Fall / Winter

I've been really remiss in keeping this blog up as much as I'd like. I'm on the computer all day at work, so when I get home I don't always feel like sitting down at my desk again. I'm sure a lot of people feel that way. But unfortunately it means I haven't kept up as much as I want with my writing. I do have an idea for a new book though, so I'm hoping to take time to work on it in the next year. Mary said she'd do the artwork for it, so that would be a fun collaboration for us.

The last few months have really been non-stop hectic. My cat Lint passed away back in September and that was really hard, I still miss him. He was my buddy for 10 years so it's been an adjustment not to have him by my side. I still think he might be there sometimes when I wake up but then I remember. When I think about him I don't really get sad, I just laugh remembering what a brat he was, and what a sweetheart.

I've had a lot of visitors in the last few months, and gotten to travel some more, so that's all been great. Becca & Jake came on their honeymoon and we went to the markets, and ate fish & chips and went to the park, and just had a really fun time. They're so cute together, it was great to have them here and to show them around. I miss my Beccer.

Then Celine and her boyfriend Dustin came to visit in October. Celine is a really good friend of mine from college, she lives out in LA now. She works on reality TV shows, which she's been doing for years - ever since she randomly ended up helping cast the first Big Brother. Celine's awesome and even though we live far away, we've always kept in touch. I used to stay with her in Venice Beach whenever I went to LA.

Celine and Dustin went on an ambitious 5 week trip through Europe for her 30th birthday, and came to London for a few days at the end of it. Dustin is really into Banksy, a famous London street artist. There's tons of Banksy pieces around where I live, so we walked around and looked at some of them. I took them the Lazarides gallery in Soho, which is the only gallery that directly represents Banksy. There weren't any Banksy pieces but we got to see a really cool exhibit by Space Invader. He'd created huge pixellated mosaic tile portraits of famous characters - Bonnie & Clyde, Scarface, Travis Bickle. The mosaics were all made out of Rubix cubes. I was impressed both by the art and by the sheer amount of time it must have taken to make some of the pieces. I don't think I have that kind of patience.

I took them to Denmark St to see the music shops and Dustin bought Celine a guitar for her birthday. What a good boyfriend! I'd heard about a burlesque night they were doing at Lounge Lover, a beautiful cocktail bar down the road from my flat, and I thought they might enjoy it. I made reservations and Dustin & Celine & Miguel & Nuno and I went. But the burlesque was pretty shoddy. There were one or two attractive girls and one who could really sing, but other than that it was awkward. They tried to do some theatrical burlesque, but two women covered in opaque black gauze lurching around on massive stilts is not only ridiculously unsexy, it's fucking boring.

One of the better sets was a girl who did a piece as Little Bo Peep and she came over and hooked Dustin with her pink cane and dragged him up onto the stage. Celine and I were crying laughing. Celine & Dustin were super sweet and treated me & the boys to champagne and drinks. We really had a blast, even though the burlesque turned out to be some sort of amateur night gone wrong.

In November, Rick came and we had a fabulous two weeks together. The day after Rick arrived in London was Guy Fawkes Day, which is a British holiday. This dude Guy Fawkes was a Roman Catholic revolutionary who tried to blow up Parliament in the 1600s. He was caught, tortured, and killed (along with all the other people involved). But although he's a British traitor, there's some people who see him as a hero. He's actually the inspiration for the comic & movie V for Vendetta.

So Guy Fawkes Day (also called Bonfire Night) is a holiday celebrating the fact that he didn't succeed. They burn big bonfires with effigies of Guy Fawkes, and shoot off fireworks. In the week leading up to the holiday all these little fireworks stores started popping up all over my neighborhood. All night long there would be bangs in the distance from kids setting fireworks off. It sounded like gunshots, which reminded me of Brooklyn. Aah, Brooklyn.

But I now realize where we got the idea for how we celebrate the 4th of July. And it also hit me that 4th of July is an even bigger "fuck you" to the British than I knew. We basically took a British celebration of a failed rebellion and used the same trappings for our celebration of a successful rebellion. Take that, Red Coats!

By the way, in case you didn't know this - many Brits still call us 'Yanks' and sometimes refer to the US as 'the colonies'. It always makes me giggle. Also something I learned, which I admit that I was totally ignorant about before, is that Canada is still part of the British monarchy and under the domain of the Queen. How did this piece of knowledge escape me? I don't know, but I'm really starting to think less of the NY educational system than I even did before. Maybe I wasn't paying attention in class but I don't think we ever learned much about Canada other than that Canadian mounties ride horses and wear funny hats, and they have some good bacon & maple syrup up there.

But yeah, so Canada never really fully separated itself from England and now they have free healthcare and free education and aren't hated by the rest of the world. So, uh, it's a good thing we revolted against all those high taxes and the government intruding in our lives and telling us what to do! We really showed them, eh? USA! USA!

On that topic, a quick note on another thing I've learned about how people perceive Americans in the rest of the world (besides thinking we're fat, ignorant warmongers), there is also a prevailing opinion that we love to chant USA! USA! USA! in a really loud, obnoxious voice any chance we get. Especially after uttering some ridiculous ignorant statement in a southern accent. That, my friends, is our caricature around the world. I've seen this rendition of 'an average American' so many times in lots of different countries, as I'm sure any of you who have traveled outside the US can attest to.

It's obviously about as annoying as going up to an Irishman and miming being insanely drunk and talking about four leaf clovers and pots of gold in an accent reminiscent of the Lucky Charms dude. And about as accurate. But I take it with a grain of salt, because there's not much I can do about it other than prove them wrong just by sake of being an intelligent, friendly American, and also, every country and race has it's own demonized caricature to live down.

But whenever someone does the USA! thing, I can never help but think - and maybe it's because I'm from the Northeast - that I don't think I've ever actually heard anyone do that before in real life. I've probably seen it on TV in sporting events or something, but before I started traveling, I'd never actually seen anyone do it in the States. Now I hear it all the time.

So anyway, I digress. So back to Guy Fawkes... Joao and Anjalie invited Rick & I to go to Alexandra Palace (which everyone calls Ali Pali) to see the fireworks. Ali Pali is a Palace that was built to be used as a recreation center, and they have ice skating and events and stuff. It's really high up and overlooks the city so it's a perfect spot to watch the fireworks. It reminded me of going to Bald Hill, which is the highest point in Long Island, to watch the fireworks on 4th of July when I was a kid.

There were hundreds of people there of all ages. We found a grassy spot on the hill to sit and watch the fireworks and it was really really cool. I told Rick I had arranged it all to welcome him to London. He said I'd done a good job.

Then we went back to Joao and Anj's place and Anj cooked us a delicious dinner and we spent the rest of the night watching all 20-something chapters of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet. Which is the dumbest, most insanely brilliant thing ever. That man is an idiot savant. If you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend it. You will really never be the same again. You can't help but be horrified that anyone spent time and money making this garbage, but at the same time, you're utterly transfixed. Aah, the human brain, such a fickle instrument.

I had to work the first week that Rick was here, but while I worked he kept busy. He went to a lot of museums and walked all over London. In the evenings we met up with friends and went out to Vietnamese and Mexican and Brazilian food and to pubs. I took Rick to dinner at Bacchus one night and he was in heaven. I was so glad he finally got a chance to eat there, after I've been telling him about it for a year. Rick is definitely a man who can truly appreciate a fabulous meal. And Nuno is definitely a man who can cook one!

Rick and I had planned to travel while he was here, and so we left on Friday after I got off work for our adventure. Work had been really hectic and I was completely stressed out, so it really couldn't have been a better time for a break. We took the train from London to Dover and stayed overnight in a B&B. We saw the white cliffs of Dover, which are really beautiful, and took the ferry across to Calais.

The ferry only takes about an hour or so and the ride is really fun, although it was pretty rocky and I got a little nauseous. I really love boats, but I don't know how much they love me. The first time I stayed on my aunt's boat I got really sick. She wasn't very happy with me. But now I know to take dramamine and wear these pressure point wrist bands that keep you from being nauseous. I wear them when I fly too and they help a lot.

We got to Calais, which although it sounds nice, it's kind of a shithole. It's just a grey place with a ferry terminal and a parking lot. We ate some prison-style slop in the ferry terminal while we waited for our friend Jon. Jon picked us up in a rental car and we headed to Dunkirk. We wanted to see the WWII stuff around Normandy, but it was pouring rain and we didn't really know where stuff was. We met people at a cafe in Dunkirk and they told us to go to the Museum of Dunkirk.

The Museum told the story of the town and had lots of models of ships and these fabulously detailed dioramas. The guy who'd made them was some unsung diorama-making rock star. I've never seen dioramas so cleverly done, his grasp of perspective was so superb that you could walk around the diorama and the scenes would shift. My inner diorama-making 4th grader was in awe.

Jon's friends had recommended that we check out this town in Belgium called Brugge. It was only a few hours drive, so we headed up there. We parked the car just outside of town and took the bus into the town center. We weren't sure where to get off so I asked this guy on the bus where we could get drinks & food. His name was Brian and he turned out to be really cool and he said he'd show us where to go.

He took us to his favorite bar and a group of his friends were drinking there. They were all actually in a fraternity together, even the women. It was kind of a social fraternity that basically seemed to involve getting drunk, singing songs, and wearing big sashes. They were pretty awesome, I totally wanted to be in their frat. The bartender poured us some of Belgium's famous beers - Duvel & Jupiler for the boys and Cherry Lambic for me, and we were all grinning from ear to ear.

After we were a bit soused (as my Grandma Anita would say), we went outside to the town square and Brian showed us this food stand where they had the most incredible frites ever. American french fries are like limp sticks of greasy potato next to these fabulously salted, thick, crunchy Belgian frites. And they pour a huge dollop of mayo over the top. It's a heart attack waiting to happen, but man it tasted fantastic. We loved it so much we tried half the rest of the food they offered. We got huge bratwurst sausages with mustard and chunks of meat on a stick. Everything was amazing. You just really can't go wrong with meat on a stick.

The beer there is over 8% alcohol, so it's super strong. The Belgians warned the boys not to drink more than 3 Duvel but of course they didn't listen. I was a bit more conservative and I was the only one spared a splitting hangover the next morning. But we had a fantastic time hanging with the locals and eating lots of frites and Belgian chocolate and checking out the bars. Brian gave us some suggestions for places to go, but he said not to go to this biker bar that was in the "bad" part of town.

We wandered down there later to check it out, because we were curious as to what the "bad" part of this beautiful town was. It seemed really nice to us. We were puzzled at first, but we then realized what he meant about 'bad' was actually that it was the locals-only area of town, and being tourists, we weren't really welcome. Especially, we were told by some people, because Rick is "brown" (he's hispanic).

We came upon the biker bar at some point and it actually reminded me of Motor City bar in NY. It looked like a cool little punk rock hangout. We went inside to check it out and everyone there ended up being really friendly and cool and we stayed for a few hours and made some new friends. The guys that hung out there were all in a biker club. This girl I was talking to told me that her husband was in the club and that he was away in the Army and everyone looked out for her while he was away, which was nice.

I told her how people said we shouldn't go to that bar and she said it was probably because of Rick. But she said that it wasn't a problem because 'he isn't dark enough'. Which spoke volumes. She said if someone looked Turkish or similar they wouldn't have been welcome. She said she wasn't racist and she didn't support it but she was honest and told me there was a lot of it around and that some of the guys in the biker club were racist. They were all very cool to us, but we didn't stay very long after that.

Later that night we went back to the bar that Brian had taken us to earlier. It was way more crowded at this point. People were dancing to house music and a lot of the patrons looked like they didn't get the memo that the 80s were over. A bunch of guys were staring at me and I thought it was because I looked foreign. But the group closest to me were giving me really weird vibes and I couldn't figure out if it was positive or negative. I started feeling tension from them. They were dressed somewhat like skinheads and I had a sudden realization that they were Nazi skinheads and they were probably looking at me because I'm white and blonde and I was with a brown guy.

I told Jon and Rick and they didn't believe me at first but then this guy walked by with a Swastika and other racist patches on his coat and we figured that was our cue to leave. Outside there were people fighting and on the way back to the hostel we saw a big group of Nazi skinheads walk past. I really loved Belgium and so many of the people we met were stellar and totally welcoming, but that kind of put a damper on the trip.

It turned out the reason all the racist skins were in town was because the next day was Armistice / Remembrance Day, which is a national holiday in Belgium, France, Canada and other places. It marks the end of WWI, and there are big celebrations in Flander's Field in Belgium. We celebrate it as Veteran's Day. The skins are very nationalist, so they turn out for celebrations like that. They were all in Brugge because Flander's Field wasn't far from where we were.

Jon, who's Canadian, especially wanted to go to see the ceremonies. We did too, but we had reservations at a Champagne cellar tour in France in the afternoon. The traffic on the way to Flander's Fields would have taken up over half the day.

We had Belgian waffles with ice cream and warm chocolate for breakfast and it was as good as you could imagine. Then we headed off to Reims, which is in the Champagne region in France to drink some Champagne in Champagne.

Rick & Jon had stayed up really late at the hostel getting hustled at pool by two 14-year old girls and then falling up the stairs and jumping all over the room until 4am. They were so hungover they could barely function. Rick passed out in the backseat and I kept Jon company and navigated through the beautiful rolling French countryside. We passed countless farms and quaint little towns, which all had a steeple near the center and little white houses with chimneys. It was just like I imagined.

We went to Taittinger, a famous champagne vineyard, for a cellar tour. We saw the chalk caves where the monks made and stored all the champagne for centuries. It was really amazing to go in these huge cool caves and see thousands of bottles of champagne stacked everywhere. They showed us how the champagne was made and afterwards we each got a glass to try.

Then we went into Reims and saw the exquisite cathedral where they used to crown the Kings of France. We had an amazing steak dinner in town and then drove to Jon's apartment in Paris.

My whole life I have wanted to go to Paris. I studied French for 4 years in anticipation of visiting Paris one day. I've had many plans through the years to go, but for different reasons, was never able to. I couldn't have possibly been more excited about finally getting to see Paris. And I don't care what anyone else's experience has been or what they have told me, Paris absolutely exceeded my expectations. I loved it.

Jon was studying at La Sorbonne and he was living in a tiny little apartment in a really beautiful area of town. It used to be servants quarters and it was actually two servants rooms attached, which I couldn't imagine because they were both so small. The shower was in the kitchen and the bathroom was in the hall, shared with the other apartments. The servants must have been really pissed off back then because Jon said the apartments downstairs were huge and then they had to live in these little rooms.

Jon was really gracious and gave Rick and I his bed and he slept on the kitchen floor in front of the stove. Jon is a really fantastic guy and we had such a great time with him. He was so accommodating and awesome about having us there.

My friend Jesse and his boyfriend Mike were in town too so the next day we met up with them at this cool boutique hotel where they were staying, called Hotel Amour. Each room is decorated with a different theme, and their room was this really pretty leafy green color with cute little sayings and sketches stencilled on the walls. Jesse is in grad school at Harvard and Mike lives in NY, so they try to see each other when they can. Mike works for Google and was in Europe on a business trip, and he extended his stay so he & Jesse could meet up for a romantic weekend in Paris. We crashed their party a bit and we all had breakfast together before they headed home.

Jon & Rick & I walked around to galleries and ate croque monsieur and drank wine and had fondue for dinner. We ate so much cheese in Paris. We developed a habit of shouting 'Ou Et La Fromage?' to each other. When we got some cheese we'd exclaim 'Ici La Fromage!' Rick and I briefly considered getting tattoos in homage to fromage, but fortunately decided against it.

We walked all over with Jon as our tour guide and I practiced my incredibly bad and rusty French. Jon took us to this great wine bar that's also a library / book store. He read us a children's book about a little rabbit named Caca Boudin, which means shit sausage. I don't pretend to understand French quirkiness. I just admire.

We thought people were being nice to us just because we were with Jon and he looks like a GQ model and speaks fluent French but actually when Rick and I spent a day by ourselves and had to survive with Franglish, we found everyone we met to be really open and friendly.

People were totally cool about giving us directions and advice. They treated us really well and they were curious and asked us about ourselves. I'd heard from so many people how nasty the French are and how rude they are to Americans. But I have to say, I didn't experience that once the whole time I was there.

Truth be told, and I don't care if you don't believe me, the absolute truth is that when Becca & I were not with our Irish friends in Dublin, people were mean and nasty to us, which was the last thing I expected from the Irish. However, when we were with our Irish friends, people were nice and friendly. In Paris, people were super nice to us whether we were with French speaking people or not, which was also totally unexpected. And there ends another lesson about bullshit stereotypes.

We saw as much of Paris as we could in the few days we were there. We went to a famous cafe called Les Deux Magots where all the writers and artists used to hang out, and had quiche and croque madame. We ate lots of creme brulee (my favorite) and went to cool bars in the Marais. We went to the Luxembourg Palace & gardens and the Place des Vosges. We went to the Musee d'Orsay and saw so many masterpieces my head was spinning. Paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh, Monet, Degas, it was unreal. The French are totally hogging all the good art. Bastards.

We hung out at this cool bar called Le 10 Bar in the Saint-Germain one night and Jon filled the jukebox up with Velvet Underground songs and we relaxed and drank wine and talked all night. Then we got crepes at 5am and chatted with the cops who were hanging out at the crepes place.

One of the reasons we'd planned the trip is because it was Rick's birthday that week. On his birthday, we spent most of the day walking around the Centre Pompidou, which is the big Modern Art Museum. We absolutely loved it, it was so huge and crazy and had tons and tons of fantastic art. It was sensory overload. Matisse, Duchamp, Dali, Basquiat. So. much. art.

There's a beautiful modern restaurant on the roof of the Pompidou called Restaurant Georges. We sat up there and looked out the huge windows of the restaurant onto stunning views of Paris. The Eiffel Tower was sparkling like a disco ball. Jon said they do that, they light it different colors and make it shimmer and sparkle, it looked really cool.

We ate escargot (snails) and Rick had never had them. It sounds gross but they are actually really good, they taste kind of like seafood and they were in a pesto-style sauce. After the Pompidou we met up with my friend Kat who lives in Paris. Kat is a photographer and I know her through Annick, they went to college together at Parsons.

We all went to dinner at a Tunisian place that Celine had recommended and ate merguez sausage and salads and sole and cous cous. It was delicious. Afterwards we walked around and saw the Arc de Triomphe and I finally got to see the Champs Elysees. It was night and all the stores were closed, but that's ok because I couldn't afford anything anyway.

We stayed out drinking late into the night with Kat. Jon and Rick drank 'Lion's Drink', which is a drink Jon learned in Trenchtown, Jamaica. They take Guinness and mix it with Red Bull (or in this case, French energy drink). It's called 'Lion's Drink' because it's supposed to make you be able to *bleep* all night. I can't confirm the validity of that because obviously we were staying with Jon in close quarters and that wouldn't have been respectful, but I think Rick had a really great birthday anyway.

The next day Jon took us for this amazing breakfast of steak and creme brulee at a cafe near his apartment. It wasn't something you'd normally eat for breakfast but it was our last few hours there and we wanted to try it. It was delicious. Then we bought some bread & cheese & sausage for our trip home and said goodbye to Jon. We were sad to leave him but I'm sure we'll see him again very soon.

It was the 2nd day the Eurostar high speed train was going into the newly refurbished St. Pancras station, and it was really fun to take the train. It's only like 2 hours from Paris to London on the train, it's amazing. We had breakfast in Paris, lunch on the train, and dinner in London. Very glamourous :)

That night was Jorge's birthday party so we pretty much went straight out to dinner with 20 or so friends, and then we rested the last day Rick was in London. He headed back to NY and we were sad to part, we'd had such an amazing time.

A few days after Rick left, Mary and her boyfriend Kramer came to visit me over Thanksgiving. Mary stayed with me & Kramer stayed with his friend Maartje. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my place and Kevin came over, and a friend of Mary's who was in town. Our kitchen is pretty small, so we couldn't have lots of people, but we had a fun & cozy dinner. I actually cooked, shockingly enough. I made a Hungarian dip called Kurizit and Seven-layer cookies, both from my Mom's recipes. The cookies didn't turn out the way I wanted because the base is supposed to be graham cracker and they don't have that here. I tried to substitute with ginger cookies but it wasn't the same.

Mary & I didn't have tons of time together, as it was a short trip. I was also sick part of the time they were here, but we managed to get to the markets and walk around and I took Mary to Indian food on Brick Lane. We stayed up late talking one night. I miss late night talks with Mary. She really loved it here, which is great because I'm trying to get her to move to London. I don't think she needs much convincing though!

After Mary & Kramer left, the Slackers came to town again. My friend Tiffany, who is Marcus from the Slackers' wife, came to stay with me for a few days before they got into town. Tiff's a photographer and she works for the NY Post. We walked around a lot and I showed her all the good spots in East London. She took lots of pictures and when she got back to NY she was able to syndicate some of them.

We went to a bunch of art galleries and saw this fantastic street art exhibit at Open Studio Space gallery with Pure Evil, Eine, and a bunch of other artists. We met Pure Evil and he was really nice. I showed her the pubs near Spitalfields where Jack the Ripper used to meet his victims. Then on Tiffany's birthday, the Slackers came and played and me & Tiff & Jorge went and I brought my friends Anne & Roy to the show. We all went out afterwards in Soho and it was good to see all the boys.

That weekend Tiffany and I went to Amsterdam for 3 days. We walked around as much as we could in the frigid cold. It was really freezing but also good because it was the off-season for tourists and there was a lot of room everywhere we went. Tiff said in the summer it's super packed.

I got to see all the canals and all the ladies in the windows in the Red Light district. We went to the coffee shops and visited the Anne Frank House. It was really crazy to actually see the house where Anne and her family hid from the Nazis; to see the tiny rooms that these two families were forced to hide in and think that they could never go outside or leave. And that when they did leave, it was to go to their deaths in the camps.

One night we met up with Chenoa & Amber, who are friends with the Slackers. All the other girls were traveling on to see the Slackers play at this club called Ernestos in Sittard, which is one of the Slacker's favorite places to play, they've even recorded an album there. I had to go back to London though, so I wasn't able to see them play in Sittard. One day I'll go and see this place that I've heard so much about.

After Amsterdam, I just worked until the holidays. Work was supposed to be slow, but the last week before Christmas ended up to be insanely busy. I had originally planned to go to Portugal with the boys, but I decided to stay in London. Annick and her whole family were coming for the week, to stay with their close friends who live in Notting Hill.

I spent most of the week hanging out with Annick, we went to the Tate Modern and just caught up. I really miss seeing her all the time. Annick's family friends who live in London - Janet and her daughters Alex & Gina - are really sweet. Gina is an Opera singer and she's studying at the Guildhall. She's still a teenager but she's really mature for her age, and has an incredible voice and presence.

The two families put together a beautiful church service in honor of Annick's Grandmother, who was in town with them. Annick's Dad and some other people did readings and Gina and one of her friends sang and they were amazing. I'm sure one day Gina will be a very well known Opera singer, she's an amazing talent.

Annick & her family and I all went up to Oxford with Anya to check out the University. We had tea & scones in town and then took a walk around Anya's college in the dark, which was very creepy. There were almost no electric lights and we were just walking around these old quiet stone buildings with nothing but moonlight to illuminate our path. We felt our way around in the dark and Anya told us we were stepping on the gravestones of people who were buried in the floors, which when we shone the light from our cell phones on the floor, we could see was true.

We walked around the grounds and Anya took us to this big mound and told us that they say all the people who died from the plague, which hit Oxford very hard, are buried in a mass grave there. There were huge skeletal trees with bats flying out of them and we were surrounded by stone walls with sculptures of grotesques carved in them and with the full moon, and the mound of dead bodies, I don't think it could have possibly been any more of a horror-movie scene. Annick's family happily clambered up the wooded mound, but Tyler (Annick's sister Jojo's boyfriend) and I refused. Although we both agreed that it's always the ones who stay behind out of caution that get killed first in the movies.

Afterwards we went to the Eagle & Child pub - where J.R.R Tolkien & C.S. Lewis used to hang out and talk about their books and get drunk with all their writer friends. We had some pints there and I walked around and looked at all the 1st edition Narnia book covers they have framed there. Very cool.

Annick and I stayed over at Oxford and the next day we headed back to London, while Anya flew back to Maine for the holidays. Bacchus was closed for the holiday so we decided to do Xmas Eve dinner there, much nicer than at our flat! Nuno cooked an insane meal of salmon & pork belly & goose & prawns. Miguel's Mom was in town and she Nuno cooked up a storm together. She brought this amazing salted fish all the way from Portugal, which her parents had driven like 100 miles or something to get for us. It was incredible. Even Annick liked it and she doesn't like fish. Miguel's sister came with her boyfriend and for a small group of people, we had enough food to feed an army. We had cheese and salads and amazing chocolate mousse dessert and basically stuffed ourselves silly.

After the holidays, I tried to take it easy and rest up for my trip back to NY for Erika's wedding. I went to NY in January for 10 days and got to see everyone, which was awesome. I stayed with Rick in Brooklyn and one night we went to my friends Brandon & Gabe's new restaurant, called Roberta's. They do really delicious Italian food - pizzas mostly, made in a huge oven they imported from Italy. The food is really good there, if you get a chance you should go check it out, it's in Brooklyn off the Marcy stop I think.

One night we went to one of the readings Mary curates for a series called Readings between A & B. Then Rick & I went to dinner with my cousins Matt and Amanda at Momofuku in the Village, it was really great to see them. I hung out with my Dad one day, but didn't get to see Max unfortunately because he was sick.

I did a lot of shopping because everything is so much cheaper for me to buy in NY. My friend Karen who owns a punk rock clothing store called Lawanna's in Brooklyn opened a new, bigger store so we went down to check it out and visit Karen & Stella. I got to hang out with Minor a bunch, and that was good.

We had Erika's bachelorette party, which we did a fancy hotel lounge bar crawl for, and it was so good to see all my girlfriends. I tried to see everyone as much as I could, 10 days just didn't seem like enough time, but it was a great trip. I went out to dinner one night with Annick & Walter & the old Boston crew - Anne & Hiro & Becca & Mary & Kramer. I was bridesmaid in Erika's wedding and so we did the whole wedding party stuff - rehearsal dinner with the family, getting nails done with the bride & bridesmaids, it was a lot of fun.

Robyn came to town for the wedding and she did Erika's makeup and was kind enough to do mine as well. Erika looked absolutely gorgeous, her dress was beautiful and had a really cool touch of black lace trim at the bottom that gave it a kind of Spanish flair. She and Ian were beaming the whole time, and the wedding was so fun.

At the wedding I got to hang out with so many friends who I really miss - Megan & Heather & Rachel & Erin & Jordan & Danielle & Grant & Kate & Annick & Jesse & Katie. Everyone was looking beautiful and Kate gave a really good speech, and the Slackers played, and we ate good food and danced all night and it was just really a fabulous time. Tiffany was the wedding photographer and I can't wait to see all the pictures, I'm sure they're amazing. It was really good to have Rick there and see Robyn, especially since she just moved to Hawaii, so who knows how long it'll be before we see each other in person again!

I couldn't have wished anything more for Erika. Ian is such a great guy, and I was so happy for them, and all their friends and family were there wishing them the best. I was sad to go back to London and leave everyone, but my life is here now, so back to London I flew.

Towards the end of my trip, I'd gotten a sore throat and when I came back to London it got worse. I ended up having a really bad chest infection that turned into some kind of virus. I heard a lot of people were getting this really bad illness that lasted weeks. I don't know what the deal is, but I was sick for almost 3 weeks straight and I didn't get better until I finally got a doctor's appointment and I got antibiotics.

It's cool the health system is free here (you pay with your taxes but there's not much cost on top of that), but it was really hard for me to figure out how it works. I was able to get looked at right away at a clinic, but there's not much they can do for you but check your vitals and make sure it's nothing super serious and tell you to rest. To get a prescription or have tests taken, you need to go to a doctor. But you have to register with a doctor first, and you can only go to a doctor who is in your neighborhood.

You have to go on the NHS website and they tell you which doctors you're eligible to go to. Then you have to see if those doctors are taking new patients. I found that getting a hold of them is very difficult, and then you have to get an appointment to register which can take weeks, even if you are very sick.

Then you go register, but you can't see a doctor. You have to make another appointment. So really not a good situation when you're ill. I was feeling good about the British healthcare system after watching Sicko, and it really is amazing that everyone here can get care and that prescriptions are only 6 pounds and stuff, but my experience in actually trying to navigate through it and get care when I was sick was pretty stressful.

And it made it even harder to be that sick and feel so far away from everyone. So I was getting a bit sad for awhile lying in bed all day for weeks not really being able to do anything and feeling pretty awful with no one to take care of me. The boys were mostly gone traveling and at work but they would check in on me now and then. My Mom received quite a few phone calls from me, she's always good at making me feel better!

But I finally saw the doctor and got antibiotics and I felt better immediately. Thank you Alexander Fleming! Excellent work. I've been taking it easy since then so I don't get sick again.

I spent last weekend in Oxford hanging out with Anya and relaxing. We had a lovely night with her friends eating homecooked food and drinking wine, and talking until late in the night. You really can't ask for a better group of conversationalists than Oxford grad students from Scotland, Brazil, Russia and Taiwan. Anya's friends there are all really fascinating and accomplished, and they're sweet, lovely people to boot.

On Sunday we went to a grad student brunch at her college, and then some of the girls took me on a walk around the colleges. Oxford is made up of over 30 different colleges, each with their own campus and traditions. The college doesn't determine your program, you do your degree and classes with people from all the colleges, but your college determines your social life and where you live, stuff like that.

It's a bit confusing but I'm starting to understand it. Anya is in one of the most prestigious and elite colleges there, the New College, or College of St Mary. Although it's called the 'New' College, it's actually one of Oxford's oldest, and was established in 1379. We walked around the chapel and cloisters there, which last time I had only seen at night and were much less creepy and very beautiful during the day.

We also went to Christ Church, and saw the dining hall where Harry Potter was filmed, and to Magdalen, Merton, and some other colleges. They all have their own atmosphere and culture. Some are very formal and strict, others are more relaxed and less traditional. All the colleges are very beautiful. You can only really go on the grounds if you are with an Oxford student, and some colleges you can only go in with a student who is a member of that college.

It was so nice to be out of London for awhile in the fresh air and old stone buildings and see trees and meadows and little rivers. I adored all the libraries stuffed with books and the architecture - massive stone facades, carved with creatures and gleaming with exquisite stained glass everywhere. Oxford is definitely my kind of place. Everyone I met there was warm and friendly and had fascinating stories to tell. I want to spend a lot more time there.

In other news, I finally found a new flat, and I'll be moving into it in a few weeks. My friend Stella, who I know through Jorge & Joao, found a really great flat down the street from where I live now. She and her boyfriend Neil are taking one of the bedrooms and a woman named Rosanna is taking the other. They had one last room to fill, and I went down to check it out. The flat is beautiful, it's a warehouse conversion. There's an art gallery on the ground floor, and the flat itself has been outfitted similarly to a gallery as well. It has huge ceilings, wood floors and white walls with new fixtures and track lighting.

The room I'm taking is nice and big, so I can have one side that's a living area, and the other part for my bed & desk. It has built in closets and an ensuite bathroom with a separate bath and shower, so it's pretty much heavenly. I'm super excited about it and I hope it all works out.

My company is also moving offices the week after I move my flat, so that'll be pretty hectic. But the new offices are going to be brand new and modern and clean and beautiful so I'm looking forward to upgrading my surroundings on all fronts.

My Aunt Sandy, Uncle Jeff and cousin Amanda are coming to visit soon, on their way over to Barcelona where my cousin Stefanie has been doing a semester abroad. I'm looking forward to seeing them and taking them out in London a bit. I've also been talking to Steffie about her coming over here & me going over there to visit.

The last few, and best, pieces of news are that Rick is going to be coming here to stay with me. We decided to get back together and he's going to come and hang out in London for awhile and see if he wants to move here for good. I can't wait until he comes, I really didn't think it was possible for me to miss someone so much.

And the other exciting news is that Adam is coming home from Iraq soon! His unit in the Maryland National Guard is getting replaced there and they are coming home. Adam was also just awarded a second bronze star, which is amazing. I am so proud of him. I know Goli has been counting the days to when they can be together again, and I'm sure Adam has been too. It makes me so happy to think that Adam will be going home to Goli right around the same time that Rick will be coming back to me.

Adam and Goli will be traveling to Turkey in late March / April to spend a month there relaxing and hanging with Goli's family. Rick and I really want to go over there to see them and spend time in Istanbul with them, so I'm working on sorting out the details for that trip.

As always, thinking of all of you back home and sending my love. Please email me or call or comment, however you like, but it would be great to hear from everyone about what you've all been up to.

Much love.

Birthday celebrations and musings...

I’ve been writing a post about my birthday trip to Barcelona, but I want to post some pics with it so when I get some from Anya I’ll post that later... Overall, though, the trip was amazing.

When we got back last Monday, Anya stayed overnight and then headed to Oxford, where she’s going to grad school. On Tuesday my friend Jon called to say he was in town. Jon is from Canada, and he's been going to law school in Toronto. I met him a few years ago through a mutual friend in NY and we usually hang out when he’s visiting NY, he's there off and on. Last year he took a year off school to work at a law firm in Tokyo. I planned to visit him and a few of my other friends who live there, but unfortunately it was just too expensive. Hopefully now that I'm closer it will be easier to get over to Asia.

Jon's doing a semester now in Paris at La Sorbonne, so before he started classes he came over to London for two days. He was heading to Barcelona afterwards, so we were doing opposite trips. I met up with Jon after work for a drink and then we went to see New Young Pony Club at the Astoria. I didn't know much about the band before the show, but it was really great. There's 3 girls and two guys. The girls are all really sexy in different ways, the singer is a pretty black girl with a hip, kind of quirky style. The keyboardist is blonde and vixen-y, she was wearing a black dress with these huge black feather fringes on the shoulders. I was stoked to see they have a girl drummer, and she played quite well. The guys in the band are kind of dorky and awkward looking, which is nice in a way because they sort of fade into the background and let the girls do their thing. They basically play dance-rock, and the show was really high energy. We danced and got all sweaty and had a fun time.

The next night we went to Nuno's restaurant, Bacchus. Anya and her brother Dennis had plans to meet up there with their cousin Carl. Carl lives in the States and he was in town on a business trip with a colleague. Jon wanted to check out Bacchus as well, so we basically crashed their dinner but they were really cool about us joining them. Jon lived in Russia for awhile so he and Dennis were able to chat a bit in Russian.

We all decided to try the 9 course tasting menu. It was a brand new menu, so although I've been there two times already I hadn't had any of those dishes. We started dinner around 8 and didn't finish until after 12. The meal was amazing. It was definitely the best meal I've had there yet. It's really coming together fabulously. Everything we had was really delicious and interesting and flavourful, and different to anything I've ever tasted before. I think Nuno's really hitting his stride with the menu, which is exciting because they've haven't even been open a full year. I can only imagine where he'll go with things next!

It was really a lovely dinner and in the end Carl was so sweet and treated all of us, which was very generous. It was so nice to relax and eat yummy food and have drinks and by the end of the night we were all feeling nice and warm, even though it was rainy and cold outside. Jorge and Miguel came to meet up with us for drinks and afterwards we all headed back to the flat and hung out for awhile.

The weekend after was pretty hectic. My company has been doing really well, so as a thank you to their employees this year they decided to do their annual Summer party as a big event. I'm not sure why they were having the Summer party at the end of Sept, but whatever. They treated everyone to go for the day and stay overnight at a golf club / spa / resort in Essex County. I roomed with my boss which I guess is kind of weird but Martha and I get along and we spent really minimal time in the room, so it wasn't that bad.

The trip itself was definitely an experience. There's about 90 people in the London offices and most people went. They took us in a coach bus from the office in the morning which felt like some strange grown up field trip, we played quiz games and they handed out juice. Martha and I grabbed the backseat of the bus (obviously) and I listened to my ipod most of the time so it wasn't that bad. The place was spread over 300 acres in the English countryside and the grounds were very beautiful. But most of it was a golf course, there weren't really gardens or anything to walk around. They had planned lots of outdoor games but it was pouring so we couldn't do any of them. They'd split us into teams and I heard the events were supposed to include climbing big inflatable walls and stuff so I was pretty relieved it was raining. I'm not really into climbing inflatable walls with my co-workers although a surprising amount of people I work with were very disappointed.

The people who planned the event worked really hard so I felt bad but it just seemed ridiculous to expect that in a country where it probably rains over 80% of the time that we would have a nice clear day to do outdoor activities. But apparently they banked on it, because there was no contingency plan. The spa was booked until 5 and was overly expensive anyway. They had a room with two snooker tables and a room with table tennis, but they said we couldn't play table tennis because it was next to the massage room and it made too much noise. Which was ridiculous design on their part. There were also squash courts and a pool, but I didn't bring a bathing suit and I didn't really feel like getting into a swimsuit in front of my colleagues.

We all ate lunch and basically wandered around the complex for awhile. I watched people play squash for it a bit, it's really popular here, they have it at my gym as well. It looks fun and like a pretty intense workout, I'd like to try it. Martha went up to the room and slept until dinner and I just walked around and hung out with different people. I ended up going with some of the guys in marketing & sales to play poker in a hotel room. I don't know how to play that well but I helped my friend Richard play and we won, so I'm either decent at poker or have good luck, but either way it was fun, especially since I was the only girl playing with like 7 guys.

After the poker game I went to change and we all went down to dinner. The dinner was a 3 course meal in a big event hall, and they had a couple bars and a DJ. Everything was free, and everyone I work with proceeded to get wasted. My Australian friend Jordan and I were like, ok we’re not getting drunk and we’re not dancing. Jordan’s 21 and this is his first real job, so he’s not even used to working at a corporation, let alone partying with co-workers. And I’m just way too American to feel comfortable getting very drunk around people I work with. But in Britain, not only is it totally not a big deal, it’s completely expected. I had a few beers and then switched to water about halfway through the night. Jordan and I spent the night cracking up at how drunk and crazy everyone was, taking pictures of people dancing, and generally marvelling at the Brits. I won’t go into details, but half the stuff that happened that night would have been seriously frowned upon in the States.

There’s something I really enjoy about the work environment in the UK. People are much more themselves at work, they feel free to say what they think, people curse and tease each other, basically they act how they would be around their friends. A lot of people are good friends with their work mates, hang out with them on the weekends, everyone goes to the pub together on Fridays. They don’t take themselves too seriously at work, which I really like. If you have a stressful day or problems with someone, everyone just kind of has a beer together after and everything’s cool. People can separate stuff that happens at work from who you are as a person. I love that part of it, the fact that you don’t always have to try to be super positive about every little thing and watch everything you say and do at work. I think the American corporate environment in incredibly stifling, and I think the Brits are just as productive and work as hard, but it’s a much better work environment.

I also definitely have reservations about the drinking culture here in general, especially as it relates to work. Some people at the party were so out of control as far as I’m concerned. I wouldn’t even get that drunk with my friends. And it didn’t phase anyone. At work on Monday, everyone was just laughing about it, it seemed like there was absolutely no judgement or repercussions. And as much as that makes me feel comfortable that no one would think the worse of you if you partied a little too much, I also know that I would never act that way around my colleagues. And I think that in a way it is kind of sad. In the morning we all went to breakfast and I said to one of the guys I work with, I just don’t understand why people would get that drunk at a work party. I mean, my boss and I had to carry a guy back to his room, another guy fell over and knocked over a table full of glasses. And he said, well some people don’t get to go out much, and it’s free to drink, so they enjoy themselves.

I guess that’s the main thing I’m learning about British culture. To me, just because it’s free doesn’t mean you have to drink like you’re a 16 year old at your first party. But that’s the mentality here. People who during the day are quiet and reserved get a couple drinks in them and it’s their excuse to ‘let loose’, and do the things they want to do but don’t have the courage to do when they’re sober. And that’s something I can’t relate to. I shoot my mouth off and I’m louder when I’m drunk, but I’m always still myself. I still say what I think when I’m sober as much as I do when I’m drunk, probably just less belligerently. With the Brits it’s like Jekyll and Hyde. They’re all nice and proper, but put a few drinks in ‘em and they can get quite intense. They really do drink to get drunk. It’s not like they’re out with friends and they have some drinks, and if they get drunk, whatever. It’s like their whole night revolves around getting wasted, and if they don’t get super falling down drunk, they feel it was a let down. Of course I’m generalizing here, I know a lot of Brits who aren’t like that, but on the whole, that’s the social culture here. It definitely takes getting used to.

And at the party I think in a way people were taken aback by the fact that I wasn’t indulging with them. I’m sure they chalk it up to me being American, but I could tell it bothered them like, what was my problem? Everyone kept saying, why aren’t you drunk? Drink more! I’m sure it’s also a bit disconcerting when you’re wasted and someone you’re hanging out with is sober because you know they’ll remember every detail in the morning and you probably won’t. I tried to go to bed around 2, but people knew it'd been my birthday so the Managing Director (the British title for company President) bought me and another guy whose birthday it was a bottle of champagne. I had some champagne and sang Pogues songs with one of my bosses and went to bed.

The next day I came back home and slept all day because my birthday party was that night. We started with dinner at this pub called El Paso where Jorge & Nuno are friends with the owners. For a pub in London, they have good tex mex food, and it’s a fun atmosphere and cheap, so it worked out well. They set a big table for us in the back room. We have a new flatmate, Miguel, who is a close friend of Joao’s from Portugal. Miguel just moved to London to start university, and he was planning to move in with us when we got a new flat. Since we decided to stay where we are for another few months, Miguel is staying in Jorge’s room for awhile, same as I did. It worked out alright for him because he just got here, so it gives him some time to get settled and save money before we move. He got a part time job at El Paso for now, and my birthday was his first night working there. So he still got to hang out with us, but from the other side of the bar.

My good friend Kevin just moved here from NY to go to grad school for journalism, so he came and met everyone. It seemed weird to see him in London because I’m so used to hanging out with him in NY. It’s going to be really good to have him here, makes it seem more like home. I’ve only been here a little while so I wasn’t expecting to have many people at my birthday, but a bunch of people came out and it was really fun. Anya and her brother Dennis came, some of Dennis’ friends, Jorge & Joao, Gabriela, Paul (who works at the drum shop with Jorge), IR who is an old friend of Jorge & Joao’s, Hans & some of his friends, Rory and lil’ Rachel. Hans brought these confetti poppers and in the middle of dinner everyone sang happy birthday and popped the confetti poppers at me, it was cute. Afterwards we went to this club called Catch to watch the Fabulous Penetrators play and met up with some more people there. Joao’s friend Joe (who I met in Boston like 8 years ago) came with his sister, Jorge’s friend Sam came, Anjalie, some other peeps. We all got drunk and danced and it was really fun, and the Penetrators were sweet and dedicated a song to me for my birthday.

So all in all I think I definitely celebrated my 30th well. If I had to turn 30, spending it in Barcelona and then with friends in London made it really seem more of a positive milestone than something depressing. Sometimes I can’t believe how fast time has gone by. Other times I look back on my life and think that I understand the paths I’ve taken and that I’ve done the best with what I have in my life. Always tried to be a good person to the people around me, be a positive factor in people’s lives instead of a burden. In the time I’ve been alive so far I think that I’ve always tried to explore the world as much as I’ve had the ability to. Tried to have as many new and varied experiences as I can, encounter different ways to live and different ways of thinking, make new friends and learn from people I meet. I’m happy with how I spent my 20s, the experiences I’ve had, and although things were rough at times I wouldn’t say I have any real regrets.

I also think that in the last few years in NY I started to feel like there were a lot of things I wanted to do that I still hadn’t done. And there’s never any guarantee in this life how long you have. And although I feel like I don’t have any regrets so far, I knew I was going to start to if I didn’t make changes in my life. The one major thing I’ve always wanted to do more is travel. For a lot of reasons - money, work, personal situations - I just never had the ability to take the time off and travel as much as I wanted. I also realized that I’ve spent my entire life living on the East Coast of the US. And as much as it seemed like I’d lived different places because I lived in a major city like NY and I’d lived in Boston and Pennsylvania, I also realized that my world view was going to be really limited.

So as hard as it has been to make this transition, one of my goals was that my 30th birthday would be a step towards a new life, a celebration of all the things I’ve done up to that point, but also an entrée to a new phase in my life. I really despise that idea that if you’re a woman and you’re not married with kids at 30 you’re somehow a failure. I look back on my life and I know I made the right decisions for myself when I needed to, and I think I am where I need to be right now. I think I really took advantage of my 20s, both socially and also building my career and figuring out the life I wanted, and I’m kind of looking forward to moving into a new phase. I really couldn’t imagine that there was anything else new I was going to learn from the NY nightlife scene. And while DJing and doing the magazine and going out all the time to shows and events and gallery openings and whatever else was really fulfilling to me for the last 10 years or so, I really wasn’t feeling that into it in the last two years, or at least the scene that was going on in NY.

Even just a change in scenery like coming to London though I think has done a lot of good for me. I still do some of the same stuff here, go to shows and clubs and whatnot, but it’s a different scene and a whole different vibe, I just like it better. You feel much more a part of the rest of the world in London, everyone I meet is from a different country. Just in the group of friends at my birthday party were people from Portugal, Russia, Japan, Norway, England, US. I like that aspect of living here, you’re always learning from the people around you and everyone has interesting stories to tell.

A lot of women say their 30s are a good decade because they spent their 20s figuring out who they were and what they wanted, and in their 30s they were able to relax and enjoy themselves. I’m looking forward to getting older, I don’t feel like I’m losing something. I’m open to having a different kind of life here. What kind of life, time will tell, but hopefully it will a good one. Give me a chance to explore the world and gain a broader perspective, and of course learn more about myself and what I want to do in the process.

It's been awhile since I've updated this, unfortunately I've been too busy to write much. I didn't have internet on my home computer until a few days ago, my iMac didn't have a wireless network card installed and it was a real pain to get one. So for the last few months, I could only go online when I was at work, and work has been so busy that I never had time.

Now I have internet at home, I'll update this more often and I'll be able to keep in better touch with everyone.

I've been having lots of adventures here, so that's been good. I'll write more about them when I have time (I'm trying to write this on my lunch break at work and I've already been interrupted 3 times). Erika, Rachel and Heather have visited (Erika was in town on a business trip), and it was fun to go out with them in London.

I went home for a long weekend for Becca's wedding. The wedding was beautiful, but it was a really rough weekend for me. Unfortunately my cat, Lint, who I've had for 10 years, became gravely ill quite suddenly when I was in NY and we had to put him to sleep. The whole weekend in general was a bit insane, I'll write more on that later...

So the last few weeks have been a bit rough, but otherwise things are well. It's my 30th (eep!) birthday this Saturday, and I'm leaving tomorrow for Barcelona for 4 days. My friend Anya is coming in from San Francisco today and she and I are going to have a girl's weekend. I'm very much looking forward to it. We're going to a restaurant called Comerc 24 on Saturday night for my birthday dinner, which is supposed to be amazing.

My flatmate Rose moved back to the States, so I took over her room last month. Jorge, Nuno, and I decided to stay in the flat for another month or two, as none of us had any time or money to look for a new one and move. Jorge & Nuno's friend Miguel moved here from Portugal to live with us, but until we move he'll just be couchsurfing at ours & other friend's flats. Which isn't so bad for him because it gives him some time to find work and save some money. So I think for now we'll stay in the flat, maybe look for a new one in November or so.

There's a whole bunch of people coming to visit in the new few months - my Canadian friend Jon will be here next week for a few days when I get back from Spain. Celine and her boyfriend are coming in October, and Becca and Jake are coming for their honeymoon in Oct as well. Mary may come in November over Thanksgiving, and Minor is probably visiting in December. Hopefully Annick will come in December as well. So that will keep me from getting too homesick until I go home in January for Erika & Ian's wedding. Also, Kevin is moving here this week to go to grad school, so it will be awesome to have a NY friend here all the time.

Well, I should run because work is super busy (as always). Hope everyone is well and I will have lots of stories to tell about Barcelona the next time I post!

Much love...

Waiting...

For Jorge to get home so thought I'd take the opportunity to write a new post. Jorge is coming home tonight from Portugal for 2 nights and then he's leaving again for two weeks. Rose (our flatmate) was supposed to move out Monday, but she decided to stay the rest of the month. So in August she'll be leaving and I'll get my own room.

I'm feeling more settled here, starting to get a sense of the layout of the city, how to get from one end to the other. Here's what I've gleaned from my limited understanding of London so far: The West end is the 'posh' area with beautiful townhouse-style homes and wide streets with shopping and cafes and parks. The theatre district is also West. The center area of town is where Soho is, with lots of restaurants and shopping and throngs of tourists. Parts of it (mostly Oxford St) remind me of Broadway, where you're just pushing through crowds and everyone is trying to get to H&M and Top Shop and the big department stores like Debenhams, Marks and Spencer, and Selfridges.

If you head East from the center of town, you hit Holborn, where I work. It's a pretty area, but it's mostly offices and business people. There are some nice residences and pockets of shopping, but it seems mostly a 9-5 area and the shops and restaurants cater to that crowd. A little further East of that is the section they refer to as 'the city', which was really confusing when I first arrived, because in NY 'the city' obviously means Manhattan. So when everyone kept saying 'that's in the city' or 'that's closer to the city', I was so confused, like aren't we in the city? But it turns out the Wall Street-ish corporate banking and stock market area is called the city.

Jorge told me it used to be the main marketplace section of London, so the streets there are actually named with what traditionally was sold. So there's a Poultry Street and a Threadneedle St, etc. There are some really funny names, but the tone is definitely all business. In the morning when I look down from the top of the double decker bus, all I can see is throngs of people in their dark business attire darting around to get to work. It's industry in the flesh.

Further East is Shoreditch and that's pretty much my area of town. It's still very business-heavy until you get to Liverpool St., which is a grandiose commuter rail station. There's Old Street with a lot of bars and clubs, and then you come to Spitalfields and Brick Lane, where all the markets are, and where I live. Brick Lane is predominantly art galleries and vintage stores, and where all the Bangladeshi and Turkish and Pakistani shops and food are. It was historically a Jewish area of town, and there's some remnants of the culture, most notably the two bagel shops near me that are very famous. People go late night and get bagels (which on the shop signs are spelled Biegel, I guess that's the old world spelling) in brown paper bags. The bagels are smaller than NY bagels so people usually get two. You can get them with just cream cheese, with cream cheese and smoked salmon, or with salt beef and mustard.

They have stacks of them already prepared and you just say what you want and they throw them at you and it's only like £2. The salt beef are basically huge chunks of pastrami-style beef that's crazy salty and greasy and they slap on this mustard that is super spicy. Like Jewish yellow mustard but 5x spicier. I'm sure they're incredibly fattening but people love it, especially at 2am when they're drunk, there's lines out the door. They're really good, but not something you'd want to eat too often.

If you go further East from me, it seems to get more residential and the predominant culture is Bangladeshi & Pakistani, at least as far as I've gone. The area of South London I've been to has mostly just been by the Thames. There's the London Eye (the giant ferris wheel), Tower Bridge, the Saatchi Gallery, and the new Tate Modern Museum, which is housed in an old power station and is really cool. There's also Shakespeare's Globe Theatre where I'd love to go see a play sometime. Wimbledon is also in South London. There's a kind of stereotype in London that the North is more snobby and they look down on the South. South London is supposed to be tougher and more blue collar I guess. Which is hard for me to understand just yet because the areas of South London I've been to by the Thames are really nice, and the areas of North London I've been to, like Camden Town, are pretty sketchy. But that's the historical stereotypes of the areas, so who am I to argue?

The area of North London I've been to the most is Camden Town. That's where a lot of music venues are and it's also kind of like a punk rock area. It reminds me of Sunset Strip in LA, just in terms of there being tons of little punk rock stores and record shops and tattoo shops and headshops and stuff like that. There's also lots of sketchy dudes out saying 'weed' 'weed' as you pass by, which reminds me of the old days in Washington Square Park when the dealers would walk around going 'smoke' 'smoke' to everyone. Camden Town seems cool but I definitely never feel safe walking around there at night. I've also been North of Camden Town a little and it's just pretty, quiet residential neighborhoods.

My friend Hans showed me around Stoke Newington on Sunday a bit, and I definitely want to go back. It's considered Northeast London I guess. At first I was apprehensive because it seemed really ghetto. But he showed me around a bit, and it's crazy, in the middle of this really urban area there's this giant beautiful castle randomly on one of the main roads. He said it was there for a long time, and it actually sits on a huge lake that's behind it, which I couldn't see from the road. It was honestly like being in the middle of Bed Stuy and just seeing this huge castle with a lake, like an apparition. I guess they decided to use the castle as a climbing school, which is even more bizarre. So now you can go and climb there. I want to go sometime! Although I have no idea how good I'd be at climbing, probably crap. I definitely intend to go back and see the lake though. There was also a really old cemetery there which was closed at the time, but I'd like to go explore some day.

One of the funny things I've noticed about London is that it has all these beautiful little parks and green spaces tucked away in every section of the city. Often you'll be walking along a really urban area and come upon a pretty little park or garden or small lake and you're transported to a really pleasant, tranquil space. There's also often a little area with animals. So you can see sheep and deer just hanging out in the middle of the city.

Now that I'm starting to get past some of the transitional pains, I'm starting to get excited about all the things there are to see. I know the English are famous for their gardens and I've heard there's several botanic gardens in the London area, so that's something I really want to look into. I also heard there's all kinds of different cool movie theatres in the city and some of them you can even buy alcohol and order food and stuff.

I actually went this past weekend to see the new Harry Potter movie, which I really liked. There were too many kids there since we went to an afternoon show, but other than that I was happy. I met up with my friend Sabina in West London near where she lives and we got some lunch and walked around for a bit before the movie. I really like it over there, it's beautiful and definitely more of how I always pictured London to look traditionally. I think it's near the area of town where we rented the Mews house when the whole family came to stay in London for a week during the Holidays when Adam was on leave two years ago.

Sabina is an old friend of mine from Boston, she was Mary's roommate in college and she also moved back to NY around the same time that Mary and I did. She works for Grey Advertising, for a division called G2 and she moved to London about a year ago. She was able to get transferred here by the company, which is cool because they pay for everything, they pack up and move all your stuff, help you find a place to live, etc.

I found out that Sabina was in London through Mary and we got in touch awhile back. Last week, besides going to the movie with her, I also met up with her for her birthday earlier in the week. She was having drinks with a bunch of friends at one of the bars at this hotel, the Sanderson. It's a pretty fancy hotel, and the bar in the outdoor garden is really nice, with cocktail waitresses and food. Sabina was there with her sister, who was visiting from NY, and a bunch of her friends and colleagues. I knew it would be expensive so I only ordered two drinks on my card (they make you open a tab). After a few hours, one of her friends suggested we check out this salsa club in Soho.

When we asked for the check, the hostess informed us that out table was £500 pounds minimum and we had only spent £200 on everyone's bill combined. It turns out that they had mentioned the minimum to Sabina when she booked it, but she overestimated and figured it would be pretty easy to meet. They told us unequivocally that we were going to be charged regardless. So we all offered to split it, but Sabina felt bad and convinced everyone to let her make up the difference and said she had gotten some money from her family for her bday. I felt horrible about her paying that kind of bill on her birthday, but financially I wasn't really in a position to do much about it. So we stayed and ordered a bunch of bottles of champagne and wine and lots of food and more cocktails and got nice and drunk and had a fun time.

At some point in the night, I wandered inside to the front bar. There were some really surreal looking women in there; fake boobs, orange spray on tans, bleached blonde hair, stick thin. There were also a ton of black hip-hop guys who I swear were all from NY and looked like high rollers, although in what profession I have no idea. They seemed like they were having a ball, I guess that's the place for a rich hip hop dude from Brooklyn to pick up skinny white English bitches, who knew?

When I sat back down at the table I remarked to Sabina's friend about the scary women, and he told me they were looking for footballers. He said they all live with their mothers and spend every cent they make on clothes and boobs and fake tans and stuff trying to catch a rich footballer. I asked him, does it work? And he was like, I'm sure, footballers are pretty stupid. Point taken. I was fascinated though. A whole new trashy segment of society I've never seen before! I went back to stare at them for awhile, the people watching there was incredible. I'd like to go back again, maybe minus the £500 minimum table though!

So what other news? I've seen Joao's band, the Fabulous Penetrators, play two times recently, once in Camden and once in Dalston. They're really good, straight up old school-style rock and roll. They're pretty bad-ass but they lean towards the schtick-y side, the singer has lightning bolt shaped sideburns and he dons a furry bear head throughout part of the set, which I find amusing mostly because he drinks pints through the mouth of the mask. He also has this sparkly silver bull horn thing he wears. They all dress in red & black suits. The music is great and fast and always gets everyone dancing, so good times.

Last week we had a photo shoot at the flat. Joao's friends who he used to work with at MTV have recently started a video production company. They were working on their website and they wanted to take a black and white still photo of a girl in kind of a messy room. They were using it as the main page to navigate throughout the site and were going to turn aspects of the photo into navigational objects, like a polaroid camera would be the link to the pictures section, a stereo would go to the music section, etc. So they scoped out Nuno's room the week before and then came back to do the shoot. They were here for a few hours and then we all went out for drinks afterwards. All the guys and the model for the shoot were really nice, and they bought me beers to thank me for letting them use the place (Nuno is away but they left him a bottle of whiskey). Joao and I spent most of the time playing around on Facebook and Myspace anyway, so it's not like I actually did anything, but no reason to turn down free drinks!

Everyone here is way more into Facebook than MySpace. I always thought Facebook was mostly for college students, but I guess as soon as they opened up access to everyone, it became really popular over here. People kept asking me if I was on it, so I finally joined. So if you're on Facebook, look me up.

Weirdly enough I kind of need to know about stuff like that for my job. You can't be in Online Marketing and not know all of the channels that people use to reach their markets, especially one as popular as that. Even if I don't use Facebook or MySpace to promote the brands I work on, I need to understand what the demographics and opportunities are on spaces like that. Not that I'm defensive about being on social networking sites, I actually quite like them, just think it's interesting that I actually need to be on them, or at least understand them (and all Web 2.0 sites/functionality) for my job. Anyway, I digress.

This past Sunday I had a great day. It started out crap because as usual it was torrential downpour for half the day. I found this amazing jewlery store called Tatty Devine a few weeks ago. When I first got here, I saw someone wearing this really great plastic name necklace and I asked them where they got it. They said there was a store where these girls custom made them and they're really popular. A few weeks later I was walking down the street from my flat, and it turns out they have a store right near me. I ordered a black one with a little lightning bolt charm hanging off the corner. It took them a few weeks to make it, but it was finally ready on Sunday so in the morning I went and picked it up. I guess the designers are pretty well known by now so 'hip' people in London might think it's passé but I don't give a shit, I can just plead ignorance because I'm a NYer and I totally love my necklace. I know when all you ladies come visit you're going to want one...

So I got my necklace and I was happy. Hans had invited me to go to a festival in Finsbury Park, so I told him I would meet up with him. I know Hans because he's Jorge's old flatmate and we've met a few times when I was visiting. So I thought, it will be nice to go to the Park and maybe the weather will get better. But I just thought it was some kind of small festival with a band or two playing. Before I left to meet him, I looked it up online and then I was really excited. It turns out it's this big free festival called RISE that they've been doing every year for the last few years to promote anti-racism and multi-culturalism. There were tons of performers, including St. Etienne and Kelis, and best of all... the Skatalites were headlining! I was super stoked to see the Skatalites.

So I met up with Hans and it was pouring rain. The buses to get to Finsbury Park were not coming and when they did come, they were so packed they wouldn't let anyone on. So we waited in the rain at a bus stop for like 45 minutes and then decided to walk. We eventually got on a crazy packed bus and everyone was yelling at each other, but then we arrived and it was like - whoa. There were thousands of people in this huge park, with carnival rides and 5 stages and tons of food vendors and merchandise and all kinds of stuff. We got some cans of cider and water at the corner store (what we call a bodega) and no one bothered us to look in our bags and take away our drinks when we went in (which was a really refreshing and welcome change from NY). We walked around and watched different performers. There was a Cuban stage but the band on was terrible and totally drunk. We met up with some of Hans' friends, these Japanese girls, and they had a mat so we all camped out with a view of the main stage.

The rain had stopped and it was sunny and we watched Kelis and drank cider. Hans got a bunch of food, fried plantains and fruit and some jerk chicken. We ate and drank more and this guy who was the winner of the human beatbox competition did some cool stuff and entertained everyone for awhile, and then finally... the Skatalites. The Skatalites are credited with inventing the rythms of reggae, ska, and rocksteady and they are living legends. I've seen them play many times before, and they are now quite old, but they keep on going. Some of the members have died, and they are so revered in Jamaica they give them State funerals. I've met them before and they are just the loveliest most amazing people. Some of the band members that have died have been replaced by their children, which is really cool.

The Skatalites played and they sounded amazing. Doreen Shaffer must be in her 70s, but her voice still sounds like honey. They played a really good set and I have to say, nothing makes you feel more at home in unfamiliar surroundings than hearing the music you love. Watching all the people around me, truly an international community with people from probably every single race and culture in the world, all digging the Skatalites, made me feel that being here is an experience that will really matter to me. It's been really hard to be away from everyone I love, but I'm starting to glimpse some of the stuff I came here looking for, and starting to get excited about exploring London and Europe.

So on that note, I hope everyone is well, and send my love.

18 Days Later...

I’ve been writing this entry throughout the week, so it’s a bit disjointed. I just split it into sections so it’ll make more sense.

Work
I've been here 2 1/2 weeks now. It seems like it’s been a lot longer. Things at work are still going good, but I had to jump into working on a lot of projects right away. In a way that's not so bad, it will take less time to acclimatize and it keeps me busy. We were supposed to have a marketing executive start work on Monday. A marketing executive isn’t the same level as you would assume in the States, ‘executive’ in this case is actually a junior position, someone a year or two out of university. This guy Mark was supposed to come on board to help my boss Martha and I out with our projects.

The work flow is that I would create a project plan, and lay out what needed to be done, and he could do a lot of the actual execution so I’d be free to work on other projects and do research and planning, etc. But the guy notified the agency on Friday that he isn’t going to take the job. Weirdly enough the reason he gave is that he wants to move to America to pursue working at a law firm. Random. Martha was really pissed off because he told us at the last possible minute. She said he’d seemed like a strong candidate and had done lots of research for the job and acted like he was really excited about it. Oh well. That means we’ll be without help for at least a month or so though while they recruit and interview, etc. I guess that’s how it goes.

Social StuffLast weekend I went out drinking after work on Friday with Martha and a few other people we work with. I had a few beers and then I met up with Jorge & his friend Paul who he works with at the drum shop. We went to this bar that for some reason, I think the way it's laid out, keeps reminding me of a TGI Fridays. But it’s like a goth/rock bar so I always feel like I’m in some weird goth TGI Fridays.

Then we went over to Garlic and Shots, which is a Swedish death metal bar. All the bartenders are Swedish death metal dudes & chicks and they serve all these different shots with garlic in them (I stick to the beer). The top floor is a regular bar, but the basement is where everyone mostly hangs out and it's dark and in the back they have a room with a coffin as a table. It's a pretty laid back bar though considering the theme. The weekend crowd in London is the same as it is in NY, it's like amateur night and all the B&T equivalents come into town and act like idiots so we end up in bars like Garlic & Shots because the frat dude types don't really go in there.

At the end of the night, these two guys came in and they were wearing suits and they were really dorky looking. I said to Jorge, what are those guys doing here? They look so out of place. Then one of them opened his wallet and it lit up in flames. Jorge and I were like whoa, what was that? Then he closed it, and the flames went out. Then he opened it, and flames licked out over it. I was fascinated, so I went over and asked him to do it again. It was a special trick wallet, I don’t know how it was set up, but it was the coolest thing. Turns out he and his friend were magicians. I asked him to do a magic trick so he did this trick where he took a rolling paper and ripped it up into a bunch of little pieces, rolled it into a ball, lit it on fire, and opened it up again and it was in one piece. He gave it to me to examine and I was amazed. Jorge was like, dude, it’s not the same one he ripped up, it’s a sleight of hand, but I told him no way, dude, it’s magic! Then I got the guy’s card. You know, for later. When I’m in a pinch and I need a magician.

On Saturday I met up with Gabriela in Soho. Gabriela is a friend I’ve known for a few years in NY, I think we originally met through Bobbo, and she moved here two weeks before me. It's funny cause she lived around the corner from me in Brooklyn and now she lives in my neighborhood here. She lives by Old Street, which is like an 8 min walk from her flat to mine. It’s been good to hang out with her, because even though I've only been here a few weeks, I already feel very far away from NY. Not that I don't feel close to my life in NY, it's just that I can feel the distance. I’m realizing it will be a long time before I see some people and that’s starting to settle in my head. I miss people a lot already so I know that will be hard, even though I am really glad I am here.

But seeing Gabriela makes me feel like I have a connection to home. And I know it will be awesome when Kevin moves here, and when Anya is in Oxford. It just helps me feel more comfortable to have connections to home, and not like I am floating in this new world.

So on Saturday Gabriela and I walked around town and she showed me good shops to go to in Soho. The exchange rate is killing my bank account, so I’ve had to be careful about what I’ve been buying. I picked up a UK mobile though, Gabriela helped me pick out a cute little Sony Ericsson phone from Orange. It's a pay-as-you-go phone, because I can't get a plan until I have a bank account and residency proof (of course). So I'll just have to do pay-as-you-go (which is more $) until I get settled with all that. Everything has been like that so far, like I was saying before, you can't do one thing with out the other and it's like a vicious circle. I just have to be patient I guess.

We had dinner at a Vietnamese place, there's a lot of great food around here. We stopped at her flat, it’s really nice and it’s in a new building. When the boys get back from their trips we’ll have to start looking for a new place. I think we can get a whole house with 4 people, but it probably won’t be new or as central as Gabriela’s place is, I don’t think we can afford it, Old Street area has gotten pretty expensive. I’d like to try to find a place that’s in good condition and where I feel relatively safe walking on the street at night. But in general I also want to save as many pounds as I can, and if I spend any money it should be on traveling. I don't want to blow it all on rent, that would be such a waste.

That Saturday night I hung out with Jorge cause he was leaving for Portugal the next morning. He played a festival there on Thursday with Metallica and Mastodon, and from what Jorge & Joao told me, it went great and everyone had lots of fun. They played to something like 10,000 people and Jorge said by the time Metallica came on there was like 40,000. They got to hang out with the other bands backstage and it sounds like it was a blast. I’ll have to get the full story when I see them. I’m jealous, wish I could have gone.

Jorge’s band is called More Than a Thousand, if you’re curious. They’re touring around Belgium next and then going back to Portugal to record some songs, so he'll be gone most of the month. Nuno went to Portugal this week also, to visit his family and watch Jorge play. So it's been pretty quiet in the flat.

Also last weekend, my friend Jordan was in town. He’d been in Cambridge visiting friends for a few days. Sunday morning he called and said he had a few hours to get together before he had to catch his plane. I’d just been wandering around at a gallery in my neighborhood that was showing an exhibit on the history and evolution of skateboards and skateboard sneakers, which was actually pretty interesting. There's a lot of cool stuff in my neighborhood, just down the street there's tons of galleries and clothing boutiques.

So Jordan met me near my flat and I took him to the indoor market at Brick Lane (which I described in my last blog). I go there every Sunday, I went this morning again, and I just love it. I’ll probably get sick of it eventually, but not until I try every type of food and get to know all the different designers. This morning I bought an awesome red cap there from this lady that hand-makes them. And I have my eye on this one artist’s stuff, he does these great prints that I think Mary would really love. I want to buy one for her, and one for myself when I get my own room.

Jordan really liked the market. He had a little crush on this adorable girl who makes these gorgeous bright-colored cupcakes with little decorations on top. We split some Ethiopian and Japanese food, and shared a strawberry cupcake for dessert. Then we walked around the other section where all the artists and designers sell their clothing at booths and Jordan bought this cool sportsjacket that has a hood attached. Nuno’s ex-girlfriend Nikki used to sell jewelery there and she’d introduced me to this guy before, he makes some fun clothes for guys, jackets and tops and stuff.

We were having a good time, but Jordan only had like a half hour before he had to go so I walked him to the train station through Spitalfields, which is a huge outdoor / indoor market. It's more high end than the Brick Lane market and has shops like Benefit in the indoor section. The outdoor area has tons of booths with clothing and jewelry and baked goods and stuff. Even though we only had a little time to hang, we made the most of it and had a fun time, it was good to see him. I dropped him off at the train and then I went and walked around Spitalfields more and I just loved it. They have SO many cute dresses and tops that are more my style than the stuff we have in NY.

I went there again this morning for awhile by myself and then Gabriela met up with me. I bought a few things, but I had to leave so much stuff in storage back in NY, so I can sort of justify it… I’ve been looking for a chunky gold-colored necklace for awhile and I found the perfect one. The girl who makes it let me custom pick out all the pieces, like the chain and it has a few charms that hang off it. I really love it. I also got some shea butter from an African guy and apparently the proceeds (if it’s true) help some children at a school in Africa, so good deed for the day I guess.

Last Sunday I also tried to go to the flower market, which my flatmate Rose said is amazing and you can get gorgeous flowers really cheap. It's only on Sundays, same as the Brick Lane market. I had walked over there after Spitalfields, but by the time I had gotten there it was closed. So I was determined not to miss it this weekend. I went this morning and it really was amazing. There’s a whole street closed off and lined with nothing but flower stands and all the merchants are just yelling out prices and there’s flowers everywhere, as far as the eye can see. Big sunflowers and roses, stargazer lilies (one of my favourites), orchids, everything. I bought 3 bunches of roses for £5 and a delicate white orchid plant for £5. The orchid should last for 6-8 weeks they said, so that will brighten up the kitchen.

Last weekend was also Glastonbury, which is a big UK music festival, and Joao’s band played a few sets on different stages. I heard it went well. I’ll see him tomorrow so I’ll get to hear about both Glastonbury and Portugal. I hung out with my friends Rory and Rachel on Tuesday. We didn’t do much, they just stopped by my flat and then we went for a drink at the Royal Oak, which is a cool pub in the neighborhood. It’s funny because we hang out at a bar called the Royal Oak in Brooklyn as well.

Rory is a friend I met through Megan, she introduced us a few years ago when he was visiting NY for the first time. We showed him around the city and had a good time, and we’ve been friends since. He used to be in a band called Test Icicles and they would tour in NY a lot, so I’d see him pretty regularly. His girlfriend Rachel is a sweetheart, I first met her when they came to visit NY a few months ago, and I hung out with her a bunch the last time I was here. I’m glad to have them here because they’re both just such genuinely sweet, nice people, and I always have a good time with them.

Another thing I did recently that was fun was I hung out with Annick's parents. They were in town visiting their friend Janet and they took me out to see this play in the West End. It was a comedy called Boeing-Boeing and it was super funny. I was surprised at how good it was. It was really sweet of them to take me. Their friend Janet and her daughter Gina came with us as well and we all went out to dinner afterwards. Gina just graduated high school and she’s studying to be an opera singer. It was interesting to hear her talk about opera and what she thinks of some of the well-known young singers on the stage right now (she thinks most of them are crap). Annick’s Dad Howard was telling me that Gina has an amazing voice, I’d love to see her sing sometime. It was good to see them, I think I will see people from home pretty regularly, which is great. I've only been here a little while and Annick's parents, Jordan, and the Slackers were here already.

The Slackers played at the Underworld in Camden on Wednesday. I went to see them after work and it was pouring rain (shocking, I know). The Underworld is a venue that’s literally under the World’s End pub, hence the name. I’ve been to the World’s End before, but never to Underworld. It’s a pretty decent-sized venue, it has a couple bars, and it’s pitch black inside. I was wearing heels and I kept thinking I was going to fall down and break something every time I tried to walk. When I got there, I ran into Marcus right away. I went backstage for a little bit, had a beer and caught up with Marcus, Glen, and Dave and then I went out front so they could get changed.

The boys were sweet and said I could just go back and grab beers whenever I wanted, but I didn’t want to be rude and just keep going back and taking their beer, so I went to the front bar. I don’t know what the deal is, but sometimes you just get a bartender with a chip on their shoulder. This girl served every single person around me for 10 minutes and just would not take my order. I was getting so pissed and I was missing the first few songs, but I waited patiently. And she kept even looking straight at me and still skipping over me. Finally she takes my order, and she fucking asks me for ID. ID! I’m 29 and the drinking ago is 18. The guys were saying I should be flattered, and I do look younger than my age, but I really think she did it just to be an asshole. Anyway, after that I didn’t bother with the bar again, I just went backstage.

The guys played two sets. During the first set I watched from the crowd and it was really fun. They sounded great, everyone was super into it. It was nice because it was a mixed crew, lots of teenagers and twenty-somethings, but also a lot of people in their 40s and 50s as well, which is cool. Ska and punk are so much more mainstream here. In America, it’s marginalized, but here everyone knows who the Specials, Madness, the Clash, the Sex Pistols are. You hear ska and punk and reggae being played everywhere, even in mainstream stores. It’s one of the things I really enjoy about England. If you ask any random person in America who Shane MacGowan is, most people, even in the cities, wouldn’t have a clue. But here, when we went to see the Pogues and the Dropkick Murphys play during Christmas two years ago, it was all over the TV and in the papers. Everyone knows who the Pogues are. It’s kind of awesome.

And apparently London REALLY loves the Slackers as well, so much that I was amazed. After the 1st set was over, Marcus came and grabbed me and brought me backstage. After awhile, you could hear them yelling for them to go back. They went back on and this time I watched from the side of the stage. The second set was really energetic and I don’t know if everyone was just really drunk (and high) or if the Slackers were playing especially good that night, but the kids were going MENTAL. It was kind of amazing to watch. I’ve seen countless Slackers shows over the years and this was one of the best crowd responses I’ve ever seen. There was so much energy, the kids were grabbing the guys in the band, climbing up on stage, stage diving, screaming along to the songs, it was crazy. It was probably one of the best Slackers shows I’ve been to.

I went backstage with them before the encore and after awhile the guy from the venue came back and was like, you guys better go out there, they’re howling for blood. They went out, and it was true, the crowd just lost it, and they played two encores. I’m glad I got to see them play here. Besides being great friends, The Slackers are also definitely one of my favorite bands. They are just incredible musicians and such a pleasure to see live. And I was proud of Glen because he’s really turned into a great co-frontman, along with Vic. I’m glad to see that people in London appreciate them as much as I do. It made me feel warm towards my new home, that they know good music when they see it.

After the show, a reporter from the Sun came backstage with his wife and two teenage daughters. They were talking to Vic and Marcus and I think they took some pictures. But the funny thing was the two teenage girls were freaking out about being backstage. They were saying to each other “Oh my god, we’re like, totally backstage. Can you believe this? That’s like, a door… BACKSTAGE. And that’s like, a beer… BACKSTAGE.” It was kind of amazing, because it was literally some crappy room with a few chairs and some food and beer, and me, Vic, Vic’s girlfriend Jess, and Marcus and Jay. Not really super exciting. But it was cute they were getting all freaked out and excited about it.

I think they definitely get more of a rock star treatment over here than in the States. They even have a tour bus. I know they always have a bus when they come over here, but I only ever see them in NY and Boston and they obviously don’t get a bus there, so I was like, whoa you guys have a bus! Like a real one! They invited me to go along with them for a few days to other shows, but I couldn’t because I had to work. When they come back in the Fall though, I’ll jump on with them for a few days. I think Tiffany will be with them on that tour as well, so that will be fun.

After the show we hung out for a few hours and had some drinks. Their friend Squirrel was there from New Orleans and she was saying that there’s so much rampant crime in New Orleans now. People are just getting robbed and murdered all the time and the police are too short-staffed and funded to do anything about it. She said it’s basically descended into lawlessness and things are really bad there. It was sad to hear about.

Squirrel herself was a bit of a character. She’s one of these kind of tough girls that seems really fun to hang out with, as long as she doesn’t fly off the handle. Glen was telling me that back when they taped Real World New Orleans that there was some love-interest storyline between a guy and a girl in the house. Somehow Squirrel was involved with the storyline like a love triangle or something, I didn’t understand that part. But the salient point was that it ended with Squirrel and the girl at a bar having a boxing match. The Real World girl was so not prepared to fight someone like Squirrel and I guess the minute the match started and the cameras were rolling, Squirrel beat the girl senseless and then held up her gloves into the camera and yelled something like ‘Welcome to the real world, bitch!” They showed it on TV and Glen said it was amazing.

So that was my Wednesday night, and I stayed in Thurs. This weekend was pretty chill. Friday they took us out for drinks at work as a celebration for hitting a target a few months early. I had a good time, got to know some of my co-workers a little more. Saturday night I went out with my friend Lemon and her friend Billy. Lemon is a girl I met at a club called After Skool about two years ago. We had such a fun time dancing and hanging out that night that we kept in touch ever since, and I hung out with her the last time I was here. She’s a sweetheart.

We went for a drink in a pub in Camden and then to another pub called Nambucca, which I’ve been to a few times over the years. It was pouring so we stayed there for a few hours. Lemon and her friends were going to this club night near Tottenham Court Rd in Soho called Frog. Apparently it was Frog’s last night, so there was going to be huge lines and it would be super crowded. The club scene here is lots of drugs and binge drinking and making out and all that, which I think I’m honestly getting a little old for. Lemon had passes for her and another friend, but not for me and Billy. They said they thought I could go in with them, but I didn’t want to take the risk and have to stand in line for hours with a bunch of drunk 18-year old kids and then pay £10 to get in. Does that make me sound super old and crotchety? I do like to still go out to big clubs sometimes, but I also think that when you are close to 30 you kind of need to start finding other places to hang. You gotta retire gracefully. I don’t know if I’d feel good about ending up as some creepy 35-year old in the club doing lines in the bathroom and making out with 19-year olds, know what I mean? And yeah, ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but I really do think if you’re still going to clubs like Frog and AfterSkool (which are basically like MisShapes in NY) when you’re 30, it’s a slippery slope. I don’t care if I look young for my age, it’s time to start moving on…

So I went to meet up with Gabriela in East London instead and we went to some pub with her friends. We had a good time dancing and then I walked back towards my flat with Gabriela’s friend, who lives nearby. She was really nice, she just moved here from Glasgow. Today, went to flower market, Spitalfields, and now just hanging in. Writing this.

Lost in TranslationSo here's a little anecdote for ya...
One morning on the way to work, I wanted to pick up some breakfast. I went to little cafe that I had been to for lunch earlier in the week, they have really good sandwiches. I wanted something breakfast-y but it's hard to get that around here. They're not as into breakfast culture as we are, especially not anything you can eat on the go, besides maybe a muffin. So I'm thinking, all I want is a sausage, egg & cheese sandwich. I normally try to eat healthier than that, but I’d been drinking the night before and it really is the best thing after a late night drinking. This, I think, is a reasonable thing to want for breakfast.

The girl at the counter asks “what would you like?” in this really thick French accent. I say, “do you have any type of breakfast sandwich?” She says "sausage" and the rest is unintelligable franglish. I say, “excuse me?” and she says something about sausage and egg (or so I thought). I say, “Oh, sausage and egg? Can you do that?” and she's like, “Sausage and cheese with egg?” and I'm like, “Yeah that's great.”

The Italian guy at the register goes, “What are you having? Sausage and cheese and egg? What a strange sandwich!” and looks at me funny. So I'm thinking... uh oh, that can’t be good. I look over at the sandwich, and I realize my mistake. "Egg" to them means egg mayo, ie. egg salad. Ugh. Egg salad, cheddar cheese, and sausage, on foccacia bread. And we're talking like a large Italian-style sausage, cut in half and plunked on top.

So at this point, the sandwich is made, I’ve already paid, and I’m stuck. I tried it, and it was actually like the saltiest thing I've ever eaten. The cheese and sausage were super salty and rich, I had to throw it out. So, lesson learned. But at least I got an amusing anecdote out of it ☺

British Terminology I’ve Encountered“can’t be arsed” - can’t be bothered
“the loo” - the bathroom
“he’s really getting on my tit” - he’s annoying me
“sod it” - fuck it

WeatherThe weather – has been solidly crap. It is still raining all the time. There has been severe flooding up North and they are expecting even more. The flooding is so bad I guess because they don’t normally have this level of rainfall, especially this season, they said usually by now they even have water rations in effect since it’s so dry. Everyone says it’s not normal to have this much rain and I’m skeptical but I’ve heard it so much that I believe them. It’s kind of scary because they’re having heat waves across Spain and some other places and here it’s like monsoon season. It’s just bizarre.

I don't know if it's global warming or what, but hopefully it will stop raining and warm up soon. I think I might actually go out to Portugal to stay with Jorge one weekend, the flight is only £100 roundtrip and it would be really nice to sit on the beach for a few days.

British Current Events / PoliticsWell, you’ve probably heard about the attempted bombings. There were two cars that were found packed with explosives and nails and stuff. They were both taken away and diffused by the police. One was parked outside a nightclub in West London and the other was near Picadilly Circus, also West. Then yesterday some guys drove a car into the airport in Glasgow, Scotland. Only a few people were injured slightly but the guys in the car survived and when the police got there, one of them lit himself on fire. The whole thing is just crazy.

After that, they had to detonate a car that was parked in the Glasgow hospital where the suspects were taken from the airport. They are saying all the incidents are linked, and they’ve raised the alert level here to the highest. I don’t have TV so it’s probably better that I don’t have the news so I don’t freak myself out. I guess I just have to try not to worry about it, since I don’t have any control over it and getting scared and worked up about it isn’t going to help anything. No one around me seems super concerned, people are talking about it, but just like, so what happened? No one’s freaking out or anything. Although if those car bombs had gone off, it would have been really horrible. I guess the whole threat of terrorism here is something I’m used to from NY, but I also feel like it’s not something I’ll ever get ‘used to’. It always makes me nervous, but I also realize that I have to live my life regardless, and there probably isn’t anywhere you can go these days where’s there’s no threat of violence.

Another big news story is the iPhone being released, which I’m sure is also all over the place in the US. It’s not even released here for another 6 months but people are really into it.

Probably the biggest story is that Tony Blair stepped down this week, and a new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown took over. An interesting thing I didn’t know about politics in England is that they don’t actually vote for the PM. They vote for the party. So whoever is the head of the party that gets elected becomes Prime Minister. I’m not sure why I didn’t know that, other than I guess the NY educational system deciding after they taught us about the Tea Party and the Redcoats, there wasn’t much else to say about Britain.

Tony Blair stepped down largely over his handling of the Iraq War. I am glad to see that change can be made here like that, and that it seemed dignified and normal, like, thanks for the work Tony, but you fucked up so you need to step down and let someone else handle this. Maybe that’s just my outsider perspective, but that’s how it seemed to me. I don’t know much about Brown. The papers say he is serious and responsible and capable, but it seems everyone is reserving judgement to see how he handles things.

I wish we could do that in the States, just have George Bush step down and have someone capable come and try to start cleaning up the mess. But of course that’s not how we do it, it’s gotta be so extreme and insane. Like Bill Clinton cheating on his wife and lying about it and then the Republicans forcing the entire country to be constantly subjected to a disgusting and needless impeachment trial with all the paparazzi and gory details. Over nothing. But George Bush lies over and over again to the American people and he still gets re-elected, he’s still waging wars, still in power, ignoring the environmental crises, etc, etc. and nothing happens to take him out of power. We elect a Democratic majority and they fucking fold when they need to stand up. And still nothing changes. I don’t know.

Another couple interesting things about the system in Britain. At my job, they just have to fill out some forms and then I am registered for National Healthcare. They take out a lot of taxes from your paycheck, similar to in the States, but part of it goes to National Healthcare so that’s cool. I mean we pay local, state, federal, social security, and then on top of that our companies pay for health care and then we also pay for healthcare out of our paychecks on top of that. And then we go to the doctor and we STILL have to pay even more, it’s crazy.

But in England, as far as I understand it, you just go and register with your local doctor and give them your National Health number. You might have to pay a little bit for certain things, but it’s never that much, and if you go to the hospital, everything is covered and you never have to pay. Even prescriptions are just a few pounds. I’m not sure what the health care quality is like, but man, from where I stand, the whole thing is pretty amazing. In a way, it makes you just feel safer somehow, that if something happened to you, you wouldn’t lose everything or not get the care when you needed it.

And our system is so overcrowded and messed up. Every time I’ve been to the hospital I’ve gotten such bad care, it's horrible. But when my Dad got sick two years ago when we were visiting London, they treated him right away, were super nice and explained everything, took care of him, and he was able to go home later that night. And they didn’t charge him a thing. It was amazing.

Michael Moore’s movie Sicko is coming out any day now, and whatever you think about Michael Moore, I do hope it opens up a greater discussion about reforming health care in the States. It’s such a bad situation and they act like it’s impossible to change it, but it isn’t, they do it here and as far as I can tell it works well enough. I mean I’m sure there’s flaws in the system, but I have to say, universal health care seems pretty amazing so far.

Another interesting thing is that my company actually does my taxes for me. They fill out the paperwork and send it in, and that’s it. They have set ways of calculating the taxes so that you don’t really get a refund because they make sure to just take out what you owe. So I won’t get a refund, but I also don’t have to file my taxes or deal with it, which is pretty cool. I still have to file back in the States, but at least I don’t have to do both.

So those are the upsides… On the downside, other aspects of the system here are fucking bizarre. One of the most insane things they do here is when they run a credit check on you, they base part of your credit on your address. So if you live with flatmates that haven’t paid the bills or defaulted on council tax (a local tax that everyone has to pay), then it will show up and affect your credit rating. If you move to a new flat, and someone else who lived there before you was late or defaulted on bills, it will affect your credit rating, even if you had nothing to do with it. How insane is that? But it’s true, I’ve been told this by the people at the mobile phone place, and at the bank.

They also have pay-as-you-go utilities in some places. Rory was telling me that he has an electric meter at his flat and you just put money in it, like coins or a credit card. If the electricity runs out and you don’t have any money, you just don’t have electricity until you put more money into it. How weird. But in a way, I guess it kind of makes sense to pay as you use it. In the US everything is based on credit, so they basically are giving you a service based on credit and then you pay them back. Half the time I was always arguing with my gas and electric company for overcharging me. As ghetto as pay-as-you-go electricity seems, at least you know what you’re paying for.

The other thing I’ve encountered is that the banks here are really bad, they make it very difficult for you to get an account if you just moved here. Also, from what I’ve read about them, you have to be very careful to watch out because they hit you with crazy hidden and overdraft fees, even when they claim it’s a “free” account. Which they do in the States too, but here it seems maybe worse.

But I was finally able to get a bank account with HSBC on Friday, and my job said they would pay me for June this week (since I normally wouldn’t get paid until July 25th). So I’ll have some pounds and stop having to pay for everything with my poor half-priced dollars.

AdjustingMy phone finally switched over, so my US cell phone is dead now and my cell phone number goes to my phone at home. I won't go into it, but dealing with Vonage was a fucking nightmare. It took me over 3 hours on the phone with Vonage customer service to finally get someone who knew what they were talking about to help me get things hooked up. And who spoke enough English so we could understand each other (outsourcing is CRAP and I hope companies start realizing that they might be saving money, but their customer support quality has plummeted and they are going to really lose customers).

Everything’s working now, though, so you can reach me anytime and I have voicemail. I’ll try to call people soon, things have just been so crazy that I haven’t had much downtime and haven’t been able to contact people as much as I want.

I’ve been really fluctuating emotionally. I miss people a lot, I think about Max and how I won’t see him as much anymore and how I’m going to miss a lot of stuff in people’s lives. I miss Rick so much, he was such a big part of my every day and I notice him not being there all the time, especially when I’m tired and all I want to do is just cuddle with him and relax and I realize we can’t do that anymore.

They say that you’re the most stressed during certain life events: moving, breaking up with someone, starting a new job, etc. And in the last two months I’ve just been going through so many of them at the same time. Moving to a new country, living with new people, starting a new job, leaving my friends & family (and my cat), leaving Rick and adjusting to not being in a relationship anymore, saying goodbye to Adam and knowing that I won’t see him for a year because he has to go fight in a war. Again.

And in the middle of all this, I found out that an old friend of mine, Scott Swaner, had died. Scott was someone I became friends with in Boston, he was going to Harvard Grad School for East Asian Literature. Mary and I met him because she thought he was cute. Scott dressed very snazzy and wore nice suits, and Mary had noticed him at a show. My friend Tim (the guy from the Bosstones that I used to do my magazine Rude International with) decided he was going to play matchmaker and he went and introduced himself to Scott and talked to him for awhile. He brought Scott over and introduced him to me & Mary, and that got Mary and Scott talking.

This actually was at a Slackers show at the Paradise, when they were playing with Hepcat and the Gadjits. This might have even been the first time I saw any of those bands play, and it was also the first night I met Robyn. I guess now that I look back on it, that night turned out to be a precursor for a lot of things and people in my life.

But anyway, that’s the night we met Scott, and we hung out with him at the show, and he came home with us and we got drunk on wine and stayed up talking all night listening to Tom Waits. And we were good friends ever since. Scott and Mary ended up being the first models for our fashion shoots in Rude International. There was like a 3-page spread of Mary and Scott on Dicky’s scooter that we borrowed, if anyone remembers from the magazine. Those fashion shoots were my first versions of what I later did with Pin-Up NYC. Mary was embarrassed about that shoot, because she found out later that the guys that worked at the liquor store in Allston had her picture hanging up in the back room. Haha. Can’t help it if she looked hot!

Scott moved to Seoul for awhile to work on his PhD, where he had actually lived for awhile when he was younger, as a Mormon missionary. Scott had a really fascinating life and I won’t go into all his personal details, but he had a lot of very interesting experiences. He was older than me, and he had been raised as a Mormon in Salt Lake City and traveled for awhile as a missionary before being ex-communicated from the Church (and from Brigham-Young where he was going at the time) because he had a girlfriend and was into ska and punk music, among other things.

But he picked himself back up and started his life again, and he did some really cool things. He got his MD at Cornell, and then went to Harvard, and won a Fulbright Scholarship. He helped organize the sit-in at Harvard when they weren’t paying their workers a living wage. He worked on translating poetry from jailed political poets in Asia to help get their work out and bring attention to their cause.

Scott was a brilliant and complicated person, but he was also really sweet, always in a good mood, always up for fun. When Mary and I moved to NY he came to stay with us and we would stay up all night talking about everything, from music, to politics, to literature. I can honestly say that Scott has always been one of my favorite people. We lived far away from each other in the last few years, and so kept in touch intermittently, but wrote each other long emails trying to keep up with each others’ lives. He had taken a teaching position as Assistant Professor of Korean Literature & Poetry at the University of Washington in Seattle and the last time I heard from him was about a year ago.

I was going through old pictures and emails when I was packing up my apartment and I came across a bunch of emails from Scott, and was looking though pictures of us from college. I was planning to email him to tell him about my move and see if he wanted to come and visit. When I was staying with Mary my last few weeks in NY, she also had been thinking about Scott, she wanted to contact him to have him read at the reading series she curates. She looked him up on the web to get his current email address and instead found an obituary. Scott had died of pancreatic cancer in December, 9 months after his original diagnosis. He wrote a blog starting from when he was first diagnosed up until his death. I scanned it, and as Scott was an amazing writer, it was fascinating and humorous and sad all at the same time. I can’t bring myself to read the whole thing yet, maybe in a few months. I was shocked to realize that Scott was dead.

I was upset at first that he hadn’t contacted us, hadn’t told us, but I realize now that’s crazy. He obviously had so much to deal with in front of him, and what was he going to say? ‘By the way, I just wanted to let you know I’m dying..?’ I guess it was just hard to find out about it like that, that he’d passed away a few months ago and we didn’t even know. Didn’t have the chance to say goodbye. His family and friends wouldn’t have known to get in touch with me & Mary, we didn’t really know anyone else in his life. Even in Boston I’d never met any of his friends. I think he just had people from lots of different times and places in his life that he kept in touch with, he didn’t have a cohesive set of friends that I knew of. From reading his blog, he had good friends in Seattle who took care of him until the end, so I’m glad to know that. But I just still can’t wrap my head around the fact that he’s gone and I won’t ever talk to him again. I think it’s just starting to sink in.

When I first started looking at job opportunities in London, I was open to the possibility that I might get a job and have to move pretty quickly. I didn’t know how I really felt about that, other than I had kicked a set of events into motion, and whatever the plunge would be, it was going to be something I’d have to see through. Like when you get to the top of a rollercoaster ride and you think, do I really want to do this? But you don’t have a choice, you’re already on it and you have to go wherever it takes you, no matter how scary it is. So I had kind of braced for that. Because even though people might say, well you had a choice, I didn’t feel that way. I decided that I was going to try and see if I could move here, and leave it up to fate. And if I had the opportunity, that I would take it, that it would be my path.

But once I was actually offered a job, in a way, I felt like my previous life suddenly ceased to exist, and I was thrust into this new world. Everything that happened from that moment on was a series of stressful and emotional experiences that have taken me from my life in NY to my life here, and I’ve had little to no breathing room in between.

Now that I’m starting to settle in here a little bit, I’m first beginning to process things like being away from my family, Scott’s death, having to leave Rick, and they’re kind of hitting me hard anytime I get a moment alone. I think it’s healthy to take time and deal with this stuff, but I also need to try to keep myself on an even keel. I have to focus on my job right now and making some money and getting stabilized here. So I’ve been kind of fluctuating emotionally in the last week or so, but I’ll be alright. I just need to stay focused. And I have to say, London has definitely been doing it’s best to keep me on my toes…