THE TOWER

When you hear the word TOWER, one usually thinks of a tall, narrow building, stairs leading up to the top. Similar to one found in the fairytail of Rapunzel... In London, apparently TOWER means fortress ... and by fortress I mean a castle, and a city with a large wall around it; oh and not to mention a torture chamber and crown jewels. On Friday we experienced THE TOWER OF LONDON. It was amazing! Much larger than I had anticipated, and soon we made friends with the BEEFEATERS, or the Yoeman Wanderers, if you will, who told us of myths and facts about the TOWER. Like the story of the bloody tower...


We had a great time exploring, and making friends with the Ravens (if you will shout Good Morning to one of them, he will say it back, or so we were told?) The afternoon down pour that we got also made us more inclined to stick around and explore the tower more, which we were all grateful for.
yeah this looks cute ... tudor style and all, but its where they held the prisoners.

After dinner we decided to hit up the hot spots of London and strolled by the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminister Abby, Through St. James Park and onto Buckingham Palace. I think this is when it hit me -- I am living in such an amazing city. Big Ben was much larger than I realized, and Westminster Abby honestly took my breath away. St. James park left me the most peaceful I think I've been since I've been here. The wispering willows, and calm river, with the wind whistling through the trees was the closest I think I will get to the sounds of the ocean from home ... Buckinham Palace was ... well to be quite honest a little bit of a let down after Big Ben and Westminster Abby (why did they put all of those together, when CLEARLY the other two outshine the palace so much??) at any rate, it was a fabulously London evening ...

OUR FIRST NIGHT OUT

If you know Anna or I, you wouldn't be surprised we hit up the pubs on our 2nd night in the city. (In fact, you probably thought what took us so long??? Its called JET LAG). Thursday night we decided to hit up a pub or two in Soho. After checking out the scene we ended up at Three Greyhound, a smallish pub that appeared to be full of action. Anna immediately became "friends" with the fiesty Spaniard bartender, and soon thereafter we met some awesome Brits -- The little one on the right was my favorite, and a smart one too (he graduated from Oxford). We spent the night with these boys and hit up O-Bar later on to go dancing. However, soon thereafter we got a feeling it was time to go home. Although it wasnt late, we knew it was time to go. Little did we know what a smart decision that was. Thank goodness for the tender mercies of the Lord prompting us to get out of the area. As i'm sure most of you heard, there was a car bomb found in London at 2am Friday morning-- blocks away from where we were at. No need to worry, we are perfectly safe.

In case you dont know what i'm referring to, the NY Times had a good spread on it: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/30/world/europe/30britain.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

My London Blog

Its taken me a few days to get settled and used to London life. Especially detrimental to my London Blogging experience is the difference in outlets, and voltages, or whatever... needless to say my computer wouldn't charge, and it still has difficulties.

Anyway, onto the good stuff! The trip over was long ... so we geared up on the Shopoholic series!! I wasn't too excited for the 3 hour layover in CANADA however, it did prove to be successful after a stamp on a passports...and the Toronto airport is amazing with the 50" plasmas and free wireless, oh and not to mention the urban cowboys -- ) but we made it!! My girl friend Anna also came on this trip, but unfortunately not on the same flight. Without cell phones and efficient planning, we failed to coordinate a meeting place. Luckily, Anna is a smart girl and waited by baggage claim for us, so we could all take a taxi to the center together. Ashley grabbed our bags while Anna and I reunited ... well she grabbed most of our bags I should say. Of course the airline lost one of my bags ... and not only that, but my bag with all my essentials in it. (No need to worry though, I got my bag 2 days later--- just in the nic of time!!) So we grabbed a taxi and got a brief tour of London from our Londoner taxicab driver. Our house is beautiful and as soon as we got unpacked, we went out on our first walk (of many) around our neighborhood. Which we learned is RIGHT by Whitelys (the oldes shopping center in the world), Notting Hill (yes, where the movie was filmed), Hyde Park (where Princess Diana Played), Portabello Road (have you seen bedknobs and broomsticks?), and lots of other cool stuff.







The next day we went on another walk, this time it was much more scenic. We saw the Tower of London The Tower Bridge the tower bridge and the Tower Bridge we also happened upon this awesome Gibson Guitar art exhibit ...



This walk was amazing, and I was instantly awestruck with this beautiful city; the history, the combination of the old and modern architecture ... and everything about it!


Thursday was another walk, this time through business district. (Ugh we are SUCH tourists!!)
I figured out that men in Europe LOVE pink--- even more so than Americans. We started counting men in pink and got to #35 in less than an hour. Also noted was a building with businessmen smoking outside -- only wearing blue shirts ( We then had an assignment at the Museum of London, and learned about the Roman history of London. Which, to be honest wasnt that exciting. But what WAS exciting was the old Roman wall amongst all the office buildings ...


Kk well this blog is long and boring so i'm finishing it now. there is more to come.

Saturday June 16, 2007 I graduated cum laude from The University of California Irvine. I'm glad I had no expectations for the ceremony, because it was nothing like I would have anticipated. I am so excited to be done!! Here are some photos:

Graduation



The parents ...


The Fam.


Funny Boys.

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Posing ...



The Babies


Gelato Anyone?

My first request to my congressman:

MY PASSPORT!
I don't know if I've heard of anyone having as much trouble as I did ...
After waiting for 11 weeks for my passport to arrive I began to call the passport agency (to no avail), and checking online to find out the status of my application. I called the Federal Passport agency relentlessly, and after getting hung up on 20 times, I began to be frustrated ... and worried. Its now been 13 weeks before I finally got through to talk to someone, only to be devestated by the response:
"Oh. I'm sorry your application is in Charleston and hasn't been opened yet".

I of course, start freaking out, and call my dad to fix it. He calmly assures me that he will take care of it. He calls my congressman, and Kristin, at Congressman McCarthy's office totally hooked me up-- well sorta. She finds my application (which was BURIED in North Carolina) and has it FedExed overnight. I checked it out, and thought I was ready to go. That is, until Wednesday, June 20, at 1:00am when a friend was looking at my new passport and said, "umm Kiley? This isn't your last name..." I look at my passport again and see the name: KILEY HURT. ok, honestly? My name is NOT difficult! 4 letters--its a word, a brand even!! So Thursday morning, 7am, I am back on the phone with the passport agency. It only took 5 calls to speak with someone this time. Only to be told that I would need to take new passport photos, and head to the LA Federal Building (see below)



to wait in line and pray to get a new one printed that day. (Friday, June 22 was my best friends wedding, and my flight left Monday June 25 at 10am, so Thursday was my only chance).

So I headed off to LA. While on my way Kristin, once again hooked me up and got me a special handling appt so I wouldn't have to wait in the horrendous line. To my surprise, however, the special handling appt only got me so far. Once i was inside the building, there was another horrendous line! This time it was up to me to get ahead. I put a smile on my face and began to strut my stuff. The officer totally bought it, and before I knew it I was at the front of the line :) They couldn't print my passport that afternoon, so my amazing mother went to LA on Friday (since i was in the wedding) and waited in line for 3 hours to pick up my passport. I told her to start flirting in line, but she declined ...



Do YOU want to be one of those people in the photograph? I didn't think so. If you have problems with your passport -- call you congressman and brush up on your flirting skills.

"My generation is going to be high-maintenance."

The conversation of my Generation (which is Gen Y for those of you who aren't familiar with the term are people who are ages 6-25) used to be taken with a grain of salt; until I realized how true our Generations' culture was. We are first generation to use e-mail, instant messaging (IM) (which I have always attributed my amazing typing skills to) and cell phones since childhood and adolescence.

According to a recent article:
"At 11 years old, Kate Achille had a pager for her parents to reach her when necessary. At 13, she had a cell phone. Now 22 and working for a school, she e-mails her mother as many as five times a day and calls her on the cell phone several times a week...

Many millennials may lack basic spelling and writing skills because they have come to rely on spell check (I can only think of roommates that constantly ask me, "how do you spell "definitely"?). Moreover, some millennials have become so accustomed to using IM abbreviations, such as “b/c” for “because,” that some don’t know how to spell it correctly. In addition, millennials need to learn how to conduct old-fashioned research in books and other primary sources. “It doesn’t occur to them to go to the library, but there’s a whole bunch of stuff not on the web,” says Wendover. (Soo true).

Millennial Bramlett agrees. “New college grads strongly believe all Internet information is valid, and if it’s not available on the Internet, then it doesn’t exist. This can create problems in work quality if someone is relying 100 percent on Internet resources.”


Wait...so is this a bad thing? The funny thing is, while reading this article my parents called me 3 times. When I didn't answer the first time, they called again. Coincidence? I think not. They may be hovering just a little.

(To read the full article: http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/0507/0507cover.asp)

Countdowns:
Finding Nemo Preview: 1 day
Graduation: 10 Days
Amy's Wedding: 16 Days
London: 19 Days

I have a lot ahead of me over the next few weeks... So excited!!
Any suggestions of "lasts" in Orange County?

R.I.P. Cafe Atlantic.

Do YOU Have an Annual Disneyland Pass?

If so, you MAY get a chance to be a member of my FINDING NEMO PREVIEW party on June 7th, 2007. (Even if this is a block out date for you, you would be able to go). So, start kissing up ... NOW.