Bye Bye Mom & Dad

So mom and dad flew out on Saturday :( Throughout the week they recovered from Oktoberfest, saw the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, took a hop on hop off bus tour and a river cruise. We also went and saw the show "Jersey Boys". It was a wonderful show about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. There were some really great songs in it!! By the end of the week dad was sick and tired of walking and mom was insisting that she had to come back because she hadn't seen everything!!

As mom and dad were flying out on Saturday it was back to class for me. We have 3 more class periods of unit 4 and I couldn't be happier! This unit is pretty intense. We had a paper due last Friday, another one due this Friday and a 10 minute presentation on Saturday October 11th. I will definitely be happy in about 2 weeks when this unit is over and done with!

This Wednesday we have class and we also having a briefing about Thailand. We are going to be given the handbook and all the information about our dissertation. I am very happy about that!! I like knowing what's coming and being able to plan ahead. We will also have the set dates for when the Thailand semester starts and when it ends. Then all I have to do is buy all the flights. Yikes! That's going to be a handful!

This weekend is another trip. Aaron, his girlfriend Amanda and I are heading to Belgium to check out Bruge and Brussels. Should be good. We get to take the Eurostar train rather than fly! I'm really looking forward to that. Getting a little sick of traveling to the airport, going through check in and security and then jumping on a plane, just to do it again in a few days. The train will be a nice little break and we get to go through the chunnnel (tunnel under the channel). Haven't done that yet!

Salzburg, Oktoberfest, and some London Pics

I've added a new album to my shutterfly page.

http://sarahkeepingitmoving.shutterfly.com

It has some Salzburg, Oktoberfest and London pictures. I will be adding more to it after I get some pics from Tanya, Candace, and Teresa and I will add the rest of my parent's London pics.

Millers - 1 . . . Oktoberfest - 0

Connie, Denny, Sarah, Candace, Mike, Tanya & Teresa

And here is mom:

I thought Denny and I were on vacation....?????! We left Mpls at 10:15pm and slept very well on the 8 hour or so plane ride to London. We arrived at noon on Thursday..followed Sarah's instructions for catching the tube(s) and walked to her apartment. Then we called Sarah to let her know we arrived safely (I think she was surprised). Denny and I went for a walk to pass some time until Sarah arrived home from work. We stayed up until 11pm talking and putting a few pieces in a very hard puzzle. Next is where the 'I thought we were on vacation' plays a part ---- We got up at 3am...3AM!!!!!! and took the taxi to the airport to catch the 6:30am flight to Salzburg (well Denny & I got up at 3am ...the others (Sarah, and friends---Tanya & Mike) slept until 3:20 because their alarm did not go off!!-kids!!--boy did they move fast to make the 3:30 taxi). We were joined in the taxi by two more friends of Sarah's (Candace and Teresa). After arriving in Salzburg (my favorite place, by the way) we checked out the action until we could get into the hostel. Luckily we happened upon a festival and got a free beer (now that's hospitality!). What a way to pass the time :-). Later, Denny, Sarah and I took a nap while the other 4 went on the 'Sound of Music' tour (we took the tour the last time we were in Salzburg). That evening we toured Salzburg some more (had to pay for beer this time), ate and then 'hit the hay' because we had to get up at 4:45am ...4:45AM! (another 'I thought we were on vacation' moment) to catch the bus to the train station to catch a 6:07am train to Munich and the Oktoberfest (Teresa had been given a tip to arrive at a beer hall by 8am to stake claim on a table...that's why we had to leave so early...we weren't taking any chances!). We arrived in Munich relaxed, after napping on the train, and found the Oktoberfest location by following all of the lederhosen. When we arrived the beer halls were not yet opened, however great crowds were gathering outside each of the beer halls doors. We just chose a beer hall and waited ... but not long .... soon the doors were opened and everyone piled in! It was a mad house, the seven of us got seperated but soon we were all on the same table! Getting a table is not an easy task as 1 person will save a huge table for a group and what you thought was a choice of a table isn't really a good choice because the 'other' person kicks you off! We ended up at a table in the back that was reserved after 4:30pm (we thought it was a safe bet that by 4:30pm we might be on our way home). Besides, all of the other tables were taken!!! We (along with the locals around us) passed the time by playing cards and just 'chilling'. At about noon everyone else started cheering and we could hear a band playing. Some doors opened up and a parade came into the hall. What a hoot....the parade made it's way around the beer hall and ended up on a stage. A speech was made (beer landlord?) and some hoopla 'stuff' and soon the beer started flowing! We had a beer...or two...or three...or four (the jury is still out) and had a great time singing and doing what beer drinking people do (all for the cause of mixing in with the locals :-) ) Just as the table sign said...at 4:30 we had to leave...but that was OK....we played on the bumper cars and went down a giant slide etc and then headed back to the train station. Must I say...it was a quiet ride for some of the group on the train ride back to Salzburg. BUT we did make it back in one piece! Then we went right to bed...go figure! Sunday, we slept in (finally!) did more 'touristy' stuff and left Salzburg at 9pm to head back to London. We were all tired by time we got back to the apartment (midnight) so went right to bed. Today, Denny, Sarah & I went to Buckingham Palace (the queen wasn't home - guess she forgot we were coming - then again I didn't tell her the exact day we would be there) and the Tower of London (Scarey), ate some fish and chips (yum) and walked and walked. Had a great day. Tomorrow Denny & I will be taking a bus tour of all of the highlights of London. Denny & I will be on our own for taking the tube(s) to get to the starting destination. I only hope that by the end of the day we will actually have taken the bus tour and did not spend our entire day just riding the tube(s)! But then again...that would be fun too!

Josh Hartnett!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this week has been a little crazy!

Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers on Sunday, work has been completely chaotic. Report after report has been requested regarding Lehman's revenue and debt. And through this I have realized that our information systems are crap! It is WAY too hard to get reliable data. Which is shitty when trying to get a Lehman's report to Upper Management, but it is good because it gives me lots to talk about for my next paper on managing information systems and how our company uses them. I can now say that the company I work for uses them very poorly!

But away from work now . . . .

Monday night I went to the show Rainman. Josh Hartnett and Adam Godley were the stars. Josh played Tom Cruise's character and Adam played Dustin Hoffman's character. The show was good, but the best part about it was that we (Tanya, Cecile, Aaron and I) got Josh's autograph afterwards. We waited by the stage door with lots of other screaming girls (no one was actually screaming, but it's more fun to say that!). I was jammed up right in the front row center. It was awesome. He is very good looking (but not as good looking as my lovely boyfriend Becker!!). And when he was handing back my ticket with his autograph he looked straight into my eyes! Dreamy!

Tuesday night I went to Brick Lane (street near Liverpool Station that has tons of Indian restaurants). I went there with 8 other interns. The best part about Brick Lane is that you get to haggle with the doormen for the price of your meal. The restaurant that we ended up eating at gave us a free round of drinks and 30% off our bill. So the total bill for 9 of us ended up being £70 (only about £8 per person). An unheard of amount for drinks, appetizers, and main meal anywhere in London! It was very scrumptious! I had chicken malayan, which is chicken and pineapples in a creamy sauce. Mmm mmm good!

In other news, mom and dad are coming tomorrow (with my newly fixed computer! excited). Their plane lands at 12:15pm. I am unable to take the day off in order to go and get them. I have given mom extensive details on how to get to my flat from the airport. Hopefully they make it!!! I'm looking forward to seeing them at my flat when I get home from work on Thursday night.

Their initial time in London will be unfortunately short. Our flight takes off for Salzburg at 6:30am (ewwww) on Friday morning. Mom, dad, and I have already been to Salzburg, so while our other four travel partners (Candace, Tanya, Mike, and Teresa) are touring around, we'll probably either be at the bar or napping!! Saturday will be Oktoberfest and then we'll be heading back to London on Sunday. I'm sure we'll have a wonderful time! Maybe I'll even let mom be a celebrity blogger on my blog to talk about her time in Salzburg, London, and at Oktoberfest. We'll see if she's nice to me!

A Royal Visit

So this last weekend at home was a success (maybe too much of a success because I was pretty sad when I got back to work in London).

My flight flew into Minnesota on Thursday night at 5:30pm. I flew during the day and was unable to sleep on the plane ride (watched 3 movies: Batman Begins, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and Cars). Right from the airport I went to J'Cos to hangout with the Softball ladies. It was a good time. It was great to see them again. Hopefully they're not too upset that I will not be able to play softball again next year! But I'll be there in 2010! Around 11pm it was off to bed for me. I had been up since 7am London time, which is 1am Minnesota time. So I had been up for almost a day and needless to say, I was tired.

Friday was a much needed haircut and then Mom cooked a lovely dinner of roast beef and Mashed Potatoes. Oh and I also had Chipotle for lunch!! Mmm mmm good! I missed food with flavor! Saturday was Amy and Kyle's wedding. It was beautiful! We danced the night away and I was able to see Kari Dykhoff (a CSB hockey player that I hadn't seen in a long time!). The next morning we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch. 6 parmesan garlic wings with buffalo chips and cheddar and southwestern ranch sauce! Wonderful! After lunch we headed to Liz and Shadder's for a get together. It was great to see all the cousins and Tom Thumb Brian again! And Liz made some yummy pizzas!

Monday was my last day at home and the only day that I did not have a ton planned. I woke up late (10am, which was pretty good considering I woke up at 4:30am on Saturday morning) and then headed to Arby's for lunch for a scrumptious roast beef and cheddar sandwich and potato cakes!! Then headed to Champps (got a real big and juicy burger!) where I met MJ, Bev, Tim, Marge, Tom, and Kat. Then it was off to the airport.

Talk about a quick and crazy vacation. At least when I come home for Christmas it will be for 2 weeks rather than 4 days!

So now it's back to work. Wednesday (my first day back) was overly busy. I had to fix a bunch of things and get the month end pack ready in a day. I stayed until a little after 6pm, but probably could have stayed 2-3 more hours. There was that much that still needed to be done, but I figured it could all wait until today.

And it could! Everything got finished today and BGC/Cantor Fitzgerald also had it's Charity day event. BGC/Cantor Fitzgerald use to have it's headquarters in New York in one of the twin towers. However, on September 11, 2001 the planes crashed into the buildings and BGC/Cantor Fitzgerald lost all of their New York employees. Now the headquarters are in the building where I am currently working. For the last 4 years, they have had a charity day every September 11th. All of the brokerage made and salaries for the day are given to charity. Apparently last year they raised around $12 million. Hopefully this year we do as well!

What's exciting about charity day is that there are a bunch of celebrities hanging around. Prince Charles, Kevin Spacey, Jerry Hall and Mark Williams (Arthur Weasely from Harry Potter) walked by my office. Some of my co-workers actually got to shake Prince Charles' hand and talk to him. Crazy! Of course most of the celebrities were British so I had to google most of them! I don't know the British Celebrities and Sports Personalities. Should have been in BGC New York, probably would have known more people there!!

Well anyways. Being home was great and now I'm already missing it :( 3 1/2 months until I'll be home for Christmas! And those 3 1/2 months are going to be very busy. I have every weekend but 1 planned! I have classes every other weekend and then I am traveling to Brussels, Munich, and Colmar France. MJ is also coming to visit one of those weekends. So it should go by pretty fast!

The Day I Raced the World

So the 10K race last night kicked a**. It was awesome!! I was able to get into a zone and I finished in 1:02'21'' You can check out my results at the website below!

http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/humanrace/leaderboard.jsp

Just type in my name (Sarah Miller - in case you forgot!) and pick the London Sarah Miller (The Austin Sarah Miller beat me by about 4 minutes. Damn, if I would have known I would have run faster!!). It then shows a graph of my speed and my place in the race. I think there were about 472,422 runners and I was 103,151 overall. Not too horrible!

It was a very exciting race. We got to Wembley stadium around 5pm. The stadium is awesome. It's big and has an open roof. It got me very excited for watching Twins games in our soon to be coming open air stadium! There was a concert before the race (Pendulum and Moby) and then the race was on. The atmosphere was great! Tanya and I were in the 4th wave (the slow runners) and we exited the stadium around 8:30pm. It was raining (of course it's London!) for about 20 minutes while we were in the stadium, so by the time that we started the race we were thoroughly soaked, but it didn't stop us! It stopped raining shortly after the race started. The race was on and Tanya and I proceeded to kick it's a**. We both felt wonderful afterwards and I may just have to sign up for more races! Weird, I didn't even know that I enjoyed running!!

In further exciting news, I will be home in 3 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!