Mickey and the knight

Went to the Shakespeare Theatre Coffee morning at the Embassy today (God listen to me acting all posh nosh) - in all fairness I seemed to have pressed all the right buttons with Sir Sheinwald because he kept on pressing Dad to make sure that I come to this event. So here I am in the midst of all these very important people when out of the blue I am introduced to none other than Sir Ian Mckellen! He is quite possibly the epitome of what I want to be when I'm 70+. The man comes to this black tie morning event in a pair of beige trousers (matching jacket and trainers!) and a light blue lacost t-shirt! What I learnt: he likes lots of honey in his porridge, he has read the script of the upcoming film The Hobbit and strongly recommends I go to New Zealand. That and I have absolutely fallen in love with the sound of his very warm and articulate voice.

Another legend who I had the immense pleasure of meeting was Mickey Rooney! This little 5ft 1 person was particularly unrelenting at showing me his decorative war badges (which although impressive in their own right, after 10 minutes you tend to want to talk about something else surely). Anyway I found it very surreal indeed that I was talking to someone who had starred with the likes of Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn back in the day! Quite possibly one of the most amazing Sundays ever.

E!Sharp moves to the US

The parents are in town. Yes they can't stand the fact that I have been away for three whole weeks and personally came to see me.....yeah right. Actually Dad's in town to launch his EU magazine E!Sharp in the US and the British Ambassador Nigel Sheinwald very kindly has given him his residence to do the launch party.

Speaking of the Ambassador, I thought my parents would be the ones introducing me to him (a quick 2 and a half minute hello how are you, done). But believe it or not earlier on this week before the end of my shift I get an email from his secretary asking me to come up to his office! Now this is the end of the day right...my hair is disheveled, I've kicked off my high heels under my desk, my shirt is half tucked in. I go into this huge panic zoom where I'm whisking around my work colleagues asking for a brush, pins and the basics of any kind of makeup so I can actually look semi presentable. Up I go to level 3 (the big boss's level) and literally you open the door and it's like you've stepped into the plaza hotel. Everything is white and marble, with fountains and plants (all that was needed was some blue birds and perhaps so classical music). I'm welcomed in the office where the big man himself has taken 20 minutes of his precious time to what? To chat with me! I was thrilled to pieces as you can imagine.

Canadian Thanksgiving

Celebrated this for the first time ever. My housemate Stef is from Toronto so this was HUGE. Apparently it's exactly the same as USA Thanksgiving, only a month earlier because of the different time of the harvest (or some shizzle like that). Stef is an amazing cook, and I had literally been in DC for about 5 days when this party happened so it felt great to meet up with lots of people. I discovered turkey brining in the fridge as well as new ways to help the planet (Stef is an environmentalist and has literally persuaded me to start a compost heap in our backgarden...).

Party in the USA

It so much fun being a social butterfly. I've been meeting up with old Paris friends (i.e Michelle and Philipp [who I didn't even know was here until by chance he saw my FB status and contacted me]). The world is freakishly small (I've been saying this a lot). Mich has been amazing, showing me around everywhere and taking me to one of my now favourite bars called Madhatter (all the walls are decorated in Alice in Wonderland memorabilia). Have developed thanks to her a new found obsession with whiskey sours - they're ALL I am drinking now, which is slightly worrying. In honour of this posts ode to alcohol, I've posted a photo of my official legal drink in the USA 8D.

Have also met a lot of European Interns (interning at different embassies) whom it turns out all go to Sciences Po/went to. It seemed very surreal indeed to be talking French in America. I've furthermore met a few other people thanks to a story which goes along the lines of "our parents have a mutual friend....who came to DC on a business trip....who invited us to her hotel for coffee....who introduced us....and the rest "c'est l'histoire". One of these delightful people of whom I speak of is Clarissa, who worked on the Obama campaign and who has met the man about 20 or so times....in person! Lucky biatch indeed. She has also met Biden as well, who we both agree is indeed a very handsome man for the considerable age he is. Anyway Clarissa invited me to this "soul and funk party" at hers the other night because apparently the house she currently lives in used to be the after concert party house for the likes of James Brown and The Temptations. It's such a shame I don't have a full body photo of what I was wearing that night - you see the red black and yellow floral top I have? Well imagine that with a bright red knee length skirt, brown belt, black tights and brown boots - I've never felt so flash in all my life.

Nie Hao

Have begun Chinese lessons! Yup, twice a week and have only had two classes so far but it's going well (well as good as can be I guess). It's a bloody complicated language though. It has 4 different ways to pronounce a sound like for instance the letter "a", there is NO alphabet, "the" does not exist, there are no tenses and there is no logical way of writing the characters...you have to remember them allllll by heart. My teacher, Kai, is very VERY patient is all I can say.

Finally managed to write my name out though the other day, although I write the characters far bigger than they should be, I'm just glad I'm getting the ink strokes correct. Small start.

On Churchill's Turf

I know it has been a ridiculously long time since I have posted something, these past couple of weeks have been very crazy. I won't bore you with a long blog (fear not), I'll just run through what I consider have been the most amazing highlights of my near month stay over here.

I've started work! Interning at the British Embassy wasn't as intimdating, nore freakishly complicated as I thought it would be. Everyone here is very nice and welcomed me instantly inspite of my considerably young age (yes 22 is considered 6 years old in an establishment such as this one). I'm based in this department called Corporate Services (I know, huh? what?) - basically it's the dept. that runs the whole building (from accommdation to health insurance to conference organising etc.). It's a pretty sweet way of starting because after two weeks I've gotten the low down of how exactly a place such as this works. I'm going to be rotating in different depts (after next week I'll start in the Global Affairs Dept where I'll be moving onto more current issues, my favourite in particular being climate change).


So, so far so good. I get my own security badge and access code, I've made friends with the security guards who smile at the little girl who bikes to work everyday whilst everyone else arrives in rolls royces and audis. FYI bike has been a huge success for getting to work (it only takes 20 minutes and I go through this gorgeous park as well).

I leave you with a little anecdote which believe it or not wikipedia will explain better than me: "Outside the British ambassador's residence stands a statue of Winston Churchill. One of the statue's feet is inside the marked embassy grounds; the other is within the District of Columbia. This symbolizes Churchill's Anglo-American parentage (his father was British, his mother American) and his status as an honorary citizen of the United States". Pretty cool bit of trivia there for you.

Le bilan de la semaine

So lots of museums, cultural sightings and the like this week. You will note the vertigoesque escalators in the American History Museum as well as statues of girls holding flowers (which look like broccoli) and yes the original ruby slippers for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. You really never know what you're going to find here. Spent the remainder of the week room decorating as well which has been great fun. I now have a considerable collection of photos adorning my many walls. The weather has been ridiculously hot though I shouldn't be complaining I guess. Still the only summerlike clothes I brought with me were my sports t-shirts (which I am sure as you can imagine are very sexy indeed).

Randomly I also met up with old friends from my Erasmus exchange in Paris 2 years ago. Turns out the majority of them are working in DC...the world is shockingly small...in a very good way. I have managed nevertheless to preserve my precious English accent (or trying to at least). Resistance has been difficult though I admit. I start work tomorrow which is exciting (I get my own security badge and everything so I have to act like I'm important....which I am sure won't be too hard to do). Have also started Chinese lessons (why you ask?), well it's always been something I've wanted to do and why not. My internship hours finish late afternoon so why not use the time wisely I say.

So a pretty good first week - have become cultured, met up with friends, managed to keep english accent, got a bike and managed to preserve my anger when realising that galaxy bars are called Dove bars here (I know wtf right? that's a soap brand hello).

Thing left to do:

- go to the theatre

-go to my first jazz concert

- experience thanksgiving

- play basketball with Obama

- learn black slang (if that is a politically correct term)

- learn to swing dance (not the indecent kind)

Unlocked

Just thought I'd share with you guys my new set of keys. Totally random right? Well in my opinion anyone who owns a "Finding Nemo" key should definitely show it off. So here is a new addition to my prized possessions.

A Great Find

I very skillfully managed to get a new second hand bicycle/lock/helmet for $75! Got it today and immediately took for a test run. I haven't been on a bike since the good old teen years so this was somewhat nostalgic indeed. Anyway - if you are ever in DC I highly recommend you go to this place called The Mall (basically a big field). Not only does it contain the Capitol all the way to the Lincoln Memorial within view but there is probably every possible type of museum around there too...and they're all free! Top ones - the air and space museum and the natural history museum (you get to see big t rex skeletons, pretend to be an astronaut and wonder why you weren't born an ant because their lives seem so much better organized than yours).

Decided to have a good old fashioned hot dog as well (can't be in the States and not have a hot dog) and yes they do put the stereotypical mustard squiggle ontop of the sausage before handing it to you. Bike certainly has made commuting a lot easier and brought considerable attention. What I highly advise the young ladies though if you ever decide to bike around this city, if a couple of guys on bikes stop and ask "darlin' ya wanna trail with us?"....smile and keep going!

First Impressions

Landing with a 3 hour delay at Dulles International Airport didn't exactly put me in the excited mood. My first time in DC and all I could think about was bed. An hour long wait through customs didn't help either (especially when one looked across the room at the US citizens section which had no queues whatsoever). To be fair I'm lucky to have a visa in the first place, bearing in mind I had to wait a jolly good 2 months for mine to go through. The fact that Americans are so strict about the criteria down to the issue of passport photos size (I gave in a 4cm sized one but was told I had to get a 5cm sized one) makes me wonder why I got one at all.

Coming out of arrivals though certainly changed the dejected mood I was in because my new landlady was standing in the middle of the crowds of welcoming people in a fuscia coloured tunic and a huge smiling sun sign. This evidently can make even the most depressed man in the world happy. This lady is the epitome of what the French call "une maman poule". She's Hungarian and the minute we arrived home, she began doting on me like a mother hen. I am sharing the house with her and another very nice Canadian girl. I have the whole top floor to use at my leisure with the kitchen and living room downstairs as shared areas.

I now have a week free before I start work, which reminds me, I haven't told you all why I am actually in Washington DC. For a year I am going to be doing a series of 3 month internships. The first one, which will last until December is at the British Embassy. So before that starts, I plan to be as much of a tourist as possible. I've been on a SERIOUS learning curve adapting to this "American way of life" -

- there are ice cube despensers infront of fridgers which ALSO have a "crushed ice option"
- water coolers offer cold and hot water hot enough to make hot chocolate
- there are buffets in the middle of supermarkets
- grapefruit juleps and whiskey sours are amazing drinks
- the local Pizza Hut lady does not know where Belgium is
- Department stores have escalators just for trolleys (so while your going up your escalator, your trolley is right next to you going up another)
- the pedestrian traffic lights have massive count down timers to let you know how much time you have to cross the road
- a check is a bill
- a cell is a mobile phone
- to convert Farenheit to Celsius you minus 30 and divide by 2
- when asked where you are from and you say you are from England, people automatically think you personally know Joanna Lumley

- coke is pepsi - no questions

I have now been adventuring out everywhere on a discovery mission. More update soon

Bienvenue

Having fallen unashamedly to the peer pressure of blogging I've been told by my dear friend Luke (who is the instigator of my joining of the blog gang) that I have to make this funny and interesting. Apparently you guys don't want to read boring details of my life but would rather hear about original and humorous facts and incidents you happened to never hear of before. This sounds like a lot of responsibility if you ask me but I will do my very best to regale you with something witty and make it as least tedious as possible. In any case, wherever you are in the world, the hope is that it brings a smile to your face.