Working on Christmas

Working on Christmas
Originally uploaded by american-english

So among the charmingly nutty Christmas hats, cards with cats clinging to pine trees, and middle aged women with Santa sweaters here in the office, I am tucked away in a corner, faithfully banging out flights for irate soccer dads and Beijing businessmen. I'm trying to finish the Paulo Coelho novel which is Sahara-dry and Shirley Maclaine-metaphysical. I'm not smart enough for this shit.

Last Day in Blighty

Basically this trip has been amazing. I've climbed hundreds of stairs in an ancient staircase to the roof of a church, dipped my feet in an ancient Roman bath, took tea and saw the streets Jane Austen wrote about. Today we braved rain and cold winds to take a ride through the Cotswalds. We saw all the sheep and cows and the adorable little cottages. Then back down to take a pint of Bath's best West Country ale.

I've had so much fun, I'm not too keen on leaving to go back home. Luckily though, I can come back any time I want! I love my job!

Soton to Bath Adventures

So me and my friend from Oz, Ziggles McGinty, made our way from our adorable little Ikea hotel to the train station where, while I was waiting for the girl to heat up my cornish pasty, we ended up missing our train. It stopped for maybe 10 seconds, opened the door, closed the door and buggered off. GREAT. So we ended up having to buy a new ticket which we expected to be near to 100000000000 pounds. It ended up being a pretty sweet deal though, not nearly as much as we expected and, after walking between the bus station and train station to check prices/times, we hopped on the train and left for Bath. On the way we met Trevor, who had taught at Michigan State, met Bill Clinton, lived in about 40 countries (or so it seemed) and liked the booze. He also professed his love for AC/DC, which I thought was mildly hilarious. He also said he was married, then hit on my friend, then spontaneously became unmarried with a girlfriend in Bath. He also gave us his phone number which, needless to say, we have hesitated to use. Upon getting to Bath, I was wandering around, dumbstruck by the gorgeous old buildings. It's insane. This city has shoes older than America. Having just seen The Duchess and various Jane Austen movies, I have to say I'm feeling like I'm in a movie. It's just beautiful here. The hostel is great as well, it's a YMCA nestled in a little sidestreet promenade. When we checked in, the lady told us that since it was sort of empty, they had upgraded us to a twin room instead of an 10 bed dorm. I was super excited, especially since the end price was about 10 pounds less than what I had been expected to pay booking online. The room is snuggly and reminds me of my dorm room in college. The view is AMAZING. It overlooks hills and old Georgian houses. We got up early this morning for breakfast and decided that we'd take a walk around, trying to hit up Bath Abbey and the Roman Spa today. Maybe a sightseeing tour. Also, there is a distinct possibility for a Chinese buffet. HUZZAH ENGRAND.

Wubz.

Five minutes in the hotel internet in Southampton

Write fast! Is it possible that I already miss London? I had a minor mishap getting on the wrong train to Southampton. Apparently the one that leaves at 1:35 is totally different that the one that leaves at 1:39. Okay. A nice stern old Englishman helped me figure it out, though and I made my way quite painlessly to Southampton. It looks a bit like home, old industrial area. Very much like the suburbs of Detroit, actually. I broke down and went to McDonalds since it was literally right ouside my hotel window. They all thought my accent was oh-so-funny.

The hotel I'm staying at is adorable and very efficient in an Ikea sort of way. It had a TV though, and I was very amused to find 24 hour coverage on something Russell Brand said to some old Faulty Towers actor. And we're prudes? Anyway I'm moving to Southamptons only hostel, the Brimar Guest House which was nearly impossible to reach by telephone. I cannot be more adorable than my Ikea hotel but I'm sure it'll be lovely.

I'm seeing my Aussie bff today, who is staying with family here in what the locals call Soton. I can't wait as I have missed her terribly.

30 seconds to go!

Football, pubs, and Buckingham Palace

Woke up rather late this morning and ended up missing Australia v New Zealand in rugby. I decided to grab some breakfast and watch the football match on tv in the local pub. It was amazingly fun, especially when Liverpool beat Chelsea 1-0. Then a friend and I decided to go shopping a little while. It was a pretty cool day, I bought my only souveneir of London-a pretty scarf for £4. Then on a whim we decided to go see Buckingham Palace at night. It was absolutely gorgeous. We took a great walk and some hilarious pictures. I had a great time just hanging out with people in the hostel. Fun times! Although its my last night in London, I'm definitely coming back.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Southampton!

London by day and night

This morning I woke up early, took a shower, and went downstairs just in time to catch the end of breakfast. I ended up making plans with a friend who had just moved back here from Cardiff but we weren't meeting until 12 or 1. I didn't have much time and I wasn't sure where we would end up meeting so I took the tube to sightsee around central London for a little bit. I checked out Piccadilly Circus, which is sort of Times-Squarey, especially with the amount of tourists. I saw that there was a football match on, Tottenham vs Bolton. Tickets were 60£ which was way too rich for my blood but it would have been nice to see anyway. I ended up walking down to Trafalgar Square and that area. There was a beautiful tree-lined avenue leading up to Buckingham Palace, but my friend called and let me know where and when we were meeting. We ended up meeting at the south bank of the Thames for lunch and catch-up. We took a nice walk, browsed some used booksellers. I saw Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, London Bridge, and the London Eye. It was a very long walk. After that we split up and being dead tired, I came back to the hostel to take a nap. I woke up about 8pm, read a bit and then a girl in my room came in and said that she and another girl from the hostel were going out. I tagged along to the other girl's room-she ended up being an Aussie from Sydney. There are more Australians and Spaniards here than I've ever seen. They convinced me to go out and we went to a Fulham pub for drinks. They ended up having £1.50 snakebites which was both amazing and dangerous. We all saw the power of my ability to attract freaks and weirdos. The first was this little guy who was dancing like a chicken. I went to get a drink and he followed me up to the bar. I told him I had a boyfriend and just pointed to the biggest guy I could see and it turns out the big guy was his friend. Great. So, after telling him many times to bugger off, this nice pack of Englishmen made a bit of a half circle around us and told him to shove off. Two more guys ended up trying their luck, a Columbian who tried to say he was Spanish and a very drunk Aussie who looked like he was going to projectile vomit at any moment. Freak magnet. The bar closed earlier than we expected so we headed back home on a very London red double decker bus. Tomorrow might be a chill out day. I expected to go to the Tate Modern to see the Rothko exhibit but Chelsea is playing Liverpool at 1330 and, even though I'll be maimed by Chelsea fans, I have to support my L'Pool. We shall see.

London

As I was on the train coming from Heathrow and I was looking out the window at the rainy, foggy dawn morning and it occured to me that it looked quite a bit like home. It has a very comforting quality about it, where you know that inside those little lighted windows there is someone snuggled warm and cozy inside. I felt immediately at ease. I arrived without any sleep and hours to check in so I went on a mission to find the cheapest cellphone I could find (9£!) and decided to hit up the Tate Britian for the free tour. It ended up being great but I nearly passed out in front of the 19th century narrative paintings. I found my way back to the hostel and crashed. I woke up briefly to talk to a fellow Yank who is an art historian, so we geeked out about languages for awhile. I'm about to go back up to fall back asleep, hopefully for the rest of the night.