More fun things in London

It has been an eventful week in London.  On Monday I went to Anthropology in London Day at UCL which was really fun. I particularly enjoyed panels on materiality and labor, which had obvious resonances with my work. Then on Tuesday I went to ANOTHER conference at UCL, this one on India, specifically organized around the theme of "veneration."

When I left that conference, I discovered that someone had clipped the cable on my bike lock, stolen my rear wheel, and left another perfectly good rear wheel behind in its place. So I reassembled the bike with the "new" wheel and rode home perplexed.

I dropped the bike off and then walked down to the Globe Theatre to meet Gina for an awesome production of Henry V.

Our "seats" were actually standing room, but we had gotten there so early that we were actually touching the stage. It's fun to be a peasant. At one point I almost got taken out by Henry's cape!

For the most part, the band seemed to play "period" instruments, though I noticed many of their drums had synthetic heads - not impressed - just kidding. They were all very talented performers.

 Walking back across the Millenium Bridge with St. Paul's in the distance.

Action shot of Gina trying to take much better pictures of St. Paul's than I could with my point and shoot.

THEN, on Wednesday I got a fun email from Jan Sota, the mother of Ben, the founder of the Zany Umbrella Circus and old friend of mine currently living in Hawaii.  So she and I went to the British Museum to go look at old relics of colonial conquest. It was quite entertaining.

Here is photographic proof of that.

I also met some of Gina's co-workers at the Museum and can attest to the fact that her badge is legit and not faked. She does in fact work there and it is not part of an elaborate ruse.

Tonight! Frankenstein starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Tomorrow! Meeting the Jonckheere's for a trip to the British countryside.

The sun comes out in London

I saw Nikki's awesome post, so I decided to write one too.

Super fun weekend.

Wednesday and Friday of last week I went and saw classical Indian music and dance at the Nehru Center in London, which was totally awesome. (it had been awhile, so it was fun)

Then on Saturday all of a sudden the sun came out!  In celebration, I rode up to Hampstead Heath to do a bit of gardening with Bill, Heather, and our friend from college, Kelly, who I hadn't seen since 1999. It was fun, and a gorgeous day.

Afterwards, I went back home and ultimately decided that it was much too pretty outside to try and write a dissertation (on a saturday too) so I ended up inviting myself over to Bill and Heather's for steak grilling, football watching, and Rock Band! They were wonderfully gracious hosts! All in all, it was a very pleasant way to spend one of the few amazing sunny days we have had here in London.

Taking in as much of SF as I can....

I've been remiss in posting lately, but I hope this picture filled description of my recent activities makes up for it....

I was exploring the Mission and went to Dolores Park, with great views of the city. Oh, and Bi-Rite ice cream store. 

Last Saturday was one of the Mission Arts and Performance Project's open-house nights, where local art galleries and performance spaces open their doors for a night of art and performances*. I was able to meet up with some Michigan friends and fun times were had by all!

Art gallery

Vibraphone performance

My favorite, the robot art workshop that is blocks from where I'm staying

ROBOTS!

Live music

The other VMware interns started this week, which means we have a full house in our little hive. They all seem like really great ladies and it looks like there will be opportunities for us to collaborate because there is some overlap in our projects. Haley, who is also a classmate of mine from SI, redecorated the office a bit...

Go Blue!

Besides that, I've been doing my best to get out and about the city as much as I can. SF is beautiful and I'm really happy with the culture and food here ... but man am I having a hard time navigating this space. Where is my grid and comprehensive public transportation system!?**

Thankfully I have a lot of friends from Barnard, SI, and work at this point so the only thing stopping me from exploring more of the city is my own laziness*** There is so much to see.

Urban Coy Pond

The Painted Ladies of Alamo Square, with down town in the background

I mean, the only way I'm going to start understanding this place is if I dive head first into it, right?

______________________________________________

* You get the idea

** I took you for granted NYC MTA

*** Or the blisters on my feet from walking 10miles a day

Kew Gardens with Mithi, Drew, and Marc

On Monday, Mithi and Drew drove in from Bristol to meet their friend Marc who had an 8 hour layover at Heathrow. then I met them at the Kew Botanical Gardens on the outskirts of London. During the Colonial heyday, the British liked to collect plant samples from all over the world. Well, this is where they put them! It was like the "British Museum of Plants." And it was tons of fun. Magically, it only seemed to rain when we were in the greenhouses (of course we also carefully timed our trips to the greenhouses). 

FYI if you ever find yourself in and around Heathrow with time to kill, apparently the gardens are only about 15 to 20 minutes away and conceivably a taxi could take you to them and back again.

Drew, Marc and Mithi posing with a peacock

The peacock with which they were posing

One of the Victorian Greenhouses as seen from the "Rhizotron"

Marc Taking a photo of the greenhouse on the "Rhizotron" which is a "canopy tour" (only no ziplines, so I think my mom might actually enjoy this one).

We all totally geeked out about this plant because its leaves seem to spontaneously change direction on every branch.

It's a "wollemi pine" from Australia, and it's quite cool.

The wollemi pine

Looking down on a giant fern from the balcony of the greenhouse.

Mithi photographing a flower up close. Perhaps some of her photos will be on their blog soon!

After the Gardens, I went into town and met friends for Belgian food followed by Swing dancing. All in all it felt very Jubilicious and was, in my humble opinion, a perfectly splendid way to celebrate the Jubilee!

First Days in London - Guest Blogger Allen!

Hey All,

The first week in London has been great so far.  It started out super sunny and altogether pleasant, and for the most part hasn't been too bad, though the rain and clouds did creep in. As you know this week is the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in which 1,000 boats are supposed to float up the Thames in a giant Flotilla.  As of now the forecast is alternating between rain and light rain for the entire day, so we'll see if I decide to venture out or just stay in and work.

Speaking of work, I have been getting a lot done and finding having an office really pretty amazing.  I share it with three other people, but it's really big, so it doesn't seem squashed at all.  My desk is the one by the window on the right.

My office.

The day I chose to bring my camera, it was raining, so I don't have any good outdoor pictures yet.  More to come.

As for the dorm, it is about 15 to 20 min. walking from the office, but only about 5 min. by bicycle. Really very convenient.  I like having the structured time there as well.  The office is open from 9 to 6, so it's a great way to structure a day.  The dorms, are fine. I can't imagine 4 undergrads sharing such small space, but when I think about it, I think my dorm life experience wasn't so different....

My room.

The Kitchen

What is pretty neat is that I was supposed to have a flatmate, but since his girlfriend lives in London he decided to forego his NYU housing.  Pretty cool.  So I have the entire flat to myself.

Solon's Room conveniently holds the bicycle Heather and Bill so graciously loaned me, and provides some extra space to hangout in.  If only I had a couch to put in there!

SF Week 2: Getting lost, getting found, and getting settled

What a crazy first week I've had! Maker Faire last weekend, then the first week on the job, going out, getting lost a lot, riding my bicycle on crazy hills, Carnival in the Mission.... where do I start!

Let's start with the reason why I'm here in the first place: my internship at VMware. Firstly, their Palo Alto campus is larger than Disneyland and is ... amazingly beautiful.

The turtle pond

The User Experience team has put the summer interns into an empty conference room that they have affectionately called "the hive". Since I'm the first to arrive, I basically have an office all to myself... I'm hoping to be establish myself as queen bee of the hive.   ;)

The Hive

I am really happy about the coworkers on my team. They are awesome. They've been so welcoming of me since day one ... no, even minute one, they have made me felt like I belong (which, is a far cry from the experience I had in some of my previous jobs). I had gotten a really great vibe about VMware's culture while I was interviewing and it has been a huge relief to have my hugely outrageous expectations being lived up to! I'm getting solid mentorship and advice not just from my manager (who is my official mentor) but from everyone on the team. I just can't think of enough ways to say how incredibly thankful I am for the work environment --- I mean, within hours of showing up some of the younger folk had organized a happy hour at the local dive bar The Nuthouse

Out for drinks on my first day with the UE team at The Nuthouse

But because I don't live in a fairy-tale, not everything is perfect: the commute from SF to Palo Alto everyday is quite possibly killing me. Honestly, it is like SF Transit System: 5, Nikki: 0 this week. To take public transit I have to take a bus (Muni) to the Caltrain to a Palo Alto local bus .... which Google Maps tells me should take only 1.5 hours......... if you make every connection. It took me over 2.5 hours each time I tried last week. Ugh. Then I tried biking to the Caltrain and biking from the train to the office, which was awesome until I hit Hillview avenue, which my office is on. Double Ugh. I tried to be a smart alek and take a different route back, but only ended up on a bigger hill and riding across a freeway! Yikes!

I know this is just a learning curve and I'll start to get use to getting around here - but I've been completely overwhelmed by how hard and expensive it is to get around SF. I'm so thankfully that Amanda was able to loan me a bike, but I'm still pretty intimidated of getting stranded between some insane hills and too tired to get back. It doesn't really help that I'm shocked at how expensive it is to get around by public transit. (sigh) I'll figure it out, but in the meantime it certainly has put a damper on how awesome my internship is.

But so we don't end on that note, Amanda and I spent the morning at the San Francisco Carnival, which was running through the Mission this morning. It was a lot like the Carnival in Brooklyn: bright, colorful, and full of danceable music!

I should also give a shout out to the fourth "roommate" Maugi (Swahili for "killer"). He's incredibly adorable, exceedingly demanding of attention, and the clumsiest cat I ever met... which makes for a pretty awesome feline companion if you ask me. Here he is playing with one of his toys. Expect more cat pictures and hopefully a meme or two to come out of this summer with Muagi.

"I demand your attention!"

SF Week 1: Maker Faire and

Bwahahahahahahah!

How amazing is it that my first weekend in San Francisco both the Maker Faire was going on!?! (insert squeal of geekish delight)

After safely arriving last night Amanda and Andrew (who will be my hosts/roommates for the next two months) asked me if I was interested in going to the Maker Faire with them. Was I interested in going to the Maker Faire? Hell ya, I was!

Oh, Maker Faire, how I love you: one part creativity, one part skilled execution, a mixture of ingenuity, and a ton of fun.

Where to start?

Mom, look what I made!

Um... yes, please!

Playing with Mentos and Coke - always a blast

And who should I run into, but Joe (one of Allen's groomsmen), his wife Maricar, and their son Danger! Such a small world. But I'm so excited about being able to reconnect with some of our NY while we're out here this summer!

We're wrapping up the weekend by seeing the Avengers - what a great way to get ready to kick butt at my internship on Monday!