In the summer of 2005, I was in my final year of my Bachelors of Arts in Business Administration from the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) in San Antonio, Texas. Jack had been in the military for about 13 years at that point. I had the opportunity to do an internship in London at Crabtree & Evelyn. I had only been out of the United States once, and that was to Mexico and I had also never been away from my children (13yrs & 11yrs) for more than six days...
Just to show how amazing Jack is, he told me to take this opportunity for 6 weeks and enjoy it. He said I had been following him around and taking up the responsibility of the family for long enough. He promised the kids would survive without me. :) So off I went!
When I first met the ladies I was going to be on the plane with Scarlett, Danielle, and Christine, I wasn't sure how to feel. I was about 12 years older than all of them. I was hoping we could all get along, even if we didn't turn out to be fast friends. I kind of thought Dani was a little too organized and might not be much fun....boy was I wrong! While she is amazingly organized, she is probably the most charismatic human being I have ever met and God sure knew what he was doing when he brought her into my life!
After a very long 10 hour flight, we hopped in a cab for another hour or two into London, dropped off our luggage and headed to the first pub we could find.
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Our first night in London
Scarlett, me, Dani, & Christine |
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| Cromwell Road and the front of our Flat in London. |
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| The Sorbone Gardens or Sorbone House |
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| Our front entrance\ |
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| Just inside the front door |
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| The entryway leading to Dani's room |
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| Our first pub. The Hoop & Toy |
Built in 1760, the Hoop & Toy is the oldest pub in the Kensington area. Apparently it is haunted because it is built on a former grave site...We only saw the type of spirits you drink there! :)
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| Dani & Christine at the Hoop & Toy |
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| Scarlett & me at the Hoop & Toy |
You won't see any more pictures of Christine. After the first night, she had a mental breakdown, tried to set Scarlett & Dani on fire and was removed from our flat and placed in another part of London. We never saw her again but assume she had an uneventful rest of her internship. Anyway, apart from having our favorite pubs, we went to coffee and tea at this wonderful Lebanese place called Sarab, every day. We went there so frequently, they considered us friends and even gave us a hookah to share one day.
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| Our place Sarab |
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| Dani |
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| Scarlett |
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| A very blurry pic of me with the hookah |
Back to our internships. Scarlett worked at Armani in London. She was always so cheerful and colorful. While everyone else was walking around in their black suits and black dresses, our Scarlett was in bright pink and bold colors...always the Texas girl! Dani worked at The Royal Academy of Arts. She has the perfect personality for that. She got to do some boring stuff but she also got to do some amazing stuff and go to the best London parties (even if she had to work them)!
I worked at Crabtree & Evelynn. Not in a store, but the Ltd. portion. It was the single best work experience I've ever had. The hours were long but I learned more in those six weeks than I have ever learned in a class room.
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| Crabtree & Evelyn on Kelso Place Road |
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| The lovelies that I worked with |
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| Traditional English Tea Party for my birthday! |
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| Me cutting the cake |
The ladies at Crabtree & Evelyn threw me a traditional english tea party for my 33rd birthday that summer. It was the sweetest thing they could have done and I will cherish that memory forever.
That summer wasn't just about work though. After all, we lived right across the street from The Natural History Museum! To say I have a thing about seeing everything is a bit of an understatement...I'm sure you will be able to see what I'm talking about...
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| The Natural History Museum |
I can't remember all the wonderful people we met, or every little thing we did when we weren't working, but we sure packed in a lot of living in those six short weeks. I will try to make a little bit of sense out of all the following pictures.
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre:
Millenial Bridge:
St. Paul's Cathedral:
Science Museum:
Victoria & Albert Museum:
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| I have a whole gallery of pics in London 2006 Blog |
British Museum:
Buckingham Palace:
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| I have a whole gallery of pics in London 2006 Blog |
Covent Garden:
Picadilly Circus:
Royal Academy of Arts:
Trafalgar Square:
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| The National Gallery |
We weren't there just for the work and culture though...:) We had a million good nights!
...and a few rough ones too. Remember, it was summer so after a very long day of work...the pubs were the hub of our social life and our haven.
While we were in London, we got a couple opportunities to travel a little. Our first trip was to
Paris. Our next one was to
Dublin to get rid of the memory of our troubled trip to Paris.
In order to get to Paris, we drove to Dover and took the ferry to the other side of the English Channel.
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| White Cliffs of Dover |
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| Cliffs of Dover |
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| On the ferry |
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| Scarlett & me heading to Paris |
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| Scarlett & Dani heading to Paris |
By the end of our time in London, we were happily exhausted and had grown so much as people. It was a very special time in all our lives and we are better to have had that opportunity. I loved it so much, Jack let me go again the following summer!
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I hope you enjoy this blog and find it helpful to your own future travels. I also welcome those that just like to live vicariously through my wanderlust.
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