The flat

I've moved!  Hooray, no more hostel for me.  I now only share a room with one girl, and my roommates are excellent.  We live in the bottom 2 floors of a house in Camden, which just happens to be the last vestige for British punks.  Don't worry though, mom, it is a nice area.  It is near Regent's Park which is lovely, and I've heard that Gwenyth Paltrow and Chris Martin live just around the park.  So I'm still having a great time and loving London.  I'll write more later, but here is my new address:

9a Mornington Terrace

London NW1 7RR

United Kingdoms

More Adventures!

I had a lovely weekend visiting more of the city.  I went to Greenwich on Saturday and saw the Queen's House (she doesn't live in it and never has) and the beautiful park there.  I have now officially been to the Equator and the Prime Meridian, just the International Dateline left to go!  It took me 2 hours to get back home because I was so far away.  I tried a new church on Sunday and it also took me 2 hours to get there when it totally shouldn't have.  Planned engineering works are the bane of my existence!  I ended up walking the last 2 miles and was an hour late, but that was ok because I mostly came for the lunch.  It was "hospitality day" so an Asian-British couple took me and another student, a Philippino Frenchman named Joel, to their house in Kent.  The food was great and they took us for a tour of Eltham Palace afterwards which is a Medieval castle with an Art Deco interior.  The house and grounds were incredible.  The weather was so nice that all of London seemed to flock to the parks to enjoy it.  

Oh, the Brits!

Well, I'm sitting at my desk after work sipping the beer that my boss gave me to cap off the day.  My mom was right, I will have to start liking beer to live here.  It's actually ok though.  Also, yesterday I finally figured out how to flush the toilet at work.  Yep, it's a bit tricky, one of those pull handle ones.  Live and learn.

My first design task at the office has been to design where a hole would fit on a wall.  Pretty exciting stuff I know but it gets better.  I have been editing drawings for a hotel in Moscow today.  They drawings need to be sent to Milan tomorrow (yep, Italy).  I can tell that this is going to be a pretty incredible summer, if I could only find somewhere to live.  I'm just trusting that it will all work out perfectly, soon.   

HEAT Architecture

Well, I enjoyed my one hour commute on the tube today.  I had to stand in a very crowded train car in high heels that were pinching my feet, but this makes me feel like a true Londoner.  I haven't done much of anything important at work today.  I fiddled around with Vectorworks and looked for somewhere to live.  My greatest contribution was finding the right screwdriver to fix something (thanks shop class).  I do have interesting coworkers though.  I work with an Indian woman, 2 Russians (?), and 2 Brits.  The guy I sit next to is a semi-pro basketball player who played at an American college for a while.  Altogether, everyone is pretty nice here and I hope I start doing something interesting soon.

Exploring the City

The last few days I've done a bit of exploring of the city. (Sidenote- the Brits seem to say "a bit" and "really" quite a lot) I met with a K-State grad last night and had a beer at a 400 year old pub near where Charles Dickens once lived. The pub was nesteled back in an alley and everyone stood around outside nursing their drinks. It was quite nice really. (I think that I've started speaking with an accent in my head) Today I met with Sam's friend Pam and she showed me around Baker's Street, Regent's Park, and Hyde Park. I stopped on my way home in Notting Hill and I could see why Lainey said she loved it so much, it was just her style. I got a bit lost but found some nice areas in Portobello Market and the Travel Book Shop which I happended upon in my wandering. I had a good time today and I think I will see Pam again tomorrow. Enough for now, more later!

Chapter 1: I Arrive.

I've never done (that is, blog) this before, so this should be fun! Ha, the underlying theme for my summer! I arrived in London today after an overlong flight across the Atlantic to a typical (I assume) rainy London day. My adventures begin in this new city with discovering the Tube, Tesco, and the beauty of London parks. There is a park near my hostel with "a nice bit of wilderness" (Jane Austen quote) that I thoroughly enjoyed in the rain today. I felt like a true Londoner with my classy new umbrella and wellies in the park. I think I already love this city more than I thought I would!