SEE ID

well we moved in yesterday. The cab came and picked us up from the hostel at ten. They even text msged me on my cell to let me know when they had arrived. It only cost us L15 (which is like $30) to take both of us across town. I wish someone had told us how cheap it was before we went and lugged those suitcases all the way from the airport! We got here and met the land lady who gave us our keys (the front door key is normal but the bedroom key is like a castle key…it looks like it should open the door to the Secret Garden or something). Then she left and we started unpacking. We needed some stuff for the room so we went to the store near us. Its like a large grocery store with a mini walmart tacked on (small selection of clothes and electronics and such). We each got a jersey cotton (super soft) bedset and a few groceries. We still have a lot of groceries we need, but we hafta carry the bags all the way home which gets really heavy so we are only getting a little at a time.

so we go to check out and the lady is ringing all my stuff up first and then I go to pay with my credit card. My credit card was new and I hadn’t signed it yet (well usually I put SEE ID on all my cards…) so she handed it back to me to sign. I signed the card and the receipt. Then she took my card back and actually compared the signature on the card to the signature on the receipt. I had just signed both items right in front of her – of course theyre going to be the same! But shes all studying it like the way you would to make sure its really that person that signed it! Then the Stupid Checkout Lady is just sitting there staring at us and we realize we are sposed to bag our own groceries! I hadn’t been paying any attention to the bagging thing cause I was messing with the credit card thing and I thought she was waiting on one of the bag boys to come up and do it, but no in England you do it all yourself. So then she freakin sat there while K and I bagged all my groceries. We couldn’t figure out why she didn’t just go ahead and start ringing up kristies stuff while we bagged mine. But instead she just sat there until every single last item was bagged. I also don’t get why she didn’t TELL me I had to bag my own groceries that whole time I had been just standing there while she rang me up. So then she does Kristies groceries and its time for K to pay. K was also paying with a credit card and hers says SEE ID on the back. So the Stupid Checkout Lady looks at where kristie signed her name on the receipt then looks at the words see id and looks at the receipt and then she goes “these signatures don’t match.” Of course they don’t match, “see id” is not her name. so kristie goes “would you like to see my id? And hands her the drivers license. Then Stupid Checkout Lady looks at the sig on the license, then the credit card, then the receipt, and she goes “well this signature matches the one on here (points to the license) but not on here (points to the credit card). And kristie tried explaining to her “yeah it doesn’t match the credit card cause the card says to see my ID, not my name. Stupid Checkout Lady still didn’t get it even after kristie explained it twice. So kristie took back her card, signed her name on the back of the card next to where it said “see id” and handed it back to her. Stupid Checkout Lady looks at the receipt, compares it to the credit card, and now they match so she accepts it.

so back at home we go to our rooms to set them up. We rearranged all the furniture in the room, hung up our clothes on the new hangers (yes, mine are color coded by clothing style), put on the bedding, etc. it looks like our own room now and we LOVE it. The batteries for my camera need to charge for 14 hours so ill have pix up of the room and house in a couple of days.

weve met 3 of our 4 roomies (Darren didn’t get in till late so we haven’t met him yet really). There’s Mayoor from Wales, that’s currently getting some kinda IT certification. Hes 29 and lives in the other downstairs room off of the kitchen. We see him most cause hes around during the day, too. Then Chris is 23 and he works for some kinda property management company. His friend Adam is also 23. Hes in something called asset management which has to do with equity investments and such. he told me it was investment schemes, but apparently in britain the word “schemes” doesnt mean theyre ripping off little old ladies – it just means plans. Then Darren we know is 25 and from Australia but we haven’t met him yet. They all are soo nice and cool and whatnot so I think were really going to like it here.

today kristie is going on a job interview yay!! Its for the catering company she saw an ad for back before we left and she was really interested in it. It was kinda weird tho cause when they called they told her she was coming for an interview and training session, so were not sure if its just an informal interview and unless they completely hate you, you already have the job or what. Ill have more on that later after she gets home from it tonight. Im not having the luck she is. Im looking for secretarial type work and there weren’t a ton of ads at BUNAC that would work for me (problems were mostly stuff like the position was sposed to last longer than I would be in England or similar issues). And a lot of the ones I called weren’t hiring anymore. I emailed a couple of places this morning, but one of them I know doesn’t start till oct 18th…that’s a whole month away and I don’t know if I can wait that long w/o a job or money. Esp since im just about completely broke so that place isn’t really an option. All I can say is UGH.