Coldplay filmed part of their video Fix You right outside my door.

My roommate informed me that parts of Coldplay's video Fix You was filmed on Waterloo Bridge, which happens to be right outside our door. They filmed it way before we actually lived here, though. But still. We were both pretty excited.

What did we do to show our enthusiasm? We remade the video! I think ours turned out just as good as the original, if not better.

Our Remake:

The Original:

Another fun fact, I may have visited Chris Martin's (the lead singer of the band) house! I just looked up the address on Google, so accuracy is not guaranteed. It was, however, the only house on the block that was gated and it had cameras all over it.

The street Chris Martin (possibly) lives on 

38 Park Hill Road - (possibly) Chris Martin's house

The U.K. doesn't respect journalism as a profession as highly as the U.S.

Every once in awhile I learn something that has some actual intellectual value. This little piece of knowledge was gathered during the time I spent interning in London. It was originally written as a paper for my class.


Never use anonymous sources. Always verify information with multiple sources. Always cite those sources. Always tell the truth. A journalist’s integrity is all they have and one slip up could discredit a journalist forever. These are the things that are drilled into our heads over and over in all of our journalism classes because they are the foundation for journalism. But some people just ignore them, or maybe they never learned about them, or maybe they just don’t care, and these are people who report for and edit tabloids. There are some in the U.S, but there are a lot in the U.K. and they are very widely read.


According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the top three most widely read papers in the U.K. are The Sun (circulation 2,582,301), the Daily Mail (circulation 1,945,496) and the Daily Mirror (circulation 1,102,810), which are all tabloids, filled with sensational headlines and questionable news. The top 3 most widely read papers in the U.S. are The Wall Street Journal (circulation 2,117,796), USA Today (circulation 1,829,099) and the New York Times (circulation 916,911), which are all largely trusted papers with high ethical standards. More people read The Sun than The Wall Street Journal. The majority of people who are reading newspapers in the U.K. are getting sensationalized, questionable news.

Last semester in my History of American Journalism class, I learned about how journalism has changed over time in America. It used to be all tabloids and all sensationalized news, but then, over time, higher ethical standards came into place and tabloids were phased out and replaced with ethical journalism. This transition shows how America began to respect journalism as a profession. It seems as though the U.K. is lagging behind the U.S. It’s still in the phase of sensationalized news and tabloids, and over time it will follow a pattern similar to the U.S. and journalism will gain more respect.

I think a major turning point is happening right now for the U.K. with the phone hacking scandal. It seems as though every tabloid in the U.K. was hacking into people’s phones for information. All the editors and higher-ups of these papers claim they all knew nothing about it. One of my co-interns made the observation that if many papers in the U.K. were hacking into people’s phones, it is probably happening all over the world, and even in the U.S. I disagree for several reasons. I think if you know what to look for it would be easy to spot. The reporter would either not cite a source or cite an anonymous source, which would instantly put up a red flag. In journalism, anyone should be able to point to a piece of information and be able to easily trace it back to a source. Also, I think the U.S. is stricter on libel. A person in the U.S. would probably make a huge deal out of their phone being hacked, whereas it seemed to slip under the radar for several years in the U.K.

The popularity of tabloids in Britain shows that the U.K. doesn’t regard journalism as a highly respected profession. In the U.S, journalists go to school for at least four years and take several classes on journalism ethics and the practice before getting a job in the industry. Many people I work with at my internship at CBS didn’t even study journalism in school. I think that because of all the scandalous tabloids and sensationalized news reported in the U.K. many people just don’t respect it. I think the U.S. holds journalism to a higher standard, it’s a respected profession, and regarded more highly than in the U.K.

Boots doesn't open until 9 a.m.

It started out like any other morning; my alarm went off too early, I snoozed an extra 15 minutes, I finally dragged myself out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. I pumped myself up to get in the shower and experience the absolute worst five seconds of my day.

The shower in my flat points directly at the shower door, so you have to be in the shower with the door closed when it starts or else it will spray water all over the floor. Like any other shower, the water starts out freezing cold. There is nowhere to hide and escape the water. Every morning I have to count myself down and prepare myself to turn on the water and get blasted by ice for a good five seconds before the water warms up. It's easily the worst part of my day. Good thing I shower in the morning, then, because it can only get better from there, right?

Wrong. This morning continued like normal until I was ready to dry my hair. I let most of my hair air dry, but I have to blow dry my bangs because I straighten them (and they need to be complete dry for that). If I don't straighten them, they become a weird curly mess on my forehead. I turn to my roommate's desk where we keep our shared hair dryer, and it's not there. I look around the room a little bit and it's still nowhere to be found. I go into problem solving mode.

My roommate left for work before me, so if she used the blow dryer she would have done it outside of our room. I go check in all the bathrooms. It's not in any of them. I check the kitchen and living room. No luck. I check our room again. It's gone. Unfortunately for me, none of the other 10 girls I live with are awake yet, so I can't just go borrow their hair dryers.

By this time, I should be leaving my flat to get to work on time. I opt for plan B; I'll run to Boots (the U.K.'s Walgreens equivalent) and get a bobby pin to pin my hair back. Boots is in the train station, so I won't be late. I gather up my stuff and head out the door!

I get there and it's closed. Unlike Walgreens, which is open 24 hours, Boots operates normal ours and doesn't open until 9, which is when I need to be at work. I run back home, and by the time I get there my bangs are dry so I just straighten them. Hair disaster averted, but now I'm going to be about 15 minutes late for work.

I use the tube station across the river when I go to work, because I can take one train the whole way there. If I get on at the station closer to me (the one with Boots in it) I have to transfer lines. I take off across the river, and when I get to the station it's closed. The universe is just not on my side this morning. I head back to the other station, and by the time I get there it's 9 o'clock. I should be arriving at work.

I ended up being nearly an hour late, and my hair didn't even look that good. As for the mystery of the disappearing hair dryer, it turns out one of my flatmates borrowed it last night and never returned it.