Check out latest pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2263312&id=5507730&l=7f6a6
I'm baffled. I simply don't know where time goes in Europe! Today is the second day of March and already, I've been living in London for 2 months exactly. I've reached the point where I'm no longer awaiting the feeling of comfort, as I do feel at home now. However, I'm soon reaching the point when everything I do will come with the thought "I'd better enjoy this 100% as this might be my last chance to do it!". I'm not a pessimist, but I do have a turbulent love/hate relationship with time.
As my friend Judd put it, my lack of unresponsiveness in the blogosphere has certainly not been due to lack of adventures. Again, no time! But let me make a quick list of the highlights of the last month:
1. I went to two musicals at the West End (the London Broadway equivalent), jamming to the MJ tunes of Thriller Live (yes, there's a musical about Michael Jackson) and the kid-friendly Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat (not bad, not my favorite)
2. Went to the Absolut Ice Bar, a bar made completely of ice! My friend Jessica who was in town and I were fitted with thick cloaks and gloves and sat on seats made of ice, got our drinks over a bar made of ice and drank our vodkas out of ice glasses...needless to say we were only allowed to stay in intervals of 45 mins, but after 20, we were ready for a hot cup of chocolate by a fire to dethaw our frozen bums!
3. My friend Richie took me to Notting Hill to experience the Portobello Road market like a true Londoner, drinking a pint at noon in a little side pub, buying some olives and fudge in one of the little tents, perusing antique tea sets and finishing the day with some spiced mulled wine. Simply delightful!
4. I went to Ireland for the first time! It was fantastic really. I met up with two very close family friends from Mexico and we spent the weekend playing tourists around Dublin, hopping on and hopping off the typical double-decker tourist buses. At night we went to a dinner show and ate fantastic Irish food (basically a lot of meat and potatoes), downed a Guinness and listened and watched live Irish music and dance (a la Lord of the Dance- amazing!). On my last day there I went solo on a tour of Ireland's countryside, famous for being the backdrop of various famous films (or "filims" as our Irish tour guide called them) like P.S. I Love You, Bravehart, Excalibur, and Ballykissangel (a show on the BBC apparently, beats me...). The countryside was truly breathtaking and I met a kind man from Los Angeles who was also touring solo and we became each other's photographers throughout the journey.
Future highlights:
Heading to the States for 2 weeks! I'll be back in the homeland for a work conference and training starting March 13-29. Will try to give some of you a call while I'm there! Love to all!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
I'm in London on the worst snow day in 20 years. Figures!
Looks like Syracuse follows me wherever I go! Today I woke up to a thick layer of white outside my doorstep, only to find out that this is the worst day of snow London has seen in 20 years. Mind you, this is a mild snow day in Syracuse, but for London, this is huge! So huge, that train lines are suspended, flights are cancelled, taxis are running sparingly, and the tube lines are in slow motion. I was a victim of this disaster this morning, when I arrived to the tube station, only to discover we weren't even being let inside! Finally, we all made our way in, and I had to let 5 trains go by that were absolutely jam packed. By the fifth train, I realized it was 9am, and had to force myself into one of the train cars. Made it in to work finally at 9:30, with only 1 or 2 colleagues that were also "heroes of snow", as one neighbor of mine called me as I passed him on his doorstep this morning.
It just amazes me how everything has shut down like this. If Syracuse or even NYC modes of transportation shut down everytime it snowed like it's snowing here, we'd never get anything done!
Check out this story. We're even on U.S. CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/02/02/europe.snow/index.html
It just amazes me how everything has shut down like this. If Syracuse or even NYC modes of transportation shut down everytime it snowed like it's snowing here, we'd never get anything done!
Check out this story. We're even on U.S. CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/02/02/europe.snow/index.html
Sunday, February 1, 2009
All settled into British life
Hello everyone,
Well, it's been quite a while since my last post, which I attribute to the fact that only now am I settled in at home with internet! It feels so great to be in touch again!
So much has happened since I last wrote. The most important thing is that I finally moved into my flat in Clapham, just about 2 blocks from the Clapham North station, which is on the Northern (black) tube line (for those London connoiseurs). I live on one of those streets you would definitely see in a typical British show or movie, narrow, lined with town-house styled homes that share a wall...one after another, after another, after another, with no end in sight. I'd have quite a tough time recognizing my own if it wasn't for the number, I tell you! They're all identical.
Anyway, inside, the flat is quite stylish, very contrasting to its old European charm on the outside. It's modern, with hard-wood floors, clean, sharp edges, even a black leather couch in my tiny living room. Minimalist, contemporary, yet cozy and homey. I suppose its coziness can't be avoided since it is quite small. But I do have two bedrooms, so visitors welcome!!
Work has been good. Much better than I had expected, to be honest. However, the hours are long and tiring, but staying busy makes time fly. I do feel like I have a lot more ownership and say in certain projects, which is a new experience for me. I'm used to always consulting with someone before doing something. Now, I'm calling the shots in several projects which is intimidating, yet empowering. This can only mean one thing...I'm getting old. Incredible.
On to more exciting London topics! Yesterday, I finally visited the Tower of London for a full day of touristing. It was an incredible experience. The sun was shining, the Thames river glistening on one side, the gruesome history of executions inside the Tower on the other. Quite a contrast. The "tower" is really a large fort with several small palaces inside of it. They're certainly not like the palaces you would imagine on the English countryside, rather, smaller versions that used to host magnificent rooms where important decisions were made about who would be executed, as well as provide space to store King Henry VIII's armor and ammunition, or of course, provide space for high profiled prisoners that commited treason (among other things) against the Kingdom. Execution is the common topic throughout the Tower, whether having happened in the middle of a courtyard or at the famous Traitors Gate. The history that took place here is bloody, gruesome, and simply riveting. You're transported in time when you visit the Chapel where Anne Boleyn is buried, or when you visit the Medieval Palace, where reenacters show you how to spin wool, or make candles. Fast-forward 800ish years, and you can also see the Crown Jewels that were and are used for Royal Coronations. The most magnificent is the crown that Queen Elizabeth II wore during her coronation, which has the largest diamond in the world at 525 carats. Blimey!
Well folks, this has truly been the extent of what I have been up to since I last wrote. No fancy trips around Europe yet, though Jeremy and I are already planning our European adventure for when he comes visit in April, which I can already tell is going to be jam-packed with sight-seeing, cheap flights and lots of romance, of course. Especially in Paris and Tuscany.
Much love to everyone, I miss you all!
P.S. It's snowing outside tonight with the same intensity as it would snow in Syracuse. I thought I was escaping the cold by coming here...
Well, it's been quite a while since my last post, which I attribute to the fact that only now am I settled in at home with internet! It feels so great to be in touch again!
So much has happened since I last wrote. The most important thing is that I finally moved into my flat in Clapham, just about 2 blocks from the Clapham North station, which is on the Northern (black) tube line (for those London connoiseurs). I live on one of those streets you would definitely see in a typical British show or movie, narrow, lined with town-house styled homes that share a wall...one after another, after another, after another, with no end in sight. I'd have quite a tough time recognizing my own if it wasn't for the number, I tell you! They're all identical.
Anyway, inside, the flat is quite stylish, very contrasting to its old European charm on the outside. It's modern, with hard-wood floors, clean, sharp edges, even a black leather couch in my tiny living room. Minimalist, contemporary, yet cozy and homey. I suppose its coziness can't be avoided since it is quite small. But I do have two bedrooms, so visitors welcome!!
Work has been good. Much better than I had expected, to be honest. However, the hours are long and tiring, but staying busy makes time fly. I do feel like I have a lot more ownership and say in certain projects, which is a new experience for me. I'm used to always consulting with someone before doing something. Now, I'm calling the shots in several projects which is intimidating, yet empowering. This can only mean one thing...I'm getting old. Incredible.
On to more exciting London topics! Yesterday, I finally visited the Tower of London for a full day of touristing. It was an incredible experience. The sun was shining, the Thames river glistening on one side, the gruesome history of executions inside the Tower on the other. Quite a contrast. The "tower" is really a large fort with several small palaces inside of it. They're certainly not like the palaces you would imagine on the English countryside, rather, smaller versions that used to host magnificent rooms where important decisions were made about who would be executed, as well as provide space to store King Henry VIII's armor and ammunition, or of course, provide space for high profiled prisoners that commited treason (among other things) against the Kingdom. Execution is the common topic throughout the Tower, whether having happened in the middle of a courtyard or at the famous Traitors Gate. The history that took place here is bloody, gruesome, and simply riveting. You're transported in time when you visit the Chapel where Anne Boleyn is buried, or when you visit the Medieval Palace, where reenacters show you how to spin wool, or make candles. Fast-forward 800ish years, and you can also see the Crown Jewels that were and are used for Royal Coronations. The most magnificent is the crown that Queen Elizabeth II wore during her coronation, which has the largest diamond in the world at 525 carats. Blimey!
Well folks, this has truly been the extent of what I have been up to since I last wrote. No fancy trips around Europe yet, though Jeremy and I are already planning our European adventure for when he comes visit in April, which I can already tell is going to be jam-packed with sight-seeing, cheap flights and lots of romance, of course. Especially in Paris and Tuscany.
Much love to everyone, I miss you all!
P.S. It's snowing outside tonight with the same intensity as it would snow in Syracuse. I thought I was escaping the cold by coming here...
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Such a tourist...for now
I've come to the conclusion that saying that London is a great city is an understatement. London is an amazing, fantastic, incredible, impressive, mind-boggling, I'm-running-out-of-adjectives-to-describe-its-greatness city.
Since my last post, I've gone on to do a few monumental must-dos in London like shopping at the world-famous shopping empire, Harrods, particularly in its Egyptian-themed hand bag section, with names like Balenciaga, Versace, Fendi and high-end names my modest budget had never encountered. You could spend days at this 7-story department store and still not see everything it has to offer, including all its meat cuts, cheese samples, home furnishings, not to mention fashion shows, celebrity signings, and of course clothing, perfume and handbag departments. Not too shabby for a store that opened in 1849 as a teeny tiny grocery shop!
Other monumental visits involved a stop at a pub for a refreshing pint, where I met some British blokes (though my bf prefers me to stick to my American terms and say I had a beer and met some British guys) and most recently, my friend Vicky conducted unassuming tourists as photographers at a makeshift photoshoot of the two of us at the London Tower and Tower Bridge. What an incredible place! I stood right in front of where Anne Boleyn was beheaded, which is crazy to think about. There's so much history in that place and I can't wait to save up 20 pounds (which trust me, is an investment for me) so I can go inside and appreciate the history in person, as well as see the coveted Crown jewels.
In other matters, I almost have a flat!! I probably visited around 10 places in all, some small, some larger, some pretty, some awful. The areas we looked at were Clapham, Islington and Camden (where punks abound), and I ended up settling for Clapham which is a quaint area with very typical London flats. Very Love Actually-type in the scene where Hugh Grant is looking for his love interest from flat to flat, though a little nicer. Now I'm just waiting to hear back to see if I got the one I want, a 2-bedroom, quite roomy and cozy, yet modern, close to the tube station, pubs and restaurants. We shall see, fingers crossed!!
Cheers until next time (by the way, Londoners overuse "cheers" like Italians overuse "prego", it can mean so many things, even as a "thank you", weird...)!
Since my last post, I've gone on to do a few monumental must-dos in London like shopping at the world-famous shopping empire, Harrods, particularly in its Egyptian-themed hand bag section, with names like Balenciaga, Versace, Fendi and high-end names my modest budget had never encountered. You could spend days at this 7-story department store and still not see everything it has to offer, including all its meat cuts, cheese samples, home furnishings, not to mention fashion shows, celebrity signings, and of course clothing, perfume and handbag departments. Not too shabby for a store that opened in 1849 as a teeny tiny grocery shop!
Other monumental visits involved a stop at a pub for a refreshing pint, where I met some British blokes (though my bf prefers me to stick to my American terms and say I had a beer and met some British guys) and most recently, my friend Vicky conducted unassuming tourists as photographers at a makeshift photoshoot of the two of us at the London Tower and Tower Bridge. What an incredible place! I stood right in front of where Anne Boleyn was beheaded, which is crazy to think about. There's so much history in that place and I can't wait to save up 20 pounds (which trust me, is an investment for me) so I can go inside and appreciate the history in person, as well as see the coveted Crown jewels.
In other matters, I almost have a flat!! I probably visited around 10 places in all, some small, some larger, some pretty, some awful. The areas we looked at were Clapham, Islington and Camden (where punks abound), and I ended up settling for Clapham which is a quaint area with very typical London flats. Very Love Actually-type in the scene where Hugh Grant is looking for his love interest from flat to flat, though a little nicer. Now I'm just waiting to hear back to see if I got the one I want, a 2-bedroom, quite roomy and cozy, yet modern, close to the tube station, pubs and restaurants. We shall see, fingers crossed!!
Cheers until next time (by the way, Londoners overuse "cheers" like Italians overuse "prego", it can mean so many things, even as a "thank you", weird...)!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Cottage Pie, Hugh Grant and Vicky in one day
List of things as to why Jan 4th was even better than Jan 2nd (refer to post #1):
1. I measured my hands against Hugh Grant's at what seems to be London's Hollywood Walk of Fame, i.e. practically the front stoop of my hotel.
2. I visited the National Portrait Gallery and saw original portraits of some of my favorite historical characters, Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, and even Shakespeare (an odd misfit in my list of royalty, but not really since he wrote during the Elizabethan era...I learned a few things!)
3. In my quest to be a local, I ate Cottage Pie. It makes you think of cottage cheese, or maybe a cozy meal in a warm cottage on a cold day, right? It's more like the latter: ground beef in a hot delicious gravy under a layer of mashed potatoes. It's nothing I haven't eaten before, but the layout and flavor combination was simply deliighhtful! The funny thing is the dish description said the entree was accompanied by a "generous helping of steamed vegetables"...I guess two trees of broccoli, three strands of overcooked carrots and three string beans are considered "generous" here, am I unaware of a famine going on? Or maybe I still have American super-sized servings in mind...
4. Probably the best part of my day: I saw my friend Vicky from when I lived back near Cancun that I haven't seen in 10 years!! Incredible! We had so much to talk about, we only got to her part of her life story today. Wednesday night is reserved for mine hehe. Why London you may ask? Well, she's visiting her boyfriend who's from here, so I guess it took London to bring us back together!
Anyway, time to hit the sack, I start work tomorrow. I guess living in London doesn't come free after all :)
Toodles until next time,
K.
1. I measured my hands against Hugh Grant's at what seems to be London's Hollywood Walk of Fame, i.e. practically the front stoop of my hotel.
2. I visited the National Portrait Gallery and saw original portraits of some of my favorite historical characters, Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, and even Shakespeare (an odd misfit in my list of royalty, but not really since he wrote during the Elizabethan era...I learned a few things!)
3. In my quest to be a local, I ate Cottage Pie. It makes you think of cottage cheese, or maybe a cozy meal in a warm cottage on a cold day, right? It's more like the latter: ground beef in a hot delicious gravy under a layer of mashed potatoes. It's nothing I haven't eaten before, but the layout and flavor combination was simply deliighhtful! The funny thing is the dish description said the entree was accompanied by a "generous helping of steamed vegetables"...I guess two trees of broccoli, three strands of overcooked carrots and three string beans are considered "generous" here, am I unaware of a famine going on? Or maybe I still have American super-sized servings in mind...
4. Probably the best part of my day: I saw my friend Vicky from when I lived back near Cancun that I haven't seen in 10 years!! Incredible! We had so much to talk about, we only got to her part of her life story today. Wednesday night is reserved for mine hehe. Why London you may ask? Well, she's visiting her boyfriend who's from here, so I guess it took London to bring us back together!
Anyway, time to hit the sack, I start work tomorrow. I guess living in London doesn't come free after all :)
Toodles until next time,
K.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
A good start to 2009!
(view from my hotel room)Well, hallo mates!
Alreet, alreet, I'll try to refrain from sounding like the Geico Gekko by using annoying British-sounding language. Of course, the fact that I'm not British is the only thing that makes it annoying, as it sounds quite lovely coming from the handsome chaps on the street, doesn't it? Ok, I'll stop (bloody hell).
Anyway, I flew across the pond yesterday from NYC without a hitch. In fact, Jan 2nd, 2009, was probably the luckiest day of the year for me (ok, let's hope this good year doesn't end here) . Not only was I not charged for over 100 lbs in overweight baggage (the credit card system was down, thank you technology!), but I also didn't get a stinky, nor drunk, nor huge person on either side of my London-bound plane seat. I hate middle seats (which you get when you book your flight a week in advance), but aside from taking their shoes off (take note please, spare thy neighbors), I couldn't complain about the British and Indian twenty-somethings next to me. The cherry topping off the hitch-less day, was that my original nice mid-size, 3-4 star hotel in Leicester Square was full. So, oh and behold, I had to endure the arduous task of switching to their 5-star sister hotel across the street, with an even better room and view of London. Now, I can sit on my bed, or my couch, or the toilet if you may, and stare at good old Big Ben clock tower, London Eye, or the statue on Trafalgar Square (I really must read up on who that is), take your pick!
After 11 hours of delightful rest, I woke up this morning, a little confused as to where I was. Once I realized I was on British soil, I scolded myself about how I dare waste the day away sleeping! Then I remembered I'm here for 6-8 months, there's plenty of time to become a local!
So I did what any London local would, and got myself to Starbucks at Borders. Ok, I'm only kidding, but as I made my way down the historical narrow European streets, I was a bit saddened that American franchises have taken over many nooks and crannies of what should be an authentic European landscape. Don't get me wrong, I ADORE Starbucks (though much prefer Barnes & Noble to Borders), but other than when I'm feeling nostalgic for home, I would much rather take in a capuccino or latte at a sidewalk cafe that boasts of British-looking citizens.
Which brings me to my next topic...how does one describe what a British person looks like? I've tried to dissect that in my head to no avail, but there's something that definitely sets them apart. First off, they're more stylish. For instance, as I made my way down Charing Cross Road during my first stroll around town as a wannabe local, two couples walked by me. One couple were dressed in dark-colored wool coats, wearing Burberry scarves and probably Burberry glasses, and most likely Burberry loafers. In other words, Burberry-chic. The other couple looked like they were dressed to jog (but they were definitely strolling), wearing North Face fleeces, sweatpants, and New Balance sneakers. Not that they looked bad, but c'mon. Nothing screams "I'm a tourist- from America!" like fanny-packs, sneakers, and a clear exchange of comfort over chic. Trust me, you CAN be both! (Oh and by the way, the handsome couple had a British accent, and guess what kind of accent the other couple had...)
So anyway, other than looks, there's a certain confidence to being British, and even European as a whole, and that's what I'm trying to obtain while I'm here. Yes, I do consider myself to be fairly confident in who I am, but one can always improve, right? I think I'd like to have the quiet, subtle, beautiful, serene confidence of someone like Gwyneth Paltrow, who I consider practically British. I mean, she's married to Chris Martin from Coldplay, which is Britain's #1 band. Ok fine, maybe I should strive to be more like Madonna! Ok, she's not British either, but she practically is! Ok, I've got it! Kate Winslet or Keira Knightley. There ya go, and their names both start with K like mine. I've found my role models while I'm here.
Until next time, cheerio!
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