Life in London

Well I can tell that life here is getting pretty normal because I no longer feel the need to write about everything I see and do. With that said, I have been up to a few things the past couple weeks, so I can probably find something to fill some blog space. Here we go!

Coming back to my flat after Italy, I found that it had no electricity! Apparently there was a fire in some circuit board which blew power to the entire block. They were able to fix everything except for three flats, one of which was mine. So my landlord kindly put me up in a hotel for a couple days until it was fixed. Unfortunatley, the couple days turned in to two weeks! So two hotels and no home-cooked meals later, I finally got back into the flat.

I now have tenure in my flat. Both of my other flatmates moved out during the last couple months. One of the new girls, Temi, moved in just before I left for Italy. The other, Celine, got the keys today and will be moving in this week. They both are really nice and I think it will be a good situation.

Last weekend Hayley took me up to the village where she grew up for the weekend. It was a mini roadtrip and felt so good to get out of London, especially in a car! We stayed with her dad and step-mom and enjoyed the local village culture, which meant a lot of time in the pub across the street and the next village down. However, she did show me some of the local highlights which included an indoor skiing/snowboarding slope, Dunstable Downs hill, Clophill Church ruins(which is haunted), and a china buffet. We also hung out with a couple of her childhood friends and went to watch one of them play football (soccer) for the local club. It was a really nice weekend and nice to experience what the UK is really about.

It has certainly become autumn in the UK. It's been pretty cold with highs around 10 degrees celcius (if we're lucky) and lows right around zero. We also had our first snowflakes! It was really light and pretty wet, but it was the first time London has seen snow in October since 1934. Some areas outside of London actually got a decent amount. Halloween is not a big deal here at all, which was depressing. However, I did buy some candy on Friday and set it out in the hallway for all of our neighbors. We do have Bonfire night, or Guy Fawkes Night, on Wednesday which is apparently a much bigger deal and includes fireworks! If you have seen the movie V for Vendetta, I guess this is in honor of that. Obviously they don't have Thanksgiving here either, but the other American in my office and I will be cooking a huge, traditional Thanksgiving feast for friends on Thanksgiving. It should be yummy!

Some of the most exciting news is that my work permit extension has been approved for 18 months! So it looks like I'll be here for a total of 2 years. I still have one more step, which involves going to the UK Border Agency to get further leave to remain, which involves an application and a bunch of other stuff that can apparently take up to 4 hours! My appointment is on the 25th of November.

Otherwise, I'm heading down to the Andalucia region of Spain next weekend for three days. I'll be spending my time in Seville, but will hopefully get a day trip in to a nearby town or hiking area. The weekend after Thanksgiving I'm going to Prague for 2 days with Hayley and a few of her friends. I am also currently making my arrangements to come back to the States for Christmas. I should be arriving in Colorado on December 16th, staying there for about a week, and then heading to Oregon for Christmas and New Years. I'll let everyone know my plans when they are finalized.

Today is an exceptionally dreary day in London. Cold, windy, and very very very wet. However, I did run a 5k in Wimbledon this morning before it started raining. They do a free 5k run every Saturday as a time trial. I ran it in just over 23 mins and 30 seconds. It's about what I expected, but I really hoped I would surprise myself. Oh well, there is lots of room for improvement! After taking care of some stuff around the flat, I then went to Whole Foods and did some grocery shopping. I also browsed around some other clothing shops in the area. I can't wait to come home and shop...things are just way too expensive here!

OK, that's it for now!