From Work to Royalty

Today I met some of my coworkers and took a tour of the office! Here is the EY building at One More London Place right on the River Thames and across from the Tower Bridge. The entire building (9 floors) is EY, and I think there are like 4,000 people working here!

Immediately when I walked in a fellow started talking to me. He asked why I was here but upon hearing my American accent he wanted to tell me about how his family is from Tennessee and how much he loves it there. Apparently he's the security person! I'm pretty sure in the 10 min he was talking to me, several suspicious people could have passed by.

Here's the view from the other side of the office. This is the Tower Bridge and from our office you can see the Tower of London as well. See, the building on the right edge of the photo is the EY building. There are loads of quick restaurants around the office- so I can get a lot of sandwiches and salads. There's even this restaurant called Pod which has fresh seasonal food in recycled packaging. http://www.podfood.co.uk/

The office is weird, it's very open. Partners basically sit in stations with everyone else. They aren't even really cubes because you can see everything everyone else is doing. I think it will be very obvious there is a new girl in town!

Good news though is that Jessica's PWC office is right by mine :) We're going to get lunch all the time!! Yaaay!!

For the rest of the day I explored the city some more. I went back to the National Gallery and also walked to St. Paul's Cathedral where I saw ROYALTY!!! I'm pretty certain it was Princess Anne and her husband Timothy Laurence. There was so much commotion at the church and police everywhere. I was in the middle of the street when the police escorts and their car drove RIGHT next to me! I was literally a couple of feet from Princess Anne- I could see her in the car!! At the church there was the priest waiting for them at the steps and the church was playing beautiful music. I took a picture but it all happened so fast- I circled them in yellow below but you can hardly see it. I'm pretty sure it was them because it was Wednesday night service and St. Pauls is where the royals go! I'm not sure who else would have so much security around them for church!

Here is a picture of the National Gallery:

And here is a photo of Trafalgar Square taken from the steps of the National Gallery. You can see Big Ben way in the distance.

I also explored Covent Garden- an area I love as well. It's very trendy...think the West Village of London.

I also found some French places that I would like to try. Paul, which I see everywhere.

And also this super cute French bakery/cafe in Covent Garden. Ahem, who was saying London doesn't have good food??

I will say food can be very expensive here when you go out to eat. People were telling me last night that they easily spend $70-80 for just themselves when they eat out at a sit down restaurant. You definitely have to learn how to be crafty!

Last night I met up with two other girls in the Global Exchange Program at EY. We met at a French restaurant which had a wine and jazz bar upstairs. Apparently the night we were there was the night an opera singer was performing. She was really fantastic and we got a private opera performance because there were like only 5 other people there. However, it was pretty awkward meeting new people and trying to talk and get to know one another amidst and opera singer!! LOL. I think we might have come across as slightly rude because we had a lot to talk about and it was sort of hard to focus on the opera singer.

Tomorrow I go flat hunting. Wish me luck!!