An American Intern in London
Created | Updated Sep 5, 2002
Hello everyone! :)
For those of you who have seen my personal page, I am an American graduate student who will be interning in London for 16 weeks (in the Bloomsbury/Fitzrovia area, near the British Museum) starting in January 2003!! <biggrin> I am really excited, as this will be my last semester of graduate school (I graduate in May 2003), and I've never studied abroad before! I was awarded this internship by my department last spring (2002), and ever since then, I've wanted to learn as much about London (but also Great Britain [I'd love to go to Ireland, but I don't know how expensive that would be], as I want to travel) as I can before I go. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia which, like London, is a city that isn't really represenative of the area (or state, in this case) it is in (it's so cosmopolitan), I know that London is much different from the rest of Great Britain! Anyone out there, particularly natives <rose>, who can post and share about what to see and do in London and where to travel in Great Britain would be greatly appreciated by me! <biggrin>
I just returned from England in August about two weeks ago. I was there for about a week and a half, and I stayed with my boyfriend (yep, you'll have to go to my personal page to find out how this American gal has an English boyfriend who lives in England! <tongueout>) in Burgess Hill (near Brighton), and then we visited London for three days. I had a lot of fun in both places (particularly London, because that's where I'll intern, though I wish I could have seen the countryside while in Burgess Hill--ran out of time!), but there's so much more I would love to know about London and about Great Britain! <biggrin> Some of the fun things Chris (my boyfriend, who is also a researcher at H2G2--not telling you his researcher name! hehe <tongueout>) and I did in London include: walking through Covent Garden, seeing Les Miserables (I'm a musician and love musical theatre!) at the Palace Theatre in Leicester Square, going to the British Museum and British Library (after all, I'm studying to become a librarian [in Youth Services]), to a Japanese restaurant called 'Wagamama's', seeing where I'll be interning and living, drinking in pubs (he had Guinness, I had cokes--I'm not a big drinker, and I missed my strawberry daquiri!) and just generally enjoying the sunny, hot weather I had every single day I was in England! Shocking, eh? <tongueout>
The reason I want to learn about Great Britain is because I felt not "in the know" when I was visiting over there last month, though most British people were friendly towards me. Coming from the American South, where everyone generally smiles, says "have a nice day", and is quite friendly, I sometimes felt out of place as some British people tend to more closely resemble the culture found in the American North than South. Now, I know there are British people out there that feel Americans are all ignorant and self-absorbed, and while some of us are (and I'm not happy about it), I'm interested in learning about British people and their customs and their way of life simply because I wish to expand myself. I hope you'll be kind to me as I am trying to learn about you. The last thing I would ever wish to do would be to offend anyone British and although I enjoy a slight edge having an English boyfriend, I'd still love to know as much as I can before I go, and who better to ask than natives? :) I hope you'll help me out! <biggrin>
Anyway, I hope some of you will find this entry and respond, as I'd really love to hear about London and Great Britain from people who live there! <biggrin> Have a great night and feel free to check out my personal page for more about me and about my English boyfriend, Chris <love>, whose researcher identity still remains a mystery! :)
<love> Marian <angel>
For those of you who have seen my personal page, I am an American graduate student who will be interning in London for 16 weeks (in the Bloomsbury/Fitzrovia area, near the British Museum) starting in January 2003!! <biggrin> I am really excited, as this will be my last semester of graduate school (I graduate in May 2003), and I've never studied abroad before! I was awarded this internship by my department last spring (2002), and ever since then, I've wanted to learn as much about London (but also Great Britain [I'd love to go to Ireland, but I don't know how expensive that would be], as I want to travel) as I can before I go. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia which, like London, is a city that isn't really represenative of the area (or state, in this case) it is in (it's so cosmopolitan), I know that London is much different from the rest of Great Britain! Anyone out there, particularly natives <rose>, who can post and share about what to see and do in London and where to travel in Great Britain would be greatly appreciated by me! <biggrin>
I just returned from England in August about two weeks ago. I was there for about a week and a half, and I stayed with my boyfriend (yep, you'll have to go to my personal page to find out how this American gal has an English boyfriend who lives in England! <tongueout>) in Burgess Hill (near Brighton), and then we visited London for three days. I had a lot of fun in both places (particularly London, because that's where I'll intern, though I wish I could have seen the countryside while in Burgess Hill--ran out of time!), but there's so much more I would love to know about London and about Great Britain! <biggrin> Some of the fun things Chris (my boyfriend, who is also a researcher at H2G2--not telling you his researcher name! hehe <tongueout>) and I did in London include: walking through Covent Garden, seeing Les Miserables (I'm a musician and love musical theatre!) at the Palace Theatre in Leicester Square, going to the British Museum and British Library (after all, I'm studying to become a librarian [in Youth Services]), to a Japanese restaurant called 'Wagamama's', seeing where I'll be interning and living, drinking in pubs (he had Guinness, I had cokes--I'm not a big drinker, and I missed my strawberry daquiri!) and just generally enjoying the sunny, hot weather I had every single day I was in England! Shocking, eh? <tongueout>
The reason I want to learn about Great Britain is because I felt not "in the know" when I was visiting over there last month, though most British people were friendly towards me. Coming from the American South, where everyone generally smiles, says "have a nice day", and is quite friendly, I sometimes felt out of place as some British people tend to more closely resemble the culture found in the American North than South. Now, I know there are British people out there that feel Americans are all ignorant and self-absorbed, and while some of us are (and I'm not happy about it), I'm interested in learning about British people and their customs and their way of life simply because I wish to expand myself. I hope you'll be kind to me as I am trying to learn about you. The last thing I would ever wish to do would be to offend anyone British and although I enjoy a slight edge having an English boyfriend, I'd still love to know as much as I can before I go, and who better to ask than natives? :) I hope you'll help me out! <biggrin>
Anyway, I hope some of you will find this entry and respond, as I'd really love to hear about London and Great Britain from people who live there! <biggrin> Have a great night and feel free to check out my personal page for more about me and about my English boyfriend, Chris <love>, whose researcher identity still remains a mystery! :)
<love> Marian <angel>
