Weekend Guests :)

   This weekend was a bit hectic but SO fantastic. After finding Greg at a Starbucks, he went to Harriet's and I went back to my place to wait for Natalie and Lacie! They didn't get in until 2:30-3 AM so it was a long wait but it was sooo good to see them :) After yelling at the cabbie for ripping them off, we went inside and discussed our plans for Friday...I woke up early to get breakfast with Greg in Notting Hill, and the girls slept in. Breakfast was delicious, then Greg decided to accompany us on our tour of London and thank god he did because I hadn't actually gotten around to seeing some of the things he brought us to...I know that's terrible. We walked around all day and it was really nice out so we were lucky. After a long day of site seeing, I convinced Greg to join us at this Indian restaurant down the road and he liked it! Who would have thought Greg or I would ever eat Indian food? We're growing up.
    Greg parted ways after dinner...he went to meet up with Guy and some other people from their Australian adventure at a piano bar...I'm think it's safe to assume things got weird so I'm glad I skipped that. The girls, my roommate, and I went to a pub down the street where we met some Hungarians and some Brits from a church group (they go to the pub after their meetings like 3 or 4 times a week?). The Sri Lankan unsuccessfully tried converting me. Anyways, the girls had a great time experiencing their first "traditional British pub" as Natalie lovingly kept calling it. We decided just to go to bed after the pub closed after midnight so we could get up early.
    Saturday, we woke up at 9 and went to Harrods. They each got an ornament I believe and I got a little Westie holding a Harrods' scarf in his mouth ornament :) Then we got some bagels because not many placed over here have bagels, and no places in Florence do apparently so that's all they wanted! And damn was it a good bagel. I thought I'd show them Notting Hill before they had to leave for the airport, unfortunately the entire Circle Line has been closed the last 2 weekends so getting there is a huge pain in the ass and we ended up only having about an hour to walk around so we saw the beginning of Portobello Market...they saw all the pretty colored buildings though and that's one of the best parts! Then Greg picked us up in the cab he had called to get us to the football match, we had to basically push Natalie and Lacie out the door and then we were off. I felt so bad but we couldn't be late for the match!

yes, we know we're good looking...relaxxx

    Greg and our cab driver talked about concrete for most of the ride, and he pointed out a £140 million flat by Harrods with an elevator for their cars and a garage right next to their flat, no big deal. We finally got to Millwall and I must say, it was a bit scary. There were cops everywhere and some on horses with shields over their eyes. Gotta keep those football hooligans in line. We were nicely welcomed into the director's box, had delicious pork for lunch with a side of chips, then went out to watch the game right at half field. The fans are divided by which team they support and there is a line of cops keeping them from getting too close at the corners of the stadium. The two groups basically taunted each other the entire game, it was hilarious. The best line was something like "Millwall's a shithole, I wanna go home" and just chanting "wankers"at each other...it was tremendous. They even have separate exits for the fans, it's incredible. The train ride home was a little nerve-wracking but we made it out alive! We went our separate ways then met up for dinner with Harriet, her boyfriend, and Guy. Needless to say I was quite excited for this.
   We did not stop laughing throughout the entire dinner. Every word out of Guy's mouth is pure genius. Greg and I both got chicken and mashed potatoes...classic. Then we went to a bar but went back pretty early because we were leaving for Harriet's parents house in the country kind of early. Guy texted Harriet at 8am saying he couldn't come because he was still out drinking. Harriet's parents could not be nicer. Her mom made a delicious pork roast with potatoes and I even tried the parsnip dish, it wasn't too bad either! For dessert, she made a like chocolate mousse cake with cocoa on top and cream to pour on it...it was sooooooooooooo gooooooooood. After lunch we walked around the garden, saw the pool and the tennis court which overlook a beautiful field with sheep. AH it was so pretty!!! We walked down the road as well, saw some more sheep and some horses and more prettiness. When we got back, we sat around the fire and read newspapers. I felt like an intellectual. We got back to London around 8pm and Greg and I got kabobs at his favorite place, which were unbearably spicy and I couldn't handle it. Then I gave him some of my crap that I didn't need and we went to watch the Pats game! Perfect Sunday. Greg left this morning after we had breakfast...so sad :( But such a great weekend.

Next weekend....BARCELONA!!! With Molly, Natalie, Lacie and Brian!!!!!! :)

The King's Speech

Helena

   My roommate and I just saw the King's Speech at the London Film Festival Premier, where we met Helena Bonham Carter, Sir Benjamin Kingsley, Geoffrey Rush, and...wait for it....COLIN FIRTH. When Colin was standing face to face with us, I literally couldn't speak or move so my pictures of him aren't quite as good but it's okay because I got his autograph :) They were all so miserable to be doing autographs and everyone just yells their names over and over again, just like the seagulls in Finding Nemo saying 'mine, mine'...but as much as I wanted to feel bad for them I couldn't becuase they make millions of dollars doing it. Anyways, I feel like I just reached a major turning point in my life. It was amazing. And while yes, meeting them was incredible, the film was also spectacular, you all must see it. It's going to win A LOT of awards. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush's acting was unbelievable and Helena's was fantastic as well. Also, the cinematography (which is not something I usually notice) was extremely well done. It's funny and it's sad at times. GO SEE IT. I can't get over my night, they were right in front of me...RIDICULOUS.
    However, towards the end of the film all I was doing was worrying if Greg was alive and checking Yahoo news for any plane crashes. Little did I know Sentient just messed up with his international service so he was alive, he just wasn't getting my bbms. Thank goodness for bbm, though, because Greg called Matt from a pay phone and told him where he was, and he happened to be down the road from my flat so I went to meet him, WOO! So I saw Greg for about 15 minutes, then he left and we're meeting for breakfast tomorrow morning. Now I am waiting for Natalie and Lacie to get here!!!!! But their flight was delayed I think so it's a lat night for me. OH and I saw Paul Smith for the first time today, not that we talked or anything, just saw him in the office....solid day for Jill! Minus finding out that Colin Firth is married with 2 sons...

Colin <3

Sir Ben

Alia and Me

The cast standing at the end of our row..

Geoffrey Rush!

I hate BU.

I'm so pissed off at this program right now.

I will elaborate now that I've calmed my temper and am not rushing off to work. So we're still in our dungeon of a room, with no natural sunlight or air, looking out through our sealed shut window onto the beautiful fire escape in the middle of the building. I emailed the Director of Student Life (again) asking if there was any progress on getting our window unsealed or if we could move into the empty room down the hall. He responded saying that he was sorry, he thought our problem had been resolved, which was nice of him, and that we could move to a basement quad in a building about a 10-15 minute walk from ours where the windows open. Oh great! Another basement and we'd have to lug all of our clothes and food there.

So I asked again, what about the room 2 doors down from us? And he responded in quite a hostile tone I believe, saying that it is not well ventilated enough for anyone to live in it and he doesn't think those windows open either. Now I REALLY want to respond that we'll buy our own fan if it means we can get some natural sunlight and get out of the shithole we're in now...and while we're on that topic, how is that room not well ventilated enough but ours is? But I'm refraining from responding to him anymore because I'm so fed up. I think that will clear it up for you Stephanie :) haha

Notting Hill Revisited

   I'm posting once again about Notting Hill. Went to Portobello Market on Sunday and really looked around this time. It is awesome. There are tons of antique and vintage stores, as well as new clothing and accessory vendors, fruit/veggie, cheese, and bread markets, as well as creperies and other food vendors. Sadly (and stupidly), I passed on a 100% organic cotton scarf thinking I'd find a better one for less than £8 and returned to buy it just after the woman sold it...all was forgotten, though, when we went to Electric for brunch. DELICIOUS meal, probably my second favorite since I've been here after the french toast with fresh strawberries I got in Nice (we also discovered that McDonald's now makes a Rolo McFlurry sooo I'll be testing that out soon...could place 3rd).

    As I was walking down Portobello Road, I envisioned a wonderful life, living in a brightly colored flat with an equally brightly colored door, waking up Saturday and Sunday mornings to head off to the market with my awesome dogs to buy some fresh fruits and veggies and cheese and baguettes. And I can afford all of this because I'll be dating a wealthy British actor or something. Although I could also do that in Nice, hmm lots to think about. Maybe I'll just have a vacation home in Nice..

ALSO...it's officially Greg's birthday in London!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREGORY!

A pretty exciting Thursday

   To answer your question, Alex, no I have not done any coffee runs. There are many tea runs but I don't do that because I don't like tea and would probably screw it up.
   What I did today is way more interesting...I stuck addresses on and stuffed I'd say about 600 envelopes with invitations to Paul Smith Press Day. So that was a fun 3ish hours :) Then I sorted clothes into the different clothing lines, not quite as exciting as the last 2 days but that's what being an intern is all about! It better be worth it.
   Ended the day listening to updates on the bomb scare a few blocks from our office, luckily not at the station I take, although that wouldn't really matter anyways because it was cleared by the time we left. I assume it was just a bag or something that was unattended and someone called the cops thinking it could be a bomb...at least they're being cautious I guess! Needless to say, the tube ride home was a bit unnerving.

   Greg, Natalie, and Lacie come in one week!!! And Alex and Julie booked their flight to London! YAY!

Paul Smith!

   My first day at the Paul Smith press office was pretty awesome. There are 6 other women in the office, although only 4 were there today, and they're all really nice. There are other departments in the building too. I start at 10 am, and I began by going through newspapers and magazines looking for anything about Paul or if any models were wearing his stuff...which a lot of them were. Then I got to put together a display for his sunglasses/glasses in one of the showrooms where magazine reps come and pick out items they want to use in their photoshoots. This is also where all the Spring 2011 stuff is...I wanted to steal so much of it. After that, I helped unpack the clothes that the magazines had sent back from their shoots and proceeded to make new outfits and hang them up (Greg I put together a sickk suit/shirt/tie combo for ya), which was fun at first but got really monotonous and not fun, especially because I had to steam any of the clothes that were wrinkly. These all went in another show room where the Autumn/Winter 2010 line is, which is also where the sample sale takes place..if you want something you better be nice to me (and they now have an adorable junior line so you better believe the newest Monahan will be rockin some Paul Smith). After what felt like forever doing that, I went back to the other show room and had to find and put together the runway outfits for the US fashion show which was soooo cool! But I was on my feet all day and I'm tired now.

   On another note, last night I made baguette pizza and tonight I made makeshift chicken parm (with pre-breaded mini chicken) and they both were freaking amazing. I'm getting pretty good at cooking.


PS. Is am I the only one who's extremely surprised that dad hasn't freaked out about the gypsy thing yet?

La Cote d'Azur!!!

   Brace yourselves...this is going to be a long one, deal with it.

    We arrived in Nice around 10 pm Thursday night, so obviously it was dark but I saw palm trees and beaches and was immediately pumped. We luckily stumbled upon our hostel when I suggested we go down a random street and it was right there, so that was nice because we literally had no idea where we were going. The hostel was actually really nice. Everyone who worked there was Australian which was cool...the pillows/beds were more comfortable than the ones here in London, the bathrooms were better, there was a free cereal bar every morning (but the milk was warm and that grossed me out) so I tended to have toast, and there were free computers and internet. So overall, really good choice, a very reasonable price, and not the least bit sketchy.


   Woke up at 9 am the next morning, which as many of you may know is not my preferred time of day to wake up, but I did it and it was well worth it. We went to a flower and food market which was awesome, minus the array of fish (including octopus). London doesn't really have those types of markets so I was really excited to go to it because it is very European. Then we went to the top of this really tall hill that overlooked 360 degrees of Nice and there were ruins and old buildings up there too; needless to say, it was amazing. I could be a bum the rest of my life and sleep on a bench up there with my dog and be completely happy. So we got kind of lost trying to get down because we were going in all different directions exploring, and we ended up wandering through little side streets, again just exactly what I always expected of Europe but haven't really seen in London. These streets brought us through residential areas to "La Vieille Ville", the old town, which is basically where all the nightlife is and there are lots of great restaurants, pubs, gelato/crepe shops...so clearly we spent a lot of time there. My impeccable sense of direction was very helpful in Nice, and even impressed me, because there were so many side streets to get lost in. I was also glad I went here instead of Paris because I got to practice speaking French, although I may have made a fool out of myself a time or two. But anyways, so many Parisians speak English or just hate Americans so it's not worth trying to speak to them and the people in Nice really appreciated when I spoke French to them...so that made me happy.

   On our 2nd day in Nice (Saturday) we decided to take a day trip and Katie had gone there before her program so she had some suggestions and after speaking with one of the girls who worked at the hostel, she suggested Eze and Monaco. There's a 1 euro bus that goes there so it was extremely cheap. I had never heard of Eze but she said it was a Medieval town so I was totally into it because I love old architecture. So not knowing what to expect, we get to Eze and have to walk up a huge hill. We get to a somewhat flat part and it's unbelievable. It's hard to explain but it's literally stone buildings built into the hill one after another, with beautiful vines and flowers everywhere and incredible views down into the valley. I could go on about Eze but I won't...however I will be going there for my honeymoon because most of the residences are actually hotel rooms, who cares if it's about $1000 a night?

    So we reluctantly left Eze after my friend Clare got a crepe and I got a coffee milkshake (coffee ice cream's hard to come by). We then boarded another bus to Monaco. On this bus we met some hilarious Floridians in their 40s who were trying to get back to Monte Carlo to catch their cruise ship but spoke no French so I had to attempt to translate for them. They were taking a 2 week Mediterranean cruise which, the woman shared with us, is usually $12,000 but they got for $3,700. I could not be more jealous. Anyways, they helped us find the Monte Carlo Casino. Ferraris, Rolls Royces, Lamborghinis...they were all there. Went into the casino, I was tempted to gamble for the first time in my life but I resisted because I'm broke. The casino was really cool though, smaller than I imagined it would be. So then, we walked around and made our way to the port in hopes that we would meet one of the owners of the dozens of ginormous yachts that were around...no luck. So we kept walking, found some cool cliffs, walked up to another level of Monaco, not really sure what it was? But there were incredible views there too. Then we bought a baguette, cheese, pesto, and a bottle of wine and had that for dinner. It was awesome, and cheap.

    To sum up my experience in the French Riviera, I am seriously contemplating moving there. No one can be mad at me because you'll all want to visit and I'll let you stay in my place for free. The weather is perfect, it's astonishingly beautiful, and the people are nice. Think about it....

   We returned to warm, sunny London weather surprisingly. It was kind of nice to be back...however my new professor is like then Ben Stein of British people. He's so boring and monotone and says "ya" or "right" or "okay" in his annoying British accent after every 2 words. Internship starts tomorrow...SO nervous. Going out to buy a nice blazer now because I haven't spent enough money yet :)

Roma

   So after an hour or 2 of sleep the night before, we left our building at 4 am for Rome. We got in around 11 am, after customs and what not. So then, my friend we stayed with said he didn't think there was a way to get from that airport to his apartment so we took a cab which ended up being about €25 each...which sucked. However, Italy is absolutely beautiful. I kind of wish we had gone to the countryside but still, St. Peter's, the Colloseum, Trevi Fountan, etc. were amazing and it was about 75 degrees as opposed to the cold, rainy London weather we'd been having. The part when 3 gypsies with 'babies' surrounded me and tried to mug me at the Colloseum wasn't so fun...no worries though, I grabbed her hand out of my purse and smacked it away, yelled at them, and they walked away as the one who's hand was on my wallet cryied "but the babies!" See, I know how to handle myself, although it really was quite a terrifying experience. Rome is an very difficult/confusing city to get around, the public transportation is terrible, especially in comparison to London, so that was pretty frustrating at times and kind of made it less enjoyable. We were lucky to be staying with my friend, though, because he showed us around a lot. The food was indeed amazing, I could eat gelato and pizza every day. I wish we could have stayed one more night in Rome but at the same time I'm glad we had all day in Nice today because it is AMAZING!

Another blog and more pictures to come once I return to London :)

Finals

   I'm taking my 5th study break within about half an hour. I hate studying. I'm horrible at it, especially when I know this won't count towards my GPA. I have one final tomorrow, then a paper due Tuesday and my exam for that same class is writing another paper in 2 hours. Really fun stuff.

   Then, because BU didn't tell us our finals schedule early enough, we're leaving our flat at 4am Wednesday (although we're done at 2pm Tuesday and could have easily left after that). So that will be a fun flight to Rome! Excited to see my friend Mike over there though, and I've always wanted to go to Italy although I wish I could see more of it, especially because we only have 2 days there. Nice is going to be epic. One place I've literally always wanted to visit and now I can put my immaculate French to use. Still having some reaction to something, hoping it's not celiac's because I love carbs and mom just sent me mac & cheese and I plan on eating it either way. But anyways, I'm hoping I'm wrong and it goes away before we leave or it's not going to be the most enjoyable trip.

Well, back to studying!