an update!

I haven’t updated this as much as I planned to. I've been pretty busy with my internship, class, and exploring, I’m not complaining though!

I really like living in a big city like London. I can walk to school, walk to stores, and take the tube to every other place I need to go to. It is expensive to live here, but I keep reminding myself that I’ll most likely never have an opportunity to travel and live like this again.

On September 11, we went to Bath and the West Country. We left at 7:15am on a coach bus- I attempted to read several times, but fell asleep after a paragraph or two. We first stopped in Avebury, home of a henge larger than Stonehenge. Avebury was neat, but there were tons of sheep that had pooped everywhere. I spent more time watching where I was stepping than admiring the scenery! The rocks are smaller and fewer of the rocks have been excavated.

Our second stop of the day was Glastonbury, home of a beautiful ruined abbey. Our tour guide was dressed and acted like he was from the past as he told us about the history of the Abbey. We also climbed to the top of the Tor. The Tor is a big, natural hill- once you reach the top you can see for miles and miles. The view was breathtaking and totally worth the challenging trek.

Our third stop, also on Friday, was to Wells, home of an extraordinarily exquisite cathedral. It has “scissor” arches in the nave.

We finally made it to Bath, our last stop of the day. We didn’t explore much on Friday as we arrived around 6:30pm. I got dinner with the girls and then hung out with the majority of the IC group at a pub called Belushi’s. A decent young, local band played while we were there- they played music by Kings of Leon, Coldplay, and some of their own material. It was nice to dance and hang out after a long day. We stayed at the Bath YMCA for the night- it was a decent place and they provided free breakfast Saturday morning (I love me some free food).

We toured the Roman Baths located in Bath and Bill took us on a walk to see some of the town’s architecture. We then boarded the bus again to go to Stonehenge, our last stop of the trip. It’s unfortunate that you can’t get close to it anymore, but it was still cool to see. I took about 10 pictures of the henge from different angles. Luckily, the weather was great during our trip, which made it more enjoyable.

I’m taking British Pop Music and it is the best class ever! My professor is so enthusiastic about music, especially The Beatles. The class is once a week, but I’ve been taking 3-4 pages of notes each class. She is so knowledgeable about music in general; I can listen to her for hours and not want to fall asleep (the class is nearly 3 hours long so it’s a good thing she has a great personality). Last week’s class was solely about The Beatles. We listened to parts of Yesterday, Penny Lane, and Eleanor Rigby and watched scenes for The Beatles Anthology. I’m definitely going to buy the Anthology on DVD when I get home. I have learned so many facts about The Beatles that make me appreciate John, Paul, George, and Ringo and their music even more. Their music is timeless. I wish I had been alive when The Beatles came to the States- the chaos that ensued, wow. We’re going to Liverpool in mid-November… I can’t wait! We are also going to a few concerts and seeing the play Billy Elliott, which I hear is really good!

My internship is still going well. They treat me like an actual employee and not just some intern. I have responsibilities, tasks to complete. I’ve been primarily working on the ESPN Resource Center, which is a site where employees and media affiliates can go to one place and find everything they should need (images, video promos, press releases, written monthly highlights). It is not live yet (no one has access to it) so I’ve been testing it to break it basically. I have to make sure all the links work, edit the text, find images on Getty Images for the site, upload highlights, etc, etc. I get to call the people that design the site (Imaginate is the name of the company) and tell them what needs to be fixed and get on their cases when they don’t do it :) I also have to think of short, catchy slogans that will appear in flash banners on NHL.com to promote the new season on ESPN. In a few weeks, I’m going to start writing ESPN America’s quarterly magazine. The magazine is like 8-10 pages long and basically summarizes and previews sports that are broadcasted on ESPN America (NFL, NCAA basketball and football, MLB, NHL, etc.). I’m going to the New England Patriots vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game on October 25!! I’m really excited that my first NFL game is going to be in London!! :) :) :)

My flat mates and I have made friends with the people that work at the Famous 3 Kings, the pub across the street from where we live. When big football (soccer to Americans) matches are on they charge 3-5 pounds to get in, but because we're regulars they let us in for free. We watch NFL games at the pub with these British rugby players that are obsessed with the NFL. Because of the time difference, we only get to watch the 1 and 4pm (your time) games because the pub closes at midnight.

Pubs close so early because the tube closes around 12:30am (my time) and night buses only come and go to certain areas. Some clubs stay open till 6am, though. We went to a club called Egg last Friday night and it was insane. Hillary and I decided to meet up with our other friends at Egg. We decided this at like 11:45pm so we had to run to the tube, change at a station, etc etc. We made the last train by 8 minutes! Once we got to Camden (the town where Egg is), we had no idea where the club was since our friends weren’t answering their phones. After walking around about for 10 minutes, we took a taxi (our driver was this nice Caribbean man) for not even 5 minutes and got there at like 1:20am. Part of the club was outside, part of it was inside, they had like 3 dance rooms and all the music was techno (I only can take so much techno) Anddd we had to pay 12 pounds each to get in. Had we known it was going to be that much, we wouldn’t have gone. But since we were there, we paid. The drinks were mad expensive too. Although it was fun and worth it for that night, I’m not going there again!

A bunch of us went to the Hard Rock Café Monday night for Rob’s birthday. I was really happy to have a big, fat juicy bacon cheeseburger with fries. Yummy! Hillary and I saw a lot of restaurants in Covent Garden and Leicester Square that we want to go to. Hillary, Taylor, and I went to dinner and the movies the other night. We ate outside at this Italian café- the carne pizza was soooo good! Pepperoni pizza is called the “American” or “Americana.” We saw “Fame” in theatres. It’s based on the 1980 film, which follows students attending the New York City High School for the Performing Arts. Go see it if you can!

There are so many museums I want to see while I’m here. The great thing about museums here is that the majority of them are free! London has so many markets; some of them are open 7 days a week. Last weekend, I went to the Camden Markets, which stretch for miles with food, clothes, and everything else you can imagine.

As far as traveling goes, I'm going to Barcelona at the end of this week, Rome + Venice + Milan for a week in October for fall break, Paris the first weekend of November, and Liverpool in November. I hope to go to Prague, Ireland or Scotland, and maybe Athens or someplace else. I’m really excited; I’ve never traveled like this before!