This past week at work, I was given the tedious but necessary task of converting all our contracts from paper to electronic. This way, when returning customers phone in an order, we'll have their details already and it makes the process much quicker. Plus, it makes the customer feel like we remember them, which goes with our whole small-independent-familial-publisher mentality. Some are print-outs from online orders, so all I see is the name, address, phone number, and book(s) that the person ordered. But some people still write in and send a check. These people are generally of the older generation. And recently, we had a special running in a magazine for a novel called "The Girl at the Farmhouse Gate". It is kind of your stereotypical, old lady, cheesy sweet, romance novel. We have a lot of these kinds of books--it is a rather stable demographic for A and B. They all tend to have the same kind of theme, most often set in WWII. The storyline usually conforms to: American GI goes to England and falls in love with proper Englishwoman. OR WWII wreaks havoc on a family, but through their struggles, love blossoms between those that the war has thrown together. They are all easy reads, really sweet, and either have happy endings or bittersweet endings.
Well, as I completed the online print-out contacts, I got to the hand-written letter ones. Some are very straight forward. "Send 'blah blah blah' to 'cute English cottage name, cute English road name, some abbreviated form of their city/county, postcode'". The names of people are always intriguing to me. We had a Mrs. Allison and a Mrs. Busby (ironic, as those are the two last names of the founders of this publishing house). And I also came across a Mrs. B Still, which I thought was humor since it is kinda a sentence..."Be still!" haha. In other letters, the handwriting is atrocious, calling for the need of the Royal Mail's address finder website. And sometimes, the spellings are just plain confusing, especially if from Wales. For instance, one area is named "Ceulanamaesmawr". But some are still written out as actual letters, as if speaking to an old friend. I read one written by an older gentleman, and it said, "Could you please send me 'Girl at the Farmhouse Gate'. It is for my wife. She was the girl at the farmhouse gate and I was the boy who waited for her." Aw! How adorable! I loved reading the letters that had an actual story. It made the dull task of constant typing of contacts must more enjoyable.
I have two more weeks of my internship and then I'm finished. I've learned a lot and the length of this internship was just perfect--not too long but not too short. I've definitely enjoyed the experience. :)
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Underneath London
This past Sunday, Callum and I decided to visit Fleet Street--or rather, I wanted to visit Fleet Street and I took Callum with me. :)
Fleet used to be a river, until the city kept growing and eventually paved over it so that now it runs underground and can't be seen. Instead, there is Fleet Street--which use to be the home of the biggest, best, and richest publishing and newspaper companies. Being an English major, I naturally wanted to go check it out, even if there aren't any publishers there anymore. We had to walk by the financial district, which Callum enjoyed because he's studying economics. As we got closer, the building became more and more office-y and really tall. As we were walking, I saw a little mews that had a really pretty archway and lamp, so we went over to investigate. Turns out, it was the entrance to St. Bride's church. I wanted to explore, so we went in. It was a gorgeous church, with stained class windows and a really elaborate steeple, which the sign outside claimed to have inspired the tier-shaped wedding cake. That sign also said there was a crypt underneath it. Maybe its my love of secret passageways, but I REALLY wanted to go see that. We go explore for free, so down we went! And lo and behold, one of the coolest crypts (and so far the ONLY crypt) that I've ever seen. It used to be where the parishoners and notorious people were buried. They had part of it set up like a museum and it was really informative. Apparently St. Bride's wasn't always just a church, it use to be where the original and first printing press in England operated from and continued to be in the epicenter of the publishing sector on fleet street until the business started moving away in 1980s with the advent of computers. This crypt also happened to lie on a foundation built by the Romans when they owned the land long before England existed as it does today. They discovered this when they were renovating the church. Under the crype is authentic Roman pavement--bricks laid down by the Romans. It was amazing! The U.S. has some cool sites, but just plain doesn't have any that old! It was really neat to stand there where Romans used to walk and publishing tycoons used to worship. And we hadn't even really planned to tour anywhere or even knew that St. Bride's existed. It was a really nice surprise and I learned a lot about the publishing industry in London--yea for educational adventures! :)
Since then, I've just been working on wrapping up the school year so I can enjoy the rest of my time in London. My classes and internship end in 2 weeks and I'm using the first week of spring break to write my two final papers. Then I'll be filling my time with non-obligatory things like enjoying London, visit Norwich with Callum, hosting Emily Lambrix and Niki Green in May, and spending time with my flatmates. I leave London and return to Michigan on June 18th--though I technically have my flat until the 25th, my summer job begins on the 20th and I need to be back for that. So all-in-all, I have a lovely 2 month-ish chunk of time to enjoy and relax in and I can't wait until that time is here! :)
Fleet used to be a river, until the city kept growing and eventually paved over it so that now it runs underground and can't be seen. Instead, there is Fleet Street--which use to be the home of the biggest, best, and richest publishing and newspaper companies. Being an English major, I naturally wanted to go check it out, even if there aren't any publishers there anymore. We had to walk by the financial district, which Callum enjoyed because he's studying economics. As we got closer, the building became more and more office-y and really tall. As we were walking, I saw a little mews that had a really pretty archway and lamp, so we went over to investigate. Turns out, it was the entrance to St. Bride's church. I wanted to explore, so we went in. It was a gorgeous church, with stained class windows and a really elaborate steeple, which the sign outside claimed to have inspired the tier-shaped wedding cake. That sign also said there was a crypt underneath it. Maybe its my love of secret passageways, but I REALLY wanted to go see that. We go explore for free, so down we went! And lo and behold, one of the coolest crypts (and so far the ONLY crypt) that I've ever seen. It used to be where the parishoners and notorious people were buried. They had part of it set up like a museum and it was really informative. Apparently St. Bride's wasn't always just a church, it use to be where the original and first printing press in England operated from and continued to be in the epicenter of the publishing sector on fleet street until the business started moving away in 1980s with the advent of computers. This crypt also happened to lie on a foundation built by the Romans when they owned the land long before England existed as it does today. They discovered this when they were renovating the church. Under the crype is authentic Roman pavement--bricks laid down by the Romans. It was amazing! The U.S. has some cool sites, but just plain doesn't have any that old! It was really neat to stand there where Romans used to walk and publishing tycoons used to worship. And we hadn't even really planned to tour anywhere or even knew that St. Bride's existed. It was a really nice surprise and I learned a lot about the publishing industry in London--yea for educational adventures! :)
Since then, I've just been working on wrapping up the school year so I can enjoy the rest of my time in London. My classes and internship end in 2 weeks and I'm using the first week of spring break to write my two final papers. Then I'll be filling my time with non-obligatory things like enjoying London, visit Norwich with Callum, hosting Emily Lambrix and Niki Green in May, and spending time with my flatmates. I leave London and return to Michigan on June 18th--though I technically have my flat until the 25th, my summer job begins on the 20th and I need to be back for that. So all-in-all, I have a lovely 2 month-ish chunk of time to enjoy and relax in and I can't wait until that time is here! :)
Friday, March 11, 2011
Happy Birthday...to Me. :)
So, my relatively faithful once-a-week blog entries of first semester have now turned into once a month entries...this was not my intention! Balancing my internship and classes with fun things and exploring London has forced me to triage my time I had dedicated to my blog. However, I am going to update it now!
In the beginning of February, Callum and I went to Ronnie Scott’s—London’s oldest jazz club. I went because some of my Dad’s favorite performers have played there and I said I’d go visit and see a show for him. And since Valentine’s Day was a Monday this year and we both had classes, it also served as Callum and my “Valentine’s Day night out”. We saw Kenny Barron—a really good pianist, 6 time Grammy nominated. He had dedicated his whole life to performing and has played all around the world. He was amazing to watch. The place itself was really nice. On the outside, there’s just simple posters hanging in display boxes with a neon light hanging above beaming “Ronnie Scott’s” with a saxophone next to it. As we walked in, we were greeted by two very well-dressed men, complete with awesome zoot suit-inspired hats, and they were very pleasant when they directed us to the hostess’ desk. We were taken to our table—a very skinny booth-style up against a back wall and lit by the red glow of two table lamps—and watched the intro band. They were a very raggedy looking trio, but they were very talented none-the-less. And though it made me miss the music part of my life a little bit, the whole night was very fun and relaxing.
Another weekend, Callum’s mom, mom’s boyfriend, and little brother came up to London for the day. We all went out for lunch and walked around the British Museum for the afternoon. The British Museum is amazing! It has a very wide collection of everything from Egypt to China and the building itself is amazingly beautiful. We only toured around the Egyptian and Greece exhibits that day. So the following weekend, Callum and I went back and did some more exploring. We still haven’t seen all the exhibits yet! It is quite an expansive place, with large Roman columns marking the entrance, high glass ceilings, a quaint open café area, and a giant staircase in the middle leading off to various floors. It was very nice to walk around and read all the history.
On the same note of history, we also went to the Imperial War Museum—Callum’s pick. We went at the beginning of half term for younger school kids here in England, so the place was flooded with little school kids—mostly boys with cute caps—going “ah, wow, look, a bomb, a truck, a ‘name of cool big-kid-war toy here’” haha. It was a smaller building, and the exhibits were very close together, but I liked learning a bit more about England’s war history—it was more in-depth than what I’ve ever had in high school.
Classes are still going well. With only 4 weeks left of term, the school year seems to have gone by quickly. But I have lots of time after classes official end, which is really nice so that I can enjoy London and everyone I hang out with here in a non-stressed, summer-like context. It’ll be great and relaxing—I can’t wait!
My internship is still strong as well. I’ve been doing a lot of proof-reading, research for book/blog tours, and previewing new manuscripts. I definitely want to look into this as a career—I am really glad I took on this internship. J
When I’m not in class, at work, are walking around a museum, I’ve just been doing normal, average things. Reena and I still make pancakes every Friday—I enjoy sitting around in my p.j.s until 1. We also saw a movie—Black Swan. Rather good, but not the best flick to see late on a Wednesday night—too much thinking involved! Haha. I also spend a lot of time in our kitchen still, sitting and talking and drinking tea.
And now, like the title of this entry states, it was my birthday a few days ago!! I am now 21, which strangely feels so much better than turning 20. Don’t ask me why…I think it is just because I am more comfortable with “being in my 20s” now than I was last year, which is good. J I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday. We had gorgeous weather! I mean, really gorgeous weather, even for London. It was warm (ish) and REALLY sunny. I had one class in the morning and actually really enjoyed my walk to and back. Then when I got back at my flat, I find that my door and the kitchen has been decorated with streamers and balloons—all Reena’s doing. I knock on her door and she was there, along with Callum and Reena’s friend Sophie, which apparently helped blowing up the balloons. We sat and talked for a bit there. Reena gave me her gift—a silver necklace of a set of keys. It is a tradition in her family that when you turn 21, you are given a key—there is some kind of folklore behind it that I need to look up still. It was really sweet. When Reena and Sophie went to their class, Callum and I went for a walk in Regents Park before his class, which was really nice. I saw lots of daffodils and other flowers springing up, which was lovely. That evening, Callum, Reena, Jess, and I went out to dinner—we had Italian food, complete with wine. Even though I’ve had wine before here, it was nice to have wine that night especially to mark my 21st. We came back to the flat afterwards to eat the beautiful cake Callum bought for me. It was chocolate with fruit and a kind of buttercream frosting on the inside and milk and white chocolate covering the outside. YUM! I like cake, haha. My parents had sent me a gift in the mail, which Reena held hostage until my actual birthday day in her room. So I opened that up next on skype with my family so they could see. It was a really nice day, filled with family, friends, and food—always a good combination.
I have posted pictures on facebook of Regents Park a few weeks ago—Callum and I like to walk there whenever there’s good weather to do so. I’ve also put up the handful of pictures that I’ve taken since there—at the park again and of my birthday celebration.
In the beginning of February, Callum and I went to Ronnie Scott’s—London’s oldest jazz club. I went because some of my Dad’s favorite performers have played there and I said I’d go visit and see a show for him. And since Valentine’s Day was a Monday this year and we both had classes, it also served as Callum and my “Valentine’s Day night out”. We saw Kenny Barron—a really good pianist, 6 time Grammy nominated. He had dedicated his whole life to performing and has played all around the world. He was amazing to watch. The place itself was really nice. On the outside, there’s just simple posters hanging in display boxes with a neon light hanging above beaming “Ronnie Scott’s” with a saxophone next to it. As we walked in, we were greeted by two very well-dressed men, complete with awesome zoot suit-inspired hats, and they were very pleasant when they directed us to the hostess’ desk. We were taken to our table—a very skinny booth-style up against a back wall and lit by the red glow of two table lamps—and watched the intro band. They were a very raggedy looking trio, but they were very talented none-the-less. And though it made me miss the music part of my life a little bit, the whole night was very fun and relaxing.
Another weekend, Callum’s mom, mom’s boyfriend, and little brother came up to London for the day. We all went out for lunch and walked around the British Museum for the afternoon. The British Museum is amazing! It has a very wide collection of everything from Egypt to China and the building itself is amazingly beautiful. We only toured around the Egyptian and Greece exhibits that day. So the following weekend, Callum and I went back and did some more exploring. We still haven’t seen all the exhibits yet! It is quite an expansive place, with large Roman columns marking the entrance, high glass ceilings, a quaint open café area, and a giant staircase in the middle leading off to various floors. It was very nice to walk around and read all the history.
On the same note of history, we also went to the Imperial War Museum—Callum’s pick. We went at the beginning of half term for younger school kids here in England, so the place was flooded with little school kids—mostly boys with cute caps—going “ah, wow, look, a bomb, a truck, a ‘name of cool big-kid-war toy here’” haha. It was a smaller building, and the exhibits were very close together, but I liked learning a bit more about England’s war history—it was more in-depth than what I’ve ever had in high school.
Classes are still going well. With only 4 weeks left of term, the school year seems to have gone by quickly. But I have lots of time after classes official end, which is really nice so that I can enjoy London and everyone I hang out with here in a non-stressed, summer-like context. It’ll be great and relaxing—I can’t wait!
My internship is still strong as well. I’ve been doing a lot of proof-reading, research for book/blog tours, and previewing new manuscripts. I definitely want to look into this as a career—I am really glad I took on this internship. J
When I’m not in class, at work, are walking around a museum, I’ve just been doing normal, average things. Reena and I still make pancakes every Friday—I enjoy sitting around in my p.j.s until 1. We also saw a movie—Black Swan. Rather good, but not the best flick to see late on a Wednesday night—too much thinking involved! Haha. I also spend a lot of time in our kitchen still, sitting and talking and drinking tea.
And now, like the title of this entry states, it was my birthday a few days ago!! I am now 21, which strangely feels so much better than turning 20. Don’t ask me why…I think it is just because I am more comfortable with “being in my 20s” now than I was last year, which is good. J I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday. We had gorgeous weather! I mean, really gorgeous weather, even for London. It was warm (ish) and REALLY sunny. I had one class in the morning and actually really enjoyed my walk to and back. Then when I got back at my flat, I find that my door and the kitchen has been decorated with streamers and balloons—all Reena’s doing. I knock on her door and she was there, along with Callum and Reena’s friend Sophie, which apparently helped blowing up the balloons. We sat and talked for a bit there. Reena gave me her gift—a silver necklace of a set of keys. It is a tradition in her family that when you turn 21, you are given a key—there is some kind of folklore behind it that I need to look up still. It was really sweet. When Reena and Sophie went to their class, Callum and I went for a walk in Regents Park before his class, which was really nice. I saw lots of daffodils and other flowers springing up, which was lovely. That evening, Callum, Reena, Jess, and I went out to dinner—we had Italian food, complete with wine. Even though I’ve had wine before here, it was nice to have wine that night especially to mark my 21st. We came back to the flat afterwards to eat the beautiful cake Callum bought for me. It was chocolate with fruit and a kind of buttercream frosting on the inside and milk and white chocolate covering the outside. YUM! I like cake, haha. My parents had sent me a gift in the mail, which Reena held hostage until my actual birthday day in her room. So I opened that up next on skype with my family so they could see. It was a really nice day, filled with family, friends, and food—always a good combination.
I have posted pictures on facebook of Regents Park a few weeks ago—Callum and I like to walk there whenever there’s good weather to do so. I’ve also put up the handful of pictures that I’ve taken since there—at the park again and of my birthday celebration.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
London Life Got Busy!
It is February....wait...IT'S FEBRUARY!?!? The last two weeks in January seemed to fly by. And looking back, I realize that I've done a lot with my time.
This realization came about when Callum and I went out this past Friday night. He had a friend from his classes who was celebrating his birthday at a cocktail bar near Oxford Circus. Initially, Callum was going to go himself, but he asked me to come too. I haven't really met many of his friends from classes who don't live in Marylebone Hall, so I decided to go. It was a nice bar, stylish-y casual in design, big U-shaped couches with living-room-coffee-table inspired tables in the center. A barrel of ice filled with bottles of champagne and Jack Daniels sat in the middle with small firecracker-esque candles shooting off. The people there were a bit of a hodge-podge of students and upper-20-somethings. James, Callum's friend, was turning 19, so there were many student-aged people, some from Westminster and others from James's A-levels and high school years. But James's brother, Alex, who is about 10 years older, was also there as well, and so some of their mutual friends of Alex's were there as well. Once the candles died down, and drinks were passed around, so commenced the mingling. And it was through this mingling that forced me to actually say out loud very defining aspects of my life that I hadn't really thought of before.
When talking with one of Callum's friends from his classes, I could rely on talking about course work, Westminster, studying abroad, Alma at home, asking questions about their course work and home, etc.--basic student-y small talk, which I am now used to--being defined as the American studying English for a year. But when talking with the slightly older crowd, who have been in the working world for some time and have been finished with university, I realized that now have "work" talk that I can discuss because of my internship. I no longer was lumped into the student stereotype, not that that is a negative thing, it just has certain pre-conceptions that don't necessarily fully describe me anymore. So, when Alex told me all about his financial management job on Oxford Street and then asked what I did, I started saying things like "Well, right now I'm working at A and B Publishers. It's a small company, but I actually like the smallness because I am able to help with every department, not just editorial." And as the words came out of my mouth I was thinking, "Wow, I sound like a grown-up, when did this happen?" I don't know when this shift from student to actual grown-up started moving, and being aware of it is even more surreal, but I definitely like how this year is evolving.
In other news, I still am terrible at bowling, no matter what country I'm in. Last weekend, Callum and I tried to keep our evening low-budget and we went bowling. There was a really cool mall-like building in Leicester Square that contained an arcade, movie theater, bowling alley, spots bar, and laser tag venue. (Crazy, right? This building was enormous and had lots of fancy flashing lights and music--like two kids drawn to an ice cream truck, we had to check it out!). Despite it being extremely busy, we only had to wait about half an hour before we were able to get a lane. We played two games.....my scores for both games combined equaled less than 100...yup, that's how terrible I am at bowling. However, the gutter and I became quite good friends...I realize I may be a bit too old for those bumper things...but those sure would have improved my game! haha.
My internship is still going strong. I'm learning how to use InDesign, which is what they use as their formatting program for basically everything. I've been working on making their catalogue of books they will publish for April through December. This catalogue is dispersed throughout the London Book Fair coming up at the end of February. I've also been proof-reading a series of "old-lady romantics" as Georgina likes to call them. They are sappy and cheesy and sometimes makes you cringe at the sheer corniness of them, but I actually don't mind proof-reading them. They are rather comical at times, and for fluffy reading, it isn't half-bad. I'd say these were the upper-crust of soap-opera inspired writing, haha.
Speaking of this internship--because I work a normal work-day, I am now part of the normal work Tube traffic. And I'd like to say that I've mastered the commuting strategy! Because the tube gets so crowded, you have to be aggressive if you want to get on the train, and get on the train in a timely manner. Of course, the ultimate goal is to get on the very first train that comes to you and not have to wait on the platform for the next one. In order to do so, you must make your way down towards the ends of the platform, the parts where all the lazy people refuse to continue walking towards. That way, the ending cabins are a bit more empty and you'll be able to fit in just fine. However, you forgo this rule if you know you need to do a switch-over to another line in the middle of your commute (like I do...twice). In this case, you need to try to stay towards the middle because that is where most of the change-over hallways are. And if you aren't close to those change-over exits, you get stuck behind a flood of people who I swear have forgotten how to move one foot in front of the other, they go THAT slow. But of course, staying the middle poses the problem of possibly missing the train because there are more people to contend with. Well, this is usually remedied if you make your way to the yellow line, it marks where you no longer can walk for safety reasons...closest to the front of the platform and to the train doors as possible. Once the doors open, you wait for the passengers that need to get off the train to leave. While you are watching the stream of people get out, you pick one person and find where they stood and as soon as they leave, you make your move to replace them. By replacing a person, you don't seem to be in the way of anyone else and you know you'll have a space to occupy. However, if that doesn't work...you must resort to the final, last-ditch effort...and that is to just press yourself into people until this move. You see, most trains have a middle section where the seats are that also have poles for people to stand and hold. But often times these spaces are left open because people are reluctant to move away from the doors--easy access to get out without needing to walk all over people. Well, if you press yourself into the train, people will eventually move out of discomfort and will be forced to overflow into this area. Is it a bit rude, impatient, and selfish? Perhaps. But is always works. :)
In my "spare" time, I've taken up cooking. Callum and I try to make dinner together every Monday--gives us something to look forward to on the first day of the week. And Reena and I continue to have our pancake day, which has moved to Friday mornings--my day off and her early-morning class. So as a reward to Reena for getting up early and as a good way to stay my weekend, we have added listening to Michael Jackson songs (Reena's favorite) while we make and eat pancakes.
I still want to do some more exploring of England and London while I'm here. I want to make a new list of places and things to see. We get a lovely 3 week holiday for Easter and my exams are rather early, so I have a great chunk of time at the end of the school year to plan however I want without the constraints of homework and work. But right now, I am really very content and happy with just going to class, working at my internship, spending time with my flatmates, and enjoying "being a Londoner" while I can.
This realization came about when Callum and I went out this past Friday night. He had a friend from his classes who was celebrating his birthday at a cocktail bar near Oxford Circus. Initially, Callum was going to go himself, but he asked me to come too. I haven't really met many of his friends from classes who don't live in Marylebone Hall, so I decided to go. It was a nice bar, stylish-y casual in design, big U-shaped couches with living-room-coffee-table inspired tables in the center. A barrel of ice filled with bottles of champagne and Jack Daniels sat in the middle with small firecracker-esque candles shooting off. The people there were a bit of a hodge-podge of students and upper-20-somethings. James, Callum's friend, was turning 19, so there were many student-aged people, some from Westminster and others from James's A-levels and high school years. But James's brother, Alex, who is about 10 years older, was also there as well, and so some of their mutual friends of Alex's were there as well. Once the candles died down, and drinks were passed around, so commenced the mingling. And it was through this mingling that forced me to actually say out loud very defining aspects of my life that I hadn't really thought of before.
When talking with one of Callum's friends from his classes, I could rely on talking about course work, Westminster, studying abroad, Alma at home, asking questions about their course work and home, etc.--basic student-y small talk, which I am now used to--being defined as the American studying English for a year. But when talking with the slightly older crowd, who have been in the working world for some time and have been finished with university, I realized that now have "work" talk that I can discuss because of my internship. I no longer was lumped into the student stereotype, not that that is a negative thing, it just has certain pre-conceptions that don't necessarily fully describe me anymore. So, when Alex told me all about his financial management job on Oxford Street and then asked what I did, I started saying things like "Well, right now I'm working at A and B Publishers. It's a small company, but I actually like the smallness because I am able to help with every department, not just editorial." And as the words came out of my mouth I was thinking, "Wow, I sound like a grown-up, when did this happen?" I don't know when this shift from student to actual grown-up started moving, and being aware of it is even more surreal, but I definitely like how this year is evolving.
In other news, I still am terrible at bowling, no matter what country I'm in. Last weekend, Callum and I tried to keep our evening low-budget and we went bowling. There was a really cool mall-like building in Leicester Square that contained an arcade, movie theater, bowling alley, spots bar, and laser tag venue. (Crazy, right? This building was enormous and had lots of fancy flashing lights and music--like two kids drawn to an ice cream truck, we had to check it out!). Despite it being extremely busy, we only had to wait about half an hour before we were able to get a lane. We played two games.....my scores for both games combined equaled less than 100...yup, that's how terrible I am at bowling. However, the gutter and I became quite good friends...I realize I may be a bit too old for those bumper things...but those sure would have improved my game! haha.
My internship is still going strong. I'm learning how to use InDesign, which is what they use as their formatting program for basically everything. I've been working on making their catalogue of books they will publish for April through December. This catalogue is dispersed throughout the London Book Fair coming up at the end of February. I've also been proof-reading a series of "old-lady romantics" as Georgina likes to call them. They are sappy and cheesy and sometimes makes you cringe at the sheer corniness of them, but I actually don't mind proof-reading them. They are rather comical at times, and for fluffy reading, it isn't half-bad. I'd say these were the upper-crust of soap-opera inspired writing, haha.
Speaking of this internship--because I work a normal work-day, I am now part of the normal work Tube traffic. And I'd like to say that I've mastered the commuting strategy! Because the tube gets so crowded, you have to be aggressive if you want to get on the train, and get on the train in a timely manner. Of course, the ultimate goal is to get on the very first train that comes to you and not have to wait on the platform for the next one. In order to do so, you must make your way down towards the ends of the platform, the parts where all the lazy people refuse to continue walking towards. That way, the ending cabins are a bit more empty and you'll be able to fit in just fine. However, you forgo this rule if you know you need to do a switch-over to another line in the middle of your commute (like I do...twice). In this case, you need to try to stay towards the middle because that is where most of the change-over hallways are. And if you aren't close to those change-over exits, you get stuck behind a flood of people who I swear have forgotten how to move one foot in front of the other, they go THAT slow. But of course, staying the middle poses the problem of possibly missing the train because there are more people to contend with. Well, this is usually remedied if you make your way to the yellow line, it marks where you no longer can walk for safety reasons...closest to the front of the platform and to the train doors as possible. Once the doors open, you wait for the passengers that need to get off the train to leave. While you are watching the stream of people get out, you pick one person and find where they stood and as soon as they leave, you make your move to replace them. By replacing a person, you don't seem to be in the way of anyone else and you know you'll have a space to occupy. However, if that doesn't work...you must resort to the final, last-ditch effort...and that is to just press yourself into people until this move. You see, most trains have a middle section where the seats are that also have poles for people to stand and hold. But often times these spaces are left open because people are reluctant to move away from the doors--easy access to get out without needing to walk all over people. Well, if you press yourself into the train, people will eventually move out of discomfort and will be forced to overflow into this area. Is it a bit rude, impatient, and selfish? Perhaps. But is always works. :)
In my "spare" time, I've taken up cooking. Callum and I try to make dinner together every Monday--gives us something to look forward to on the first day of the week. And Reena and I continue to have our pancake day, which has moved to Friday mornings--my day off and her early-morning class. So as a reward to Reena for getting up early and as a good way to stay my weekend, we have added listening to Michael Jackson songs (Reena's favorite) while we make and eat pancakes.
I still want to do some more exploring of England and London while I'm here. I want to make a new list of places and things to see. We get a lovely 3 week holiday for Easter and my exams are rather early, so I have a great chunk of time at the end of the school year to plan however I want without the constraints of homework and work. But right now, I am really very content and happy with just going to class, working at my internship, spending time with my flatmates, and enjoying "being a Londoner" while I can.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
The Weekend is Over Already!?
Now that the first week of classes are over and I actually have gotten enough sleep, I realize that I really like my schedule for second semester despite its busy-ness.
I am still taking Modernism and Critical Perspectives, since those classes run year-long. I am really starting to enjoy Modernism even more because for some reason, more of my class is showing up to our seminars so there are more people who contribute, which is really nice. Before, it seemed like it was just me and maybe 3 other people who would keep the conversation going...on a good day. And if any of us weren't in the talking mood, the talking stopped, haha. But now we have about 30 people attending, and about half contribute! Critical perspectives is still my hardest class, looking to only get harder, unfortunately. But I will struggle through--in the end I hopefully will have learned what I wanted to get out of that class. We'll see how it turns out.
But these two classes pale in comparison to my new fictional writing class. It is technically at a 3rd year (that's technically senior year) level and I thought I may switch out of it if it was too much work to handle with my other two classes and internship. But it is actually proving to be my favorite class of this whole year. The course work for outside of class is relatively light, as we do a lot of writing, discussing, and brainstorming in class during our 2 hour a week lesson. My professor is amazing. He's extremely intelligent and says wonderful, punny, English-y things like "Let's edit these desks, shall we?" when he wants us to re-arrange ourselves into a version of the Lord's Supper table. Everything we've read in class is new to me--no repeats of material for once! And that is actually kind of refreshing. I think it is because I've read many novels, but not as many short stories. And the short story is the focus of this class (we are going to write one as our final assignment). The structure of the class is really laid back and reminds me of an English class at Alma. And I have yet to be bored. In yesterday's class, we talked about characters and how to start thinking about how to develop a person in a story. So try our hand at it he had us take half an hour to leave campus with the specific instructions to "find someone interesting and follow them". Yes, my professor effectively gave us permission to stalk a random person on the street in order to inspire our writing. I really like having a creative writing class--modernism and critical perspectives keeps me almost too focused on academic writing and it kind of becomes more of a chore than an enjoyment, which I think is a shame because writing is supposed to be fun. So this class is serving as my reminder that yes, writing is still fun.
On Wednesdays and Thursdays, I work at A and B publishers for my internship. I really like it there! It is a really small office, only 6 full-staff work there, all female, which gives the workplace a really interesting vibe--laid back and easy-going. I work under Georgina Phipps, officially, she's in charge of most things editorial. But I also help out wherever else I'm needed. They don't have an intern desk or spot for me really, so I just bounce around to wherever is available, which I actually like a lot because it gives me an opportunity to talk to everyone on staff at least once during the day. My first assignment was plopped down in front of me immediately when I got there--a 400 page manuscript. It had gone through the initial proof-reading and my job was to do the second one, checking for grammar errors, typos, punctuation, etc., specifically formatting things. The novel was published in American and now it is being re-released in London. And formatting here is a bit different. For example, single quotation marks are used instead of double around dialogue and double is used for a quote within a quote--backwards to the way we do it. So learning the "new to me" grammar rules has been interesting. And I really like the genre of books A and B publishes. They aren't too intellectual, but they aren't your run-of-the-mill trashy novel either. It is like the kind of book you'd feel good to bring on vacation with you--easy reads, good substance and characters and plot, but nothing too deep or philosophical. They are relaxing with a cup of tea books. And I'm glad I like them so much--reading a 400 page manuscript of a book I found boring would be terrible!
My only issue still left unsolves is the fact that I have two lectures that run at the same time...and be being brilliant and stubborn, decided that this would be okay. And in theory, it will be okay. The first lecture starts at 2, alternating between modernism and critical perspectives every other week and the second starts at 2:30 for my internship lecture. At first I thought I could just not go to the internship one because its a powerpoint based lecture, an I could just teach it to myself through the notes. But after reading the first set last week, that isn't the most realistic thing because if I ever have any questions, I won't be able to ask them. Then I thought, I'd try to go to both, the beginning of one and the end of the other. However, because they are one two different campuses 20 minutes apart, that makes it a bit more difficult, though technically if worse came to worst, still do-able. And I'd rather not miss ALL my mod./crit. lectures because even though my friend Raj is in that lecture with me and is willing to share her notes, listening to the lectures for crit. are sometimes rather helpful for clarifications. So, my plan is to talk to my internship lecture professor, get her advice. She works with international students all the time, maybe she can come up with a solution.
This past weekend was really nice. I have Fridays off, so I finished all my homework that day to free up my weekend. On Saturday, Callum and I went to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, kind of just walking around. The weather was relatively warm and not raining so we thought we'd take advantage of it. Sunday was kind of my rest day--I slept a lot and caught up from jet-lag craziness. So now I'm feeling back to normal again. And periodically, throughout the weekend, I'd catch my flatmates in the kitchen, and we'd just sit and talk when we could, which is always relaxing. I like sitting in our kitchen--it usually means food, tea, and friends, which is great combination.
The fire alarms in Marylebone hall have not forgotten us...the first one of this semester went off this morning at 9:30. It's only been a week and half...I will never get used to these! But aside from the noise intrusion, I'm all settled back in to life in London, which feels nice. :)
I am still taking Modernism and Critical Perspectives, since those classes run year-long. I am really starting to enjoy Modernism even more because for some reason, more of my class is showing up to our seminars so there are more people who contribute, which is really nice. Before, it seemed like it was just me and maybe 3 other people who would keep the conversation going...on a good day. And if any of us weren't in the talking mood, the talking stopped, haha. But now we have about 30 people attending, and about half contribute! Critical perspectives is still my hardest class, looking to only get harder, unfortunately. But I will struggle through--in the end I hopefully will have learned what I wanted to get out of that class. We'll see how it turns out.
But these two classes pale in comparison to my new fictional writing class. It is technically at a 3rd year (that's technically senior year) level and I thought I may switch out of it if it was too much work to handle with my other two classes and internship. But it is actually proving to be my favorite class of this whole year. The course work for outside of class is relatively light, as we do a lot of writing, discussing, and brainstorming in class during our 2 hour a week lesson. My professor is amazing. He's extremely intelligent and says wonderful, punny, English-y things like "Let's edit these desks, shall we?" when he wants us to re-arrange ourselves into a version of the Lord's Supper table. Everything we've read in class is new to me--no repeats of material for once! And that is actually kind of refreshing. I think it is because I've read many novels, but not as many short stories. And the short story is the focus of this class (we are going to write one as our final assignment). The structure of the class is really laid back and reminds me of an English class at Alma. And I have yet to be bored. In yesterday's class, we talked about characters and how to start thinking about how to develop a person in a story. So try our hand at it he had us take half an hour to leave campus with the specific instructions to "find someone interesting and follow them". Yes, my professor effectively gave us permission to stalk a random person on the street in order to inspire our writing. I really like having a creative writing class--modernism and critical perspectives keeps me almost too focused on academic writing and it kind of becomes more of a chore than an enjoyment, which I think is a shame because writing is supposed to be fun. So this class is serving as my reminder that yes, writing is still fun.
On Wednesdays and Thursdays, I work at A and B publishers for my internship. I really like it there! It is a really small office, only 6 full-staff work there, all female, which gives the workplace a really interesting vibe--laid back and easy-going. I work under Georgina Phipps, officially, she's in charge of most things editorial. But I also help out wherever else I'm needed. They don't have an intern desk or spot for me really, so I just bounce around to wherever is available, which I actually like a lot because it gives me an opportunity to talk to everyone on staff at least once during the day. My first assignment was plopped down in front of me immediately when I got there--a 400 page manuscript. It had gone through the initial proof-reading and my job was to do the second one, checking for grammar errors, typos, punctuation, etc., specifically formatting things. The novel was published in American and now it is being re-released in London. And formatting here is a bit different. For example, single quotation marks are used instead of double around dialogue and double is used for a quote within a quote--backwards to the way we do it. So learning the "new to me" grammar rules has been interesting. And I really like the genre of books A and B publishes. They aren't too intellectual, but they aren't your run-of-the-mill trashy novel either. It is like the kind of book you'd feel good to bring on vacation with you--easy reads, good substance and characters and plot, but nothing too deep or philosophical. They are relaxing with a cup of tea books. And I'm glad I like them so much--reading a 400 page manuscript of a book I found boring would be terrible!
My only issue still left unsolves is the fact that I have two lectures that run at the same time...and be being brilliant and stubborn, decided that this would be okay. And in theory, it will be okay. The first lecture starts at 2, alternating between modernism and critical perspectives every other week and the second starts at 2:30 for my internship lecture. At first I thought I could just not go to the internship one because its a powerpoint based lecture, an I could just teach it to myself through the notes. But after reading the first set last week, that isn't the most realistic thing because if I ever have any questions, I won't be able to ask them. Then I thought, I'd try to go to both, the beginning of one and the end of the other. However, because they are one two different campuses 20 minutes apart, that makes it a bit more difficult, though technically if worse came to worst, still do-able. And I'd rather not miss ALL my mod./crit. lectures because even though my friend Raj is in that lecture with me and is willing to share her notes, listening to the lectures for crit. are sometimes rather helpful for clarifications. So, my plan is to talk to my internship lecture professor, get her advice. She works with international students all the time, maybe she can come up with a solution.
This past weekend was really nice. I have Fridays off, so I finished all my homework that day to free up my weekend. On Saturday, Callum and I went to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, kind of just walking around. The weather was relatively warm and not raining so we thought we'd take advantage of it. Sunday was kind of my rest day--I slept a lot and caught up from jet-lag craziness. So now I'm feeling back to normal again. And periodically, throughout the weekend, I'd catch my flatmates in the kitchen, and we'd just sit and talk when we could, which is always relaxing. I like sitting in our kitchen--it usually means food, tea, and friends, which is great combination.
The fire alarms in Marylebone hall have not forgotten us...the first one of this semester went off this morning at 9:30. It's only been a week and half...I will never get used to these! But aside from the noise intrusion, I'm all settled back in to life in London, which feels nice. :)
Sunday, January 16, 2011
New Year, New Semester
I am now back in London, ready for second semester...or at least I think I'm ready for second semester. In theory, I will have plenty of time for three classes and an internship. I've planned, I've organized, I've prioritized...so hopefully all that prep will prove to be right! Tomorrow starts what is going to be one of the longest weeks ever. Why did I schedule my flight to arrive the morning before classes start? I am going to be a jet-lag zombie! But a smart jet-lag zombie, because I read the first 4 chapters of James Joyce's Ulysses and an article on the history of critical theory. Somewhere in my sleepy brain is the capacity for greatness!! Or at least comprehension of what we'll be discussing in classs tomorrow. :)
My flight back was quite nice. No one sat in the seat next to me, so I got to stretch out and capitalize on the extra pillow/blanket combo Delta supplies. It was relatively quiet, despite the baby sitting two rows in front of me and a child that reminded me of Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Callum met me at the airport. It was nice to have a friendly familiar face to look this time around. But the flight did take a little bit of a toll on me and my luggage. Having just gotten over an ear infection, my ears couldn't "pop" like they normally do when you come down for the landing. Though it didn't really hurt too much, when I spoke I sounded to myself like I was underwater. But thankfully my ears have slowly returned back to normal pressure. My luggage on the other hand...didn't fare so well. Yes, my medium wheel-y suitcase has been through alot. It suffered through a flight to Kansas for an alternative break where one of the "feet" began to get loose. Then it came with me to Scotland, where it got lugged around from bus ride to bus ride as we toured, acquiring a few bruises and stains to the cloth covering. Most recently that loose foot completely fell off in the middle Marylebone Road somewhere when I went home for Christmas. Now, that bag has a cracked handle and a busted zipper seam. Both my other two sizes of suitcases--all a part of the same set--are perfectly fine and durable. But this one seems to have just plain bad luck!
Now I am sitting in my room, all unpacked and ready for tomorrow, eating some spaghetti. Though I do miss home still, it is nice to be back!
My flight back was quite nice. No one sat in the seat next to me, so I got to stretch out and capitalize on the extra pillow/blanket combo Delta supplies. It was relatively quiet, despite the baby sitting two rows in front of me and a child that reminded me of Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Callum met me at the airport. It was nice to have a friendly familiar face to look this time around. But the flight did take a little bit of a toll on me and my luggage. Having just gotten over an ear infection, my ears couldn't "pop" like they normally do when you come down for the landing. Though it didn't really hurt too much, when I spoke I sounded to myself like I was underwater. But thankfully my ears have slowly returned back to normal pressure. My luggage on the other hand...didn't fare so well. Yes, my medium wheel-y suitcase has been through alot. It suffered through a flight to Kansas for an alternative break where one of the "feet" began to get loose. Then it came with me to Scotland, where it got lugged around from bus ride to bus ride as we toured, acquiring a few bruises and stains to the cloth covering. Most recently that loose foot completely fell off in the middle Marylebone Road somewhere when I went home for Christmas. Now, that bag has a cracked handle and a busted zipper seam. Both my other two sizes of suitcases--all a part of the same set--are perfectly fine and durable. But this one seems to have just plain bad luck!
Now I am sitting in my room, all unpacked and ready for tomorrow, eating some spaghetti. Though I do miss home still, it is nice to be back!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Spreading Christmas...Germs
Christmas Eve morning breaks...I wake up and trapse downstairs to snuggle up on the couch with my Phi Sig blanket to watch some quality Christmas cartoons. But then, I sniff, and I swallow and I realize...I have a rather annoying cold, stuffy nose, sore throat, and all. As the day progressed, so did my cold, eventually adding a headache and a fever to the mix. I wrapped only a few gifts and didn't go to church. But I at least was able to have dinner with my aunt and uncle that night, which was nice.
Christmas morning arrives, and I'm feeling still stuffy but better. And after a good hot shower and some ibuprofen, I was read to go! Dinner at my aunt's house was really fun. I was able to see everyone that I couldn't see at Thanksgiving.
The day after Christmas, which is always a sad day anyways because Christmas is over, was a Sunday. And on Sunday, my lovely cold decided to upgrade a massive ear infection. From the mid-afternoon to evening, my right ear went from being merely blocked to having shooting pains every few minutes. Though calling the on-call doctor, an eventual trip to the ER, and a follow-up with an ENT the next day, I was given antibiotic for the infection, ear drops to heal the ear drum, and vicodin and motrin 600 for the pain.
Today, I am feeling much much better. The antibiotics have taken started to kick in, the ear drops seem to be working as well. The vicodin seemed a bit extreme to me--so I've only taken that once on the first day. And the motrin 600 keeps the pain down to a dull pressure.
Silly sickness. Doesn't it know that it was a holiday?
Christmas morning arrives, and I'm feeling still stuffy but better. And after a good hot shower and some ibuprofen, I was read to go! Dinner at my aunt's house was really fun. I was able to see everyone that I couldn't see at Thanksgiving.
The day after Christmas, which is always a sad day anyways because Christmas is over, was a Sunday. And on Sunday, my lovely cold decided to upgrade a massive ear infection. From the mid-afternoon to evening, my right ear went from being merely blocked to having shooting pains every few minutes. Though calling the on-call doctor, an eventual trip to the ER, and a follow-up with an ENT the next day, I was given antibiotic for the infection, ear drops to heal the ear drum, and vicodin and motrin 600 for the pain.
Today, I am feeling much much better. The antibiotics have taken started to kick in, the ear drops seem to be working as well. The vicodin seemed a bit extreme to me--so I've only taken that once on the first day. And the motrin 600 keeps the pain down to a dull pressure.
Silly sickness. Doesn't it know that it was a holiday?
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