| American in London |
Home again!Many, but not all of you, know by now that I am home once again. Surprise. Yes, it was a surprise for all my friends and my parents. Thanks Anna for your help in the caper.Why? I was just ready to come home. I went to London, did what I wanted to, and decided that after Anna and I went on our trip to Scotland I would come home again. So here I am. What about Karlen? As many of you also know, he came home with me for a visit! It has been so fun for both of us. We spent a week at home with my Mom and Dad celebrating Halloween, having yummy home cooked meals, taking dance lessons at church, etc. What now? Well at the moment I am living with my cousin Larissa in Minneapolis, Karlen is staying with us until he returns to South Africa November 24th. I am going to look for jobs here in the Twin Cities and settle into the young adult life. Any questions? You know where to reach me! Kisses, Kari 2:27 PM - 11/12/2005 - comments {3} - post commentShare and enjoyTuesday 18 October 2005So much has happened in the last week! I have to write this quickly because I am at a hostel in Scotland and only have 9 minutes and 27 seconds left.
Basically Anna arrived last Saturday morning. Karlen and I picked her up at Heathrow airport. I was completely stressed and thought we were going to be late and she would be waiting because the Picadilly line was under engineering works (construction season in London!) and we had to backtrack and take the train from Paddington. We ended up arriving about 10 minutes before she came through arrivals so it worked out fine. She finally met Karlen and from what she tells me approves. I wasn't worried that she wouldn't, but he was pretty nervous!
After we took Anna back to the house and settled in we had some coffee and lunch. The big excitement was when she spilled my coffee into her suitcase. So we spent another 45 minutes cleaning that up as soon as we could to keep things from staning. Pretty exciting. Then it was into central London and the British Museum! By 5:00 she was exhausted, close to tears. I told her that and she just started crying (over-exhaustion) and then I started crying because I am probably hormonal and feeling bad for her! Poor Karlen didn't know what to do with the two of us crying in the museum! Don't worry, we packed it on home and put Anna to bed and I had some dinner and the world was right again!
Sunday we all took a holiday and slept in. Then we took a picinic lunch to Hyde Park and watched the people, ducks and geese. Karlen dropped Anna and I off at King's Cross station where we caught our train up to Edinburgh, Scotland. We have been here on tour ever since. I booked us a three day tour of the Scottish Highlands and the Isle of Skye.
Really, the tour has been quite a whirlwind. Because it is only three days and there is a lot to cover we are always moving and have a short time in each place. I want to write about the entire tour more in detail, but I think I will wait until we are all done. Tomorrow is the last day of our tour and then we are going to stay over in Edinburgh and spend Thursday day seeing the city and return to London that evening. Then Anna only has two more days with me in London and leaves again Sunday morning!
Ok, I'm running out of time, so I have to save this! More later! 2:23 PM - 10/18/2005 - comments {2} - post commentShare and enjoyWednesday 12 October 2005That sounds depressing, but all in all, I'm actually very good. This time next week I will be enjoying myself with Anna in the Scottish Highlands. I am so looking forward to her visit and particularly the trip to Scotland! I just booked a three day tour and I think we will stay on an extra day in Edinburgh. Next week I will have so much more to write about! Other than that I am working, spending some time with friends and with Karlen. Things are going swimmingly in the relationship department. I really have very little to complain about and what there is to complain about is hardly worth mentioning. For those of you who don't know, Karlen is my South African boyfriend. Officially. I have been asked for some more specific details, but I'll just give you an outline here. We met because we are living in the same flat-share, but not cohabitating just to clarify. For him it was love at first sight :-), but to be honest, it didn't take me much longer. He is from Durban, South Africa, 23 and a law student. He has been working in London and travelling since last fall, but is going back to South Africa to finish law school. Hopes to become an international diplomat. This sounds a bit like a resume, but I will add this interesting fact that he is Indian by nationality but has never been to India. Apparently, and maybe you knew this but I did not and thus felt uneducated, South Africa has a large population of Indians. Anyway, his dad is a journalist and mom is a teacher and I'm sure they must be really great, because they seem to have done an excellent job of raising him. He treats me as I should be treated, like a princess, but one who isn't necessarily too spoilt. That's all for now. Email me! 12:16 PM - 10/12/2005 - comments {0} - post commentShare and enjoyThe Scheme 5 October 2005Since none of you will read this until I am actually back in the US, this is going to be some entertainment for me and I hope for you.Things with Karlen are going fantastically. As you will probably know by now. Hopefully by now you will even have met him. And then you can picture the two of us scheming and making plans... We are going to America. How exciting. Actually, at the moment I am waiting at home on pins and needles until he gets home from the Gap, where he works. He is sick of it, but I think who wouldn't want to be surrounded by all those beautiful clothes all days. Anyway...we're coming to America. How did it all come about.... Well, some might call it luck and some might call it Divine providence, I don't know what I call it, but it's pretty cool whatever. I forget as an American, the blessed of the world, that it is difficult for some people to travel into America. But Karlen, here is where the luck comes in, has a pension for travel, and for some reason a couple of years ago got a 5 year travel visa to the US. Basically, he can come and go until 2008. Well that makes it pretty convenient because now he has an American girlfriend who demands visits when possible. You all know that I can be demanding. :-) And because he is so smitten with me, he agrees that we must visit. (Watch out, my next big trip is definitely going to be to South Africa!) Anyway, basically the last couple of weeks we both have been lamenting our stay here in London. I miss my friend Michelle who has gone back to Australia terribly, the weather sucks, I'm broke and I don't want to get another job here because I know that then I will be working full time and still be broke. My lease runs out the end of October. Karlen feels the same. He hates working at the Gap (again, not sure why, but you know, no one is perfect :-)). Every day he wants to call in sick (take a sickie as they say in London). In the meantime, we are just hanging out until the end of November when Karlen has booked his return flight to South Africa and we're making plans for him to come and visit at the end of December through Janurary. He begins law school again in February. All of a sudden he turns to me and says, "What are we doing, let's just go back to America now." What a crazy idea! My sister is coming in two weeks. But wait, my lease runs out at the end of October, I haven't renewed. Why stay? To spend time together. Neither of us wants to be in London any longer, we can be together in Minnesota for awhile just as well as here. So it begins... 11:49 AM - 10/5/2005 - comments {2} - post commentShare and enjoySunday 2 October 2005 - RoyaltySorry I haven't written anything in a while, but to be honest there isn't much to write. I have been working as a catering waitress since Mom and Dad went back home and just laying low. I am definitely missing my friends more as life slows down. But I have been dating this really great South African guy, Karlen. I won't write too much about it here, but if you want more specifics, email me.The biggest news I have is that on Saturday October 3, 2005, I, Kari L. Battcher, saw Prince William in person! Omg! I catered last night at this gorgeous benefit dinner for cancer research. The plates were like £300 per person. Can you believe it! Anyway, there were tons of young, rich people including Prince William. He was actually seated at a table right next to the one I was serving. I mean, I was like 10 feet away from the Crown Prince of England. Luckily nothing disastrous happened, but the event was pretty chaotic. I'll tell you by the end I was ready to go home and have a bit to eat and go to sleep. 8:21 AM - 10/2/2005 - comments {1} - post commentShare and enjoyFamily Visit! (Monday 19 September 2005)I have been so busy over the past 10 days. The much awaited visit from Mom and Dad finally came! They arrived on Fridday September 11th. That first day I had off of work so I picked them up at their hotel and we went over to the village of Greenwich. They were both exhausted, but the weather was good so we just kept moving. We saw the royal observatory (complete with the prime meridian!) and the National Maritime Museum, had a light lunch and they went back to the hotel for naps and I went back home also for a quick nap. We met up again for dinner at this beautiful little Thai restaurant right down the street from their hotel.Saturday we went to the British Museum and to the show the Producers Sunday Hampton Court Palace Monday I worked Tuesday - St. Paul's Cathedral Wednesday Thursday met up with Dean and then went to Brighton Friday 10:19 AM - 9/19/2005 - comments {1} - post commentShare and enjoySaturday 27 August 2005Wow! When I stop to think I can hardly believe I have been here over two months already. The time just flies by. I had a pretty good week last week. Worked quite a bit, but it was nice because i actually worked four days in a row, putting in 36 hours, and so now have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off! Origionally I had asked for the weekend off to go to an ultimate tournament, but then decided I didn't really want to go and would rather hang around or go on a day trip or something.Yesterday my friend Ryan and I went to the Camden market. There was so much there! Lots of clothes and jewelry and shoes and all sorts of other knick-knacks and food! If I had money I could spend a lot of it there. It seemed slightly like it was going to rain all afternoon, and of course I didn't have my umbrella because I hate to lug it around if I don't need to. Luckily the rain never did materialize, but one never knows in this country! I did get a deal on a couple of bracelets and some beaded earrnings, but mostly I was just content to wander around, and take in the sights. The market right next to the Camden Lock, so there was this great big patio with a bunch of chairs and tables on it. We found a used book store, and Ryan became totally engrossed in it and because i have the attention span of a fly popped into a bunch of other shops and then settled myself to sit in the sun until he finished. Last night we had Matt's going away party! So sad because we were having so much fun together! We went our for Chinese food (not nearly as good as Cleveland Wok) in Chinatown and then for drinks. I miss him already! I haven't decided what to do today, I had thought to go on a day-trip but now that is noon, I think I will just be bop around the city, maybe head up to Hampstead and see what's going on there. Michelle is in Spain for the next week and Justin went to Scotland this morning for the rest of the weekend, so I think I will call up Emily or Dan (two St. Thomas friends now living in London!) and see if they want to meet up. 6:05 AM - 8/27/2005 - comments {0} - post commentShare and enjoyAdventures in the Cotswalds (Sunday 21 August, 2005)Sunday I took my very first day-trip to the English countryside. Before I came over to England this time I bought this book of London Day-trips and picked out which ones I wanted to do. You see, when I studied in London the first time I was able to travel all over Europe, however, this time money and my schedule is a bit tighter so not so much international travel, but I can still take the train all over England. I felt like there are so many lovely places right here that I missed the first time jet-setting about the continent that it would be better to just see what England has to offer. Well, as it was the budget has been tight and I worked quite a few weekends, so I hadn't done any day trips yet. I was beginning to wonder what exactly it was I was doing here and so decided it was high time that I started doing some of the things that I wanted to do. So I am. So there.Sunday morning my friends Matt, Ryan and myself met up at the Willesden Green tube station (about 3 blocks from my house) to go on our day trip. It was such a beautiful day, about 75 and Sunny with a light breeze. The consensus was to choose a country village to visit and go out on a country walk. (Apparently they don't do hikes here, they do country walks.) So we took the train out to Morten in Marsh in the Cotswalds (which is for those of you unfamiliar with the geography of England, west of London and consists mostly of little rural villages nestled between hills, tress and fields). Turns out country walks consist mostly of walking through fields, which seems a bit strange to this girl who is used to hiking through the woods. And these fields are not at all like mid-west fields, they are all just tiny, more like a bunch of pastures, and most of them are dedicated to grazing animals. Thus, much of our walk also consisted of a game of dodge-the-cow-pie. Upon our arrival in Morten-in-Marsh we purchased for £2.95 a guide book to the area walks. Choosing one about four hours long, we thought to fill up our afternoon with a good country walk. The book said we were going to walk through a kissing gate to begin with. We being young and American (except for Ryan who is Canadian, but close enough) were quite excited about the kissing gates, but as it turned out, they are nothing to get too excited about. Just another type of gate, nothing to do with kissing. Our path took us up to a little tiny country village called Batsford. Along the way we met the sweetest couple from Bristol (people in the country are so much friendlier than people in the city!) picking blackberries along the way. We stopped and had a chat and a snack with them of freshly picked blackberries. Yum! Pretty sure the Church in Batsford is the most adorable thing, play for my future wedding to be held there. Groom TBD. Approximately 5-7 years time. Maybe more. I'll keep you posted. After Batsford the next little village was Bourton-on-the-Hill. It really was right on a hill, too. The street into the village was filled with sweet little English cottages all with their own cute little names. It was after Batsford that our walk inevitably went awry (don't worry, not too awry, but of course nothing can go absolutely smoothly, right?). Our guide book failed us, or the arrows leading the way failed us or both and we were quite at a loss. Luckily, being up on the hill as we were, we could see to the north east, the church steeple for Morton-in-Marsh (at least we hoped/assumed it was Morton-in-Marsh!) So we set off in the general direction, befriending some sheep along the way. Luckily about 45 mins later, we trucked our way into the village. As it turned out, we probably cut about an hour off of our walk (Matt maintained it was no more than 1/4 of the walk, but I had the trail book and am a girl and thus probably correct that it was more like 1/3, but he can believe whatever he wants). After not having much physical activity for the past couple of months, my legs were not used to all that walking and I think Ryan and Matt were feeling much the same way, so we just hopped on the train back to London after a particularly gratifying day. 5:42 AM - 8/27/2005 - comments {3} - post commentShare and enjoyYeppies adopts a new way of lifeI have ripped this one from the headlines...Actually from a blurb in the Metro, for those you unfamiliar with London and it's fine newspapers, the Metro is the bottom of the rung on the news and information ladder. Basically it is the free paper you can pick up at the tube station.In any case, every so often a jewel emerges from the muck. This I thought was actually rather interesting consiering my current lifestyle choices as well as those of many of my friends who have only recently graduated college and now emerge into the real world. 'Yeppies' adopt a new way of life You have probably heard of yuppies, indkys and even sinbads. Now meet the yeppies. Anthropologists are calling the dithering twent-something generation yeppies - Young Experimenting Perfection Seekers. Yeppies are amibitious but confused and won't commit to anything until they know it will bring them enduring happiness. The Social Issues Research Centre said today's graduates are adopting a 'browsing' approach to jobs, homes and relationships. They postpone life-althering decisions until they feel they have exhausted all their options. Social anthropologist Kate Fox said: 'Unlike the yuppies of th Eighties, who were motivated by money and status, today's young adults are less certain and less single-mindedly materialistic than their predacessors.' Pretty interesting, I think... 6:46 AM - 8/17/2005 - comments {2} - post commentShare and enjoyTuesday 16 August, 2005I mean't to write this entry last Thursday, but the weekend just flew away from me! I don't know why, all I did was work!London continues on. I feel like I am working a lot without getting much in terms of reward. Although the job is not particularly taxing, my boss and manager are clean-a-holics and treat us like we keep the shop a pit. Which we in fact do not. I have decided that if we clean they tell us it looks like a disaster and if we don't clean they tell us it looks like a disaster, so why bust my butt if it isn't appreciated. I think all of our staff is about at this point. I know yesterday at one of the other shops a girl walked out, quit, just like that. I can't say I necessarily blame her. So my manager asked me to pick up a shift for her there, but then she cut back my hours at my shop. I will tell you what, I'm not picking up any more shifts just to get my hours cut back somewhere else. I could have had that day off, but now I am working to help out and don't even have the opportunity to pick up more hours! This is really frustrating. I am still on the eternal search for a better job or another part time job and then I would cut back hours at the shop. I am so sick of worrying about money and whether I will have enough to pay my rent and then live off of. I guess it doesn't matter because I don't actually have a social life, working weekends and all. But in September I am purposely taking off a couple of weekend to go to Paris with Mom and Dad and to an Ultimate Frisbee (oh yeah!) tournament in Italy (where? that's right, it's a beach tournament in Pisa!). But each of those are a good month away, but still something to look forward to. So, not this past week but the Thursday before we had a frisbee summer league game. I got this weird bug bite on my ankle and I can remember thinking, "ow, that hurt!" Well Saturday my ankle swelled up to unusual proportions, I mean really fat, and it was sore! Thankfully, one of my flat mates is a nurse and we kept and eye on it. After a couple of days the swelling went down, but I have never in my life had such a weird bug bite. Now my foot and ankle are back to normal proportions, but you can still see where that bugger bit me! A week ago Monday I saw David Schwimmer (yes, better known as Ross from the popular TV show Friends! hehe). He is playing in a performance of Some Girls in London's West End. Very strange little drama, but pretty good. Ross, however, I feel, can only ever play that one type of character. Also, not quite as tall as I had imagined. But it was pretty cool. Also saw Charlie and the Cholocate Factory last weekend. For those of you who haven't seen it, I won't give away the ending, but it is a bit different than the origional. Johnny Depp is of course very weird, but very good. Just as trippy as the origional with a modern twist of course. A personal favorite, and this isn't giving away too much, the puppet burn unit. Although not for everyone, I would recommend for most adults, not necessarily for children. Ok, I love you all, write me more emails! Also thank you so much to Kate, G, Hallie and Linsay W who have sent me letters, notes and pictures in the mail! It is such a treat to come home to a letter as a surprise. Makes my day! And also thanks to Caitlin who sent me a lot of digital photos. I pretty much sat looking at them and cracked up thinking about all our shenanigans from college last year! frisbee soreness foot swelling up to unusual proportions David Schwimmer and Some Girls Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 5:42 AM - 8/11/2005 - comments {3} - post commentShare and enjoyTuesday 2 August 2005Hello again to all my friends and family at home checking up on me while I am overseas! Life in England continues to be fine. I am finally earning and spending in English pounds so it is good to know that I'm no longer actually paying double on every purchase because of the exchange rate. I do like my job, although the irregular hours are a bit irritating at times and they keep changing the schedule. Why bother scheduling out a month in advance if you're going to change it anyway. Who knows. I think I will begin looking for some other work though, because I can hardly make ends meet with this job. And I didn't come over here to not be able to enjoy myself at all, right? Well, it's all in God's hands anyway, so if you think of it please say a little prayer for my finances and potentially looking for a new job. I also want to find somewhere else to live, not because it is bad here but I feel like for the money I'm paying I could get a better value, like live in a little nicer neighborhood. But that is a bit more complicated, so one thing at a time.I decided last week that I was becoming boring and I needed to get out and start seeing all the things I wanted to in the city. So on my Wednesday off last week I went to the National Portrait Gallery in the afternoon. One of my absolute favorite things about London is the museums because they're free! And there is so much art and history. Because they are free, I don't feel guity when my attention span only lasts a couple of hours. I pretty much just checked out the oldest paintings from the Tudor era (the 15th century I believe - you know Henry VII and Elizabeth I). And then the 16th and into the 17th centuries. Very cool. There were so many famous people there, a lot who I didn't know but I enjoyed reading the writeups and finding out more about British history. There was even a small section on colonial America. I was in one gallery and turned around surprised because there in front of me was a painting of George Washington! After the gallery I met up with my Australian friend Michelle and we had a girlie night out, we have lots of girlie nights, but it's great! We went to this great little hole in the wall Japanese restaurant where I had a noodle soup that was super tricky to eat with chop-sticks and a ceramic spoon and sushi. Then we went for ice cream and coffee. I met Michelle my first week here and she moved down to Greenwich now so I still see her a couple times a week because she works in the city (central London) and we try to meet up weekends. When I was in Leister Square on Wednesday waiting to meet up with Michelle I was surprised to see armed police patrolling. For those of you who don't know, law enforcement rarely carry firearms here, unlike at home. I knew that after the bombings and more attempted bombings law enforcement had been stepped up quite a bit, but I hadn't realized quite how much. It actually made me more uneasy to see them because you realize how serious the threat still is. Living and working outside of central London, I don't often go through that area so I hadn't seen all the increased security. They also have police stationed on many of the tube lines. We were on the Northern line and there were three officers in just our coach. Makes me a bit uneasy, to be honest, even though I know they are here for civilian protection. I'm really looking forward today to my friend Emily arriving. I'm not sure that I will get to see her today, but I hope she will be able to call. My phone has been acting up, though and I really need to get it straightened out. I hate that thing! That's one thing I miss is my nice phone at home :-(. That is besides my family and lovely friends! I miss you all so much sometimes! Especially when I am feeling worried about work. Anyway, I digress, it will be so nice to have a friend from home around here! Life, it seems, has just begun to settle here, so I have consequently begun to feel a little sad and homesick. But you know me, my moods change on a dime sometimes, so I'm sure I'll snap out of it in a bit. Just keeping busy! Plus I get all sorts of nice emails and sometimes even letters and cards from home! Thank you all so much who have kept me updated on your lives and my lovely friends who have sent me mail! What a surprise to get up this morning and have a card and pictures sent to me from my roomate! Yay! I think that's probably plenty for you all to read for now. More to come I'm sure. 5:07 AM - 8/2/2005 - comments {1} - post commentShare and enjoySunday 24 July 2005What's new with me? Not a whole lot to report, fortunately or unfortunately however you may look at it. I've been working quite a bit, which is good as I will be getting paid soon!Yesterday we had a sort of strange experience at work. With the recent terrorist attacks the policie and the metro transit have been very vigilant about bags and packages left on the busses. Well, yesterday afternoon all of a sudden a bus pulled over across the street and the driver took off over to stand in front of our shop. Pretty soon here come the police to check it out. Apparently, someone had left an athletic bag with his swim trunks on the bus. Oops. My coworker and I chatted with one of the police officers and he said this is all the calls they get these days. That was really as close as I have come personally to any kind of a scare, but the whole thing was over in about five minutes. Although I can tell you everytime a train stops, which isn't that often, in a tunnel, I get a little extra surge of nervousness. That's all for me today. I think I'm going to just run errands to the library and the grocery store. I have been reading American Psycho, but it's just too dark and graphic at the moment and I think I need something that is a bit lighter. 8:10 AM - 7/24/2005 - comments {1} - post commentShare and enjoyTuesday 19 July 2005Ahh! So long since I have written. I apologize for that, but things have been busy with my new job and you all know how social I tend to be! The job is going pretty well, but a couple of the full time girls are leaving this week which means I will be picking up some more responsibility. But heck, I have a college degree in business, I better be able to handle this! As long as things are kept clean and we make money what can go wrong?I received so many lovely emails from you all after the Terrorist Attacks here on July 7th. The city is actually surprisingly back to normal. Of course for the day or so following there was a lot of confusion as to what actually happened, but right now it looks like there were four suicide bombers and possibly a fifth that fell through at the last minute. One of the underground lines is still shut down and parts of a couple others, but luckily I don't work in that area of town so it hasn't affected me much at all to be honest. Actually, the whole thing was probably inevitable and I am just thankful that more people didn't get hurt. The saddest is that there are still bodies missing, probably somewhere down in the tunnels. Breaks your heart doesn't it? And Britain has such a large Muslim population, thankfully they are speaking out against the bombings and most people are incredibly supportive. Work is going well. I think most of you know by now that since my first job didn't turn out I took another in a tanning shop. It's actually fun and pretty interactive. A lot of cleaning, which although not my favorite thing to do in the world, doesn't require that I'm a rocket scientist and there is a definite sense of satisfaction about getting a dirty job done. I'm still playing frisbee, but because I picked up a shift on Sunday missed practice. I still may play pickup tonight and have a summer league game tomorrow. It has been so fun meeting people and of course being outside running around! Lately I have noticed myself picking up English phrases, of course somethings sound absolutely ridiculous with an American accent, things only Brits can get away with like calling everyone 'Love' or saying 'cheers' rather than thank you. I don't even attempt it because I only sound like an idiot trying to fit in. Not much else new here, but I wound love to hear from you all! 11:32 AM - 7/19/2005 - comments {2} - post commentShare and enjoyTuesday 5 July 2005 - Career moves, Music and UltimateIt's July 5th already! Where has the time gone. I thought things were going to finally begin to settle down, but they have been just crazy busy. But, as most of you well know, I love to be busy and especially without a lot of friends around to fill my time, I can't complain.Well, as some of you know I started my new job last Monday...and I quit on Wednesday. Turned out it just wasn't such a good fit for me. But no worries, I landed on my feet and landed another job on Thursday of last week and started yesterday. It's for less money, but I think it will be a lot more fun. And if this one doesn't work out, we know I can always find another one. This particular one is working in a tanning salon, job benefits = free tanning. Plus there's a young and fun staff to work with. Unfortunately this week I won't be up to full time yet, because they have to do some rearranging to get my training in and the training manager is out for a couple of days, but hopefully next week I can be in there full time and finally make some money. I did get paid for the hours I put into my job last week, so there's a start and I already paid July rent so I don't need to worry abou rent again for another 26 days. This past weekend was awesome! I had free tickets to a couple of outdoor concerts that I got through some friends here. On Friday night we went to the B-live concert. One of the girls I used to live with got free tickets through her job for Friday night. When we first got there it was all rainy and drizzyly, but once the weather cleared up, it turned out pretty nice. It was kind of a latin thing, so they played some really high energy salsa type music and there were different performances of latin dancers. Plus I was able to just hang out with friends. Saturday was the really great day though. My friend, Anik, got us tickets to the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park. We were actually outside of the actual concert (but free tickets) watching on big screens. I don't know if any of you heard about it at home, but they were doing big concerts all around the work to influence the G-8 summit to do something about poverty in Africa. One of the biggest (arguably the biggest) was here in London in Hyde Park. Amazing acts. I saw Madonna, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams, Pink Floyd (playing together for the first time in 24 years!), Mariah Carey, U2, Cold Play, REM, Dido, Travis, Annie Lennox, the Who, Snoop Dogg, Sting, and more including some bands that I think are just more popular in Britain that I've never heard of. Anyway, what a great day of music. On Sunday I went to ultimate frisbee practice. I was literally the only girl. I also didn't realize how out of shape I was (or how much more men run) because my whole body is sore. That's good though, because it means I worked hard. I just wish there was practice more than once a week because I think just practicing hard one time a week won't really help me to improve that much or get in shape. Maybe I should start running...but I probably won't, let's be honest. 5:58 AM - 7/5/2005 - comments {2} - post commentShare and enjoy29 June 2005 WednesdayWell, I have been in London for about 11 days now. Hard to believe. For the most part I have adjusted to life here pretty quickly. I've met some fun people all around the world at the places I've stayed. On Monday morning I moved into a single room down the street from the first place I was in. Everyone seems really nice there, and it's fairly clean, at least as clean as can be expected. The bathrooms are nicer than the first place and I love having my own space. I was finally able to unpack all my stuff and find things. It feels better, more settled, to no longer be living out of a suitcase.
I have actually been pretty busy here, which is good. I was a little worried about meeting people and not having any friends (I know, I know that I pretty much will talk with anyone, but it doesn't keep me from worrying!). As it is I have met some wonderful people from all around the world. Particularly Australia, New Zealand, Canada (our friendly neighbors to the north), South Africa and there is the most adorable girl from Japan at my house right now.
Last night I was so lucky to spend the evening with Rocio (my girlfriend from St. Thomas). She was just passing through London on a class she was taking on her way back to the US. In fact by now she should be on her way there and home by the time most of you read this. We had so much fun! I met her at her hotel near Paddington Station and we went up to Baker Street for dinner. What an experience. You know that the Brits love to hire Americans and Australians for service positions because British people have horrible customer service skills. Well, we experienced it first hand. There was a little confusion with our order. We ordered a half a bottle of wine and our waitress misunderstood and brought us a whole bottle. The problem probably could have been remedied if we had said something right away, but we thought that maybe they give us a whole bottle and we are only supposed to drink half, that it is a ploy to charge us for a whole bottle. So we just kept it and only drank half, following? Anyway, of course when our bill came we had been charged for the whole bottle, so I reminded her we had only ordered a half and only drank a half. Well, the manager came over and yelled at us and told us that because I hadn't ordered an entree (just an appetizer, but I wanted it as my entree) only one of us should have been drinking (which she claims is the law, but I have never heard anything like that and you would think that if I just wanted a drink and would pay for it that no one would care). Anyway, we finally got it straightened out, and I felt so bad for our poor waitress, because she was a sweetheart and I'm sure it's a hard job, but seriously, who reprimands their customers! It should have been the waitresses responsibility to tell us up front that if we were both going to have a glass of wine we had to order entrees, but I think that crabby manager just made it up because she was mad about the wine. Hmm.
From there we stopped and bought dessert at a Tesco (a supermarket chain), some carmelly sweet things that Ro loves. Then we tubed (can you use tube as a verb? I think so, to tube = to take the underground/subway) down to Tower Bridge. Walked across the Bridge wherein we had a debate about the age of the bridge and whether or not dead bodies were thrown under it during the 17th century. As the bridge wasn't built until the 18th or 19th centuries (I'm not sure exactly, so I will get back to you on it) I maintain that dead bodies were not thrown from under it, but Rocio will continue to believe whatever she wants so I don't think it matters what I think, even if it is the truth.
Across the river Thames (pronounced Tems for reasons unknown) and we walked down to the modern day London Bridge where the discovery was made that the London Bridge was the only bridge across the Thames until 1750, thus no bridge could have existed where the current Tower Bridge is until at least 1750 and no dead bodies. This is the point in the story where things get really good. Rocio wanted to see the Globe theatre, although it was raining intermittenly and it's really not much to see from the outside, we set off. On the way we met quite a character. You know it was like 10:00 at night in Central London and we are of course getting lost because this city is impossible to not be lost in and we come upon this galleon (yes a smallish sailing ship) docked down by the river. Now this isn't a site you see everyday so we stop to investigate. Pretty soon this British man comes up and begins to chat with us. Well, at first it's a little odd, but then we just realize he's a friendly man. Turns out he's an entrepreneur who owns a chain of tanning salons in London. He said if I want a job, just give him a call and he gave me his number because they like to hire American and Australians because as we know they have the best customer service skills.
3:56 AM - 6/29/2005 - comments {1} - post commentShare and enjoy23 June 2005, ThursdayI was offered a job today. Actually, I was offered on yesterday but it was only for two weeks temping at £7.50 an hour, and I knew that I had other options coming up. My actual job is as a Researcher for a Head Hunting company in downtown London. Eeek. I'm so excited, I'll be making £9 an hour, which I can definitely live off of. Not so much else to report. I've just been interviewing Tuesday, Wednesday and this morning, and I was offered this job today and it seemed like a good fit and my new boss, Niel is pretty flexible about travel and other things so it's going to be nice I think.So after this morning I went with a couple of my new London friends (Matt and Ryan - Australian and Canadian in that order) to a park just to hang out, threw around the frisbee a little bit and just chatted. Then we stopped at a pub with outdoor tables for a beer and dinner. Lovely afternoon. 4:34 PM - 6/23/2005 - comments {6} - post commentShare and enjoy20 June 2005, MondayThanks to those of you who have already posted on my journal! It means so much to hear from home!
Although this is only my third day in London I am already completely exhausted. It's been a long day. I haven't been sleeping well in the hostel. There are so many people around making noise and it's so warm and humid this week. I don't know what the high was today, but I was definitely spending a good deal of the afternoon getting lost in Central London and let me tell you, it was warm. It's nice to finally be sitting down for a bit!
I started off my day by heading down to the BUNAC office for orientation. I found out some good things and am now prepared to begin my job search. They had one bank appointment available today, so I quickly caught a bus from the office and went to the bank to open an account. Most employers want you to have an account already plus I figured th sooner I opened it the sooner I could use it! Not that I have any money to use, but hopefully soon! Anyway, that was about the only thing that went smoothly today. From there it was all downhill. Of course I got lost on my way back to the office. Really, who ever knows where they are in this city? None of the roads are straight and they all change names halfway through and of course either everything begins to look the same or nothing looks the same going the other direction. I walked way out of my way, in what felt like a big circle, but finally made it back.
The BUNAC office has a bunch of job listings, and I already have my CV (Cirriculum Vitae - an enhanced version of a resume) ready to go. So now I'm just going to sit in this internet cafe for a couple of hours and try to get some work done. I have about 16 contact from the job board at BUNAC to email and then I'll call them tomorrow.
I did get a mobil phone today. It should be all set up to work tomorrow (for some reason it takes 24 hours to get connected to the network, who knows?). Good news is that it's only 5p a minute to call home! Isn't that ridiculous? It's more expensive than that to call in the UK, 15p flat rate. It's this special promotion they're doing.
My phone number is (if you're calling from the US) (011-44) 0796 260 6077. 11:04 AM - 6/20/2005 - comments {3} - post commentShare and enjoyThe beginning (Sunday June 19)It is my first full day of life here in the UK! The sun is shining and things are looking good. The flight over wasn't too bad, I mean it was long, but there's not much to be done about that. Our flight arrived at about 9 am and we were off around 9:30 and then through immigration and a train into the city and a cab ride up to Willesden where I'm living and I finally settled in about 1. I took a shower, went to the grocery store and fell asleep exhausted for a couple of hours.I'm staying in a sort of rooming house for the next week until I can move into my apartment. At first I was kind of disappointed I couldn't move right in, but this is a pretty good situation. I've already met some pretty cool people, a couple of girls: Lauren from Florida and Michelle from Australia. I am staying in a room with 5 other girls. Michelle, a South African, two Serbian girls and another that I haven't met yet because she's gone for the weekend. I took a walk around the Willesden neighborhood yesterday after my nap. It was just too beautiful to be inside! The tube stop is just about 7 minutes walk away and the neighborhood is decent. Not super posh, but definitely manageable. It's pretty ethnic, a lot of Middle Eastern and Africans. Everything I need is really pretty close by, and when I move into my apartment (flat) it's even closer to the tube station and shops, which will be nice. Since today is so beautiful, I think I'm going to go with a couple people to one of the ciry parks. The Jubilee line isn't running, it's a bus service, so it might turn out to be a bit of an adventure! I have free internet at the hostel, so I'm going to take advantage of it while I can and write more later! 6:10 AM - 6/19/2005 - comments {9} - post commentShare and enjoy |
Description A journal of my experiences as an expatriot. Home User Profile Archives Friends My Wall Recent Entries - Home again! - Tuesday 18 October 2005 - Wednesday 12 October 2005 - The Scheme 5 October 2005 - Sunday 2 October 2005 - Royalty Friends - linzykinz83 - dvoshell |
