Category: Diary

last night was mayoors birthday, so kristie and i went out with him and a bunch of other people. kristie met this girl emily when she went on the job interview, emily and her friend laura came out with us, too. theyre both here from canada. emily actually lives about a 5 min walk from us. we met up with some of mayoor’s friends: paddy, fran, and nigel. we started out at a pub which is like baileys, but theres no music. then we went across the street to a bar, then later on we went to a club. we all had sooooo much fun! it was K and I’s first night going out in london (weve been avoiding it cause we didnt wanna spend the money) but it was actually pretty cheap.

today kristie made french toast for us and mayoor. he put ketchup and mayo on the toast!! not together, like one slice had ketchup and one slice has mayo. bloody disgusting! he tried our way of putting syrup on it and he liked it 😀

KRISTIE GOT THE JOB!!

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.

sooo much to say I don’t even know where to begin!
yesterday (Monday) we went to go look at apts. People in London don’t really live in apartments like the ones in America. It seems mostly here you rent a room in a house type situation. There are singles (bedroom with one bed) or doubles (bedroom with two beds). You rent just that room as yours and then the whole house (other renters in other bedrooms) all share a kitchen living room etc. Pretty much we live in a townhouse with several other people.

the first place we went to look at was in central London so it wasn’t too far away. This one was only 42.50/week (per person). So it was **incredibly** cheap as far as rent goes (most places are like 85-110/week). A little old English lady owns it and she took us up two flights of narrow stairs to a small attic room. The room was charming with two little beds, a tiny couch, and a small kitchenette. Noticing a small theme? Plus all the appliances, stove, etc, were all at least 30 years old. It was small and old, but this is London and I figured everything is going to be small and old. We weren’t thrilled but we figured we could make it do for 6 months cause it was so cheap. That’s when we found out theres no private phone line or internet access. Just a pay phone down in the living room. Wed end up spending so much money at the internet café it wouldn’t be worth the cheap rent, and honestly I don’t think I could be happy for 6 months completely cut off from everybody like that by not having phone/internet.

so we went to this little bfast café (where we had some very interesting food but there I go again about the English food) to discuss it. We had an apt to see another place at 3pm so we figured wed go ahead and look at that one although that one didn’t seem as promising since it was a lot further away and little bit more expensive (although still very cheap cause its only 60 pounds/person/week so that’s only like 15 more than the first place. The owner of the place came and picked us up from the tube station in his Mercedes and drive us to the house even tho its only like a block from the tube station. He took us to the room (on the first floor right by the door). It was so great. It was large, with new looking carpet and furniture. The house is a lot more modern looking (more like the 90s stead of the 70s). the kitchen is kinda small but still new and its not like K or I cook anyhow. Then there was a living room with tv and stuff that looked out on the backyard garden. And the best part of it all, we can probably get our own phone line and internet!! We were soooooo excited about it! The house is in a nice residential area, but only right down the street from a walmart, burger king, KFC, and TJMaxx( called TK Maxx here).

more later, i didnt have time to finish it all

WE GOT A HOME TODAY!!!
the details of this are actually longer than i have time to write (20 mins left before cafe closes), but ill write it up on the laptop back at the hostel and then paste it up tomorrow.

Day three was great!! We got up and went on the Sightseeing Bus Tour of London, which is an open topped double decker bus that drives around London past all the major attractions. We got off at Buckingham Palace and (sorta) saw the changing of the guard. I wanted them to do the Target commercial dance, but I guess that’s just on tv. We really didn’t see much of it cause there were soooo many people blocking the view, but we got our pix and whatnot. In the morning it was really pretty out so it as fun to drive around and see everything. I added a bunch of the pix to the website from our excursion.

After the tour we stopped at Fridays for lunch cause I wanted American food. It cost me 20 bucks for a bacon cheeseburger, and it wasn’t even American style. The bacon was more like ham. The hamburger at mcdonalds was better and like 1/5 the price. Plus they didn’t have coke, just pepsi, the commies.

Then we walked down to the British Museum. We didn’t have much time so we only saw a tiny bit of it. Its not as good as the Louvre in Paris IMO, but it was still pretty great. Plus all the museum admissions are free so its like you can just wander in at any time. I included a couple of pix that I took of the museum like the Rosetta Stone (used to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics), the mummy of Cleopatra, a mummied cat, two mummied falcons, and the skeleton of a young girl that was one of 30 that had been sacrificially killed to be buried with some king.

When we got back to our area we went down to that internet café we discovered yesterday, and we were able to get on aol for the first time! Our excitement was quickly dampened, though, when we signed on and discovered that there was no one online to even talk to! It only costs like $4/hour so we’re gonna start going by there a little each day when we can. It closes at 9pm, so the latest we can be on is 4pm American time which sux cause most people aren’t home from work/school by then.

We got three new roomies tonight. Haley and Jason from Australia, and just now a new guy walked in, but he dropped off his backpack and walked out again. Falling asleep at the keyboard. See ya tomorrow!

Day 2 of London J. This morning we went to BUNAC’s orientation. I flipped through the job listings notebook and found several secretary/admin type positions to check out. Some of the listings were old, though, so I don’t know how many of them will actually pan out. We also looked at the apartment listings. Theyre mostly around $200/week with most of the utilities included. Wed probably just have to pay for our own phone/internet and maybe the water. Speaking of phones, K and I gor our cell phones today! Theyre crappy lil nokia 1100 phones and cost $80* : / Theyre prepaid minute plans and only cost .10/minute. No aim on them though 😦

Today we had the best meal weve had since weve been here…McDonalds! I usually don’t eat fast food except for arbys, but it was sooo good to have real, American tasting food for once (even if the ketchup did come in a cup like the way sweet and sour sauce does).

We did a ton of walking around today, kindagetting used to things. On our way to the pizza shop for dinner we discovered an internet café where I can hook up my laptop. Its expensive ($1/5 mins), but it means I can start uploading my pix to the website J, so look for some pix to start going up.

Bed #6 got filler today by Tom from Poland. Hes probably in his late 30s or so. He said there was some sort of layover while he waits for some bus to take him some where…yeah I don’t really know what im talking about 😛

*all prices listed in the American equivalencies, i.e. the phones cost us 39 pounds which is about 80 dollars.

Ok so this is my first diary entry. Im not exactly sure what to say…amazingly, ally and I go to bed early and wake up at about 8 every morning. This is a very new concept for me. Hopefully it will stay this way! Its our 3rd day in London and today was our day to be a tourist. We took a sightseeing tour of London. We saw all of the big places to see, granted most of it was from a double decker bus. We decided after we got off at Buckingham Palace to just stay on the bus and go back to the places we wanted to see in more detail at a later date. It was really gorgeous and a little surreal! By the end of the tour we were absolutely freezing! I knew London had weird weather but tiday was a little crazy. When we left at about 10am it was sunny and hot, probably in the mid 70s. by the end of the tour it was cloudy, rainy, and 10 degrees colder. Doesn’t it usually get hotter the later in the day?

Anyways after the tour we went to lunch. Ally and I were very adventurous…we had TGIFridays! It was so good, but so expensive: ally had a cheeseburger that was 9.95 pounds, that is approx $20! Our lunch was so good though.

After lunch we walked to the British Museum, which has free admission. It had some neat things, but its not really something im into. I had a headache and I was about to fall asleep, so I glanced around at some things and sat down. Ally really seemed to enjoy it though, but its something that she likes to do. We didn’t get to see too much though b/c the museum was closing. Afterward we came back to the hostel.

The mother and daughter from Mexico are gone, as well as Australian Dan. Tom and his stinky feet from Poland are still here, but he’s going tomorrow. I think he said more in the 5 mins we saw him today than he did all day yesterday. Im sure by the end of the night we’ll have at least one more roomie! Maybe he’ll be hot!! Kidding…sort of!

Its funny b/c I almost brought a candle, but I decided against it. Now I so wish I had one b/c our room stinks so bad. Also I think it quite possibly the hottest one in the building. Our window is open but there is absolutely no breeze and to top it off the little fan is broken!

Well ally is d/l the 120 pics we took today, so hopefully there will be some cool things to see. Im thinking about taking a nap, im exhausted! I miss everyone and ill talk to you soon!

PS – Last night I was on the phone and these 3 guys came up the stairs. For some reason 1 of them was naked! He was covering up like he was embarrassed, so I don’t think he was doing itfor the hell of it. I think the weirdest/funniest part is where he came from is the front desk, bar, and all of the common areas! So its not like he came from the shower or anything. I think he came from the bar, they were playing some drinking game or something. It was one of the funniest things ive ever seen!

Just got back to the room for the night. we had dinner at a chinese restuarant. the price was about the same as in the US, but you got like 6 pieces of chicken and you hafta pay for drink refills. Jenn had warned me about this so i asked the waitress if we got refills before we downed our cokes and she looked at me like i was crazy and was like (in a chinese accent) “no, you have to pay!” after having napped, showered, and eaten, i finally felt ok.

after dinner we went back the the hostel, The Generator, and went to the bar/night club where they were having karaoke night. the first guy jumps up on the stage, yanks his shirt off (and damn did he have a hairy chest!) and proceeded to do the worst rendition of “Eye of the Tiger” thats ever been sung. Everybody loved it. our roomie, Dan, got up there and did “Piano Man” and he did a pretty decent job. We were sitting on stools near the pool tables and we noticed the balls, and they are all solid blue or solid yellow, plus an 8 ball and a cue. This guy named Dan (new Dan not roomie Dan) came up and started talking to us. Hes from canada (currently alberta) and on his way to scotland. Roomie Dan (completely hammered by now) said he was going to sing two more songs but K and i decided to skip out and et to bed since out time is still all screwed up and we hafta get up early tom morning to go to BUNAC. i had a ton of fun tonight – only downside: we came out reeking of ciggy smoke after wed just showered and changed before dinner. now we stink like true europeans. 🙂 we go two new roomies when we got back in the room. its a mother and daughter from mexico. didnt really get to talk to them much, cause they went out…at 11:30 at night? bed time, goodnight everybody.

PS – the sole of my sandal broke!
PPS- K says “there are a lot of hotties over here! but i will remember Steph’s rule”
PPPS- I thought they spoke English in this country, but half the time we cant understand what theyre saying!

Well…we’re in london. so far, it has *sucked*. the plane ride and the airport parts were surprisingly easy. Then came the part where two girls had to lug seven very heavy (and im not exaggerating, one suitcase even got tagged as extra heavy cause it weighed 65 pounds) suitcases from the airport to the train, the train to the Victoria train station (neat looking place, with some “colorful” people walking around) and then on “The Tube” for two different train lines. worst part is, there are *NO ELEVATORS*! We had to drag all these heavy suitcases down several (yes, several) flights of stairs. luckily, in a lot of instances random people would grab a bag and carry it down for us. Still, we were seriously huffing and puffing it. oh yeah, heres a laugh at ally moment: my carryon bag that came with my luggage set was on wheels, but as a duffel bag shape with a shoulder strap so pulling it by the shoulder strap on its end was kinda difficult. it wasnt until we were at the london airport that i discovered the weird lil pocket on the bottom was hiding a pullout handle that turned it into a rolling suitcase. K and I were cracking up fter the way i had been dragging it and all this time it had had a handle.
Anyway, so we got off the tube at our final stop were fretting about having to lug everything *up* all the stairs we had come down, when i see a heavenly sign that says “LIFT”. back up on the street with our 50 bags, we now hafta drag them a few blocks to the hostel. luckily theyre all rolling and easy (still damn heavy but at least easy to coordinate when there are no stairs involved) so we make it to the hostel at 2pm (arrived at airport at 9 am — this took us 5 hours) with only one break. its not a 5 star hotel or anything, but after having lived in older dorms before its fine by me. the bed had clean linens (for free- some hostels you hafta rent the sheets) and is really comfortable. we’re in a room for 6 — 3 sets of bunk beds. right now we only have one roommate, Dan. hes 19 and from australia and said he was at summer camp in mass. for 3 months and now hes backpacking thru europe for i think 4 more months. he only has one duffel bag for the whole 7 months! he seems pretty cool, some of the people ive seen in london have been slightly odd. im glad we got him and not the rowdy group of french or russian or whatever guys that checked in with us.

after we got settled in the room, we went to go get lunch. not far from the hostel are several little sandwich shop and such. our hostel seems to be in a good location. its not in a crowded, busy. congested area and its nice to walk down the street – esp since we had great weather today. its similar to how downtown athens (georgia, not greece) was.

we got burgers at a tin cafe for cheap (about £2 so like $4 including our drinks). the burgers were kinda diff than the US. they werent bad really, not great but kinda different. kristie called them “horrible” 🙂 i got a chocolate milk but its like milk and cocoa powder so when you buy it all the choc has sunk to the bottom. the cokes have real sugar in them too. havent these people heard of high fructose corn syrup!?! thats what makes stuff good!

after we ate we investigated the internet cafe. its expensive and the computers are like the ones on the cruise ship, not regular computers so you can only access the web and not do chat or write documents or anything. (there goes another $2 as im typing this up). there doesnt seem to be any place to hook in the laptop at the hostel so im just keeping it in the locker till we get an apt.

when we got back to our room we passed out for like 3 hours, which brings me to now…sitting here writing.