If you had an internship in London this semester you were required to take this course that goes along with it. We were emailed on December 8th, 2010, telling us what was going to be required for work in the class and what we should do to get the most out of it. 

Today is April 6, 2011 and everyone seems to be bitching about this class. This is severely disappointing to me, because I got so much out of the class. The simple fact is, if you weren't expecting the work we recieved, you need to learn to read your emails about the things you're participating in. If you didn't get anything out of the class, it's your own fault. You didn't do the work in a way that would help you. Those blogs were not a waste of time, they were meant to help you understand what you were getting out of your internship by forcing you to really think about what you were doing and what it was teaching you. The presentation was meant to help you understand your company more, and this paper is meant to help you finalize what you got out of the internship. If you did the readings, paid attention the film, and participated in the class conversations you would have realized this class was not a waste of time, but an extremely helpful tool in shaping your future. 

Stop complaining and learn to grow up a bit. Sometimes you have to take responsibility. 

That being said I'm gonna go back to complaining about a different professor for entirely different reasons while I avoid doing his assignment that is due in 30 minutes. 

I'm ready to go home...Ready for me to be back?

Today on the train back from touring the BBC studios with my class, 5 of us were sitting on the train and discussing celebrities. We were looking at them from the point of view that they are spoiled and discussing that they need to not be treated like babies and given everything they want. When the topic moved onto how we would react if we suddenly were majorly rich and famous the general consensus was that we would not ever treat people that were "below us" like they were below us, and that we would not abuse the power given to us. I challenged this saying that plenty of celebrities probably said that before they were given money and fame, but it was still fought that if you come from a place where you know what it's like to be stepped on you then won't do it to someone else. 

I still find this logic to be flawed, because if this was the case no one would ever act the way celebs do, but we went back to talking about the crazy things that we've heard about people doing (like J.Lo flying in 2 couches from France to London because she "NEEDED TO REST ON THEM") until we got off the train. When we finally reached our destination we got off and a man who had been sitting a few seats down from us stopped us.

This is London, so we assumed that he was going to tell us we were being rude for speaking so loudly on the tube and that Americans were always obnoxious and that we should try to be more respectful (a speech several of us have actually received on the tube). Instead he told us thank you. He appreciated hearing what we had to say about how celebrities act and how we hoped that we would never be like that. Apparently the type of Americans that often visit London are the kind that expect everything to be their way and act like people should cater to them and appreciate the face that they're even here. It was refreshing to hear that we as Americans had some of the same opinions as him, and made his day to meet some Americans that were not stuck up. 

And it made our day for an Englishman to tell us that he appreciated us. After several months of dirty looks and being told to shut up and being called "bloody Americans" it was refreshing to have someone that actually listened to what we had to say before dismissing us. 

It also made my day to meet the TARDIS. Isn't she beautiful?

Wednesday (March 23)

Today we went to the Globe Theatre instead of class. We took a quick tour, I got to touch the stage and get a few pictures, before we went downstairs and got a bit of a lecture from an actor about the history of the place. 

During the lecture the actor asked us to volunteer the person that was most cynical to listen to him tell the history of the theatre and call him out on any bullshit he might say (his words, not mine). Of course, I was volunteered. I also successfully caught him in every lie he told. It's good to know people agree that i'm cynical isn't it?

Thursday (March 24)

I had my internship and we were filming at the Barbican again. Quite a mess of a day. I slept through my alarm, showed up just barely on time. Liam forgot the tripods, just barely made it back before we needed to start filming. Speakers didn't show up, delegates left because they were bored, and all around it was a very boring, slightly stressful day. (That being said, I would never give this internship up for anything else, I love it so much)

Friday (March 25)

Internship again, today at Earls Court 2. We spent the day at this health and nutrition trade show. There was a lot of filming various workouts and talks about what vitamins you need to take/what ones are just people trying to rip you off. There were a few good talks and I did actually take some stuff away from being there, but it was yet again a mess. Thankfully it was the end of my week and the next day I was going to do some fun things. 

Saturday (March 26)

When we woke up today the plan was to start out at Portobello Market. I frankly don't have the patience to shop with these girls anymore (<3 you all), so I ended up bailing at that part and cleaning my room like a madman. All of my laundry is done, I vacuumed under my bed, on my bed, my floor and my closet, and almost organised all of my homework. Around 5 me and Sasha headed out the door to go to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, which I'll post pictures from sometime later. There's a link to their website here (or, there will be soon) if you want to check out. After that we went to the Sherlock Holmes Resturaunt and Public House for dinner. Jess joined us for this part, and we had a fantastic time. Except for that bit where I had to scare that old dude away from Sasha, but even that was *kind of* entertaining….   

Sunday/Monday (march 27/28)

Visiting Tom! I've been looking forward to this for a while, and I was very happy to finally get to Reading and see him. I once again was late, because the time change and someone forgot to tell me and my phone that we needed to get up an hour earlier than we thought. We went to Shake Away (which was amazing, link in the links page), and saw Rango before heading back to his house to just chill out for a while. I was introduced to some very good stand up comics while we were watching TV. They also have the most adorable puppy ever, and I played with her for a while.

Monday morning when I got back I went to a "Life After London" program to learn about some ways to come back here and get a visa, and then went to lunch with our professor from Temple at My Old Dutch Pancake House. It was delicious, but I was glad when I finally made it home and could take a nap. 

Now I have to go to bed so that tomorrow I can start the mess of work that is due next week. We've all just realised that we have almost no time left here, and that we have papers/presentations due in every single class next week. Should be a good time!

Goodnight, and sorry for the double post tonight. I wanted to get all of these things up here though. 

Enjoy your week

Tasarion

I've just realised I never posted this. So it was never a double post! So. I'm gonna post it now, adding on the past few days. 

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday (March 29/30/31) were relatively boring, though on Thursday I did get to go into the BBC newsroom, which was actually kind of cool. We've been stressing out about work a lot this week, so I've been doing a lot of reading and emailing (which means I've been thinking ahead and doing work before the night before it's due. I'm quite proud of myself)

Friday (April 1) I left with Liam for Wales. This is something I'm trying to actually write up into a proper story so you'll be able to read it in an interesting format. 

Today is Sunday (April 3) and I'm heading out to the football match in about an hour then spending the rest of the day writing my 4 papers that are due this week. 

Have a good rest of the weekend everyone, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENDAN BEGGS!  I'm going to try to call you today just to say hi and happy birthday. Since you're..ya know…old. 1/4 of a century this year is it? <3

Alright, that was a really long post. I'm done now, I swear.