“Excuse Me, But What’s The Point Of This Class?” –Random Girl in my Toolkit class

Hello lovelies! Thank you all for the comments and feedback I’ve received! So happy that you all seem to be reading and enjoying *does a little happy dance* That being said, there is a high demand for MORE. Just kidding. It’s just time to update you on my life again…

Mondays. Hands up for who really enjoys Mondays? You didn’t raise yours, did you? I’m not surprised, they suck. And they just happen to be the longest day of the week for me. Coincidence, I think NOT. But anyways, this particular Monday was a drama fest. There had been rumors all weekend that a tube strike was coming, and I’m sorry to report that come Monday morning, it was here. Tube strikes are when the workers simply refuse to come in due to anger about their wages or something and go on strike (obviously) but what happens to all those people you ask? Well the people who rely on the tube to get to work are just plum out of luck. This means they have to take an alternate bus route or tube. (I know you’re thinking how can they take the tube if it’s on strike, but hear me out first). When I first heard about the tube strike, I was freaking out because I assumed that it meant the entire tube system would be out, but that isn’t the case.

What actually happens is quite like the weekends (they generally close down parts of the tube on the weekend to ‘fix’ it for the Olympics in 2012) were one whole line or the south/north part of a line will be down. The difference is that on the weekend when they’re working on something, they generally make it somewhat convenient to get where you need to go, or send it replacement buses. When there’s a tube strike, it’s not convenient. There will be random parts of a line out, 5 or 6 random stops closed on a working line and there are no alternate sources of transportation set up for you. THANKFULLY, the strike didn’t effect me. I was able to still catch my Bakerloo line to Queen’s Park for work (there were several stops along the way where we didn’t stop because they were on strike though) and get on the Metropolitan line (thankfully I was going North! South of Baker was closed) to go to the Harrow Campus for film class later.

When I got to work at 10, there was literally just Elena and Sarah there (Georgie’s work placement was up on Friday). Soooo quiet. Ben and Matt were in France working on something or other, the whole Production team was on a casting call and even Luca, the quiet accounts man who sits in a corner and comes in simply for tea before he dashes away again, was gone. Wow. Just when I was thinking this was going to be the most boring day ever, Josh came in. Yay! This man is funny, he’ll entertain me! He’ll give me something to do. Nah, not really. False hope yet again. I instead got put on Paper duty. Paper duty, for those of you who don’t know, is when you skim the paper and cut out interesting articles or things that might spark an idea for a TV show. Yeah, I know, sounds fun, huh? Sarah got sent away on an errand, so at one point it was just Josh, Elena and me. Josh asked if I wanted to go to the Post for him, yea? Did I want to go to Post? You mean the Post Office? Sure Josh mate, I’d love to. It’s literally just down the street and for 5 minutes, I got to be outside the office and away from the stack of paper. Once lunch time hit, so did all the random Texas questions Josh had been holding back.

JOSH: Is it really like King of the Hill? (I’ve already been asked that! Is that really all we have to represent ourselves? Come on Texas!)

ME: Well no, I mean there are parts like that, but it’s exaggerated.

JOSH: What’s the legal driving age?

ME: 16

JOSH: What about drinking?

ME: 21

JOSH: At what age can you, you know *whistles*

ME: Haha, umm 17 in Texas, but I think that might depend on the state.

JOSH: So you can drive before you can *whistles*? That’s a bit off. And then you have to wait so long to drink! What’s the deal with having two flags?

ME: Well one is for your state and the other is the American flag. But Texas can fly their flag at the same height as the American flag because we were a country first.

JOSH: Do some people still want the south to succeed from the Nation?

ME: There are some people like that, but that’s more in the dirty south, in like Georgia, and the Carolina’s and such and those people aren’t the majority at all.

JOSH: Do you have to pledge to your country every day?

ME: All the way through high school you do. And they added a Texas pledge halfway through middle school.

JOSH: So you have to say TWO pledges? That’s ridiculous. I’m not pledging my allegiance to anyone. Who’s your senator?

ME: *blush* Ummm…

JOSH: You don’t know? Well how do you feel about Obama then?

ME: I loved him when I voted for him, but I don’t know if I’ll vote for him again.

JOSH: No? Why not? He’s so dramatic, well you all are really, but he gives some great speeches. The one in the rain, yeah? That was brilliant!

ME: Do you find American’s dramatic?

JOSH: Compared to us, yes, but we like to be calm about things. Our politics are quite boring really. Yours are just fascinating. Why did the Republicans try and destroy the country?

ME: Oh my gosh! You’re just like the man in speaker’s corner! I’m not going to talk about this with you!

JOSH: What are you a fan of Bush? We all think he’s a stupid twat, he ruined your country, didn’t he?

ME: Well yeah, in someways he did.

JOSH: Why do you guys like guns so much? I don’t understand why people own guns.

ME: Oh everyone in Texas owns a gun! We have 2.

JOSH: What? You have guns in your home? Have you ever fired it before?

ME: Oh sure! I still have my target!

JOSH: That’s ridiculous! Why do you need a gun??

After lunch Josh asked me if I had any experience shooting.

ME: Yeah I told you-oh wait, you mean like with a camera?

JOSH: You Americans, always so quick with the violence. Yes with a camera.

ME: Ohh, right. A bit yeah.

I was then about to be sent on an errand to look at jewelry, but there wasn’t enough time since I had to leave at 2. When I asked why I needed to scope out some fine jewels, I was told it was for the shorts we’re on commission to do for the BBC. We did one not too long ago, and all of the sudden, Josh got excited, “Oi, Devon! Have a look at this! Go email it to everyone you know! That’s your task before you leave today. Go generate excitement in America for our shorts!” You can see the short they did for the BBC about Ethel's Missed Connections here!

We’re filming three more live action ones this month. I’ve gotten to read the scripts for all of them, and Josh said I’d get to come to the shoots, yay! And Oh my lanta, one of them has baby hands in it! I got super excited and tried to explain to Josh about SNL and Kristen Wiig and baby hands, but he just looked at me like “stupid American, what are you talking about?”. Ah well, off to class.

This class was so boring! We didn’t even watch a film this time. Instead, we spent 3 hours talking about things that could have been explained in half that time, easy. Especially since we were supposed to print out the notes she wrote that said the basic jist of everything she was saying. And then Devon started getting sleepy. And kept dosing off. And the first page of her notes is quite unreadable. But I managed to somehow shake off the sleepy stupor and take 2 more pages of notes. After class, Vicky was quite keen on us all going to Student Union for drinks again, but Chloe was sick, and I really just wanted to go home and sleep. So I did.

Harrow Campus is kinda eerie after dark. It was really foggy near this open field where I was walking to get to the tube. It was creepy and yet so cool and I thought it’d be a great location for some movie or another! The tube did take longer to get to us due to the strike, but I got some good pictures of the pretty sunset while I was waiting! Finally got home around 8, had some vegichili, watched the new episode of Inbetweeners booked some more theatre and pretty much called it a night.

Today the strike was over (they’re just 24 hr things) but there will be more to come. And those will probably effect me (I saw a lot of ‘Queen’s Park’ written on those white boards). When I walked in Josh goes:

JOSH: yeee-haw!! Oh sorry, is that considered racist?

ME: (Pfft. Like we really say that!) Yes Josh, I take great offence to that.

JOSH: There you go again with that American sass...

ME: I’m not sassy!

JOSH: And none of that Texan accent either

ME: I don’t have a Texas accent!

JOSH: Yes you do! You’re using it right now

ME: *puts on British accent* Well what, do you want me to talk like this then?

JOSH: Is that your British accent?

ME: *blush* yeahhhhh

JOSH: That’s quite good actually…

ME: Oh, thanks! And I do not have an accent

JOSH: Yes you do

ME: Well at least I don’t mumble (he’s one of those mumbling Brits)

JOSH: Well maybe you just can’t hear clearly

Am I really being referred to as sassy yet again? And I don’t have a Texas twang at all, but whatever. And so I went about my day. There were more people at work, but Matt and Ben are still out and won’t be back till tomorrow so today, Sarah and I were assigned a new topic of research, this time, the Woman Explorer! (just don’t ask).

Usually either Tuesday or Wednesday’s lunch consists of everyone sitting around the table dissecting the lastest edition of Heat (a trashy, girlie, magazine) which for some unknown reason, keeps being delivered to the office. Today I got asked about Russell Brand’s popularity in America (he’s quite big over here. Well duh, right?) and when I made fun Robert Pattinson, Josh got upset, “Don’t make fun of him! He’s our biggest export!” Shortly after lunch, Josh announced that he ‘fancied a shortbread’. When I asked what this was everyone in the office stared at me. (ok, I’m not entirely stupid, I just didn’t know if he meant like the cake or a shortbread cookie or if it was something different altogether. I’ve just never heard someone say shortbread without it being followed by cake or cookie.) Turns out it’s a traditional Scottish dessert and is a bit like a ‘biscuit’ but is somewhat cake-like as well. I got the first one! Josh told me, “There you are, a taste of homeland for you” and it was quite good! I had another one with tea. Yum! I could get used to this. I could get used to this a lot.

My favorite part of the day was when I was putting my tea cup in the dishwasher and from the other room Josh asked, “How long do we have you here till then Devon?” To which I replied, “I’m just fixin to leave”. *pause* “You’re what?” HAHAHA. I had to explain the phrase, which he found ‘ludicrous’. Wait till I use, ‘right quick’ or ‘just over yonder’ or refer to turning as ‘hanging right’. Hahaha, yesss!

I then jumped on the tube back to Marylebone for my stupppid intern class. Today we talked about how to stand out on a resume and job skills and blah blah blah blah and then it got interesting. A girl put her hand up:

GIRL: Can I ask a question? What’s the point to this class? I mean we already know all this, why do we have to take it?

TEACH: Excuse me, you know all this?

GIRL: I just mean we’ve all gotten this information before. I don’t understand why we need to go over this. I mean, we’re already in an internship, doesn’t that show our dedication and that we clearly know about resumes and the hiring process?

TEACH: I don’t understand, you signed up for this.

GIRL: No, I signed up for an internship. I didn’t know I’d have to take this class too.

TEACH: Well then that’s a failure on your school’s part to tell you so. That’s not my fault.

Enter huge heated debate that took half an hour here. All the Americans in the room didn’t understand a.) why we being forced to take this class when we have an internship (a lot of us were told we’d have 3 classes and an internship, not 4 classes and an internship) and b.) what the point of taking it was. The obvious difference between American and European’s approach to jobs is that in America, we’re focused on ‘the job’. You get the degree to get ‘the job’ or what skills you need to get ‘the job’. While in Europe, you focus more on your ‘employability’ and why you should be hired for a job based on your person. Hmm skills or personality? Interesting choice Britain. I mean, obviously, your skills play a role in you getting hired for a job, but all the stupid slides were talking about was how to make yourself look like this person with a great personality! So the point of this whole freaking class is to become ‘employable’! WHATTT? Like some other random girl said, American’s do not see these two things as mixed subjects.

Also, all of this class is pointless! She’s talking about starting salary and firms and companies, and I’m just thinking this is not like the production world at all! If I want to work on film sets, it’s just living one job to the next. There is no annual salary. I tired to explain that to her and she just said "hmm, that's interesting!" And let’s not even get started on interview approaches. The teacher was amazed when I said, “It doesn’t really matter what you did, it’s really just how you present it in an interview. Make it look pretty. But a bow on your box of crap.” But I happen to think that’s a good approach. Call me crazy.

Love,

A-tried-of-fighting-with-these-silly-Brits-Devon

“What’s Cooking, Good Looking?” –Anthony the 45 Year Old Man

So the sun and I got into this really big fight. We had a talk about it and he told me he wanted to go on a brake. Ok fine, I was getting tired of having him around anyways, but why does he still have to go and act like a little tease to get my attention? I woke up on Saturday to find the sun on my face and myself in a very hot room. The thing about London is that they don’t have any sort of ‘central air’ and like the rest of the world outside of the southern United States, don’t believe in ceiling fans. For the most part, why would you need air conditioning in a city that’s almost always cold and rainy? Valid point. But I have been brought up to believe that people must live with air circulation, hence the ceiling fan notion. The only way to achieve moving air is to open the window, which seems a bit two-steps backwards sort of thing when the heater is on because it’s cold outside! But if you leave the heater on by itself, without circulation it just becomes stuffy and unbearable. So I’ve figured out for the room to be a pleasant temperature, the heater must be on for about an hour, and then when it gets hot you open the window and then turn down the heater and close the window and then open the window and then turn up the heater and just kinda play this game of temperature war with yourself over and over till it’s a reasonable temperature. Well when it’s bed time, I close the window and stop playing the game. So when I wake up and there’s sun outside, and the heater on inside, and there’s no sort of air circulation at all, it’s way too hot!

But back to there being sun on a Saturday in London… why on earth would anybody be inside? Take advantage of this rarity! (I know understand why there were sooo many people outside sunbathing our first week in London. Because the sun is never out here!) So I decided it was time to go shopping! Again. This time, I skipped the normal stores I went to all together and tried out something new. Yay, success! I finally found a pair of jeans that fit alright. They weren’t perfect, but they were cheap and I was pretty desperate for some new something to wear on my bottom half since I only came with like 2 pairs of jeans. I also bought a corduroy skirt, a sweater, a tunic, a new purse so I don’t kill my ties and a pair of these oh so cute heels. When I left Oxford Street around 3, it was cold and rainy again outside. So much for that eh, London? I was hoping that it would clear up again later on because I had to go see Shakespeare at the Globe in a few hours, but no such luck. In the meantime, I had some leftover pasta and watched This is England while I dosed in bed with a cup of tea. It stopped raining (briefly) around six. I was supposed to meet Mat outside the Globe at 6:30 even though the show didn’t start till 7:30.

I’m glad we planned to meet up that early because I ended up being half an hour late due to all the tube closures and the extra walking I had to do. But I got there in time! Picked up my ticket for Henry IV and joined the ‘groundlings’ to stand in the pit of the famous Globe Theatre! There were two problems I had with this, only one I had foreseen. One, the pit is seen as a sort of entry and exitry from stage. So when performers walked off, they had to walk right by me. And yes, in the little pre-show before the show, they DO like to mess with the audience a bit. Needless to say every time one of them walked by I scooted very close to Matt who would in turn started laughing hysterically at me trying to avoid the attention of the performers, which only drew them to me more. Secondly, we’re outside. And this is London. Let’s put two and two together, that means RAIN. I knew this. And yet, I wasn’t truly prepared for this. The beginning of the show, the weather was clear even if what was going on stage was not. Then it started doing it’s misting thing, which I was ok with. I put up my hood, told myself this is why I wore my crappy shoes, and continued to try and understand what the hell this play was about. Then it started raining. Screw mist, they were full on droplets. And of course, this is the one time it decides, ‘hey, I wanna do this ALL NIGHT. Not for just like 20 minutes like usual. Sucker!’ So the entire second half of the first half we were standing in the rain. I kept trying to tell myself to enjoy it, but my internal monologue started going like this:

You’re in London! You’re at the freaking Globe! How many people can say that? Come on Devon, just a bit more till half time and then you can go to the bathroom and warm up. Ooo warmth. I wonder what kind of tea they have? Arg, my feet are all wet! This is like the time when we went to the rodeo in Houston. And the water is dripping from my bangs on to my face! Oh god, I bet that means my mascara is running! What does my face look like? Is that why that girl is starring at me? I bet I look like a drippy raccoon. STOP STARRING AT ME. Is it getting colder? This can’t be good, I’m already sick! What if I get pneumonia? Am I going to get pneumonia and DIE? Am I going to die because I was stupid enough to see a play outside in the rain for class? I paid £7 pounds for this, I don’t just want to leave though! Devon, come on, are you going to die for £7, that’s stupid! But you’re in London at the Globe, come on, it’s an experience. That’s not worth dieing for. What are they even saying on stage? What’s going on? I don’t even understand what the stupid play is about!! What are the character’s names? What’s going on? I’m going to dieeeee.

Yup, my mind ladies and gentlemen. So after what seemed, an eternity, the first half ended and I raced to the bathroom to make sure I didn’t look like a drippy raccoon. I actually just looked like I had been dunked in water, but the mascara issue wasn’t too bad all things considered. When I came out of the loo (haha, yeah, I said it!) I ran into Matt who was trying to decide whether or not he wanted to stay. That sold it for me. I told him I was already sick and I didn’t want to die so I was going home and he agreed. So together, the two of us huddled under my umbrella (which previously weren’t allowed inside) and crossed the Millennium bridge to the tube stop. All I kept thinking of was how good a cup of tea would be! And then I thought, damn those Brits and their tea! They’re converting me! But what sounded even better was bread. Hot, warm and soft bread. So on the way home I went to Tescos and grabbed some bread. After I blow dried my hair, got in my TCU sweats, had a cup of tea, some hot bread and placed my lappy with 30 Rock in front of me, it ended up being a good night. Liz Lemon: 1, Shakespeare: 0. Sorry dude, better luck next time.

Today I woke up to the sun again. I played Temperature War while chatting with Mitch from back home and then decided that it was noon, and I should probably get along with my day… after I watch another episode of This Is England that is! So I did! And then attempted to take a shower. I say ‘attempted’ because this dorm sucks! I admit, I have become accustomed to a higher standard of living while at TCU. One in which there are no grumpy, unhelpful and rude guard men at the door after 12 (I know because I used to work that desk!). One in which guests are allowed overnight for as long as possible. One in which you don’t need to swipe in five times before you even get to your dorm room. One in which there aren’t four washing machines for 240 people, 2 of said machines, are broken. And one in which the hot water always works for as long as you want. Here at good ‘ol Westminster, the water heater runs out. And if everyone is trying to take a shower at once, forget it! I thought for sure at 1, who would be taking a shower? Well apparently everyone had the same idea as me because I couldn’t get that thing past lukewarm. I felt like I was back at the Globe, it was awful. I did my best to wash my hair and body and then scrammed! And of course, since I had left the window open and the heater turned way down in one of my ‘make the room cooler’ stages of Temperature Wars, I was freezing!

But life goes on and I felt better once I was clothed. At least I was clean! Now on to get groceries. And so I did, walking to the Waitrose down the street all by myself J And I stalked up on all these goodies! They even had a vegetarian frozen section!! Albeit, it was a very very small section, but nonetheless, they had fake ground beef substitute! So I got excited and thought I’d make vegichili! And ooo, I can even get fritos and have frito pie! (There are only 2 exceptions when I will ever eat Fritos. One is with pickles. Don’t knock it till you try it, it’s sooo good. And the other is with chili.) But guess what? Londoners have not been shown the wonders of turning corn into ‘crisps’ and so there were NO FRITOS! Not even a weird knock-off brand! They have no idea what they’re missing out on! How do they eat pickles? Gah! So I bought myself some BBQ (Texas style, hahaha) crisps to make myself feel better.

I got home and cooked some meals so that I’d have something to take to work or when I got home late from work. There’s something about having a cupboard stocked with at least one row of canned tomatoes that I find comforting. I did make that vegchili! And Naan pizza (take that Sneha!) and some pasta! Alyssa came in to make a PBJ and looked at me like I was crazy. Ok, so I was cooking three things at once, but hey hey now. Go enjoy your crappy little sandwich somewhere else. Anthony came in at one point and creeped me out for a bit, but I guess my cooking just scares him off because he left after asking me what I was making. It's either that, or the fact that I'm a girl. I then remembered that you guys haven’t seen the kitchen yet! So I made you a little guided tour/explanation:

Next on the agenda was laundry. NIGHTMARE. I literally had to wait in the basement for a good 45 min before a washer was free and I could claim it. Did I mention how much Westminster sucks? Our lift is still broken. Yeah, the ‘odd’ one that goes to my floor. So that means I have to walk down the stairs to level 6 to get on the elevator (with my laundry) because to get to the basement, you have to take the elevator. You can’t reach it by the stairs because the stairs stop at the ground level! And also, this elevator is weird and it can’t decide whether it wants to go down or up first. So if you get on the lift, wanting to go down one floor, sometimes you may just have to go up 20 floors before it takes you back down to the ground floor (which the polite-British-elevator-lady calls ‘podium!’ for some unknown reason) and then go down another floor. GAH! This happened to me when I went back to put my laundry in the drier. I was freaking out thinking that someone was going to take my stuff out of the washer so that they could use it. Someone is going to touch my things! My clean things! Ahhhhh! But thankfully, this did not happen. I got there and my clothes were still in the washer. *Phew* crisis avoided.

I called my fam to video chat, but sadly my mom wasn’t home. (Sorry mummsies, it would have been lovely to see you but you didn’t miss out on much. We’ll chat again next week, and you’ve obviously been reading about everything that’s been happening to me here, so no worries. We are keeping in touch. Love you!) After that I went to the 24 hour library to print some school documents and realized, hmm, perhaps I should start on that reading for those classes, eh? So dang, I guess I’ll have to start doing that this week, although, I really have no idea how I’m going to squeeze that in between work and class, but no worries! It will be done! I came back for my video chat with the lovely Adri, but she had a test, so who stepped up but Crunchy! Oh how I’ve missed thee! So I did get to chat with both friend and fam back home today. Yay. Now it’s time for bed, so I shall have to bid thee ado. To you. And you. And you and you and you! Wow, Sound of Music: 1, Shakespeare... well you know.

Love,

A-happy-to-have-a-full-cupboard-Devon

P.S. Jeni and them booked their Paris trip today. SNEHA WE NEED TO FIGURE THIS OUT NOW! I REFUSE TO MISS PARIS!!! Ok, that is all.

“So You’re Our American Import, Are You?” –Josh Buckingham

And we’re back! It’s like the second half to a really bad cliffhanger. I know you were just dying to know how the rest of my week went. But no fear! All your questions about what’s happened in the past four days are about to be answered!

I woke up Tuesday being able to breath and thanking the Chemists of Boots who make the miracle drug that’s ridiculously cheap! Seriously a box of 16 pills is less than £2! That would never happen in America, the capitalist scum. This health care is going to spoil me. But anyways, I woke up earlier than I really had to so that I could top off my phone before work, but ended up taking too long of a shower so I didn’t even have time to do that. When I got into work that day, my task was to come up with a list of five of my favorite movies made in the past three years and a list of movies that are coming out soon. As I’m sitting there imdbing, Josh, the guy in production who was running around on the phone and talking with Ben about some script on Monday, comes up to me and introduces himself:

JOSH: So you’re our American import, are you?

ME: Hahaha! Umm yeah, I guess I am, aren’t I?

BEN: Did he seriously not introduce himself to you yesterday? What a twat. I’m sorry Devon, he’s being sacked. That’s Josh, he was a part of our Production team.

JOSH: *snickers*

BEN: You think I’m joking? Go get your things mate.

Hahaha! Josh is hilarious. He was very interested to learn about Texas, wanting to know if we really do in fact have armadillos. When I said yes, but you usually only see dead ones, he wanted to know why we sought them out to be killed. I tried to explain, but I don’t think he truly gets the whole ‘road kill’ concept. Good thing I didn’t tell him about our deer issues. We spent an hour coming up with our ‘lists’ and then all met in the conference room to see if talking about these movies could spark an idea for a new TV show. It sounds a bit daft, but we actually came up with some pretty good ideas. We then had lunch, which is my favorite part of the day in the office. All these people come out of their little rooms and away from their desks and cram around in the tiny little kitchen to talk about anything and everything. Half the time I have no idea what they’re talking about but I love it.

I left at two again to come back to Marylebone for my internship toolkit class. This is the most BS class I’ve had to take in my college career. Seriously, this is even worse than Speech. In order for us to receive credit for our internship, we have a class where we do things like setting goals, giving presentations, reflective writing and working on our CV (résumé) skills. And to think I couldn’t take Contemporary British TV and Film because it was at the same time as this! Ugggh the nerve of the institution. The good news was that J, one of the guys from TCU and who I hadn’t seen in about a week, was in this class! Yay for having someone to sit next to. The lady who was giving the lecture was really big on the whole ‘I need to make eye contact with each and every one of you to show that I’m genuinely interested’ thing and it was really annoying. Especially since when I walked in, J was sitting in the front and she kept starring the two of us down the entire time. Lady lady lady, come on. My favorite was when we had to write down our expectations for this class and I wrote ‘none, this is pointless and a waste of my time’. I bet she won’t like that when she reads it, but oh well. It’s the TRUTH!

Jeni sent me a text in class but I couldn’t respond due to the fact that I still hadn’t topped off yet so first thing after class, I had to call the phone people to get my phone up and running again because I couldn’t remember where the actual phone place was and I didn’t really want to deal with the whole credit card issue again. The interesting and kind of annoying thing about London (and probably the majority of Europe) is that it’s a very cash driven place. America is a plastic society. Everyone has at least one credit card and I’d say at least half of sales (even if it’s like a $3 hamburger from McDonald’s) come from credit card purchases. Here if anyone even uses a credit card, they use a different kind of ‘chip’ system or something where they just stick their card into some machine and they don’t even have to sign for it! Needless to say, merchants really dislike it when a.) you hand them a credit card and b.) said card requires swiping. Some of the sales people don’t even know how to handle those transactions and they have to call their boss over and then everyone behind you in line hates you. It’s just awful. So after I got my phone working and called the Oyster people to get a new card sent to me, I call back Miss Bell who wants to go out for a ‘girls’ night. Yay, this pleases me. She said she knew of this place that had a cheap student’s night and I was all for that, specially since every time we’ve gone out before it’s always been with the boys.

I made dinner for the first time that night. Asparagus and rice and it was tasty. I wish I could have somehow grilled the asparagus though, because it’s just better when it’s got some carbon on it, you know? The weird thing about our kitchen is that Merrick and Adam, two of Nick’s Coloradian school mates, always seem to be there. I don’t know why they just can’t eat in their own kitchens, but I guess they need social interaction or something. So the three of us (four once Nick actually showed up) had our separate dinners together. I met up with Jeni and Laura for college night at this pub around Piccadilly. There was a football match on when we got there, so every single man in there was glued to the TV screen and it was nice to kinda have the place a bit to ourselves. I really wanted to go up to some one and ask what he thought about this ‘ludicrous display’ and say ‘the thing about Arsenal is, they’re always trying to walk it in’ but I restrained myself. I bet people here would actually understand that reference too! I shall try it out another time! Funny enough, the boys ended up calling us and coming over a few hours later. There goes girl’s night. By then, the place was hopping with college kids. This pub draws a lot of the American audience as well because it plays American football and ESPN and such. We ended up staying out past the tube closure so that meant it was time to figure out the bus system. No worries, we all got on the right buses and made it home safely with no problems.

Wednesday I didn’t have any classes so I was excited to finally spend a full day at work and not have to leave right after lunch. It was a very long day full of more research about the show they’re in the midst of developing. Not too exciting and I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing since I hadn’t read the script or anything. Two hours later, Ben ends up e-mailing me (by the way, I have a work e-mail, gahh!) the script and it helped a lot, but I found it funny how the other two interns, who had been doing this research much longer than I had, didn’t get sent the script. Haha, I love it! I’m not even Script Suping and I’m still the go-to script girl. I’ll take it! Around two or three, one of Eyework’s freelance production guys, who’s name is also Ben, show’s up and everyone starts gushing all over him. He immediately narrows in on me saying “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone from Texas before!” and has all these questions, including if everyone acts like they do in King of the Hill (shout out to Jess and Adri!). Umm no Ben, we don’t. It was then time for another meeting in the ‘Chips Room’ (I have no idea why they call it that, there are no chips of any sort in that place). For the most part it was rather uneventful, and then Boss Ben left the room. Freelance Ben started talking about how he didn’t want to go home for a wedding this weekend that was taking place in his ‘village’. I immediately got this huge goofy smile on my face, which Ben gave me a very quizzical look for:

ME: Did you just say your village? As in, you grew up in a village?

BEN: Yes. Everyone in England grows up in villages.

ME: Hahahahaha! What do you mean by ‘village’?

BEN: Well it’s just out of the city a bit. You have houses and a church and a store, just surrounded by a lot of land.

ME: Soo… it’s like a little town?

BEN: Well yeah. What do you call those? Farms?

ME: Noo… technically that’d be a very very small city. Or a town. But village? Hahaha, that’s so medieval sounding! Who uses the term ‘village’ anymore?

BEN: Well… we do!

That led into a whole other discussion about words/terms/pronunciation. Boss Ben came back and asked me what we called ‘cheese string’. “You mean string cheese?” He thought that was hilarious. I then got Freelance Ben to try and say the word y’all. Funniest thing in the world! It came out at like ‘yorn’. Hahahaha. But apparently he thought the way I said darling was 'quite cute'. We decided a tea brake was in order, and they thought it was crazy that I did not like milk in my tea, but preferred it ‘black’. I guess it’s like ordering black coffee, but no joke, all of them gave me this “are you mental?” look when I said ‘just sugar please’. The meeting continued onwards again, pausing only momentarily a few times when they said something I didn’t know. The word ‘status’ is pronounced so weirdly that it doesn’t even sound like status. Also, I had never ever heard the word ‘lorry’ to describe a truck. They thought I was bizarre when I asked what a lorry was and then had difficulty trying to describe it to me. And the letter ‘Z’ they do not say Z but ‘zed’. That’s how you say the letter z, zed! Freeland Ben also thought it was funny that my name is Devon. (Devon from Texas, is much funnier over here) I do love how everyone here knows how to pronounce my name! It’s so refreshing! But it’s also funny to me when their next question is “Your parents named you after the county then?” No you silly British people, they did not.

I then came home at six to make dinner (tomato, mushroom and pesto with pasta. Very a la café Martinez) and find Merrick and Adam hanging out in my kitchen again. Oh well, you just kind of accept it I guess. Anthony, the 45 year old man who’s name I previously thought was Richard, came in the kitchen and was trying to convince the boys to join this gym with him. The crazy middle-aged man refused to talk to me! He didn’t make eye-contact and only spoke to the boys, who don’t even live on our floor! It was ridiculous but whatever Anthony, I find you creepy anyways.

Thursday I woke up to SUN! The sun was out! It was like being in a completely different world! It had been rainy and cold and miserable outside for a week and then bam! Here comes the most perfect day! Fred, my basil plant, is dying due to lack of sun, and I can’t really do anything about that. I had two back to back classes that day both of which do absolutely nothing to my boost my credits back home but sounded like so much fun. Art and Society is my favorite class! We meet in a classroom for an hour discussion and then the second half of the class is a field trip! Do you know how wonderful it is to talk about a piece of art and then get on the tube and go look at that same piece of art? It’s crazy! On the way in the class, who did I find but Californian Chloe who I sat next to and tried to not cough all over during the lecture. We then got on the tube and met up again at the Tate. I love listening to people talk about pieces of art that I previously had no interest in or understood. I find art history fascinating, and our professor was wonderful. This, in combination with the sun, was really making it hard to hate Thursday. (For those of you who don’t know, Thursday’s are my least favorite day of the week. I hate them! They never ‘feel’ right. And I don’t really know how to describe it other than every day of the week has a different feeling and I’ve never liked the way Thursday’s feel.) Next week we’re going to visit St. Paul’s! This class is a little more expensive than your typical class due to the nature of the ‘field trips’ so there’s like a £30 charge per student.

Now in my other class that day, London Theatre & Performance, we all knew that there was around a £100 fee for the class. Hello, you’re going to see about 10 different plays. That’s not too bad if you think about it. But they did not handle this well at all. In the art class, they give you a form in which you give them your credit card (haha, yes!) info and all of the events have already been planned, set and paid for. You just have to show up. This is not the case with this Theatre class. Instead, they gave us a sheet full of a list of plays with dates that we need to see them by and it’s up to you to book. WHAT? I do not like this. I do not like this at all. How am I supposed to book 10 different plays at all these random places?! And there wasn’t even a musical on the list! I was hoping we’d get to see Wicked or something, but not even one?? This is a major bummer. The good thing about this class is that I know so many people in it. Jeni was there, along with Adam and Merrick again, and even Nicole, who’s from the same school as Nick, Adam and Merrick (University of Denver). So at least I know people to go see these shows with… if we can even get seats together!

Jeni wanted to go out again that night since no one really has class on Friday, so I convinced her to just come home with me. I’d cook dinner, she’d buy wine, and it’d be greatness. This turned into Devon cooking dinner for about seven people. We ended up all going to the grocery store (there’s one sooo much closer to me than I though, yay!) to buy ingredients for chicken parmesan. It was a good time with the rain outside and everyone inside huddled in the hot little kitchen on level 7. It was ridiculous. And it made me think of how much more amazing this would be if it was a Tex-mex dinner party. With rice and beans and enchiladas and tortillas and guacamole and SALSA. Mmmmm.

Today was rather uneventful and I kept thinking it was the weekend! Ben is going out of town for something or other, so I was told I didn’t need to come in to work and I still haven’t quite gotten over being sick! Boots meds do help, but I woke up this morning with my voice just sounding awful. I did manage to sound somewhat better and better as the day progressed though. I just hope this isn’t bronchitis, because I have been coughing a lot. I was supposed to go shopping with Nicole, but instead, I decided I wanted to do nothing more than lie around in bed all day and watch some American TV. So that’s exactly what I did! Jeni and I even tried to book a few shows for our theatre class proving to be a very stressful hour. I eventually had to go out to buy some more meds, stamps so I could finally mail these postcards, and a few other things, but that was like a 30 minute trip right around the corner. I have turned down every other invitation to leave the building! For those of you missing the picture part of the post, I decided to give you a little video. Cut to me, ranting about ridiculousness:

Tomorrow I’m going to the Globe to see Henry IV and I’m not really excited about it. I hope it doesn’t rain! It’s an outdoor theatre! Gahhhh the rainnnnn. I hate being sick in this weather. I think I’m sick because of this weather!

Love,

A-needs-to-invest-in-a-good-pair-of-rainboots-Devon