16 posts tagged “uk”

So i just realized that I never used all my videos that I uploaded in a post so I figure I'd just dump them into a cute post all at once. Yay efficiency!

Just a bunch of photos that I thought I'd share with y'all. And if you're wondering I took all of these.

Sitting

Lord Nelson

unfinished bridge

slides

hyde park

Clock Tower

Yesterday was an outing to Greenwich Park (for which GMT is named). The Royal Observatory is here, and this is where the central longitude line passes thru. So basically there's a nice line in the ground that divides eastern and western hemispheres. It was a gorgeous day with all the trees losing their leaves. We  had lunch in a little Chinese restaurant in the high street of maritime Greenwich and took loads of pictures of the area. Later that day there were fireworks over the Thames for Remembrance Day. The pictures didn't work out too well but you can get the idea. Linky.

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Here's another panorama--
This is from Greenwich Park, the Greenwich in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

panorama greenwich

Today I have officially created a new sport. Possibly one for the Olympics. I title it:
Tube Surfing
Now I bet you're really confused. Here's how it works. You find an empty (or mostly empty) subway car. You'll have to get an empty one to get the good feeling behind it. Also pick a train line that travels somewhat fast (45+ mph). Stand at the back of the car, facing the front of the train (as in when it leaves you'll be pushed backwards by the motion). Stand as close to the little door that connects the two cars and lean against it, provided you won't be thrown out of the door by doing said leaning. Essentially this will be your view of the car:

Subwaycar

Only from the depths of my random brain comes...
The Haunted Feather!!!
I <3 being weird.

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interns

Huzzah for group photos (or is it wozzah, like Luke told me...?). Bask in the poses, radiating all that is cheesy about them. Mmm...

Creamy goodness from my office. Just some pictures of the desk area, looking out my window, and a little video tour. Enjoy~

my desk

the street

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Every morning I walk down Oxford Street on my way into work. Like most other high streets in London, this one is no different - two lanes of traffic, wide sidewalks, and about 3 miles of stores. Granted this is Oxford Street, so a bit more on the par of 5th Avenue and such. But over the past two weeks I've watched as Christmas decorations were assembled, lights strung, trees wrapped, and all the usual fanfare. That's grand and well.

I'm looking forward to seeing it all lit up too. It's like one of those buildings that you drive by every day going into work, each time you get a glimpse of it it's grown a little more, taken a little more shape. There's something so intimate with that, but at the same time so anonymous. After it's finished I usually go and try to get into at least the lobby to see what's up. Like finally meeting someone you've been interested in for some time.

Anyways, so I see that and it's very nice. However, today it finally hit me that Christmas was coming. Want to know what set it off?

My Starbucks was in a Red Cup

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It's the beginning of week 4 of working here, and its week 4.5 of being in London - It's amazing how long it feels like I've been here, and how much I'm a part of this city now. I think that being integrated into the city has really helped me feel a lot more comfortable here. Thanks to all my new friends for helping me settle in and find a great life to be had here. So now that I've moved I'm really just doing my work and maintaining my now busy social life afterwords.

So far I've:

• Walked in Hyde Park
• Purchased tickets to go to Paris for 3 days
• Been subject to Tube service disruptions more than I care to admit
• Gone to some pubs (okay more than some)
• Eaten at a posh restaurant in Soho
• Gotten lost (er more than once)
• Eaten fish & chips on the bank of the Thames
• Watched fireworks over the London Bridge
• Gotten lost (again)
• Clubbing
• Shopping (Gurrrllll!)
• Touched many a Louis Vuitton bag that I can't afford...
• Moved (w00t)
• Gone grocery shopping in probably the scariest neighbourhood I've ever been in...
• Seen a few celebrities [Kate Moss, Jude Law, Ms. Robo Beckham (aka Posh Spice)]
  

• Directed a tele-conference with our consulate in Belfast
  
• Created public direction information to the embassy
• Documented office locations and floor maps for the entire building (900 people work here so that was hard)
• Discovered and reported on the £500,000 entertainment spending that various people here use per annum
• Met the Secretary of State & the Ambassador
  
• Meeting the Prime Minister on Wednesday
• Developed policy surrounding the embassy housing
• Helped to earn exemption from the Congestion Charge for US Embassy Staff

• Organize/diagram the paper flow for the accounting department, report on it
• Organize/diagram software processes for the IT department, report
• Go out on Property Inspections
• Visualize/report on a re-design for the intranet webpages
• Assist in emergency plan development

Today's picture of randomness:

unfinished bridge