Watching the Meltdown from afar

"BUSH: HELP ME OR WE'RE ALL DOOMED"

This is the headline on The London Paper's front page. Granted, I think it could be said that the publication is more gossip and sensationalism than respectable journalism, but it made me laugh out loud as I was handed a copy walking past Regent's Park tube station today after work. Not because of the epic issue at hand, but because of the humorous undertone the words screamed with. Helpless, silly America, what have you gotten yourself into?

It's very interesting to watch in a different country. Although I can try to imagine what people in America right now are feeling, I really can't grasp it. Over here i see a very different view of what's happening in this crisis, the election or anything else newsworthy in America. I wouldn't go as far as to say it is objective, because there are definite sentiments on America its citizens, but it's a different point of view than I've ever seen.

I just watch and read as much as I can and hope that our current and future leaders in Washington can pull it together and come up with a plan to get us out of this mess. As much as we can sit back and say they're all a just bunch of crooked politicians, and their policies are the ones that got us into this mess, there comes a time when you just have to look at them and say, you're a leader. Please lead, and help us out of this mess.

I'm just glad I'm earning my money in pounds.

All dressed up and nowhere to go

I sit in my room in my new dress, my new hose, new shoes and same old self after realizing that the comedy night I planned with friends is just not going to happen. Such a sad feeling. Andrea got a job at the International Students House bar, the same place I work reception at, and went in for a training session that was supposed to last one hour. It's now been 2 hours and 18 minutes. In the time that I've waited I've eaten half a frozen Tesco pizza, drank more than half a bottle of 1.88 pound wine, and sat on the front steps of my flat for about 15 minutes. Even though I'm disappointed the night has turned out the way it has, I see it as a blessing in disguise. I can't remember the last time I've had more than half an hour to myself. As I sat on the roost to my front door I thought about how I've always wished I had a front step to sit and watch the goings by, and through a connecting alley directly in front of my door I'm able to see through to Marylebone Street, a very busy area. Yet I can also look around the quiet street I'm lucky enough to live on. Students on my side, richies on the other.

This morning we went to Burough Market and found that uncountable countries' foods were merely a few steps away. Cheese wheels, blocks of fudge, all-natural wraps, sandwiches and juices made to order. I have pictures, I just need to figure out how to post more than one in an entry...
There were so many people under the tents that I began to feel claustrophobic, but I bought a loaf of raisin date and pecan bread for toast in mornings the next week and a delicious chicken sandwich. Then on to Portobello Road. I cannot WAIT to increase my jewelry collection from this place. I'm hoping to keep it all to unique, authentic pieces of jewelry rather than the plastic mass produced crap. How amazing would it be to return with a good jewelry collection from a British market?

When I got home I went to Regent's Park to feed the birds. If I was a few floors up, I'd see Regent's Park from my window. Unfortunately, I'm in the basement level and I look out a cement wall. Anyway, it took me less than five minutes to walk here:

I love this park so much. I'll be there all day tomorrow for another beautiful day. My manager at work told me this will have been the last good Saturday before winter. Great.

O, the places you can go!

I'm beginning to realize I have entirely too much dead air in my days. My work schedule is like this: one week of 7:45-3:30 shifts, one week of 3:30-11 shifts, then back to morning again.

By the way, as I write this:
Scottish dancing class upstairs mixed with the screaming rock band downstairs and others filtering in and out to the bar on this level. So many people having fun, and I sit in the middle reading Watching the English, an anthropology of British behavior. Two regular bar-goers are standing at the counter, 40 something men from...somewhere in the middle east. One's been around the hostel for years and said that the hostel used to pay double for night shifts and double or triple for holidays, and now everyone is going to the American ways. The Americans screwed everything up.

I wonder if he knows I'm American. Some people can't tell.

Anyway, the shifts of this job make it difficult to get another part time job since it would have to go with the same hours system, so I've been literally just walking between 10 and 3, has to be at least five miles a day for the past few weeks, just looking like a tourist gaping at the buildings and parks. Usually I have something small to do to feel like I accomplished something. For example today I had to go to my bank to get my ATM (or as they say, cash point) cards, and instead of taking the bus I walked there. 4 hours later, I was back at my hostel. I could do that for the next six months, but I realized today that as much as I walk I'll need a little bit of substance for my mind. So here is my feat.

British Museum. One exhibit every weekday. I'll be a genius!

So. There are around 70 exhibits in the British Museum. That's 5 levels and 15 categories, the majority of which are divided by country or geographical region. There are also changing exhibits and themes. Babylon is coming next month and I can't wait!

I started with room 1 today, Enlightenment. Learned all kinds of things about the period in the late 17th to early 19th centuries to look at nature instead of the bible for answers to life's questions. It went through exhibits of the first collections of botany and fossils. Funny thing about fossils is they were discovered when people believed the world was created around 3rd century B.C., and since fossils don't fit into the bible anywhere, people believed they were just abnormal stones, even though the evidence pointed to obvious life forms based on the classification system developed by the Swedish natural philosopher Carl Lineus...and then of the desire for foreign "curiosities" as they were called, to learn of the underlying commonalities between cultures....

yes, I read every single thing in there. It took me an hour and 20 minutes to get through one exhibit. I figured I might as well, right? It's a free museum.

Things I've learned in London so far:

No mistake on the tube is unfixable
You can never own too much black
Be polite...say please and thank you almost excessively
Accept the fact that even though you should be polite, some people are extremely rude without reason.

I'll continue this list in later posts....

Getting a bit more worldly

I finally have a second to myself. Be prepared, because this will be a long entry.

This past week I've been jet lagged, sleep deprived and starving, and constantly surrounded by people at work or at play. I suppose I'll try to remember this trip from the beginning.

Landed in London and carried about 75 lbs of luggage to a bus, then to the tube, then to the hostel. Climbed up countless stairs and bumped into everyone nearby, but we made it to International Students House, my workplace and my home for the next six months, without a wrong turn. The hostel turns out to be more organized and...bigger than I would have thought. Front desk security (where I work) directed us to the reception, which directed us to Mary Trevelyn Hall, a five-minute walk away, where my room is. When we got there we had even more walking to do to get to the room. Once we were there, we collapsed on the bed and hoped to never move again.

Alas, you have to explore once you're here. We asked the receptionist how to find Oxford Circus from here. She told us it was 10 minutes in that direction. However, "that direction" was the wrong direction, and we spent the afternoon wandering. When we tried to find Oxford Circus the next day, it really was a short walk. One of the best shopping streets in the world, right down the street from me. I'm going to have big problems.

The day after I arrived in London, I had to make a flight to Venice at 6:30 in the morning. I arrived there, pretty haughty at that moment because of what was in my mind courage and follow through to land solo in a country where I don't speak the language, but that was shattered pretty quickly when I realized I arrived in a very warm paradise wearing jeans and a sweater and no one cared to speak English.

When in Italy, you speak Italian, you foolish American.

That's the vibe I got the whole trip. But it could have been the 2 hours of sleep I had the night before combined with the jet lag. Or it could have been the fact that I was surrounded by couples and happy families breezing through the last joytrip of their summers. I thought I was an outcast in London, but being alone in a non-English speaking country is a whole other ball game. I was craving London by the end of the first day.

I met a New Zealand couple in the hostel I stayed at and it was nice just to speak to someone in my language. I probably sounded so pitiful to them, and they sat with me an hour and shared their wine.

The next day was much better after 8 hours of sleep. Saw Murano, saw Burano, ate gelato and learned to say thank you and goodbye in Italian. Rode in a water taxi, walked a loop inside San Marco, walked by the fancy pub Hemingway frequented. It was a great, beautiful, historical, mind blowing city. I'm very glad I went there, but I regret the timing. I wish I would have had someone to share it with.

Back in London, I started my job on Monday. I have big shoes to fill, because everyone raves about the American that used to work here. I sit behind the security desk and get paid to check Facebook, blog, answer a phone call, then facebook and blog some more, etc. etc., but I wish I was doing more. There are so many job opportunities in this place I would thrive in like event planning or marketing, but I just get to watch from my little desk.

Not that I'm complaining. I could have much much worse. And I get to meet so many residents! Some of them are funny, most of them are rude. About half of them don't speak fluent English. One man asked me if I'm from Spain, or have any Spanish blood. Second time that's happened on this trip. Then there were a couple funny men who just passed through and told me I have "American teeth". I said, what do you mean by that? and he said that Americans are known to take care of themselves "in the face". Hm. At least we have one thing going for us in the world.