Year in Review

I found this quote in a magazine towards the end of 2011. I then caught a flight to London on December 29th to celebrate New Years Eve there. And now, this year, 2012, I took that same flight to London on December 29th for the sake of returning "home". It's crazy what has happened in a year. It's also crazy that I don't know where vacation ends and reality begins. Which is a good thing, I would say. It was surreal going on "vacation" back to the states for Christmas. And novel that when vacation ends and it's tim to return back home, I'm actually flying to the place where for years I've wanted to live. And yes, mildly annoying feeling like a tourist back in my original country. Lack of cell phone/constant contact was the biggest downfall. But aside from that, it was a grand ol' time. Of course not enough time to catch up with everyone.

Old Update

I tried to post this a week ago but failed. So here it is again:


First of all, yes, I kind of fail at this blogging thing. So much to talk about, so little time! But at least I finally, finally have internet in my flat now.

So, I am back stateside already. It feels like Christmastime arrived very quickly. I guess that's what happens when I'm not paying attention. But I thought I'd write an update, finally having a moment to do so.

Life in the UK is still great. I'm really not feeling alienated at all. And it's nice meeting more and more people interested in hearing the crazy tale. I went out to the lunch truck weeks ago to see what kind of desserts he had to offer. (Not much. I settled for a couple of bakewell tarts - classic British junk food...) I was chatting with the guy and somebody else stops by, looking like maybe he was in his early 20's. He asks "Are you American?", to which I reply "Yup, just started here on the 12th!". He responds with "Wow, you're the first American I've ever met!". Kind of shocking to me. It was a reminder of how small-town the area I work in can be. I guess not everybody gets out as much and sees and does as much of a variety of things.

Well, I'll guess I'll get on to something I've been meaning to do for a while - a quick list of the pros and cons I've encountered so far:

Pros:

• The potential to have SEVEN weeks of vacation next year (plus bank holidays). I was already feeling incredibly lucky and "rich" to have 5 weeks, plus holidays. But they announced that we will be able to purchase more vacation days, if we wish, up to 2 weeks worth. Yes, please! There is absolutely no shortage of ideas for how I will spend all that time. And we do get paid overtime, anything over our standard 37 hour workweek counts as "extra", and thus it shouldn't be much of a problem to make up for the 2 weeks salary taken out of my annual pay. Also, HR decided a while back that even though we didn't originally get Christmas Eve off, it would be in everybody's best interest to have it off after all. Just like that. I can't imagine that happening in my previous work world.
• I'm in London all the time. As I've kind of always wanted to be. Ever since my college project in 2003 when I stayed there for 7 weeks. It's what planted the bug in me. 
• Interesting, great new friends. The people have been pretty great. People I meet, for the most part, are friendly. My new coworkers are great. I am feeling totally at home. 

Cons:

• I'm still not sure what to think about my neighborhood. It's kind of "dodgy", as they say. It's a mere 20 minute walk to the main shopping area/train station. But when I get home from work, I generally can't be bothered to spend 40 minutes of what's left of my evening just to get to and from where I want to go. And driving would be kind of a hassle to find parking and fight traffic and all. And anyway, all the shops seem to close around 6-7pm. Seriously!? And I thought I was living in the boonies back in the states with shops that closed around 9-9:30. 
• Traffic. It can still be bad. Though I suppose it can in a lot of places, I guess that's what I get for wanting to live in/near a city. But the Hubby was right, it really does seem like everybody there does everything at the same time. Go to work, come home from work, go out to eat, go out shopping. Which is annoying when you want to do likewise, but you can kind of take advantage of "off-hours". 
• Customer service can be pretty lacking. And when you call for customer assistance/technical support from a mobile phone, the company you're calling will charge *you* to for the call. Many hours lost having fun with BT, being passed from clueless guy#1 to clueless guy#2 to clueless guy #3 from a different division of the company and back to clueless guy#1's counterpart, only to get disconnected. And when you call some businesses, they let the phone ring and ring and ring, making it seem like they can't be bothered to answer, and when they finally do, they just answer with a "Hello?" with some "Yeah, what do you want?" tone to their voice. 
• I can't wash my face in warm water. The bathroom sink has two taps, one for hot, one for cold. And the hot gets scalding, cold freezing. So I've made the most of this painstaking "cup, cup, splash, cup, cup, splash" method I've come up with. But it's really quite a pain. 

 Well, more holiday duties are calling! Oh, and in my new workplace the dare say... "Christmas"! "Merry Christmas", "Christmas break", "Christmas party". It's really kind of nice and a refreshing change!

Are you kidding me?

That's what I've been finding myself thinking a lot. It's been almost a month of life in "full swing" here. Well past holiday mode. (Though that still hasn't totally broken me of novel holiday abroad eating habits, though.Cornish Pasties! (*only* cheese and onion, though) Cadbury Picnic bars! Cherry bakewell tarts! Exciting flavoUr crisps! Cheese!). Weeks ago I was about to write about how the grass is still mighty green here, work is great, going home at 1pm on Friday is great, a sudden decision by HR that it's in our best interest to give us December 24th off, too (we didn't have it off, originally) is great (and so wouldn't have happened like that stateside without an act of congress at work, or something) I'm getting more used to driving, making new friends here, meeting new and interesting and nice people.

But also, traffic, oh gosh the traffic! It's like the infrastructure here just wasn't built for this! And I'm traveling opposite of the "bad" commute, where I see cars on the opposite side of me at a standstill. But still, the average speed displayed on my car's output display is 25 MPH. I'm pretty certain that's not inaccurate. Aside from that, there's frightening gas prices ("pence per litre" meant nothing to me until I started filling up my gas tank and saw how much, in pounds, a full tank is. I don't even want to think about the conversion to dollars.), more difficulty getting to other countries than I had to deal with from Stateside, my internet *still* is not set up (though sure enough BT is already trying to bill me. (And if you need to call tech support or customer service lines, *you* get charged for it!) And this here connection I'm now posting from is via Dear Hubby's BT wireless account), weather: as bad as they say, roundabouts: as bad as they say. I can't get any package delivered to my house and have already had two adventures driving around town, trying to hunt things down at the local FedEx or Royal Mail offices. And don't get me started on my GPS and how maps seem to work here (or not), in general.

Nobody said it would be easy. Even my best friend who lived in England for two years said that she envied me, but also that she didn't. Hubby jokes that it's like a third world country here. And everybody loves to "apologise for the inconvenience". Now I see that they're kind of both right.

But, I'm working out the bugs. It definitely helps to have immense quantities of patience. And a comfortable chunk of money. And the sweetest, most helpful and patient and caring husband ever.

Here, have a picture! From the Museum of Childhood in London. There is definitely more to report on and photos from that (the dark and bizarre backstories of each Teletubby, cheerful surprise displays to be found), as well as photos from Poland, and from last weekend's trip to Berlin. Which somehow seemed more tiring and like more effort than going to Berlin from the US for a long weekend, like I would normally do.

As for now, it is far too late, and it is also pouring outside. (surprise surprise).
More later! Hopefully sooner!