Goodbye UK, Hello Again US

Some updated events that happened:

My boss John took me out to dinner on my last day of the internship. The restaurant was called "The Orange" and it was really nice:

http://www.theorange.co.uk/

He lives in Westminster which is a really nice place to live.

Petro, one of my buddies won over 300 pounds (roughly 400 dollars) at a casino last weekend. This was one of the few times I've seen the house actually lose. As they say, "the house always wins." Game of choice was roulette.

I went to Portobello Road market. It was really cool - great antique collection and a little bit more tailored for high brow society. Really cool stuff though, a mammoth tusk for sale and Jurassic era petrified wood, great conversation pieces for the lovely flat. Just cool stuff if you have the money for it. I also finished up some of my last few souvenir shopping for my family. People who are not my immediate family and reading this: I only had room for presents to my family, I am just around the 50 lb limit for my bag and just one more souvenir in the bag might cause it to burst wide open. I'm sorry - I know I should have gotten more people stuff - but you guys are just going to have to come to London to experience it for yourself.

My adventure in the UK is now over with. I leave for the airport in about 5 hours. I'm glad the volcano situation has cleared up and I'm ready to see my family again. I have to hit the ground running when I'm back cause I only get a brief time home before I head up to the Twin Cities to live up there during the summer.

London:

You are one of the most amazing cities I've ever been to (and lived in). You've offered me great sightseeing, a great internship, great moments, great food, the liveliest communities, arts, culture, music, markets, everything but the kitchen sink. I'm so excited that you are hosting the Olympics and I'll get to see it through the television and see what I was once a part of for 4 months I was here. Thank you and I hope to see you sooner than later.

U.S. - I will see you soon.

Volcano's effects larger than expected.

Volcano Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced EY-ya-fyat-lah-YO-kut) has been erupting since March 20th, has canceled my Amsterdam trip and now threatens to cancel my flight back home. We'll see what happens. I might have to look into a Titanic-esque cruise back to New York or something. Hopefully it will stop erupting soon. Iceland, you ash-hole! Okay, that wasn't that funny, I tried. I'll keep you posted on what's going on over here. It's weird not seeing any airplanes in the sky. London is beautiful right now. 63 and sunny! If I am stranded in Europe, there is no other city I would rather be in.

Until later.

Volcano + Amsterdam on hold?

I had a trip with my roommates planned and Caitlin was going to meet up with us. But, an Icelandic volcano decided to erupt and now we have a possible ash cloud over most of the UK? It will be a great story to tell the kids.

Volcanic ash: all non-emergency flights grounded until 1pm Friday

I'll be writing about Caitlin's visit to London soon. I'll also update you guys if I end up going to Amsterdam or not.

Cross your fingers.

Caitlin's Visit

Last week, I got to go to Shakespeare's Globe Theater. It was really fascinating to see a recreation of the original theater. The Shakespearean actor who gave us the tour made the experience the most memorable. Got a brief history of the origins of the words such a "queue" or a "roll." Pretty Interesting.

Caitlin came last weekend for her second trip to London. I had to work on Thursday for the day but she got see St. Paul's and go to the British Museum. After that we went to Wicked on that night. I really enjoyed it, it played off of Wizard of Oz really well and I thought the singing was phenomenal. What a venue! We got pretty good seats but I don't know how anyone could have seen the play in some of the back rows.

Friday, we went to the Butterfly Exhibit at the Natural History Museum. We also went to the Victoria & Albert Museum. At night we made dinner and headed back to the hostel at King's Cross.

We went to Camden Locks/Market on Saturday. Caitlin loved it and we ended up getting some Banksy prints (a local street artist). After that we went to Harrods (Cait was looking for some pumps) and she found some on sale. We walked around Hyde Park for a while. We were going to take a row boat on the Serpentine but it was a little too windy to go out on the Serpentine river. Later that night we went to the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall on the Thames River.

Another great weekend in London. This will be one of my last entries. Things are wrapping up here soon. Internship is almost done and I have some schoolwork to finish up.