What if...

Claudia and I went to the ISH bar last night to meet Joe, a 40-something business man and new friend who uses Regent's Gym downstairs. The first time I met him, I was reading a book at the front desk, and he asked what I was reading. Then I witnessed a literary explosion from him. He just went off about this book and that book and have I ever read this one. I was amused and nodded along using the skills I learned as a bartender to feign interest, not thinking I'd ever see him again, but he came the next day with a book in hand to lend to me! So after that, Joe and I started chatting every time he came in about books, then careers, then nonprofits. He is seriously involved in public service, was even nominated for recognition of his work in London. He was so nice to forward my CV on to his employer and began tapping into his connections to see if I could have any volunteer work in media or advertising. He invited me to a debate event at the U.S. Embassy on Monday night but when I RSVPed a day later, it was completely booked.

Last night at the ISH bar he introduced us to Arun, an adorable tiny white-haired Indian man who listened to stories in such an entertaining way I would watch him instead of the story teller. He would say "yes, yes" with hand motions and wide eyes then fall back in his chair laughing at the punchline.
When Arun found out that I have a degree in strategic communication and am temporarily at ISH he said "Well if I pass your CV on to companies and they like you, are you committed to working at ISH?" I had to pause because technically, I signed a six-month contract ending March 1. But I thought about it and said that if someone offered me a job in my field in LONDON FREAKING ENGLAND, I couldn't think twice about taking it.
Then he proposed something to me that did make me think twice. What if I volunteered or interned at an agency and they wanted to take me up in March when my contract is over with ISH?

This is something I secretly wished for when I made the trip over here. And I honestly don't know what I would say.

Well, I'm at work again today and disgusted with the weather. It's beautiful, sunny, and Saturday morning. A perfect day for markets, and I get to sit here all morning. It's okay, though. I'm going to Carmina Burana tonight at Royal Albert Hall which should be incredible. I was told that you have to dress up to appreciate the music, so maybe a new dress is in order...

Never thought I'd love Paris...

Paris...it seems so cliche, doesn't it?
But it's not, because cliches are overused and exaggerated, and usually cliche situations or places don't turn out as sweet as they sound.
Paris was everything people say and 10 times more.

I went there dragging my feet a bit, wishing I was going to Budapest or Amsterdam...anywhere with more substance than a fairy tale's happy ending with fluffy dogs and croissants. It's okay, I told myself. I'll always be able to say I saw the Eiffel Tower.

Then I arrived. The city is the most romantic place, extremely poetic and so so beautiful with the nature, the people and the architecture. First thing we did was take a boat cruise, which I really didn't appreciate as much as I could have because I didn't figure out until halfway through it that I could listen in English if I pressed a certain button. Then we waited in line for the Eiffel Tower.
I've been up the Hancock Building
the Space Needle.
the Sears Tower.
Hell, let's throw the top of the Hyatt in Kansas City in, too.
I've never understood what's so great about soaring thousands of feet in the air to look down at the tops of buildings and gridlocked streets. Until Paris.

I could have spent all night up there, and the next. I could have spent my entire weekend in Paris at the top of the Eiffel Tower and not have been disappointed at all. I would have told myself I could do it all the next trip: Montmatre would still be a hike, the graves would still be there in Pere Lachaise cemetery, and Paris nightlife would always be strong enough to forget the following morning. The sunset beyond the city seemed to be painted by the artists below it.

More on my Paris adventure when I'm more awake...

Watching the leaves change

I always knew I was a city girl.
Every city I've been in since I was a teenager, whether it was Chicago, Seattle, Houston, or elsewhere, I knew the energy of metropolitan life was for me. And oddly enough, when I thought of myself in a city, I never pictured a specific career I would be pursuing. I always thought about how I would spend my free time. Jogging along Lake Michigan's waterfront - going miles further than I would ever go at home - , or sipping a latte in a coffee shop shadowed by skyscrapers reading a book I still haven't had time to read.

I'm living a little of that life right now, and I love it. Though I haven't made it 10k nor finished reading nearly enough books.

I was running in Regent's Park today. The park is like a jigsaw puzzle, and every time I go I get to find a new piece of it. Today I noticed the leaves. I realized that they've been different every time. That's the only way I know the seasons are changing, my runs in Regent's. I jogged under a high ceiling of tree limbs today on a worn grass path next to the proper walkway, which was lined with benches. The ground was damp and covered in orange leaves that allowed pockets of grass to breathe in the gaps of their landings. Moss-covered trees tinted the pathway green on both sides, planted in perfectly measured distances, and the branches met at a peak like an arched hallway. I could see so far ahead of me, and I felt like I was the only person there.

In between my Regent's Park runs and long shifts at ISH, I've been planning my travels with friends. It makes me realize how little time I have here. Paris this week, Brighton the next, then it's November and a whole new month of traveling to Wales and Scotland.
All this traveling and working, and hardly any time to think seriously about my career choices. That's the reason behind this trip (or should I say justification?). I didn't know exactly what I should be doing where back in America, and I told myself that I might as well be confused about it in a different country. I've only learned that I know I want to continue my education, though I know not what in. I suppose a little progress is better than none.

Exciting news --finally figured out the slideshow tool! The pictures in the upper right show are mine, unlike the photo in this post, which I grabbed from a random site..

Simple things.

I don't blog enough.
I'm used to writing for myself...unedited, no pressure to entertain, but I know you're out there, reading this, so I always wonder if what I'm about to write is even worth reading to some people. So since I think there's so much pressure on me to write something earth changing, I decided this will be a blog for the simpler things in life.

Like the flowers on the corner of the reception desk. Every Monday the woman from the florist shop across the street brings a new vase with brand new budding flowers. Each time they're a different arrangement and I get to watch them bloom through the week. She just breezed through with them five minutes ago, swapping out the old vase. I always wonder what happens to the flowers in the old vase. Do they throw them away? Leave them on display at the store? They're still beautiful after a week. But I told the florist that I think I enjoy the flowers more than anyone because I'm next to them all day long. She smiled and said "Well, we shall turn them towards you then."

Simple things.

They're pink lilies, in case anyone out there wonders. Only two are really close to being fully open, but there are a few more on the way and the rest are all buds. We'll see how fast they grow.

Or yesterday, I enjoyed ice cream spaghetti at an Italian cafe. It was noodly strings of ice cream with strawerry syrup on top and white chocolate flakes. Absolutely amazing. It was followed by a bargain deal at a street vendor for a £19 leather coat. Then there's the Moody Blues concert tonight at Royal Albert Hall. Word is the acoustics at this venue are phenomenal...www.royalalberthall.com

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....