just when you think you have london transport all figured out

you discover that transport on sundays is a wee different. :-)

i was meeting some new friends at a pub for lunch today in W1 (oxford circus area). easy enough! the 55 stops right by my flat and i am well familiar with the stop i needed to get off at on oxford street. but since it's sunday, it took FOREVER to get a flipping bus and it was standing room only.

standing on the top floor of a double-decker bus while its in motion is scarier than paragliding.

luckily i got a seat pretty quick and even better, my friends were having a similar problem on the tube. we arrived at the crown and sceptre at exactly the same time and had a great time chatting over cocktails and delicious pub food. i had a burger, they had traditional sunday roasts. we hung out for a few hours, so much fun. afterwards, we braved the rain and headed to oxford street to go our separate ways and do a bit of shopping.

i planned on a quick stop into h&m, which ended up being disappointing, so i went out to wait in the drizzle for the 55. i waited. and waited. and every other bus on the planet went by, but no 55. hence, i started walking towards oxford circus tube and on the way i became distracted by...top shop.

top shop is a huge clothing store chain here and i've been meaning to check it out. it was huge, confusing, and i couldn't find a fitting room to save my life. :-) i did wind up getting two pairs of leggings though.

the 55 never did come, so i hopped on the circle line thinking i could change to the northern line at tottenham court road. what i forgot was that the northern line splits twice and TCR is on the charing cross side. old street (my station) is on the bank side. F.

i finally got it sorted out but it was so crowded that i was getting a little grumpy. then someone on the tube pointed out that an old banana peel was hanging from the ceiling just above my head. four strangers and i had a good laugh at the randomness of this, and it made the day brighter for some reason. this could also be due to the fact that it stopped raining soon after but whatevs. :-)

'Stiner's last day :-(

my girl Christine's last day in london. i knew this was coming, but i didn't know it would get here so FAST. this month has flown by and i can't imagine this city without her. boo to America for stealing her away.

despite the fact that i was sad, saturday was a day of exploration for me. firstly, it was my week for the house cleaning rota. i spent 2 blissful hours scrubbling, scouring, mopping, and tidying the place...my way. oh yeah, it's Jen Clean™ in here now baby!

after the cleaning fiesta, i walked to camden passage with Beth and Christine. camden passage is a local market on weekends, where i found some pressies for my fam and a few potential future ones for me as well. :-) i also bought a vegetarian cookbook because, even though i still REALLY LOVE MEAT, i can't afford to buy/cook it here and i can't keep getting my vegetables from drinking bloody marys. will be exciting to try some new recipes!


ha ha ha

there was also a spurs match today, so we headed to our favorite football bar, cafe kick, to enjoy the game, tapas, and pisco. i love pisco. it is so smooth and so delicious. it also hits you like a ton of bricks. :-) after four sagres (brazilian beer), a pisco sour, and a pisco + coke, i was barely able to walk to hobgoblin. i stuck it out though and even managed to get some dancin' in, as well as make a new friend.


pisco, pisco, pisco!


i'm so excited and i just can't hide it


not even going to hypothesize about what's going on here

but, as all good things must come to an end (really, universe?), it was soon time to walk back to the clerkenwell flat with Christine, where we had a tearful goodbye. hence, phase 1 of london is officially over for me. phase 2 is london without any ties to my old life being here in the city with me.

how many phases will there be? only time will tell. ;-)

naughty friday™

i actually enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet in the office on friday, and since it was Christine's last day in the London digs, i decided to join my co-workers for fish n' chips and pints at lunch! i had my first pear cider - pretty good but i like apple better. this is kind of funny because i didn't enjoy cider at all in my previous life (same thing with olives). has this grey island caused my taste buds to change???

ah, but i digress. back to naughty friday. i was happy (but not drunk) after a pint or so of cider; however, some folks decided to hit another pub on the walk back to the office. (really, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a pub around here.) i'm usually nonsense after two pints...and it was a work day...and then one of my colleagues reminded me that we are usually too busy to take advantage of such opportunities. well. when in rome...

after a lengthy lunch, i made it back to my desk and then we left at 5:30 for Christine's going away drinks! we wandered across clerkenwell green (which by the way, is not green) to the three kings pub. i was so full from all the noontime nonsense that i switched to wine after just one happy hour pint. it was freezing out (winter is finally here), so we walked over to a pub called the green where we could be indoors. but we brought our drinks from the three kings.

man i love london. :-)

i really enjoyed hanging with my co-workers, although i learned that you should not say the following things to brits:

"whoa, way to double fist!" (has nothing to do with having two drinks at once here)

"my flap is being really tricky" (i was referring to my mitten flap. they thought i meant something else.)

doh. Beth and Lou met us out and we had a few more rounds, a shot of Jaeger, then went off in search of dinner. there's a great curry place on the green so we headed there. it was kind of a nice restaurant, i'm sure they were impressed with our impaired states of consciousness. ha.


a few of my adorable co-workers


the trifecta

thanksgiving on the other side of the pond

thanksgiving was...hard. i'm so thankful for so many things, but being away from my family and friends, not being able to hear anyone's voice, etc. just SUCKS.

that said, i'm lucky to have good friends here in the city who welcomed me to a very yummy London thanksgiving table. :-) Beth spent all day slaving in the kitchen to make Christine, Lou, and me a wonderful spread! each one of us had a little job to do for the meal. mine (as i've mentioned 800 times) was to make the pumpkin pies. everyone else's pilgrim duties went as follows:


Christine making some awesome mashed potatoes (check out those guns...awwww yeah)


Lou brought limes, mint, tequila, and cranberry juice which produced...


...a fab cocktail called Nautilus, which we dubbed "Happy Pilgrims"


Beth made a cheese plate, roast turkey with gravy, green beans, and waldorf salad with homemade dressing

mmm, mmm, good. before we ate, we all went around the table and said what we were thankful for. awww. :-)

in all honesty, this holiday was way harder than i ever imagined it would be. i know that i'm on an island (literally) but on thanksgiving it became very clear to me...i'm 4,000 miles away from home. no matter how much i love it here (and i truly do) i'm always a little sad. so, it's good that i have other Americans to cry with on occasion. ;-)


American girlz

american girl, american pie

if i lived in the States, i'd be enjoying thanksgiving tomorrow. two free days off of work, delicious food, and wonderful time with the family i took for granted. however, i live in the UK where it's about 60 degrees, we're working tomorrow, and the concept of laying around all day eating turkey is lost on people.

luckily i have an american friend who recognizes the importance of these things. she's having Christine and me over for dinner, so i needed to bake up some pumpkin pies in preparation.

i had all the ingredients, a working oven, etc. no problemo, right? er, hmmm. i should learn to stop thinking that. let's review the events of the evening, shall we?


the much sought-after canned pumpkin. it's all natural for crying out loud, how much harm could it cause??


plenty, as it were. the small hole in the can was all i could manage to produce with the weird tin opener i found in the drawer. i asked (bribed with a glass of wine) my roomate for help, who tossed the tin opener aside and went for a knife. this is as far as we got.


we decided our tin opener and the knife were rubbish. roommate sent me next door to borrow neighbor's tin opener.


cripes. i've given myself a blister.


victorious! look closely. the lid was cut from the SIDE of the can and not the TOP like an american can opener would do. sodding backwards crap.

i win i win i win i win i win i...oh wait. the recipe called for ground cloves and all i could find at sainsbury's were...whole cloves.


i win i win i win i win i win

a very long while later, two small pies emerged from the oven. it was a difficult birth and they're not the prettiest things, but i'm a proud mama nevertheless. :-)

new running digs

i've been meaning to join a new running group. since Christine goes home this weekend, i've decided there is no time like the present to start getting out and actually doing all the stuff i've just been talking about. niketown london has running groups that meet for FREE several times a week, and i opted for the tuesday night mixed gender run. you could choose from 3, 4, or 7 miles. since i haven't run much in the last month or so, i selected the four-mile option.

i wasn't sure what to expect but the run was awesome! you show up at the niketown store a bit early and check in your gear, which they give you an id tag for. (better than some races i've run!) then you get a chip and a reflective vest, and THEN they lead you through warmup exercises. a bit awkward but if 100 other people didn't mind doing it then i didn't either. :-)

two nice girls offered that i could run with them so i didn't get lost, and we set off for regent's park. however, i lost my new pals pretty quick due to the traffic and other pedestrians we were dodging. then i spotted a guy next to me sans headphones and struck up a conversation, which lasted the full four miles and resulted in an invite to join him and another runner for post-workout pints. woohoo!

back at the store, my buddy went to change his clothes and came back wearing...a three piece suit! he works in finance and that was what he wore to work. his friend was wearing the same getup. they both looked dapper, i looked like someone who just ran four miles in the rain. ah well.

we found a cool pub around the corner and remembering my previous vow, i ordered a fruili, which impressed my new friend. turns out it was some sort of exotic strawberry beer. it reminded me of my strawberry shortcake dolls from childhood. tasty but maybe overkill?



we hung out for another pint and some burgers, during which time i tried to explain a few american things to the lads, such as:

- the difference between country and bluegrass

- why the Cincinnati marathon is called the Flying Pig

amongst other things. all in all, was one of the most fun nights i've had with strangers and i hope i see them again next week!

the evening ended with me a bit tipsy, chasing the 55 bus down oxford street. :-)

beer me

i'm on a new mission. no more ordering any beers i recognize (except at cafe kick). every time i go out, i vow to pick something i have never heard of. tonight i met up with a new friend who has already adopted this practice, and i ordered a new beer called doom bar. my favorite beer so far! also, it's from cornwall, which is also where the town of st. ives is. i smell a field trip...

good beer was followed by good saag paneer, which tastes pretty much nothing like it does in the states but is tasty nevertheless. :-)

pace

pronounced "pa-chay", this means "peace" in italian. why am i suddenly blogging in italian? well...i found myself awake at 9:30 am this morning, which meant it was time to get back into the routine of going to church. there are about three catholic churches in EC1 - the one i've been eyeing on amwell street had mass at 10, so that was off the list. one was at 11:30, which seemed too late, so the only one left was st. peter's italian catholic church.

really, you'd think the name would have given away the fact that the mass wouldn't be said in english...but nothing here is what it seems, so i didn't really know what to expect. i was running a bit late (surprise) and then a French dude stopped me in the street to see if i would take his picture in one of the red phone booths. since i did this myself just last evening, i could hardly say no.

i was now REALLY late and i couldn't find the street i was looking for. damn, damn. then out of nowhere i stumbled upon the steps (stupid map was wrong) and i scurried inside just in time.



once seated, i noticed everyone else had a bulletin in hand. oopsies. mass began and it was most definitely not in english. :-) it was actually really cool to hear it in italian, and i participated in my own language a little bit...but not too loudly because i didn't want to seem disrespectful. EVERYONE else was fluent and recited along flawlessly.

the whole experience was pretty interesting, despite the fact that communion was a bit disorganized and the lady behind me bumped me in the rear end every time we moved. i think i'd go back again, but i'd need to make sure to grab a bulletin so i could at least play along. could be a good way to learn italian! ;-)

pub crawlin' in the rain

since Christine only has a week left in london, she's been making a list of pubs to hit before she goes:

jerusalem tavern
dovetail
bishop's finger

to name a few. pubs here are weird though as far as hours of operation go, so we knew jerusalem wasn't open on saturday. we figured we could have a quick dinner, then hit bishop's finger and meet up with Beth and Lou at dovetail. ah, the best laid plans. :-)

we started off at a clerkenwell restaurant called match, which was more of a bar but they had good pub food on the menu so we took a chance. i ordered a half pint of some strange beer (don't remember the name) and it took FOREVER to get our food. i was getting fish n' chips, Christine was getting shepherd's pie. as my friend Dave would say, we were trying to lay a good base.

the food finally came out and the terrified looking waiter said "if you don't think this tastes good, you don't have to pay for it." just what you want to hear before you dig into a meal. :-) turns out that the chef hadn't shown up for work, so the restaurant manager was preparing everything and she didn't really know how to cook!

we started eating and the waiter came back a minute later to see how things were. we assured him the food was fine, but he insisted that we needed some kind of compensation...so he whipped out three tequila shots and we did them right then and there. i love london.

after dinner (which we decided to pay for), we headed to the bishop's finger...which wasn't open! silly pubs.


closed!

we strolled back through the empty smithfield market where i made a quick pit stop inside one of the fabulous red phone booths that are all over the city. i didn't think anything could actually smell worse than the underground on a rainy day, but the phone booth definitely did.


'ello london!

even though the green was not on our list, we went in for a pint since it was starting to rain a bit harder. good thing we did! the rain was coming down sideways, upside down, and every other way you can think of. poor Beth called from finsbury park and said they were soaked and probably wouldn't make it down. Christine and I were wishing we were home on the couch. gross, gross weather.

but then, as they always do, the skies cleared and we braved it over to dovetail where one of Christine's college friends was going to meet us. it was 10:20 and the dovetail closed at 11 (most pubs do), but we grabbed a half pint anyway. there was a cactus on the table, ha ha.



the college friends arrived and not long after, last call hit and we were booted out into the street. cafe kick was close by though, and open for another hour, so we headed there for some sagres. at midnight we were booted out AGAIN and walked up to the lexington in angel. i bailed at this point though, as drinking for hours on end every weekend is starting to take a toll on my wallet and let's face it...i was probably drunk enough anyway. :-)

on a mission

Beth is hosting Thanksgiving dinner this week, so Christine and I set off for Whole Foods in Stoke Newington today. why Whole Foods? because it's the only place in london where you can get canned pumpkin! since i'm making the pie, pumpkin was a necessity. we piled onto the 243 and about 25 minutes later we found ourselves outside what used to be my local grocery in the states. sigh. they indeed had pumpkin as well as a bunch of other american brands. good to know.


precious pumpkin

we wandered up and down church street afterwards and saw the cutest shops and cafes! i bought a plant and a candle for my new room, as well as a card featuring WW2 propaganda "keep calm and carry on." seems like a good motto! :-)

before heading back to my neck of the woods, we stopped into a cafe and i had a sicilian breakfast consisting of: fried halloumi cheese (my new favorite), spicy salami, olives (another thing i can't stop eating), hashbrowns, cucumbers, tomatoes, and a fried egg. it was fabulous. time for a nap!

moving on up...in EC1

moving day! i finally got into my new digs tonight, thanks to Christine, Beth, and a rather unwilling mini cab driver from addison lee. i just had too much stuff to carry, so i called a mini cab...the driver wasn't so keen on being a "moving van" even though the dispatcher said it was fine. we haggled back and forth a few times and i eventually said in a serious voice "i ride with your cab company six times a week, so i'm glad you're able to be flexible with me." happy he wasn't, but he at least loaded up the stuff and even helped us dump it on the sidewalk in front of my new place!

ironically, the hot water heater is in my bedroom closet, which means the room can get...balls hot. this is funny to me because my old bedroom was above the boiler room, which meant that it was also...balls hot. ha! at least my windows open.

my new flatmate Ly showed me the weekly cleaning schedule, where i could put my food in the cabinets, the central vac system (!) etc. it took me a good five minutes to get out the front door last night because i couldn't figure out how to unlock it (it was midnight and i didn't want to wake my flatmates...if they were even here). Beth had to stick her head in the mailslot and instruct me how to open the door. :-)


Christine shot this from the street. There's Beth...I'm on the other side of the door panicking...

milk and honey

i made a new friend. my old cincinnati boss was kind enough to hook me up with one of her pals who lives in london (so many people have said they would "refer" me along - so few actually have!). so even though i'm exhausted from a stupid crazy week, i was really excited to meet mindy for drinks at an exclusive bar in the soho/oxford st. area.

milk and honey did not have a sign out front and in fact, you had to be buzzed in! interesante... i got to the bar a few minutes early and immediately wished i hadn't decided to stop into Boots for a flatiron, cotton balls, and q-tips on the way. no one else in the bar was carrying a bag of toiletries. oh well!

wonder of wonders, i discovered that it was actually cheaper to drink woodford reserve (mmmm) than to order a cocktail, so i enjoyed a lovely bourbon on the rocks while i waited for my new friend to arrive. a gentleman (or not) approached me and began pontificating about the rules of engagement. blah, blah...wait. the bar really did have rules about boys approaching girls - in fact, boys were supposed to leave us girls alone and if they didn't, and we wanted said boys to go away, all we had to do is raise our chin towards the bartender and the "offenders" would be dealt with. ha!

luckily, i was seated right about this time and mindy joined me. we chatted away over tasty olives, chips, grilled cheese (cheese that was physically grilled - not the sandwich) and oysters! what a great end to a long week. i've been to a private club once in my life (the university club, NYC, which only recently began allowing women) and it's definitely a change from the beaten path. don't get me wrong - i still love my £3 sangres at cafe kick. but i also like to get out and pretend that i'm cultured on thursday nights. although, i guess cultured people probably don't rock the 55 bus back to their house with four roommates after oyster shooters but whatevs. i can wear all sorts of hats and have fun with it. :-)

geneve

or geneva as we call it. i had my first business trip to switzerland this week! i worked tuesday night until after 1 am, and the car came to take me to heathrow at 615 am, which meant i had to be showered and client ready by then. oy.

going on shear adrenaline, i piled into a leather-interiored mercedes (NOT typical for my car service) and enjoyed a 40-minute ride to the airport. at some point during the ride i realized that:

a) i don't really know what language they speak in switzerland
b) i didn't really have directions to the office, only loose instructions to "find the free train into geneva"

ah, whatever. after a two-hour plane ride, i arrived in...another country. i have to admit, the view out the british airways window was amazing - little chalets, the alps, lake geneva...breathtaking. geneva itself? eh. passport control was silly (where do you live? london? ok, go on.) - i had an apple in my bag! most countries don't like you bringing in foreign produce but it mattered not! the city was not really what i pictured, but maybe it's because i wandered through the red light district (who knew geneva had one)??

the free train was easy enough to find and really, everyone in geneva speaks english although i think their native language is french? don't quote me on that. they definitely have their own currency - the swiss franc. my wallet is confused by all the different crap in it - dollars, euros, sterling, francs. good lord.

the office itself was cool and i was excited to see three cincinnati expats who transferred to our little office in the alps! we were rushed getting ready for the big client presentation, which went really well, and which ended much sooner than expected. my creative director and i couldn't get an earlier flight back to london town, so he suggested we hit the bar. my kind of guy.

a bottle of white wine, some grappa, and a carafe of roset later, i was a bit drunk. in fact, when we boarded our flight i remember thinking "i have to wait until we hit 10,000 feet to lean my seat back and go to sleep. damn.". the next thing i knew, i woke up disoriented and 10 minutes flying time from heathrow. i slept through takeoff and most of a two-hour flight! i guess that's what happens after four hours of sleep and a lot of adrenaline + alchohol!

at any rate, it was well worth it to see my internal and external (read: client) teams happy. this is why i'm here. :-)

deliverance

it's 12:40 am and i'm still at work but i wanted to point out that in london you can place a carryout order from ONE location for any type of food ranging from sushi to cheeseburgers and they will deliver it via motorbike in 45 minutes. vroom vroom.

the joys of international correspondence

even though i have a cell phone, i have a really bad pay-as-you-go plan and it costs an arm and a leg to call the states. luckily, there's skype - free online phone service. seems like a dream come true, yes? not so much...because...

- half my friends don't even have internet at home, so online phone service = useless

- i'm five hours ahead and it's a crapshoot as to when anyone's going to be online

- the 'rents and i are having...technical difficulties...which results in me sounding like a "monster" after 1 minute of conversing. we have to keep hanging up and calling each other back, except when they won't hang up and instead want me to keep talking to entertain my 2.5 year old nephew.

while i love hearing the little guy giggle (might be my favorite sound in the world) do i really want to be remembered as "aunt monster"????

sigh. i gotta get a calling card. :-)

run forrest, run

i used to call myself a runner. there was a time in my life when i ran 35-50 miles per week. however, with the move, the flat hunting, the blisters on the bottoms of my feet from walking 4 miles in high-heeled boots, etc., i hadn't run in about a month. until today!

let's back up, shall we? last night was another hard night of drinking...the other kids and i put in 7 hours or so (they went longer than that actually, i have no stamina). i woke up around 11:30 today and realized that:

a) the sun was shining merrily
b) i ate a lot of sausage and fried things yesterday

good reasons to go for a run. i was a bit too lazy to go to a nice park, so i mapped out a few miles around the 'hood, put the oyster card, tube map, and bank card in my spy belt, and off i went. i told Christine to call the police if i wasn't back in six hours.

the first mile went off without a hitch. the legs were feeling good, the sidewalks were relatively clear, i was finding my way. then about a 1/4 mile down high holburn (new street! new street!) i realized i might've gone the wrong way coming off gray's inn (another new street). no worries, i turned around and decided to just do an out and back.

about 1/4 mile up gray's inn road, i realized i was seeing new stuff. damn. i didn't have my A-Z street guide with me (that would just be silly, it's huge), but i was pretty sure gray's inn spit out around king's cross station. instead of turning around, i could find my way from pentonville road.

why do i always have to learn the hard way? :-)

i indeed wound up at king's cross; however, pentonville was nowhere in sight and i recognized nothing. you win, universe. i was officially lost. again.

luckily king's cross is a mega-huge station and i could get pretty much anywhere in the city from there. farringdon (home!) was one stop away on three different tube lines. word.

i hopped the train, hopped off again in clerkenwell (home!), and trotted off towards the flat. God bless the Underground.

city field trip!

with the stress of flat hunting behind me, i actually got to do...whatever i wanted this saturday morning. crazy. Beth had told us about a place near london bridge called burroughs market, which apparently has all sorts of fresh foods, etc. it is quite a popular place so we had to meet at the angel station at 9:30 (waaaay early for the weekend) in order to beat the crowd.

the weather this morning was a bit insane. we woke up to thunder and driving rain. by the time we got to the market, it was sunny and beautiful! whatevs. the market was HUGE and awesome, with every kind of food for sale:


mushrooms!


olive oil and assorted vinegars! (apricot, mmm)


quail! pheasant! i don't really know!


bangers on a bun! hahahahaha.



the bangers (sausage for y'all americans) smelled too good to pass up, so we stopped for a quick "brunch". i had wild boar sausage with onions, spicy ketchup and rocket (mixed greens). it was delicious! Christine mentioned that i am slowly eating the whole forest between my hare meatloaf and now wild boar. hee hee.

after brunch, we dropped some things back at Beth's then took the #38 bus down to piccadilly circus to do some shopping. it was POURING when we got off the bus and windy too. ah london, your fickle weather is somewhat amusing.

first we went to fortnum and mason, which smelled like constant comment tea (orangey cinnamon), featured wall-to-wall red carpet, and price tags i couldn't really afford. :-)

since it was so drippy out, we cabbed it over to john smith, which is another department store (think macy's). i needed some bedding for my new flat! not quite ready to commit to a color scheme, the girls helped me find some jersey cotton white sheets (flannelettes here), a mattress pad, and two pillows. i also got a set of towels and washcloths. the bill? £95! pretty decent, eh? Beth offered to loan me a quilt until i decide on colors.

i was too cheap to get in a cab, so we took the underground all the way back to angel. dragging around three shopping bags worth of fluffy bedding was interesting, but somehow we managed to make it home. yay for productive saturday!

tengo una casa

finally, after looking at about 10 flats, i found a place to live! large bedroom, walking distance to work, two toilets, four roommates. pictures to come. Beth, Christine and I had a few celebratory drinks at our favorite local, the Sekforde Arms, which got a new toilet seat by the way. Christine and I then got thai takeout and i was asleep by 10:15. long. ass. week. but fruitful. :-)

fancy dress party!

thursday was our global annual company awards party. every year we have a different theme, and the london office selected "vegas glam" fancy dress. fancy dress actually means something more like "costume" here, so Christine and I were a bit unsure about what to wear. i certainly don't own anything that qualifies as a costume let alone a "fancy dress". luckily, Beth has to attend a lot of work functions that require this type of apparel, so she hooked me up!

the party itself was at the dollar bar, which is a swanky joint in the hip and trendy exmouth market. lovely location as it's right around the corner from our flat.


ready for a night out!


ah ruffles. sometimes i really like being a girl.

we arrived around 4:30 pm, bit late (demanding clients kept us at work), but our colleagues were still munching their way through starters, which included:

goat cheese salad OR
calamari OR
beet salad

there were also bottles of red and white wine being passed around. the very attentive staff never let my glass get below half full...my company is awesome.

for dinner we got to choose between steak or a burger. guess what this american girl chose! :-)


i like my meat medium rare, with a really big knife.


ambiance

following dinner, we watched the corporate video featuring the winners of the global awards. this sounds boring but it really isn't, and in fact it was cool to know that my friends in NYC and cincy were all watching the same thing. one of cincinnati's winning projects showed footage of all my old co-workers and the office, which made me cry. i don't allow myself to dwell on cincinnati - it's like there's a frosted glass wall in my brain - london's on one side, and cincinnati is on the other. blocked, basically, from my main stream of consciousness but never far from my thoughts.

anyway i got over it quickly because i drank the better part of a bottle of wine with dinner! :-) once the video ended, we trooped to the downstairs part of the bar where we had the whole place to ourselves and an open tab. have i mentioned that my company is awesome??? i mingled with lots of my co-workers who are really, really cool. in fact, one of them was dressed as a pimp (vegas glam, remember?) so about 10 of us girls piled into a tiny room that can only be described as a cave to get our picture taken with him. he had a cane. it was fantastic.




hangin' in the cave

around 10 pm, we decided we had probably caused enough trouble, so we cruised out, hit our local kebab shop, and called it a night. we did, after all, have to work the next day.

the wheels on the bus...

i was flat hunting again tonight, this time in barbican (close by) and stoke newington (too far to walk on a school night). Christine and I also needed to run to Beth's to pick up some emergency loaner cocktail dresses for our annual office awards party. fun!

the first flat was super cool, the room was huge, and it was walking distance to work. hopefully they call me back! i made a quick pit stop at Beth's to pick up the dresses, which Christine took back with her so i wouldn't have to take them...

on the bus!

busses scare me. they make frequent inexplicable stops, sometimes don't stop when you think they're going to, have a confusing ticketing system, and strange buttons everywhere. however, EVERYONE here takes the bus. you have to. the tube, much as i love it, just doesn't go everywhere. Beth and Christine helped me figure out online where to pick up a bus from angel to stoke newington, and i set off to get some cash and then top up my oyster card.

standing in line at the tube station to top up, a man tapped me on the shoulder and handed me an all-day pass. he said i looked confused (permanent state of being, really) and that he was done using it. score! saved me £4!!

the bus came right away and i realized that it would be really, really hard to screw things up because:

- a voice came over the loudspeaker before we stopped each time
- there was an electronic screen in the bus telling you what the next stop was

even i could figure it out! i successfully made it to my destination, met a cool dude in the flat (smokers though, i just can't do it) and got back on the bus to go home. the return bus made no announcements about when/where we were stopping, and i was a little perplexed, which resulted in me getting off about two blocks too early. better than two blocks in the wrong direction i guess?

at any rate, i'm no longer afraid of the bus! hooray!

thank God...

...there is life on this planet. :-)

today started off kind of dismal. i was missing home, i had two flat appointments that i wasn't excited about (one had the word "mansions" in the building name...never a good sign), and i had my first client meeting, which i WAS excited about but also really, really nervous. the hour of judgment is upon us, friends.

needless to say, i went into work slightly panicked and left in pretty much the same state. i'm glad to be busy, which means i was also feeling guilty about leaving at 6. and i was not at all looking forward to flat hunting. again.

flat #1 was about a block from casa de tortugas (friday's nightmare). the place was actually decent, despite it's dodgy location. however, it didn't have a lounge and that's a must for me. i need a couch to slough around on sometimes, you know?

i also was feeling sort of pissy that i haven't made any friends on my own here. i mean, i have been here almost two weeks (ok, my expectations may be a little high, as usual). so when i was trolling about shoeless in flat #1 (mandatory), i was surprised to make a new friend. we were both kind of put off by the place and it made for a good bonding experience. it led to fun drinks at a pub after viewing flat #2.

flat #2 was super cool by the way. it was only one block into the land of endless kebab shops and off license stores (read: ick), there were TWO full bathrooms, and the room was really cozy. it also had a nice kitchen.

perhaps the craziest thing of all that happened today is the fact that i saw a FOX run by as i was leaving flat #2. i have never seen a live fox before. ever. so to see one in london was pretty f-ing amazing to me.

i guess this is one of the reasons i moved away. even if you THINK you know how things are going to go here, sometimes you get a surprise that reminds you that you don't have CLUE...like when you spot a very woodsy creature, darting in front of you on Essex Street in between pubs, parked cars, and chinese restaurants. how very interesting this city is.

me, myself, and i

saturday morning i woke up to the beautiful sun shining and a mild 45-degree temperature outside. what better to do on this perfect day than...hunt for flats. :-) i had no saturday appointments scheduled so i hopped onto my vast array of flat hunting sites, found some places with phone numbers, and became a woman with a mission. this is how the hunt panned out:

Flat #1 - Bethnal Green
bethnal green was a bit north of town, about an hour's walk from clerkenwell (clarkenwell if you're local) through the hip and trendy areas of hoxton and shoreditch. however, the "street" i looked at had four buildings of council flats surrounding an overgrown patch of grass, which was encircled by a rusty wrought-iron fence. i had to wait a good 10 minutes for the leasing agent and got to enjoy the cacophony of yelling neighbors and yipping dogs. the flat was good sized but had no living room and even thought it was advertised as a non-smoking building, there was a very full ashtray on the table. nonononononononono. i didn't even say goodbye, just backed slowly out the door asking where the nearest underground station was. :-)

Flat #2 - Angel/King's Cross
fantastic location? check. good commute to work? check. cute neighborhood next to the canal? check.



hookah on the kitchen counter???? hmm, ok. i might have been able to overlook the housemates' shisha habit but the place didn't have a lounge (living room) and it was a single bedroom. bah.

i walked BACK to clerkenwell, had a nice Skype chat with my dad, then headed out to meet Christine, Beth, and Lou who had been cycling all day. our restaurant/bar of choice was cafe kick (foosball bar from last week), because they had an amazing tapas menu that we wanted to try! i got there a few minutes early and ordered a double G&T from the bartender, who i swear could have been eddie vedder's much younger brother. things were looking up.

we had a fabulous dinner...chorizo, grilled calamari, Spanish tortilla, goat cheese, quesadillas...mmm. afterwards we rocked a few more games of foosball then left to go watch some big title fight on TV at the hobgoblin. i know nothing about boxing but we walked in just as they were announcing the winner, who happened to be from england. the bar erupted into cheers, which was actually quite cool. the DJ started up then, playing de la soul (which seems to be standard at clubs), so of course a dance party broke out for the next few hours.

we got kicked out sometime after 2 am (bars close here???) and the gang was headed to lexington, but i was drunkety drunk and TIRED from walking around all day, so i called it a night. 3 am found me full of leftover fajitas, passed out happily under the blankets. :-)

don't step on the turtle

given last night's adventures, Christine and I were looking forward to a night in. however, i found a flat online at lunch that had a viewing tonight, so we decided to take a quick trip up to hoxton. i looked at a place in this neighborhood the other night and really liked the area...good transport links, walking distance to work, cute in general, and WELL LIT. :0

it was drizzling (spitting, really) a bit when we set out, but not too bad. after about a 25-minute walk, we arrived at a building that slightly resembled a shorter version of the siddall dormitory at UC. my first thought was "ex council housing". council housing is basically section 8, and there are a lot of buildings around that USED to be council housing and are now converted. i would also liken this building to the roadway inn along central parkway on the edge of clifton.

i was frightened, but upon looking in a few people's windows (don't judge me for being nosy), we decided it might be an ok place. the current tenant opened the door and we were treated to:

- a really odd smell that i couldn't place

- beige outdoor carpeting that no one had bothered to tack down at the edges

- a pile of shoes and a basketball

after a quick peek in the kitchen (good sized fridge!), we meandered into the living room to meet the other tenants, who turned out to be a couple, intertwined on the couch like overgrown rose bushes. they were watching Elf. we introduced ourselves and i shifted slightly in an effort to look a little less terrified when Christine cried out "don't step on the turtle!"

i looked behind me and sure enough, a turtle was crawling around on the carpet next to my foot. at that point the doorbell rang, and the turtle took off towards it. the housemates scrambled after the little guy (girl) screeching "get the turtle!!" luckily someone grabbed it up before it could escape into the concrete hallway.

two more flat hunters came in and we all had the grand tour together. four of us pondered the bedroom, while Christine waited in the hall next to the bathroom. she later mentioned that a bottle of vagisil was sitting on the sink.

there wasn't much more to see, so the housemates invited us to have a seat on the futons for a chat. they were actually really friendly, and i felt like i was back in the Peruvian hostel. then two of the three housemates lit up cigarettes. FINALLY we were able to leave and Christine and I escaped into the night. we hit the hallway and she literally whispered "run".

which we did, laughing our asses off as we scuttled out of the tenement.

the whole thing is hysterical actually, even the part when it starting pouring SIDEWAYS on our walk home. i looked down at one point pondering what looked like a "stain" on my pants, only to realize it was the only dry spot remaining. i am cracking up as i type this thing out.

time for a glass of wine and some vitamin C.

bonfire night

so wednesday night around 6 pm, someone on the company entertainment committee went around and put packs of sparklers (fireworks!) on everyone's desk with a note that said thursday was bonfire night! (the note also asked that we please don't light the sparklers in the office).

wtf is bonfire night, you ask? i had to wikipedia it:

Bonfire night marks the downfall of the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to destroy the Houses of Parliament

those darn Catholics. hey, wait a second...I'm one of them!

anyway. in addition to it being bonfire night, it was also two of our designers' last day in the office AND someone's birthday, so a massive happy hour was planned at our local office pub - the three kings. i made my way up to the bar and discovered a tab was open. mega score! since i wanted to be out for the long haul, i ordered a "light" beer - stella artois. people here consider this a wife beater beer, so i guess it's like the Beast or something. don't know, don't care, i like it, i'm drinking it.

three kings was beyond hot inside, so we ended up drinking our pints outdoors, because in london, it's perfectly cool to wander around with open containers. a few rounds later, the tab had closed and people were getting antsy so everyone left and went to dust, a club/bar nearby. we went with my co-worker/pal and her boyfriend to smith's first though, so that he could collect a few of his friends. while we were there i tried my first cider - magner's! mmmm.

the friends were a bit...drunk...and amorous...so us girls went out ahead of the goofy guys and we made our way to dust. dust was PACKED, and our crew of co-workers took up most of the back half of the bar. for some reason i decided to switch to G&T but then, upon looking around, i noticed everyone had switched to liquor so we were clearly in for a long night.

it was really fun to socialize with everyone outside the office - good to see that cool people seem to be a global standard in this company! :-) after a few hours(?) of chatting, American 80's music began piping through the speakers and the 15 or so of us that remained ended up cutting a rug. what was really great was the blockade we formed...everyone was looking out for each other, making sure no one ended up with awkward creepy dudes sneaking up from behind. good, good times.

at midnight i realized that it was indeed a school night, and so Christine and I decided to jet. however i was STARVING (no time for dinner) and not sure where what kind of food was around...so i asked the kind policeman outside the club where i could get a bite. luckily a restaurant was right around the corner! gotta love this city.

an order of cheese fries and a cheeseburger later, we were ready to go home, which thankfully was only a few blocks away. about three blocks from the flat we discovered a shopping cart (trolley if you're British)!!! naturally i ordered Christine to hop in so i could push her around.

this morning came way too darn fast, and we were a bit slow getting ready for work. i finally staggered out the door at 9:15 or so and there, in the alley, was the shopping cart. right where i left it. :-)

some new words i've learned

nappies = diapers

mind the gap = watch your step

give us a shout = call me

half seven = 7:30 (works with any hour)

take away = carryout

touch wood = knock on wood

better...

today was much more uplifting than yesterday:

1) after 5 phone calls, 2 faxes, and 2 emails, one of my US banks is FINALLY going ahead with the wire transfer to my UK bank!

2) i found an ATM that likes my US ATM card...hello, sterling!

3) the morning started off with a really good crit (critique) at work on a problematic project. while i had nothing to do with the excellent designs, it makes me happy to see my design team happy.

4) i got a UK cell phone and lunch (spanish tortilla from a deli around the corner) all by myself. (it's the little things, really)

5) one of my hip London co-workers went to happy hour with me! was fun to get to know her outside of work, even if it did mean i went flat-hunting a bit tipsy.

6) i went flat hunting by myself and found the place after asking only one person for directions.

7) i figured out how to work the fan in the bathroom. it requires me batting at the on/off switch with a wooden spatula, since it is way taller than my dwarven arms will reach.

8) we got free cake today at work. apparently every wednesday at 4 pm, someone in the office hosts "tea" with loads of good snacks. oddly enough, i saw no one drinking tea.

@%$*$!!!!

i should preface this post by saying that i'm not really mad, i'm just knee-deep in the less-than-romantic details of moving abroad. :-) for instance:

- i can't withdraw money from either of my US-based banks right now. i don't know why. i have about £4 left (in change) and an american express card...

- i FINALLY have a UK bank account but there is no money in it. we get paid at the end of the month, which means i have to fund the UK account from one of the US accounts. this will be done via wire transfer and i have to fax complicated directions to the US bank in order to get them to do it. in just 3-5 business days, i will have money! probably. hopefully. God willing.

- while flat hunting affords me the opportunity to see parts of the city i wouldn't normally visit (e.g. kilbury), it eats up 90% of my evening. i get off work, scarf down dinner, run for the Tube, go see a flat, then come back home to go online and look for more flats. so far the response rate is about 30%.

there is a bit of a funny side to all this. one of the flat postings i looked at (and quickly discarded) advertised:

"I am Vegetarian but that should be fine for you. 
No meat and no fish strictly, I can't stand the smell of death."

another advertised:

"Would prefer someone who doesn't sleep in the flat every night"

which would be great for me, because I've really been hoping to take advantage of all the local park benches just waiting to be slept on.

some of the flats are funny themselves. tonight's was so musty smelling (combined with the head of garlic they were apparently cooking for dinner), that poor Christine went into a coughing fit and had to go outside. the whole flat was covered in one of the five housemate's drying laundry, and there was a half-drunk bottle of cutty sark or something on the table. also, the Jubilee underground line, which was actually aboveground at this particular station (not to be confused with the overground) ran right in front of the building.

bloody 'ell. :-)

overwhelmed

today was my first day in the office across the pond! i was excited to be back on a schedule, so much so that i actually cleaned up a bit of my stuff here in the flat and made a laundry pile. the walk to work is only two minutes, which is good because i was running late (shocking). there was a nice bouquet of flowers waiting in my new cube as well as a detailed itinerary for my day.

everyone was super nice and i've unfortunately forgotten the names of most of the people i met...i'm SO bad at this. i literally forget people's names while i'm still shaking their hands. the job itself is a little intimidating, and when my co-workers heard what account i would be working on, a few of them sighed sympathetically. one actually said "mmm. challenging." oh lord. what have i got myself into...! :-) the good news is that i might get to go to geneva soon. never been to switzerland before, beats my cincinnati travels by a long shot...buffalo in january (although i will always have a special place in my heart for that city).

i got out around 5:40 and had just enough time to eat a veggie burger and an apple before Christine and i went out to view another flat. we got lost pretty much right after we left the Tube station, but i got smart and called for directions after just two short minutes of "where are we?"

this one was in hampstead, which was not a bad commute from the angel station and the neighborhood was super cute. the flat was nice and clean, not bad storage space either. however, it is a sublet until march, at which point i'd have to find another roommate. oh, and i would have to pay the rent to the original tenant, unless i wanted to pay £150 more per month to do things legally, but either way, i'd have to pay the additional monthly amount come march. as my friend Maren would say, "negative, ghostrider."

i came home and emailed six more places, so we'll see what happens. i still really like the clapham house, although i might need to adjust my schedule as the northern line in the AM is apparently insane. and anyway, i guess the housemates had a few other showings and still have to make a decision. i feel like i'm on backwards survivor, trying to get voted ONTO the island.

i apparently have a bank account now but no time to call the feller back to get the details on it. grar. still no cell phone, and i've been told that the easiest way for me to call the states is through a calling card. i guess i'll get a phone with a straight-up UK plan - the calling card is a separate purchase from a newsstand. i'll just take care of this in my copious spare time, in between getting a National Insurance number and pulling six-months work of payslips together for my HR file.

yes, thank you, i WOULD like some cheese with my whine :-)

what???

as seen around the flat...


the blinds pull the wrong way. we think this is funny.


the cord for our bathroom light.


toilet. it flushes about every third or fourth try for me, with a lot of verbal coaxing.


the damn bedpost. i have a large bruise on my left knee thanks to this piece of wood.


british plugs. WHY are these so flipping large?? i get it, we're rockin' 220 here. but so was peru, and their plugs were not this giant.


speaking of odd plugs, WTF is this? found in the bathroom. the smiling head plug thing is kind of cute, albeit a bit creepy.


it took us 5 minutes and an instruction manual to figure out how to enter the seconds on the microwave. oh, and to set the time, you first have to press "7". super intuitive.