SOTU 2011

I watched/read the transcript of the 2011 State of the Union Address this morning. I am always struck by how the President is SO articulate. One of my favorite quotes:

‎"We are part of the American family. We believe in a country where every race and faith and point of view can be found, we are still bound together as one people; that we share common hopes and a common creed; that the dreams of a little girl in Tucson are not so different than those of our own children, and that they all deserve the chance to be fulfilled."- President Barack Obama

I MISS EVERYONE !

CV's

Recently,  I began working on my "CV" which stands for "Curriculum Vitae"! In Latin this means "course of life" and (at first) I believed it is a synonym for the American word "resume". However after researching online and a discussion with some  friends I found out that there are some pretty significant differences.

Some people informed me that a complete CV requires some personal information. I was shocked! ONE extreme example: I found CV that revealed a person's martial status, age, health status, and hobbies.

This one is completely fictional:

D. Buckham
Contact:
Buckingham Palace, La, CA
db@gmail.com
900-092-9929
Nationality: English
Languages: English and conversational spanish
Marital Status: married
Birthday: 10/8/1970
Health: multiple knee injuries
Hobbies: watching Manchester U.  and designing purses with my wife

After speaking with another person (not from UK) I learned in some countries it is now common practice to add an image of yourself on your CV!

Hobbies can show off your desirable strengths or traits.  My fictional candidate's hobby could reveal an interest in the arts and creative ability.... (?) A picture helps employers remember a perspective employee's name/face after an interview.  In the states, there are very strict laws during the application and interview process.  Despite the some of the positive aspects of the detailed CV's, I think the costs might outweigh the benefits of this practice. This story just was in the news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12161045

Regardless, if I include my hobbies, I think my altered resume/cv has improved in 2011!

Abbreviations

Hi Everyone!
Sorry I am behind. However,  I am waiting for SOMEONE to send me some pictures so I can properly fill you in on my Christmas break!

I am working on responding to emails and procrastinating. One of the things I have realized recently is  that I have conflicting feelings about abbreviations. This is probably because my mother hated them so much. I was taught to say, "Yes" instead of "Ok" because that word was not "proper" English. What does OK even stand for? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okay] If the word "Whatev" came out of my mouth I would probably be grounded depending on the context and how I innotated.

This, of course, was all before the prevalence of the internet & before me or any of my friends had cell phones. In the year 2009 (...I am being generous) when my mom figured out how to text she has changed her stance on this issue.  For example, I receive "When R U coming home?" pretty frequently.

After being surrounded by people who are not native speakers of English (and English people for that matter!!) I am frequently exposed to abbreviations on a daily basis. Many of them I never knew existed!
When typing and texting I often have to consult friends to decipher the meaning of some responses I receive.

I have discovered two categories of abbreviations:

The first I consider to be Necessary Abbreviations. This is the style of abbreviations that I feel comfortable using. An example would be the text above, or many are acronyms. The main reason for using these would be to save time in a realtime chat (fbook, gchat), or maybe to simplify a fast text message.  I am not a fabulous writer, and I cannot spell!!!! The abbreviations have a purpose for making things easier and messaging more efficient. To me, there is a significant difference in typing "over the top" and simply putting OTT.

Some examples:
fb=facebook
brb= be right back
wtf= "welcome to facebook"
smh=shaking my head
ott=over the top  (This one is British! It's really fun to use, try it!)
omg= oh my gosh
bff=best friend forever (bf= is boyfriend , which is is why this is different)

Ones I use... but probably should not:
ppl= people
u=you

The second category are Unnecessary Abbreviations. They completely baffle me.
Some examples based on an anonymous & completely random messages I have received via text or Facebook.

1. miss ya loadz!, hpe u gud thoug!


-loadz- not an abbreviation, but WHY the z and not the s?
-hpe=hope*
-gud=good
-thoug=though*

Some more: 
ve=have
dem=them
da=the
ma=my
ya=you
wat=what

I have never heard anyone say "da" instead of "the".  It is just one letter short of the real word so why not just type "the"?  Changing "my" to "ma" doesn't really make sense to me either. Why not just put the correct letter? 


I suppose "ve" instead of "have" you are saving typing two characters. 

Can anyone explain this to me?

Well,  I am now off to a virtual group meeting via Skype. I am pretty excited to see how this works!

I miss everyone back home. xoxo

more fun stuff: going out!

When we are not in the common room, or eating... we are out!!

London is similar to DC because there are a lot of fun places to go!

My new friend Mark, our social director, promotes for different clubs!

mark & me 

My favorites so far:

http://www.chinawhite.com/

http://www.embassylondon.com/embassy/london/

Fun stuff!

So what do we do when we're not in the common room?? We eat ALOT and party!

Sometimes people host dinner parties! Yum! <3 It's really fun because each person is from a different country & lives in a different part of London. 

Some pics!!

THANKSGIVING!! I actually celebrated twice which was nice! I really missed this holiday. It's a little hard to explain Thanksgiving it's so fun!   

Throw back pic: Thanksgiving 2007 at the Mounts! 

Classes of course were not cancelled so it was a normal day, until 5:00PM! Kailee, my friend from NY, who is an amazing cook hosted Thanksgiving at her apartment! It was amazing & we had all the LOTS of the traditional food. English stuffing tastes a little different but overall it is still good!! Between us we had a lot of wine :)

On Saturday we hosted a thanksgiving dinner at ours!!

THREE desserts.

this is my mom's favorite tablecloth. it is from the 70's, can you tell? it is NEON green and orange.

i made this!

Finally, an Update!!

I don't know where to start! Sorry, I have not been updating my blog.  Let's see... since October and my last post my life has changed because of classes getting harder & harder!

For each module (class) we have had a to complete an intense group project! It has been SO much work. I have learned a lot about ME! Would I like to work with myself? Maybe!  Yes, because I think I am reliable, hardworking, and PROMPT!  But, also NO... because maybe I am a little grumpy when I hungry!! :)

Thank you to all my group members!

 In one of the buildings there is a little room called the "Post Graduate Common Room" .

It has become all everyone's second home. Some proof:

fadi sleeping

Miguel sleeping

Rishi sleeping

Valeria just taking a break!

I have never taken a nap in the common room because I DON'T want a pic to end up on the internet :)


So, what have we all been working on?

Some highlights:

For my Advertising Management and Brand Delivery Class, our group had to be an "Ad Agency" and create a pitch for  any product that we chose!

 10TENX

we were created on november 10, 2010

We chose Whole Foods. It's been in London since 2007 but it's not doing very well compared to the States!

One of the print ads we created:

 For my Consumer "Behaviour" Module:
 My group had to create a youtube presentation based on our paper. We chose CHIPOTLE!! yes, ill admit it- this one was my idea!

My group member said she would kill me if I posted the entire thing but this is the introduction featuring... me!! Just an FYI I had strep and a fever during filming which is why I do NOT look my best.

 I don't have any cool pictures or videos from the other projects! Sorry!

Happier Post- Pictures from last week and weekend!

Last week I was able to go to some museums, see friends and spend time some the family

About 7 minute walk away from our flat is Kingston Upon Thames .  It is really scenic & relaxing. I went running along the river a few nights ago and it was really beautiful when the sun was setting! When I was little my grandpa & I would go on walks & always bring a bag of bread and feed to their local swans. They are so pretty but surprisingly large & aggressive. Make sure you throw the bread as far as you can because they are always hungry & will try to get very close to you :)

home to lots of hungry swans & ducks

me, evie, lucy on my iphone 

if you have some extra time to kill, look at THIS. It my uncle's youtube video for his hobby.  I was really surprised to see that it had 24,539 views!!

I was also able to try a new museum, the London Design Museum. Unluckily, I didn't take any pics but it is my new FAV place to go! It has a a really cool exhibit with so many different things. My favorites were about fashion (Alex McQueen, environmentally friendly furniture, as well as new inventions. My friend was really impressed with bikes that you can fold up! My favorite was the PANDAS!!!!!!!! Loads of rows of little toy pandas with red eyes are connected to a motion detectors. They "watch" you move and can spin around as you change direction. Make SURE you youtube that video! My friend and I walked around in circles several times, which was def entertaining!

Some pics from the photo exhibit at another museum the  V&A!! 

Crazy right! Some guys I know CLAIM they are huge redskins fans... would you do this?!! Their roster might take up more space!

classic LBD from 1955: I am OBSESSED