Internship Weekly-Journal 6

Holly Osborn

Tuesday & Wednesday 28-29 February                                                  Total Hours: 9

This week Lucy and I did a lot. Yesterday we were assigned to go to different venues to get leaflets and diaries for upcoming events. We split up so we could get it done faster. I went to the Barbican Centre (way out where we usually go). It's hard to find, but since I'd been there for an assignment before I was able to find it. I waited for like 30 minutes for a March diary of events so eventually the man working gave me their copy, which was nice. I then made my way to Wigmore Hall near Oxford Street. All day the tube lines were delayed, needless to say I'm glad I brought a book to read. At 2:30 we made our way to Trafalgar Square to meet Julie on the steps of the National Portrait Gallery. We went inside to the cafe where we got tea (look at me, getting addicted to tea), where we gave her the leaflets we collected. She then went over some of our work she proofread, making suggestions and letting us know what we needed to fix. We hadn't seen Julie in 3 or so weeks, so it was good to touch base with her. We came back, made the corrections on the work she went over with us, and called it a day.

Inside of Harrods

Today was probably another one of my favorite days/"is this really my life" days. We were assigned to go shopping (rough) at Harrods and Fortnum & Mason's. When I say shopping I mean look around and see what our 5-star tourists would like to buy...because honestly I would have to use all the rest of my London money to afford a scarf in there. Although I couldn't buy anything I had a blast looking around. Harrods is like Bergdorf Goodman in America...it's huge, has everything you could ever need, but it will cost you an arm and a leg to get it. They had restaurants, a wine/cigar cellar, appliance area, as well as every other typical large department store. My favorite area was the women's dresses area, where they had 5,000 pound red-carpet dresses, which I am sure I will dream of wearing while I sleep tonight. We then made our way to Fortnum & Mason's, not easy to miss with it's adorable outdoor musical decorations. This place was a lot more quirky and open than Harrods. We were surprised to find that it didn't have clothes, but a lot of other small specialty items. It was a little less pricey, but don't get me wrong I still found a 2,500 pound bottle of Dom Perignon. I saw a ton of adorable tea-pots that I will definitely go back for at the end of the program if I have extra money. We came back, arranged our thoughts into notes for a later piece, and called it a day. You really could spend a whole day in these stores if you wished.

2,500 GBT Bottle of Dom Perignon 

Adorable music art in Fortnum & Mason

Last week I wrote about trying tea for the first time, now this week I can safely say that I have become addicted to it. For the first time when we met Julie I could order a tea with everyone else and not just a lame hot chocolate. I thought this addiction was harmless, until my mom informed me that tea has caffeine in it, now I'm in trouble. Aside from more tea adventures, a cultural experience that I had this week was being able to experience a more posh lifestyle of Londoners. Although I couldn't spend money in Harrods I got to observe how the people who shopped their live. People seemed less rushed than those who frantically run around Oxford Street are, and the sales people didn't get up in our faces trying to convince us to buy their product. I was afraid they weren't going to let me in my sweatshirt and jeans, but they did. It was definitely a more relaxed shopping experience than I'm used to. I saw a woman walk out with like 6 full bags of stuff, I wonder how much she spent? Probably as much as my house is worth back home :)

BES Reflective Journal-Week 6

After two weekends of trips and travelling this past week I attempted to do what I could to make this past week more budget friendly. I'd say I did a pretty good job. Regardless, it was still an awesome week, but seemed to be filled with things that reminded me of home.

Monday night we went and saw "One Man, Two Guvnors," for theatre class. It was hilarious, but contained a lot of strong British humor that made me step back and think, "Whoa, are they really allowed to do that on a public stage!?" I really enjoyed it, but I don't know how well it will do in America because of how strong the British humor is throughout. Tuesday and Wednesday I had my internship, filled with different tasks (which if you care to learn about are in my internship blog from last week). Before class on Thursday I was not feeling well, good thing we took the bus because I had to get off at a random stop and try to find a bathroom...good thing I have such good friends :) The weather has been super nice, so I've found myself walking to more places and going on night excursions. It's fun to see the city at night-time, every place is different. For example, the area that we live in, Victoria, shuts down around 8pm-ish...but go to Picadilly or Trafalgar and things are lively until the wee hours of the morning.

Hillsong Church

A lot of peoples' friends, family, and significant others are starting to come and visit. It's fun to meet new people, but it makes me wish I had someone I knew coming to visit me. I was able to Skype for a couple of hours Sunday with different people from home. I miss everyone, but am certainly not ready to leave yet :) I spent like 4 hours doing homework this weekend and am done for the next 3 weeks...rough life! ha. Another thing that reminded me of home this week was going to church at Hillsong on Sunday. It's a large church held at the Dominion Theatre (where they host "We will Rock You"). With its loud-rock music and fun atmosphere it reminded me of my church from back home...which surprisingly is even bigger and more awesome, but I may be a little biased. Previously I'd just been attending Church of England's conservative services, so it was great to go to a service that I actually get something out of. Finally, one of my friends from the program, Ashley, had two friends (Colin and Breann) from Spain come to visit her. Ashley and I learned early on that we were from the same hometown, but we had never met before, even though we knew a lot of the same people...so of course her friends were also from Arvada too, and also knew a lot of my friends. Colin's mom and my mom even knew each other from the twin's club...oh and we live like 5 minutes away from each other...weird, I go halfway around the world and meet people from my neighborhood that I've never seen before.



This weekend I had two new cultural experiences. On Saturday night I went to see "The Vow," at the O'Dean theatre. Although it was an American movie, the experience of seeing one in a British theatre was just a bit different. We were given assigned seats, in America it's first come first serve basis. The screen was set back behind what looked like a theatre stage. Other than that it was about the same, it was nice to see an American movie, to remind me of back home. Then on Sunday me and a group of girls went to John Lewis on Oxford street and did afternoon tea! Originally, we made reservations at Bea's of Bloomsbury, until we found out it was 17 pounds! We found John Lewis where we paid 10 pounds for a pot of tea and a whole plate of assorted goodies (finger sandwiches, biscuits, cakes, jam, and cookies). It was awesome, I loved it. But I was so stuffed that I didn't eat anything the rest of the day. Before going I remember Mark telling us of a certain type of tea that's really good but will clog your arteries...so I obviously wanted to try it. So while ordering I asked for the 'clotted cream tea'...out waiter looked at me like I was an alien...turns out 'clotted cream' is butter...I felt like such an idiot, but it was mildly hilarious.

Afternoon Tea...yummy!!!

Even though I did pretty well budgeting this week, I still managed to make a few exceptions for big-scale thing later. We bought tickets for Phantom of the Opera this Thursday for Abby's birthday. I've seen it on Broadway before, which was awesome, so I'm excited to see it here and compare the two. In addition,we bought tickets to the 'hot in demand' Warner Brother's Harry Potter tour in April. For thirty pounds it better be awesome, and I'm crossing my fingers that they allow me to fly a broom to Hogwarts :)
 

BES- Assignment 5 (The East End)

Today me, Abby, Lucy, and Kirsten went and explored the East End of London for this assignment. We followed the guide for walking, stopping in a few places to further explore. It was nice out so there were a lot of people and a lot of delicious smells from outside open markets. Since it's a Saturday not everything was open to explore, but the markets were hopping with action. I am glad that we did this walk, it showed me a large part of London that I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Spitalfields Market

From what we were told about this area being "Jack the Ripper territory" and a more poverty-stricken area I admit I was a little nervous going. We got off at Liverpool Station and began the walk, stopping first at Dennis Severs' House on Folgate street. Someone came out and gave us a pamphlet, I got a quick glance inside but didn't see much. We continued walking down that street, glancing down Elder Street. It seemed like Folgate had been renovated more, the homes on Elder street didn't have fences in front of them and seemed much older. This area was pretty dead as we were walking through so I didn't see any of the residents. Things livened up once we hit Commercial Street, filled with contemporary stores (Urban Outfitters/Tescos), as well as little boutique shops. We saw a little shop called dolly-somethings that was adorable, found a dress I wanted...turned out to be 195 pounds, no thanks! We found Spitalfields Market, filled mostly with antique's, but also food, it was fun to walk through. It was a large market, and i'm used to getting fruit from the meat-packed Brixton Market, so it was a lot nicer than what I'm used to. We continued our journey along Commercial Street, seeing Spitz Gallery and Christ Church Spitalfields...unfortunately, the church was closed so we weren't able to walk through, but it looked beautiful from the outside.

Christ Church Spitalfields

Old Truman's Brewery

We walked to Brick Lane, looking intently for The Great Mosque, we didn't see it..but on our way back we realized that we walked right past it. It not what I was expecting a Mosque to look like on the outside. It was just a large white building with a silver pole out front. Wish I could have gone inside to look around. We explored Brick Lane, walking past Old Truman's Brewery. We started to get into the heart of the Bengali community, all of the signs were in English and Bengali. The streets were filled with Bengali restaurants, stores, hookah bars, and interesting people. I saw a lot of different types of people, including two young men shooting up drugs on the side of the road. There were a lot of antique/vintage stores that I could spend a lot of money in as well. We walked quite a ways, then headed back to explore the other side of Brick Lane, which turned into Osborn Street :) got my picture taken under a street sign with my name in Bengli.

Brick Lane

Osborn Street!

Me with some graffiti art

Made it to Whitechapel Road, were we glanced into the Whitechapel Art Gallery. Looked like a nice place to look at art and enjoy lunch. Finally, we went to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, again it was closed so we didn't go inside, but from the outside it reminded me of an old-American blacksmith factory that I've seen on field trips as a kid.

graffiti...lego died?

As much as I was nervous to go to the East end I really enjoyed spending time there. There was a lot of diversity that I hadn't seen in London before. I really liked the variety in fashion seen in this area. I mean, a lot of stuff I wouldn't wear but it was cool to see. One thing that was new to me was how some of the stores/restaurants could open there large storefront windows all the way so it looked like they didn't have any. It would be a fun place to go to on the summer night. Most of the people we encountered minded their own business, aside from those wanted to get customers into their restaurants. It was like a jack-in-the box, they would just pop out of their stores and start saying, "You four hungry?!"..."We'll give you 20% off."..etc. We just politely kept walking, not really sure how to react.

 Overall, I enjoyed the time we spent in the East end. It enriched my understanding and perspective of British culture. I saw a lot of diversity, and a large part of the London-Bengali community. It's not somewhere I'd choose to go to by myself but I liked being there with other explorers. I am grateful for these assignments, they give me an opportunity to explore culturally rich areas that I would not go to otherwise.

Internship Weekly-Journal 5

Week 5               
                                                                                               
Date: Tuesday 21st & Wednesday 22nd February                                Total Hours: 8

Curator (left) and Jeremy Deller (artist-right)

This week contained more new tasks and adventures. Yesterday Lucy and I went to a press viewing of and exhibition called "The Joy in People" at Hayward Gallery by artist, Jeremy Deller. We've been going to Southbank for plays on our theatre class so I knew the area, but it was my first time in the Hayward Gallery. We signed in, got our press packets, and began exploring the exhibition. For a title with the word "joy" in it, it wasn't the happiest thing I've ever seen. I didn't really understand it at first, but after the curator and artist (who was there!) explained it, I was able to appreciate it more. My favorite piece in the exhibition was the last one, called Exodus, where you put on 3-D glasses and watched film of millions of bats leaving their caves...the whole exhibition was a bit random, but that's what he said during interviews, that he is fascinated with absurdity. We were supposed to write an article about it for the magazine. As a tourist attempting to appeal to other tourists who read the magazine I said that I wouldn't recommend a tourist seeing it without a tour, because of all the British pop culture used. Once we returned and wrote that article we went through a PDF of the latest issue, proofreading it for corrections. 

various pieces in the exhibition

Today was something new, that called for a lot of research. They asked us to find every concert that will be going on in London from March 7-16...that's a lot! But in the words of Beth, "Last time I did this we got most of them in as ads – pages pay wages!" So that's what we did all day, research and more research on hundreds of venues and concert calendars, determining which ones will be held that week. One of the big ones I did was Southbank Centre, which will be having dozens of them that week alone. It got a little tedious after a while, but by this afternoon we'd each compiled an extensive list that will hopefully be helpful. 

I finally had a few cultural experiences this week! Yesterday while at the press viewing as members of the press we were allowed a free cup of tea. I'd never in my life tried hot tea before, I tried my mom's sun tea before and thought it was disgusting. But, I figured I would put myself out there and try something culturally significant. They put milk and sugar in it, and I loved it!! I was pleasantly surprised, I tried to make some for myself today and it turned out terrible, so I guess I will have to keep practicing. In addition to the tea, the exhibition itself was a huge cultural experience, pop culture that is. Deller used posters from bands like Depeche Mode in his art. A few of his pieces also generated from fans of this band. For example, he has a shelf with books that a fan read because they were mentioned in Depeche Mode songs. Even though I didn't totally understand it, it gave me insight into British pop culture. Overall, it was a productive week and I can finally say that I've drank tea in London :)  

BES Reflective Journal, Week 5

This weekend me and a group of eight other people (6 girls, 2 boys) journeyed to Wexford, Ireland. We embarked on the 12 hour journey through England, Wales, and the Atlantic Ocean to arrive at this coast town set in the south of Ireland. The ferry made me pretty nauseous so I tried to sleep the five hours we were on it. We arrived in Wexford and started walking to the house we were staying in for the weekend. The first person we met was our neighbor, drunk...at 7:45 am...talk about typical Irish stereotype. He kept yelling, "I'm leaving Ireland!" among other things. We spent the next few hours exploring the town. Everyone was so friendly the entire weekend, it reminded me a lot of Iowa...except the people's accents were more difficult to understand.



The house we stayed in was adorable and great for the price we were paying for it. Since we had a kitchen we could cook meals instead of always going out to eat. There were two downsides. First, we only had one shower, and with 9 people (7 being girls) that was a bit of a challenge. Second, I think the house was previously inhabited by leprechauns and I hit my head quite a few times on doors and ceilings. The price of food was a lot cheaper than it is in London, well everything is cheaper than London. It was my first time using the Euro currency, I accidentally gave our waitress a 2 Euro tip because I thought it was 20 cents...whoops! The only things we really had to spend money on were taxis, food, and souvenirs. Most all of the things we did were free or fairly cheap. Throughout the weekend we went to: The National Heritage Park, Johnstown Castle, Curracloe Beach, shops in Wexford. We also explored the nightlife by spending time in pubs and a popular local nightclub. All offered different glimpses into Ireland and Irish culture. I come from Irish descent so it's always been a dream of mine to see Ireland...I definitely wasn't disappointing. My favorite part about the whole trip was sitting on the top of the sand dunes at Curracloe Beach, looking out over the Ireland countryside. It was so beautiful. It sounds corny, but it was the first time in my life that a sight really "took my breath away." I took tons of pictures and a video but I don't think they do it justice. I wish I could have stayed there all day, but we eventually had to pack up and make the long journey home.

This trip gave me insight into Irish culture, and allowed me to compare it to both my American and London observations. Like I said, the people there were much more friendly than they are in London, it reminded me of small town Iowa. People could tell we were tourists, but actually liked that we were American, unlike sometimes in London. All of the old men seemed to love us ladies. Our taxi driver, John, gave us deals on rides and pulled over when we saw sheep because he knew I wanted to take a picture of them. At one point I said, "Hey John can I ask you a question?" and he replied, "Of course love, I will marry you!" That seemed to be the theme with the older men in Wexford, they all call women "love." In addition, I saw the Irish nightlife. For some reason I was expecting the pubs and clubs to be more casual than London, people wearing jeans and t-shirts, but boy was I wrong. We went to a local favorite pub called Maggie Mays, and I swear I've never seen so many girls look like hookers in one place. Not to mention that we were outside on the beer garden and it was freezing outside, but it didn't seem to phase them. Even walking around young girls (13) looked like they were ready for Playboy...it was awkward.

Overall, I loved Ireland. The journey there was long, but I got to visit my "homeland" with a great group of friends. The people were friendly, the sights were beautiful, and we were blessed with three sunny days!...which is pretty unheard of, maybe it's the luck of the Irish? :)

Internship Weekly-Journal 4

Week 4

Date: Tuesday 14 & Wednesday 15 February                                                            Total Hours: 8-9

This week I feel like I did more normal "intern" things. After meeting up with Beth at Westfield and going to the office/workspace we got to work. Although there is an issue currently in production we were doing work tying up the loose ends from the previous issue. Julie showed us how to check and mail invoices to advertisers who'd used the magazine in the previous issue. We highlighted, folded, checked total prices, addressed envelopes, and got them ready to post. After that Beth showed us how to put invoices into the Microsoft Excel program that keeps track of money and shows how much they made during the last issue. I won't say how much the issue brought in, but Beth said for a January issue it was very good. After finishing our work from the last issue Julie sat down with us and some of the pieces we'd written that she had looked over. She had made corrections, and explained to us why. A lot of things were cultural writing differences. Those are something I'm going to have to get used to, because I will be doing a lot of writing while I'm here. We broke for lunch and then ran an errand. We went to the Oxford Street area to pick up leaflets from a concert hall, put them in the post to send to the advertising woman (Ruth). We returned to Vandon where we sat down and fixed the pieces we had written that Julie corrected, sent them back to Julie and called it a day.

Today was not quite as eventful, we knew what we'd be doing and could plan accordingly. We were each emailed 10 subbings (long press releases that we convert into interesting tourist info for the magazine) to do. That took a couple hours, but we got them done. Doing subbings always makes me want to participate in all of the exciting things going on in London, even though some of them can only be afforded by the 4-5 star guests of the hotels that our magazine gets distributed to.

I didn't really have any major cultural experiences this week during my internship. I think that if I were in an office with a lot of British people it would be different, but because the magazine is only two people and we don't even see them everyday, it makes the cultural experiences a rarity. The coffee shop we were working at yesterday overlooks the Olympic Park Stadium, so everywhere we go, and especially when they drive we see a lot of British security. Often times, we have to pull over and the car gets an overlook. Overall, I feel like this week consisted more of typical intern jobs...or as Beth calls them, "the shit jobs." But I liked it and I know that the work we're doing is helping make the magazine run smoothly.

BES Reflective Journal, Week 4

I had a lot of great experiences this past week, both in London and outside, on our group trip to Bath. Last week for my internship I went to a press viewing of the Yayoi Kusam exhibit at the Tate Modern (you can read all about that in my internship post from last week) which was by far my favorite internship experience thus far and one of my favorite experiences in London. We took a night flight on the London Eye last Thursday, I was a little scared that I would get motion sickness but I was jsut fine. It was incerdible to see the city from above and really appreciate how big it is. It also felt cool to be able to point thigs out saying, "Oh I know what that is!"

This weekend I said that I was ready to get out of London and go somewhere/see something new. As a group we went to Stonehenge, Bath, and Lacock Village, exploring and experiencing many new things. A few things stood out to me as highlights of the weekend. One, I loved the rugby game. I really didn't know anything about the sport before we went, but as an American Football fan I had a feeling I would like it. I throughly enjoyed the atmosphere of the pitch as well as the game. I realized how big it is when I went to work out later that day and more teams were playing on tv. I found it amusing when I found out that there was a "bachelor party" going on in front of us with all the men dressed up in Sherlock Holmes-esque outfits with the groom in a fox costume.

In addition to the rugby match I really liked the village of Lacock. It was neat to see a traditional English village that has been preserved. The food was good, the buildings/houses were adorable to look at, and seeing where some of Harry Potter was filmed almost made me freak out. Ironically, it's what I pictured London to be in my head before coming over here. Obviously these two places are very different. It made me appreciate the saying, "London is very different than England." Things in Bath were cheaper than London, and I got to experience some traditional English practices like cheese shops. I bought some goat cheese which was delicious and sample a lot of other kinds as well.

Overall, it was a great weekend but by the end of it I found myself saying, "Ok I'm ready to go back to London," or "I miss Vandon." One thing I did not like about Bath was how cold it was everywhere. The YMCA we stayed at was cold, the stores and restarants were cold, and every single toilet was freezing! It made me appreciate London more. I was ready to come back and enjoy some more privacy as well, 12 girls in a room was fun, but could get a little crazy. I thought it would be great to eat out while we were there, no cooking and good food. It was fun for the first day but I got a little tired of fried pub food, and paying to eat out got old pretty quick. I had a great time on our Bath trip but it also made me appreciate London more, both as a city and now as my temporary home.