Exit New York, Enter London

I arrived in London late Wednesday night. The flight went surprisingly well, I was seated in one of those long middle sections and I had the whole row to myself so I was able to lie down and sleep for awhile. I flew Virgin and the plane was brand new so it was pretty comfortable and had lots of movies to keep me entertained.
I took a cab from the airport (which cost £80 ie. $160 - ouch), but with all my luggage it was impossible for me to take the train, so whatever. When I arrived at the apartment, Jorge & his brother Joao were there to greet me and helped me with my bags. Jorge made us dinner and then I passed out.
I've spent the last few days resting and unpacking, trying to get organized enough so that when I start work on Monday I can get ready without too much hassle. I went to Boots pharmacy yesterday, which is kind of like a cross between CVS and Sephora, and I had a lot of fun checking out all the different brands they have here. It wasn't so fun when I actually paid for all my stuff, but once I start getting paid in pounds it will be much easier. They only pay monthly here and it is probably going to take awhile for me to get a bank account, I've heard that's pretty difficult, so I have to be as frugal as I can until I get that all sorted.
I'll make note of cultural differences as I come across them, since some people wanted me to report back about that and also any interesting slang. I've definitely noticed stuff the last few times I was here but at the moment I can't really think of anything in particular to mention. The only thing I've encountered in the last two days is that they didn't know what Q-tips were at Boots, they call them cotton buds. Also, I bought some laundry detergant and I was cracking up because it goes into great detail on the box as to what kind of stains it gets out and literally lists all of these bizarre possible stains like "banana milkshake" "summer fruits cordial" "pina colada" "tequila sunrise" "baked beans" "body glitter" "rhubarb yoghurts" "squirty whipped cream" and on and on. It's kind of amazing.
I'm going out tonight to see my friend Will's band play in Camden so I'm going to head out, but I'll write more soon. It's good to be here, although it was really incredibly hard for me to leave everyone and I'm still kind of emotionally exhausted from that. I'm going to try to take it easy this weekend though so I can be well rested for my new job on Monday. Hope everyone is well.