20 June 2005, Monday

Thanks 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 - post comment

g'day mate! ;-)

Greetings from Down Under! I'm glad you made it safely and the job sitch is looking good. Good luck getting everything settled! Have a wonderful time, as I'm sure you're already planning. ;-) I'm looking forward to reading your journals, although I'm gonna be jealous that you're abroad again while I've gotta go back home. Take care!

love,
~Lindsay :-)

linzykinz83 - 9:45 PM - 6/20/2005

Willesden

Hi Kari!

So you never went to my house or saw where I lived in 2003, but it is not more than a 10 minute walk from where you live now. If you get off at kilburn and walk up shootup hill for about 7 minutes and go a few blocks east, you are right at my house, and looking at mapquest, its not more than about 10 blocks from where you are right now! How weird/cool is that? So yeah its just down walm lane a little bit. I used to take the brondesbury train every now and then. 17 Asmara road if you happen to stumble upon it.

It's good to hear things are going well for you so far. I can't wait to get over there myself. I'm beginning to think October may be a few weeks too late. Oh well. I'm not in any rush.

There is a sainsbury's at finchley road and west hampstead is a really nice area of town (similar to our uptown?) Why is the jubilee line down?

Eric B. - 11:47 PM - 6/20/2005

Kare Bear!

Hi Kari! Thanks for the wonderful emails and journal entries! It's so cool to hear about what you're doing over there in that awesome city of London. Man, technology these days makes the world seem so small and conquerable. I'm so happy and excited for you! It sounds like things are going well, and I hope you have the best of luck finding a nice job! Wish I could be there with you! I'll try and keep in touch as best I can, but things are crazy busy right now. I thought of you on Saturday as I was running the marathon (which went well, by the way!). Miss you and love you lots! Love, Hallie

Anonymous - 11:26 AM - 6/22/2005