Recap, Again

Work the last few days has been more of me sitting around, waiting for things to upload or download (I'm looking at you, Google and Bing Ads Editors and Kenshoo...😒) so I have time for a little post.

Wednesday, 28 September

Today, I took a nice long walk to Canary Wharf, where Alex's office is located.  I walked around the Tower of London, which was looking very majestic and brilliant against the sunny cloudless blue sky.  Then, I wove through the north part of St. Katharine's Docks and along the Thames until I hit the distant Financial District about an hour's walk outside of London.  Canary Wharf has got major companies like Citi and Credit Suisse, but what interested me more was the shopping mall, of course.  I had a quick lunch at Nando's, a coffee to go from Caffe Nero, and then hopped on the Tube back home to get to work.

Thursday, 29 September

This was the first rainy day since we arrived, almost exactly a week ago!  We were very lucky to arrive at the end of an Indian summer-like period, though now it's just about the same autumnal temperature as New York.  It was just barely misting when I left the apartment, but when I got to Embankment, it was full-on pouring big rain drops, so I ducked for cover under a bridge and then under some building overhangs.  Turns out that 20% chance of rain wound up happening!

I headed to The British Museum, armed with a Rick Steves audio guide podcast.  I had it on at 1.5x speed, and walked quickly through the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek wings.  It was kind of cute to have Rick Steves babbling in the background while I meandered through the oft-visited British Museum again, sort of just drying off and waiting for the rain outside to stop.  Finally, I popped over to the Brunswick Center, taking the same route I used to use when we walked to and from NIDO, and did some grocery shopping at Waitrose.

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Saturday's weather is supposed to be dreadful, so we're looking for a cute day trip for Sunday...thinking about Brighton?  I'll let you guys know how it goes!  Have a great end of the week, everyone!

Recap!

I have been wanting to blog for a few days now, but haven't found the time.  I'm working right now, but an Excel file is taking quite a long time to open, so I finally found a few minutes free!

It has been a blissful few days here in London.  The weather has been blessedly sunny and relatively warm.  I caught a little cold, likely from the stress of moving and air travel, but I'm on the mend now, and luckily even though sniffly and congested I had a great weekend.

Thursday, 22 September

We've arrived!  After a long time in the customs line, waiting for the Uber, and a trafficky drive from Heathrow, we arrived in our flat in the City of London.  Our flat is comfortable, and though a bit small, perfect for our temporary needs.  It's so close to everything, although the shops immediately in our vicinity close very early (some don't even open on the weekends) since it's a business district and they're banking on people being in the neighborhood just for work.  After we put down our bags, we were starving and took a 10 minute walk to Leadenhall Market (right next to The Leaky Cauldron in movie 1) and had our first back-in-London dinner at none other but Pizza Express.  I had a Middle-Eastern-inspired pizza with lamb meatballs and arugula; Alex had a calzone stuffed to the gills with Italian cold cuts.  We promptly crashed that night.

Friday, 23 September

First work day.  Since I didn't have to start until about 2pm, we took a wee walk around the neighborhood in the morning, hitting up our old favorite Twinings, weaving up through Soho/Covent Garden, and grabbing a quick lunch at Dishoom ("Bombay bistro" - really amazing curries and daal, would so go back in a heartbeat).  Sadly, as we were coming home I started feeling icky, and it did not abate as the day went on.  I actually signed off in the evening, went to Sainsbury for a quick grocery shopping, and we cooked our first meal in the apartment, a very simple spaghetti, chicken with Nando's marinade, and arugula.  We promptly crashed again.

Saturday, 24 September

Weekend!  We crossed over the Thames into Southwark and into one of my favorite places in all of London: Borough Market.  Borough Market is a gastronomical feast for all the senses.  There are plenty of stalls for cheesemongers, bread bakers, sweets makers, and a ton of international street foods.  This is also where Alex and I had...kangaroo burgers six years ago!  I think I'll try to come on weekday mornings to buy some fresh produce, which seems kind of hard to come by in the supermarkets.

Then, we had planned to meet my coworker at his home in Hampstead Heath.  We took a nice ~3 hour stroll from Southwark through Soho and Covent Garden, our old stomping grounds of Bloomsbury, the very "alt" neighborhood of Camden, and finally the prim and proper neighborhoods of Primrose Hill and Hampstead Heath.  It was great fun for us to see all the enclaves along the way, especially the very chic and sophisticated areas up north.

Sunday, 25 September

More weekend!  First, we had a glutinous full English breakfast at a greasy spoon in Southwark.  To walk it off, we wove through Southwark and across the river again at Westminster, then through the gorgeous rows of embassies in Belgravia.  I hadn't walked through this area much, and I loved wandering through the rich marble facades.  Our destination was Harrods, which did not disappoint.  We meandered back towards Soho/Chinatown and had dinner at Belgo; I had a big ol' pot of herb & garlic mussels and fries and a raspberry beer.  Yum!

Monday, 26 September

Real work week.  I started off the morning with a run by the Thames, down to Tower of London and through St. Katharine's Docks.  We had visited this area with my architecture class in 2010, and it was fun to reacquaint myself.  I also walked around the Spitalfields Market area, until coming back to the apartment at about noon to shower, eat, and start work.

Tuesday, 27 September

How is it the 27th of September already?  I started this morning with a run in the opposite direction, also along the Thames but towards Charring Cross.  My ankle was a little sore, so I kind of gave up running and just went for a nice long walk along Regent Street, Oxford Street, and across the British Museum and back for work.

Can't wait for more exploring time in the mornings and this weekend.  In the meantime, signing off so I can sign on to work.  Cheers, friends!  :)

My Future Mother-in-Law Can't Pronounce...

Portugal.  (She says it "Portugo" for some reason)

Hello from Portugal!  The land of Cristiano Ronaldo - I felt like I had to call that out for you, Christie.  Just a quick update while I'm waiting to board my next flight to London.

The flight over here was uneventful, too short for a decent amount of rest so I'll have to find the best coffee shop the City of London has to offer.  I was hoping to get the two seats next to me empty in a row of four, but alas a woman who spoke only Spanish and Portuguese climbed over me and proceeded to spread all the way out in the middle two seats.  She fully lay down across the seats with her head in my armpit and her feet in the girl on the other end's lap.  I was pretty pissed and trying to make my presence known (like, kind of nudging her with my side to remind her that she crossed over into my bubble and could she please back the eff up) but my anger melted away when I woke up from my nap and found her sitting upright, with something CRAZY going on with her hair; she must have smushed it into a terrible shape after sleeping on my arm rest.  That scene from There's Something About Mary comes to mind.  The schadenfreude in me was like, "I'm not even mad anymore."

It looks like a beautiful day in Lisbon, Portugal...from what I can see from the airport terminal.  Boarding in 15 minutes!  I'll be greeting you all from London next!

Ciao!

When A Man Is Tired Of London, He Is Tired Of Life

Here I am, on the precipice of one of life’s great adventures.  I think about the differences between this trip and the previous one, a study abroad experience in 2010, and although it seems like only six years have passed, in reality so much has changed.  I’m about to join my fiancé to work in London for three months – a city where we met while studying abroad in 2010.  That semester abroad brought me so many happy memories, lifelong friendships, and most importantly, my future husband!

Six years ago, I didn’t have a texting plan and I used a blocky slide phone; no one I knew had a smartphone.  Now, I’m charging my iPhone at an airport bar and every single person here is staring at a glowing laptop or mobile phone screen.  I was a college student, living on a very tight budget that semester.  Now, I am a real adult in the working world.  I had barely been away from home, having commuted to NYU.  Since then, I’ve traveled – not too extensively, but enough to have broadened my horizons and to have witnessed the beauty of parts of the world – and moved out of the comfort of home.  I hope I’ve grown into a more level-headed, well-rounded person in the last six years, and I hope London will welcome us back with open arms.

As we were driving to JFK this evening, we were greeted by one of the most stunning sunsets; the sky was first wispy with cotton candy-like pink clouds, then turned fiery and orange red.  I like to think New York wanted to show us a nice last view.

Enough ruminating!

I’m very proud of Alex for all he’s accomplished in his brief career so far, so much so that his company is basically funding this entire stint abroad.  Alex arrived in London in 2010 as an NYU Stern student studying accounting and he wound up in a Big Four firm after graduation.  (Very different story from me, who arrived in NYU London thinking I’d be deep in medical school now.)

We will be staying in an apartment/studio/hotel kind of set up in The City of London, like the OG square mile city of Londoninium.  I’ve been telling people we’re between St. Paul’s Cathedral and The Monument (as in, the monument commemorating the 1666 Great Fire).  The apartment is just over the river from the Borough Market/Southwark scene.

While Alex goes off to work every day in Canary Wharf, I’ll be making myself nice and cozy and working in the apartment.  I am so blessed and grateful to my company for allowing me to work remotely for such a long time.  (Wouldn’t have this opportunity if I were in med school!)  I’ll be working East Coast hours, so I have to get used to something like a 2pm to 11pm schedule…that’ll probably be a little rough at first since I’m not a night person.  Come to think of it, I’m also not a morning person, and I don’t like the afternoon slump, so…what kind of a person am I???  I’m going to push myself to go out and exercise and run errands in the morning, and just get to unwind and enjoy the bustling life surrounding me.

The Move

Packing for this trip was extra hard.  I had just moved in with Alex this past July, but he had been in that same apartment for four years, and had accumulated a lot of…things.  When we come back from London, the goal is to move into Manhattan shortly after, so we also had to move all our things out of the apartment, on top of packing for London.  Let me tell you, I never want to relive those last few days of sweaty schlepping and running up and down stars.  When we move into our next place, I’ll hire movers.

Another big change was that when we studied abroad, for the most part we were able to check two pieces of baggage for free.  I didn’t even pack that many items with me, basically the minimum for living, but I did have a second bag to check, for which I just had to fork over $100.  The business of air travel is a racket.

The Next 103 Days

Yeah, we already calculated the number of days until we have to come home, but this is the case where the countdown is wistful, something that I'm not terribly looking forward to.  I remember the elation when my countdown to departure hit 0 days...imagine my sadness come January 3, 2017.

Before I get too sad thinking about the end, though, I really should just live the next 3 months to the fullest - visit new places, revisit old haunts, meet some new people, find old friends still in London, eat great food, travel around Europe as much as we can....  It's going to be a good 103 days.

Well, peace out America, it's been real.