Six Month Anniversary

Today is my six month anniversary in London. How am I spending it? By fleeing the city to head up to Leeds with my dad. My very first visitor had finally arrived. We thankfully had loads of sun and warmth on the Sunday because now he's forced to live in the cloudy, gloomy weather that often plagues England. Yesterday we went to the Natural History Museum and walked around Trafalgar Square. Today we're going to a Leeds United game and checking out the city in general. This is my first proper trip outside of London since October so I'm very excited. I've already seen horses and platform 9 3/4 today so I'm pretty much already having an amazing day.

I'm Still Alive

I'm pretty sure most people know I'm not dead, but it had been awhile since my last post. My Australian housemate had to move back home on Wednesday, which was really weird and sad. Now it's just me and one other housemate. It's crazy having so much space to ourselves, but we've made good use of it by lying on the couch and watching Dance Moms. Apart from that I've been very busy at work. Thankfully I have my dad visiting next weekend so I get a bit of a break. In case you're wondering what I'm doing on a Friday night, I'm watching Airplane and realizing that as an adult I'm far more aware of how bananas it is than when I was a kid.

Sunday Morninging It

Well, I finally made it to church this morning. Most Sundays I'm too lazy for it, but since I wasn't hungover and I went to bed at midnight I figured I'd go. The service was a bit boring and they tried to recruit me to the creepy night service again, but the weather is gorgeous today. The sun is shining, it's relatively warm out, and so I went for a walk through the Common and went grocery shopping. After a bleak couple of weeks it was a good reminder that spring is just around the corner, despite the groundhog's cruel prediction of six more weeks of winter. So, happy almost spring everyone!

Five Month Anniversary

Normally I'm terrible at anniversaries, but since I arrived on the ominous day of September 11 is an easy one to remember. I'm finding at this stage is weird to be here because I've forgotten that I sound different. It's not until I met someone new and have to one again explain where I'm from and why I'm here. Apart from that things are sinking into a normal routine of waiting for weekends, complaining about the weather, and constantly reminding myself that I desperately need rain boots. Oddly enough a chick on The Bachelor kind of summed it up best. She said something like the hardest part about moving was missing the culture of home. That was total paraphrasing, but you get the idea. I love it here and it's so amazing, but I'm always aware that nothing's as good as home. I also want to point out that The Bach chick was a Canadian living in Germany, so way more intense than my move. Anyway, happy anniversary to me. At this time next month I'll be hanging out with my first visitor!

Waitangi Day and McDonald's Brawls

I promise I'm not dead.  My lack of posting mainly has to do with the laziness that goes hand in hand with winter.  My motivation to do anything is at a low point.  It's not even cold here.  It's just raining constantly and that means that my main motivation is to stay warm and dry, which involves hanging out in my sweats and staying indoors as much as possible.  However, I went against this instinct on Saturday for a "pub crawl."  It turns out that Kiwis are the most outrageous of people and when it's Waitangi Day they go balls out and dress up in animal costumes or doctors (something to do with a TV program there).  What's Waitangi Day you ask?  That's a good question.  At the time I had no idea.  I actually didn't even know that the pub crawl was in honour of a New Zealand day.  I just showed up because I thought I should get out of the house.

Waitangi Day (/waɪˈtʌŋi/,^[1] named after Waitangi, where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed) commemorates a significant day in the history of New Zealand. It is a public holiday^[2] held each year on 6 February to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, on that date in 1840.

Copied straight from Wikipedia, so you know it's true.  Anyway, the pub crawl is meant to go along the Central Line and you're supposed to hit up 28 pubs along the way.  Obviously going into this I had no intention of completing it because I would be dead by the end of it.  Thankfully the pub crawl was actually just going into off license shops and walking around with beer.  It was crazy though.  There were like thousands of people there and all so loud and so drunk.

The best part of my night was at the end when my housemate and I went to McDonald's (obviously).  Three girls were berating the workers at McDonald's because they were drunk and mean and my housemate ripped into them and because I'm afraid of confrontation I apologized and told them they should just leave, but.....WE GOT FREE FOOD!!!  That's right, free McDonald's.  Basically one of my dreams come true.  It was aamazing!!!!  Best part of the day for sure.

As a side note, just watched Charles Hamelin win the gold in speed skating!  I love the Olympics and I'm proud of Canada because we're currently in first place for medals.  It's weird watching the Olympics here because it's obviously British coverage and therefore they don't care as much about Canada, which is a shame because the Brits aren't great at winter sports.  Now on to the moguls!

How to Go to the Dentist: British Stylez

So about a week, maybe two weeks ago my gums started to hemorrhage blood when I brushed my teeth.  At first I wasn't stressed about it.  I figured that this was overdue since I've been eating loads of candy and never flossing.  Then I got a nasty toothache last Friday and acted as if it was the worst pain life had to offer.  I have a low pain threshold and I don't even pretend to be able to be able to handle pain.  I just whine about it until it goes away.  My poor coworker found this out the hard way.  Although this week she said I barely complained, so maybe I was having an internal conversation with myself.  Anyway, at this point I started to panic, especially since I could feel the swelling in my gums.  So I asked how to book a dentist appointment.  It's a magical experience.  You go on the NHS site and tell them to find locations near you.  Then you get to read up on reviews and pick your dentist based on what the site tells you they offer.  So I picked one and booked online....ONLINE!  Then I got an email reminder and then two days before a text asking me to confirm.  AMAZING!  So today I rock up and I'm like "Yo, I'm here for my appointment."  They handed me an easy form to fill out.  I didn't have to prove that I belong in this country or anything.  Then I saw the dentist.  She took some x-rays and was like "Don't sweat it.  It's just some gingivitis.  Just keep flossing.  Book an appointment with me in six months for a check up and a hygienist appointment in between to get the plaque build up off."  Then I went downstairs, paid my £18, and got out of there.  It was ridiculously easy and required very little human contact, which I loved.  I love my dentist in Canada.  Love him, which actually made me even more nervous for this experience because I thought there was no way they could beat Zietsma and they didn't.  I would pick Zietsma over this lady any day, but making everything happen was a breeze.  I'm usually terrible at this stuff, so if I can do it and find it easy then it is easy for all mankind.  Next time you're in England check it out.  It will be life altering.  Although I will say that I got no free toothbrush and floss.  What's that about?  Maybe when I go for my cleaning they'll spoil me with such luxuries.

Ashursting

I started my week off by going to Ashurst Forest for some training.  I'll admit that I was grumpy and horrible last week.  I was just not into the week and everything was just getting to me.  I'm amazed no one commented on my lack of enthusiasm since everyone here seems to think I'm the happiest person ever.  Thankfully this week started off better.  I had to catch a train at 7:45am, so that wasn't the best ever, but Ashurst Forest was beautiful.  To get to the office you have to go through a forest that actually looked like a swamp because of all the flooding.  I saw sheep and donkeys and horses and pigs and unicorns, okay that one was before the caffeine kicked in.  May not have been real.  It was a nice break though.

I've also gotten into a routine of watching The Simpsons and Geordie Shore everyday after work, which is basically the best combo ever.  I just spend my evenings laughing and being happy I don't live in Newcastle where people are slutty and overly tanned despite the fact that it rains all the time there.  Today I've just been wasting time on Buzz Feed, which led me to this.........

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tabathaleggett/the-harry-potter-guide-to-the-u-k

Needless to say this is my new UK goal.  I want to see every place on here.  I don't care how long it takes or how in debt I get doing it.  It's happening.   

Weekend

Well, this weekend was surprisingly eventful.  On Friday I went to Ice Bar, which is an actual ice bar.  I got to wear a very sexy parka and drank out of glasses made of ice.  I felt like we were all part of some weird ice cult since everyone was walking around slowly with their hoods up.  For all I know we actually were gate crashing a cult gathering.

After that we went to the M&M's shop, which was actually so fun and I'm pretty sure I was the oldest person there.  There's definitely a chance that I'll return there to get an M&M's t-shirt.  They had so much cool stuff.  Thankfully I kept my dignity and didn't get into the photos with all of the M&M's, but I don't doubt it will happen one day.  I just felt weird about pushing kids out of the way so I could beat them to photos with the yellow M&M.

Last night I went to my friend's birthday party and it was a fondue party, so that was obviously awesome.  We went to a bar called 151 which my friend described as an overly expensive basement bar where posh people go to hang out.  His friends are from Chelsea so they're all quite fancy.  Today was glorious.  I spent the day in my sweatpants just watching Reese Witherspoon movies with my housemate.  Overall it was a good weekend.  I wasn't entirely unproductive and I got to see some cool places.

It's Time for the Winter Blues

This weekend my housemate told me she thinks I'm going to go through a quarter life crisis soon because I'm too happy.  A very important thing to note about London is that people are very suspicious of happy people.  No matter how good your life is you should be complaining.  Thankfully this week hasn't been my favourite and so I've followed suit with the rest of Londoners and started to complain.  I'm blaming this mainly on my winter blues finally settling in and the fact that all the rain has made me slightly sick.  I also started off the week going to Winnersh.  I'm always excited to check out new places, but I suddenly realized at midnight (day of) that I didn't really know how to get to the office I was meant to visit for training.  I ended up waiting around for an hour because allegedly someone was picking me up, but I'm pretty sure they didn't know that.  It wasn't super annoying, but it's not the best way to start the week.  

That's basically the downtown of....not Winnersh, but some place slightly outside of Winnersh.  It was a gorgeous day out and I had a good sandwich, so in the end it was a decent day.

Yesterday also ended well, but work was a bit hectic and a lady accused me of stealing a letter off her desk.  This is weird and frustrating in itself, but what bothered me more was the poor logic of coming to this conclusion.  This lady came in and asked if I'd stolen some letter off of her desk before she'd even been upstairs meaning she'd noticed it was missing on Monday, so she thought I went in after hours specifically to steal mail off of people's desks.  This makes me wonder if there's a rumour going around my office that I'm a sociopath.  

The good news is that it was Two for Tuesdays, so my housemate and I got a large pizza each.  Thank you Domino's for making my life complete.

Tonight we're going to see American Hustle, so my week is getting better as it goes on, but I'm still looking forward to the weekend so that I can hibernate and embrace my winter blues.

The ever so exciting town of Wendover

So on Friday I went to Wendover, which is in Buckinghamshire.  I took a fairly sketchy train and when I got there it was two platforms (one for each way) and a really tiny station.  I was taken through the downtown and to the office, which is on a dirt country road that leads to a dead end.  It was a surprisingly beautiful trek out there and actually nice to be out in some nature.  Plus I got free lunch that included cake, so that alone was worth the trip.  I took some photos, but seeing as I was taking them on the train they weren't the greatest.  

This is the booming downtown of Wendover.  A place that no one seems to have heard of.

And, last but not least, the very exciting platform I stood on going home.

After a day of uncomfortably personal stories I'm officially qualified to perform First Aid.  Of course if I'm ever put into a position where I have to use it I'll most likely be too terrified because the success rate is 2%, so I'd basically have to feel like I've let a person die.

On a more positive note, today I'm being sent out into the middle of nowhere for some software training.  When I Google mapped it it showed a house on a residential street.  I'm slightly convinced that this is a practical joke that I'm taking dead seriously.  If it is the company is willing to spend a lot on my train ticket to make it believable.  I'll keep you posted as to how this turns out.  Or if no post is created in the next 7 days please file a missing person's report.

2014 so far....

Alright, so obviously New Year's Eve involved copious amounts of drinking and obviously New Year's Day involved lying on the couch with McDonald's.  Now that that's out of the way, update on my resolutions.  Basically I've only stuck to going to church because so far that just means I went last Sunday.  I went to the 6pm service at my church, which is the "new age" one.  I find singing songs about how God is awesome a bit unsettling and there's too much talk about feelings and emotions and reconnecting with God.  I'm not into it, but I thought it might be a good opportunity to meet new people.  I did go for a drink with everyone, but it was a bit weird.  In true hypocritical fashion I'm not sure how keen I am on church people.  I just find them to be a bit intense.  I told them that I'll go back this week, but I'm not sure I'll follow through.  That being said, I might be sent straight to hell for lying to church people.  Tough call.

Apart from that I've basically done nothing good with this year so far.  I've been quite lazy and eating like crap.  I start everyday with good intentions.  I pack soup everyday for lunch and avoid the candy.  Then I go out and find candy or grab a pizza on my way home.  So, that's not great.  Tomorrow I have soup and salad, so hopefully the extra food of salad will help me stick to eating healthier.  In other good news, my job is suddenly sending me all over the place (aka to all the boring places of England) for training.  I'm going to Wendover (middle of nowhere) for First Aid training on Friday, Reading on Monday, and Bromsgrove at the end of the month.  Bromsgrove will actually be fun because I get to go in a car and spend the night there.  I'm excited to have a couple of days out of London and see some of the countryside.  My new TV obsession here is Geordie Shore.  I know it's so bad and trashy, but I love it anyway.  It's hilarious and they've got the weirdest accents.  I think that's it for an update.  I've been quite boring since the new year began.  I think my body is just detoxing from what I put it through during that week.  It doesn't know what to do anymore.  Oh, right, and I went to the theatre last Saturday.  Just a small play called 39 Steps.  It had a cast of four and was pretty funny.  I went to go to a proper West End show sometime soon though.  Okay, that's officially all of my updates.  On Saturday I'll update all of you on the exciting town of Wendover and what I learned in First Aid training.  Try not to get too excited.  If you can't wait until Saturday you can Google Wendover and get an idea of all the fun I'll be having.