Leaving My Heart in London

I’m officially done with my internship in London. I can’t believe how fast the past two months went by. There’s still so much I want to do in the city and places I wanted to travel to. I guess I’ll just have to come back! It was such an amazing experience. Through college all I ever wanted to do was study abroad in England and when I started my senior year with no solid plans, I began to wonder if I’d ever make it to London. Shout out to Colin Herr for suggesting this program!! I’m really glad I chose to work rather than study. Especially as someone who just graduated, this was amazing to be in a big name PR agency and really see how the industry works.  I’m not sure if PR is in my future career plans, but I really like it. I think I might try a smaller, in-house organization to work in though. The agency world is insane! I was challenged every day at work and some days were definitely more stressful than others. I was so fortunate to have Laura Cooley with me! I couldn’t imagine doing this without another intern. It was so nice to have someone there for help and motivation.

On our last day our office prepared drinks for everyone at the end of the day and gave us a card and we each got a bottle of Champagne! It’s very convenient having a wine brand as one of your biggest clients.  My supervisor was great too. She was so patient with us and gave us work that not many people would trust interns to do. She even left for four days last week and had Laura and I “running the company”, which was a little terrifying. But Rogers and Cowan didn’t fall and we managed to keep up with all the clients and even got some new placement interest! Just as we start to get the hang of it, we leave. I guess that’s how it goes.

My mom arrived in London yesterday and I saw her for a little bit. With the last day and the dinner we had to go to, it was pretty busy so we didn’t have a lot of time to talk.  Tomorrow I think we’re heading to the Tower of London and on Sunday we depart for Dublin on a ferry! I’m really excited to get back to Ireland and see the countryside. I’ve been in the city for so long it’ll be nice to be open spaces and taking a mini road trip around Ireland.

So London, it’s been amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience and I will be back.

First Tango in Paris

It's been a wonderful couple of weeks in London! Last weekend I went to Paris with some of the girls here and it was...different. It was definitely a change from the life I’ve been used to in London. It was the first time I had been somewhere that I had completely no experience with the language and didn’t know what anyone was saying. There were a few girls with us who had been to Paris before and spoke some French so it was nice to have them help the rest of us out, but it was still a challenge. We stayed in the financial district of the city and thanks to one of the girls; her dad got us two nights free at a Hilton using his rewards program.  Although I spent both nights sleeping on the floor with only a towel to use as a blanket, it was nice to be in a hotel rather than a hostel and unsure about who is sleeping across from you. The people weren’t incredibly friendly, but after hearing other people’s experiences in France, I was kind of expecting that. The city itself was beautiful. The architecture and the buildings were so old with intricate details used to decorate them. The food was great and I can say I’ve finally had a crepe and it was delicious! There were so many little cafes lining the streets with food vendors outside selling pastries and croissants. I thought it was interesting that many of these cafes have tables set up outside on the sidewalk, but instead of facing the chairs towards each other, they face them out towards the street so you can sit and people watch while enjoying a glass of wine and a loaf of bread. Speaking of, the bread was amazing! I think with the exception of one actual meal, my diet for the trip was bread and cheese. A French specialty.   Unfortunately the weather was worse than London and we only say rain and wind with just a little bit of sunshine on the last day.

All in all though, it was a great trip. It went really fast, but we managed to fit in everything that we wanted to see with time to spare! The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge, the metro, the Champs-Élysées. We saw it all! It made me realize I wish I had done more traveling earlier in my trip and that there are so many more places I want to see! But with only one more full weekend left at 9 Frying Pan Alley, I couldn’t be happier staying right in London for this last weekend. When I think about how I’ve been here for two months, I can’t believe it. It has gone by so fast and I’m not ready to go home. I feel like I’ve barely had enough time to explore all of London that I’ve wanted to see; not to mention the rest of Western Europe! In less than a week my mom will be here in London and we’ll be getting ready to head to Ireland for a few days! I’m so excited go back to the Irish countryside and cringe as my mom tries to drive on the wrong side of the road (with a stick shift, no less!). It’s going to be great!

 However, it will be nice to back in Hawkeye Country. I’m looking forward to getting home and grilling, drinking some Coors Light, eating Wheat Thins, watching Dexter and preparing for football season! For all of you still in Iowa this fall, you know I’m already planning some amazing tailgates in my head, so be prepared.

A Swede, An Australian and Two Americans Walk Into A Bar...

Despite a few bumps in the road, I made it to Dublin last weekend! The day started at about 3am for a 6:30 flight. It definitely took a little longer at the airport than we anticipated and at about 6:05 I found myself sprinting through Standsted Airport in order to get to my gate which closed at 6:00. Thankfully I made it with time to spare! But not without falling up an escalator and having little kids point and laugh at me. But, I knew Dublin was worth it. The city was just like I remembered. It was definitely a change from being in London for so long. Where London is huge with people everywhere always rushing to get somewhere, Dublin is more open and not as crowded and definitely cleaner. Although we didn't get out of the city at all, as we were flying in it was so nice to see countryside and hills again! We got into Dublin at about 8:30 and started by just walking around and exploring. One of the things I love about Dublin and Ireland in general is the buildsings are more colorful. You can walk down the street and see shops and businesses in red, yellow, green and blue buildings.

The first place we went to was the Jameson Distillary. I'm not a big whiskey drinker, but it was actually really interesting to see how they make and 'mature' the whiskey, as they say. The alcohol tour continued with a stop at the Guiness factory, but unfortunately another girl and I were nearly broke so we decided to opt out and grab some food. And by food I mean two packages of pita bread, one container of hummus, a box of granola bars, a package of biscuits (aka cookies) and a giant water to share. These were the contents of our meals for Saturday lunch/dinner and Sunday lunch. And it was only 5 euro in all! Thats 2.50 per person! Best shopping I think we've done all trip. As we ate our pitas and hummus on the hop on, hop off tour bus (since we had no where else to go) we felt like we were truly European travelers.

Tesco Feast!

The Temple Bar

We made it to our hostel and it was actually pretty nice as far as hostels go. There were about 20 of us so we were able to get 2 ten person rooms so we didn't have to deal with any shady people sleeping 2 feet away from me. That night we went to the Temple Bar area of Dublin, which is basically like the pedmall of Iowa City, but one thousand times better. There are hundreds of pubs just lined up with live music coming out of all of them. There were people everywhere just meandering in and out of pubs and talking to people on the street. Irish accents everywhere!  : )  We went to one place that had five floors and we ended up on the top balcony looking out over Dublin. We also managed to meet some people from Ohio State who were studying in Dublin.  I think the best part about this trip has been going into all the pubs and meeting so many local Londoners and Dubliners.  They've all been so friendly and eager to talk to Americans. Its been interesting to see their point of view of America what they think of us.  One night a few weekends ago we found a pub that we stayed at for a bit and ended up meeting an Australian, a Swede, an Irishman and a few Brits. It's amazing how diverse London is. I could never get this experience in most places in America, definitely not Iowa.

The trip made me got me really excited when I go back to Ireland in a couple weeks. We'll spend some time in Dublin, where I plan on going to the Guiness Factory and will finally have a pint at the Gravity Bar looking over the city. Last time I was there, I was still too young to drink, even in Europe! After a few days in Dublin, my mom and I are hitting the road to explore the gorgeous country side of Ireland for a week. I've been looking into things I'd like to do when I get there and one thing I found is surfing lessons! There are surfing lessons all along the coast you can take! One of the things on my bucket list is to learn how to surf and what better place than on the coast of the Emerald Isle?

The people I've been sharing my travels with

Only two weeks left in London and making the most of every minute.

Cheers x

The Most Dynamic City in Europe

Found this in The New York Times. .

London - The Global City

News of the World Fiasco

I'm not sure how much of this has been covered in the states, but if you haven't heard what's been unraveling this week at News of the World you should really look into it. Here's a bit of a summary..
News of the World is a Sunday publication published by News Internationl and is a subsidary of News Corporation (aka the press kingdom of Rupert Murdoch). Although it does have the usual crap, celebrity stories, NoW does publish a few good news articles here and there and isn't a tabloid in the American sense of the word.  The publication has been in trouble in the past for hacking into celebrity cell phones to retrieve voicemails and messages for stories. Sienna Miller, a British actress, even sued the publication for hacking into her cell-phone. On Monday, The Guardian, a daily and legitimate newspaper, broke the story that News of the World had hacked into phones of not only the families of victimes of the 2005 bus and tube bombings here in London, but the voicemail of a 13 year-old girl who went missing in 2005 and was later found dead.  They hired people to hack phones just to gain a little information for a tabloid story.  While the young girl was missing, her messages were deleted by hackers, giving her parents hope that she was alive and had access to her phone, which was false. There are also claims that the paper paid off policeman who were involved in the investigation of the girl's murder in order to get information.  Since this story came out on Monday the public has been shocked at the 'cruel' and 'disgusting' acts of the paper. Early in the week, Prime Minister David Cameron, appeared before Parliament and addressed the news, enforcing an intense investigation into News of the World and their actions. As all of this was happening Rupert Murdoch, which is a name many Americans would associate with Fox News, defended those in charge at News International and stated they would cooperate with police in any further investigation.  It all came to a conclusion this afternoon at about 4:30 when they announced News of World would be publishing its last paper this Sunday.  The whole week advertisers were announcing they were pulling out of the paper and I believe there was only one organization who hadn't left before they announced its end.
When the news broke the publication would be closing there were mixed emotions around the office. Although NoW did publish some celebrity trash here and there, there were a lot of opportunities for great coverage for clients at Weber Shandwick.  I'm in no way defending the paper or its actions, but there were accounts expecting coverage this coming weekend.  In my opinion, as a supplement of The Sun, a daily publication in London, I believe the content of NoW will come back to the UK in the near future, just under a different name.  I highly doubt Mr. Murdoch would close one door, without opening another. 

I've never had my heart set on reporting for a newspaper, but as a journalism major I can't believe some people would even consider these kind of actions just to sell a newspaper and make a little money.  Let alone, people would actually carry them out.

If you want to read the story from the source, check it out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/07/news-of-the-world-to-close

Nothing Says 4th Of July Like A Calypso Band

It's becoming harder and harder to keep everyone updated! Time has been moving so fast, with so much going on that I only just realized I'm heading into my fourth week! That means only four weeks left and with a couple trips approaching, I only have one more full weekend in London. I'm trying not to think about it....
Work has been going great! The first week or so was definitely intense with a lot going on and a lot of hands on experience, but things have started to calm down a bit and I'm feeling more comfortable and confident with the tasks I'm given.  Every once in a while I'll get the typical intern things to do like update a contact list or take stock of a client product, but it's really not bad. I haven't had to run and get coffee yet so I'd say it's been a success! Last week I had the opportunity to sit in on a brainstorming meeting with a few others in the office.  Basically, when a new client comes in, we have to start thinking of ideas to get them coverage through different events, surveys or getting celebrities.  What was cool about the meeting was we were starting with no budget so we could think of the craziest, most expensive and unrealistic ways to bring attention to the client and then kind of tweaked them into ways that would actually work.  It was really interesting to be there at the very beginning of a campaign and see how it all develops from an insane idea to a doable action that the client would be happy with.  Another day, I got to do some editing of a national tv show by cutting out any prop placement for brands that we represent.  The show was called Primeval and it was kind of ridiculous. There were giant bugs and dinosaurs coming out of the ground and wreaking havoc on everything. Really classy. But there were actually some great placements for a couple car and laptop brands that I edited together into a kind of montage and placed on a disc to be sent to the client as proof of revenue for the agency.  I liked that I was able to bring in my love of film to the PR side, even if it was a laughable, sci-fi alien drama. 
On Friday night a few of us decided we wanted to hear some live music so I looked up bars around London and found Auld Shillelagh. It was ranked the best Irish bar in London because of the traditional Irish music.

 It was a little farther than we usually go, but it was amazing! It's in a nice little burrough of London that's still in Zone 2, but a little quieter and not as busy as central London.  The pub was small with some table inside and a pretty nice beer garden (we Iowans love our beer gardens).  The band was three people, a guitar, banjo and fiddle and they sat at a table right across from us. I think they were all from Ireland and they were really nice.  During the break we talked to them for a little bit and I found out one of them had actually been to Iowa while touring with a band! It truly is a small world.  They were really good and it was one of the best nights I've had in London. Especially with my first Dublin trip coming up this weekend, it got me really excited to head back to the Emerald Isle. 

 So far this week has been great! Although being stuck in an office surrounded by British people on the 4th of July wasn't my ideal choice, I did manage to find some Coors Light and we had a little celebration in Spitalfields that night. Nido, our residence building, attempted to throw a 4th of July party, but the calypso music, chips and salsa, swedish wine and half grilled burgers they provided didn't exactly feel very American. I've already decided a buger from McDonald's will probably be the first thing I eat when I get back to the states.  

Dublin in 3 days!!! Paris in 9!!! It's going to be a brilliant couple of weeks!

London Town

Duke of Wellington (aka Duke's), one of our local hangouts. Home of the cheapest pint we've found. Their beer garden makes me think of Bros.

Abbey Rd. and the infamous crosswalk

Just some of the graffiti that lines the side of Abbey Rd.

Windsor Castle, where the Queen considers her home.

And yes, she was in residence while we were there!

Windsor with some of the girls

My friend, Cara, and I on the 32nd floor looking over Spitalfields