“Oh My Gosh Girl, You’re A Nightmare!” - Seema Nabavi

The fact that I’ve only managed to have 6 posts for the entire month of November kind of disgusts me. That, and the fact that by the end of this post, I’ll only be up to the 15^th of November makes me wonder what I have been doing with my life. And then I remember, oh yeah, OUT HAVING FUN. And then I don't feel quite so bad, but my stomach still turns at the thought of being this behind. Bleh. No use crying over spilled tea, eh? Onward we go!

Friday I was pretty wiped out after all the excitement that was Thursday, so I just lounged around all day putting my life back together (cleaning, a little homework, napping, TV, etc.). I was really trying to save all my energy for Saturday when I would be going on the Secret Santa shoot. Secret Santa was one of the shorts Josh was producing for the BBC and that I had been looking forward to for about a month. The last time I was on set was… wow, I guess that would have to be the Sports Studio commercial back in April! I can’t believe it’s been 7 months! I had no clue what they’d have me be doing either. I was going under the title of PA (Production Assistant) but over here, they call being a PA, a runner, and the verb tense is runnering. How’s that for proper English? Oh, I’m just runnering today, no big deal. So I wasn’t really sure what my ‘runnering’ tasks would be, all I knew was that I was supposed to be at Richmond station at 3:30 and that somebody was going to pick me up and take me to set. Turns out that ‘somebody’ was Stefan, the AC. The set ended up being about a 30 minute drive away, the whole time I’m slightly freaking out that we were driving on the wrong side of the road and I should really have a steering wheel in front of me! I tried to just concentrate on what they were playing on the radio instead. (The Libertines, in case you were wondering).

Don’t worry Su, I’m not going to go on and on about the shoot. For starters, the Brits have a weird sense of humor, and I’m not sure the subject matter of the short would exactly cross over well. Let’s just say it was one of the weirder sets I’ve been on. The troop of boys that wrote this script, funny enough, call themselves, RocketSausage. Take away from that what you will. You can check out an example of a short they’ve done previously HERE. Obviously, with a title of 'Secret Santa,' the scene is set during Christmas time and that meant we had to put up lights and make the scene look festive. I personally set up the Christmas tree! Josh came up to me and asked if ‘it feels like Christmas yet’ and was put off when I said, “No, we haven’t even had Thanksgiving!” I’ll make sure to post a link of Secret Santa when it’s finished editing, (the good part is that it HAS to be finished by Christmas time, so I’ll know when it’s up.) I tried my best to be complacent and not sassy per Josh’s request. Apparently the guys who owned the shop we were shooting in got a kick out of the fact that I was American. This lead to a lot of questions, my favorite being why are you here?

It was a night shoot, most of which shot outside, but miraculously, I wasn’t too cold! Just my hands, but then again, they always seem to be cold. Josh gave me a pair of his gloves to wear, which obviously were way to big for me. I felt like the Hamburger Helper hand, but sadly my impersonation of this fell short on my audience as Josh had no idea who the Hamburger Helper hand guy is. He thought it was the Kool-Aid man, but since they don’t have Kool-Aid in the UK, he had no idea what it was called:

ME: These things are huge! I feel like the Hamburger Helper Hand. “One pound! One pan! One tasty mealllll!”

JOSH: What?

ME: You know, it’s what the Hamburger Helper Hand says. Wait, do you guys even have Hamburger Helper?

JOSH: No, but is that they guy who breaks stuff and goes “ohhh yeahhh?”

ME: Haha, no that’s the Kool-Aid man!

JOSH: Yeah, what’s he supposed to be?

ME: Kool-Aid! A big jug of Kool-Aid who wears shorts and throws awesome parties! You guys don’t have Kool-Aid, do you? Aww man, you’re missing out! It’s like fruit punch but it comes in a powder so you can make it extra sugary and uhhh it’s amazing! Now I want some Kool-Aid!

JOSH: Why is he always breaking things?

ME: Hahahahahaha, you need to listen to Dane Cook.

JOSH: Wait, so what’s the mascot that you push over and giggles?

ME: THE PILLSBURY DOUGH BOY! You don’t push him down! You poke his stomach and he giggles with delight, it’s a classic!

JOSH: Why do you need so many mascots for your food?

ME: Oh man, don’t even get me started on the Puffy Taco!

This lead to me trying my best to explain the Mission games and Taco run to Josh who said I was crazy, but then said he’d make me a Puffy Taco shirt before I left for the States again. Haha, I’m sure that won’t really happen, but all the same, Cheers Josh! (And for those of you non-native San Antonians who have no idea what I’m talking about --> google!) But I think Josh might have a point, we do like our food mascots in America… And here it is guys, the moment you've all been waiting for, JOSH! Josh is the man in all those layers with the silly hat and the puffy vest. It's his 'stern' face which I get sometimes at work, haha. And yes yes, I'll get a better shot in the future!

I ended up getting to do a little bit of everything; paying taxi drivers, making tea, seting up props, making last minute props, becoming the actor liaison, and they even let me slate! When we broke for dinner and they put the camera down, I saw that we were shooting on a RED! Whoamygosh, for those of you who don’t know how amazing this camera is, it’s prolly the most expensive and best camera on the market right now. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with one before, and they’re so nice. When I saw it, I got all excited, which Josh replied with “Oh yeah, I forgot you actually know about this stuff.” Whaaat? Yes I know about this ‘stuff’! And how dare you call it stuff.

Now usually I have a pretty good memory, but when I was asked to do 5 things in the span of 5 minutes, and I never really met the actors when they showed up, how do you expect me to know who they all are? Seema kept handing me things to give to such and such person and when I asked who that was, she just kinda rolled her eyes and said “Oh my gosh girl, you’re a nightmare!” But we all know I really wasn’t. Josh and Seema both said I did a really good job and I got hugs and kisses from both, so that can’t be too nightmarish. I ended up getting home at between 2 and 3 am and when I woke up at like noon on Sunday, I had the sweetest text from Josh that said, “Devon, thank you so much for all your hard work today. You were invaluable. Sorry for keeping you so late. But I’m so grateful that you came along.” How sweet is that? Invaluable is such a nice word! I hope I hear attached to my name more often in the future!

I was soo sore on Sunday though. I don’t know why my shoulders were that stiff, but it felt like I had the worst gym session the day before and every part of my body ached. I wanted to stay in bed and sleep, but I had some blogging to catch up with as well as making dinner for the next week, and I ended up staying up later than usual to video chat with my parents. In retrospect, had I known what was going to happen, I would have just gone to bed or at least napped more that afternoon. I went to bed at 1 that morning, but got woken up at 3:30 AM by a fire alarm! Seriously?! What the f is going on? By the time I got up, put on a coat, put on my boots, found my wallet (you need your ID to swipe in twice to get into your room) and opened the door to my room, the alarm turned off. Yay, pointless! And now I’m awake. But just when you think you’re starting to fall asleep again, nope! Another fire alarm at 5 AM! This one I actually got all the way to the lobby before it turned off. ARGH! Why do I even bother trying to be a good tenant in this crappy building?

I showed up to work on Monday exhausted. I must have looked ill or something too because Wicksey was apparently worried and sent Georgie to spy on me. Thanks for the concern you silly Brits, I just need sleep or real coffee. When I walked in that day, we were getting everything ready for the big Blah Blah Blah shoot just two weeks away and Wicksey thought a good prop for Bono would be a giant map of Africa. So that’s what I did that day at work, I built Africa! I know you can’t tell from the picture, but it’s actually about 3-4 ft high and about 4 ft across. Franny came up when I was making it saying “Everyone always forgets Madagascar!” but I promise you Fran, I didn’t forget! We just can’t really have it when it’s three dimensional. I’m rather impressed with my work if I do say so myself, and both the Bens and the girls liked it, so yay, go me!

Unfortunately, Monday ended up being the longest day ever. I still had to go to class and I didn’t get home till 8 at night, eat dinner, book my trip to Prague with Jeni, and do laundry. And my body still ached from the Secret Santa shoot. Ahh sleep my slippery elusive friend, sometimes you can be so cruel.

Love,

A-needs-to-buy-some-proper-gloves-still-Devon

"I Hate You. And By Hate, I Mean I Wish I Could Have Been There" - Leanne Mertz

Bahh, where has all my time gone? All of the sudden, November is here, I got slammed with things to do and people to see and now the month is almost over and I only have 5 more weeks left in perhaps my favorite city in the world! I saw perhaps, because I haven’t been to Paris yet. And if it’s anything like what I’ve obsessed about for the past 6+ years of my life, Paris just may take the cake for favorite city in the world. Well find out soon enough, but in the meantime, my excuse for the delay on my blog is that I don’t want it to be over.

Come along with me back to Tuesday, November 9^th … It much simpler time, the Berlin Wall had been torn down for 21 years and I was spending another day at Eyeworks doing research on Paris Hilton and Bono for the television show currently under development (we’re shooting the run through/pilot in 2 days). I was particularly excited that day because I was meeting up with Monique after class for dinner and to discuss Paris. Now while going to Paris is all very exciting, it’s almost as exciting when someone you know is just as excited for you. Thank you Georgie Jessop, you’re wonderful darling! When Georgie was in Uni, part of her course included French and she studied for a year in Paris. I guess it pays to be fluent in another language, no? When I mentioned to her that I was planning my trip, she got so excited and started making a list of everything I should go and see on the spot. I just need her to teach me French first! But all the same, after watching dozens French films, reading Jeni’s guide book, studying Art History and talking to Georgie can’t help me figure out Paris, than I shouldn’t be allowed to go.

Class was a laughable disappointment. That week we took a personality test! Wow, guess what, this is supposed to be psychologically accurate because just like Match.com, you’re tested on 16 different levels of your personality. I’ve taken much simpler personality tests that have scored me more accurately. This one put me in the middle of everything saying that I didn’t really feel or act strongly on everything. I doubt this. In fact, I have a very strong feeling towards that test, so clearly that shows how wrong my score was. I always find those test silly anyways. It should really be called a, “How am I feeling right now?” test. Oh well, nothing like Pizza Express and good company to cheer me up! Monique’s friend Matt came to dinner with us, and while he was an enjoyable person, he was very very chatty. I should introduce him to Dariya! They’d get along super well, only problem is they would be fighting over who got to talk the whole time. Who’d win the war for conversation dominance? While the first 5 minutes would undoubtedly be funny, I wouldn’t like to stay to find out.

Wednesday was one of my up and down days at work. I find this happens more when I stay for whole days rather than half days. Half days, I usually can complete whatever task they had me do, and whether I was successful or not, I generally leave right after lunch when everyone’s still in fun lunch mode and no matter the day, leave on a good note. When I’m there for the whole day, the afternoon takes on a different feel; everyone is more centered on their task and the office is a bit quieter. The morning was successful because I found a video that Georgie couldn’t, but the afternoon wasn’t because Sarah was being her superstar self and I felt like I wasn’t contributing. I guess you can say my happiness at work is in direct correlation to my usefulness. Sometimes when I’m there all day, I feel like I run out of stuff to do and I feel useless. But no matter, because before I knew it, Thursday was upon us!

When I showed up to Art and Society, I was bummed to find out that Peter wasn’t there again! And who was in charge but bald professor man, who’s name is Stephen. I shouldn’t have said anything when we went to that National Gallery because now I was on his radar as “the girl who knows about art” and he kept trying to talk to me. Arg! How am I going to slip away from the group to look at what I want now? That week we went to see The Wallace Collection, which is located in this very old Aristocratic house. I was slightly put out by the fact that the museum is actually right around the corner from where I live. Why on Earth did I get out of bed and go to class in the rain if I was just going to come back here? I could have gotten another hour of sleep at least! Oh well, at least now I have a hot chocolate and I’m getting a walk in. The good thing about this museum is that it’s too small to tour in such a big group, so we were pretty much free to roam about at our own leisure. This makes me happy! I can take pictures of what I want at my own speed and not have to listen to Stephen. I was particularly excited because The Swing by Fragonard was supposedly located there. It was one of the few Rococo paintings we talked about in Art History and I was anxious to see it in person!

Sure enough, as soon as we walk in, Stephen comes up to me and starts asking me about every single paining on the wall in the first room. No, I don’t know anything about them, please leave me alone Stephen. I spent the rest of the hour enjoying art and avoiding Stephen. Turns out my Fragonard, which is usually located in the room currently under construction, wasn’t on display that week. Boo! All the same, I’m glad we went there. The basement is covered with suits of armor and old swords and guns while the ground and first floor are rooms filled with paintings, antique furniture and other collector pieces. The look of the place was incredible and one of my favorite things about this house was that each room had it’s own color and was decorated accordingly. I also liked getting to look at the museum at my own pace because it allowed me to slip out slightly early.

That week, my theatre class wasn’t meeting at our usual class time, but two hours earlier and at the National Theatre on the Southbank. This meant I had to leave art class early to make sure I’d get there on time. Fine by me. Any chance to walk along the Southbank puts me in a better mood. Sure enough, I got to take more pictures of the skate park, the trees, and just general ‘fall/winterness’ of London. I was also glad that it wasn’t raining since it had been raining off and on pretty hard all morning. This didn’t just interfere with my everyday life, oh no, this messed up even bigger plans of mine. That evening was the red carpet for the World Premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I and Laura, Matt and I were planning on going to try and see the stars. Laura and I had been texting all morning trying to decide whether or not we should still go. By noon, I had pretty much decided that I was in London, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I was going, bad weather and all, damn it! First I just had to survive theatre class.

That turned out to be quite easy. The reason behind meeting at the National Theatre was due to the fact that we were getting a behind stage tour. Unlike the Globe, the National knows how to give its fans a proper tour and I was quite impressed. We got to see all the different stages (they have 3) and talk about the different advantages to the three different kinds and what a director/set designer is looking for. I had previously seen a show at the National with Matt and Laura called “Blood and Gifts” so I was pretty interested in seeing how the stored the different sets. Unlike most theatres, the National will rotate shows out nightly so that they can offer a greater variety. This means that if a show ends at 10 o’clock that night, a crew comes in and immediately starts pulling the set down to put up the other set for a completely different show at 7 pm the following night. Phew! Too much moving and stress for me, thanks. We also got to see the giant horse puppet they use in War Horse, which made me think of my Uncle Tim. I’d bet he’d get a kick out of playing with a giant horse puppet that you have to wear.

When the tour was over, I wanted to go straight to Leicester Square, but Nicole convinced me to be a good student and actually go to the second half of class. Finnne, but you owe me Nicole! So off we dashed to Regent street to talk about a play I didn’t actually see before running quickly out the door at 3:30 to Leicester Square. That was probably the worst walk anywhere I’ve had in my entire life. It was incredibly windy and still raining. Walking with an umbrella was pointless. I know, I tried. As did Nicole and everyone else on the street. It got to be pretty funny when the wind started turning everyone’s umbrellas inside out, but not so funny when it was strong enough to actually push you back and splash rain up in the your face. Cheers, London!

When Nicole and I finally got to Leicester’s Square, it was already packed. People had been camping out the day before, so I knew we weren’t going to get the most amazing spots, but I still hoped that we’d be able to see the red carpet. The actually carpet stretched zigzag through the park leading up to the theatre and was packed with people on either side. There was a giant screen showing the trailer on loop, giant torches of fire and thousands of screaming girls. All in all, FANTASTIC! You could practically feel the buzz in the air of all the diehard Harry Potter fans who made the pilgrimage to the Square.

So around the square Nicole and I went, looking for any sort of opening. I found a gap by some girls holding up a sign that said “Fred and George, look over EAR” only to see the press leaving. Hmm, that can’t be a good sign, keep moving. I doubled back the way thinking how the hell am I going to see anything and then, I found it! The perfect spot where a stretch of red carpet was visible without being covered in fans, in fact, no one had even realized the potential of such a spot! SCORE. It was inbetween an ambulance and a media fan, right behind the park’s fence. It was located at a stretch with a corner, so I could see down the stretch of carpet where the press lines up to take photos and then where they actually start the walk down the carpet to sign autographs, take pictures and begin what must seem like a 100+ interviews that night. DOUBLE SCORE!

As I was standing there, several other passerbyers clued in to my fab spot and a small gathering started forming behind me. I stood there for about 30 min on cloud nine about my excellent scouting abilities before a police man came up and told us we weren’t allowed to stand there and to shoo. Ughh, fine! So I ran to stand behind the portable fence they had set up right behind the vans, putting me at the same viewing point, just about 7 more feet back and with a fence in my face. No matter, still the best I was going to get and I was in the first row! Now I was only about 30 ft from the red carpet, but I was going to SEE it!!! (And despite how these pictures look, the view was actually pretty good, my camera just has problems zooming in on anything farther than 5 ft away.) I was so jazzed…

And then the wait began. By then it was about 4, 4:30 and the stars didn’t actually arrive till 6:30ish. So Nicole and I waited in the cold and oh yeah, it decided to rain some more for 2 more hours. In that time Matt and Laura showed up to join the crowd I had gathered (which had started to squish me into the fence a little bit and were attempting to take pictures over my head which I did NOT like!). Every now and then you’d hear a mumbled voice over the speakers being met by a huge scream from the fans and roaring blasts of fire from the torches but there weren’t any stars! They were just trying to pump the crowd up, as if Harry Potter fans in London need pumping up at a premiere! Every time the screaming started I would check the press walk of the red carpet for flashes, but alas no stars, so I started watching the reflection of the big screen in the rear window of the ambulance. And then all of the sudden, I saw flashes. And standing on the little block platform they put the fence in, I stood on my tip toes and saw two men in matching suits with darkish hair and … “OMG, IT’S THE TWINS, IT’S THE TWINS!!!!” Yup, I saw them first! And then the whole group went crazy screaming and taking pictures. I was actually too close to the fence to take an accurate picture when everyone behind me was pushing, so I threw my camera at Laura to take pictures, but she was having a similar problem, so she gave it back and I ended up getting a picture of them staring to sign autographs. Arg, damn that statue in my way! But stars were finally here!! This lead to Devon doing play by play for everyone behind me. “Alright, here’s more flashes and it looks like… yup, it’s Daniel Radcilffe!! HE’S COMING!” And here I was thinking 'I’m not going to be one of those screaming gi- "OMG IT’S DANIEL RADCLIFFE, AHHHHHHH!" Yes, sadly, I was one of those. But you know what? Were you in Leicester Square during a Harry Potter Premiere, I think you’d scream too!

All in all, we ended up seeing the Weasley Twins, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, the girl that plays Fleur, the girl that plays Cho Chang, Zac Effron (I swear it was him, and several girls behind me said it was him too, why was he there??!), Tom Felton, The girl that plays Ginny, the girl that plays Fleur's little sister, one of the Parvati twins, and more! The best was when Warwick Davis showed up with his whole little family! I felt privileged! I met him just last week, and here he is on a red carpet! Funny enough, I think we was wearing the same suit… And then the people we had no idea who they were showed up. Turned out it was the ‘stars’ of X-Factor, the crazy popular British TV show which is a lot like American Idol and in my opinion, complete crap. Boo you girl in shinny glittery dress with crazy hair who we thought was Helena Bonham Carter from 30 ft away! You’re not in Harry Potter! We left when we saw JK Rowling on the big screen and had seen most of the big stars. By then it was 7:30 and I was freezing! I was standing pressed up against the fence for the past 3 hours and couldn’t move my legs. Nicole was laughing at me as we made our way back to the tube, me walking slowly and with a slight limp. Hmm… I think this means I deserve a Gingerbread Latte from Starbucks, the likes of which I’ve been denying myself saying I need to ‘deserve’ it first. Hmm cold for 3 hours, I just decided that counts!

When I finally got home to the comfort of my room and uploaded pictures, I was all ready to sit down at my computer, blog, watch some Modern Family and go to bed, but Miss Bell had other plans. “I wanna go outttt!” And by out, she meant a pub-crawl with Sarah (not to be confused with Super Star Sarah from work), Tom and J. As Jeni would say, “The gang’s all here!” Ah well, I guess there’s no better ending to such a full day, eh? As I was getting ready to go out, I saw fireworks in the sky looking as if they were coming from the direction of Leicester’s Square. Ahhh, what a little tease you are Harry Potter, now I had to wait a whole week to see the actual movie!

Love,

An-extremely-pleased-she-actually-got-to-see-the-stars-Devon

"Did I Hear a Rumor That You’re Looking For A Paris Travel Buddy?" – Katie Howard

First off, Happy Harry Potter Day everyone! For those of you who have been to the midnight showings, I don’t want to know. I’m seeing it in approximately 9 hours due to the fact that the UK doesn’t believe in midnight showings. And if you want to brag, then I’ll just pull out the fact that I saw the stars at the world premiere, so ha! But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Back to 2 weeks ago…

‘Remember remember the 5^th of November’, the phrase from V for Vendetta that applies to Guy Fawkes Day. For those of you who don’t know what Guy Fawkes Day is, allow for me to interject with some historical perspective. Back in the 1605 there was a group of English Catholics led by a man named Guido Fawkes who was upset with the British government because King James's nine-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was to going to be installed as the Catholic Head of State. Thus the only way to stop this would be to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on November 5, 1605. Unfortunately for him, he was found guarding barrels of gunpowder and the attempt was thwarted. He was then arrested, tortured and sentenced to execution. Thus, the Fifth of November has become a holiday in the UK known as Guy Fawkes Day or more commonly ‘Bonfire Night’. This consists of building a giant bonfire where you place a little doll representing Guy Fawkes at the top, burn it, and then light off a bunch of fireworks. There's also a lot of Catholic and Protestant hate/burning of relics that I'm not exactly sure how/where they come into play, but then again, I'm not British or Catholic, so it's not really essential to me. Why the Brits want to celebrate the fact that a man almost succeeded in burning their government to the ground is beyond me, but there it is, and they love it. Needless to say, I wanted to see fireworks and celebrate a weird holiday, but when I asked everyone at work where one goes to see fireworks, I got a bunch of mixed responses, most of which were places to go outside of London, like Leeds. I’m sure the fireworks at Leeds are fantastic, but I can’t exactly just go to Leeds.

So low and behold, the Fifth of November is upon us and I still haven’t figure out where to go. That afternoon, Jeni and met up to get some coffee and to exchange books. Turns out the place we picked out along the Southbank had a little market right in front. Yay markets! It all smelled so good, and tempting. My favorite was the churro man. Haha, they don’t have proper salsa or even tortillas in every grocery store, but they have a man selling churros! Ok well if you insist on a sample churro man, I’m not going to say no. Being outside didn’t last too long. For starters there was an idiotic man who was sitting a table away feeding the pigeons. Apparently the pigeons didn’t get the memo that he left because they still kept hanging around and expecting food. And these are nasty pigeons! Secondly, it started getting very windy and slightly rainy. Just when I was enjoying people watching and chatting with Jeni, here comes London to interrupt. Sigh, what can you do? I’ve already gotten used to it. Before we parted ways, I asked Jen if she was interested in finding fireworks tonight, but she doesn’t really like fireworks. What??? Fireworks are my favorite! One of the best Fourth of July’s I ever had was when I was in 5^th or 6^th grade and my best friend Miranda’s parents took us to see fireworks. We sat in truck, ate slim jims and watched fireworks. And how can you forget Disney fireworks during Christmas? Not like fireworks, humph. By the time I got home, it was raining pretty heavily. I thought surely, you can’t light fireworks in this weather. Hahaha, I forgot where I was. Silly me, of course you can! Turns out I didn’t need to figure out where to go, I had a perfect view from my bedroom window. In fact I can sit in bed and see them. So that’s what I did. I made myself a cup of tea, some strawberry cheesecake, some lactose pills and enjoyed the fireworks from inside the comfort of my own room.

Saturday and Sunday were spent getting my life together. You know, doing laundry, vacuuming, talking to friends back home, blogging, writing postcards, going for a walk in the park, watching more fireworks from my window, sleeping, and American TV. I also went down stairs to complain about my bathroom, which 2 weeks later, nothing has been done about it and I’m a little upset by this. If this was TCU, the order would have been through and the problem fixed by now. And I know how the process works! I worked at the desk in both a freshman dorm and the on campus apartments and had to fill out many service request forms. For starters, one of the lights in my bathroom went out. I’d like some light when I brush my teeth please! Secondly, and the most concerning, I think my shower is leaking. Every time I take a shower, a little square of water appears on the carpet by the giant mirror on the wall. This is far enough from the door so that it has to be coming from underneath the carpet or the shower behind the wall. Yay, my room is defective! And I think possibly growing mold because it smells! And the stupid people can’t come up and look at it! I even had a dream not too many nights ago that they blamed it on me and charged me £100,000 in damages. They wouldn’t believe me that it wasn’t my fault but in fact their stupid design for a bathroom and my mom was yelling at me about how I was going to afford that. ‘You already signed your life away for TCU’ is what I specifically remember. Thanks subconscious! It seems silly now, but when I woke up, I felt stressed and it took me and minute to remember that there was no bill and I do NOT owe them a vast sum of money because they still haven’t even fixed the light in my bathroom! Gah, Westminster, you make me so frustrated!

While it was nice to have a free weekend to relax and tidy my life up, it was slightly upsetting because the reason I kept it free was because Josh’s BBC shoot was supposed to be that weekend. Instead it got pushed back to the next weekend because of the fireworks. Apparently they can ruin the sound if they’re going off in the background and there’s nothing you can do to control it. So that Monday at work, everything was in full swing to make sure that we had all the props ready for the short that Saturday. This included Josh going up to the attic space and getting down the Christmas tree. And look everyone, I took an unsuspecting picture of Josh and Ben! The woman on the right in the striped shirt is Seema and works in the production department and the other woman holding the ladder is Elena, our wonderful receptionist. I didn’t say it was a good picture or that you could necessarily see Josh clearly, but it gives you a better layout of work. Well, kinda. I know you want pictures, but I can’t just go into work and snap them. They don’t understand, I’ve tried to explain, believe me! All I get is, “why do they need to know who we are?” But before I leave, I’ll give you a video tour of the place and include a group picture. They can’t say no to a group picture before their American Import leaves, can they?

After work I headed to my film class where I ran into a bit of an awkward situation with Katie, the girl I traveled to Oxford, Bath and Stonehenge with. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a nice girl, but I think it’s safe to say we have a difference of opinion on how to travel and just taste in general. You read about how our trip went, some definite weird points. So I was surprised when she passed me a note asking to go to Paris with me. What?? A few weeks ago, I got some bad news that my old roommate and good friend wouldn’t be able to come to Paris with me like we originally planned. I was disappointed that she wouldn’t be there with me, but I knew how things work out and decided to go anyways. I even managed to convince another friend of mine to come with me and was having dinner with her the next day to talk about Paris. But back to film class, Katie and I start passing a note back in forth even though we’re sitting right next to each other like we’re in 6^th grade again:

KATIE: Did I hear a rumor that you’re looking for a Paris travel buddy?

ME: Oh yeah, I was, but I think I convinced another one of my friends to come with me.

KATIE: Oh well, if it doesn’t work out, I’d be willing to tag along. Or even if it does, would you mind if I came? You can say no.

ME: Well, I’m having dinner with her tomorrow, so I’ll let you know.

KATIE: Ok cool, keep me posted.

How do you say, ‘I’m sorry, I was looking forward to going with Monique who you don’t know and that might be awkward’ nicely? You can’t. What does a girl have to go through to get to Paris here?

By the time I got home, ate dinner and watched Dexter, it was almost nine. Just enough time to blog, I thought. Well that was before I opened up iTunes and found the program that Jeni had installed. Oh dear, what have you done Miss Bell, my life will never be the same! This program look in your library, sees what bands you like, and gives you a calendar view of all the concerts by the bands you like within a X mile radius to you. Oh dear, guess who’s in London? Dirty Projectors! Spoon! Beach House! Ratatat! M.I.A! Interpol! This led to two hours of looking up concerts and ticket prices, no lie. My first stab was for Dirty Projectors, but sadly, tickets were like £50. That’s a plane ticket. But Beach House is on a Tuesday night and only £15? YES! So guess who’s going to see Beach House in London in only a few days? ME! So excited!

And now, you’ll have to excuse me for cutting short. The time has come to meet up with Matt, Laura and their friends Andrew and Annie (who are visiting from Ireland) to hang out around London before Harry Potter. The Agenda includes going to Harrods again, King’s Cross for some Platform 9 ¾ photos, and helping others with their HP shirts. God, I LOVE LONDON.

Love,

Too-excited-for-Harry-Potter!-Devon

“I Want Mitch And Cam To Adopt Me. He Can Dress Me Up As Famous Singers And Take Pictures Of Me All Day!” –Jeni Bell

It seems that I was never meant to keep up with blogging. Every time I sit down at my computer, something more important than reliving the recent but past events of my life seems to come up. Sad because, let’s face it, I do have an amazing wit and style to my writing, and isn’t that why you bother reading this? I just know what y’all are sitting there thinking, ‘What ridiculous things did Devon do and misspell this week?’ Ok, I’m kidding. I’m not THAT narcissistic, geez. But in order to be productive, I decided to move to the kitchen so I don’t end up picking which concert to go to in London, planning my trip to Paris, letting Jeni convince me to go out, or realizing that I should actually do some homework. Plus, I can keep an eye on my beans!

So backing up to last week Wednesday… the inhabitants of London woke up to the middle of a tube strike. Lovely, ain’t it? All in all, it really didn’t affect me at all. I was still able to get to both work and up to Harrow for class, but several of the stops along the way to Queen’s Park (where I work) were out of commission. This is one of my favorite things to watch. While we’re stopped at a station, an unsuspecting person who didn’t bother to look up what stops the tube strike is effecting will be sitting all calmly until the conductor person gets on the intercom and says something to the effect of, “heads up, this train isn’t stopping at the next two stops so you should get off now so you won’t be screwed” and the person will jump out of their seat and run out the doors. Haha, they always run! And I’m always surprised as to how many people are unaware of what’s going on around them. Tisk tisk.

When I got to work however, part of me wished that I hadn’t come. I like to blame a lovely sister of mine known as Monica for everyone at work thinking I’m crazy. Thanks a lot Mon, I owe you one. Allow me to explain. During the summers when Monica and I were old enough to be left alone without a babysitter, but Monica was kinda ‘in charge’ we spent our days under a schedule. Well, Monica’s schedule really. For the most part, I didn’t really care, I got to do things I wanted, even though it wasn’t necessarily in the order I wanted to do them in, but truly, who didn’t love the 12 o’clock block? During this time we would usually either take turns picking a movie to watch with lunch or we would settle on something to watch on TV. I say ‘settle’ because it would usually be ‘which one of these TV shows that Monica wants to watch can you take the longest?’ and usually, I would pick Unsolved Mysteries. Other shinning examples of TV that Monica likes to watch are: Trauma, Life in the E.R, and Impact, Stories of Survival or my personal favorite, I Shouldn’t Be Alive! With the wonderful creation of the Discovery Health Channel, other miraculous TV shows, such as Mystery Diagnosis have found their way into her TV watching pleasure. I still don’t understand what you get out of shows like these Monica, but I HATE THEM. I do not like to watch TV about the girl who fell out of a window and got impaled on a fence outside her dorm, or the girl whose friend smashed her head in with a golf club on accident, but wow, guess what? They both survived! This is not good TV to me!! In fact, it really creeps me out. I don’t know how to explain it other than it makes me feel sick. I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach and I start to feel panicky and nauseous. But guess who’s decided to develop a show that deals within this very same nature? Yay Eyeworks, I hate you.

What part did I get to play in the development of such a wonderful show? Why I got to look up all the shows out there that had similar approaches. Thankfully, I knew a bunch of them without even having to touch a computer, but sadly, this meant coming up with appropriate clips as well. That sucked. When I stumbled upon the clip from I Shouldn’t be Alive! which dealt with the yacht and the sharks, I had to go outside for a while. It was freaking me out all over again. So while everyone is doing just fine and dandy in their own little desk, I’m sitting there flinching, covering my eyes and making noises at mine. This gathered some unwanted looks of attention. I felt bad for Sarah who sat the closest to me and who was going through her own personal crisis that day. The day before, Sarah was complaining of her back teeth hurting and we all assumed that her wisdom teeth were making their appearance. Turns out, she had this weird thing where she had ulcers in between every single one of her teeth! Talk about painful. Poor Sarah had spent the morning at the dentist getting them all popped and was on antibiotics, painkillers and looked like she needed to go to bed. I’m sure she enjoyed listening to me squirm while she was in much more discomfort. Ouccch.

Thursday we went to the Museum of London for class. This is the most interactive museum I’ve been in since the Whitney, which probably explains why there were so many children there. This was a rather odd visit since Peter, our main professor disappeared in the middle. Usually we get an hour lecture and then meet up half an hour later at whatever location was specified, but this week Peter disappeared somewhere between the lecture and the museum. This left the bald man who knows nothing about art in charge. Greattt. I had no idea what to do while he was there, he took us to a section of the museam and then just kinda stood there. Are we supposed to look around now? Is there a speech first? He just looked at his little paper to make sure we were in the right room for about 2 min before letting us look around. Peter eventually showed up, literally out of nowhere. Here I am looking at an old map of London, and I look up and wham! Peter’s there. But yay, here he is full of great advice! Sure enough he starts talking about the design of the museum and what exhibits to check out and ideas about different way to think about them. I love this man. I wish he could be my tour guide on all my museum visits.

The nice thing about this visit, was that we were somewhat free to travel at our own speeds and play with whatever we wanted to. Like I said, it’s very interactive, so they have an old jail cell that you can actually go in and see old ‘graffiti’ (shout out to Su), maps that you can turn a handle and see different routes for different trades, random things with little flaps hiding things to look at and actual artifact you get to touch, and all these interactive screens to play with. This one screen has all these little symbols floating around like the little bathroom sign people, a British phone booth, Olympic rings and you have to grab the object while it’s in this circle.

Then it prompts you with a question affecting that object and London’s future. Like, “Even though most of them aren’t really wired anymore, what should we do with the iconic red phone booths? A.) Keep them the way they are, they’re iconic! B.)Get rid of them or C.) keep them, but turn them into something else, like a mini shop.” Interesting way of doing a poll, no? The kids loved it, they got to bang on a giant screen. (I know this for a fact, as they kept interrupting my poll taking.) There was also one that allowed you play a game to see what skill/trade you would have been best at during the Industrial Revolution and one that tested your knowledge about the water pollution fiasco in British history. Yeah, I knew nothing about that. Apparently there was some huge issue about clean water when sewage was being dumped into the Thames in like the 17 or 18^th century? And there was a ton of stuff on the great fire of London, complete with a video and interactive model that lights ‘on fire’. It was all very dramatic.

The other wonderful thing about this museum was that it goes all the way to present day, which means that yup, tools that we use today are in the museum. I saw this and got a kick out of it, and I can just hear what you’d say all about it in relation to culture memory Jules. It’s a freaking blackberry! I don’t think we’ve come that far that it needs to be in a museum just yet! And yes, it's right next to some necklace that's 100s of years old.

On to theatre class I went. Only problem was that week, the class was not being taught by our original professor, but by the Module leader, and she is not nice! I very much dislike and disapprove of the lady, and I didn’t really stop myself from making that obvious. Her teaching style is very much like a fill in the blank lecture, except you have no idea what the blanks are supposed to be and she gets very agitated if you don’t guess correctly. We were discussing the ballet performance Jeni and I saw weeks ago and she has some rather strong opinions for someone who’s never danced before. I’m not saying that I have. I mean I took a class a year ago, but that does not qualify me as a dancing expert by any means. But this lady had a very strong opinion on the performances like, “it was boring.” You’re a professor! I mean I could do better. When I disagreed, she looked at me with these little beady eyes and went “hmmm interesting, I completely disagree, but hmmm.” She also had a knack for asking condescending questions and then getting mad when we refused to answer them. She ended the class an hour and a half early saying “get up, you’re impossible to teach today, we’re going to the Victorian and Albert Museum to look at the ballet exhibit.” Woa, like hell I am! Pump the breaks lady, I’ve already been to that museum, I’d much rather go home, watch TV and eat chocolate than go with you to spoil yet something else I enjoy.

So Jeni and bailed and did exactly that. We ended up buying chocolate and going back to watch Modern Family in my room. Poor Jen had just started watching season one for about a week and was completely hooked. And how could I pass up watching Modern Family with someone else? I ended up getting her to the end of season one before J was ready to go out (Tom was meeting us later that night). We ended up having a very fun evening in the Tree House again where Jeni was a big hit with all the 40+ year old men. It was really funny, but she was threatening to kick someone in the shin and blame it on me so I’d have to talk to them, so I tried my best to stop laughing. Haha!

Love,

A-needs-a-new-TV-show-to-get-hooked-on-Devon

“What Should I Call This? The Wind In The Willows?” – Ben Wicks aka Wicksey

Ah November, when did you get here? And why does time seem to speed up once you finally are here? Ah time, never there when you need it, and when you don’t, it’s always hanging around, taunting you. For those of you curious as to if London goes through daylight savings time, the answer is yes, we do. Ours happened Halloween day at 2am to be precise. So I didn’t really feel the effects of the ‘extra hour’ since I was asleep, but I never really thought about what that did to the time difference between London and Texas. I guess that meant that for a week, we were 7 hours ahead of central time rather than 6? Is that right? I’m not sure and I don’t want to think about it too long. More pressing matters!

Nothing too interesting happened at work that Monday, the first of November, and film class was as boring as ever, so I’m going to fast forward to Tuesday where all the action happened. It was perhaps the best day at work I’ve had in a long time. When I walked in that morning to start making my tea, Ben yelled at me from his chair, “Martinez, (accept the way that he pronounces it, it sounds like Martin. S.) isn’t your course lady coming in this morning?” Ohh crap. I had forgotten. Andrea Lynch, the wonderful lady who got me this internship was coming in today for my ‘mid-semester performance review’. Sounds fancy and professional, no? I immediately got a panicked look on my face. I hate meetings talking about me, they’re basically glorified interviews. And she wasn’t just going to talk to me. Oh no, she had to talk to my boss, which meant Ben, and what if Ben said he wasn’t too impressed? I mean grant it, Sarah is the Super Star Intern for a reason. The wonderful and annoying thing about the Brits, or at least all the ones I work with, is that they care about my disposition. I must have looked nervous because Elena had to ask:

ELENA: Babes, what’s wrong?

ME: Uhhh, I hate meetings. And interviews. And *exasperated noise*

ELENA: What, are you nervous?

ME: yessssss.

BEN: You’re scared, Martinez? What, am I’m going to tell her that you’re horrible and your work is shit and you’ll get sacked?

ME: uhhhmphhh

Yes thanks Ben, that’s EXACTLY what I’m nervous about. Except not that I’ll get fired, because I don’t think it works like that. But what if he’d say something along the lines of ‘I really wish she did X better’ or ‘She should be more enthusiastic about Y’ or ‘Her skills are lacking in Z and it’s annoying and tiresome’. But next thing I know it’s 10:30, and Elena is telling me they’re here.

BEN: They? Who is they?

ME: I don’t know! I just thought it was Andrea!

But in I went to meet them. Turns out ‘they’ is Andrea’s shadow or something. I don’t really know why she was there, but she practically stared at me the whole time all the while taking notes on her little pad. Andrea’s still as cheery as ever, but says that she wants to do separate one on ones with me and Ben, so we can be free to say whatever we like. Greaaatt. Ben had a meeting at 11, so he went first. So while I’m sitting at my desk the Internship Parade marches through the office with the charismatic Mr. Crompton and Elena the wonderful receptionist in the lead heading to Paul’s office for a ‘chat’ about me with Andrea and the shadow lady pulling up the rear. Did I mention the office has glass walls? This is not comforting. I see smiles. Smiles are good, right? And then the door opens and Ben is rushing off for his meeting and Elena is calling me in.

It wasn’t as terrible or dramatic as I make it out to be, but at the time, I was highly anxious for what they were saying and what questions she was going to ask me. What was she going to ask me? But I walked in and sat down and first thing out of Andrea’s mouth is, “you look nervous.” Awesome. Thank you for pointing that out Andrea. But it didn’t go so bad. It was basically a second interview. Do you like it here? What do they have you do? How do you see this adding to your skill set? What do you hope to take away from this experience? Blah blah blah. When she asked ‘Is there something you want to do but haven’t gotten the chance?’ it was a good feeling to say ‘no, they’ve let me do a little bit of everything’ which is true! I haven’t been to a shoot yet, but Josh’s BBC shoots were right around the corner, and I would be getting to help out on those, so my work life is complete. The only thing I regret is that I mentioned my dislike of research to her at all, because she wouldn’t get off of it. I said something along the lines of, “it’s a lot more research work than I was anticipating, but it’s part of the development process, so I’m learning how it all works and it’s good for me” or something lame like that, and she took it as I hate my life because I’m doing research and I spent the rest of the interview trying to fix that. But she did tell me that Ben had only good things to say! Which is nice, even if it was all that fakey fake fluff bosses say to be nice. He said my work was ‘top notch’ and that he enjoys getting my perspective on things. Cheers Ben!

Next thing I knew it was lunch and we were talking to Josh about his Barcelona trip. Apparently, Wicksey was the only other one who had been there.

BEN: Did you get off with any Spanish women?

JOSH: Umm-

WICKSEY: You know I once had a very nice affair with a Spanish woman in Barcelona. This was years ago of course, but she looked a bit like Noel Fielding.

ME: Oh my gosh, really? I love Noel Fielding!

WICKSEY: Apparently I do too. Or did, I should say.

Oh Wicksey, truly a funny man. (And yes mom, you DO know who Noel Fielding is, he's Richmond in The IT Crowd and for those of you who watch the Mighty Boosh, Vince Noir.) I told him he should just write these Pannel shows that he’s always producing. He agreed, ‘more money in it, eh?’ but I think he enjoys what he does. For now… Anyways, this lead to a conversation about Spanish food, Mexican food, Tex-Mex, guacamole, salsa, mmmm. And then Ben said we just have to go for Mexican food before I leave, and really, who am I to stop him? Yes please and thank you!

As I was leaving work that day feeling better after the whole Andrea meeting, and finishing my task for the day with my ‘top notch’ skills, I kept bumping into people as I was trying to get of my desk, but when I hit Georgie, it was the highlight of my day. Now usually when I walk in the office in the morning, I’m greeted by various hellos and such, that I always respond back to, but Georgie is the only one I always greet by name first. And it’s simply because her name is so fun to say with an English accent! Go ahead and try it see how right I am. It just rolls off the tongue Georg-ie! Anywho, a while back about two days into this Georgie noticed and said, “You’re quite good at that. I think you just like to say my name with an accent.” Damn, caught red handed. So I stopped doing it for the most part, accept sometimes I can’t help it and it slips out. I mean, you can’t impersonate a British accent constantly while in America, move to London, and not have a few slips up. So back to me hitting Georgie with my bag on accident and turning around to profess my apologies:

ME: Oh, sorry! Sorry, I didn’t see you sorry!

GEORGIE: Oh it’s alright.

ME: Alright, well… bye.

GEORGIE: Good-bye Georgie.

ME: (I thought she was making fun of me for saying her name) Haha, um good-bye.

GEORGIE: Good-bye, Georgie.

ME: *snickers* good-bye Georgie (with my accent)

And Georgie smiled. HAHAHA. I had the goofiest smile on my face. And here I was thinking that Georgie was getting annoyed by how I said her name with my fake accent, all the while she likes it. Hahaha! I guess you just had to see the look on her face, but it’s rather like when a small child wants something and you have to say ‘please may I have X’ for them to repeat it so they can have X, and then you smile and give it to them. It was brilliant! And I literally laughed half of my walk to the tube. I get to class that week only to find out, we actually don’t have class. Whhatt? Heads up would have been nice, but oh well, it was only 2:30, so I decided to go back to work for 3 more hours. What the hell? Turns out it was the beest decision ever, otherwise I would have missed out!

So back to the office I went, continuing to gather info for our development meeting. Ben had just finished having a meeting with some guys about something and the rest of us are preparing for own meeting when Ben gets a phone call from the guy who was just in the office. “Oi, everybody, Willow is outside! Let’s go!” Whatttt?? Next thing everyone is putting on coats and running outside. Willow? You mean the actor from Willow? Warwick Davis? Yes that’s exactly what I mean! And he was so tiny!

Apparently they were filming a TV show that sounds like something Eyeworks did a couple years back, that involves a celebrity and kids. Can’t explain the whole premise, but if you’re that interested, the show for Eyeworks was called ‘Hider in the House’ and yes, one day, I had to go through clips to find something. Anywho, the two Bens apparently know one of the Production ladies on the set and start talking to her and next thing I know, they’re going over to talk to Warwick Davis. So I turned to Josh:

ME: They’re going to talk to him! Oh Josh, come on, let’s go!

JOSH: Why?

ME: Because it’s Warwick Davis! Just come on Josh!

JOSH: No. I don’t even understand why we’re not inside working. I just came out for coffee.

So Josh didn’t care, but I thought it’d be a great photo of huge 6 ft Josh and this tiny little man. But guess who did get a picture with him? No, sadly not me, but Ben and Wicksey did! And although I didn’t get a photo, I did get to say hi. So back inside we went, the whole time Ben is giggling about the photo on his phone and Wicksey is following him saying “let me see! Send it to me!” haha quite like children, but guess who was having second thoughts about not getting his picture? Yeah Josh, I know you were. Although he started joking about how he wanted his picture with him to either have him up on his shoulders or spinning him around or picked up enough to see him kicking his little legs. Funny, and yet it’s not. But here’s the photo of the Bens and Mr. Davis.

The blonde Ben on the left is my boss, Ben Crompton and the Ben on the right with the dark hair is freelance Ben Wicks. Obvs, the little man in the nice suit in the middle is Warwick Davis. And look, now you people can see what some of the people I work with look like!

So on we went to our meeting the whole time Wicksey is trying to decide what to call this photo on his facebook wall, the Wind in the Willows? And then it was someone’s birthday so there was cake! This is where I used my new found knowledge to say, “look Sarah, we’re having pudding!” and she just laughed and said, ‘yes Devon, we are.’ Ha, go me. Ben ended up letting us leave early since there was another tube strike scheduled for Wednesday. Although, the tube strike starts the day before, and lasts 24 hrs. So it would go in effect Tuesday at 7 pm and go until Wednesday at 7 pm. And if you’re wondering how this affects the tube, it’s like this.

And that’s with leaving work early before the big rush and before the strike officially started. Keep in mind, by the time i fought all the people to get off the tube and platform, find my camera and turn around to take the picture, others pushed their way on. Can you imagine what it's like when I get off work on time? Or when the strike actually started? I ended the night with some delicious salad, hummus and pita bread while watching some American TV in bed. It’s getting colder and darker thus sucking my energy making me want to spend more and more time in bed. Oh you tricky tricky London, don’t be so mean!

Love,

A-can-officially-say-she's-met-a-celebrity-Devon

P.S. I forgot to add that I like the sound the track makes right before the train appears in the tube on my 'things I enjoy about London list'. It's like little electrical clicks, and there's something quirky that I find oddly comforting about it.