Journeys in England

So I havent posted anything in a while, London has been distracting me. Me and Lena have been exploring this fine city. Last week we went to the Natural History Museum, which was full of dinosaurs and taxidermied animals. I have a fear of birds, and in order to get to the room with all the pretty jewels and gems you have to walk through the room full of stuffed birds. I say walk, but I ran through that room, eyes to the floor. When I did eventually look up, to my surprise I saw a stuffed Baltimore Oriole among the mounted beasts. Naturally, I took a picture of it and finished my dash to the end of the room. After the museum, we decided to go look at Buckingham Palace. I felt like the paparazzi taking pictures of a celebrity, and proceeded to take way too many pictures of the building (which isn't as pretty as the beautiful golden gate that surrounds it) and of the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain directly in front of the palace.


On Saturday we went to the amazing Portobello Market, which is essentially a giant flea market spanning the length of Portobello Road. There were hundred of stands and shops, most being antique shops or cheap clothing stands. There is also a section where there is a framer's market type thing where they sell all sorts of food, both unprepared and prepared. I bought a few things and, needless to say, we are definitely going back and exploring what we didn't discover during this trip.


Sunday was our day trip to Brighton, on the southern coast of England, on the English Channel. First we went to the Royal Pavilion, built by King George IV and decorated on the inside in Chinese style and Indian style on the outside. The Pavilion was home to George IV, his brother William IV, and their niece Queen Victoria. Victoria sold the house to the community of Brighton and it is now re-decorated to look as it did when George IV lived there. We went on a tour of the building, which is beautiful, but a little tackily overdone. We then went to look at the water by the pier (which resembles the Santa Monica Pier with its rides and crowds). The water is a clear, beautiful blue-green and instead of sand, stones fill the beach. The town is very artsy and there are a lot of students who go to university in Brighton. Our group of girls got split up at the end of the trip, as Kelly and I wanted to continue looking around the little Brighton Museum and the other girls wanted to go get tea in a cafe. Kelly and I made it back to the bus and took our seats, but the other four girls weren't there yet. All of a sudden, the bus starts to move and we panic. I call Lena (who was with the other girls) as Kelly yells to the RA's at the front that four girls still aren't on the bus. One of the RA's comes back and says that there is a "no stragglers" policy and that they waited "five whole minutes" for the girls so its their fault they aren't on the bus. As she is saying this Lena picks up and tells me that she is at the bus stop and is literally watching the bus leaving. The RA goes back to the front and then comes to inform us that they are not going to turn around. As she says this Kelly and I start arguing to the RA, who says that they can get on a train back to London and returns to the front. She then comes back to us and says that they decided to turn around, so I call Lena and they wait at the bus stop and then get back on the bus. I cannot believe that they almost left them behind for being 5 minutes late and that they didn't explain this "no stragglers" policy to us before, as we were told that morning to "come back to the bus so that we can TRY and make a 4pm departure." Whatever. All is well and they didn't end up leaving the girls and now we know to be back a little early for our next day trip.


Saturday night we went to a pub we have gone to before and danced the night away. It wasn't a crowded place, so the dance floor downstairs had plenty of room for us to act ridiculous and dance as dorky and flailingly as we wished. Obviously we had an amazing time and were even twirled around by some local Brits, fancy dancing-like.


Monday I had, or was supposed to have, an interview with my potential internship placement. I showed up, but my interviewer had to run out to a meeting and couldn't meet with me. The woman I talked to for a second was really nice though and she told me a little of what I would be doing. I re-scheduled the interview and went back on Thursday. The guy who interviewed me was also very friendly and the environment in the office seemed very open and a great place to work. He told me that I would basically be helping out wherever needed, with anything from picking up coffee to helping out on set. Hopefully there will be some shoots while I am there and that I will be able to visit the sets and experience the production side of filmmaking. The company primarily represents directors who do commercials and shorts, but they have a feature film department as well. It seems like something I will enjoy doing, so keep your fingers crossed that they will be shooting something while I'm there!