ill.

The past few days I have been nursing a completely wicked sinus infection that has left the right side of my face in miserable pain and my nose looking something like a coked-out Rudolph. Obviously, this has been an incredibly pleasant experience.

However, in order to reduce myself from feeling entirely useless, I have still tried to be a little bit out and about these past few days, or at least as much as I could.

Thursday was my first day at my internship. Obviously, my charming coughing/sneezing/noseblowing from 10-6 made a completely wonderful first impression. Regardless, everyone was really nice (one of my co-workers even gave me a sachet of cold medicine tea that I think helped a little bit) and I like the job a lot. I'm working for Traffic Marketing, which is a music marketing firm that also plans this huge music festival in May called the Camden Crawl. It's really nice because there are only five or so people who work there so even on my first day they let me have a decent amount of responsibility. There will be more details about this as they come but for now I think I will really like working there and it will be a good opportunity for me.

Friday was what I will call Lazy Friday. In the morning, we went to this place called Asda. Asda is Wal-Mart's British offshoot that is more of a grocery store but still has a lot of the cheap things that make Wal-Mart so wonderful. Sarah, Keetin, Jason, Nick, Mallory, and I went, and we all got LOTS of stuff (my things ranging from school supplies to alcohol to food to a duvet cover to use as a mattress pad to candy that comes with a hippo toy...come on, did you really expect me to resist that). While paying, everyone got in the same line, I figured to maximize productivity I would choose another line that had nobody in it. I got in this line only to realize that the one woman paying had the entire conveyor belt covered (two feet high, I might add) and she also had an overflowing basket of goods after it. At this point, my energy, strength, and patience were dwindling so I was moderately to extremely annoyed while I waited for her food-pantry-worth of goods to be checked out and paid for. Then, we got to ride on an escalator that was designed for people AND their carts (so exciting). But after that we had to carry our things back to the bus stop. My lack of energy caused by being sick was making me move at a depressed snail's pace, and when we finally got home I resolved that I would hang out in bed for a while at least. Keetin cooked us dinner later, and while everyone got ready to go out for the night, I sadly retreated to my bed to watch V for Vendetta, an episode of Community, and read 50 pages of a book before calling it a night.

Saturday morning I knew something was up because the sun was shining through my blinds. I assure you, the rumors about London's weather are absolutely true, and even though the rain doesn't get to me like it does at home (probably because I'm still doing cool stuff even in spite of the rain), it is nonetheless completely thrilling when we have a day of sun. I took a hot shower, hoping the steam would clear my sinuses a bit, took a Zyrtec D and some tylenol, and decided that I would make the most out of the 12 hours of sleep I had and spend the day outside. Sarah, Keetin, Mallory, Jason, and I decided to go to Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill. This market is HUGE and literally spans for miles and miles. I didn't buy anything (tear...) but there were lots of cool things from antiques to clothes to food and I will definitely be going back in the near future (Mom, you would've really liked this even though there were a lot of people there). Also, I bumped into Eliza Richman there (a friend from Chi O) in the middle of millions of people, which was too weird, but always nice to see a familiar face. After we walked what felt like 8 miles, we found a different tube station to get us home. Unfortunately, the Circle Line which would've taken us straight home wasn't running, so we had to take 5 different trains to get home, where we decided that the best route would be to forego the 15 minute walk home and just take the bus. It was a great decision.

Anyway, I got a good night's sleep again yesterday and my face isn't throbbing quite so much. Plus, the sun is shining (again...unheard of!) So I am going to get dressed for the morning and start adventuring for the day. Sarah and I are going to meet her friend Fiona and possibly do some shopping which should be fun. I'll write more later, just figured I'd fill you in on a little bit now. love from overseas xx