I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post, the days are going by so quickly! Last weekend was great - Friday I went to the cinema with Dasha and Andrea to see Righteous Kill (I know it came out ages ago in the States, don't remind me. I hate that I have to wait forever to see the shows and movies that you guys already have), and then on Saturday I went to a place near Piccadilly Circus that I heard played college football games to watch the Ohio State game. I was reminded of how I should avoid that area, particularly at night. There are so many tourists there it's annoying. And of course they weren't even playing the OSU game, they were playing Michigan State and Indiana. But it was good to watch American football anyway. Tomorrow I'm just going to stream the game online since it's at 1am for me anyway.
I've been getting more and more comfortable with my surroundings every day, I think I've mostly lost that scared-child/deer-in-headlights look for the most part. The main reason is b/c I'm much better at deciphering the English accent and I can tell what the hell people are saying to me. The next trick is learning all of the different words and slang that they use here, and getting in the habit of using it so I don't get the deer-in-headlights look from them. The worst is when I say pants instead of trousers. Pants means underwear here, and for some reason it's just really hard for me to catch myself on that one. Embarrassing.
I love St. John's Wood so far. It's like a little village in the middle of the big city, with everything that I need in a five block radius, and it's much less busy than other parts of the city. And being two blocks away from Regent's Park isn't bad either. Not that I've taken advantage of that or anything - I haven't been on a run yet since I've moved. I have started to look for a yoga studio though and I think I've found one that's pretty close to me. It's outrageously expensive, but I've become accustomed to "London prices", I mean at least I don't dry heave every time I look at a price tag anymore. It helps to not convert it to dollars.
My flatmates are really amazing as well - Dasha and I have very similar interests so we've been doing a lot together and have spent the last few days emailing back and forth all day. There is a show called Peep Show here that is hysterical - I saw a few episodes on the plane on the way over and was laughing out loud, people were staring at me. Anyway, I asked Dasha about it and turns out she loves it too! The new season is starting soon so I've been trying to catch up on the previous seasons, we've been watching an episode or two every night. It makes me cry from laughing so hard sometimes. You guys should check it out - go to alluc.net and search for Peep Show.
I've got the bus system to and from work down now, so well in fact that I can even talk on my cell (er, mobile) phone while riding instead of staring out the window trying to tell one building from the next and wondering if I'm near home. Makes me feel much more cosmopolitan that I can just hop on the bus and zone out.
It's so cold here already - no idea what the temperature is b/c I can't convert to Celsius so I've just stopped bothering to look - but I wore my winter coat to work for the first time today. I've been told that this is unusually cold for this time of year, but I'm skeptical. It's comforting to know that it doesn't ever get really cold here, like Kansas City cold. The worst part is that we can't figure out how to turn on the heat in our flat - I'm sitting here right now in two layers of blankets with the computer on my lap for warmth and a cup of tea next to me to warm my hands (and my nose) every once in a while. Being from the desert, I'm not one for cold anyway and my roommates don't seem to think it's quite as bad, but it's cold!
My week at work wasn't so bad as last week, I certainly didn't stay as late in the evenings. This FRAG group seems like it's going to be interesting, it's a lot of consulting work regarding different IFRS issues.
On Wednesday I went to dinner with a bunch of people from work and their wives/husbands/etc. for the going away party of the guy that I'm replacing (he's going back to the US). We definitely made a night of it, we went to a pub, then dinner, then another pub. It was so much fun but we stayed out too late. It helps that we don't have to go in until 9 here, but I didn't even make it in by then.
Miss you all loads!
Heather
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