This past week has been insane. By insane, I mostly mean filled with rising hopes and giant let downs, but I’m in London, so I’ll refrain from complaining. I’ll attempt to catch you up to speed since it’s been awhile (and I know Melissa is just dying to know every juicy detail of my life as a Londoner).
Jan 1-3: I took the train from München to Köln, and I;m pretty sure that the conductor was a transvestite. I’m no detective, but “her” hands were the size of André the Giant’s and “her Adam’s apple was about the size of a grapefruit. She had very nice fake nails, though. Very well kept.
There was also a flouncey Frenchwoman who wouldn’t stop staring at me and kept muttering to her daughter who was situated beside her. She wasn’t very good at being French, though - her fashion sense was appalling.
The train from Köln arrived in Bruxelles and I had to sit around and wait for the Eurostar to arrive. My Belgian café was closed. so I was forced to sit and twiddle my thumbs to a Havnevik rhythm as these two Emo/gangster (I get headaches just thinking about how they pulled that off) Americans from California who couldn’t let go of each other or come up for air for more than 17 seconds. I was luckily not forced to sit next to them on the train.
I got into London at an almost reasonable hour and called Uwe, Uncle Matt’s friend from Germany who not lives right outside of London. I made it over to their train station where they met me and helped me back to their house. We had a nice chat and a lovely next day shopping before we headed to a Spanish tapas restaurant which we misinterpreted as Italian and then headed to the musical production of Lord of the Rings which was by far the most amazing show that I have ever seen, not to mention the fact that I was in the Theater Royale on Drury Lane which was featured in Closer.
The next morning I headed to my orientation hotel, smiled at the guy at the front desk who decided that I would get to check-in early although we were not permitted to check in until after 15:00. Around 16:30, my hotel roommate, Cait, joined me in the room, and we headed to Wagamama’s for an evening of wine and noodles on CIEE. Cait and I met a fellow by the name of Dareus while we were at dinner, and the three of us formed a sort of trifecta.
Jan 4-9: The second half of the week has been filled with interviews, orientations, registrations, moving, and shopping for essentials. Basic breakdown without losing the attention of too many (hopefully):
My bed is über uncomfortable, my WC is miniscule, I’m 35 minutes outside of central London on a good day, I’m still sick, I’ve missed the bus services back to my far-away residence twice (once due to misunderstanding, once due to clubbing with locals although I was horrendously underdressed for said activity), the best pubs we’ve found so far are Gloucester Arms and O’Neill’s, Boots is the best pharmacy, Sainsbury’s is the best market, mentally multiplying every amount of money spent by two due to the exchange rate is optimally depressing, English peanut butter sucks, NBC.com doesn’t stream to the UK, and even the British can’t decide whether they buy into the whole “walk/bike/drive on the opposite side thing, which is confusing until you lose the will to be bothered at all.
Jan 10: I had my interview with Fleishman Hillard today which turned into an interview with the company’s new affiliate office, Blue Current PR. Due to rearrangements in departments at Fleishman Hillard, I’ll be interning at Blue Current instead, which I’m very excited about. I’ll be able to work with both companies but be able to gain far more experience in the field and will be able to have far more involvement in the projects which we will be taking to the clients. My first day interning is Monday. I’ll be there about 20 hours per week and I’ll be in class all day Wednesday and Friday. I did get into the courses that I wanted, so I’m a happy camper academically.
After my interview today, I ran to pick up some medicine, and I came back to my flat and downloaded season 1 & 2 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Yes, it’s my new obsession since I’m ill and need to spend a couple of days recovering and not exposing myself to the soggy English climate. (Thanks, Mel). I hope this medicine works. I bought some cough syrup a couple of days ago, but I’m pretty sure that it’s composed of pure alcohol. I took it at 7:30 a couple of mornings ago and was tanked by 8:15. Needless to say, it was a rough morning and afternoon.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I think the shifty-accented guy on the Eurostar stole my camera, so until I get a new one, no vicarious living. Sorry :(
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