Dear Steve Jobs,

I just spent $77 on a new charger because my old one began spewing out sparks and making crackling noises. After already paying around $2,000 for my laptop, isn't another $77 just a little ridiculous? I think this is the only thing that's been cheaper over here, though..by a whole $2! Damn MacBook.

Christmas in London

    It's officially Christmas time here in London and I am obsessed. Alex and Julie left for Paris this morning, which was sad...but I'll be home 2 week from tomorrow! :) We did a lot while they were here, including some touristy stuff I hadn't done yet, like going into Westminster Abbey, going on the London Eye (went up when Greg was studying here), and saw the changing of the guards. Westminster Abbey was amazing, it's too bad you're not allowed to take pictures in there though. The changing of the guards was really cool, but insane because there were soooo many people and it dragged on a little bit, which may have been nice if it wasn't absolutely freezing outside. We did the Eye at sunset and it was really really pretty. While Julie and I stood in line for tickets, I sent Alex to find somewhere for us to eat and he stumbled upon the Christmas market right there. We were pretty upset when we failed to get our Thanksgiving meal Thursday night (thank god we got to watch the Pats) BUT one of the huts at the market had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and peas. It may have been a day late, but it was absolutely delicious, but not nearly as good as Mom's stuffing of course. No one here knows what Thanksgiving is about, I had to explain it to everyone at work.

    Winter Wonderland opened in Hyde Park last weekend while I was in Prague and I'd been saving it for a trip with Alex and Julie. WOAH. It's way better than I imagined. We went two nights in a row. They have rows of markets, Christmas lights everywhere, yummy food and deserts, lots of German beer and jäger (Alex insisted we take jägerbombs), rides, games (Alex lost), a skating rink, a circus, and "Alpine" huts with tables, drinks, and live music. The guys singing last night were so good. They sang Matt's new favorite song, which he somehow just learned the real lyrics to? Forget You...and some other great songs. I plan on going almost every night this week then all out for my birthday. It will be epic. 
     It's my last week at Paul Smith and Tuesday's the sample sale. I already know what I'll be doing...hanging up clothes and restocking the sale. Cool. I have a project due tomorrow so I should probably start that.

Praha

  They say Prague is one of the most beautiful European cities and I'd have to agree. Despite the fact that hardly anyone speaks Czech and that their currency is extremely confusing (100 koruna = $5), the architecture was amazing and its really cheap there, so after my very expensive flight that was a nice, especially in comparison to London's absurd prices. It's always great seeing people from home, so spending the weekend with Katie was awesome. My favorite places in Prague were probably just the view from the top of the big hill and the Lennon Wall. Her friends are really nice, and she has a single with a private bathroom - both of which are larger than my double. I finally figured out something to get Dad which will prove to be very useful in Maine and I got myself a pretty sweet sweatshirt. 

   Christmas lights are almost all up in London! The best part is that "Winter Wonderland" in Hyde Park opened this weekend so we'll be going next weekend and I caught a sneak peak last night...it looks AMAZING. Alex and Julie come in 3 days for some crazy Thanksgiving festivities and we will of course be checking out those xmas lights :) Anyways, I just had to listen to my professor who has the most monotone and annoying British accent in the world for 4 hours so I'd say it's time for a nap. Keeping this one short and sweet so Matt doesn't have to read too much.

Random thought: Why do the British put minced onion in their meat? It's absolutely disgusting.

Naked black babies with
no  faces represent communism?

A Jolly Good Week

    So much to catch up on...I was so excited about Wicked/Alex Watson last week I forgot to talk about my day trip to Cambridge. There's literally a different campus for each "school" which is constituted by what is studied there. Each campus is beautiful with huge courtyards and the buildings are so old and pretty. Just like good ol' Saint Mike's. I can't imagine having tourists around my school every day taking pictures...seems odd. Everything in the town is SO OLD. There was a church from 1092, it's crazy. But it's very quaint and pretty, there's a nice little river with gondola-type boats. So I'm glad I went, it was really cool. Here are my many favorite pictures :)

    This week's been really busy at work but I finally got through a whole week without dreading it. We started setting up for the sample sale and since we set it up/run it, we get to put aside anything we want to make sure no one buys it first, pretty good deal. So I set aside two t-shirts and a little bag for myself, a scarf for mom, a surprise for dad, and some cuff links for Matt, Greg, and Alex (Greg's the only one who has confirmed that he wants them soooo get on that boys), AND the cutest little onesie for the new Monahan baby. But ya, moving all of this season's clothes and accessories downstairs then moving next season's into the showroom was a lot of work...and it's still not done. Today we had an event from 3-6..it was the grand opening of Paul's new store in Claridge's, a really old and famous hotel in London. It was absolutely beautiful. So Paul was at the opening and it was a bunch of journalists and stylists I think, but we had to dress up and wear all Paul Smith things so I got to raid the sample sale with one of the girls and tried on a bunch of stuff. I looked so European it was awesome. I decided I might buy some high-waisted black trousers because they looked fantastic on me but need to be hemmed. I figure they'll come in style in the US by next year...
    Yesterday, I looked out the window and saw 6 police cars (including 2 riot vans) and an ambulance. I was like WHAT THE HELL? Then I remembered there's a mental hospital/housing facility across the street. So naturally, I decided to be nosey and watch the drama unfold. About 5 minutes later, 2 cops came out and opened the doors, then 3 more came out restraining this poor mentally ill woman, who were followed by another 2 cops with riot shields. I couldn't help but think all the riot bits were a little much but hey, who knows. So anyways, this poor woman was screaming and resisting the whole time saying she wanted to go back inside to where it was warm. It was really sad. They were putting her in a van so I walked away. Then I went back about 10-15 minutes later, and I see they're all still out there and they're just handcuffing her. She was still yelling which was still just as disturbing. THEN more cops and EMTs came out with a man (I assume also ill) in a wheel chair and he had a bloody bandage around his head. It made me sick to my stomach. I officially left after that...clearly she had attacked him. I thought it was a pretty good story....

   GOOD NEWS THOUGH!! I found out that I can take a day off for Thanksgiving/when Alex and Julie come IN ONE WEEK! :) We're going to try this "American BBQ" restaurant that has a big Thanksgiving dinner special...should be interesting!!

LEAVING FOR PRAGUE TO SEE KATIE TOMORROW!!!!!! :)

.....and more of my favorite new pictures.

People were actually petting these...

Covent Garden X-Mas Lights! (where I work &
clearly where Quincy Market/Faneuil
Hall got their inspiration)

One month from today...

I'll be on my way to Heathrow! :)

Some things

Just a map of Oz

   The British version of Wicked (my favorite musical of all time) was surprisingly absolutely amazing. I can't compare it to the shows in Boston or New York because I honestly don't remember them enough to do so but damn, the lead girl was Irish and she could sing. It was definitely a little weird because they obviously pronounced a lot of the words in the songs differently and, knowing every word of every song, that was a bit disheartening. But it was still awesome. Being in the 5th row was cool too because I noticed facial expressions that I probably didn't when we sat in the mezzanine section.

   Today at work was the first time a celebrity came in while I was there. It was Emma Watson's (Hermoine Granger) brother, Alex. He models for Burberry. They were actually in some ads together which were a bit creepy because they're related...Anyways, he came in to borrow an outfit for the Harry Potter premiere tomorrow, which I will attempt to go to and see all the stars...although I highly doubt I'll be as lucky as I have been at the last 2 premieres because it's going to be absolutely mobbed. Also today, I dropped $112 on my monthly train pass as well as $145 to switch my flight to Prague from this weekend to next weekend. Good day for my bank account!

Since soooooooo many people have been asking me when I return home, I land at 5:20 PM Monday, December 13th at Logan Airport. I expect to see you all there, this includes my dogs, and I'm sure Margie's planning an elaborate celebration for my return and for my 21st birthday :)

Well, my week just turned around

   After another pretty crappy day at work, I began my walk, bus ride, then walk more, commute home because there was a tube strike today. As I approached Leicester Square I saw a huge commotion and they told me I had to go around. This pissed me right off. So I'm walking through the Walpole-esque Carnival just really annoyed and scared of the carnis, when all of a sudden I look up to see Zach Galifianakis' beautiful face on a huge screen. I had stumbled upon the red carpet premier of Due Date (which looks absolutely hilarious) with Zach, Robert Downey Jr, and Jamie Foxx. The annoying red carpet lady announced the stars were on their way, so I stayed even though I was all alone and felt like a huge loser. Unfortunately, I left my camera in my room and only had my phone...not the best quality pictures.
    Robert arrived first, gave a pretty funny interview, then made his way around to sign autographs/take pictures. I was two people away from an autograph. Some lady left after that, so I made my way to the front where the gate was. THEN...Zach arrived. He was wearing a brownish corduroy suit, which he said he got for $150 in Cali, matched with a lovely beanie. He gave a hilarious interview, made a pedophilia joke, then made his way around the crowd. I happened to have sniped a Paul Smith notebook from work today, and managed to get an autograph AND in the most nervous, shaky (possibly a squeak in there too) I told him that Between Two Ferns was pure genius...at least I hope that's what came out of my mouth? I get really star struck. I didn't really care to wait for Jamie Foxx, I wanted to get back. Oh, and Paul Smith gave me a semi-noogie today after he entered the office using a hand-puppet of a bunny to talk to us...he's a bit eccentric. So my bad week became a phenomenal week in just a few short minutes. Thank you, Zach and Robert.

Zach's signature!

    Oh and I was accepted to do a service trip with MOVE in Louisiana January 8-15th, SO happy about it. I've wanted to do something like this for a while now. It's similar to habitat for humanity, should be a great experience.

And I'm officially starting to get pretty homesick.

Press Day....

   As I lay in bed, my feet throbbing in pain, I wonder...why was I so excited about press day at Paul Smith? Ohhhh that's right, it was because I thought I'd get to observe and learn things about the PR field. If only.

   The day started out well, I was introduced to Paul for the first time, who was really nice, and then asked to check over the mannequins to make sure they all look alright and was asked for my opinion by the women high up in the office. After that, I helped the girl who was an intern last year and got a job finish stuffing the goodie bags. We then went downstairs and put the food on platters and stuff. All of this was fine...but my excitement in thinking I would be experiencing what a press day consisted of quickly dwindled. In short, the rest of my day consisted of me standing in the kitchen next to the showroom where the event was taking place. In the kitchen, I would usually either be reading the newspapers from last weekend that hadn't been read yet or washing dishes because as guests came and went they had drinks/left glasses lying around. Occasionally, they would let me out of the kitchen to walk around with a platter and offer food to guests or just to 'top up' the food. I sat down for maybe 10 minutes out of the 9 and a half hours I was there, and both times I did sit down, that same girl who was an intern last year either questioned me about why I was sitting there or told me I should go back down to the kitchen to see if they needed help cleaning up down there. It's funny how the head of press (who let me leave a bit early and gave me a goodie bag) and the two women right under her treat me with 10 times more respect than the two younger girls.

   So basically, I didn't really learn much about the PR field today, as I had hoped I would. I know that people who work for magazines/newspapers or are publicists or stylists came in and chose items they wanted to use in photo shoots or dress their clients in...but that's about the extent of it. And there's a tube strike tomorrow so I have to take a bus and walk pretty far to get to work, which is going to take twice as long. Yipeee!

   I will now leave you with this question: when did interns become the equivalent of a minimum wage earning dishwasher at McDonald's? Except we don't actually get paid...

Barcelona!!!

   The flight to Barcelona was a bit bumpy, it was also the first time I got really homesick because I couldn't sleep and I just sat and thought about arriving at Logan and seeing Mom, Dad, and my brothers (the dogs were there too in this daydream). So I decided to read Chelsey Handler to take my mind off it...book is freaking hilarious. It's embarrassing when I laugh out loud to it all by myself, but whatever.

    I arrived about 2 hours later, alone in a foreign city, not knowing how to speak Spanish, let alone Catalan which is what they speak there...so that was a bit nerve raking. But I managed to find the bus that would bring me to my friend Brian, however, I had taken his number down wrong and couldn't contact him so I started panicking a bit because my data service doesn't work outside of England...LUCKILY, I could access old Facebook messages and found his number there. We went to his apartment and hung out with his friends where honestly the weirdest thing in the world happened. He introduced me to like 10 people at the same time and I didn't really register any of their names but I was talking to one girl about people she knew at St. Mikes, then I was talking to someone else and the girl sitting behind her looked wicked familiar then once someone said her name it clicked. I had sat next to her on my flight to California freshman year spring break. HOW WEIRD IS THAT?! I think the only reason I remembered was because earlier on my flight as I was freaking out and drinking a large glass of wine to calm my nerves, I was thinking about how the only other time I had traveled by myself had been that trip. Unbelievably small world. Anyways, we went out to a club after and they played awesome music from the middle and high school days...some Ja Rule, some J Lo, just fantastic. Brian and I had a hard time finding Molly, Natalie, and Lacie and by the time we did, Molly was the only one who was still out. We all went down to the beach it was so much fun. We sat with some other Americans we met and stayed there until 5am which is when the metro started up again...then we slept until noon Saturday.

     So the day was a bit of a struggle because we were incredibly tired. I checked into the hostel where all the girls were staying and we found Natalie and Lacie. Brian was a horrendous tour guide having spent over 2 months in Barcelona. I honestly couldn't tell you the names of half the places we saw...oops. But we went to the port, the Cathedral of Barcelona, and a big park with a really pretty fountain. Saturday night, our hostel had a sign up sheet for the biggest club in Barcelona and we got to skip the line and get a free drink for 15 euro which was amazing. Right before that, though, we went to a bar that had a menu of probably over 100 shots all for only 2 euro. We had ones called Harry Potter (which didn't make sense...it was some liquors with an orange with sugar poured on it then set on fire), Boy Scouts (some liquors again that they set on fire and gave us marshmallows on a skewer - genius) the last one we took was called the Kiss of Death, it was some liquors then a few drops of hot sauce which freaked me out because I hate hot sauce but you couldn't taste it until the end when your lips burned...the name was clearly appropriate, and they gave us lollipops after (they were all really weak shots, don't get nervous).

    Getting into the club was a nightmare, the people in the insanely long line were pissed because we were pushing our way to the

front as we got to skip the line and they were throwing cans at us. We lost Lacie in the madness because we thought she was ahead of us, but Natalie and I ran back and were able to find her...no worries. We got in just in time for people in zombie costumes and make-up to perform Thriller. It was awesome. Later on in the night, we were right in front of the stage and they did it again...I was freaking out being that close to them, their make-up was really scary. We didn't go to bed until like 6am that night, the clocks went back an hour so it was really only 5 but still, long but fabulous night. Waking up at 9am the next morning was horrible and I hadn't slept well because someone in my room was snoring as loud as Dad snores. We said bye to Natalie and Lacie, got breakfast with Molly and her friends, then met up with Brian and went up Mountjuic which is a big hill with lots of gardens and stuff overlooking the city. It was beautiful, we also saw the big stadium where the olympics took place. Then Molly and I quickly went to Parc Guell which is the mosaic park that Gaudi designed. It was so so pretty, unfortunately it was dark so I couldn't see everything as well as I would have liked.

Parc Guell

    After that, I grabbed my stuff and headed for the airport. A 40 min bus ride, then a 20 minute shuttle ride to the other terminal. Then the flight was a bit delayed but it was all made better when I saw an English men's field hockey team was on my flight and two very attractive players sat next to me. They were really nice and told me some more places I should go in London and just in the UK in general. I only slept 20 minutes because I was afraid I'd drool or something and they'd think I was gross...so hopefully that didn't happen. We got into Gatwick and it took a bit to get through customs because they always ask a ton of questions and took a few finger prints. Then I was at the further terminal so had to take a shuttle...again. THEN I had to take a train into central London where I then had to wait a good 30 minutes for a bus because I didn't have any cash for a cab. The bus stopped about a 15 minute walk from my place, and it was 1:30am so I was nervous but I made it...7 hours of traveling and I was back in my basement. Slept through most of class this morning...oops.

Sorry this is another long one.

It's finally Press Day at Paul Smith tomorrow! Going in early to help set up...pretty excited!