June 2010 - Soccer and headstands

June was a fairly quiet month socially, because it was the month from hell at work. I picked up a new audit (taking into account that I haven't really been doing audits for the past 1.5 years, but more consulting type work) that I got involved in b/c it had a US GAAP element, and the CFO of the company was very demanding and a bit of a bully. Just reminded me of how much I don't want to do audit and made me appreciate the work I've been doing instead. Oh well, it's over now. Until next year that is...meh.

I did get a couple of days out in June to go to the corporate training facility for a three day “development centre”. I felt privileged to go as you have to be nominated to go, but I had heard some stories that it was pretty intense. It was, but not terrible. Basically you just do a load of roleplays, a report and a presentation, and there are some senior managers and HR people that tell you what you need to improve upon to get promoted to manager. It was nice b/c I'd never taken that much time to consider things like what motivates me or how I learn and how I can translate those into the work I do to make it more meaningful. Granted I don't think anything would every make audit more meaningful but hey. It was a good few days overall, and I met some cool people from other offices, which is always nice.

The world cup was on during June, which was pretty exciting to be a part of in Europe. It's such a non-event in the US – someone here just couldn't believe how complacent the Americans are about it and asked me, “Even in '94 when you guys hosted it?” I just blinked at him – I didn't even know that we had hosted it at all! Anyway it is a BIG event here. For some reason they let England, Wales, Scotland, and N. Ireland compete as separate nations even though they are the same country, but England is usually the only one to make it to the final, as it happened this year as well. All of the English were very excited about this, but typical of the English self-defeatist mentality, most people openly admitted that they didn't expect England to win. Can you imagine an American saying that they didn't expect their team to win? I mean at something we're actually good at (b/c the English are pretty good) – it would be like admitting that our basketball team competing in the Olympics isn't very good and probably won't win. I guess this is the main thing I miss about sports in Britain vs sports in America – the passion! There is so much more passion in American sports fans, and yes, it may look a little bit mental at times, but it's so much more fun! I admit, the English had their football hooligans a few years back, and I reckon some of them still exist, but that really is mental, not fun. I went to a big pub for one of the England games with James and his friends, and found it all incredibly boring how everyone celebrated for a goal – a quick little hoorah and then back to relative silence. Maybe it's just me but I love going absolutely crazy when my team scores, and keeping the crazy going for at least a few minutes following the goal. I think this is just another example of the small cultural divide between the Yanks and the Brits – we're just louder. And I love it.

Other than the festivities for the world cup I did manage to get to a birthday/housewarming party of a friend from work, and my grandma's friend from home came to Europe with her daughter and stopped at my flat for a few days. It was good to be around some fellow Americans, and it was her daughter's first trip to Europe so was good to see her first impressions. We went to see Legally Blonde the musical, which was actually better than I was expecting – they really capitalised on the whole dumb blonde sorority girl thing and made it funny. The main song had a chorus of “Oh my God, oh my God you guys” - awesome! It was with these two friends that I was walking when I stumbled across something spectacular – Chipotle!! It was late in the evening so it had already closed, but I made a pilgrimage back that weekend and felt like I heard the angels singing when I walked through the door – it really was Chipotle! I asked the man behind the counter if it was the only one in London, and he said it was the only one in Europe! [I just realised that I've ended the last four sentences with an exclamation point, but I was seriously excited] And it had something even better – they gave you the choice of brown or white rice, which I've never seen in an American Chipotle. I savoured that massive burrito for as long as I could make it last, mmmmm.

Also during June I made a big accomplishment in yoga – I did my first full headstand! I was very proud b/c it's one of those things that when I started doing yoga I thought I would never be able to do and watched enviously as the more experienced ones in my classes would do them. But now I can do it! I can't hold it for very long, but hey – that's why they call it a practice, right?

That's about it for June. I'm on a roll this weekend – May and June done, now just need to squeeze July in and I'll be caught up! And then it will be another three months until I write the August entry. :)

Love to all, miss you guys,

Heather xoxo