Bosses come to town

After my driving record in the UK and lack of smoothness in getting around having three of my bosses depend on me to get them around for three days is a bit stressful for all parties involved.

We arrived at the workshop Monday night. I finished my Cambridge grad school application then relaxed in my room. The workshop started Tuesday. The icebreaker was tell the funniest story while being abroad...I had loads but went with the mirror story! Then we learned a new system which I left halfway through to meet with my lead. When the test came I couldn't answer the questions since i missed half the training and just felt great about myself. I took a cab to the rental car place to get a car for my trip to a supplier wuth my bosses the next day. Tuesday night we went to a Persian restaurant where my old boss Alex ordered for the table. The food was great! We went back to the hotel and headed for the bar when Tyler ( friend from Fort Worth and moving with his amazing wife Elizabeth soon to Italy!) and I stayed up too late talking about work and our experiences. It was great!

In the morning, Alex spoke to us about our mission and quality. It really inspired me about the work I am doing here. Alex, head of quality, Larry, head of supplier quality, Jaye, head of F35 quality and I head out to my supplier. I had the car ready and the Gps set. We left the hotel and I drove to a roundabout. We drove around it once and I couldn't figure out which exit to take so I drove around again and went a bit farther and still ended up in the same roundabout. At this point I am bright red, embarrassed and they are starting to tease me. Finally on the third time around I had the GPS to Alex and he directs me which exit to get off at. The rest of the 20 minute drive he tells me exactly where to go even though I knew most of it from my previous trip to this supplier. The supplier is located down this country road with houses all around then the road ends with a gate and a 1000 person company! It is so strange!

Our supplier visit went great and we headed back to the airport. I dropped them off, went and got gas. Spilled it on my suit :(. When I went to return the rental car they told me there was a gash in the tire. I couldn't believe it! Another car issue! I didn't even hit anything this time! When I finally go to the airport I found Larry and we went through security together. I went through security and they asked to take everything out of my backpack...jut what you want in front of your boss. The guy takes out all the cords from my us and uk chargers, my laptop, iPad, GPS, external hard driver, iPod, my book....it keeps going. We talk through it until the guys tell me I must watch him the whole time. Final after several scans I finally am allowed to repack my backpack haha. We had our passports checked 9 times at the airport and went through 2 face scans just to get on the plane.

We board our plane and set off from Manchester. In Manchester I get a rental car and we are off for our next adventure. We drive to Preston, head to the Italian orchard which is a location Italian place then head back to the hotel for more drinks. We end up staying up till close to two which makes the morning a bit harder. The day at BAE was rather uneventful. After we head to our location Thursday pub and enjoy the best burger I have found in the UK. We go back to the hotel and work in the restaurant for the rest of the day. It was very relaxing.

For dinner we head to Lytham. Astrid my direct boss who just moved to the UK is giving directions and we end up on a one lane two way street. It is extremely bumping and feels like a roller coaster. Every time another car comes I have to pull off the road and allow them to pass. It am hysterically laughing the whole time because I can't believe the situation. Everyone is a good sport and laughs with me!

We went out to an Indian place with Astrid's adorable kids, Karina 4 and Austin 2. When we were leaving Austin told Alex that he like when he talked while he was eating.

The next morning I woke up early to take them all to the airport. The drive was surprisingly uneventful!

After dropping them off I went to the mall to trying and get a couch. Too bad I was at the mall an hour and a half before it opened. I window shopping for a while then heading to Starbucks. After looking at several stores I found a couch and chair that could be delivered in 7 days meaning I will not be without a couch for 4 days! Yay! Very exciting. I also got bedding and fun pillows for the couches.

Location:Heathrow to Manchester

London!

I have not written lately because I have been very busy.

I went to get furniture for my place and bought two beds (one for me and one for guest--hint hint :).) Then I brought a dryer since my place only comes with a washer. Then once I picked out a couch my corporate card hit the limit and all my other cards had. It takes about 6 weeks to get a couch here so it was a huge bummer. I tried again during the week but was having issues with setting up my account to receive my Furniture allowance. It took be 3 frustrating tries!

On Friday night I took a late night flight to London. I met my friend Matt and then we took the underground to our hostel, it was my first time staying in a hostel. This hostel has a bar on the ground floor which stays open 24 hours to the guests. We drank for a while at the hostel then decided to venture out and get some Indian food. We did not find Indian food but we found gyros and hooka. Matt had never done it so he coughed every time and the whole place (mostly me) laughed at him. :)

The next day we woke up earlyish and went to see the natural history museum. When we saw the line we decided to wait until Monday. Plus the day was too beautiful to stay inside! We took the tube again and started walking towards Trafalgar Square when we ran into the Texas Embassy! My friend Laura studied abroad in London and told me about it! I was so excited to see it that we stopped from lunch and a dr pepper. It was the old embassy when Texas was a country.




The National History Museum


I love that Matt's face is so clear and the background is blurry! I am starting to improve my artsyness of my photos!








Sooo Texas!


At Trafalgar Square people were enjoying being outside! It was just beautiful! We could see all the way to Big Ben! We also went inside the National Portrat Gallery.






A bit of silly modeling!




Flags of different countries drawn in chalk!







Lots and lots of people outside because it was such a beautiful day!




Count down till the Olympics!




After he is done playing the drums he can just get on him bike and ride away!




It was a lot harder than it looks to get up there for this picture!


Big Ben






Ski gear fancy dress bar crawl that we saw!


After we grabs a beer at Sherlock Holmes we needed to on the tube and head back to the hostel to meet up with our friend Mark. As we were walking I saw this bridge! The London Eye and the Thames. I ran away from Matt the captures these pictures.










Then I found Matt and we rushed to meet Mark. Once we got to the hostel we waiting for him for 30 minutes. Hahaha. Mark had just arrived from Australia and had been flying for the last 36 hours. We got him a beer, he changed his clothes and we set off to this store similar to H&M but bigger and about 100 times more crowded than I had even seen a store. We all decided it was too crowded and we would walk back.


We went back to the hostel where we decided we would shower at my friend Caroline's instead of the hostel since we didn't have towel and it kinda scared me! We took the tube to Caroline's and couldn't believe where she lived.





I love this sequence of pictures. They never let me get a good one!





We showered at Caroline's went out to a pub for dinner then caught a black cab to her friends going away party.



Caroline (on the left) and grew up together. Our parents knew each other before we were born and we went to middle and high school together.
Mark is moving to Denmark later this month. Matt Mark and I are the three unmarried and young engineers over seas. So we are planning lots of trips together.




Tower Bridge! Two blocks from Caroline's apartment. You can see it from her flat!


Camden markets.





These fish eat all the dead skin off your feet!















After Camden Market we went back to Tower Bridge and met up with my friend Lindsey from college. She was in Alpha Gam with me. She moved to London for work the same weekend I did. At Lehigh she was in an international program each summer where she met and kept in touch with people all around the world. It was great to see her and we related in the troubles we are having with banking, understanding people and cell phones. It was nice to have a familiar face to relate my struggles with! Also a great travel buddy!

On the way to dinner we ran into Johanna. She as a German girl we met at the hostel. We asked her to come tot dinner with us!


The night we stayed at the hostel bar and relaxed. At two when I was heading to bed I climbed up to the third bunk and realized someone was in it. I went back downstairs and told the boys. We asked for a new room and got one that no one else was sleeping in. That postponed my bed time till after 4. I taught these French guys who barley spoke English to play F the Dealer a card game about guessing high or low then selecting a number.







The next morning we woke up, convicted Mark to go tithe museums and finally got out of the hostel around 11. We went to Natural History Museum.


Once I realized it didn't have mummies, which is all I wanted to see, Matt told me he would take me to the British Museum. I kept telling him the British stole all of this stuff and my mom told me this and that. And he kept saying I don't think it is this museum and I said yes it is. We walked around for a bit and I was like you are right Matt...as always. He rubbed it in for a minute and enter moved on as he alway does. Hahaha.


We stopped for lunch then took the tube to the British Museum. I was the one doing directions and when we showed up at the "British Museum" it as actually a library. Matt said that isn't it...I said it has to be my map said it is. Well again I was wrong. I looked up the wrong this. We got some great exercise though. It was actually the same distance from the train station just the completely opposite direction! They were nice about it and I lead them to the actually British Museum.




We wouldn't have seen this if I did t get us lost!











We made it!

Location:London Town