Nido is Neat-o

Sunday morning I finally made the trek out to London to meet up with Matt and the three that flew in later that afternoon. Once I arrived we indulged in BBQ and some wine/brews and then went to dinner after at an amazing Italian restaurant where Matt's dad treated us...I cant get over the food choices here, its a bit of a problem. We pubbed it Sunday night which was where I discovered cider...how we dont have cider in the states I dont know, its SO good. Monday we took the day to drag our overweight luggage through the tube and across the city so we could move into our nido accommodations. This must have been hilarious to watch, we were all over the place...especially when Matt thought it was a good idea to kick my massive suitcase down the escalator when Tyler was in front of us. Luckily, it didnt knock him off of his feet but I found myself in a bit of a mess when I got to the bottom and couldnt move it out of the way fast enough. Lets just say I almost cause a massive human collision at the bottom of the escalator and it wouldnt have been pretty!

Nido is a giant complex (950 students) that is solely for study abroad students, which is awesome because we get to meet people from all over the country! Its virtually new and has a restaurant, cafe and work out room. The rooms are really small; i'm sharing one with Denise but we manage. Theres a communal kitchen on each floor which is air conditioned...while the rest of the complex is not, so we tend to crash in there for a bit on the scorchers. Great weather thus far but a bit too hot in my opinion because we have to walk everywhere and I always walk with a purpose so it wares me out! Its been a fun relaxing week so far, pub crawled most nights which is EXPENSIVE! Its funny to watch us scrounge for cheep food around here, our goal is always under 5 pounds, which is pretty reasonable I think. Tis a shame because if we walk right up the street about 10 minutes we end up in Angel, which is a very social and beautiful area- tons of great places to eat, drink and shop there= potential bank busting. http://www.nidolondon.com/london/kings-cross/home.php

We walked through South Kensington Gardens and another park yesterday and that was a blast. We figured we had accumulated several miles walking by the time we were done but it was well worth it. Its nice to see the city still has tons of stunning parks kept up because its always great to be able to get away on a sunny day and hug a tree as one of my profs would say...or maybe just sit under one and read :-)

I just now returned back to my pad from my placement interview (we dont start until next Monday) and it was amazing! Well, aside from making a wrong turn off of the tube station and getting lost in the ghetto it was great. The office for London Civic Forum is small, but comfortable...literally, I get to wear jeans, t-shirt and flip flops to work everyday! Woohoo! Paul, my boss, was incredibly delightful and explained the project i'll be working on, which is a conference called The Big Opportunity. This is a chance for London's community to get a say in the bigger picture of the 2012 Olympics and what happens after its over(in London...for those of you who are behind in the news). London is trying to work on the raising issue of lack of sports and exercise in today's society, which is the cause of world obesity. This conference touches on those problems as well as how the city is going to utilized sources for the Olympics that they already have in order to save money, space and allow growth in the economy. Nearing the event on June 25, ill be working a lot, normal hours are from 10am-6pm but I may stay late or come early BUT the good thing is he compensates by giving me full on days off! Ill have monday and tuesday following the conference off...always a plus!! I spoke to him about working extra on other projects so I can get in some good experience and he knows that i'm into sports so he's going to scope out some things for me to get involved in and give me some contacts that LCF has worked with...aka BBC sports n.b.d. He sounded like he was interested in using me past the program date because I told him I'm staying for 7 months so this may end up a potential job! Not bad. Everything else is great and am really enjoying myself! I'm going to go grab dinner and go to the pub for our welcome reception so AU REVOIR MES AMIS!

TTFN,
V