london: part 2

so we arrived in nigeria last night....it is really scary here and it was a pretty bad experience, but things are looking up.  i will save that for a later post.  for now, lets go back to the fun stuff and talk about london!

so during the week we had a pretty strict schedule.  training started every day at 8 AM and went until 6 PM.  the hotel we were at was a mariott and it was AWESOME.  we would go down for a full breakfast each morning, then at 10 and 3 during the day, we had a break room near our conference rooms that the staff would come and bring smoothies, fresh fruit, fresh baked cookies, make awesome coffee and cappucinos, and make fresh omlettes.  they seriously rolled out the red carpet for us.  they also had jars of candy gummies available all day.

we are learning the competency system training, which is 80 slides and takes about 6 hours to present from start to finish.  so we were broken into groups and would deliver specific parts of the training to our specific teams.  my first morning presenting, i did REALLY bad and was all nervous. but as the week went on, i got more and more confident and by the end of the week, felt great on my slides.  (i can't wait to come back and practice on my landmarkers!)

break time!

gummies

our training room

at night, we would either eat in the hotel or try to get out a bit and go see the local area.  we went downtown to london on sunday, i ate in my room monday, ate in the hotel restaurant tuesday, and went out wednesday, thursday, and friday.  on wednesday night we went to windsor and ate at this really good restaurant. i had the pork belly and it was SO good.  and we also had venison for appetizer.  made me miss home!  then thursday we went to this local place and i saw GYPSIES!!!!!!!  AHHHH!!! there was this girl with her family, and she was dressed to the nines in a short white dress, hair and makeup all did, and tanned.  i asked her if she had gotten married and she laughed and said "no! i am 14!! i just had my confirmation!!"

umm.

wow.  this chick looked like she was older than me! i asked if i could take a picture with her and she instantly got into posing.  it was hilarious.  the whole family was doing it too.  they kept telling me ok take more take more!! and are you on facebook?  tag us!! they loved it.

then friday, i went out and got to tour windsor inside and check out three awesome little pubs around it.  i went with my co-worker glenn instant connection for me there! i miss you dad!) windsor was amazing.  seriously just amazing.  everywhere you looked there was amazing architecture, awesome global finds from years and years of history, and just so much opulence and history. i loved it.

after we toured the castle, we decided to stop at the little down at the base of the castle and find a cute local pub to grab a beer. we found this place called the blarney stone and had a local brew.  we left there and decided to find one more pub...this one was called two brewers.  we had another beer and headed to find a taxi.  but then, we came across the third pub, and it was called THREE tuns!  we had to stop, obviously. it was a sign!

the three tuns was my favorite.  it was built in the 1500's as a public meeting house, and was transferred into the three tuns bar in 1625.  it was used frequently by the king in the castle.  one king even had tunnels built from the castle into the basement of the three tuns, where he would grab some whiskey and beer mixed (can't remember what it was called) and go next door to visit his mistress.  awesome! haha.

after friday, we flew to paris, which has an awesome airport, and then began the trek to nigeria.  i will leave all that for the next post.

yummy macaroons in paris airport!

i miss everyone at home and cant wait to get back to the states!!  margaritas and mexican food, get ready for me!

london....

so far so good! on saturday afternoon, oliver took me to the airport and dropped me off.  it took a lot, but i didn't cry! i was pretty proud of myself on that one.  this is the longest i have been away from him since we began living together over 4 years ago.  and definitely the longest i've been away from harley.  obviously that one sucks. 

so i got to the airport, checked in, and got through security. i literally walked right up to each line and walked right through.  the airport was pretty empty.  i stocked up on snacks and then went to find somewhere to park it for 2 hours and hang out.  i missed out on rachael and kyle's 3rd annual crawfish boil (again) so i thought it was fitting that i ended up at papadeaux. ha.  i got a couple of fat tires and some mozzarella sticks and then headed over for my flight. 

the flight was late getting off, but i was all excited because the pilot said that we would make up that lost time in the air and that we would arrive within 9 hours.  awesome!!  and equally awesome--i met this awesome british lady who was a seat apart from me in the very last row.  the plane was 2 on the left, 3 in the middle, and 2 on the right, and she and i were both in aisle seats in the middle of the last row.  we were so excited because we were normal, got along, and both immediately stocked up on pillows and blankets.  i thought that it would be great to share the middle seat and get some more room.  uhhh wrong.  about halfway through the flight, this random lady walks up to me and says, im going to sit there.  and shes pointing to the middle seat.  well by this point, the lights are all down, the british lady is passed out, and i was bundled up with pillows and blankets reading my kindle. i said, ummm seriously?  and didnt move.  well she insisted, and sure enough she climbed right into the seat that was holding all me and the other lady's extra stuff.  i was SO mad.  she told the stewardess that the seat that she was assigned to, closer to the front, that the guy in front of her was reclined into her lap, like the seat recline was broken.  later we found out that she LEFT HER KID up there, and came all the way to the back to avoid sitting behind another person.  ummm there were tons of other open seats around. but whatever.  

so i arrived at heathrow,  and got through security and baggage claim pretty easy.  it was about 9:30 am london time by then, and i was running on about an hour of sleep, so i stopped at the airport for a coffee.  my taxi to the hotel was SO CUTE!!  and my cabbie was really nice.  our hotel, the mariott windsor, is really close to heathrow, so after a short drive i was here. 

not a bad room, huh? it has a really comfy bed and a nice bathtub.  must haves for a whole week of staying here. 

i unpacked a few things, rinsed off in the shower, and then met my master trainers in the lobby to see the sights of london! we started off at windsor castle, which we are very near to, then took a bus and two trains to get to downtown london.  we ate a snack and bought tickets for the hop on hop off busses that tour the city.  a lot was closed down for the london marathon, but i thought it kind of added to the excitement of the day.  by the time we were headed back to our hotel (about a 45 minute trek from london with all the trains and busses) i was EXHAUSTED.  i passed out early and kept waking up thinking i would be late for training. 

this morning, we started training and its going good so far also!  ill write more about that tomorrow.  i am looking forward this week to: being more comfortable presenting in front of people, eating entirely too much, seeing harry potter at universal studios (fingers crossed here....we are trying to figure out a cheaper way to get there. its like 100 pounds for  cab.), potentially seeing a theater show, and enjoying the people in my training class.  

so, here are the pictures i took yesterday.  i will take more tomorrow of the training room and hotel.  its nice here, and the people are so friendly!