orange, oysters and oasis?

Alright. Sit Back, grab a pint (or a cup of coffee), and settle in. It's going to be a long update, seeing as it's been a week - we have some catching up to do.

Monday, left the cousins to head to JFK. the flight was crazy cool- Virgin Atlantic, you rock. movies, tv, radio, video games...wow. We were picked up at the airport in Heathrow and taken by bus to Richmond's Kensington campus. We all moved in, settled in a bit, then began the week of festivities.
In a nutshell so far:
*Kensington Walking Tour (we live in the most expensive part of London, very posh, right across from Kesington Palace, where Princess Di lived and seconds from Kensington High St...major shopping area.)
*Imperial College down the road, and had a drink at the pub, which i mentioned before

Wednesday-
*Overall Orientation of the Program with different speakers and staff introductions
*Computer Orientation (SOOO not helpful, obviously)
*Trip and Activity sign ups for the semester (which will be mentioned soon...)
*Resident meetings (all the interns are living on the fourth floor btw...the penthouse shall we say, i think i have a curse of the "top floor" syndrome.)
*Jack the Ripper Walking Tour - way fun and interesting. jacky, you were a sick and twisted man.

Thursday
*Internship meeting, met our supervisors and realized I'm going to have no free time with my life the next 3.5 months but what else is new. thats how i like it.
*The things to join and trip sign ups, for like Gyms and potential upcoming events like this awesome club called Fabric
*Bus Tour of London - way awesome. FINALLY got to see some touristy places. got to hop out at St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower Bridge (commonly mistaken for London Bridges...please, no singing.) Pictures to soon come.
*Night in the West End - went to see Avenue Q with some of the girls. stopped at a pub across the way for some dinner. HUGE sandwiches. good food for once. the play was over the top awesome. it was Hysterical. so raunchy at some points, but so funny. (and no, i did not call jeff marx up. i didn't really want him relentlessly offering to buy me a burger, and then never leaving ... ever. haha.)

Today
*Library orientation...boo. welcome back to work at URI pretty much.
*Internship Interview with my school supervisors - okay, wow. i've been so clueless and nervous up to this point because I have had absolutely NO idea what i was in for, what i would be doing. Apparently, next week i will be interview with The Royal Thames Yacht Club. Yeah. I'm siked and scared sh-izzle-less. AND. right after my interview they have invited me to their cocktail party... ! WHAT !
my supervisors are going to help me decide what to wear, and i'm going to ask them for advice on how to act, and all that stuff. I'm clueless. so any tips of the trade would be fantastic. They said this is a very very posh, upscale place, and i would be working along side the event coordinator, which is going to be amazing. their first intern ever came from richmond last year, and i read her final paper today and she sounds very similiar to me, and had a fabulous experience. i can't wait. but im so scared.
*Went to Kensington Palace this afternoon to see the remembrances for Princess Dianna. Very touching and very nice. Very peaceful. Reminded me slightly of the wall of flowers covering the outside of St. Paul's Cathedral down at Ground Zero.
*Pub Crawl - Really fun, very tired, no time to sit and relax to have a drink, kind of "you have 30 minutes to meet us back here to continue the tour, on your mark get set go!" but still fun. and I GOT TO SEE THE GLOBE. yes, i'm a geek. whatever. and i almost walked into not one, but two poles. and this was before my krista-sized-halfpint. good times.

now we came back here, and i'm dead tired. its almost 12:30 and i',m off to portabello market tomorrow. woot!!

missing you all, will update with details on living/food/friends soon. Hugs.

<3 Krista

idk what timezone i'm in, let alone what day it is...

Just a note... I am alive. and found access to a computer for the time being, until i am able to get mine up and started...

altho i'm becoming delusional quite fast. i don't think i've slept in a long time. i honestly don't know what day it is, let alone the time. our flight was delayed (monday afternoon in ny), of course, and i was on the plane for aprox 9 hrs? i think...maybe more. we got to the airport (london) at 8:30 this morning. its 21:55 now, whatever that means.

we unpacked, after lugging all three suitcases up 4 flights of stairs. and by flights i mean double a regular flight of stairs, and add heighth and major corners. went on a walking tour of kensington, which was lovely :) and then went on an adventure to find a few necesities. Tonight we went down to Imperial College to go to the pub there, which was fun. I had cider (no. i dont want to hear it). 75 pence/half pint. sweeet...then half of it was spilt on my shoes by someone. buts its alright...

now, after finding this computer oasis at the bottom of the atlantic house, i must head to bed. i will write a more coheherent entry when i'm not overtired/under fed (ps. the food is AWFUL...details to come)

ILOVEYOU BYE!
<3 Krista

suitcases, stress and animal crackers

So, to keep all of my loves up to date with life, for the duration of my fleeing the country, Leigh told me I should blog. So blog I will. Now I've never been able to keep a journal or diary for more than a day, apologies ahead of time. Better luck this time around.

For those who didn't know, I'm going to be studying in London for the fall at Richmond the American International University in London. I'm in the internship program/living in Kensington, and will be doing something with Event Planning. I'm also taking a media writing class at night, once a week on campus. I'm planning to stop by Ireland, and Italy if I have the money and have some free time. We also are going to Paris for a weekend, which should be incredible. I'm totally pumped/scared out of my mind. It's going to be an adventure.

The Weekend Update: 3 days until I leave. My suitcase is "too big" by 5 inches according to Virgin's requirements. F that. w/e. Joe and the Berger's contributed generously to compensate. My clothes are sprawled all over my room. I haven't packed a single thing. Just kind of stare at the zippers hoping they'll move on their own. I hope to get on that today. Scratch that. I will get on that today. Goodbyes are in order with a few last minute hangouts, then its off to Long Island to say goodbye to the fam Sunday, and Monday is take off at 6:45 pm. Of course I stocked up on some animal crackers and granola bars for the ride.

There's already a huge week of orientation planned for next week with more tours than I can count, a night at the theatre, a boat dance party, and a pub crawl. Can I handle beer? or "Lager." ehhh. we will soon find out. I've also been advised on a few select phrases I should refrain from using: "bangs" apparently would be very inappropriate when asking for a haircut. A bit risque I guess.

I'm gonna miss you all like woah. I won't have my cell phone once I get on the plane, so call/text me before then. lol. Get Skype. (http://www.skype.com/) It's pretty much talking via the phone, but for free and online. And of course there's always AIM...or facebook stalking...

ILOVEYOUBYE!
<3 Krista