Monday 29 December 2008

12 words post #3

doing laundry after folding clothes for eight hours a day really sucks.

breaking the rules!!!

i haven't updated in a few days, which means i've already broken the rules i have set for myself.
and because i haven't blogged in a few days, i have more than 12 words to say.
so i have new rules for myself: i will try to write 12 words every day, with occasional supplemental full entries.

i hope everyone had a great christmas!
i spent christmas in edinburgh, scotland, a beautiful and charming old city.
i worked at Gap until 6:30 on christmas eve, and then had to take an overnight bus from london to edinburgh that got into edinburgh at 7:30 on christmas morning. the man in front of me put his seat all the way back, and when i tried to tell him that i could no longer feel my left leg, he pretended not to understand english.
when i got to edinburgh, i met my friend erin (a fellow BUNACer living in edinburgh for 6 months), but we were both exhausted, so we went back to her flat and cuddled and napped for a few hours.
woke back up, got christmas phone calls from my parents and my sister in florida, which was just lovely. erin made cookies and i made potato latkes for various christmas parties that evening.
the first party we went to was at a hostel where everyone pretended that their name was Ross (girls included) and it was a Rossmas party...very strange...they ate a lot of latkes and were generally drunk.
we left the Rossmas party pretty quickly and walked across town to a party of erin's coworkers, who were mostly australian or new zealander. i could not understand ANYONE!!! the party was a lot of drunken christmas revelry, except for one canadian girl who was crying because she broke someone's sex toy...that part was a little annoying i suppose.

next day (boxing day), erin and i got up with grand ambitions to climb arthur's seat, an extinct volcano on the edge of edinburgh. a BEAUTIFUL walk up, with amazing views over the entire city, the surrounding hills, and the ocean!! absolutely beautiful and a great way to spend the afternoon.
we went for dinner at a spanish tapas place, and somehow started talking to the couple at the table next to us, a spanish girl named arancia and her albanian boyfriend vinny. vinny convinced us that we have to visit albanian, something i really hadn't considered before.
then we went to a pub where erin's friend worked. we got there just as they were closing, but because we are such VIPs, they let us stay and even gave us free drinks. we sat around and drank and hung out with a bunch of scottish guys who are in a band together. really nice guys, really enjoyable evening, and i think it was the first time i have ever enjoyed whiskey.
back to erin's flat where we youtubed music videos and passed out.
next morning, on a train back to london, and then immediately back to work.

all in all, great christmas, great fun, great relaxation, great break. but good to be back in london.

hope all your christmases were just as good and hope you have great new years!!

oh p.s. sorry this entry was so long...but i'll be putting edinburgh pictures up on facebook soon so watch out for those!!

Tuesday 23 December 2008

christmas time (12 word post #2)

there are no christmas decorations in my neighbo(u)rhood because everyone is muslim.

Monday 22 December 2008

12 words post #1

nobody understands me when i talk. british should be its own language.

First ever blog post!

Hiya friends. I said that I would regularly update you all on my life and experiences living here in London. I lied. I broke my word. And I am sorry.
I'm really terrible at documenting anything...I don't keep a diary, I very infrequently take pictures, and I'm usually pretty bad at staying in touch with people. Unacceptable.
A good friend named Laura Clark asked me to start a blog so she could see what I was doing. I told her my problem with documenting my life, and she said I should keep it simple, set a concrete goal for each post, and I would be fine.

Her challenge: summarize every day of my life in London in 12 words exactly.
That sounds like exactly the kind of blogging I can handle. Of course, if 12 words aren't enough, anyone reading this can ALWAYS contact me to find out anything else I'm up to. Facebook, email, phone, snail mail, it all works, and it all works well.

To catch you all up:
I'm living in London as part of BUNAC's "Work in Britain" program, which allows recent college graduates who are currently aimless in their lives to pack up and move to the UK to find a random job that will divert their minds from their actual futures for 6 months.
So far, it's working!
I live in a flat in East London with 3 funny and quirky British guys named Dave, Matt, and Aziz.
I work at the Gap in a VERY touristy part of the city, but my bosses like me, and my coworkers are very fun.
Before I started my job and living situation, I traveled to Budapest, Prague, and the Black Forest of Germany.
Pictures of that trip are on facebook.
I have also spent a weekend in Amsterdam and Paris since I have been living in London.

I think you should be all caught up by now.
The 12-word posts begin now.
I will REALLY try to put one up every day. Unfortunately, my word is no longer worth much, but I will try my hardest, and that's really all that I can do.

Peace!