Happy 4th of July!!

Yes, this is an active blog. Just not as active a blog as I'd have hoped it would be...

I can promise to be better, but we all know that it might not happen. Just wait and see, and don't give up hope on something crazy interesting happening here in London sometime soon! Afterall, I do live right next to the Olympic Stadium...something cool is bound to happen, right?!

For now I leave you with some photos of my 4th of July BBQ! :)

Sunny days!

Gloomy, Gloomy!

This is the first time in days I've seen the sun. It doesn't help that I sleep far too late and then stay up far too late at night. But mostly it has to do with the weather. It has been hovering around freezing pretty the entire week which makes going out and doing anything more of an effort than it already was. Now, I realize I'm from Wisconsin and should be used to the cold. But in Wisconsin I had a car, many warm coats, and mostly importantly HOT HOT HEAT! Don't get me wrong, the heat here isn't so bad...when it is on. Otherwise it just seems gloomy and drafty and cold. And did I mention gloomy?

I think we're going to move. For me it is hard to live so far from the center. We went out on Friday night and it took us around an hour and a half to get home between the walk to the bus stop and the 1hr+ long bus ride. For Morgan that is one of the many reasons he is dying to move. So I guess the apartment hunt starts again. I'm definitely disappointed that all of the time I put into the search when I was in Milwaukee landed me with a place for only such a short time, but I'm sure we'll find something else. And now at least we can actually visit the apartment before we decide to move in. For me 3 weeks in a place isn't really long enough to count as a real try, but at the same time I can understand why it is pointless to wait a few more weeks or months to make a decision when we already know it won't work in the long run. So move we shall.

I've finally gotten things with my school and my loans all sorted out, which is a relief. I even convinced a bank to let me open an account! Strangely enough I have now received TWO cards in the mail: a debit card and a 'cash point' card. Maybe I'm crazy, but I was just expecting one! Does this literally mean that I have to use a different card in the ATM (or as some like to say 'TYME (time??) MACHINE') than what I use at a store to make a purchase? What can I say, Britain is a strange place.

Speaking of reasons why this is a strange place... Let's just say the food here isn't quite my thing. I mean, I respect the 'all day breakfast' as much as the next American. But when it includes 3 different kinds of oddly shaped sausage
s, a mushy tomato, and a scoopful of Heinz baked beans (which really are more white here than the brownish tone I was accustomed to in the US, by the way), I just don't see the point of boasting the fact that you can make such a miserable meal choice ALL DAY! I mean 2 hours of such a thing on a menu is 2 hours too long as far as I'm concerned.
And the meat... I have never considered myself a meat connoisseur by any means, but here it is just sad. Morgan doesn't seem to mind it, but when I compare the pathetic excuse for a burger that I can get at any pub in London to the joy that is the Hooliburger, it makes me admittedly a little sad. Although, strangely enough, I just tried to search for an image of a typical British pub burger and all of the results I got back looked delicious. Maybe it's just because I'm hungry...or maybe I've just been going to the wrong places!

Back to the Heinz beans. This is a phenomenon I just can't quite grasp. Why is it the most plentiful thing in every supermarket? It seems like there is a section devoted entirely to Heinz baked beans...miles and miles of blue cans. Who buys this? A mother cooking for a family? A single guy looking for a quick meal? The elderly? Is it a favorite snack for children? Someone please tell me. Also, please remind me if this exists at all in the US! I feel fairly certain that there are no blue cans floating around Pick 'n Save.


All of that being said, the beer is still pretty damn tasty! Cheers!

FINALLY!

I'm in London. I've been here for almost 2 weeks already. Time has been flying by (even without regular internet access!), and I've been starting to warm up to the city more and more.

At first it was hard. All of my other experiences were in France, there was that extra bit of intrigue that came with trying to learn the language, trying to understand the culture, etc. Here I find that I see as many foreigners as actual British people. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in the world who speaks English, especially in my neighborhood and even more so in my own house!

I live a 20 minute tube ride from the center of London (which may mean different things to different people I've discovered) in a rather large house with Morgan, 2 Spanish girls, and an Italian guy. Quite the European household, and everyone speaks English at different levels and they certainly aren't used to hearing an American accent. So communication can be tricky sometimes, but I think we'll get there. It is sometimes a little annoying to have to go into the city for the ENTIRE DAY if we're going to go, but transportation is quite expensive (especially when you have no income!). The neighborhood is certainly not the greatest, and really not the most exciting, but it is comfortable and we have everything we need within walking distance. Sometimes I think it would be nice to live closer to the center, but it would be a much more expensive lifestyle...so for the moment it is a trade off.

It took a bit to get settled in, and a week and a half to get internet...but sure enough things are coming together. There isn't the instant gratification of the US that I am accustomed to, so patience here is key. Everything is a waiting game. Let's just say that I hope to have a bank account by February 8th...and even that might be wishful thinking.

All of that being said, school started as planned and I'm already two weeks into my course! I'm still trying to get my exact schedule for the year sorted out, but mostly because I have too many choices of courses that sound exciting to me! University here isn't like in the US either, so I constantly have the feeling that I'm forgetting to do something. My tiny black 'diary'/calendar will certainly come in handy!

As for the city itself, like I said, I'm warming up to it. At first it was difficult because it ISN'T Paris, and nothing else will ever be Paris. But after a few days spent walking and walking (and walking and walking and walking) with Morgan, I've discovered a lot of charming neighborhoods and streets and found some great places to sit and read (when/if the weather ever shapes up!). PLUS the museums are FREE which is the greatest thing ever really. So far Morgan and I have visited the British Museum (which happens to be right next to my school!) and the Natural History Museum, both of which were impressive for £0 and would've been equally impressive for $10-$20! The Tate Modern and the Science Museum have been calling my name as well...soon enough! It's really nice to have Morgan here (usually!) because I always have someone to hang out with, play games, watch a movie, have meals with etc. Plus he is pretty much obsessed with doing the dishes, which certainly isn't a problem for me!

Speaking of which...it's dinnertime!

Brilliant!

Well here it is, my new blog. Hopefully it will be able to live up to my St. Etienne blog (the first 5 months of it anyway)!

Right now I'm in the throes of packing. My bedroom at my parents' house is my own personal hell of belongings from a year and a half of living alone in Milwaukee and working in an office followed by a month of 'homelessness' destroying any semblance of organization I may have had before then.

Slowly but surely.

Ready or not, Thursday evening I'm off to London! I'm hoping for the best, it will definitely be an adventure!

I'll get to London Friday around 11:00, so 5:00 AM here. Enrolment (this is indeed how the British choose to spell this word)/hopefully moving in on Saturday. School starts on Monday. Orientation all next week. Sounds like a whirlwind...but next week at this time I should be much more organized!

...or maybe that is just because I'll have less stuff.