My neighborhood!

Here are some pictures of my neighborhood, St. John's Wood!

My Flat! Outside view of the building my flat is in. My flat is the 2nd row of windows above the "Apostrophe" store.

A picture of the street my flat is on. I live in one of the "Posh-est" areas of London :)

My neighborhood pub:

Paul McCartney's London house is 2 blocks from me. This is the house:

Funny about the Royal Wedding

A friend here sent this to me:

Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle:

Edinburgh:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some guys ogling kilts... contemplating getting one...?

Me, Faye & SJ @ LuLu:

Faye, Emily & SJ @ LuLu:

Lulu:

Our brilliant bottle of vodka for 25 pounds instead of 150 thanks to Faye's awesome friend Donna:

Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle is about 30 minutes outside of London and is the largest inhabited castle in the world. Apparently the Queen prefers to spend her weekends there rather than at Buckingham Palace (in London).

This is the section of the castle that people live in:

A view of another part of the castle:

Me at the castle:

CURRY!

Just up the street from my office is a "market" called Whitecross Street Market. During the day vendors set up stations with food and different things to buy. Today I discovered that most vendors are food.. and 75% of them are curry, Indian or Thai food. This one's for you, Nancy :) DO YOU SEE ALL THAT NAAN!??!?! Today I got a tiny one of Thai red curry and then some Indian curry.. so I could have some for lunch and then some for dinner. Both were AMAZING. I think I'm getting lunch and dinner from here every day from now on :)

Human sandwich boards

They don't allow sandwich boards on the sidewalks because they're "tacky and ugly," but somehow this is better:

eeeeediots!

I have come to the conclusion that people have MAJOR anger issues here. I've been here a month, and I've already witnessed 3 serious verbal/physical altercations. Grown men with serious anger, ego, pride issues...

Altercation #1
The first one was on the train from London to Paris. This girl set up shop in the wrong seat and realized it, so as she was collecting her belongings to move the guy whose seat she was in was politely waiting in the aisle. When he got into his seat, the rude eeeediot behind him went off. I was in the seat right behind them and had to listen to it for the next 10 minutes. I thought they were going to break out in a fistfight.

Altercation #2
I was walking back to my hotel and all of the sudden I hear intense screaming behind me in the street. I look and 2 grown men, one in a silver Mercedes and one in a black Mercedes jump out of their cars and are SCREAMING at each other in the middle of the street. After listening for a few seconds I decided to keep walking, because if one of them had a gun I was sure they would use it. They sat there, screaming at each other, their cars holding up tons of traffic. At one point one of them took his newspaper, balled it up and threw it at the other hahaha.


Altercation #3
I was walking from my hotel to the tube and I hear shouting, horns beeping and a lot of commotion.. I look toward the street and see 2 buses both stopped, holding up traffic for blocks. Somehow they were turning left and ended up turning into each other (idiots). Both refused to move and kept saying that the other one should have to. Ridiculous. They were arguing and yelling at each other, blocking the entire street, during rush hour..

The line of traffic that formed because of these 2. This picture doesn't even do it justice:

Wedding!

Some pictures of the wedding festivities:

My new favorite discovery... some of the drinks I took along for our "picnic"

Cheering fans:

The streets aren't usually decorated like this but it was for the wedding of course:

Some of the characters at Hyde Park where we were watching the wedding:

Me and Faye, a girl I work with:

Me and the happy couple:

This bar serves some of their delicious cocktails out of paint cans haha:

Liquor in grocery stores!

Guys, hold the phone. They sell liquor drinks like this in the grocery stores here!! We've bought a bunch and some picnic-ish foods for when we stalk the wedding tomorrow. These things are brilliant. They have like 2.5 shots in them!

Candidate #2...

This is for you, Angie:

During dinner at this little French restaurant where Gilles works, so as not to offend anyone, I let Gilles and Olivia order me pate de foie gras. I almost threw up. Girls: picture the same reaction as me taking a shot of, let's say, tequila… except somehow I managed not to run to the bathroom and actually throw up. I was able to choke down half of it down by smothering it with salt, pepper and other spices, accompanyed it with bread, and chased it with red wine and water… the fact that I left half of it untouched on my plate earned me the name “Rican” which apparently is the equivalent of us calling a Frenchman a “French Frog.” Like, "Hey, look at that French frog over there haha!' Not exactly derogatory,  but not exactly the most endearing nickname ever.. When the manager called me that, he was only teasing, of course, because they had just called someone else that for real…. he thought it would be fun to comment on my wasted pate de foie gras, a true French delicasy. Talk of the “Rican” drew attention from nearby tables… especially the one behind Olivia, who was directly across from me. A very friendly, yet outspoken and boisterous man who I soon discovered is “Jean Noel Martin,” a French actor and comedian who felt the need to translate his name for me: "John Christmas Martin." He chatted with Gilles and Olivia, and kept glancing my way... after he discovered that I'm American, he went into a little comedy routine about Americans and American "things." Being a comedian and actor (see business card), Jean clearly doesn’t mind being the center of attention or causing a scene. He started with his best impression of Americans, pointing out that all Americans add the word f*cking to their sentences.. “Hey!  Would you look at that f*cking cut of meat!?” “How about that f*cking table over there??” etc etc. At this point I am annoyed, quiet and feeling like I’m quite the butt of many jokes between all of the locals…. everyone is talking in French and I understand about 1 out of every 100 words, so I have no idea what's going on. Every once in a while Gilles or Olivia would turn to me and politely translate., or they would switch to English for me.. Then I noticed that Jean was actually paying special attention to me. He was chatting me up across our tables, continuously smiling at me, and at one point in the middle of his meal, he got up and came over to give me his business card. He pleaded (literally) for me to call him later or the next day, whenever, so he could show me around Paris. He asked repeatedly where I was staying and where I was moving to when I changed hotels. He made me promise to call him. I politely agreed. Later Gilles informed me that he had to tell Jean to cool it and explained to him that I was a business client of his, haha.

We continued our dinner and later Gilles and I engage in lengthy business talk and Olivia turns around and Jean Noel strikes up more conversation with her. I found out later the extent of their conversation went something like this: Jean had a “flash-light” as they say. Meaning, he had an instant realization that he thought I’m beautiful. He repeatedly told Olivia I’m very sweet (must be because I’m humbled and quiet going into a foreign country where I’m under the impression that everyone will hate me). As Jean and his friends were leaving somehow it came up that a picture should be taken… Olivia took several with my camera for me… I figured why not, maybe someday soon this guy will be famous?! You'll see that Jean is not-so-discreetly resting his head on my left boob - he was literally nuzzling his cheek into it.. it was odd, uncomfortable and awkward all at once, but at the same time sort of funny.. you'll see in the next picture that he proceeds to kiss my hand incessantly. I literally had to jerk my hand away to get it back from him. While all of this is going on his friends join the picture then one of them keeps taking pictures of the spectacle, mostly from above us looking down, which I found odd.. I was like what the hell could he possibly be taking a picture of?! You can see him in the background of one of my pictures.. I’m convinced he was capturing Jean and my boobs, or just my boobs, which I am told French men love. I guess I'll never know.

I never did call Jean.. Sorry, Ang.. as of now I am still winning the bet :) I do not consider Jean Noel Martin to be a serious contender… however, it has occurred to me that this situation could continue to be entertaining.. any requests for me to e-mail him?? :)

Dinner with Olivia and Gilles

Gilles is my contact in Paris and he and his wife, Olivia, were the best hosts you could ever ask for. After our work obligations were completed, Olivia took me shopping on “Champs Elysess,” one of the most famous Paris streets (that has lots of shopping). She took me to Laduree, one of the best and most famous pastry shops in the city, and bought me several different types of macaroons (that were unbelievable) - chocolate, strawberry, apple, vanilla, anything you can imagine... That evening, we went for an authentic French dinner where they presented me with a book of photographs by one of Paris’ most famous photographers.I had foie gras (will get to that in a later post), pruneau, which I think just translates to prunes, but is a dessert of prunes soaked in liquor.. quite potent and odd, but good.

Aligot!

Nancy my dear, this is for you. It is a typical French dish made mainly of mashed potatoes, cheese and sometimes garlic. It's fun to watch them serve it, they sort of turn it into a show (and this was at an authentic French restaurant, not a touristy place).

Princess Diana...

For some reason, one of the sights I really wanted to see was the tunnel where Princess Diana died. As we were driving back from my sight visits on Thursday Gilles pointed it out to me as we drove through it.. I later went back on my own to get a better look. The golden sculpture thing (that you can barely seen in the background) was informally dedicated to her.

Hugh Laurie (House) sighting

This was my first day in Paris.. I had randomly braved the metro system and ended up in the heart of Paris, just wandering around.. I walked down this one street and saw a scene of paparazzi and decided to linger and see what it was about... then I figured, what the hell, I'll take a picture too. I had to send it to PB and asked her who it was :) I knew I recognized him, but wasn't sure why, haha.

Eiffel Tower

Naturally, I loved the Eiffel Tower.. but not until I saw it at night.. I saw it several times during the day continued to be, dare I say, unimpressed... but then at night, I loved it! People set up picnics and drink wine and champagne and just spend hours sitting in the huge lawn that stretches in front of it.

Me in the ET: