Catching up

Prepare yourselves for a long and picture-filled post!  Hopefully you'll still be awake by the end...

Sunday was a full day of sight-seeing.  The highlight of the day was the arrival of Emma Spoor, one of my best friends!  She just finished a semester of studying abroad in Russia, and she stopped in London on the way home to hang out for a week.  We also met up with a group of students from Texas A&M doing internships in London through the MSC, so it was great to spend time with other Aggies.

We started off in Brick Lane Market, a very trendy and cheap market towards the east side of London.  There was some great street food and a bustling, local atmosphere.

Emma buying a delicious pork sandwich from one of the street vendors.

The rest of our trek around the east side of Central London took us to a multitude of historical and cultural wonders...

• Covent Garden - A popular square with a market, shops, and street performers
• The Grand Lodge of England - For Daddy and all the other freemasons out there
• The Tate Modern - A contemporary art museum (quite a few Picasso's, and, naturally, an excessive number of nude paintings)
• The Globe Theatre - The original theatre in which Shakespeare acted and wrote
• Millennium Bridge - I'm told it's in the opening scene of the sixth Harry Potter movie? (sorry, Emma, for my lack of knowledge/enthusiasm)
• St. Paul's Cathedral - GORGEOUS church, absolutely huge, lovely gardens

The Grand Lodge of England

The Globe Theatre (and Emma's classic sight-seeing pose)

St. Paul's Cathedral

We finished the day off with our first bite of fish & chips!

Fish and chips and Stowford Press from Sir John Oldcastle restaurant

Monday was my first day of work at the Embassy!  I arrived and was greeted by the two other interns in our office.  Nadia and Madison have been here all spring, so they are leaving soon and I will take over.  I can't tell you how blessed I am to have had the guidance and support of these sweet girls!  I will miss them and our lunch/shopping breaks.  Everyone else in the office is incredibly kind and inclusive.  I have already been handed a few projects, and I love what I'm doing!  More about that later...

Tuesday evening we met up with the MSC interns for dinner at a pub called the Brass Monkey in Victoria.  The group had decided to see a play at one of the theaters, so I told them to buy me a ticket since I was just getting off work and would be late to dinner.  I had no idea what show we were seeing, and they couldn't have been happier with the group's choice...we saw WICKED!!!  I absolutely love that play (it may or may not have been my fourth time to see it).  It was fantastic, although I have to admit that the British accents were favorable to the acting but a bit detrimental to the songs (for those of you who are addicted to the soundtrack, like me).

Flash goes off right at the lights go off and the curtain goes up...awkward
Sorry, Emma, I just couldn't resist

On Wednesday evening, I had the pleasure of being invited to a reception at the residence of the Chargé d'affaires (a fancy French word for the diplomat who is in charge in the absence of a country's ambassador).  My colleagues and I took a cab to a gorgeous house (definitely a mansion by London standards) in one of the most "posh" areas of town.  We were greeted by security and invited in, then led to a perfectly kept garden, where uniformed waiters walked around offering us drinks and hors d'oeuvres.  I wish I had pictures of my own to share, but I didn't want to be that intern at such a classy event.  We mingled with corporate representatives from all over the world (it was a reception honoring British-American business relations), everything from American Airlines to the Royal Bank of Canada.  One thing I learned was that even one person's career can cross multiple borders - one of the representatives I met from the Royal Bank of Canada was actually Mexican, and yet he is based here in the U.K.  Here's a beautiful historical photo of the house, courtesy of the City of London.

Wychwood House, Residence of the Chargé d'affaires of the United States

Copyright City of London

http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collage/app;jsessionid=B76D8DCBC3C2500D22584FFF5DFFF047?service=external/Item&sp=Zlondon&sp=83108&sp=X

After the reception, I was kindly invited to eat dinner at Mary Nell and Bill Browning's home, some of our dear family friends.  They had also invited some two of their family friends who are students at Vanderbilt, so we met some other young Americans and ended up having quite a few mutual friends!  The Brownings used to live in Texas, so we ate Mexican food, drank margaritas, and listened to George Strait.  I felt right at home :) and huge THANK YOU to both of them for dinner and for all the support and advice they have given me for this trip!

Friday was cold and rainy.  The kind of cold where you can see your own breath - in late May!  The downcast weather was fitting, because that morning I sent Emma off at the train station bright and early so she could fly back to the States.  Emma, I had a blast exploring London with you and I hope you are so happy to be home!

I'm going to miss her!

There is no work on Monday!  In the U.K. there are lots of "bank holidays"...whatever that means.  I'll be doing a lot of exploring that day so expect something trendy and exciting soon ;)

I apologize for the length of this post...I will not be offended if you skimmed through.  I hope to use this blog as something I can come back to and reflect on, so I'm trying to be thorough and at the same time keep it entertaining.  I'm guessing if you're reading this paragraph now, you're still awake, so I've succeeded :) Once we get through all the touristy adventures, I can dig deeper into the truly captivating parts of London, so bear with me.  In the future I will try to write posts that are shorter and more frequent.  

I hope you are all doing well!  Feel free to leave comments or send mail :)

Much love,
Hayley