Annie Warbucks

All through lunch with my new boss and supervisors and Jeff, I felt as if I had been adopted into the wealthiest family during The Great Depression and couldn’t stop singing “I think I’m gonna like it here” in my head.

After class today, I met Jeff at Trafalgar Square before we made the short walk to where my internship is at 8 Northumberland Ave.

The fountains were on and Jeff and I chatted about what this summer and my internship had to offer for me while over looking them. As we talked about the details, it felt so surreal and I still felt like there was no way that this was my life… but it is.

After we had went through logistics, we headed over to 8 Northumberland where we had lunch with my boss Charles and his assistant, as well as my supervisor, Charlotte. My boss Charles owns his own restaurant next to the event venue and it is called Boyd’s. It is an upscale fine dining restaurant and it was an experience let me tell you. We all had three courses, accompanied by some of the best Blanc wine I have ever tasted. For our first course, bread and butter was brought out as well as what looked like radishes. To accompany the bread and butter, another topping was brought out and I still don’t know what it was because when it was first brought out Charles insisted that I eat it and so I took a very little scoop and put it on the edge of my piece of bread (it wasn’t exactly bread, there’s a word for it but I’m forgetting it right now) and Charles said “that’s absolutely pathetic, Austin” in his very proper English accent. Soon after that, I started using more of the topping.

Following my lesson of “Toppings: 101,″ our main courses were served and I had ordered the fish and chips. I was going to stick with the caesar salad but I think it was suggested that it was very American of me to want to order that, so I ordered the fish and chips since I hadn’t ordered it since arriving in the UK (probably because I don’t like fish). But, I still ate it, or most of it, because half way through my piece of cod I started to choke it down because I was most literally looking at my plate like a fish was on it instead of something to eat. Through the whole meal, Charles and Charlotte asked me about my life back in the states and what college there is like and they shared some of their own experiences about life in London. They informed me that college over here is quite cheaper and you only have to go for 3 years. They also told me about that when the olympics came to London, it was advised that the locals get out of town so that the area wasn’t over-crowded and to prevent troubles with The Tube and things like that, so it was all very interesting to hear about.

After our 3 course meal had come to an end, Charles and Charlotte gave us a tour of the event venue and it was quite grand. The original building was built in the mid-1800s and served for many different purposes. Charles bought his part of the building in the past 7 years or so and has been improving it ever since! Charlotte showed me pictures of what it was like before they restored the building back into its glory and the transformation was crazy. The place is stunning and I was too embarrassed to whip out my phone and take pictures, so I’ll do that in the next couple of days when no one is looking.

This afternoon was something I’m not used to, but something I enjoyed so much. I was treated to a classy dining experience and civilized conversation and I felt important, much like Annie Warbucks when she gets to go to Daddy Warbucks’ mansion. This is a 1 in a million lifetime opportunity and it all feels so magical, it’s hard to describe it any other way.

Day 7 in London has come to a close and I still haven’t learned to get to bed before 1 a.m. so I definitely need to get to sleep now because tomorrow is another long and adventurous day.

So with that, I’ll leave you with this view off of a bridge close to where I’m staying, it made me smile as most things here do.