Meantime... take three!!

I left off after Sunday night.. man do I have a ways to go! And the pressure is on, considering I was supposed to be asleep three hours ago! We're getting up to leave for Dublin around 4am sometime. Oh goodness... Laundry is done. Packing is done. Now to finish this blog and my assignment!


Monday: The current trend is to sleep in and in and in until about eleven and then everyone quick jumps out of bed, jumps into the showers and haphazardly makes it over to ISH, the main student housing building, for lunch and then meanders their way over to class. This week we changed classrooms and finished up with a walk to King's College, Trafalgar's Square, and Westminster (I have a few pictures from within King's College. One of Taylor, one panoramic, and one from the staircase with no supports). With the final story about Abraham Lincoln and how his death changed newspaper headlines for ever, we went our separate ways for dinner. Adrian, Taylor and I had plans to rush a show (crossing our fingers oh-so-desparately for Les Miserables), and when the show we wanted wasn't available, we splurged a little and got some decent tickets for next week's showing of Les Miserables. Be jealous. We wandered through Leicester Square and found a little place for some delicious food. I've found I do actually enjoy chips, commonly known in the USA as fries, but only with a little mayo and ketchup mixture. Weird, I know. But apparently that is how they do it here! After relishing in the success of our purchase, we found our way to a little gelato place called Scoops and boy did that do us in. Adrian and I got a large (three flavors) and Taylor got a medium (two flavors). I already know what I'm getting next time. Oh how delicious it will be. We went on our way back to the ISH Bar and spent sometime there. I skyped with MARGO (shout out to her for our Skype date), and Adrian's (second?) cousin got a hold of him and asked if he and his friends were interested in Olympic tickets.. UM. YES PLEASE! After narrowing it down to three sports: futbol, volleyball, and gymnastics, we found out dates, prices, and who we would see. The final decision? Volleyball. July 28th. We will be there, and boy will it be fantastic. The next hour or so we spent parading the news around to everyone, sorry if we rubbed it in too much. We were just REALLY excited.










On Tuesday, I woke up with a much worse sore throat and coughing and running nose than had been over the last few days. I also awoke to find one of my roommates in a similar condition. We decided to take it slow and get out in the sunshine, yet not over do it. We went to work at Starbucks. The only guaranteed coffee house in the city that does NOT cut off your wifi time. I think they know us by now, considering it is now Thursday and I have been there everyday since Tuesday. Whats up Starbucks? Tori did some work on her play and I went to town on emails for work! I thought I could do everything in two emails. Turns out, Yahoo! told me I was wrong. I had my email account locked from sending, and for a while I could only receive emails. Talk about problems. I had to contact Yahoo! Customer Service and convince them I wasn't sending spam to all these school emails, but in fact I was trying my hardest to contact them! Once I had my account unlocked, it took me roughly fifteen emails to complete to all the recipients needed. Talk about exhausting. It was during this afternoon that I also found out my placement for my internship is changing. Starting next week, I will be working at Contemporary Music for All (CoMA). More news on this when I find out.


I also went back to ISH, despite me need for sleep and health, to wish a new friend (Tomasz) good bye. He needs to go back to Poland for a few weeks to work out some kinks with work. Hopefully he will be back in a couple weeks and we can have a welcome back party, not so enthusiastic as his sending off.. After Tomasz' insisting that he won't drink because he needs to finish packing and get up at 3am to be checked out of his room (the Community Advisor in me shutters to think why this is politically correct) and that he must get some sleep or he will not wake up, Zlatko (Macedonian friend) managed to get him to drink a couple and then suggested we not let Tomasz sleep, but instead take him to Trafalgar's Square when the bar closes! Crazy, crazy Zlatko.. we took him up on his suggestion. Here are a few pictures as proof (for the record, Zlatko did not come with us!). The first two pictures are of Trafalgar's Square as everyone knows it to be... and the others are us being silly: everyone on the lion, except for Tomasz (Steph, Barbara, myself and Nash), a few of us posing (Nash -from Pakistan, Steph -from Ecuador, Barbara -from Portugal and myself), and Barbara, Tomasz and me.. trust me it is the only decent picture he would 'take'!!

Good bye for now Tomasz! 

As for Wednesday, it is safe to assume my feeling tired.. I woke up and decided I needed to work from home to ease into the day. I eventually went over to ISH for lunch, and then headed over to the British Library. I worked for a while and then used FaceTime for the first time to see my brother, Morgan!! It had been so long since we last talked, and it was great to see him again. I felt very useful going around the house with him while he was conquering his to-do list! :) I was even able to see all the animals in the house! Talk about a fun time!!! After our FaceTime chat, I headed down to the Exhibition room where a number of original manuscripts and documents from all across history. I was able to see original manuscripts for Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Dickens- to name a few! The original manuscripts that took my breath away, however, was not text. It was the music. The music manuscripts were fantastic to see.. Mozart, Hayden, Handel, and Ravel. Pages and pages of original music. Their handwriting. It was fantastic. I could have stayed around for hours just to stare. I managed to take a single picture, although it was frowned upon. But I HAD to share just a piece of this with the world...

You cannot quite tell because of my unsteady iPod-camera hand, but this is
in fact the original manuscript of Handel's Messiah. 

After I finished drooling over the music manuscripts, I went back to adore the original of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's Alice in the Underground (otherwise known as Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll). I picked up a wonderful poster that is an entire page of the original manuscript, with Carroll's original drawings. I cannot wait to get it framed and hang it. A little fact to why this means a little something extra is... we're related. :D


As for today, I finished up emails to a number of schools on behalf of ShadowStage, working again from Starbucks. Today was exceptionally beautiful out!! It was supposed to rain and storm all afternoon, and we haven't had a drop yet (knock on wood). Instead, it was 81 degrees F. We could not believe what we stepped into outside! HEAT WAVE! Looks like it isn't just hitting the states! After I finished work, I headed over to Liverpool Station to meet Taylor. We went to purchase our train tickets to get us to our flight out of Stansted. After purchasing our tickets, we went to meet up with Adrian and Jessica to enjoy some delicious ethnic food. I'm slowly becoming partial to falafel's. Talk about yummy. :) We were talking tonight about what we miss most from home. We decided the cooking was it.. and Jimmy Johns. But for the most part, we forget that we're actually in London. It's quite bizarre. After dinner, my to-do list included: watching Germany v Italy, laundry, packing, check-in for plane tickets, blog/journal and sleep. Guess what I did? Laundry, packing, checking-in, and blog. I now have four hours to sleep, and I still need to write my journal. For now, I leave you with this...


The promise of a phenomenally long and picture-filled blog and VLOG about Dublin and how spectacular our weekend was. I look forward to putting it together for you-- probably with the help/assistance and co-workings of Taylor... I cannot wait! Happy -early- fourth of July!!

See you on the green side! <3
Cheers!
Sarah Marsh

*The offer still stands, email me (marshcooke1@gmail.com or s.cooke2488@yahoo.com) your address and I will send you a postcard.. for those who requested one during the last blog post, they went in the mail a few days ago!! ;) Enjoy!
*If you'd like to follow me at more up-to-the-minute events, follow me on Twitter! @marshcooke

Meantime.. take two!

I left off at the Buckingham palace, and really I should have at least finished the day out by telling you about the Churchill Imperial War Rooms, too! My only excuse is it was getting close to dinner time, I still needed to go through the exhibit of original transcripts in the British Library, and my battery was almost to the end. Fortunately, I have full battery now, and enough time to fill you in on everything that is left.. Which will probably come in other pieces.


Back to Wednesday, Fred and I spent sometime at the palace watching the changing of the guard and then walked through St. James park to get to the War Rooms. He was able to talk his way in (since his tickets were good for Thursday, and he and his Dad couldn't make it then) and have them change the tickets! He told me before we went in, "I'm more foreign than you are, so let me do the talking." (Reminder: Fred is Australian.) Sure enough, I didn't speak until thanking them, and even then I said, "Cheers!" The Imperial War Rooms were magnificent. All the rooms have been left just as they were at the end of the war. There was so much fascinating information. What I was really impressed with was the museum about Winston Churchill. The interactive exhibits were unlike any I had seen before. Buttons and screens and games, a 40-foot interactive table of his life in timeline format. I was in exhibit heaven. Makes me want to go back and get that minor in museum techniques. Whew.

The information and historical items they have in the museum form his life are equally as phenomenal as the entire museum for the War Rooms as well. I picked up a few postcards from the gift shop and have been sending some out to those who requested them, and those who will be surprised!! :)


After Buckingham Palace and the War Rooms tour, Fred had to go meet with someone. I headed back to the International Student House (ISH) for some wifi to get some work done. On Thursday, I skyped in the morning with my mom, we have this kind of ritual on some days where she'll be up at 6am before work, and I'll Skype with her at noon. A number of times, this includes her watching me eat lunch and my friends laughing at the situation. Too funny. In the afternoon, I headed down to Wimbledon to work on some advertising with our set designer. She has all the capabilities of computer software and design applications that I don't. In talking, she was able to turn my half- and quarter-page sketches into respectable looking poster ideas before putting them into the computer and coming up with the final product! She also informed me of a new way to get to Wimbledon, taking the overground from Waterloo! It only took 20 minutes, instead of the tube's 45 minutes to a hour!


On Friday, our class was able to tour St. Paul's Cathedral. It is just as phenomenal as you would expect. The lighting is great, the sculptures and artwork are brilliant, the crypt is creepy. You know, typical cathedral stuff!! We're not supposed to take pictures in here, but a few of my friends did.. Here are the photos that I took, the left is the small view you can see from the river and the right is what peaks out between buildings from the tube stop.
If you go through some of my recently tagged pictures, one of my friends snagged a picture of the ceiling in the cathedral with part of my face in it. Of course, he tagged me! I also picked up some post cards from here, let me know if you want receive the cathedral postcards!

On Saturday, our workshop for work was cancelled but a few of us from the production team were able to get together and discuss some marketing ideas and how we want to get ourselves into the schools to run workshops for the kids. It was going really well, and someone at the table next to us leaned over and asked if we were teachers, too. We explained that we weren't and what we were planning on doing. This teacher gave us her contact information and said if we had any questions about who to contact or anything, to let her know! Such great times in London. I love it.

On Sunday, one of my roommates (Taylor) needed to go pick up some shoes that were on hold down in Clapham and then she wanted to go shopping in Oxford Circus. After that, our plans included going back to The Globe pub to watch England play Italy. We took the tube to Clapham and picked up her shoes, then we decided a bus would be more fun to take to Oxford. We figured out which bus stop to take, and waited for the bus to come. When the bus came, Adrian got on first, followed by Taylor and then me. I went to swipe my Oyster card, and it said I was out of money!! Adrian had already headed upstairs to the top deck and I looked back at the stop- there was no stand to get a temporary ticket. I calmly stepped back off the bus, Taylor and I made eye contact that said, "I don't know how this is going to work out." On the way to Clapham, I realized I had left my UK phone charging in our room. I have my iPod on me, but I need wifi. And she has a iPhone, but she needs wifi for how we communicate. Luckily, Adrian has a UK phone with a data plan! I sat at the bus stop for a few minutes trying to collect what I needed to do and where I needed to go, but mostly how do I get back to the tube station to top-up my card and get to Oxford Circus?! I went to the tube, and put twenty pounds on my card. I decided not to walk back to the bus stop, I took the tube. The tube dropped me a block off of the main Oxford Circus area, and I found a coffee shop with internet. I sent tweets to both Taylor and Adrian, an iMessage to Taylor, and then went to Facebook. I already had a message from Adrian. I responded telling him where I was and that I was okay. They were still on the bus!! I not only left second from Clapham, but arrived first at Oxford. Once it was decided they would meet me at the station, I headed back towards where I came from. I quickly realized there were about six exits to the station, and at least four entrances. Without going back to get wifi, I camped out near an entrance, sitting on the rail that leads down to the tube station and waited, anxiously looking to the other corners of the intersection for familiar faces. After about ten more minutes of waiting, we were reunited. Crazy.

After some shopping adventures, we headed back to meet others from our group before getting dinner at The Globe to watch England v Italy. We also decided we wanted a place to sit, and drinks that were cheaper and not served in a plastic cup. At half time, we walked to the ISH building and spent the second half in ISH Bar, the perfect place.

That brings us to this week.. and I think the amount of information I have to share will be suitable for part three. I am trying to get this done before going to Dublin (TOMORROW), because that will be a blog and a half in it's self!! Thanks for reading, you'll get another one by the end of tonight!

CHEERS!
Sarah Marsh

For those of you who have not seen my new hair style!!

In the meantime.. take one!

I think what I wanted to do in one post, I might need to break up into three or so... Please stay with me. Some stories and fantastic experiences need to be shared. I wish so much that various people could be here in London with me and seeing the things I have seen. At a number of different museums, galleries, monuments and events, I typically think of people specifically and wish so much that you could be here.

To catch you up briefly on events in my life during the last week, here is an unexplained list: futbol (England v Ukraine), work, bollywood, buckingham Palace/Changing of the Guard, Churchill Imperial War Rooms, work, St. Paul's Cathedral, Oxford Circus, left behind, work, futbol (England v Italy), class, musical tickets, Scoops, sickness, work, Tomasz' last night, work, British Library.
To add on what will be on this list by the end of the week: work, futbol (Portugal v Spain), Dublin, Jameson Factory, Guiness Factory, Galway, class, Les Miserables. Yes. Be jealous. I'm jealous of myself!

Last week, a few of the other students from our Stevens Point group decided to head to an English pub to observe the futbol match, England v Ukraine. Fortunately for us, we found the best place. A little place called The Globe, just off the corner of Baker Street and Marylebone Road. We had a wonderful time singing the songs along with the locals about "England, England, England" (sung to the same melody as in 'A Knight's Tale', "Licktenstine, Licktenstine"), and "Oh, Britania, Britania, Britania rules the world"and took in every second of it. Here is a link to the video I took shortly after England's goal: Celebrations at The Globe. You can hear them starting to chant "Rooney, Rooney" towards the end of the video, he is one of their midfielders and scored the particular goal they were celebrating. We had such a fun time, we decided a week later when England played again, we would get there two hours before the match, eat dinner and enjoy the game.

After the game was over, I returned to my room to see what my roommates were up to and I found that they were hosting a Bollywood party, in honor of our friend Jivitesh who was leaving the UK to return to Indian at the end of the week. They had celebrated by going to eat Indian dishes and then everyone was to bring their own wine and come back to our room to learn Bollywood dancing and listen to the music! Without consulting those involved, I will include a picture for your benefit! :)




By Tuesday night/Wednesday morning I was having a rough week, some homesickness may have been encroaching on my experience and I needed something out of the ordinary to lift my spirits. At this, a friend of mine from Australia, Fred, offered a spare ticket to tour the Winston Churchill Imperial War Rooms with him. He needed to use these tickets and the day they were intended for he could not go, and offered to take me. Included in our class schedule, we will be touring it again, but upon the suggestion from my Grandmother that I needed to go, I figured seeing the museum and exhibits twice would be worth it. On our way to the museum, Fred asked me if I had seen Buckingham Palace yet. I said that indeed I had not, because the day we tried to go see it, was of course during the Jubilee and it was OFF LIMITS! :) On our way to the museum, we took a small detour and stopped at the Palace, just so happened that we had come at the right time! We were able to see the changing of the guard! I took many small videos on both my iPod and camera, Fred took many as well. Unfortunately, my camera died and he has majority of the pictures. Here is a picture I took of the marching band (I could see and hear them, not so much the actual changing of the guard, also I am a musician with priorities).
















This is all for now, but I have so much more to share! More of the list from above that I know you want to know all about! More later!

Cheers!
Sarah Marsh

Bucket List!

I imagine it is time to update once again, and I know I won't top my two-in-one-nighter like last week, but there are somethings that should be addressed and discussed. I can say that I added a few things to my bucket list and crossed them off. You cannot consider them the most insightful or deep experiences, but they were an adventure. 

First, last week I experienced my first champagne fountain, flavored-oxygen bar and chip-n-dales men. Needless to say, these were all experienced in one evening, the End Of Term party/ Kevin's surprise 60th birthday party at ISH. It was such a blast, our whole group danced and took tons of pictures-- feel free to scoot over to Facebook now and check out some of the evidence. 

Second, I watched some (approximately 3 hours worth) of a cricket match at Lord's. The match was Oxford University v Cambridge University, and if you ask my friend who knew what was going on, he'll tell you I was there during the most invigorating and high-scoring three hours he has seen in a long time! A few of us from the group got dressed up and went out to experience Cricket. I think each of us took away one fact each, so maybe if you got us all together again, we could collectively teach you. However, this is asking a lot, so let's pretend like that will work! 

Third, I officially found myself 100% completely and totally lost in London. At the wrong time. In the wrong place. (Don't worry Mom and Dad, I didn't tell you about this one-on-one when we Skyped because I don't want you to worry too much.. I'd rather you read the light-hearted portions here!) To leave out the time and date, however relevant it should be, I'll advise you here to use your imagination. This one time ( :D ) I left a friend of a friend's flat, and I took his directions and got on the appropriate bus (and he was wrong). By the time I realized this bus was not heading where I wanted to go, in fact it was heading to (what I didn't think was possible) an even worse area of town, the bus route ended and I had to get off. I asked advice from the driver and he directed me to a better route home. Once on bus number two, and heading to an area of town I was definitely more familiar with, I rode it until it finished it's route. I hopped off and headed down the street I thought I knew... turns out it was also the wrong street, in the wrong direction. And by now you're probably wondering, "Why didn't you call or text someone Sarah? You're in London, and it's probably later than you're letting us believe, call someone for help!?" Right, that's when I remind you, the last phone call and text I made was from the first bus ride, each to a different friend asking for assistance, I quickly received a text from my carrier telling me, I was out of credits and could not make or send calls or text messages respectively (I can answer and receive in this situation, trust me, now I know!!). I walked for about seven blocks until I found someone on a bike who looked like a nice guy and I asked him for mapping/directional assistance. He looked it up on his blackberry -- informed me I was not on the street I thought I was, or walking in the direction I thought I was. PROBLEM! He sorted me out and set me off back in the correct direction. In this time, I received a phone call from two people I know on the trip calling to ask where I was, because when they received my text (over a hour ago), they hadn't heard from me since and got worried! I then found a (third) bus and jumped on, unfortunately this didn't get me to the end of the street, and I jumped off yet again and walked for about five more blocks before I finally stopped and read through the bus stop and found a bus to get me within a mile of home- a walk I've made dozens of times already and will probably make again when I'm done with this blog! After my fourth bus ride, I get off, pick up some wifi for my iPod and contacted the two wondering about my whereabouts to let them know I was almost home. I was not intending to put down "Get drastically lost in London between 11:30pm and 2:00am on a Sunday night" on my bucket list, but now, it's there. And crossed off-- whew.. I don't have to do that ever again! 

Fourth, Sunday.. I think I joined ISH's frisbee club with another girl on our trip, Jessica. Which I believe makes their membership grow from two people to four!! Jessica plays for the UWSP women's ultimate club team and I've got a pretty heavy respect/talent for frisbee (if I do say so myself) and we joined in and it seemed, that we surprised the boys. Take that! It was such a blast and in-between throws we ran to Tesco (cheaper 'grocery' place) and picked up a few beers and cheap wines, took them back to the park and continued to play. This whole open container thing is still really odd to me, but it was such a blast hanging out and playing frisbee with great people in Regent's Park. Now I just have to get myself up to Primrose Hill (the highest point in London) and check out the city from the best view! 

Fifth, yesterday during our class time, we sat through a couple hours lecture and then set off to walk throughout the city. Professor Alan Hertz teaches the class, man does he get passionate about the history and culture of those in Britain! I think a number of others on our trip are not fond of his analogies or descriptions, but I disagree. He keeps you attentive and captivated by stories upon stories. Yesterday, he took us down through Russell Square and discussed the ways the Russell family made it so that London was a place for everyone to live, and themselves to make money -- from renting/leasing on 999 year leases to leaving Russell Square open to those who lived around it, to building a church, to row houses, etc. etc. etc. Towards the end of our class (1pm-5pm) all of us are getting tired and quite hungry, he always ends our walks in an area where there is an abundance of food and typically the last few blocks of the walk is pointing out specific areas to eat various food options, whatever you please. Unfortunately, my friends Taylor, Adrian and I did not take him up on any of his suggestions- although they were to die for! Instead, we went to Walkabout. Walkabout is an Australian pub type set up with cheaper plates, which is perfect for those who are trying to keep costs down! And of course, if you're eating at an Australian pub, not only do you drink Australian beer, but you must also eat KANGAROO!! I had a kangaroo burger. Delicious. I would eat it again, and recommend it to all. But in my book, ostrich is still better. 

Sixth, today I got stuck in a large traffic jam on my way from a meeting at the LOST Theatre, where ShadowStage Productions will hold the "Red Riding Hood in the Shadows" performances in August. I decided to jump off the bus at the next stop and enjoy the nice weather, pick up some internet and people watch. Ironically, and quite more perfectly than I could have planned, I got off at Trafalgar Square. The best place for beautiful scenery and people watching. Unfortunately, I didn't get any wifi, but I did play soccer with a little boy from Brazil. I spoke a little with his grandfather, and they were both surprised at how well I could play in dress pants and wedges. But the little boy still has a ways to go, it was easy to play keep away! :) We should have gotten a picture.. next time perhaps. I sat on the edge of the fountain and took in the whole scene. From between the buildings, you could see Westminster peaking through, with the Union Jack flying from the highest tower, and in the beautiful weather/wind, I tried timing a picture with it out in full display. I wish everyone could have been there to see first hand.

As for an update, in a previous blog I mentioned how it was raining all day, every day, non stop and was painfully wet. Well, I'm not sure if summer is finally kicking in or if it's a fluke in the weather. But since Saturday, it's been gorgeous. Between cricket and frisbee this weekend, I picked up some nice sun burn. Who would have expected it! And the funny-not so funny part of it all, is my boots have arrived. I received a notification in the mail today that they are held at customs and I must go claim them (and pay a 25 GBP fee), go figure. I'm looking forward to my boots, jeans, shirt and hangers!! :) Just want I needed to survive! <3 

I think this is more than you wanted, so I should cut the rambling and remind you that I am having an absolute blast! I hope everyone's enjoying their summer!! If you're interested in receiving a postcard, please send me an email with your address (s.cooke2488@yahoo.com, marshcooke1@gmail.com)!! If you want to write me, please email me asking for my address.. I'd love to hear from you! Also, if you're more interested in up-to-the-moment happenings, follow me on Twitter at @marshcooke ... if you want to tweet about music follow @selectionsbySMC. 

Things to come in the future: final plans with our trip to Ireland, tours of Royal Albert Hall and Royal Opera House, and more updates about my internship!

CHEERS!! 

Sarah Marsh

Hair and Class

Through the social media sites that I use most often, Facebook and Twitter, you may or may not have noticed that there were some hints dropped about me cutting my hair when I came to London. After living in London for a week, I decided that the list of Pros and Cons should be made. Here is how I weighed my decision:
Pro:
-Shorter time getting ready in the morning
-Shorter time in the shower
-Less water on my mostly damp towel
-Only one towel to dry both me and my hair

Con:
-Not cutting:
    -Longer showers
    -Always wet towel
    -Need to go buy another towel

Basically... It was just going to be a necessary decision. Ethical and logical. So I chopped it off. Here are the pictures I treated as my inspiration to the cut:

 BEFORE

AFTER!! 

Also, today we started our class: British Life and Culture. Our Professor is really interesting and gave us the history of how England came to be ruled and the division between England and it's surrounding countries and the continent of Europe, the history involving Rome and the difference between each England, Britain and the United Kingdom. After a couple hours of 'lecture' in class, we headed out. The plan initially was to take a river walk. Since the inclement weather has NOT changed a single bit (I think it rained consecutively all day today), he decided to change it up and take us to the London Museum. From outside the museum, we got to see the original walls of London: 

We learned a lot of new information about how London was started and we will go there again later in the week to finish our journal assignment for class! 

Tonight also marks an evening to remember, Taylor, Adrian, Kevin and I just booked a trip to Dublin, Ireland for the last week of June. As more information is decided and plans are made, you will be shortly informed!! 

Cheers!

Sarah Marsh

Internship Time!

On Saturday I began my first day at my internship! As a reminder, I'm the marketing intern for ShadowStage Productions. Saturday entailed observing casting/auditions for a few hours. Then followed the production team playing with the shadows ourselves to experience how it worked! I have a few videos to share... Enjoy!

Leon was directing us on how to 'trick' the eye in the shadows. Those included in these videos are Leon, Claire, Chris, Patty, and Johnny. We had a really great time. Finally, we finished up the afternoon with a production meeting by going through the script, ideas for rehearsal location, stage sets, and of course marketing! I had a really fantastic time spending the afternoon with this group. I feel as though we are going to have a ton of fun working together!

In other news, I'm surprised no one in our group has developed webbed feet! It has rained EVERY day since we've arrived, save for Saturday. However, we were inside working all day and missed out on the sunshine... some kids in our group even got sunburn! I couldn't believe it! Also, it is becoming a common trend for the others on our trip to purchase Wellies, Wellington Boots, Hunter Boots, or what ever other rain gear/shoes they can find! Fortunately, I asked my mom last week when we arrived to send over my rain boots! No need to buy a second pair when I have a perfectly good set at home! :)


Over last week and this weekend, I continued to venture around the city and take various interesting photos. These are only off of my iPod. I'll get the other pictures off my camera and onto Facebook in a few days! Here are some pictures form my ventures!

These two photographs are some large decorative tiles that are up along both sides of a tube station (Earl's Court Station) that I use for a connection to my District Line train down to Wimbledon Park. I thought the designs were quite stunning, so I took a few pictures. Believe you me, these do not even do them all justice!

This is a bookend I found at a store.. It is now the background of my iPod.. Too cute. There was so much celebration and enthusiasm/pride for the country and the queen this week! I cannot wait to find more souvenirs of it all! 

This is so well represented you may not need to be told.. but alas it is Big Ben. I learned Sunday on a riverboat river cruise that the name, Big Ben, is not for the tower. It is in fact named for the bell inside the tower! We were able to see a number of great buildings and learn very interesting history about the life surrounding the river! 

"Mind the Gap".. I didn't actually see why this statement was so important until Friday! Most all of the tubes I took did not have a gap or a step between the platform and the train! Until once, there was about six inches between, and a larger step up! I learned my lesson.. Mind the gap! Going through town however, it is much more interesting to see the city from a Double Decker! I do enjoy the tube ride down to Wimbledon for work, after Earl's Court, it's all outside/aboveground! 

This is a display of some tile in the Baker Street Station. Of course, because Baker Street is infamous for Sherlock Holmes.. the entire place is decked out in his honor! It was ironically perfect timing that Sunday night we were also able to see the second Sherlock Holmes movie at the International Student House (ISH) Theater!

Soon to come.. the photographic evidence and short bits about our first day of class!!

Cheers!!
Sarah Marsh

Oyster, Mobile, and Waterlogged.

Here are things to know when you go to London:

1. When people say it rains, its overcast, its drizzly, etc. Believe them. It's not just something they say to keep people from visiting.
2. When you think it looks beautiful out, wear your rain jacket.
3. When you think it looks beautiful out, bring an umbrella.
4. Don't step into the street without looking both ways. Bikers, buses, vehicles, etc. You know what I mean.
5. Prior to stepping into the street, read the street paint. Look left when it says "Look Left", look right when it says "Look Right."
6. Bring a tube map with you anywhere. Or when you misplace yours, know that you can get a new one at any tube stop. Just remember to get a new one!
7. Hang out in cafes for wifi. :)
8. Find an Irishman to help you with the tube. They will also remind you that no Englishman will do this for you. Plus, they have the upper hand on the Irish accent.

The city has been very packed. Although we still managed to get around. The most frustrating thing at the moment, aside from the lack of wireless, is that Monday and Tuesday were bank holidays. Which means either places are not open or have holiday hours (that aren't posted). So we've been stuck with some Americanised restaurants when we wanted ethnic foods and I only expect things to get better from here on out. 

I picked up my Oyster Card and mobile Tuesday. This phone and card are too hilarious for words.  I helped two friends with getting around and figuring out the Tube. They got lost, I got us found. They let me lead the way to find their internships and tube stops. They told me they want to make me their personal APP. I haven't carried a map of anything in the city since I got here, besides the Tube map. I seem to be the only person on this trip who gets directions. 

As for the living situation. I'm living with Taylor, Mona, and Tori. Taylor and I picked up on hanging out really quick, it's been helpful to have her in the room and then there is always someone around to get food or go out for groceries. I'll put up pictures of the room later. We have a bunk bed, two down beds, two wardrobes, two desks, and a shelving unit. Our suite is connected to a small hallway where there are two other rooms with girls in them. We all share one bathroom and a kitchen space. Surprisingly, we have not had an issue with five to seven girls using the bathroom! Cannot believe it. 

I had my money exchanged at the airport. Since then, I have worked it out that I pay for meals for three of us and they pay me cash. It's easier than going to an ATM and getting charged. More efficient and sociable in a fun way. I also started a list of beers that I have had or tried, and I am also listing where I had them. Kind of another way to keep up with my experiences. So far this list reads as: 

  - Peroni (Marlborough Arms)

  - DoomBar (Golden Lion)

  - Aspall Cider (Pizza Express)

  - Erdinger (ISH)

  - Strongbow (ISH)

  - Queen's Jubilee (The Albany)

The Queen's Jubilee... There are not enough words. Being able to experience these events. Unfortunately I was not able to heavily participate outside of sitting in pubs and watching the events on BBC and tele networks. I picked up a scarf, quite cool looking. I have a picture somewhere. Need to take more. 

WET??? You have no idea. First, completely soaked my black wedges. Not to mention dyed my feet black. Then I wore my brown moccasins. Then it poured. Dyed my feet orange. Then I wore my zipper black flats. Then it poured and we walked EVERYWHERE. My pinky toes? Are entirely blisters. I ended up purchasing canvas slip-ons and three pairs of socks. I wore the canvas shoes for the remainder of the day. So yesterday I wore birkenstocks. SOAKED. I asked my mom to send heels, instead of her sending those I have instead requested my rain boots. I seriously don't know what to do with my shoes/feet with all this rain. Basically I've been soaked straight for days. So so so sad. 

Most students on our trip began their internships today. I do not start mine until Friday. In the meantime, I get to continue to play tourist and figure out town on my own. I do have an assignment to put together for the theatre and I have been working on that on and off. Saturday is the open day for auditions for the summer show and our first production team meeting. I am quite excited for this all to begin!! 

More updates to come-- I feel as though I'm only briefly touching the surface. If you want to know more up to the minute... or up to the WIFI minute news from me. Follow me on twitter! @MarshCooke 

Cheers!!

Sarah Marsh

A New Location/Place to Start from

First, I need to apologize for the lack of posting. Although there is no rhyme, reason, or excuse for my dropping off the face of the internet-world, I must mainly give fault to my computer deciding to die mid-February. The next fault lies on myself for losing the username/password needed and having no time as senioritis kicked in leading up to finals.

Second, to have a brief update on life:
- Over springbreak in March, I went to California. Fresno and Ventura to be exact. I visited my old roommate, Talia and my cousins Kate, Anne, Matt, and Jack. I had a bit of a lousy experience getting to Fresno due to a delayed plane out of Milwaukee, resulting in a missed flight out of Dallas. Luckily the airliner paid for my hotel with a voucher and $40 worth of airport food vouchers. I couldn't really complain, but I did. :) I spent St. Patty's Day weekend with Talia in Fresno, and took the train/bus to Ventura from Sunday to Wednesday. I spend this time with my cousins and had such a wonderfully lovely time!! I cannot wait to visit again. On Wednesday afternoon, I took the bus/train back to Fresno and flew out on Thursday! Besides going into the trip with bronchitis and leaving with sun poisoning, it was an absolute blast!
- I walked in the May commencement ceremony for graduation from UWSP. I do not technically graduate until I complete my final externship in London this summer. I will have graduated with a Bachelor or Fine Arts and Communication, having studied arts management with an emphasis in music, and minors in music and business administration. I cannot wait to keep updating you with job prospects and experiences in London
- To end this post, as there needs to be LOADS more written about this next topic: I AM IN LONDON! I also will be the marketing intern for ShadowStage Productions. I will be assisting them with developing their marketing strategies both for the company and specifically for 'Red Riding Hood in the Shadows' for family audiences to be premiered at the LOST theatre, in London during July/August of 2012.

This is all I will leave you with for now as it is late, and I have loads to do tomorrow! More updates to come as soon as I stealthily find wifi throughout the city!!

Cheers!
Sarah Marsh