Looking back

Well, here I am sitting in my kitchen, in the states.  I can't believe I'm back, especially after all the drama that ensued on the journey home.

Sunday morning I woke up early and headed to Kensington Gardens for one last time and sat at the Round Pond with a book.  I'm really going to miss sitting at that park.  Then we left for Heathrow at 11 AM.  Well it only took us 20 minutes to get there and check-in didn't start until 1 PM.  So we had to sit outside the airport and do nothing for an hour and a half.  After checking in, we found out that our flight was delayed from Bombay (good ole Air India).  So we left close to 6 (it was supposed to leave at 4:10) and I ended up sitting in the exit row and getting fully trained on how to open the door for the slide.  Why would they ever put me in charge of that?!?!?  They played Prince Caspian and we were pretty far into the movie when the guy 2 rows behind me stopped breathing.  They called for a doctor over the loud speaker and then he started seizing.  It was so scary.  They had 3 doctors run up to help out.  He finally calmed down  and they moved him up to first class.  When we finally landed it was 7:15.  I got through customs pretty quickly and then waited over an hour for my luggage (waved to the sky at 8 pm to say goodbye to my flight to Cleveland).  After we collected all our luggage, Aly and I headed to the Air India ticket counter to try to get out of there that night, but they couldn't get us on any flights.  So they put us up in a really nice hotel for the night.  Aly was able to go to the American ticket counter and get on a flight the next day, but the Continental one closed at 8:45 so I had to go back at 3:30 am the next morning.  We went to our hotel, ate dinner, I took a nap and then headed back to the airport, only to find out that I couldn't get on a flight to Cleveland until 8 pm that night!  So I took a bus to Midway and caught a flight there to Cleveland and finally made it home that after noon.  I took this as a sign that I shouldn't have left London...

But now I'm back and posting on here for the last time.  Just wanted to give my top ten list!  It was hard to put together because there are so many things that I did and so much that I loved.  So here it is, in no particular order

1.  The trip to Wales and all the transportation issues that ensued.  And how could I forget the "release" from jumping off the cliffs.

2.  Rolling down the hill at Greenwich on the Eastern Hemisphere.

3.  The Hard Rock Calling concert in Hyde Park.  Best line up ever, best weather of the summer, new friends and lots of dancing

4.  Going to the Wimbledon tennis tournament and sitting front row at Paul-Henri Mattew's match, drinking Pimm's and lemonade, watching Venus and Serena, hearing everyone cheer after Andy Roddick lost, watching the number one men's doubles team and eating strawberries and cream

5.  Working at AdConnection.  I can't even begin to describe everything and the memories are unforgettable.

6.  My trip to Prague: Most beautiful city in Europe

7.  My Saturday visits to Borough Market and Portobello Road

8.  Seeing Wicked in the West End

9.  My Paddle boat ride in Hyde Park with Julia

10.  The chauffeured bike ride from Leicester Square to Piccadilly Circus with Julia.

Alright, London's over, time to head back to Columbia for my last semester of college.  Cheers!

Have 3 months really gone by??

I guess I'm still in disbelief that I'm leaving tomorrow for the states.  Like Marylyn said, it feels like when we get back to the states that no time will have passed and it will be May 17th.  I guess I'm in denial that this summer is over.  But I have truly enjoyed the last few weeks and this whole summer.  I love it here in London, despite the weather.

Ok quick recap...

Wednesday

Went to work and got lunch with some of the girls from work and then gave my presentation that I've been working on most of the summer to the company.  It was funny telling them about Great Britain because they live there and didn't know some of the stuff I told them.  We then headed to Wimbledon Village for my goodbye drinks.  It was so much fun being with everyone.  They made me gave a speech and I tried to not be sappy, but it's hard.  I've spent 2 months working with these people and they have taught me so much.  It soon moved onto a pretty crazy night and there are no words to describe the fun we had.

Thursday

Went to work for the last time.  It was hard to tell myself that this will be the last morning I go to work because I didn't believe it.  I went to lunch with a bunch of people from the office and then we came back and I had my exit interview with Steph.  It was very humbling hearing all of her feedback.  And the best part of it was when she told me that they would love for me to come back and work after graduation in December!  It really hasn't set in yet and everyone else seems really excited when I tell them, but I'm still in disbelief.  I guess that's why I don't feel like I'm saying goodbye forever, because there is a very big chance that I will be back.  After my meeting, we went upstairs and I sat down at my computer to keep working, and Nick said "Halli..."  and I guess I looked scared because I thought I did something wrong because he then said "Don't look scared.  This isn't a bad thing...and then he gave a nice speech and gave me a card and gift from everyone at AdConnection.  They got me a GORGEOUS watch. I was in shock.  All I got them was a card to share!  I'm terrible!  Saying goodbye to everyone was so weird because it's hard to believe that I see the same people everyday and I won't see them either ever again or for a few months.  After work I went for drinks with the people who couldn't go the night before.  And then rode the tube home with Lucy for one last time.  We met some turkish men on the tube who wouldn't stop talking to us.  Pretty funny, but I guess you had to be there.

Friday

Woke up early and went to Oxford Circus one more time for some gift shopping and a last stop at Primark.  Then I met Julia at the Imperial War Museum.  It was really neat and had a Holocaust exhibit and a Trench experience and Blitz experience.  Then we grabbed lunch and headed to the Westminster Pier for the boat to Greenwich with everyone.  It was neat seeing the city from the Thames.  When we got to Greenwich, we went to the Prime Meridian and stood in 2 hemispheres at once!  It was a lot of fun and we got a great view of London from the top of the hill.  Then, Christy, Julia, Aly and I decided to roll down the big hill.  It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.  I won the race to the bottom!  Then we went to a pub for our last fish and chips, and caught the last boat back to London.  The ride back was fun because we sat on the top and had a hilarious Australian tour guide.  And we got to see Tower Bridge open,  for one of the few times of the year, for a larger boat.  Then most of the girls went out to a pub in Carnaby Street for some drinks for the night.

Saturday

Woke up and headed to Portobello road with Julia, Christy and Jen.  Made some good purchases and enjoyed the lovely rainy, cold, crowded atmosphere.  I got my last Hummingbird Bakery red velvet cupcake!  I'm going to miss those!  Then we met up with Kaylin and went to Abbey Road and did our Beatles picture, like 5 times, and Julia got to be Paul without shoes.  Then we came home and packed.  Not fun.  But I'm all packed now, and am NOT ready to leave!  But we're getting ready to go to dinner drinks one last time at a pub around South Kensington and then we leave at 11 am tomorrow!  AHH!!  I really cannot believe I'm leaving!

Things I've learned:

1.  Never say mocha with a long "o" in London

2.  Cars hate tourists on Abbey Road

3.  I can survive in a flat for 13 weeks with 5 other girls, one bathroom and two bedrooms.

4.  Some English people say bathroom

5.  I was made to live in this city.

So this is my last post in London.  I hope you've enjoyed following my adventures in London and Europe.  Stay tuned for my top ten favorite parts of the summer (it will be hard to do, I promise) and see you in the states soon!

52 stars?? Really??

Someone at work today told me there were 52 stars on the US flag.  I was in shock.  It was seriously the only time that someone said something about america that wasn't true.  They seem to know EVERYTHING here, but this definitely caught me off guard.

Okay recap of the past few days...

Sunday

Christy and I woke up early and headed to St. Paul's Cathedral for church.  Yes that's right.  I, Halli Levy, went to a church service.  It was very interesting, especially since it was held in one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world.  It's where Princess Diana was married.  The only strange thing was when the priest started relating an ignorant comment someone made about boobs to how the person ACTUALLY meant that they think the cathedral is as pretty as boobs.  I totally think he pulled that out of left field.  After the cathedral we headed to Brick Lane, got some falafel, met an English guy in US Army fatigues, got a recipe for falafel from him, saw a stolen Old Navy sweatshirt for sale, and got caught in the rain.  So then we headed to King's Cross and finally got our picture at Platform 9 3/4!!  YAY HARRY POTTER!!!  Then we went for tea at Kensington Palace at the Orangery.  I can't believe it took me all summer to go!  Then we came home, went for our last Wagamama meal, and had a little jean washing party because we didn't want to pay 5 pounds just to wash our jeans.  Needless to say, it was quite humorous and we almost stained the bathtub blue.

Monday

Came in a little late to work because my train decided to terminate at Putney Bridge which is 4 stops before mine.  So I had to take the bus which took FOREVER.  And since I was last, I had to make the tea.  Surprisingly, I didn't drop the tray (I'm 3 for 3!!!).  We had 2 presentations today.  One from shortlist, a men's magazine, which was interesting.  Then we had one from Gorilla Nation.  This was by far the worst one I've seen all summer.  They talked forever, but when I say "they," I really mean just the guy JP because he kept cutting off the other guy.  I did get a free notebook and pen and Starbucks muffin, but it was so boring and they were talking about internet stuff that I didn't understand, and neither did anyone else.  But then I left for class right after.  It was our last class (woohoo), and we got 10 pounds because they never spent it on outside activities for us.  I finally got an A on my final paper!  After class, Julia, Jen and I decided to spend our 10 pounds at my favorite Earl's Court pub, O'Neills.  We got a pitcher of a delicious cocktail, some irish stew and played quiz night,which we lost terribly.

Tuesday

Went to work on a very dreary and rainy day.  Had a good day overall.  I finally finished my presentation, which I will present tomorrow, and learned some stuff about media and helped with other presentations.  It's so weird to think that in 2 days I won't be working there anymore.  I really love my internship and the people are a lot of fun.

Things I've learned:

1.  I will never master the European way of eating with a fork and knife

2.  I have absolutely no clue what is going on in the states right now with movies (i.e., didn't know about Pineapple Express)

3.  I'm still trying to understand what a "re-skin is"

4.  People are still obsessed with Team America here.

5.  Whitney Houston made a song for the LA Olympics.

Okay, time to enjoy the end of my trip!  I'm really going to miss London!

I played "baseball" in London

Okay I put quotes around it because the baseball I played was a combination of baseball, softball and rounders.  Quite amusing I must say, but I will get there in a minute.

Sunday

Christy, Jen and I took a train to Windsor for the day.  We really lucked out on the weather for the day because it was ht and gorgeous out.  We ate lunch on the river at a restaurant called Brown's (like the Cleveland Browns!) and I ran into one of the women from work (small world!).  So then we ventured to the castle and walked around with an audio guide (not as good as the Westminster one) and saw everything except the Cathedral, which is like the main attraction but it is closed on Sundays for worship!  It was really pretty and we saw this huge dollhouse that was so intricate.  And we saw the staterooms where the main halls are and the guests are entertained (aka really important people).  There was a hall that had all the knights' coat of arms and the ones who were stripped of their titles had their coat of arms painted over in white.  How embarrassing!

Monday

Had a normal day at work.  They all thought I went on another crazy trip and were surprised when I said I only went to Windsor on Sunday.  Then I went to class where I turned in my last paper, so some of us went for a drink at the pub at our school to celebrate.

Tuesday

More work, can't remember if anything exciting happened.

Wednesday

Worked again, got drinks with work, and then went to Ice Bar with some of the girls.  It is a bar made of ice and they give you an eskimo coat and you can only stay in there for 40 minutes.  You get one drink and the glass is made of ice.  Then we went to O'Neills for some live music.

Thursday

Great day at work.  I got to leave early with two of the people from work and go shopping for drinks and food for our Softball game against one of our clients in Hyde Park.  I wore my Indians shirt and they all assumed I had amazing baseball skills (they admired my stance!  I told them my dad would be so proud!).  So we played "baseball."  It was really confusing for everyone because they combined their rounders rules and American baseball rules into our own game.  It was a lot of fun, but I am definitely still sore.  We then headed to a pub and hung out for the rest of the night.

Friday

Went to work and went out for lunch with everyone to another client's restaurant, Wagamama.  The had a normal day in the office with lots of laughs.  They made me do my terrible British accent.  And I made tea for everyone for the second time (I finally overcame my fear).  Then I came home and went to Fabric with my flatmates.  It's this crazy and famous club with 3 rooms and one even has a bass in the floor.  We then ventured home on the buses and met some interesting people at the bus stops and got invited to see the "dogs" (greyhounds) the next night because "it was the last night in London that the place was open."

Saturday

Got up and went with Julia to Hyde Park for our paddle boat date.  It was so much fun!  Then we met up with Christy and Lauren to go to Borough Market.  We got the same food again (mmmm) and then headed to Harrod's.  I can't believe I waited so long to go there.  It was so neat and there was every designer imaginable.

Things I've learned:

1.  The British love using American accents

2.  Champagne Cider is ridiculously strong

3.  The Queen hated Princess Diana

4.  Part of Windsor Castle burned down in a fire

5.   It's really hard to teach baseball.