Summary

[ my attempt to keep you updated on my journey, while not completely blasting social media on a regular basis ]

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Woah... Do I have a lot to tell YOU.

I’ll try to pick up right where I left off – I think it was Saturday evening before I went out for the night.  Well, this starts out pretty funny actually..
I took the double-decker bus by myself for the first time into Clapham Junction – about a 40 minute ride – to meet some friends.  The agreement was to meet around 9:30 at Northcote records, a bar on the main strip.  I arrived a bit early so I got myself a cider and waited by the bar.  As some of you know, I haven’t been able to use my phone unless on wifi (still had a US number this past weekend and would be roaming if I used it), so I couldn’t text my friends to let them know I was there.  I waited, waited, and waited.  It was almost 10 so I asked the security guard if there was another Northcote records.    ….Ya, I was at “The Northcote”.  Northcote Records was a couple blocks down.  That was embarrassing.  Anyway, I casually placed my cider down on the bar and walked away like nothing happened and I wasn’t the loser standing at the bar pretending to text on her phone. 

But then – the night turned around.  I got to Northcote Records, which was jam-packed, and met up with my friends.  We had a couple drinks and then co-mingled with a group of guys and gals from Ireland.  They were beyond fascinated with our “American accents” and couldn’t get enough of it.  They had been in London for only about a year, so not entirely familiar with the city and still completely obsessed with Ireland.  I told them I would be going to their homeland in a few weeks and they were just elated.  They were by far the nicest people I have ever met.  I wasn’t surprised since all I’ve heard about it how nice the Irish are… I can now confirm that is 100% true.  I totally plan to hang with them again but boy can they drink.  I’m going to need to get my stamina up before that happens again.

It took a while for me to get up Sunday, thanks to my nice Irish friends and my failed attempt to keep up with them.  I really just wanted to chug a Gatorade and sleep for the rest of the day but NO.  That is just not an option, Holl, you’re in London, GET UP!  Ok, Ok… I got up.  Got in a workout to sweat out the Jaeger, got myself ready, and met Courtney for a day out on Brick Lane.  On our walk over I saw a sign by a café that said “We have ICED coffee!”.  Wow that was music to my ears.  We stopped in and I ordered a large.  The nice café worker handed me my iced coffee, which was just a cooler version of regular coffee in a plastic cup with straw, sans ice.  I guess my expectations were set too high.  Man I could go for a dunks pumpkin iced right now.

We made it to Brick lane, walked down the street where Indian-restaurant owners tried to reel us into their pristine-but-empty curry palaces.  It smelled delicious but we decided to keep walking to see the real thing.  Then we got there – the Brick Lane indoor market.  I am not kidding when I tell you they have every single type of food in there to choose from… well, everything besides American.  They had Indian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Ethiopian, Mexican, Italian, English, Spanish, Irish, German, and some I hadn’t even heard of.  Since we had our hearts set on curry, we both went for the Indian booth.  We got a giant, heaping plate of curry chicken, mixed vegetables of all sorts, topped with spices and other random sauces, for just 5 quid!  I think I ate a third of it and was immediately full.  Then, we walked around the other side of the market which had everything from scarves to dresses, purses, jewelry, phone cases, hats, and rugs.  All hand-made and all awesome.  We took some time to peruse and then went down the street for a look at some other sights.  We saw a guy selling coffee out of the top of his car and the queue (line) was pretty long.  I mean, wouldn’t you buy coffee from a guy simply because he was selling it out of the roof of his little black car?  I would.  But I didn’t because I was still full.  We saw more shops, more food, and then we saw crepes.  It had been a couple hours since we had the giant plate of Indian so we decided it was time for a banana Nutella crepe of goodness.

After we finished drooling over our delicious dessert, we started on the hunt for a bar that was playing the Pats game.  JetLag, the bar from last week, wasn’t playing it so we starting calling everywhere we could think of.  We found out that Hippodrone Casino in Leicester Square was playing most of the NFL games so we decided to try it out.  Guys, I am never going to another place to watch a game while I’m here – The Hippodrone is LEGIT.  An American guy runs the entire back lounge where he has separate theatre-like rooms set up for every single NFL game.  Additionally, he welcomed us with an American bar food menu, featuring Coors Light, wings, and nachos, before mentioning that there was going to be a wing-eating contest at halftime.  I told you, this place is legit.  And of course, since it’s a casino, they are open 24/7.  So no matter what odd hour you may have to watch your game, you can count on the Hippo to be at your service. 

Let’s take a small commercial break to add a few more words & phrases to the English-to-English dictionary:

1.       Car Park = Parking Lot (self-explanatory, I know.  Just different and sounds a bit funny)
2.       Way Out = Exit (Again, self-explanatory.  But I literally have yet to find a sign that says “Exit”.  Everything says “Way Out”.  The only Exit sign I saw was on Brick Lane because it was a name of a restaurant… which is also confusing in itself.  Do I even want to eat there?  Or do I just want to leave?)
3.       Are you alright? = How are you? (Just another way to greet someone but it’s confusing at times.  Yes, of course, I’m OK.  Why, do I look sick?)
4.       Mind the Gap = Watch out (I love this one.  Sounds so proper when the automated voice on the tube says “Mind the gap between the train and the platform”  Surely, automated lady.  Thanks for the heads up!)
5.       Canapés = Hors d'oeuvres (I guess this is more of a French-to-French translation but the English say canapes rather than our preferred French name when little food items are served)

Another thing that I want to mention because I am proud of myself: I can now convert Celsius to Fahrenheit in my head without using an app or google.  Small victories.

Monday was a long day.  But TUESDAY… Tuesday was a great day.  Work was very productive and concluded with some other larger victories, only to be interrupted by a fire drill.  Ya, they do those here too.  The funny thing though, is that the alarm went off twice with another automated lady saying “the alarm is going off.  We will let you know if you should evacuate the building”.  HA!  Hold on a minute while our automated lady checks to see if there is a fire and then she’ll let you know if you need to run down the flights of stairs.  Eventually she told us to get out and not use the lifts, but it was a drill so don’t fret.

That night was absolutely incredible.  A couple of my coworkers were invited to an event put on by London Partners, featuring Deval Patrick, the MA governor.  It was just the two of them but they kindly extended the invite as I am a fellow Bostonian and would be able to “translate” for them.  Pahk tha cah in Hahvahd yahd does get a bit tricky sometimes… but at least Deval is originally from Chicago.  We took a taxi to Vinters Hall after work, over by the London Bridge area, where the event was being held.  Our name badges were waiting and a glass of champagne was too.  It was quite the networking event so I’m glad I had a suit and some business cards – really came in handy.  Before mingling with the big wigs, I took a moment to check out the room.  It was old-fashioned London – giant burgundy room, adorned with chandeliers, a ceiling outlined in gold and velvet accents.  We saw the podium set up in the back center so we stayed around that area as we chatted with business professionals and enjoyed the canapés that were being passed around.  One of them was a single spoonful of lobster and mini asparagus… like holy crap, right?  I don’t even like lobster but I ate it of course.  A few spoke at the podium and then introduced Governor Patrick who made his speech brief but memorable.  My favorite line was “We make friends before we make money”.  This was the reason he was here – his goal is to join forces between MA and other strong, educated, and motivated countries, cities, and organizations so that we can all be successful together.  Bravo, Mr. Patrick.  I was fortunate enough to have a quick chat with him and take a picture to commemorate that special occasion.  He was a really great guy – he is definitely a politician.

Today I finally was able to unlock my phone and get a UK SIM card through O2 so that I can actually use it off of wifi.  If you haven’t gotten my new number yet and need it, make sure to message me on Facebook and I can get it to you!  Otherwise, my work number, email, Facebook, Instagram, etc. are all still the same.  Before I go, I want to give a quick shout out to Steph Whitney – I’m currently wearing my “home” shirt, outlined with the shape of Massachusetts.  Love it, thank you.











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