Celebrating the Old River and the New Moon

Last weekend was a pretty eventful weekend in the city of London. The Thames Festival was happening along the Thames River on Saturday and Sunday, and the Mid-Autumn festival occurred on Sunday as well. The Thames Festival was advertised as "The Mayor's Festival". I'm not really sure why, except that London has a relatively new mayor, but either way, he puts on a good festival. We were going to go out in a group, but I guess I woke up a little late and half the group left. Linda had fallen asleep on the couch and was the only one left when I got out of the shower, so we headed out on Sunday afternoon towards the festivities.

Lots of good things to eat along the lantern-lined streets

The Mid-Autumn festival is traditionally celebrated in most East-Asian cultures so we thought we would stop by Chinatown before heading on to the Thames festival. In Chinese culture people celebrate the new moon during the Mid-Autumn festival by making a special baked good called a moon cake. These are generally eaten only once all year during this festival so the first thing we did after arriving in Chinatown was to get a big moon cake to share another one of my favourite Chinese treats, a fried sweet rice ball filled with red bean and covered in sesame seeds. It's called gin-dui and I could probably eat ten of them in a sitting before showing any signs of fatigue. As we snacked on these treats we took a stroll down the Chinatown streets that were lined with hanging red-lanterns, another traditional symbol of the Mid-Autumn festival. The streets were full of people enjoying the day, shopping at the street vendors, celebrating the festival and eating moon cakes. After an hour or two we decided to head over to the south bank of the Thames to check out the Mayor's Festival.

A woman hand-shaping some delicious dumplings

We hopped back on the Tube at Leicester Square and took it to Waterloo where we got off and walked out right behind the London Eye. As soon as we came to the bank of the river I realized how big of a festival this was. The walkway along the bank, at least as wide as a four lane road was crowded with people heading to and from various art and music performances while enjoying the food vendors lining the street. Aside from indulging in all of the delicious food, I was hoping to see a Korean break dancing crew called Last for One who were putting on a performance as part of the Thames Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is also an important part of Korean culture. I had checked a website online that said the performance was at 6 PM, but of course I find out from a poster that it was changed to 5 PM as I looked at the clock on my phone that read 4:57 PM. I knew that the stage was still pretty far away so, we ran... for about 10 yards, till we got stuck behind the huge crowd that was inching slowly down the street. After about 25 minutes we got to the stage, and unfortunately they were just finishing. Pretty bad luck, but there was one last Kung Fu/Comedy performance that day called Jump. So, we got some Korean food and squeezed our way into the crowd so we could have a good view. The show turned out to be surprisingly funny and entertaining. I wasn't expecting too much but I was laughing the whole show which cheered me up from missing the breakdance crew.

A blind-folded, board-breaking, backwards flip-kick: not an amateur move

After the show we walked back past everything we had rushed by initially. After perusing the gift and food vendors and eating a plate of sautéed squid, another one of my favourites, we waited till dark and watched a huge parade that went down the street. There were hundreds of intricate, colourful and brightly lit costumes all accompanied with dancing and music. Linda and I managed to get above the crowd by standing on a barricade. Good for me because I got a better angle for taking some photos and good for Linda because she's like, 5'1". . . on a good day.

The parade was a delight for the eyes and ears

Went left after the parade to beat the crowds to the tube and to see if we could see the fireworks display from the top of Primrose Hill, a high point just next to our flats. We hurried home and ran up the hill to find our other flatmates already sitting, huddling together waiting for the fireworks to fill the cool, night air. It was good to see everyone and after a short while of discussing what we all had seen, done, and eaten that day, the fireworks began to go off just above the city skyline. It was a fantastic view and a great end to the day's festivities.

Our sight of the night lights

Infrastructure Update

I've been in London for two weeks now. There has been a lot going on, but a lack of blog entries by me describing it all. So, I believe a little catch-up is in order. First, the cost of living here in London (as you'll find in most major metropolitan areas) is fairly ridiculous. Food prices are fairly high, clothing prices are pretty absurd, traveling isn't cheap, and the cost of going out at night might just keep you eating in. But seeing as I'm in London, I'm still pretty determined to enjoy myself, albeit on a budget.

Holding onto history at the British Museum

So far, I've done some basic sightseeing and general tourist-y stuff. Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, seeing Royal Guards, the British Museum and fish and chips have already been checked off my list. The parks here are really well kept, very green, and great places to spend your free time. Regent's park and Russell Square are two that I've visited so far. I still would like to take a ride on the London Eye, but a ticket is £14, or a little under $30, which is a bit of a deterrent. I think I may have to get a ticket soon though because it mocks me every day when I look out the window of our flat.

Stumbled across this procession near Westminster

I've started my internship with UK Trade and Investment in the Sports Infrastructure sector. I had an interview last Monday with my supervisor, Andy. After we agreed on a schedule and discussed a little about the company, I left for the afternoon and started work the next morning. As far as I've gathered, the Sports Infrastructure division works with UK based companies and businesses and helps them find a market in international sporting events. It also encourages them to work with each other and make contacts. I was excited to get started but I've never held an office job before so I wasn't totally sure what to expect.

A sunny afternoon picnic at Russell Square

My guess was a lot of Excel worksheets and emails. I was somewhat correct in my prediction, as my first task was to update a database of contact information for UK companies involved in the London 2012 Olympics. It was an all day task, but with my expert Google skills I compiled a comprehensive list of email addresses, company websites and CEOs, all of which I'm told I will be contacting in the near future.

I've also done some research into business markets for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou. So far work is pretty interesting and I'm looking forward to what's ahead.

I may be here for an internship, but that's only for four days a week (yes, Fridays off) and there's a lot to see in London, the UK and the rest of Europe and I'm planning to experience it all. Ok, that's optimistic thinking, but we'll see how it works out.

Blog 1 from London: Setting up and Settling in

I'm in London and I'm all moved in. Our flat is actually nicer than I had imagined. My bedroom is fairly large, although I am sharing it with two roommates, Andrew and Bryson. Initially, we had a much smaller room because a couple of the girls attempted to claim the large bedroom for themselves. After some brief tension and discussion, it was decided that the three guys would take back the room from the two girls, however I really can't blame them for trying to stake their claim. There's not a lot of space here in London and perhaps it's going to be every man for himself, or maybe in this case, woman for herself. While there isn't a whole lot of personal space in the bedrooms, we have a large living room with two couches, a TV and a full size dining table so everyone can spread out a bit. A nice touch throughout the flat is the huge windows. During the day we get plenty of light and have a really nice view from the fifth floor. When I sit up in bed in the morning I can actually look out and see the British Telecom Tower and the London Eye.

View from our re-taken bedroom after ousting the girls

We have a nice, decent-sized kitchen with hardwood cabinets and marble counter tops. There are some things to get used to, however. The fridge is a little smaller than U.S. fridges, not to mention we have seven people all cramming food into it. We were told we probably wouldn't have a dishwasher, so it was a nice surprise to see that we did...except that it's been a few days and we still haven't figured out how to use it. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure we even have dishwasher detergent. Anyway, we'll figure it out, I hope. One of my pet peeves is trying to cook when there's a huge pile of someone else's dirty dishes in the sink. When they're my dirty dishes in the sink, I tend not to get as irritated for some reason. Unless of course I forgot to wash them and don't realize they're my dishes, then I'll probably get equally as irritated with my innocent flat mates.

We also live right next to Regent's Park, which is a really nice public park with lots of open green space. There is a bus stop right in front of the building, making the commute into central London fairly convenient. The bus stops at Bakers Street Underground station, making it easy to travel by tube. One of the nicest things about our place is the included weekly cleaning service, meaning we can throw massive parties, start food fights and essentially act like complete degenerates without having to worry about a thing. Ok well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it's nice to have a basic cleaning service. With seven college students living here, we can use all the help we can get. All in all, it's a nice flat and I'm looking forward to living here for the next few months.