage and went home.

So here I am three days later. I'm pretty jet lagged still! It feels pretty strange and completely normal to be home all at the same time.

I've gone continental

Bonjour!

Yes, I finally made it to France but we’ve a bit to talk about before we get to that, so let’s do this.

So, the week of August 4 is where we left off. At the BFH we practically had a new turnover of interns. The Americans are once again the minority! Noooo! All of them were British girls and they’re all really nice. Tuesdays have a new routine for August at the BFH. Tuesdays used to mean that we’d have school groups in but now that school is out in England finally, Tuesday means that we have children’s tours. The children tours aren’t really that popular yet and we keep having to turn away confused tourists who want to come in but we can’t let them because they don’t have any children, ha! One Tuesday though a tour got canceled because no one showed up so all the interns all decided to go rock out on Benjamin Franklin’s glass armonica. Rock! Look at me being a bad ass on that sweet instrument. Oh yes.

That Tuesday evening Elspeth, Charlotte and I decided to go check out the Sir John Soane Museum in Lincoln Field’s Inn. I didn’t take any pictures at this museum as we weren’t allowed our bags in but this was a pretty crazy museum. It’s been around for over 200 years because pretty much this guy Sir John Soane took three townhouses and rebuilt them and made it into a museum to hold his eclectic collection of stuff. He has everything from an Egyptian sarcophagus of Seti I to various coins to a vast selection of paintings. This one painting room had specially made walls to display more paintings than meets the eye. The walls would open up and more paintings would behind! It was pretty awesome. On the way to meet Tez so we could go home together, Elspeth and I saw a life size photo of Gok Wan, who is the host of two shows here called Gok’s Fashion Fix and How to Look Good Naked. I love those shows and Gok is awesome so we took a picture with him haha. Awwwww FASHION! as they say on Gok’s theme song.

Anywho, on the weekend Tez and I decided to scoot on down to Richmond to Hampton Court Palace, the place where Henry VIII liked to call his own. Well, technically it was Cardinal Wolsey’s place but then Henry took it over. Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I also lived there for a time. Queen Mary and William of Orange remodeled it in the 18^th century when they lived there so the palace is half 16^th century and half 18^th century looking. Hmm! The weather was miserable that day but we had a lot of fun exploring. We really like the Tudor kitchens which looked pretty much original and had tons of fake food lying around to pretend you were making or stealing from the king, bwaha. We also went to the maze that Henry VIII made, you know, one of those mazes out of tall hedges? Yeah, it was a-maze-ing! Had to do it, come on. We got into the Queen’s Chambers in the palace and I felt weird and my sixth sense was going off, I think it was haunted! Then I read that Catherine Parr might haunt the halls there so I was like “Hmm!” The gardens were quiet impressive. The trees were all shaped and they even diverted the Thames to create a tidal pool back in the day. We left at six when the grounds closed.

The fountain court

Me and Tez all soaked and yucky looking in front of Hampton Court Palace

We made it to the center of the maze!

The gardens. Oooh.

Sunday we took Tez’s mom to Ikea for her first time. We picked up a bookcase and some chopsticks and some pans. When we got home Tez and I assembled the bookcase and arranged it in the living room.

Tuesday Charlotte, Elspeth and I went to the British Library to check out the Magna Carta. The Manga freaking Carta! Do you know how old that thing is? Yeah, it was written in 1225 ok. It's looking pretty ok for such an old thing.

On Wednesday the 13^th was Charlotte’s last day at the BFH (sad!) so we planned to go out to celebrate and say goodbye. However, before that Elspeth, Hollie (a new intern) and I all went out shopping to H&M and Primark to find me an outfit to wear for my shindig Tez and I are throwing together for the 22^nd. We’re going to a pub and then to a club with all our friends, yay! So yes, I need a new outfit for that. I didn’t find anything at H&M that I deemed worthy so it was off to Primark. The Primark on Oxford Street is always crazy busy but has great deals. Hollie and Elspeth took charge of finding me an outfit a la Gok Wan (awwwwwwwww, FASHION!) and got me a proper Londony outfit consisting of a blue and black checked dress, a giant purple and blue belt, bangles and black tights. Oooh la la! I felt a bit weird in it at first but now I like it a lot. The dress and belt don’t fit me perfectly but for a grand total of 22.50 pounds for an outfit I’m going to wear for a few hours, heck yes. After that Elspeth and I met Charlotte at the Big Chill House and then went to a restaurant called Camino’s to say goodbye to her. Sadness!

Thursday rushed by as Friday morning Tez and I got up at four am (!!!) to catch the Eurostar out of St. Pancras at seven am. Oyyy, what an early hour. But yes, we got up and caught our train. The Chunnel wasn’t scary at all because you don’t even see the sea before you go in it so fair enough! We arrived in Lille around 10 am and checked into our hotel and promptly took a nap because dang. Apparently Aug 15 is Assumption Day in Europe, which is a Catholic holiday which means nothing was really open! Oh well. We got some pain aux chocolat and ate that up for a snack and then went to the zoo. The zoo was really cute and as a bonus, free! Tez really liked the fishing cat they had and I liked the deer mice! I’ve never seen deer mice but dang they were cute. We also checked out the citadel, which is a pretty old fortification for the city. The inside was under construction so we couldn’t see much though! We ate at Café Foy for dinner. I couldn’t eat much in the cities restaurants on account of my many food allergies and not knowing what was in the food for sure so I stuck to chicken and fries! Tez was more adventurous though. We also booked our tours for Saturday and had a nice walk around the city center and all over really. Apparently Lille has a Foch Avenue, a Foch Square and a monument dedicated to a French soldier named Foch who was a hero in WWI. Imagine finding my weird street name all the way over here!

Tez in front of the Eurostar. Holy crap is this a long, long train.

Blaaaargh it was early and we're not looking our cutest. Let's get this train chugging already.

The citadel

Avenue Foch, represent!

Lille at sunset.

Lille is a pretty small city and it’s just gorgeous. It’s got a traditional main square and Flemish Renaissance architecture. It was so relaxed, quite, clean and slow compared to London, that’s for sure. I enjoyed walking down the street and not bumping into anyone or nearly getting hit by cars crossing the road, ha! Tez and I were totally tired though so we went back to the hotel room and went to bed early since we had a morning tour to get to. Our hotel room was right off the city center and decorated really modernly. Almost like an Ikea hotel room! Also, the French have a lot of dogs and they take them everywhere. I saw people bringing dogs into the train station, shops, cafes, wherever!

At ten thirty am, after another breakfast of pain aux chocolat, we did an English walking tour of the city. Our tour guide was a cool French chick. I really liked her accent. She showed us all of Old Lille and pointed out some interesting bits of architecture. Here’s the part where my education came in handy and I got to impress Tez with my knowledge of architecture. Oh yes. I don’t think he was that impressed though. We got to see some canon balls purposely stuck in the walls of town houses as a reminder of the residents of Lille defending their city from a barrage canon ball wielding Austrians. I thought it was a really cool detail. Also I got to see a 15^th century hospital and a cathedral that took like 148 GD years to build so consequently it was half classical and half modern. Weird!

Gard Lille Flandres. It actually has the old facade of Gard du Nord from Paris! Oh yeah, gard = station

We DO NOT anthropomorphize jellyfish! SWEET JESUS, FRANCE.

Waffles with Nutella make everything better.

The Notre Dame de Treillis. It's half modern, half old school. This is the modern side.

Moule al fresco

Tez and I checked out this famous patisserie called Meert but didn’t end up buying anything because it cost muchos euros for small bites of sugary treats. Sad. Then we went shopping a bit and stopped at a farmer’s market for a gaufree (waffle!) YUM. We went on our driving tour of the city at 6 pm and got to see the other parts of Lille that we couldn’t quite make on foot. Such a cute city. For dinner we went to a place that served moulee, which is essentially mussels and chips. Tez got a big old heaping bucket of mussels while I was stuck with the chicken and fries again. But it was good chicken and fries at least. I think I was always hungry in France! We decided we just had to get crepes sucree and so we found a little café that served them. I got the crepes with banana, chocolate and whipped cream while Tez got the caramel sauce on his.

A quaint street in Lille

The Metro subway system. It's so much smaller and quieter than the Underground!

Crepes anyone?

Me and Tez on the Metro. Excuse the wonky eyes.

The courtyard of the Old Stock Exchange we got to tour on our walking tour.

Sunday we got up bright and early to hit the various food and art markets in Lille. Apparently we got up way too early because by the time we hit all of them it was only 12:30 and we had three hours to wait for our train! But I did get some Flemish gaufrees and some nectarine jam, yum. We also got some roast potatoes and at them in a park. Lovely. We went back to the zoo and said goodbye to the fishing cat haha. We were going to rent a Segway but there was a communication barrier we couldn’t breach with the Segway rental guy. Boo. We scooted over to the train station, Gard Lille Europe and we were starving but they didn’t have much to eat. We got on the train back home and it was definitely weird to be back at St. Pancras International. Being away from London made me realize how much I’ve come to know the city and how it felt like a relief to be back in my second home!

Monday was a recovery day and today was just another typical day at work. My time is drawing to a close here and I’m quite sad to leave Tez. I'm rather torn. On the one hand home is home and it'll be nice to be back but on the other, well, no Tez. Also I think I’m going to have reverse culture shock and homesickness really! Oh well. I’m just going to ignore my sad feelings and enjoy my last days here. SIGH.

I've tons more pics but so little time and blog space!

Crap!

Sorry for the delay in blogging again, I'm working on the entry! It'll be up soon I hope.

I leave here in less than a week and I'm rather torn. On one hand it'll be nice to go home but on the other I'm REALLY going to miss Tez. Sigh. It's like my feelings about coming to England but reversed. On the one hand I was scared to go but on the other I was excited to be with Tez, see?

Oh dear.

They call me Quiet Girl but I'm a riot

It’s about that time again! Since my last update on July 21, it’s been a mix of every day life and adventures! Tuesday was a pretty typical day but Wednesday Tez and I had a movie date to see Wall-E. My cell phone company here in the UK, Orange, has a promotion going called Orange Wednesdays. If you text FILM to their special number then you get a 2 for 1 movie ticket good for any movie on Wednesday. Score! We need something like that back in the States. It was pretty hot that day for England, around 80 degrees. After work my friend Charlotte and I wandered around Westminster looking for some portable dinner. See, I had to get me and Tez dinner to eat on the train because we wouldn’t have time to eat before the movie. Ah, the difficulties of getting out of work late! So I bought us a French brie and salad baguette and waited for Tez at St. Pancras station. While I was waiting though, I got a chocolate milkshake because I was flippin’ sweaty. The Underground has no air conditioning and it gets way too hot down there. Anywho, Tez arrived and we made our train and got off at Luton to see the movie. The line at the theater was massive but Wall-E’s theater was pretty empty, thankfully. Wall-E was an incredibly cute movie, we loved it!

Thursday was another typical day working at the Benjamin Franklin House. Friday was my friend Carley’s last day at the BFH though and that was sad! We decided to send her off with some cake after the last tour. I tried a pretty English cake called a Victoria Sponge. It’s a white cake with some jam and cream sandwiched in the middle of it. It was tasty. To the left is a picture of me, Elspeth, Kate and Lucy at the going away party. After work, I walked with Carley to Covent Garden (pic on the right) where we both had to meet our respective friends.

I was meeting Ada and Iain so we could go explore the London Transport Museum. Oh gosh. How fun is this museum? SO FUN. I even had to pay five pounds to get in and I didn’t mind at all, bwaha! They give you a map of the museum that you can get stamped as you complete each exhibition. That made me pretty excited because each little punch out was a different shape. We got in the time traveling elevator and went back to 1800 to check out the transporation options for the 19^th century. We actually got to go inside some horse carts. I was pretty impressed with the double decker horse carts and the realistic horse poo lovingly placed on the floor. How authentic.

I loved all the different interactive things you could play with. I got to drive a Tube train, a tram, a bus and I got to ride in three old fashioned Tube and train carriages. It was quite awesome. Ada, Iain and I all got killed on the Tube simulators tracks too. Those tracks can kill you know! Bwaha! It was hilarious. They also had a fake escalator there. It was just a sticker on the floor pretty much but it did have a real emergency stop button that are found on the escalators here. I pushed the crap out of that button because I’ve always been tempted to push the real ones. Ah, how cathartic.

Here's me and Ada in an old fashioned train carriage. Definitely looks and feels quite different to the trains I ride everyday!

Here's me taking credit for my country for saving the Tube. Oh yeah!

Here's a Tube carriage that was used back in the 80s. I dig the classy wood paneling haha.

Here's me driving the Tube simulator. It's so much harder to drive the Tube than you think. You have to push and pull on that lever at the same time which hurts your wrist and then when you can finally let go to brake you totally overshoot the platform. Grr.

Here's me getting killed by the Tube train. I'm simultaneously getting electrocuted by the rails and getting hit by the train. FUN TIMES AT THE MUSEUM.

Here's me nonchalantly driving a tram. I've got this down.

Here's me driving a bus. Yes, I know how to ride the bus and drive a bus now. Impressed? Iain is standing there being my passenger. Sweet!

After the museum we met up with Tez (he had to work and couldn’t make it) and ate dinner at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen. I got a chicken burger with cranberry sauce and camembert cheese. Delicious times. We stayed in London until pretty late, around ten. I had a great time! But unfortunately I started coming down with a sinus infection that night and spent the rest of the weekend feeling pretty miserable with a sore throat and a snotty nose. I felt ok enough to go out to the Luton town center on Sunday but Monday I spent on the couch blowing my nose.

I had an unexpected day off on Tuesday though and I made up for my sick weekend by going to do some sight seeing. I decided to go to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to see the Prime Meridian. I took a train or two to South London and uh, I probably shouldn’t have done it by myself! South London is a bit dodgy. I got off at Greenwich and I had about a mile to walk to the Royal Observatory. I had to walk on the Greenwich High Street which is the main street but it wasn’t exactly a tourist area so I had to blend in with everyone else and not look out of place. I took a wrong turn and ended up cutting through three other tourist attractions before making it to the National Maritime Museum compound that the Royal Observatory is on. The Royal Observatory was up a huge flipping hill though and considering my sinuses were stuffed with snot I was extremely worn out when I got to the top. Luckily I was rewarded with an amazing view of London to catch my breath by.

Exhausted and sweaty high above London.

The Royal Observatory.

After I could breathe properly again I went into the museum and checked out the Prime Meridian. It was pretty nice for an imaginary line that separates the eastern and western hemispheres. They had a marker that designated where the Prime Meridian is and so of course I stood on it and then I stood with one foot in the eastern hemisphere and the western hemisphere. Sweet! I still don’t know why they thought it was smart to place the Prime Meridian in the middle of London but whatever. I’d have put it just to the west coast of Ireland, I think it’d be easier. Anyway, I also went into the observatory homestead where the Royal astronomer lived. I was pretty impressed with the furniture in the house if that isn’t too dorky. They had some primo examples of William and Mary style cane chairs and not only that, they had properly set up the rooms so that all of the furniture was pushed up against the walls as it would’ve been in the William and Mary period! Fabulous. Then I was off to scope the planetarium but I was tired and decided to catch my train back to central London.

I made my way from Greenwich to London Cannon Street and then I took the Tube to Tower Hill to see the Tower Bridge Exhibition. I got to go inside the Tower Bridge piers and check out the inner workings. I also got to walk on the east and west walkways hundreds of feet in the air. They also had an exhibit I was eager to see called “The Things Victorians Did For Us,” but it was actually pretty lame—just some text on foam core posters. Disappointing but that’s ok. Then I got to see something awesome. I was just in time to see the bridge raise to allow a ship through! I was up front on the viewing platform, I could see everything! I couldn’t believe how quiet it was. Perfectly silent almost! After the bridge lowered again I went to check out the old engine rooms and then I had my lunch on the south bank of the Thames, right across from Tower Hill.

After that though I was feeling quite tired being sick and all and I went home and melted into the couch for the rest of the day. Wednesday after work I went out with Elspeth, Shari and Charlotte to the Southbank Centre to see a Peruvian band play for free. How cultured are we?! We bought some dinner and had sort of a picnic on the fake grass they have to sit on there. After that Elspeth and I walked to Tottenham Court Road but made a pit stop at a pier where we could actually walk down to the Thames. That’s the closest I’ve been to the river! The Thames is pretty much embanked everywhere so the water isn’t reachable. I didn’t touch it though, it’s dirty and smelly haha. I scooted home after we reached Tottenham Court Road since Tez was going to be at work later than he’d thought.

Thursday was the big intern party that BFH was throwing at a restaurant called the Texas Embassy, which is a Tex Mex restaurant. The interns were so excited to have some Mexican food. First we had to go on a tour of the house given by the director of the house though and it took about forever and a day. After we were dismissed we walked to the Texas Embassy. It was a cute theme restaurant and felt very American. We got our drinks and nachos and partied it up! Tez actually came to join us and met all my friends from work. I really had a great time that night. I guess it was the first night in London I felt like I really belonged somewhere. I think it’s just because the restaurant looked American and I had American friends with me. Plus everyone at my internship are unbelievably awesome and I’m glad that I’ve made friends with everyone. Ok, enough cheesiness!

Pic on the left: Shari, Max, Elspeth, Charlotte, Karen, me. Pic on the right: Carley, Elspeth, me, Charlotte

Friday I decided to go home right after work and enjoy a quiet night since I’d had such a busy week. Saturday Tez and I didn’t really have plans. We went to Sainsbury’s for breakfast food and we meant to go to the library but accidentally fell asleep for about three hours haha. I think we’re catching up on some sleep we missed. We ventured out around 9:30 and got some delicious Indian food for dinner and watched the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It was pretty funny!

Today is going to be another quiet day. We just plan to go to the library so far. But in more exciting news Tez has booked us a weekend holiday in Lille, France! We’re going for the 15th-17^th. That’ll be the first time I’ve ever been to France! I’m so excited! We’re taking the Eurostar over and we’re staying in a pretty swanky hotel. I think Tez is more excited about the hotel than anything. I’m hoping to do some sightseeing, eat some crepes and French cheese and maybe find a nice piece of jewelry at one of the open air art markets. EXCITEMENT.