Steam Clean is what I mean!

Most flats in London come furnished. What does this mean exactly? Basically you inherit all the furniture that comes with the place, plus miscellaneous utensils in the kitchen, and even if you are lucky like me, you even get a huge 20 inch TV. (Sadly its about the size of my CPU monitor) With furnishings included, the imagination can run wild as to what my sofa or bed has gone through. I try not to think about its past history, because if I do, I am only left with this disgusting feeling. Its kind of like getting a new girlfriend or boyfriend, you don't even want to think of what he/she has done with... oh nevermind, I won't go there. =)

To continue, I've lived in my flat for about almost a month, and unfortunately I haven't been able to fully "enjoy" my furniture in the living room, or as they say here: "reception area."

What do I mean by "enjoy"? Well, when I say "enjoy" I mean laying out, fully extended, remote in hand, watching TV, only wearing (..blank..) (You can fill out the blank depending on your relationship to me. I leave you with that liberty.)

I haven't been able to pass out, fall asleep, or sit "relaxed" in my huge couch because it was never properly steam cleaned! After I moved in, I looked closely and to my dismay, lifting the couch cushions, I was only left to discover...


Yes!! Pieces of hair, crumbs, dried pieces of whatever.. and various other pieces of lint!!

Is that some dried up snot? Why yes!

Oh the horror!

How can I fully enjoy the freedom of relaxing after a long days work with this in the back of my mind! Why GOD why! I even resorted to only sitting in a certain area of the couch as long as I had a blanket covering the upholstery.

Sometimes I felt things would crawl in my skin and then I would start to itch. No joke. I complained and counted the days until someone would come and finally steam clean these soft furnishings! AND TODAY, the day has come!

You can't even understand when these guys knocked on my door. I decided to work from home so that I could actually witness this momentous event. Sure enough, here they came with their big honking machine. I was so happy, I wanted to let out a burst of joy. I couldn't keep it in so I locked myself in the bathroom and gave out a big yell!

No I'm kidding, I really didn't do that. But imagine if I did!

I honestly think I annoyed them at some point because I would watch them like a hawk as they cleaned. I wanted to make sure they cleaned every inch of upholstery. Can you imagine someone watching you while you worked! How annoying would that be! I wanted to joke around and say.. "Hey, you missed a spot." hahaha.

With all it said and done, I tipped them 5 quid. (About $10) The cushions and pillows are drying, and I cannot wait to finally enjoy my couch! The best timing out of all of this is my Sky Satellite TV was installed today too! It has TiVo functionality as well. Too bad I don't even know what shows are worth recording.

Thanks
I looked in my work email inbox today to find 4 emails from different people that enjoy reading this blog. You know who you all are. I appreciate it. Thanks for the compliments. Think of it as a personal email to you because I would be cutting and pasting this same content to everyone in emails anyway. Just kidding. Well not really. =) Believe it or not, I'll be back home in 2 months!

White Sox
I really wish I could witness history and watch the White Sox win it all.. but perhaps its a blessing in disguise because inside I'll be crying and feel utterly disgusted because Cubs fans will never hear the end of it if they win it all. Bah!

Nice people in Dublin

The trip to Dublin was interesting. One of the rules I have for any new city I visit is to use the city's public transportation. Using the public transportation gives you a true feel for the city and its people. You get to see “real” people and get a feel for the city by travelling through neighbourhoods that you would not see in a city tour bus.

I arrived in Dublin last Thursday and rather than jumping in a cab that would take me straight to my hotel, I followed my rule of taking public transportation. I asked the lady from the tourist counter what bus to take and I waited patiently. I waited and waited and even got to a point where I was going to just take a cab anyway. But after 45 min or so, the bus I was waiting for arrived.

The thing with arriving in a new city or country is that you really don’t know how long a journey is going to take, unless you ask. I really didn’t know how far my hotel was from the airport so I really didn’t know when to look out for it, or when to request a stop. Fortunately, there were other tourists in the bus, so I figured I can at least wait as long as them to get off the bus!

In any case, I sat in a seat that had a sign next to it. It said something like: “Give this seat up to the elderly.” It was a two-seater so I had enough room for myself and my carry-on luggage. As I continued riding this bus, an elderly woman entered and looked straight at me. Being the good citizen I am, I kindly moved over to make room for her. As the bus continued on, I kept wondering where I was and when I should get off. Right before I got on the bus I bought a pop-up map that actually didn’t help too much.

Anyway, as I secretly looked at my map, trying not to make it obvious that I had no idea where I was going, the elderly lady started talking to me. I removed my headphones and she started talking about what street we are on. Then she asked me where I was going. I thought to myself, wow, this elderly lady is really nice! So she told me what stop I should get off of. Unfortunately, she had to get off before I did, so she couldn’t help me any longer. So I waited a couple stops.

Then all of a sudden, this other lady behind me tells me that I should get off soon. I was like: “What duh?” I guess she overheard the fact that I wanted to get off at a certain street, so she was advising me that this was the stop I should get off of. What nice people!! So I get off the stop, and guess what? Another Irish woman was trying to help. She was trying to point me in the right direction to go. Man, I tell ya, these Irish are very nice! Unsolicited help from very friendly Irish people was brilliant! I even told the last lady that helped me: “Oh my god, you are so nice!” I was overwhelmed with how nice these people were.

With all of them trying to help, the ironic thing was that I didn’t find my hotel until 45 min or so after I got off the bus! I finally found the hotel by running into Lesley because she was smoking outside the bar of my hotel! (You can't smoke in bars in Dublin) If I didn't see her, I would have never found the hotel since the main entrance was on the other side of the street.

Overall, the trip was fun. It was nice to see Lesley and Zac. I enjoyed being “myself” and having fun. We visited the Guinness Storehouse and the Jameson Factory as well as other sites. The best part of the Jameson factory was that Zac got to be a taste tester! He got to taste test 5 different shots!

The weird thing about some of the Irish pubs we went too was that they would play Hip Hop in most of them. It was so strange! I expected some old Irish folk songs or something, but instead we got to listen to 50 cent while drinking a pint of Guinness. So weird! Oh another thing was that most of the bar backs, bartenders, waiters, waitresses were all Asian. There were more Asian people that I expected that’s for sure! There were even Asians with Irish accents! Can you imagine that? I bet you can't until you hear it!

Broadband
Finally!! If you have a webcam, hit me up. I want to test out my iSight. I’ll try to jump on AIM/MSN/Yahoo too.

Pictures
I’ll be uploading my Prague and Dublin pics soon. If you know my Fotki site, just visit that. It should be up by the end of the week. If you don’t know it, shoot me a mail.

Leprechaun hunting

So I'm off to Dublin, Ireland to meet up with an old friend Lesley and her fiance Zak. My flight leaves this evening and I'm hoping to meet up with them for some dinner and drinking. I don't know what to expect but I have an idea it will involve drinking Guinness and Jameson. I wonder if I'll find a leprechaun when I'm there so I can take him home as a souvenir. =) I wonder if they sell the cereal Lucky Charms there? I wonder if I'll find a four leaf clover? Hopefully all my questions will be answered!

Broadband
Looks like my broadband access will come very soon. The modem came in and I just have to set it up. I can finally upload pics and setup my webcam!

World Series
I guess having the Sox in the world series is a good thing for Chicago. But its weird, its like the blue states vs. the red states all over again!

New Friends?

I finally attended an improvisational workshop here in London hosted by the improv group, Fluxx. I wanted to go last week, but work kept me late. I didn’t really know what to expect. But to say the least I’m glad I went.

Since I’m starting to master the public transportation system, =) I knew what bus to take to my destination. I had a printout of the map and had an idea of where I was going. As I proceeded to find the building, it was smaller than I thought. It was this run down community center and I saw someone walk in so I followed after. The problem is, there were no signs that I could follow that pointed me to where the workshop was. So I spend about 10 minutes walking around this small building trying to find the right room. To be honest, there weren’t a lot of rooms. After walking around, there was only one big room, and I was shy to walk in and ask if it was the right place. So I continued walking around this small building trying to convince myself that there was another room. But there wasn’t, just a large gymnasium-like on the second floor with a couple people in it.

Suddenly, my stomach didn’t feel so well and I really had to go to the men's room really bad. (You must be wondering why I’m adding this, but it’s what happened!) Anyway, so I had to look for a men's room. I find a really small one in the first floor that didn’t look too “clean.” I knew I had to do the “deed” because I didn’t want to spend 2-3 hours having this “feeling” with me during the whole workshop. Anyway, there’s only one stall in the bathroom, and it’s like the smallest stall I’ve ever seen. I felt like a pro basketball player sitting down it was so small. I also decided not to turn on the lights in the bathroom for some odd reason. As I sat down, I was so pissed at my body for having the worst timing ever. Here I am trying to meet new people in this improv workshop and I am in this strange building “dropping the kids off at the pool.” Anyway, the worst part is that someone entered the bathroom and turned on the lights. That was the worst feeling. I wonder what he was thinking when he saw my feet under the stall. It must have been something like: “This guy is in the toilet by himself with the lights off!” Anyway, I digress.

So I enter the gymnasium-like room and ask if it was for the workshop. Sure enough it was. I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable at first since I didn’t know anybody, so I did the standard thing of introducing myself, hoping my American accent will make me unique. Luckily my fake British accent decided not to show up. I met Steve and so we chatted a little bit. Then more people showed up and eventually we had about 14 people in the workshop. We started up with these warm up exercises while we breathed loudly and heavily. We stretched everything in our body, it was quite relaxing, but weird at the same time. The funny thing was that the instructor wasn’t wearing any shoes, and he had holes in his socks and each of his big toes was peeking through. I tried not to look because every time I did, I would start to giggle. Its like they were staring at me. It’s stupid I know, but I laugh at stupid things.

So a few impressions of the workshop: 1. It wasn’t as comedic as I thought it would be. We were focusing on higher level techniques that I wasn’t use to, and it was more serious acting that I thought. 2. I think the people in this group have been working together for a while because there was a lot of physical action between the actors. Touchy feely stuff that I couldn’t convince myself to do just yet. Not that people were making out, but like really passionate hugs and one of the guys (Tim) pinched the other actress (Sarita) on the butt! I thought to myself, “Did he just do that? Did he just pinch her ass?” That was really weird.

Overall the people are really nice. Tim, the guy that pinched the Sarita’s butt, is actually from Chicago. And he’s a SOX fan!! Anyway, he collected my info and a real nice woman, Sarita, the “pinchee” collected my info as well and mentioned that there was a show this Sunday that I should attend that they were all going to. So we’ll see if I get to go to that. I’m glad I went and it’s nice to meet people outside work. There’s another workshop next week and I do plan on going to that as well. I guess you can say I've started stepping "outside of the box" - One big toe at a time.

Greenwich and jumping jacks

Weekend was better than most. Beautiful weather during both days over the weekend and I tried taking advantage of it. Friday was okay, night of drinking as usual. And guess what? Hung out with the coworkers! Went to a couple pubs called “The Gun” and “Dirty Dick’s” You gotta love the names of these pubs. A couple of weeks ago I went to a pub called “Bangers.” With so many pubs here in England, the imagination can run wild with pub names. I’m still trying to think of a pub name if I ever opened a pub here.

On Saturday I realized that I had nothing to do all day, (big surprise) so I decided that I was going to wonder about London. I didn’t have a real destination. My original goal was to hit the parks in the west end of the city. It was a beautiful Saturday so why waste it staying inside? Anyway, on my way to my undetermined destination, which I thought was going to be the west side of town, I decide to take the train south to Greenwich. It was a last minute decision, and I wish I brought my camera!

Anyway, if you are not familiar with Greenwich you should be! As a test, and if you are using a Windows operating system, dbl-click on the time in the corner. Click on Time Zone. See that GMT abbreviation? That’s Greenwich Mean Time. Greenwich is where time begins! Well, relatively. Greenwich is where the prime meridian is defined. Zero degrees Longitude. It basically is the point that defines the Eastern and Western hemisphere.

So there is this observatory in this beautiful park. And when you climb this hill to get there this is this little “touristy” area. I was looking for some kind of tourist attraction where it shows where the prime meridian was defined. From a distance, I see all these people lining up in this jumping jack position. Arms out, legs apart, just like a big “X”. Curiosity has definitely been sparked.

I walk closer and there is this line on the ground where you can stand, leading up to this sculpture of a globe. A HA!! This “virtual” line is where the prime meridian is defined, basically separating Eastern and Western Hemispheres! Now I can imagine why all these people want to take these pictures of themselves on both sides of the hemisphere. Almost each and every person, I kid you not, took a picture of themselves in this jumping-jack position, demonstrating the fact that each side of their body is on both sides of the Hemisphere. It was quite funny to watch what people will do! “Hey look at me; I’m on both sides of the hemisphere!”

Anyway, spend most of the day walking around the park people watching and even sitting down and enjoying a book. If you haven’t read the book Alchemist, its a good read. Thanks to Allison who gave it as a going away present!

British Humour
Sunday went to a comedy club and watch four stand up acts. Pretty funny. Despite the usual local mockery of local culture that I didn’t get at all, most of it was a laugh.

Eating Alone and Food
I think I’ve mastered the art of eating alone in public places. As long as I have my trusty magazine as my security blanket, I’m okay. I’ve seen this practice done with other solitary diners as well. I had bangers and mash on Saturday alone to myself. I even ate outside! If you don’t know bangers and mash its simply long sausages and mash potatoes with some special sauce. This dish also included green peas. Yuck. Not a fan of green peas. Then on Sunday, I went to a good asian restaurant. I chose it because there were 2 other guys eating by themselves. I figure with two other lonely guys eating alone, what’s wrong with a third. Then they left in the middle of my meal. So then I was alone yet again. Luckily another woman showed up alone to eat. I left in the middle of her meal. =)

Congrats
I guess congrats to the Southsiders. Bah!

Repeat After Me

So I have four channels. All BBC channels. I'm still waiting to setup my Sat TV, so I don't have much of an option. But I have a confession to make. When I watch TV, I listen to these Brits talk, and I try to immitate their accent. I literally repeat what they say. It's good practice just in case I want to pretend I'm actually from here. For example:

When you see these numbers how would you pronounce it?

0800 33 55 66

American:
"Zero eight hundred, three three, five five, six six."

That's very inefficient.

I've learned to say it the brit way.
"Oh eight, double oh, double three, double five, double six."

See. Isn't that cool? hahahaha.

Zeros are "Ohs" and anytime you see the same numbers next to each other than use double or triple. Just like above.

That goes for letters too. So there is this spelling show I watch on TV. How would you spell "dazzle" out loud?

American:
"Dee", "a", "zee zee", "el", "e"

Brit:
"Dee", "a", "double zed", "l", "e"

Haha. Zed. What a weird way to say "Zee"

For those car buffs out there.. how would you say "TT" or 350Z ?

"I drive a double T" hahahaha.
Or
"I drive a Three-Fifty Zed" LOL.

Good stuff.

Football
No, not American Football. Soccer! England won their Group today over Poland. Yeah that's right. I'm watching Soccer. (Football) Watched the last 2 games that England has played. Yeah I even know some players.. of course Beckham, then you got Cole, Wayne Rooney, and Michael Owen. I found myself cheering too. Good times. We've qualified for World Cup in Germany next year! (We - England, weird)

Baseball
Go Angels!

Hungry for Filipino Food

One of the things that I miss is the food back home. I had the luxury of going home in the weekends to mooch off my parents and eat a nice meal such as rice and various other Filipino dishes. There’s nothing like greasy Filipino food once in a while. Unfortunately with the move here, it’s been hard to find to satisfy that craving. First off, I’m still looking for a place that sells a rice cooker. I can do it all old school and cook it in a pot, but haven’t convinced myself yet to go that route.

Anyway, so when my sister and Mom visited a month back they asked a Filipino guy that worked at this souvenir store where to go get some Filipino food. He mentioned a restaurant by Earl's Court that he loved called: F.M. Pasyalan. I knew in the back of my mind I wanted to go, but never had a chance since it’s about a 40 min tube ride to get over there. Luckily I had to meet some friends near that area for a birthday party, so part of my plan was to make a visit for dinner.

So after the birthday party with an old friend, and being known as the "token" American guy, I made my way to Earl's court. I really didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if it was all formal and gourmet-like, or some hole in the wall. I get off the tube station and make my way to the restaurant. All I was told was to make a "right" after getting off the train and exiting the station. I didn't know how far the restaurant was. So I continued on. Sure enough I knew I was in the right direction when I pass a bus stop with about 4-5 Filipinos waiting. I continue and on a side street I walk past another group talking in the native tongue discussing where to go next. I walk for about a minute more, and sure enough, there it was: “F.M. Pasyalan.” It was like a mirage in the middle of a desert. There was a sign with “Asian Cuisine” in front and “Chinese-Thai-Filipino Food” underneath it.

I perform my normal routine of walking past it pretending I have no intention of entering at all. My quick glance revealed that the restaurant was half full of people and rather small. My arrival would definitely not go unnoticed. Luckily I saw a convenience store nearby, so I bought a car magazine to serve as my security blanket. Something I could pretend to read while I ate alone. I was pretty committed to eating there, even though I wasn’t even that hungry.

I finally walk in and after the whole room stops eating and stares at me, I’m greeted by a Filipina woman who immediately starts speaking Tagalog. I understand her, and for some reason, this stupid English accent comes out of my mouth. I respond in my british wannabe accent,

“One Please.”

and she points to a table and I go

“Cheers.”

I have no idea why the stupid English accent came out. I really don’t. You would think my FOB Filipino accent would have surfaced, but no, it was the English accent that decided to rear its ugly head.

Anyway, I sit down, and she asks me what if want the buffet and what I want to drink in Tagalog. I respond with:
“Yes buffet is fine, Water please.” (Luckily my normal accent comes out.)

She acknowledges and realizes that I do understand what she’s saying, so she continues and tells me something again in Tagalog. At this point I had no idea what she was saying. After saying “excuse me” a few times, she responds with:

“You go get now.”

Lovely.

So the spread is pretty impressive. All kinds of greasy Filipino food including: fried rice, caldereta, and lechon. As I pile everything on my plate, I walk back to my table in the corner and check everyone out. With a nice flat screen LCD TV in the corner playing a Filipino channel, I try to listen attentively to other people eating. Not to be nosey in anyway, but to listen and look for the Filipino British Accent.

Sure enough, the lady sitting a table across from me sounded like she had one. I continue to eat, and I really try and make the effort to block out the outside noise and hone into what she’s saying. She was probably early 20s, accompanied by her mother and grandmother. Now you have to picture this and my physical expressions. I really couldn’t pick up the accent at all. I don’t think the loud obnoxious Filipino channel in the background was helping. So I continue to eat and try not to worry about it. I enjoy the food from the buffet.

Then I come up with a brilliant idea. Well, maybe not so brilliant, but at the time it was. The next time I was going to get a plate of food I was going to walk by their table and “listen in.” But I had to time it perfectly so I would walk by right when she was talking.

If there was someone watching me through this whole process, they would have a laugh. Anyway, I proceed to finish my first plate, determined to get a second. Timing was critical, so when I found it was the right time, I stood up and walked past.

Dammit! Wrong timing! She wasn’t talking!

I get my second plate and try and walk by again and no luck.

But alas. While I was getting into my second plate, there was a point where everyone stopped talking, and all I heard was this lady. Its like time stood still and everyone shut up so I could hear her. Seriously. Because when that happened, I “distinctly” heard her accent. I picked it up right away.

YES VICTORY! There are Filipinos with British Accents! Oh the joy!

Once I heard it the first time and picked it up, I started laughing to myself. I had to keep my head down because I was giggling a little too much. I even think to a point that someone might notice that I was insane or something. Its pretty interesting to hear that’s for sure. And the fact that I waited for this moment to finally come, it was hilarious.

Anyway that’s my story. Sorry so long. Food was good, left a decent tip, and I knew I was going to go back in a couple weeks.

Step out of the Box, Britafina, is that You?

Stayed in most of the weekend. Did a little shopping for the place, bought more plants. For some reason plants make a wide open place feel a lot warmer. A lot of sunlight comes into the loft, and with huge windows it almost becomes a greenhouse. I continued to decorate the place. What's ironic is that this place is a lot more decorated than my place in Chicago. I have a lot more art/pictures up on the wall than I ever did in my old condo. Not only that, but a lot more plants! I think being away from home and the fact that I have all this time to myself attributes to this.

The solitude at times can drive me crazy and I have so much time to think to myself by living alone. This can be good and bad, and at the same time, its like some weird learning process I go through by my myself. You would think that after awhile you have a good grasp of how you are as a person, what makes you happy or sad, excited or scared, but you put yourself in a situation like mine, its not as trivial. I've been put outside my element, my comfort zone, and the person I think I know is a little different.

For example, my social comfort zone has disappeared. The comfort of having something planned for the weekend without any effort expended by me has disappeared. Usually events, parties, get togethers all form around me. I don’t have to worry about not having something to do, and even a weekend alone to just chill is so hard to come by. Now my world has turned upside down and I have to adapt. Adaptation.

So on Sunday, even before mass started, I was hitting that "deep thought" zone as I sat there at church. At social gatherings, I always get the question: "So why did you move to London?" I always give the same standard response: "Opportunity to travel, career move, change." I seem to have a problem acknowledging the last reason. Change. Stepping out of the Box. Getting out of my comfort zone. I mean physically I'm here. I've stepped out of my comfort zone. But mentally, unfortunately, I'm still back home. I'm still in Chicago. Its been a month now and I guess that's normal, but I think at some point I really have to embrace the fact that I have to step out of my comfort zone mentally. I can't wait for people to call me, wait to get invited to parties, and the social habits that I had in Chicago have to disappear. I have to adapt to the social scene out here and make the effort. I have to step outside of my box, get out of my comfort zone and make the efforts to call people, plan outings for myself or even just get out of my flat. I'm not use to doing all this because I leaned on my social circles to have it all done for me, and it just kind of happened on its own. Its almost like I have to change a little bit of myself to adapt to this new environment. Staying in and feeling homesick is not exactly adaptation. Too bad its easier said that done! But at least I now know what needs to change. Changing is the difficult task.

So enough about this deep thought stuff. I think I'm mentally exhausted from trying to articulate all of that.

Anyway, so to practice "Stepping outside of the box" I went out on Sunday to meet up with an old friend for her birthday and not only that, but afterwards I finally went to that Filipino restaurant for dinner. But that's another story in itself. So stay tuned.

Liquid Dinner Part II.

I can confirm now that Brits simply do have Liquid dinners. We are about to leave for drinks tonight, and my other coworkers were buying sandwiches and snacks while my other American coworker sat there eating nothing. People were nibbling on their sandwiches and small snacks I was wondering why this was. They confirmed that no one really eats while drinking!

....

And now I'm back. Nothing like a night of drinking and a blog post. First and foremost, I must say, I'm not a "walker and talker." What does this mean you ask? I'm speaking of the skill of walking and talking! Here's the situation. Have you ever been in a big group or even a small group of people that are heading to the same destination? And you ever notice that people break into 2 or 3 people, basically walking together side by side and having a small superficial discussion? Well, this happens all the time, and I find myself walking by myself all the time!! People are paired up 2 or 3 people talking about some stupid subject, and for some reason I end up walking by myself all the time! I thought it was the fact that I always end up with an "odd" number of people, where everyone "pairs" up besides me, but even tonight, 10 people, I end up walking by myself. Its not like I choose to walk by myself, but for some reason, it always ends up this way. Maybe I'm not as social? I don't know. But interesting nonetheless.

In any case, it was an interesting night as discussions covering Affirmative Action, rebuilding New Orleans, and good old Rugby. I hope to go to a Rugby match this November! We'll see.

Encouraging
I'd like to thank many of you who have written emails of encouragement. Your emails mean more than you'll ever know. I do read each and everyone, and sometimes multiple times. I do plan on writing back, don't worry, I just want to write a more meaningful and heartfelt email back and it will take me a little more time for composition. I do miss Chicago a lot, and I know what I'm going through now and what I learn about myself will be priceless when I look back at this in the future.

More Americans
Went to lunch today only to meet more American women. I don't remember if I mentioned this but there is this program in London that have a bunch of Interns here working for a year from the States. Met more women from North Carolina, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. Have I met more local brits outside of work? No.

Initiative
I looked into improv classes/workshops here in London. I plan on attending one next Tuesday. Perhaps an outlet to meet new people. Should be interesting since I'll be the "token" American.
That should be an interesting blog post. I'll keep you updated. =)

Meeting someone within a month and getting married.

No not me, but someone else. On my way to a meeting about UK and US taxes, I meet someone that works at the bank that use to live in the US. She goes on and tells her life story. Basically, she moved here three years ago and the first month she's here she meets a British guy and eventually, they hit it off and get married! All within the month she moves here. Can you imagine that. Not to say that's what I'm looking for, but talk about fate. At first I was under the impression that she came here to be with him, but in fact, she met him here.

What I found more interesting was how she commented on how hard it will be if I moved back after a couple years. She talked about how you are use to how things were when you left and when you finally do go back your mindset will be stuck at the time you left. You think things didn't change, but in fact they do. Even simple things like cultural references, such as TV you will be way behind. Which I find some truth in because everything here in the UK runs a season behind, so watching reruns of Alias or 24 is not as exciting.

In any case, it was interesting to hear her view since she's traveled and worked abroad multiple times. She also said that my mindset will change living here and when I do go back I will really think differently about things and how things are done in the US compared to how they do it here. It's all interesting to hear now since I've only been here a month.

Life is such a strange thing. I keep thinking to myself how crazy life has taken me to this point that I live in a different country away from family and friends.

Plants
So I have two plants at my place. One I inherited which looks like its about to die. Another I bought, a bonzai tree. The last plant I had at my place in Chicago died. I suck at teh plant caring. But you know what, they are going to survive this time. You know why? I'm not watering them with regular tap water. Nope. I'm watering them with Brita. Yeah dood. Filtered water.

Loud Filipinos
For all those filipinos that actually read this, you ever notice how loud some of them are? I mean seriously, I go to family parties and my uncles are right next to each other and they still yell at each other. Its not like they are mad or excited, its just that they are loud naturally! Why do I bring this up? Well, at the tax meeting today, there is a kitchen next to it so they can serve food and snacks for the meeting rooms. Guess what I hear? Loud ass filipinos speaking tagalog. Then on my way home, I'm walking down the street, and yet again, I hear this loud filipina walking her kid and talking to her older son. At first I think its me because I can pick up and understand the language, but in fact, they indeed are really loud. I just think its funny. I want to hear a loud filipina with a british accent. Where is she?

Guttafraclcutta
This is the wireless network that pops up on my laptop and desktop. SHARE YOUR WIRELESS!!! So greedy. =) Its password protected and I admit, I spend time trying to crack it but I fail miserably. I guess if I've survived with dialup for this long, I can wait another month until everything gets setup. URGH!

baseball
GO BOSOX. White sux can suck it.

Its been a long month.

I wish I had some exciting stories about a crazy weekend I had, but I don't. I actually spent all of my weekend moving in and unpacking. I got the keys on Friday and on Saturday the movers arrived with my air and sea shipments from the States. They unpack everything for you, meaning, they take everything out of the boxes. Its up to you to put it away. So I just had a load of crap everywhere. Which was good since I was forced to put everything away. Thus the long and boring weekend.

I had some bad cases of being homesick with finally moving in. I was quite excited with having a new place, but its tough when you can't share that excitement with others and people you are close to. =( In any case, I have a place that I can call home. But its been a long month that's for sure, and I miss my friends, family, and my real home quite a lot.

But hey, I'm learning a lot about myself more than I ever would being here than not leaving at all, so at least I have that.