The Gentry's Do London...

On the London Eye

Finally the big day arrived! My parents arrived Saturday July 2nd. I was so happy to finally have them in London with me. I knew exactly where I wanted to take them for their first day, and that was an area called Covent Gardens. I have blogged about this area before, but it is the French Quarter of London. Such a cool area, with shops, street performers, and restaurants & they really enjoyed it. Their second day in London consisted of what I was looking forward to the most, The London Eye. It is a huge Farris Wheel that over looks all of London. It is about a 30 minute ride around & you can see anything from Big Ben, to West Minister Abbey from up above.

Princess Di's Memorial

Well the plans of going to Paris kinda changed, so we ended up staying in London the entire time which was COMPLETELY fine with me! I enjoyed getting to be my parents little personal tour guide around the city. On Monday I took them to Buckingham Palace, where the Queen lives during the week & resides out at Windsor Castle on the weekends…rough life. Everyday at 11:30 in front of The Palace, they have a daily event called “Changing of The Guards.” This is a daily ritual that consists of a marching band, police on horses, guards in red suits, it’s a much bigger ordeal than just two other guards coming out to take the place of the old ones. It is about an hour event or longer and they do it every single day! The day followed by walking through Hyde Park, a very well known park with bikes, horses, a lake with paddle-boats, all sorts of fun things! This is where Princess Diana’s Memorial is located. It was such a cool area and thing to experience.  

Roman Bath's

Wednesday was a wonderful day spent in Bath England, Salisbury, and Stonehenge. All 3 are absolutely amazing areas. Bath England is where the Romans used to live & take their daily baths. The stones of the walls, and baths still exist to this day. The baths are no longer in use but there is still water in them, which is unreal. We got to sit by the water and sit exactly where the Romans used to sit! Salisbury is an area not too far from bath that has one of the most beautiful churches in the center of the city. It was built thousands of years ago, it took around 30 years to build, and current a renovation is being done on it and it has taken over 50 years due to the lack of knowledge on how to renovate such an old building. Our last stop was Stonehenge, my personal favorite. It is in the middle of nowhere and you literally look around and all you see are farms and rolling hills, Thousands and thousands of years ago these stones were randomly placed in the middle of what used to be a forest of just trees. How the stones were put there or who placed them there…we will never know. But these stones are HUGE, and SO heavy, how in the world they were able to stack them on top of each other back that long ago without the machinery we have today, is unreal. Something that may never get solved…

Harry Potter Premiere- Red carpet event

Thursday was just a laid back day of exploring London. I took my parents to an area called Oxford Circus, it is the prime location for shopping! We walked around their for a bit, but were anxious to make it to Trafalgar Square where The Harry Potter red carpet event was going to happen later on that day! Thousands of people showed up for this, it was unbelievable. Due to the fact it’s the last Harry movie, I understand why. We got some great pictures and got to see a good amount of the characters! People had been camping out for nearly a week just to get a good spot on the red carpet. I like Harry Potter but not enough to camp out for 6 or 7 days! That is a true fan right there.

White Chapel-
The area where all of Jack The Ripper's
killings took place...

My last and final day in London was probably one of the best! We went to a market called Portobello Market, which is a road full of venders and antiques. My parents really enjoyed this area, we continued walking up towards Notting Hill. Which was an absolutely amazing area with beautiful homes, the area where the movie Notting Hill was filmed! The night followed by one of the greatest tours I have ever been on. The Jack The Ripper Tour. A serial killer back in the 1800’s who brutally murdered 5 homeless prostitutes within a few months span. For what reason we will never know, but he had some kind of motive. The tour took us around all of the spots where the murders occurred…spooky! Back then there was not enough technology to track him with dna or any sort…so he got away. One day the murders just ended, to this day no one has a clue who it was, or what the story behind “Jack The Ripper” truly was.

My final week with my parents was absolutely amazing, and a great way to end my Summer in London. I had the greatest time the past 9 or so weeks over in England. It was one of the best experiences I have ever had, I learned so much and after this trip I would love to continue traveling to other areas of the world. There is so much to see its unbelievable and so much history behind each place. Having the opportunity to experience London England, Whales England, Geneva Switzerland, Paris France, Bath, & Salisbury England it was all unreal. I will never forget the experiences and memories made at each of these places.

Until next time…HELLO AMERICA! Boy have I missed you! 

London Eye

Buckingham Palace

Princess Diana's Memorial

At Stonehenge...Superman

Salisbury Cathedral

Stonehenge 

As my Internship comes to an end...

A few of my co-workers

Today is my last day here at Three's A Crowd. It is absolutely insane how fast the time has passed since I have been interning here. I have truly enjoyed it, it was an experience I will never forget. I know I will take away so much from working here in London, & lessons that will remain with me for the rest of my life. Working in a foreign country is one of the most difficult things I think a person can do. You have to learn to work with a group of people whom are completely different from you, and a culture that you have never experienced. The language barrier, the way of life, the London business world, transportation from living quarters to work, dealing with the rush of work people each and everyday...it is all so different from the States. I am so thankful for the opportunity that I was given and the memories that I made. After spending the time I have here in London I have realized, event planning may or may not be what I plan to do in my future, I have gained a lot of knowledge that has led me away from wanting to pursue event planning and I have gained knowledge that still intrigues me and it may possibly be in my future. I spoke with my mom yesterday & we laughed about the one thing that I did learn about myself while being here, is that I am NOT a city girl. I do not like public transportation, I do not like big crowds of germy people, & especially do not like living in the city smog. I look forward to coming back to the States where I can jump in my car whenever I would like and not walk 15 minutes to get on a train, & I especially look forward to breathing fresh Sarasota air!

Co-workers & their attempts at
 making The Tri-Delta Sign!

This trip has been the trip of a lifetime, with experiences made in Switzerland, Paris, Wales, & even just learning the culture of London has been unreal. Memories that will remain with me for the rest of my life. BUT this trip has not come to a halt just yet! Saturday my parents finally arrive in London to experience it for themselves! With also a trip back to Paris on the agenda, second go-round with my favorite people...The French. Hmmm I'm hoping this time I get to experience the nicer of the French! But regardless it is going to be so wonderful to have my parents here & to show them the greatness of what London has to offer. And finally get to put names to places of the areas I can not stop ranting about! 

Au Revoir! 

Wimbledon

Yesterday myself & 5 others left for Wimbledon around 6:00 am! My day started about 4:30 am when I woke up to get ready for the exciting day ahead. We got to the train station where we rode the train for about an hour to the Wimbledon stop. Thinking that we were on the ball and arriving early, we were slightly wrong. We got in line around 7:30 where I received my line ticket number which was 6,571! People had camped out over night to make sure they had a spot in line for the next day, that is a true Wimbledon fan. So we waited...and waited...a total of nearly 6 hours! The waiting was actually not that bad we made the best of it but were shocked at how long we had been waiting for. By the time we finally entered and received our tickets it was around 1:30 or so!

We finally got inside to find what literally seemed as if it was a tennis city of some sort. Every where you looked you saw different courts with different matches going on. I had never seen anything like it! We spent the day watching match after match, ranging from mens singles, to doubles, to women's juniors, it was so fun to watch. The major matches with the big names were all played on what was known as the Center Court but those tickets were a bit more expensive so we stuck with the cheaper tickets and just explored "the grounds" of Wimbledon. The day turned out to be amazing and the weather was great, we were so lucky! It was an incredible experience and so much fun to finally get a first hand experience of Wimbledon.

Mommy & Daddy Gentry London Countdown

YAY!! The countdown for my mom & dads arrival in London has officially begun! 10 DAYS, July 2nd! I can not wait to see them, and show them all around the town I have been living in this entire summer. I have a whole list of things to do ranging from museums, plays, restaurants, tours, shopping...the list goes on & I can hardly wait! Our agenda also includes a trip to Paris...I am really looking forward to it, I think giving Paris another shot is going to change my views on the people there...at least I sure hope so! This is my moms first time over to London so I am really looking forward to being able be there for her first experience! My dad lived here when he was younger, but I am sure things have surely changed quite a bit! It is going to be a wonderful experience with the both of them before my  departure back to the great country of America! 

❤ See you soon Mom & Dad!!

The French Grinch

Notre Dame

Where to begin… This past weekend I went to Paris France with two of my good friends from London. We all arrived in Paris Friday evening after traveling on the Eurostar for a two-hour train ride, which was such a great and neat experience. We arrived at the hotel and had a nice relaxing dinner preparing ourselves for a full day of exploring planned for Saturday. Unfortunately we had not prepared ourselves enough for what was to come. We started off the morning with a wonderful French breakfast followed by a trip to Notre Dame, which was gorgeous! We went on a journey through London shopping & grabbed a great lunch, but with an AWFUL waiter. This was our first hand experience with the rumor of mean French people. I can officially say…the rumor is true. We were shocked with the way we were treated the entire weekend, the French absolutely hate Americans we found that out real quick & were not prepared for it what so ever. The locals would cuss at us, laugh in our faces, deny us into stores, could not understand us, awful stares …I could go on for days. But as the day went on we finally began learn you just have to ignore it, although NOT easy. Definitely the number one lesson learned the entire trip; I appreciate America more than words can say. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

So anyways, the day turned into night where we went to a fabulous authentic French restaurant with a great view of The Eiffel Tower. Prior to our departure to Paris we were given a few recommendations for good clubs in Paris. We never realized that our night out in Paris would turn out to be so memorable. After dinner we had planned to go to a famous hotel where the 56th floor over looked Paris & awesome view of The Eiffel Tower…well first stop we arrived at the hotel and excitingly ran into the hotel so excited to go up, they told us we could not because they were “full.” True or not, we will never know. Second stop we were told to go to a well-known club called Showcase, so we get dropped off once again and walk up to find no joke probably kids around 15-18…NOT what we were expecting. SO back in the cab we go to our third stop to another club recommended, where apparently a bunch of the celebrities hang out, we hesitantly walk up to a closed steel door. It was obvious the club was either closed or had not opened yet. Come to find out the club was not even in existence any longer it had been shut down. SO maybe “third time’s a charm” doesn’t work every time. Fourth and final stop, we head towards ANOTHER club recommended called Queen. We walk in, by this time it is around 12:45 aka way too late for me to be going out. We go inside and we quickly realize we are THE ONLY people in the club. We walked up to a bouncer and asked, “So where is everyone? When will people start showing up?” He follows by saying, “Eh, around “1:30 or 2:00.” 2:00 AM?! That’s absolutely ridiculous, not a CLUE how they are able to do that, going out so late or should I say early. We stuck it out and stayed, turned out to be a great night full of trying to have conversations with French people, dancing, & making the most out of our eventful night!

"The Pyramid" Entrance to
The Louvre Museum 

Our last day was an AWESOME end to the weekend, we woke up grabbed lunch and rented 3 bikes to ride around for the day. Boy did we look like tourists, we were cracking up the entire time trying not to get run over, none the less run people over. We rode to The Eiffel Tower, The Louvre Museum, and around Paris to explore the remaining bits. What a life changing trip, I learned patience, having to deal with the rudeness of French people, & the fact that America is absolutely the greatest place on the face of this Earth. All in all it was an awesome weekend with lessons learned at the end of the day!

Au Voir! 

& all that JAZZ

Last night Francie & I went to see Chicago the musical at The Cambridge Theatre. It was one of the MOST amazing things I have ever seen. I really haven't seen too many musicals so I don't have much to compare it to but I definitely think it was one of the best! And the talent of the performers is absolutely unreal! The night started off a little stressful, we arrived to the box office to pick up our tickets that we had purchased online. We get there and the guy tells us that there are no tickets with our names on them, so come to find out the tickets that I thought I had purchased never were completed on the internet! But it was our lucky day, & he told us he could get us a discount on a ticket with good seats...come to find out the seats are on the 4th ROW!! & they were about $20 dollars cheaper than what we had originally planned to pay! Francie & I go to find our seats and were in disbelief that we had such amazing seats, you could almost reach out and touch the stage. It was an unbelievable night & so much fun! For those of you who have never had the chance to see Chicago, GO SEE IT!

PEAR-E

Bonjour!

Paris awaits the arrival of myself & my good friend JJ! We leave Friday afternoon for the weekend of a lifetime. If you know me and my organizational habits, I have already made a "Paris To-do List" with restaurants, clubs, shops and so on! I can not wait for Friday to get here, and experience the best of Paris! More posts to come when the weekend arrives

Au Voir

Weekend Festivities

Friday night was a wonderful night spent with the zoo animals! A group of us went to "Late Nights" which is an event held every Friday during the summer at the London Zoo. The zoo opens up after hours with food venders, beer venders, and more. We had such a great time wandering around and getting to experience so many different types of animals in the UK than what we are used to in the States. We saw penguins, gorillas, lions, you name it we got to see it! 

Saturday was one of the best days I have had here in London. My friend Francie and I woke up early and got the day started with a trip to a well-known area called Covent Gardens. For those of you who have experienced the French Quarter in New Orleans it is very similar to that. It has street performers, little markets, shops, and restaurants galore. We spent all day there followed by the most AMAZING place here in London, called Snog. It is a frozen yogurt place but not your average frozen yogurt it was unreal, matter of fact Francie and I had it again today...oops! It's just that good.

Today, Sunday, was started off with the most wonderful Church service I have ever been to. It was at Westminster Abbey, where the Royal Wedding took place. You walk inside and feel as if you are in a church of gold, stain glass windows, stone status, this place is unbelievable. The rest of the day we shopped around and made the best of the weather which was unfortunately a bit rainy and muggy out. But still managing to experience all that London has to offer. London is so big each and every day you can find or see something new that you had not seen yet, or go down a road you never thought existed. That is the great thing about this place, each day is a new day with new things places explore. 

The weeks end activities

A group of us have made an agreement that the rest of our time in London will be well spent. It is going to be jam packed in order to check all of the items we want to do off our Bucket-lists before time is up! The activities begin tomorrow with Late Night at the Zoo! It is an event that is held every Friday night, with a tour of the zoo & cocktails!
Saturday follows with a tour of The Windsor Castle in London, which is a medieval castle & is notable for its long association with the British royal family & its architecture. The Windsor Castle survived  the time period during the English Civil War, in which it was used as a military headquarters & prison for Charles I. It is the largest inhabited castle in the world & longest occupied palace in Europe.

Sundays activities include the Sunday Markets which are similar to farmers markets but mega farmers markets! There are about 10 or more and you can walk through each one finding clothing, food, jewelry, and more. This weekend should be a great one, we have to take advantage of the time we have in London!

Leuka Mini Masters

Last night was a night I will remember for the rest of my life. Leuka Mini Masters is an event that the group I am Interning with works very hard towards each and every year. It is a fundraiser for Leukemia and it is hosted by Dougray Scott, the actor who plays the villain in Mission Impossible II. It is held in the Penthouse of The May Fair Hotel in London. It is just a great way to get people together to raise money for this disease, they put a putting green outside on the balcony of the Penthouse, it is the highest putting green in London. Each guest pays about $15 to give it a shot, and all the money raised goes to the Leuka Foundation. The event was so much fun last night, my job was to be in charge of the guest list and VIP's aka the UK celebs! So I was that person at the front door saying "Yes your on the list, No I'm sorry your not" Kinda went something like that, but I had so much fun doing it. Later on once everyone was inside, myself & a couple of my amazing friends that I brought along got the opportunity to go from guest to guest asking to sell raffle tickets to be put into a hat and later on one would be picked to win Clive Christian perfume. This perfume is the most expensive perfume in the world, with a price tag of over $1,300!! So as the night continued and we went from person to person, we came across this older gentleman who seemed to be a friendly guy and he offered to give a donation of about $30 he told me that if he won the perfume he would give it to me. So I was like you got yourself a deal. As the night came to an end and my friend Amanda pulled a name out of the hat and it was HIS!! So guess who now owns the most expensive perfume in the world...ME! All in all I guess you could say it was an awesome night & I had a blast. Being around big names in the UK is one way to get your name out there and make connections, it is a night I will always remember.

Miss the Swiss

Incredible is the only way to describe this past weekends events. I spent the weekend with a couple girls in Geneva, Switzerland. It was THE most amazing trip I have ever experienced, Switzerland is a in a category of its own. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, clean, fresh, & has so much to offer. Myself and the other two girls spent our Saturday doing what most people would dread on a normal weekend, we hiked up Mt. Saleve. It is a mountain of the French Prealps, rising to 1,400 meters overlooking the city of Geneva. We were told before we began hiking that it might be smarter to take the "cable car" up to the top and just walk around, they said most people just enjoy hiking down the mountain. Well, we aren't most people. We began our hike around 11:45 am and got to the top around 2 hours later. It was one of the most incredible experiences, tough, not just physically but mentally. But it was unreal, we made a couple stops up the way and took some breathtaking photos and then continued our journey to the top. We finally arrived and it felt as if we had conquered the world! Up at the top is a nice restaurant and a couple shops but also, is the other end of the cable car. We rode the cable car down taking us a whopping 5 minutes if not less. But totally worth every second of the hike, and experience.

Breathtaking

At the TOP of the mountain

Central Geneva

As the day continued we took a bus back into town where the main city of Geneva is, with its restaurants, shops and sightseeing is. We walked around all day, did some shopping, took TONS of pictures, and just enjoyed what Switzerland had to offer. Saturday night the girls & I, found this French restaurant where we experienced the best of the best...Fondue. Yeah, in the States we have places with Fondue, but I can actually say we had Cheese Fondue where in Switzerland they are glorified for their cheeses. And of course, their chocolate! One word...AMAZING. We went from chocolatier to chocolatier tasting what each shop had to offer and we came to conclusion Hershey's has nothing on Swiss Chocolate that is for sure. Prior to this weekend I had never ever seen myself going to Switzerland to visit but I am SO incredible happy that I did. The people were great, so helpful and nice..if you were able to get across what you were trying to say at least. In Geneva most people speak French...well myself nor the girls spoke French so we had to work with what we could and that was pointing things out on our map. And, to be quite honest we did just fine! It was an unbelievable experience, and something I will remember forever.

Mean Cuisine

Chef Silvena Rowe

My internship today consisted of a little more than just event planning. Myself and one other co-worker had a job to do today at The May Fair Hotel which is located in downtown London...I think downtown? Every where in London seems to look kinda downtown like! But it was a really neat hotel, kind of The Ritz of London. We went to the hotel today to film a short video of a new restaurant that is to open up in the hotel on Tuesday.  The restaurant is called Quince, it is a mix of Eastern Mediterranean cuisine and Bulgarian. We had the opportunity to sit down with Chef Silvena Rowe, she was born and raised in Bulgaria. To be quite honest she was slightly on the mean side! She was a very serious, business like lady, & her Bulgarian accent didn't help any! But we got the chance to sit and talk with her about why she opened up the restaurant, how she became interested in cooking & gained a little bit of knowledge about her culinary background. She definitely knows her stuff to say the least. She has been on UK cooking shows similar to the ones on The Food Network in the states, so she is a big name here in London. Today was a great experience to have the opportunity to learn a little about her, plus we got to try a few of her dishes which were absolutely amazing!

The Swiss on my mind

Geneva Switzerland 

I could not be more ready & excited for Friday afternoon to arrive. An amazing girls weekend in Geneva Switzerland is in store! Myself, Francie, & Amanda two girls from Wake Forest University are all leaving Friday afternoon for the most wonderful weekend getaway ever! We will fly into Geneva Friday evening, and we will spend the whole weekend there. Our Swiss agenda consists of hiking, sightseeing & spending the weekend strictly outdoors in the beautiful land of the Switzerland. None of us have ever been there before, so it should be a great time for all of us. Apparently from what I have been told, Geneva is the 3rd most expensive place in the world...oops I guess we picked the wrong place if we are trying to save money! But it will be completely worth it.

Wales

Mel, Lo & I

Saturday afternoon I was off to Wales! It was about a 3hour bus ride from London. I have a couple really good girl friends that live there and I went visit them for nice a weekend-getaway! The bus ride wasn’t too bad at all we drove through the country areas of England & I have to say it was one of the most beautiful parts of London that I have seen so far. Rolling grasses, old country houses with farm animals scattered around the lawn.

My weekend in Cardiff was amazing. I arrived Saturday afternoon around 5:30 and Mel was awaiting my arrival at the bus stop. When I got to Cardiff she took me around and I got to see a good bit of the town and we went out to a popular nightclub unlike any that I had ever been to that night! We had so much fun getting to visit with one another, & I experienced crumpets, which are the British version of American English muffins but better!! My self and a few other girls grabbed lunch at a popular pub on Sunday and went to the “cinemas” also known as the movie theatre. I had such a wonderful weekend getaway

Crumpets! 

Jo, Mel, & I

Starting to fit the mold

Friday we had our usual British cultural class which was about the economic times of the UK…sounds just as exciting as it was sitting there listening to it. Our field trip was right after the class to The Museum of London, which was actually kind of interesting. It had artifacts from back during the A.D times and then continued through the times all the way until current times in The United Kingdom. After the field trip and class was over, a couple girls and my friend JJ all went to this “Secret Sample Sale” one of the coolest experiences that I have ever experienced. A sample sale is all of the big designer names put into a big warehouse marked down to as much as 90% off! JJ’s internship is with a fashion designer so he gets all the scoop of when these sales happen. So we will definitely be finding more of those while we are here in London!

Friday a big group of us went to a really cool bar called Waxy O’Connor’s, it was an awesome wooden like bar. Everything in the bar was made of wood & wax, with old trees as part of the walls. As you can kind of tell in the photos below.

Artifacts in the museum

Waxy O'Connor  

Solo day in London

Futbol in The Nike Store

Today was just my kinda day, while everyone else went to their Internships I had a day off. So what did I do? Shop of course! I went to an area in London called Oxford Circus. It is a strip of stores lining the roads, ranging from all of the top stores in the UK to your average Gap. What a great way to spend my off day! I stopped in the Nike Store, as I walk in I hear a crowd of kids yelling. So of course I wander over to see what is going on and there is a small box with 2 people in at a time playing 1vs1 soccer or should I say futbol. Words can't explain how tempted I was to jump in there and play but I held back and let the  young boys play. My day continued with just exploring around London solo which I'm not complaining about one bit. When I arrived back home everyone had returned from their hard day of work, how unfortunate :) A few of us went to the nearby grocery and got some stuff to make dinner & came back to our massive kitchen that consists of a mini fridge and microwave. But when you wanna save money ya do what ya gotta do! The night has finally come to an end with a daily update of my blog, and a relaxed night. Tomorrow we have our oh so fun British culture class & followed by a field trip to The Museum of London, City Gallery.

Humpday

The Three's A Crowd office

Today Wednesday has finally arrived! Which means I made it through half of my first work week in London...but lucky me it's actually the weekend! My boss and co-workers have an event in Bristol tomorrow that they have to attend, and asked me if I was okay with just staying home for the day...DUH! Friday's we have our British cultural class, & Monday is a holiday, so happy weekend to me! My first week at my Internship I would say went well, I definitely will have to get adjusted to being in a completely different environment. Living in a new environment is totally different from working in a new environment. Different cultural ways of working, management, and even just the different people. Although I am lucky to say I really think I am going to like the group I am working with, they all seem very laid back and every other word out of their mouths is a cuss word. I think thats just a British thing! But overall this week has been a good one, we started the planning for the event coming up in June, the Leukemia fundraiser. Today I spent most of my day sending out invites to all of the celebrities, most I had never heard of but that is what google is for! Some of the celebs invited were a few well-known British rugby players, male and female actors, even the British version of an Erin Andrews the well known sports broadcaster, and many others. I am really looking forward & honored to be being able to help out with this event!

Three's A Crowd

Today was the first day of my Internship, I was placed with a company called Three's A Crowd. It is a private event planning company here in London, only about a 30 minute walk from where I am staying! I arrived this morning around 10:00 I met all of my new "co-workers," and I even got my own desk. I wouldn't say its the nicest office space, it's about the size of a dorm room with 5 different desks in one room. So I'm definitely getting close & comfortable with these people! Everyone seems really nice and friendly, they have welcomed me with open arms. I sat down with my boss today and we went over a few of the upcoming events that I will get the opportunity to help out with. One of the main events is called Leuka Mini Masters, it is a celebrity charity fundraiser for Leukemia research. The event is held on a local well-known golf course, and UK celebrities from all over participate. I am not familiar with any of the local celebrities but some are athletes, actors & a few singers AND one actor in particular that I do know that will be attending is Keanu Reeves!! I think this event sounds like so much fun, and I am really excited to have the opportunity to help out & get some really great experience.

Hugh Grant attended Mini Masters last year