Lazy Sunday

I feel like I have been in this city for weeks already. I'm not totally sure if that is a good thing, but going to take it as a good sign that a part me feels very at home here...and who knows, maybe I will be someday...

Yesterday was our orientation day with Brandon, our contact. He is a professor of Business and Tourism at the University of Hertfordshire, just outside the city. He was kind and gracious to show us around all day, despite it being is 17th wedding anniversary! We started by taking a bus down to Reagent St., where all the most fancy shopping is, and then we walked to Piccadilly Circus to have lunch in a fabulous book store. For someone who doesn't read as much as I would like, I found I could get lost in a bookstore like that, spending hours browsing and desiring the money, time, and patience to read all the great stories there.

After lunch, we walked down towards the riverfront, we walked an awful lot, passed Buckingham Palace, #10 Downing Street, and the Houses of Parliament. We crossed the river by the London Eye and caught a riverboat down to the Tate Modern Museum, neither my stomach nor my migraine sensitive head enjoy this part of the journey. We got to the Tate which was jammed packed as the clouds had finally lost their battle with the rain, sending everyone inside for some tea and art. I didn't have time to really look at anything in the museum, but I will make it back there eventually.

When the rain let up, we walked back across the river to St. Paul's Cathedral and said goodbye to Brandon, who was already late for his Indian Curry date with his wife...I felt really horrible about this but he would not leave us on the "other side of the river." We made our way home and stopped to pick up some more groceries. It's amazing how little you can buy at a time when you know you have to carry it all the way home. After dinner, Summer and I spent a long time figuring out whether we are going to Paris next weekend or to Frankfurt....the jury is still out

Today has been near perfect.

I had planned to go to church, but today was daylight savings here (now I'm 8 hours ahead of the west coast) so I was a little late! It's just on the other side of the park, but it took about 40 minutes on the bus because I'm still a little unsure of the bus system so I got on the wrong line and had to make up the difference walking. The 35 minutes I was at church, Holy Trinity Brompton where Tim Hughes is the Worship leader, were great and I'm so looking forward to next week.

After church, I put on my ipod and headed for Hyde Park. I love love love parks. Even though it was cold, breezy, and about to rain, I was so happy just to be there. I spent a long time just walking around, people watching. I sat at the round pond for a while, watching the ducks. Next time I will surely bring bread for them. I can tell that the later Spring is going to be beautiful in the park. The daffodils are already starting to bloom and soon the Cherry blossoms will too. Then I got a latte and came home for lunch.

This afternoon, Summer and I are going on an adventure to find the place where she in interning. She has the longest commute and is not confident she can find it on her own. She also has never traveled alone and is nervous about all the underground, but she will get it I'm sure. Then it will be an early night before my first day of work tomorrow at 11. I'm really excited to finally be starting...

I wasn't able take pictures during our tour of the city because of the rain, but I will definitely be going back to all those places so no worries....here are some of my walk in the park

GREAT Britan...

So I have only been in London for a grand total of 22 hours, and I have already had a great scare, 3 great blisters, and one fabulously great beer!!! I'll start from the beginning i guess...

My last week at home was the kind that makes you not what to leave. I celebrated my 23rd birthday in style at the BNP Paribas Open in Palm Springs and had the most fun time ever. The few days left before d day were easy, relaxing, and of course snowy. Mom and I drove to LA on Tuesday to get last minute shopping done and spend time with Nana and Gramps/Aronoff family, which was really fun. On Wed, I woke up at 4 am to take mom to LAX so she could go goof off with the grand babies for a week in NC, she is already having the best time ever I'm sure, hopefully Mari can take a few naps while she is there. Then I went for a LONG walk in the HOT sun with Jackie, the first of the 3 blister and a brand new sunburn then ensued. After a nice lunch with nana, and impromptu car wash from gramps, and a mani/pedi, Jackie and I were off again to the Airport.

Everything went smoothly on that end, our plane left on time and I was ready. I had a window seat and finally got to watch "Slumdog Millionaire." Which is totally amazing by the way, absolutely deserves all those Oscars. I slept for about 6 1/2 hours I think and woke up in time for breakfast. We landed right on time, that is when the fun started...

I have never in my life been nervous to go through customs. It's seems pretty easy right. I know I'm not a terrorist, I know I have enough money to stay here, and I know that I have plans to go back. But apparently, these are not things that the lady customs agent knew, and she most certainly did not trust my word on it. So after almost 20 minutes of ridiculous questions like, what do you want to see here (everything was not a suitable answer for her!) , how much money are in every single one of your accounts, what are the titles and authors of your travel books, what jobs do you plan on applying for when you get back to the states, and so on...she finally said, I think I should put you back on a plane to the US right now.

BUT, since your housing is paid for and your friends are already here, I'm going to let you in. Next time, don''t be such a stupid American who thinks that you can get in anywhere, we are being more strict in the UK and it's because of people like you!

So after that lovely welcome, its safe to say I was a little flustered for the next bit. I got my bags and began searching for Summer, my roommate who was to arrive an hour or so before me. The search did not go well, and after almost 3 hours of unanswered pages and lugging my bags (which I did just fine, Mother) through the enormous airport, I decided that she must have already gone to the flat and so should I.

Getting to the flat was easy, just a non-stop train and a short taxi ride. The flat however, is quite different in reality then it was in my head. I think I better not describe it in detail, but I will say, it's in a beautiful, SAFE neighbor hood...and I will learn to love it!

After settling in for a minute we headed out to meet Paige's, my other roommate, dad for dinner at a pub down town. The underground is so fast and easy, and it was nice to walk a little bit although it was dark and I was delirious so despite my usually outstanding sense of direction and my photographic memory, don''t ask me how to get back to The Auldley. (Oh and it was a great decision to wear the brand new shoes I just got in LA, and alas blisters 2 & 3 arrived. Note to self, always expect the walk is further that you think, this is London not Mammoth.) The atmosphere was fun, the food was good, and the beer, oh boy, dangerously yum. It was called a "Hoegaarden", yes even in my delirious state I was still able to memorize the name, and it was so so good. It was ice cold, from the tap, frothy and topped with a lime, perfect. It was also however, quite alcoholic so getting home was even more interesting. But as soon as I lay down my head, I was gone. I woke up about 11:30 local time, so I figure I slept a good 13 hours.

Right now I think I should go scrounging the neighborhood for some breakfast, since we have literally nada in the place. Then my plan is to take another long walk and go relax in Hyde Park, oh I love parks!!! Sorry I have no pictures yet, but I promise they are on the way.

Thanks everyone for reading and caring, but...I don't miss you yet! smooches...

New York, New York

Sorry for the delayed post of my East Coast adventure...alas, here it is

My time of preparation for this trip was quite short and made very difficult by the onset of a severe head and chest cold. I lost my voice completely, and was coughing, sneezing, and blowing all my energy away. But despite how horrible I was feeling, I drove to Orange County and spent the day back at school meeting with various professors to get advice for each aspect of my presentation. The professor in whose class I wrote this project was very helpful and encouraging and even paraded me around the Comm department, introducing me to the new Assistant Dean and even set up an interview with the editor of the website and alumni newsletter who will be writing a feature story on me. All of this would have been much more flattering if I was able to pronounce words and not cough loudly and uncontrollably. I spent the rest of the weekend drinking tea and sleeping as much as possible at my best friend Jenna's house, and with some emergency anti-biotics from my Aunt, I was feeling better and at least slightly presentable as I drove to LAX at 4:30am on Monday morning.

My non-stop flight to JFK was all together uneventful, and upon arrival I met another finalist from USC as we waited for the car to take us to the hotel. We arrived at the Roger Smith Hotel with only an hour and a half to get ready for our dinner, so I didn't have time to do any exploring. Before dinner was the first time the 5 of us we are introduced, the other 3 finalists were from UNC, Oklahoma State, and Oswego University. We were driven to Soho for dinner at a Latin Fusion restaurant where we were joined by 3 women from Hill&Knowlton and 3 from PRWeek Magazine, of which 3 were judges. When we got back to the hotel, I spent several hours in the lobby preparing and got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep.

The morning came early as we had to be checked out and ready to go at 8am. The 15 walk to and from the Hill&Knowlton offices was the only time we spent outside, but it was a beautiful winter day in the city, cold and snowy but enchanting all the same. I would really like to spend some real time in a big city I think. Upon arriving at the office, we were brought into a small conference room where we would be waiting for the rest of the day, except for the few times we were in front of the judges.

The first part of the day was the 30 minute presentation. I went 4th and felt this was by far my best part of the day. I felt calm and steady and confident in my ideas. The judges had positive feedback and relatively easy questions, I felt great leaving the room. The second part was the editor pitch, the only portion i felt nervous and under prepared for. Our target was Matt Boyle, a business editor for BusinessWeek Magazine, and it was his goal to be the toughest, rudest, more insensitive, and unnecessarily harsh journalist that he could be. Needless to say, he succeeded in his goal with all but 1 of us. Luckily, we were all able to laugh with each other and brush it off our shoulders. The final part of the day was a crisis response simulation, in which we had 10 minutes to respond. During this portion, I felt tired and distracted and it showed to the judges. While I thought I understood and had a good plan for the big picture, there were a few obvious details that I overlooked. After leaving the office at 2:30, we only had about an hour to wait for the car to the airport, so the remaining 3 of us enjoyed a well deserved drink in the hotel bar.

I arrived back at JFK around 4:30 for a 6:30 flight, only to be delayed over 9 hours due to icing on the planes. I finally got back to LA at 6 in the morning, just in time for a beautiful west coast sunset. Overall, I really enjoyed getting a glimpse of corporate life in an industry I really believe I can thrive in. I am so thankful for this experience and flattered by this consideration.

All that being said, I was not chosen as one of the top 2 to return to NY in March for the PRWeek Awards. I'm not disappointed or upset in any way. I'm happy to be able to stay focused on my next step of going to Europe for now, and am so excited to see what happens as a result of this experience in my future career. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support, as always it is greatly appreciated.

This was my hotel room...the bed was amazing!!

Thursday's with Jude

During my time at home, I have been able to spend thursday mornings with my most favorite nephew while ReAnnon tutors a little boy in Crowley. These mornings with Jude are simple, relaxed and just plain fun. I usually watch "planet earth" while I wait for him to wake up from his morning nap, and make sure I have cheerios, water, and his favorite toys ready to play. We then spend about an hour playing peek-a-boo, crawling around, flipping through animal flash cards, and playing "'hide the paci." He is such a sweet boy and I love my time with him, I just can't wait for him to be walking, talking, and growing into a stellar little boy.

Here are some pics...

News

Well let me just say that I never thought that my second blog post would contain such out of the ordinary news, but it seems that my transition into professional life might be moving along more quickly than I had imagined...

Last week I recieved a phone call from a representative of PRWeek Magazine, the most important and influential public relations industry publication. She called to tell me that I was chosen as a finalist for PRWeek's "Student of the Year" competition...now let me explain what this means.

This last semester, my very last at CSUF, I was in a class called PR Agency Seminar in which we explored the realitites and challenges of agency life. I should say that by the end of this class, I was less than excited to pursue an agency career, feeling that an "in house" corporate lifestyle would suit me better. Anyway, our final assignment in this class was do this year's PRWeek competition assignment, a comprehensive PR campaign for the up coming NBA All-Star Week including intensive market research, original events, logistical planning, and a creative viral marketing campaign. As an insentive, my professor offered 20 extra credit points to the students who recieved an A on the assignment if they turned it in to the competion. So I did in the hopes of pushing my overall grade over the "A" mark, which did not happen ultimatley.

While I did get a good grade on this project, my professor had many notes and critiscisms on the practicality of some of my ideas. He said more than once, "they will never let the athletes do this!" So you can imagine my suprise to get the call that I am one of 5 finalists out of somewhere around 20,000 entries nation wide. I called my professor to give him the news and he was just as shocked as I was, but needless to say, he has offered his support for the remainder of this process and will perhaps even offer to change my grade.

The next step of this process is an all-expenses paid trip to New York City to give a presentation of my project in front of a panel of PRWeek employees, world renowned journalists, and industry executives. Should I be chosen as one of the top 2 in this group, I will be flown back to New York in March to attend the annual PRWeek Awards, a black tie gala event at Tavern on the Green. The winner will recieve $5000 and a paid internship at Hill&Knowlton, one of the largest and most influencial PR firms in the country.

I cannot expect everyone to fully understand the magnitude of being chosen for this honor in terms of its influence on my future in this industry, but the implications are huge. And as a 22 year old fresh out of college, this is an incredible boost to my confiedence in entering such a difficut econimic climate. The only down side to this news is the very short notice. I have only one week to prepare for maybe the biggest presentation of my life.

I'm doing my best to relax, stay focused, and remember that my ideas got me here in the fist place and if I can just hold my own in that room, I think I might have a real shot at winning this thing...we'll see I guess

Statement of Purpose

So I have finally joined the magnificent blog-o-sphere, after years of defiance.

I suppose I that since my post-college life consists of more than just endless cups of coffee, sugar-free red bulls, counltess library hours and scattered naps whenever possible; I might have enough going on in my life to warrant such a blog. I'm also hoping that if I can trick myself into thinking that blogging is different than journaling, maybe I will start doing a better job of chronicling my adventures, misadventures, and general day-to-day living.

For any who don't know: I just recently graduated from Cal State Fullerton with my Bachelor's Degree in Communication with an emphasis in Public Relations. I have move home for the winter to live cheaply, save money, and spend some good time with my family. I'm so thankful for this season that I can rest my brain and decompress from 41/2 long years of hard work at college.

My next step is still working it self out, but I'm very excited to be headed back to Europe for a Sports PR internship and some more, much desired world travel. Keep checking back for details as the come together.

For those who read this blog, thank you for your attention. I hope that my writing is complelling, entertaining, engaging, and enjoyable...