State Street

Today I left class early for my interview at State Street about interning this semester. This past summer a manager in the office extended me an offer; however, I went today in order to find out exactly the position entails. The human resources staff was very nice, and to my great surprise there were many managers from the Boston office there on a retreat. The human resources employee and I searched for a few people who I knew, and then on the way out the door I saw them entering the building. We spent some time catching up, discussing London and internship programs, eating lunch, etc. It was great to see a piece of home that hadn't traveled through the program with me. I'm feeling very optimistic about my role at State Street in London, and Boston.

Royal Exchange & Bank of England

Yesterday after class, Eugene and I ate at a small cafe near the South Kensington tube stop. Then, we went to the old banking district, pre-Canary Wharf. After some searching, we found the State Street offices in the Royal Exchange so that I would know where to go for my interview. The central area of this building is a large open area lined with high-end jewelers i.e. Cartier, Tiffany's, Bvlgari, Omega, etc. and the center is full of tables around a large circular bar. It is a very "posh" area, and everyone's in their suits appearing to discuss important business matters (or at least we decided it was more fun to make this assumption).

After the Royal Exchange, we took the audio tour at the Bank of England. Much of the bank was preserved in historic condition, although it has been expanded upon and rebuilt multiple times in the past. The most interesting or notable piece of history that I learned at the Bank, is that George Washington held money there that he paid taxes on, thus funding his direct opponent during wartime. An order that he wrote to have dividends released for his wife is on display, among other important figures' letters to the Bank. It was really neat to be in the old banking district because all of the buildings are at least a few hundred years old. I say "at least" because some were rebuilt in their original form and locations after fires.

Afterward, we walked to the Royal Bank of Scotland where Eugene will be working. It will be nice to know someone nearby.

Bath & Avebury

This past Saturday, I went to the countryside towns of Avebury & Bath. Avebury is very small, and likely very similar to how it appeared for the last few hundred years. Its claim to fame is that it is amongst a large ring of stones similar to Stonehenge, which is nearby. The stones act as a calendar, and were dragged from 10 miles away with "sheer brute force" to their current locations. For lunch, I tried an English stew in the local pub and it was pretty good. My favorite part about Avebury was that it was so quiet, old, and absolutely beautiful. The English countryside is not a sight to miss; it is truly remarkable in the simplicity of its sheep-spotted, rolling green hills.

We then drove to Bath, where the ruins of a Roman bath still stands from when the Romans first adopted England as part of its empire. This was essentially a recreational center, and strategic way of immersing the English with the Roman culture. The Romans believed the baths they discovered had religious significance, due to a lack of knowledge about hot springs. As a result, they would write curses (mostly against theives) on small rolls of paper and then throw them into the hot spring to be answered by the Gods. Some of these rolls of paper lasted through time, and are still on exhibit in the museum that now surrounds and completes the ruins.

After visiting the baths, a small group of us walked to the top of the town to view its famed architectural feat, which is a very large building on a hill overlooking the town nestled in a hill. On the walk to the top of the town, we passed through a collection of buildings referred to as a "circus" (I'm not positive of the formal name), and it is four curved buildings that face a central grassy area with large trees. The streets in Bath are bustling with tourists, and are full of shops and cafes.

Class, Kavanagh's & Buckingham Palace

This week has been calmer than last week. The coursework picked up a bit, the weather's been cold and rainy, and I've had a weird migraine for 3 days now.

Last night, I went to Kavanagh's with my flatmates for a few hours. It was a really great place, live American music, dancing, free before 10pm, almost no smoke, plenty of tables, and quite literally around the corner.

This morning I went to Buckingham Palace with Liz, Marilyn and Christine. We saw the procession and some parts of the changing of the guard. Unfortunately, we got there too late to get a good view, so we decided to leave early.

We met up with Michal and Betsy at STA Travel at Imperial College to book our airfare to Italy. I'm so excited that our airfare is finalized. :-) Now, we have to book hotels, and over the next few weeks we can plan what sites to visit. Lindsey was nice enough to give me a detailed guide of places to visit and logistical tips about Rome, Florence and Venice. Also, I referred to her blog for more information on other places. It is definitely very helpful to know someone who has already been to Italy.

European Capital Markets & Kensington Palace

Today was my first European Capital Markets Class, and I like my professor a lot. He admits that the class will be difficult, yet feasible. Also, he is very alert and animated, and this helps to make the class go faster. I have a ton of reading, and I'm having trouble finding time to do it.

After class, Eugene and I walked along the street of embassies to Diana's Cafe along Hyde Park. It was weird to see so many photos of her on the walls, especially because I have never known anyone who knew her. After lunch, we went to Kensington Palace where Queens Victoria, Margaret and Princess Diana lived. Queen Margaret kept one large section of the palace very plain and simple. However, the "King's and Queen's" sections of the palace were elaborately decorated. My favorite part was the beautiful gallery of Princess Diana's photographs taken by Mario Tostani, when she dressed in evening gowns and sat on a white couch in a white room. He explains in the audio tour that he encouraged her to be carefree and happy, and chat with him as if he was the only person who would ever see her in this moment. The result was a very honest and intimate depiction of Princess Diana, as if you were sitting there next to her. It was also great to see the display of her dresses.

Afterward, my flatmates sang Happy Birthday to my flatmate's boyfriend for his 21st birthday. Also, we are in the process of setting up spring break and travel plans.

Weekend Trips & Fun

On Friday, Natalie and I went to the Orange store to fix my phone and shopped down High Kensington Street. We finally ate at Wagamamas where I've been wanting to go. It was pretty good, although it has a weird atmosphere i.e. no music, long tables that you share with other people. Overall, it was a lot of fun and afterward we split up for a few hours. Later, Natalie and Desphina came over to relax and watch movies. We watched Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels which was really good and similar to Boondock Saints. It was a good way to end the busy week, and begin the busy weekend.

On Saturday, I went to Windsor Castle and Eton College. It was great to meet some new people, and re-meet old acquaintances. This is the castle where the Queen spends her weekends (and supposedly she was there this weekend), and it is absolutely amazing. Everything is perfectly ornate, even after a horrible fire in 1992 that destroyed a significant part of the building. It was really cool to know that this castle is still in use by the Queen for events. Down the main street and across the bridge is Eton College. This is the high school where the Princes went, and it costs 22,000 pounds per year (over $40,000). The coolest part is that they were penguin-looking suits with coattails and top hats (I actually saw some of them in the street and in a local sport shop!) After the day trip, I went to O'Neill's pub nearby with my flatmates. It was a relatively older crowd, but we had a good time. Unfortunately, my cell phone wasn't getting good reception and some of my friends tried to come but couldn't find the building.

On Sunday, I took the bus tour of London and toured the Tower of London. The Tower is in the square-mile City of London that was founded by the Romans 1,000 years ago. Most parts of the buildings still appear as they did when they were originally built; however, the moat has since been drained. The main highlights were the White Tower and Bloody Tower. The White Tower sits in the middle of the complex and stands tallest; it is where a King lived, arms were stored, etc. The Bloody Tower got its name after two young princes "disappeared" after being held in the tower. Many years later their bones were discovered hidden in the tower. There is uncertainty as to who did this, or who ordered others to commit these murders. I also walked along the Tower Bridge, and it was a beautiful bridge and a great view.

First Day of Classes, Bunker Bar

My first class today was European Union: Institutions and Enterprises at 9am-1pm. It's 15 minutes away from my flat, so I left pretty early. Also, I haven't been sleeping well here, so I woke up at 4:50am before class. The professor is nice and from Edinburgh, Scotland; he is a bit quiet so hopefully he will become louder as he gets to know us. I put myself in a team of people who I don't know very well because I think this will be better than working with people who I already know well. After class it was so extremely windy outside that it literally blew me around, made me unable to breath at times, and obstructed the track on some areas of the tube. It also blew down the wooden fence along the corner of my street, so police had to come tape the area off and put up a temporary fence. I bought my books, and then realized that I forgot them at the bookstore. I was extremely worried, but was lucky to find that they had not moved from where I left them.

Later that night, I went to Bunker bar with everyone from the program, including a director. It included two "free" drinks and then my RA nicely gave me an extra voucher. Anyway, it was great to see so many people, and we met one British/New Zealand guy. I didn't believe his whole spiel about being a 28 year old lawyer, more like a 22 year old super senior. Afterward, some of us went back to South Kensington so that we wouldn't risk missing public transportation (we don't know the night bus well yet). We went to Cavanagh's, which apparently is on my corner, but there was a cover charge and a long line so most of us went home. Tomorrow there is no class, so I will try to sleep well for tomorrow afternoon and night.

Being Noticed

During one of the first days of lectures, program director Robert Cummings made us aware that as citizens of the greatest country in the world we cannot go anywhere without being immediately noticed. Great Britain once had this privilege, or burden as it may be, when they were the greatest nation. Now, he says he can go anywhere and no one notices him at all. However, he remembers one important lesson that the British learned from their time of "being noticed", and that is to be worth being noticed. Tonight, my peers and I were extremely loud, obnoxious Americans on the London underground (tube). This is a quiet place for London, and we disturbed the peace after a loud night at Bunker bar. Halfway through our loud ramblings, two of us realized that we should all be quiet. Unfortunately, most were too drunk to take this seriously. To make matters worse, one student decided to proclaim that he hates America. After my friend covered his mouth to shut him up, I corrected his statement as directed toward the administration. To this he responded, "Bring back Clinton!" Needless to say, we were greatly relieved when we arrived to our tube stop shortly after. It was an embarassing night, and I'm afraid that we have greatly abused our privilege of being noticed. It was a hard lesson, some of were fortunate enough to learn it early, and I will never take part in it again.

3 Days in London

On Saturday evening, I left from JFK with over 100 students in the group flight to Heathrow in London. It was great to meet new people and catch up with older friends, although the plane ride was rough at times. When we got off the plane we were sent to a line of a few hundred people at customs, and were soon told that as a travel group we may cut the line. So, I got through customs in under 30 minutes. :-) On the plane, I met a girl named Michal who lives next door to my flat, so we shared a cab and it was my first left-side-of-the-road experience.

The area is really nice here, there are beautifully restored buildings, and I have a single with a terrace (that I'm not allowed to use unfortunately). After settling in, I learned that my phone order didn't go through, my Oyster card wasn't accepted (meaning roundtrip tube costs $16), my adapter was European and not English, and my wireless could not be activated until the next day and I didn't bring an Ethernet cable. This has meant lots of errands for me over the past few days, but now almost everything is done except for the Oyster card.

Also, I have learned some lessons the embarassing way. For instance, when a deli asks you "Would you like salad?" They mean: "Would you like lettuce, tomato and cucumber on your sandwich?" Speaking of food, there are few similarities between here and the US. I have to buy food frequently because it goes bad in about 2-3 days. Also, almost all of the brands are different. However, Kellogg's is here but with different types of cereal (except for Frosties a.k.a. Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies).

Over the past three days, I have learned an enormous amount of information about London and I will try to remember some highlights now. The first day, we went on a tour of the local area and discovered the various stores, museums and important sites. Surprisingly, there is a Claire's here (the jewelry store). I can't think of another store that I have seen yet that is also in the US. Tesco Express is similar to 7-11 or WaWa. Waitrose and Sainesbury's are the grocery stores. There is also a catalog-based store called Argo's where you walk into a store of catalogs on high desks, you search and write down the desired product on a card, pay for the product, then wait in line for them to retrieve it from the back. I also learned that we live in a nice neighborhood with many young families and private schoolchildren.

The second day, we went on a boat tour down the Thames River (pronounced Temz). Here are some interesting highlights. The weird thing about London is that there are extremely old and new buildings right next to each other, this is somewhat related to wars. For instance, Canary Wharf is the first place that they decided to rebuild after a war, and thus is how it became such a nice financial area of London. Also, they built a bridge and the London Eye in celebration of the millennium. One of the reasons why the wealthy live west and the poor east is because the wind blows east. England is currently in a drought, and it would take 3 weeks of torrential rain to bring them back to a normal state. They do not get snow, and they get very little rain, it is just frequently overcast and there is a slight drizzle. Actually, for the first two days I had clear skies. London was founded by Julius Caesar and is actually very tiny, it is the City of Westminster that has gradually grown closer to London that most refer to as London. This contributes to the many boroughs that make it so that London has multiple theatre districts, shopping districts, etc.

The second night, they dropped us off downtown and a group of us walked to an italian restaurant. We also passed a really nice McDonald's with a bar, and a Pizza Hut. We then walked to Trafalgar Square (a general center for celebration, etc.) and Big Ben. We took the tube back only 4 stops costing $8 (without my Oyster card). We stopped in a local pub, but didn't stay late because the third day began early with orientation.

The third day began around 9am with orientation and a lecture about the political and economic history/current state of England and the European Union. The tutor (not 'professor' here) spoke about the British Empire's victories and defeats, and why it is resistant to uniting with Europe. They simply cannot decide where they stand, particularly with the US. After lecture, I walked around Hyde Park with some friends, grocery shopped and came back to rest for the night. Tomorrow begins again with 915am lectures until 4pm.

Getting Ready

Tomorrow I will be leaving for London, just wanted to set this up beforehand. I will try to update this frequently throughout the semester. :-)