Customer Service

I have come to find out that customer service - and the restaurant experience in general - is very different here in London. For example, it is taboo to go into a restaurant and order just a dessert, or to share meals, both of which are fairly common in the U.S. The waiters in restaurants here are also a lot different. They don't usually come to ask how the meal is going, service is slow, FORGET about free refills, and don't plan on having your check anytime soon.

Today I had two very different experiences with customer service, one which really surprised me. For lunch me, Jordan, Rachel and Ari were in the Trafalgar Square area when we decided to go to an Italian cafe. After ordering some water she asked flat or sparkling and when we said tap she informed us that they "don't do tap." So not wanting to pay 2 pounds for a tiny bottle we just went without. After taking forever with our meals that didn't look appetizing at all (they don't care much about presentation here haha) she brought us a check with a note at the bottom that said "tip not included" with the not crossed out....followed by the tip amount she wanted and a new total. Really? For not wanting water? Whatever.

Later Jordan, Rachel and I went out to see the Lion King. This was a much different experience than what I remember seeing in New York when I was 10 but it was still very good. The set is incredible and the costumes are so fun. I was a little disappointed in Simba's voice (it sounded like he hadn't quite reached puberty yet). Anyway, our original seats were in the second row of the balcony which is great for half price tickets but there were 5 very annoying teenage (yep, I am now bagging on teenagers - thats what happens when you are almost 20 haha) boys behind us who talked through the entire first half. One kid even answered his cell phone and talked on it for a few minutes. SERIOUSLY?!?! Then when we would "shhh" them they would tell us to shut up. It was real fun....not!

So at intermission we went up to an usher and after telling the boys off she led us downstairs to the seventh row where she said we could remain for the rest of the show. Beautiful! She needs to teach the restaurant lady a thing or two.

Outside the theater.

Good News!

Today was pretty chill since I have to have read Northanger Abbey and have written a paper on Castle of Otranto by class tomorrow so I was working most of the day. Jordan, Rachel and I visited the Cortauld, a small gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist art located in the Somerset House, in the morning though. One of my favorite things about it is that since it is so small I was able to look at all of the paintings and take time to understand each one without getting bored. We went through the entire gallery in an hour. It was great. Oh and its free on Mondays...nothing better.

Jord and I doing our fountain pose (whatever that is) in front of the fountains at the Somerset House.

After that it was time to help with dinner and such but we received the bad news that the server for the center is down, which means no internet for a while. Not to be discouraged a group of us went to our local McDonalds and bought a McFlurry so we could used their WiFi. It was the best internet access I have had in a while haha. So, as a result, I am going to be up late finishing my paper BUT there are pictures on all of my previous blogs. So go check them out because they definitely enhance my writing haha.

Kew Gardens

Today was another lovely day in London...made even better by the fact that it was a Saturday. This morning Jordan and I went to Portabello Road to get fresh fruit salads and some pastries for breakfast (so delicious...there is nothing better). When we got back and saw that the weather was alright we decided to go out to Kew Gardens.

Kew Gardens is basically a collection of the worlds plants all in one place. They have greenhouses with climates and plants from all different areas of the world, a walk that takes you above the trees, tunnels that go underground and show you the world of the badger, and more flowers than I think I have ever seen before. We had such a good time walking around and we even took a nap on the grass (until an old lady tripped over a hole and almost fell on top of Jordan while she was sleeping haha).

On the treetop walk.

Looking down from the treetop walk. It was pretty far up there.

The view from one side of the walkway to the other...just to show what it looks like.

Jordan and I posing like our bear friend.

The azaleas were in all different colors. I loved the orange ones.

We tried to take a boat trip home like we did from Greenwhich but it didn't work out so we ended up walking forever through the town of Kew which is really cute, I liked it a lot and its not far from London which is nice. It was definitely a good day trip for sure.

So the internet here is being super lame and not letting anyone upload pictures onto blogger or anything so I will try to get all of them up as soon as possible. They are all sitting on my desktop in order ready to go...

Feeling Wicked

Today was SUCH a good day. First of all, I have to love Fridays because there are no classes so we are all free to do what we want all day. Second, there is hot water! And I took a hot shower!!! If you think I am being over dramatic about this, go for 14 days without a hot shower and then you will see what I mean…its lovely.

Jordan and I got up this morning and went to the Apple store (the biggest in the world apparently) to talk to them about my computer. I guess I did fill up my hard drive (its amazing how much room five seasons of Grey’s Anatomy take up haha), which I didn’t think was possible…but whatever. Then we shopped around a bit for some external hard drives and found a good one so my computer has been cleaned out and is now working beautifully again. Which means – for those of you who like the pictures better than the words – if the internet here cooperates there should be pictures slowly added to all of the previous entries that don’t have pictures yet (I think since last Saturday)!!

Since it was raining we stayed in while I cleaned out my computer and then read some for English. For lunch we decided to try the pub down the street from our house. Its called the Champion and it is so delicious. We split some doughballs and nachos and their dessert called “Can’t Decide” which is a sampler of all of the desserts they have and includes cheesecake, ice cream, brownie and some raspberry thing. It was all so good and the atmosphere in there is really cool. We will definitely be going back.

Today was the first day in my weeklong chore of kitchen duty. With five others I have to prepare and clean up both breakfast and dinner for the next week, which really isn’t that bad and its sort of fun to use all the big industrial stuff in the kitchen.

After dinner Rachel, Jordan and I ran off to try to get tickets to Wicked. Students can get half price tickets for any shows that have seats still available an hour before the show and we were so lucky to get seats in the center in the second row of the first balcony for over half off and the show was amazing! Its so fun to have all this great entertainment so close to us.

In front of the theater

Inside...feeling a little Wicked.

All Things British

After presenting with my group in European Fine Arts class today and getting two other assignments – the visit the National Gallery and the British Museum – Jordan, Rachel and I decided to get started. We spent the afternoon at the British Museum, which has an amazing collection of history from all over the world. We were most impressed with the mummies and I loved the old Egyptian statues. The Rosetta stone was obviously a major object to see and I was actually surprised at how big it really is. The museum was overwhelming but I had a good time looking at the different exhibits and just taking in as much as I could.

A famous street sign we passed while walking around today.

Just giving knucks' to a giant statue fist haha.

Evensong and dinner progressed as usual and then the entire group went out to see Romeo and Juliet in the Globe Theatre. It was an interesting experience. We didn’t have the best seats (we were on the side of the round so a large pillar blocked my view of anything that was happening in the middle) but at least we didn’t have to stand for the entire three-hour performance. It was a good show and something you pretty much have to do when you come to London.

Outside of the globe.

Inside of the globe...by our really bad seats haha.

In other news the hot water is back on in the center! I haven’t taken a shower yet but from what I hear it is great haha. I am taking my computer to an Apple store tomorrow so hopefully I will have pictures of the last week up soon. The internet, however, is something that I do not think will ever get better so I am just going to have to deal with it.

One thing that I am amazed by in London is how early most things close. It’s almost worse than Provo! But coming home from the Globe starving at 11:30 tonight Jordan and I were amazed to find the McDonalds still up and running, as well as our friendly neighborhood waffle supplier, so of course we had to pay them both a visit for our midnight snack. It was fabulous.

The Bus

Today wasn’t super exciting because we decided to take a rest from walking around and being a tourist. We went out to Covent Garden, which is a really cute shopping area and looked around at the stores and street performers. We also got some super yummy ice cream at Thorton’s which is this really delicious chocolate place.

From there we decided to get on a bus and just see where it takes us. The bus is really fun for looking around at the streets and trying to figure out the layout of the city – especially if you ride up front and just relax. We went on the bus until it terminated and from there we figured out where we were and got on another bus and just rode around pretty much all day. It was very nice.

Tonight we are just hanging around the center and trying to get some work done. Rachel and I have to make a powerpoint for our class tomorrow which is going to be really hard with hardly any internet access. We also have another book to read by next week so, we are pretty busy.

Les Miserables

This morning I started the day off right by going to British mysteries class. We were discussing the book that we had all read, the Castle of Otranto. I really enjoyed this class because I was not impressed with the book after I finished it, but by going to class I realized all of the good things about the book and I was able to appreciate it much more. Even my professor agreed that the book was not the best example of literature (like I would be able to tell that) but that it was significant for other reasons – being the first gothic novel.

This class also made me realize something else. I am so lucky to be on this trip with people who mainly focus on the arts and English. Being a science major I am so focused on science and math all day every day that I don’t really know much about art or how to appreciate it. I really am so blessed to be able to go to museums and galleries with people like Jordan who point out all of the good qualities of the art and the things that make it stand out. I also get to go to class with people who read way more into books than I do – which really helps me to learn different perspectives on things.

Later tonight we took off to see Les Miserables. We were so lucky to get tickets in the eleventh row for 27 pounds, which was a good enough deal to begin with, but then, when we got there, there was no one sitting in front of us so we had a perfect view – amazing! The show was so well done we were all teary up by the end. Nothing beats a night out to the theater.

We asked a lady on the street to take this. I guess we forgot to mention that we wanted the theater in the background haha.


The stage before the show.

Life at the center hasn’t changed much. The internet still struggles (even though we have supposedly changed companies) and there is still cold water (because they got the part in but then it started leaking and they are waiting for another part that will come in on Thursday…) and my computer is still being lame. I’m sorry for the lack of pictures, maybe this will help make my writing more interesting…