More days with the Family in London

Days one and two with the family!

Tips for traveling abroad

These are just a few tips or suggestions I have when traveling abroad.. and some things you will need to bring:

-bandaids!!!! if you are walking you WILL get blisters especially if your shoes are new.. but even with old ones, you will need them

-antibiotic ointment (to go with bandaids)

-tissues (you may get sick out of the blue like i did, but don't worry if you don't bring them you can always steal napkins from restaurants like I was)

-Medicine- for common colds and anything you may be prone to

-comfortable sneakers

-correct converters. take note if your normal plugs are two or three pronged. Most laptop chargers are three pronged so make sure you get a converter that will support both 2 and 3 prongs

-a raincoat- I felt that whether you bring an umbrella or not.. you should really get a raincoat or just a simple rain shell. They fold up really easy and don't take much space, but WILL keep you dry

-an umbrella- of course for reasons stated above.. it will probably rain (especially if you are going some place like Dublin or London)

-rainboots- this counts under all rain gear

-an alarm clock- even if you have your phone it is good to have an alarm clock just in case

-a REUSABLE water bottle- if you are staying anywhere for a length of time, it is essential and will save you loads of money! Trust me

-a small over the shoulder purse- I do not know quite how to describe this so I will attach a picture of one

now it does not have to be as fancy as that, it can look more like this: I just wanted you to get the picture

-Purex 3 in 1 detergent- to save you time and money i suggest buying these amazing things "Purex 3 in 1" They are amazing, don't take up a lot of space and you can even separate out how many you will need

-a small plastic container- if you are going to be taking lunch with you anywhere this is also a must

-sunglasses

-good toenail and fingernail clippers

-a pumice stone if you are going to be doing a lot of walking

-a nail file

-plastic baggies

take note- some of these things depend on how long you will be staying in an area. These were all important for me because I was staying abroad for a long period of time.

Day 23 and 24: portobello again, Inception, skyping with everyone and their mother, and a bike tour

Saturday of this weekend was portobello market in the morning again. I went this time with Amy in stead of Rachel and Megan because they were in Scotland for the weekend. I had to go back to get more of the trail mix for everyone because we all devoured it! But this time when I went back it was just me buying like seven bags (no joke i really bought seven) and the guy thought I was nuts. I swear he thought they were all for me and kept saying things like "I have never seen anyone buy it in such large quantities" and "make sure you refrigerate it, it can last up to 3 months" even after I told him it was not all for me. Whatever, its delicious! (BTW this picture is oh me actually riding the bike.. i took it :) )

Later that evening I went to go see the movie Inception at the Odeon Theatre up on High Street, not too far from me. It was a great movie and so tricky. Later that night I talked to my mom and donny and just everyone right before it was bedtime.

Today was Sunday and I decided what a better way to spend my sunday than go on a bike tour. I went on the East London bike tour. It took me all past the globe, burough market, over tower bridge, down past other huge buildings, the ugliest building ever called Lloyds, through the working class town, through the actual 1 square mile city of London and down by st. pauls. It was really a great ride and not too intense with a really small group of people. After that it was laundry and shower time tonight as well as some more talking to mom grammy poppy and donny and was supposed to talk to dad too, but I am sure we will catch up tomorrow. Both just so busy. Hope you all had a great weekend. I will add some photos later!

Love and miss you all.. and mom.. 12 DAYS!!!!!

Day 22: Class, coffee, Topshop and interviews

Friday still was not the most exciting day ever because I had class in the morning where we did lots of brainstorming for our project. After class I had to come back to get lunch and speak with Dan Simmons from the Drexel Athletic Center about the position I was going for for Co-op. He was really nice and seemed to love me and really want me to be a part of their team somehow.

I decided that the afternoon before my next interview should be spent getting a coffee and going to the Knightsbridge area for some retail therapy ;) just kidding. So for anyone that does not know, Harrods is in the Knightsbridge area. I went to go in there with my coffee in hand, and apparently you cannot go in there with a drink. So, I walked right out. Did they really think I was going to throw out my fresh coffee.. no way! So instead I walked all up and down the main street until I got back to the Harrods and Topshop area. Topshop was much nicer and let me in with my coffee and so I shopped. I only bought stuff because my mom told me she was taking amy (my best friend since I was two) out shopping before she went off to college in a couple days. So I got a cute sweater and a skirt to make up for my mom not being here :)

After that I came back for an interview with Ritas Franchise Company and stayed in for the night.

Days 19-21: Classes, meeting with groups, interviews, GBK, the park and High street

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday weren't the most special days over here in london but they were good. I had Professional and Personal Selling on Tuesday and Wednesday. Both of those classes were great, the teacher is really cool and shows us all these real life videos and stuff to apply some of the ideas he is telling us about. Tuesday was getting groceries and meeting with my group for the other class to come up with our fantastic idea.
Wednesday was relaxing and preparing for interviews as well as going to sit in the park and go visit all of kensington high street because I had not walked it before.

Thursday was Product Promotion and trend reporting, everyone else had class in the afternoon. I prepared for my interview that evening and after that I went to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Later that night I wound up having another interview not until 11PM, but it wasn't too bad being so late, I think it went well!

Day 18: Buckingham Palace, the eye and st. James Park

Monday was another absolutely fantastic day. We bought tickets to go to Buckingham Palace and see the rooms inside that only get opened for about two months out of the year. I know that this time of the year she is on holiday.. where exactly I am not sure. But the inside of it was absolutely stunning. The rooms were just amazingly decorated and we got to walk where the other royal people who are invited to her parties walk and see where the carriages line up after dropping people off. So fascinating, unfortunately there are no pictures allowed.
But I guess that may be a good thing so I do not destroy all the surprises that my family is going to see. We were finally allowed to take pictures at the end of our tour outside where the lovely cafe was located. I convinced everyone that it was a good idea to go get some really good snacks from there. I got profiteroles and a latte and some of the other girls got strawberries with cream, strawberry cake stuff and other yummy goodies. The outside of Buckingham was definitely amazing. It was so cool to think of tea parties being hosted out there and getting to sit there looking out onto the beautiful gardens and everything. I would want to live there and have a house like that. It was sooo beautiful and puts me in such a good mood when I think of it. I cannot wait to go back with my family :):):) times one thousand!
Also that day, after Buckingham, it was such a gorgeous day out we decided it would be perfect for the London Eye. We bought our tickets and then got in line. It was so nice getting to go up there and see the whole city. You can get some really beautiful shots from up there. This one is just of the inside of the carriage letting you see the whole eye bubble that you are in. It is nice because it has seats in the middle, is air conditioned and you can see everything!

This is just a view of me inside the eye looking out onto big ben and westminster parliament. Nice shot huh! Love it

After the eye, it was still such a nice day out that Rachel, Megan and I did not want to go home just yet. So we went to St. James Park that is right near there and near Buckingham. It was just a nice little park to sit and rest in, thinking back onto all the fun adventures we had during the day. Great way to end a fantastic day. I think this was one of my most favorite days and wish I could do it all over again!

Day 16 and 17: Portobello Market, the Proms, Wimbledon, and Hampstead Heath

The weekend started off with a nice long market called Portobello Road Market. It was so insanely busy for such a small area. Imagine just a skinny one way road with HUNDREDS of people on it. Because that is what the market was. It was pretty cool, don't get me wrong, but just super busy and all squished in small areas. The market starts off with antiques then moves into food and fruits and veggies, then moves into clothes and other random things. It was pretty awesome. There was a guy there that makes super delicious trail mix for relatively cheap compared to grocery stores so I made sure to get some of that as well as some peanut butter chicken with rice for lunch. It may sound gross but it is really really good, a bit spicy too.
On our way back from the market to drop our purchases off at the apartment we saw this awesome car. We walk by the area it was in almost every day, but have never actually seen the car. It was great and promoting green something. I am not sure, but it was funny!

That night we decided we did not want to stay in the apartment so we went to go see the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall. Lucky for us it is only a short walk away. So we lined up about an hour or so early and got out 5pound ticket and got a seat on the floor right in front. Unfortunately for the cheaper seats you do have to stand, but it was not too bad. We all loved the first and third song, but the second that night was not our favorite and it seemed like it was never going to end!! Doesn't that always happen?

The next day Megan and I went to go to Wimbeldon!!!! I am not the biggest tennis fan out there, even though mollee and I used to try and play all the time at waterford beach, but Wimbeldon was so awesome. We got to see the famous courts, lawns, the entrance for the tennis stars and for the members of the club. It was pretty great. I got myself my own Wimbeldon sweat towel :) nice huh. I figured I would get more use out of it when I work out that I would a t-shirt.

The last thing we did on Sunday was go to Hampstead Heath. This is just an area farther up than Camden and it has a really nice park there where you can actually go swimming in the ponds. They have some dedicated to women, men, both and fish. The womens side was really strict that it was women only, so I was a bit nervous as to what this mean. Then we get to the lawn and it says no nude sunbathing, so I was like Phew! BUTTT then we turn to actually go in and there are more boobs that I can imagine. Yes, I saw my fair share of boobs that day. So i misunderstood that nudity apparently does not count boobs... who woulda known. But it was alright there were some ppl there with their whole bathing suits on. I did not go swimming but one of the other girls Rachel did and she said it was really nice. Unfortunately the sun did not stay out as long as we would have liked, but it was still a lot of fun!

Day 13 14 and 15: Class and Beerfest, class and interviews, then all day field trip class and wacky night in

Wednesday was class and BEERFEST! I know sooo exciting! Class was pretty good, but of course I was looking forward to the Great British Beer Festival. Rachel and I left for the festival after class and a good lunch and got there around 2pm. We met up with Kyle, the only guy that was in Ireland with us for the earlier part of the trip. It was great to see him and see how all of his travels prior to us leaving had been going!

This was one of the many beers that we had sampled that day called the triple chocoholic. It really did have an aftertaste exactly like chocolate.. it was a bit weird. Anyways, a little known fact about this Beer Festival that we did not understand was that for each drink you actually wanted you had to pay.. but the prices were really cheap and at most 2 or 3 pounds. Although we did make it around asking for a lot of realllly small sips before we committed to any beers ciders or perrys.

This man was a really nice guy from the Cider and Perry station. We loved his shirt so we just had to get a picture of it and he posed for all of us :) what a nice man. Until of course you ask for so many small sips that it amounts to practically a half glass in total.. then they get a little bit mad and want you to buy something :) he he he

Day 14 was not anything too too exciting I had class and an interview that night which I was preparing for for a good while because it had been my first interview since A-round interviews. Then Day 15 was a full day of class, outside of the classroom. We started off going into shops and stores not as shoppers but as researchers. We took in the details, the colors, how it made you feel, who they were marketing towards, what their promotions were and other such things. We went into stores such as Primark, Neu Look, Next, Marks and Spencers, DKNY, Mulberry, MM, Stella McCartney, the Dover Street Market and many others.

It was really a full day. The picture above was from one of the windows at Marks and Spencers and this one is from Louis Vuitton. They had taken all sorts of bags and turned them into animals, it was pretty interesting. Overall it was a very busy day and my brain was exploding afterwards.. So it was time for a crazzy relaxing and fun night in.

Day 11 and 12: Walk through Hyde Park and celebration of Amys Birthday

Monday was a day of relaxation and walking around for me. We all slept in because we have not been doing so well getting to sleep early with everyones schedule back home and being able to video chat with family and friends. After sleeping in everyone else had class that afternoon so I took that time to go on a walk all throughout Hyde Park, up to the Lancaster Gate area where my family will be staying when they come to visit, all the way past the princess Diana monument fountain, down the little river that goes through it, past paddle boats and small restaurants.

The park is so nice you could really spend all of a nice day in there walking or having a picnic and just relaxing. So that took up a lot of my time. After that I came back to the apartment and rested after many hours of walking.
Finally everyone came back from class so we could all hang out together, make some dinner and have a good night together. We also baked Amy a birthday cake for her b-day and celebrated at midnight! Woohoo 20 years old for her.

The next day was Amy Truong's actual birthday. She has been on the trip with me since we were in Dublin. She loves french food so we went out to eat at a french place and the food was pretty good, although their french onion soup had something weird going on with it and I couldn't figure out what it was. Lucky for us the restaurant was right in the middle of Spitalfields market. It was not too too busy because it was a tuesday, but there were lots of places for womens clothing, hats, jewelry and other fun things. Also a lot of the other regular shops in the area were very enticing and interesting, possibly because I am drawn to all sorts of trinkets and accessories :)

The afternoon concluded with us attempting to go to the rooftop gardens near High Street Kensington, but they were not open for the day. So we went back to the apartment to collapse for a nap and hang out for the night. Days can be so draining here!

Day 9 & 10: Borough Market, Prime Meridian, Cantebury, Leeds and Dover

Sorry I have been a bit late with updating the blog, but here is an update of the past weekend. On Saturday Rachel Back and I went out to the Borough Market. This market is mainly a food market with everything from sweets to veggies and fruits, wild boar sausages, all sorts of cheeses, veggie burgers, sangria, smoothies and everything in between.

I got a delicious smoothie when I first got there as we were walking around praying the rain was not going to come. Then i finally found some honeycomb covered in chocolate. So good, I have been looking for some of this since I left Dublin!

Next, for my actual lunch I got a wild boar sausage sandwich. It was pretty good, although personally, I wished they would have used different bread. But it was really great. After that Rachel and I thought it would be a good idea to go to greenwich and check out the royal observatory there which is home to the prime meridian. This is where the time starts for anyone that cannot remember. So when I was standing here, I was standing in two time zones between the east and the west. It was pretty cool. Rachel and I also got to check out the only planetarium in London. There we got to watch a movie about the planets and stars in the sky that night. It cool, but made me a little bit sleepy in there :)
Sunday was our day trip to Leeds, Cantebury and Dover. We had a little bit of a misunderstanding with the tour company, but the day turned out alright. This was my swirling sausage lunch with mashed potatoes ( i know I know!) and the other stuff was my onion rings, but it was more like onions fried in batter, still good though. Before this in the morning we were at Leeds castle and it was a beautiful place and we got to try a bit of the kinds Mead. Mead is a wine that is made mostly out of honey, but honestly it felt a bit early to be trying this honey wine. Not too bad though. I did have bee's following me around all over the place and I am not joking, it was terrifying.
After lunch lead us into the Cantebury Church. This is where the day turned even more for the worse, our tour guide told us to meet her specifically at 1:30 and I am not a person that is late, yet when all of us girls got there they stupid tour guide a couple minutes ahead of time the tour guide had left without us, and lets hear it for the worst part, SHE HAD OUR TICKETS IN. SO we had to convince the people at the front gate to let us in and then to find our way around the place. But aside from that issue, it was gorgeous inside there and I enjoyed getting to see it.

Next we were off to the Cliffs of Dover, and FINALLY we got to see a beach. This one was of course ALL rocks, but hey it felt really good. We did not spend too much time here but it turned out to be a nice day and we got some cool pictures. But I am warning everyone that plans on going on guided tours in London, please please please read the fine print and look at reviews, because I would not give our tour company/ guide/ or anything a good review.

Love and miss you all!

Actual Changing of the Guards

Camden market Bird Caller

Day 7 & 8: Classes galore! and The 39 Steps in the Theatre

Thursday was not too exciting for me because I needed a bit of time to relax. I had my marketing and sales class in the morning and in the afternoon I took some time to relax while everyone else had class. Later on that night we got the amazing opportunity to see The 39 Steps. This was a British play about one mans life and it was absolutely brilliantly done. Had lots of comical moments and I would definitely suggest getting to see it!!

Friday was the last day before the weekend!!! yay! I had two classes but they were both the design and merchandising class. It was good and a lot of fun. In the afternoon we got to go walking around and went to an exhibit of Masion Martin Margiella who was a brilliant designer. Then we went to the apple store in the city and it was absolutely mobbed. We went to these two places to look and see and gather our reactions about the stores and clothing and everything. It was a really fascinating afternoon. The night was spent trying to plan our our days here and plan out traveling. It was a pain, but we are still working on it :)

Miss you guys

Day 6: First Day of Classes and small walking tour on my own

First day of classes was pretty interesting. Apparently our class is a little bit less marketing and a bit more sales oriented, but our teacher is relaxed and cool. We are learning about how the consumer things, how to get in sync with the consumer, understand them and sell to them better. It is really interesting, but a lot to take in at the same time. After class today I was on my own because everyone else had the Shakespeare Class, so I went on my own little walking tour.

My book provided me with a walking tour through "the city" and took me from Trafalgar square to Tower Bridge. The first photo is from me in I forget exactly where, but it is in my book :) It took me all along this street called the strand and along there was Twinings Tea company. They have been there since 1706 and I was allowed to go in back and have a complementary cup of tea. I tried the pomegranate white tea, it was pretty good but I wound up getting a multi-pack with different types in there like english breakfast, early grey and 3 others.

Another place it took me to along my journey was Ye Old Cheshire Cheese. I did not go in to eat but it looked pretty interesting. I have been craving cheese lately so maybe they have some good stuff inside ;)

On down the road through the strand that turned into Fleet street was St. Patricks Cathedral. Very beautiful and so large it was hard to get a picture of it all. I did not go in to save time for the day but the outside was simply breathtaking in itself.

After going to many different places including churches, narrow laned side streets, shakespeare's London, the monument, the place where 9 streets come together and Tower Bridge I called it quits for the day. I came back to the flat and on the way got myself a little cookie from Ben's and it was to die for!!!

Later on in the evening Megan and I went for a walk through Hyde Park and all the way up to where my family will be staying when they get here and then went back through the park, past the lake, to Dianas monument and back to the flat. We did not realize it but we had been gone for about 1 1/2 hours and were exhausted and hungry... Late Dinner time!