Hey everyone!
So I think this week has been colored with a lot of kind of bummer-ish things...and I wonder if this is this stuff that blogs are made of, would anybody still read? But, my reality has been less than stellar this week, so I'm gonna write about it anyway. I will, however, sandwich the bad with the good, the way any decent teacher can.
Good news number 1: I found, after much looking, a cheap ticket back to London after Christmas. 289 dollars! That is AMAZING (considering that up until this point, one-way tickets were upwards of 800 dollars!)
Bad news number 1: The only cheap tickets I could find were for BEFORE the new year, so unfortunately, I will not be spending New Years in New York.
Good news number 2: My Irish friends will all be making it over to London for New Years. YAY. So, I will have people I love around me for New Years anyway...though it won't be any of you awesome people. THEN, we are going back to Ireland (FINALLY!) on January 2nd to see 2manydjs and to celebrate my friend Eimear's birthday. I will be leaving from Ireland direct to Berlin to hang out with Marisa for a few days before returning to reality in London. Wow, when put like this, my life doesn't seem so bad, afterall :) Vacation from a vacation? Sweet! And THEN Andrew Mugler will be in London hanging out, right after Berlin!! I know, I know, this chunk of info was way more than "Good News Number 2", but I thought this was all kind of related.
Bad news number 2: I haven't been able to start working yet, and therefore I am quite broke. (Yes, I know what you are thinking, I don't know how I'm going to fund a week in Berlin either. A miracle?) There was a problem with my police check, but it is all cleared up, and now I am just waiting, impatiently. If I don't get work soon...well you know the drill...helloooooo Connecticut. haha.
Good news number 3: I am starting to really, genuinely like London. I've met great people (mostly through my friend Adam, from Ireland) and I have been having a total blast. If you look hard enough, there are, like New York, tons of free/cheap cool things to do in this city. I went to a "totally awesome" photo exhibit called "London Through a Lens" at a famous photo gallery here (Gedde Images) and it was mind-blowing. It was tons of photos from London through the ages. Did you know that the ORIGINAL SoHo (in London) got it's name because SoHo! is a hunting saying that hunters say to their dogs? Apparently, people used to hunt through the streets of SoHo screaming at their dogs, and that is how it got it's name. Pretty cool, huh? (Or totally dorky, depending on how you look at it, I guess.)
Bad news number 3: I kind of got my identity stolen. Yea, I totally wasn't going to blog about this cause I didn't want the parents to freak out...but uhhh, I'm feeling really crappy today, and I just thought, what the hell, lets be honest here. Basically, the day I got here I used my credit card to buy some bed linens, and every since, someone from that store, apparently, has been using my credit card information to buy lots of things online. Don't worry, I've caught it, cancelled it, and I'm getting my money back in my next statement. HOWEVER, it TOTALLY sucks, and it made me not want to trust people here. Not that it can't happen anywhere, just that it happened to me, here, the day I arrived. I'm not dwelling though. No use in that.
Good news number 4: Unlike Dublin, there IS good Mexican food here. And I have found it! And you know what, it was FULL of Americans. Which made me laugh. Oh, Americans and their need for good Mexican food. Oh Americans, and their need to talk about Obama, everyday, all the time. Mexican Food and Obama--Warming my London-town heart, one burrito and one newspaper article at a time.
Bad news number 4: And now for the kicker. Though I have already created for myself quite a social life here (and I'm joining a field hockey team tomorrow!!! so I'll let you all know how THAT goes), as of today, I am not going to see a certain boy whose name may have been read between many blog lines as "some guy I was seeing." For the sake of blog-honesty, myself and said "guy I was seeing" are not seeing each other, anymore. Literally. No seeing of any kind. No hanging out. Nothing. And, I mean, it was my call, because hearts are a fragile thing, and I could tell mine was bound to take a beating in this particular instance. But, as we all know with hearts, the definitely right decision still hurts.
I hate to end on a bad note...so I'll say that I got the Not For Tourists book for FREE on Friday night (and free beer too!!) and it IS as awesome as expected. I then went to a GREAT birthday party (Adam's housemate) and there was lots of dance-partying. Which is ALWAYS a good time. London definitely has some amaaaazing places to go out and have a good time.
This was a picture-less blog, but I promise, there are pictures in the future :)
Cheers!
Sarah
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
New Room, New Roomies
Hey everyone!
Thanks to all the well-wishers who have been sending kind words my way. It's been really nice to hear all of your positivity especially because, unlike with Ireland, I have been feeling slightly tortured by this decision to come to London. I mean...another big city?...another lack of green-ness near me?...not knowing hardly ANYONE?...This is scary stuff!
But, true to form, I am slowly but surely settling in and beginning to make this my home. (I even re-arranged the furniture in our lounge to make it more liveable...the lounge is REALLY small...but don't worry, it has more than enough space for all of you future visitors!)
Here are some pictures of my amazing room. Yes, I am COMPLETELY obsessed with it. Best. Room. Ever:
View from the doorway...
My two wardrobes and dresser...
My desk...look how huuuuuge my room is! Big enough for a dance party!
Now here, meet the housemates....
This is Jaz.
She's great because she is quirky and really open in a way that many Brits are not. I have confided in her all of my boy drama, of course. (She's heard about pretty much every ridiculous text exchange I've had since I've been here.) She's that kind of girl. She told me that all my talk of running inspired her to start taking dance lessons (even before I got here!) so that she could become a healthier person. Isn't that awesome? I went with her to a "Ceroc" class a couple days ago...and it was SUCH a blast. It's kind of like "jive" or "the jitterbug" but to modern hip-hop instead of 50's do-wop. I am still searching for a salsa class, but this is also super fun.
This is Ed.:
Ed is a suuuuper intense vegan, which is a little bit intimidating. I mean, he eats barley like normal people eat pasta and rice. And he makes EVERYTHING from scratch. Eamonn and I made curry the other night for dinner. And, Ed was like, "Did you make it from paste, powder, or did you actually make it yourself?" And I'm like, "Well we used powder." Seriously, who takes the time to make curry powder from SCRATCH when it exists at the store so cheap! BUT, he's also really interesting, and a lovely hippie who is going to make our garden actually GROW stuff, and he loves to bike, so he's pretty much awesome. And he stayed out WAY too late with Eamonn and I at our "Local" the other night, going pint for pint. (And the Irish wins again...with the English as a close second...and me falling far, far behind.)
This is Juliet:
She's pretty quiet, but she is obsesssssssed with chocolate, which makes her automatically cool. She made the BEST hot chocolate I have ever had in my life the other night. I am not even joking. It was with that really kick-ass organic dark chocolate that has orange peel in it? Yum. Oh, and she plays the cello, my favorite stringed instrument. I went to see her orchestra perform on Saturday. I was an usher so I got in for free! (Couldn't afford it otherwise!)
And this is Tim:
Tim is great, but he is a work-a-holic so I don't see him that much. He helped me put my bike together, and came to pick me up at the airport. He listens to good music and makes his free time about going to gigs. Which I am super into. He is going to New York at the beginning of the new year, so if anyone wants to offer a couch, he's a sound guy.
Then finally there is Louise. She just moved in today so no picture yet. However, I just spent about two hours chatting with her and a couple of her friends, and she seems awesome!
All-in-all, it's been a great first week. I'm still nervous about meeting people, but my housemates are a great resource for that, of course. And I went to a pub night that my teaching agency had on Friday, and met a couple cool South Africans. There were lots of people there, so I think that I'll meet more people at future social events. AND I hung out with Alex afterwards. We danced the night away with his co-workers.) AND Adam, who is a friend of my Irish friends, took me to a housewarming party of some of his Irish-London friends last night. It was GREAT craic. Crazy because the Irish community is SO tight knit that I actually met Eamonn's best friend who he is in a band with. I've heard so much about him, and then he was at this party because his sister was one of the girls in the house! I have a sneaking feeling I am going to become part of the extensive Irish community here, even though I'm not Irish. I'm honorary :)
OH, and I went to sign up for my FREE health insurance. Yea, that's right. And free prescriptions to boot. Screw YOU United States!
(Now all I have to do is wait until the British Police approve me for working with children, and then I'll be good to go!)
Comment, Comment, Comment!
Love, Sarah
Thanks to all the well-wishers who have been sending kind words my way. It's been really nice to hear all of your positivity especially because, unlike with Ireland, I have been feeling slightly tortured by this decision to come to London. I mean...another big city?...another lack of green-ness near me?...not knowing hardly ANYONE?...This is scary stuff!
But, true to form, I am slowly but surely settling in and beginning to make this my home. (I even re-arranged the furniture in our lounge to make it more liveable...the lounge is REALLY small...but don't worry, it has more than enough space for all of you future visitors!)
Here are some pictures of my amazing room. Yes, I am COMPLETELY obsessed with it. Best. Room. Ever:
View from the doorway...
My two wardrobes and dresser...
My desk...look how huuuuuge my room is! Big enough for a dance party!Now here, meet the housemates....
This is Jaz.
She's great because she is quirky and really open in a way that many Brits are not. I have confided in her all of my boy drama, of course. (She's heard about pretty much every ridiculous text exchange I've had since I've been here.) She's that kind of girl. She told me that all my talk of running inspired her to start taking dance lessons (even before I got here!) so that she could become a healthier person. Isn't that awesome? I went with her to a "Ceroc" class a couple days ago...and it was SUCH a blast. It's kind of like "jive" or "the jitterbug" but to modern hip-hop instead of 50's do-wop. I am still searching for a salsa class, but this is also super fun.This is Ed.:
Ed is a suuuuper intense vegan, which is a little bit intimidating. I mean, he eats barley like normal people eat pasta and rice. And he makes EVERYTHING from scratch. Eamonn and I made curry the other night for dinner. And, Ed was like, "Did you make it from paste, powder, or did you actually make it yourself?" And I'm like, "Well we used powder." Seriously, who takes the time to make curry powder from SCRATCH when it exists at the store so cheap! BUT, he's also really interesting, and a lovely hippie who is going to make our garden actually GROW stuff, and he loves to bike, so he's pretty much awesome. And he stayed out WAY too late with Eamonn and I at our "Local" the other night, going pint for pint. (And the Irish wins again...with the English as a close second...and me falling far, far behind.)This is Juliet:
She's pretty quiet, but she is obsesssssssed with chocolate, which makes her automatically cool. She made the BEST hot chocolate I have ever had in my life the other night. I am not even joking. It was with that really kick-ass organic dark chocolate that has orange peel in it? Yum. Oh, and she plays the cello, my favorite stringed instrument. I went to see her orchestra perform on Saturday. I was an usher so I got in for free! (Couldn't afford it otherwise!)And this is Tim:
Tim is great, but he is a work-a-holic so I don't see him that much. He helped me put my bike together, and came to pick me up at the airport. He listens to good music and makes his free time about going to gigs. Which I am super into. He is going to New York at the beginning of the new year, so if anyone wants to offer a couch, he's a sound guy.Then finally there is Louise. She just moved in today so no picture yet. However, I just spent about two hours chatting with her and a couple of her friends, and she seems awesome!
All-in-all, it's been a great first week. I'm still nervous about meeting people, but my housemates are a great resource for that, of course. And I went to a pub night that my teaching agency had on Friday, and met a couple cool South Africans. There were lots of people there, so I think that I'll meet more people at future social events. AND I hung out with Alex afterwards. We danced the night away with his co-workers.) AND Adam, who is a friend of my Irish friends, took me to a housewarming party of some of his Irish-London friends last night. It was GREAT craic. Crazy because the Irish community is SO tight knit that I actually met Eamonn's best friend who he is in a band with. I've heard so much about him, and then he was at this party because his sister was one of the girls in the house! I have a sneaking feeling I am going to become part of the extensive Irish community here, even though I'm not Irish. I'm honorary :)
OH, and I went to sign up for my FREE health insurance. Yea, that's right. And free prescriptions to boot. Screw YOU United States!
(Now all I have to do is wait until the British Police approve me for working with children, and then I'll be good to go!)
Comment, Comment, Comment!
Love, Sarah
Saturday, November 8, 2008
My New Address
SEND ME THINGS...and I'll send you things back!
Sarah Hammer
10 Salisbury Road
Manor House, London N4 1JZ
UK
Sarah Hammer
10 Salisbury Road
Manor House, London N4 1JZ
UK
On my way to England!
Hey everyone,
*NOTE: I changed the title of the blog AND the web address!*
It's been awhile (and you know the drill...I'll attempt to keep it short. HA.)
*NOTE 2: While being back in the states for a month+, I discovered that many of you DO actually read the blog. I would be telling a story and various people would say, "Yea. I know already. I read the blog!" Ha, I never would have guessed. I changed the comment section of the blog so that you don't have to sign-up or anything. However, please make sure you leave your name!
I'm leaving my parents' house in Connecticut today, stopping by NYC to pick up my beloved bicycle, and then heading to Newark to fly (finally) to London. So for those of you who may be out of the loop--I got my visa, I have a house to live in, I have a job (for the most part), and I'm all packed and ready to go. The only problem is that I can't shake being horribly sick...which seems to be the theme lately. My immune system has gone to hell (in a handbasket. har har.)
How am I feeling about the move, you ask? Well, I'm anxious, for one. I'm ready to start this new chapter. I'm ready to be settled in a place. (My house lease is for a year, so I guess I plan on staying at LEAST that long, unless of course Ireland decides to give me a visa.) And, I'm excited. I'm excited mostly, to finally meet my new roommates who I have been talking with for 2 months, but have yet to meet. I REALLY hope they are chill, cool (clean!) people. I have high hopes for them because for starters, a couple of them (Tim and Jaz) are coming to pick me up at the airport and help me lug all of my stuff home. How sweet is that? In addition, Tim and I have already admitted our pseudo-dorkiness to each other, and we have plans to go to the NOT FOR TOURISTS release party (yes, they are releasing their first edition of London!) AND we are going to a Last.FM gig, because that is who he works for. I have at least one housemate, then, that will go to cool music gigs with me!
And of course, I am (probably unduly) nervous. (Is that how you spell unduly? It looks funny.) I'm nervous about making friends. I know, I know. "Sarah, you are, like, the most social person, EVER." I know, but still, I only know a couple people in England, and I am getting a little tired of making new friends. But I know Alex (of Montenegro fame, and a lovely friend of Tiana's), Xan (from New York with whom I will be celebrating Thanksgiving!), Adam (a friend of my friends in Ireland who I met at Cois Fharrage), and Eamonn (who doesn't really need parentheses). I also have five housemates. In other words, "There's nothing to worry about." But still, I'm feeling lots of love towards all of you, and making new friends doesn't make me miss the old ones any less.
Right-O. I'll be starting up the blog again (clearly), so you all can expect to see pictures of my amazing new house sometime in the up-coming week.
I love you all and I'm going to miss you TONS, but I'll be back for Christmas! (And those of you that I won't see over Christmas...start planning your Europe trip...Andrew Mugler is going to be the first. YAY.)
Love, Sarah
*NOTE: I changed the title of the blog AND the web address!*
It's been awhile (and you know the drill...I'll attempt to keep it short. HA.)
*NOTE 2: While being back in the states for a month+, I discovered that many of you DO actually read the blog. I would be telling a story and various people would say, "Yea. I know already. I read the blog!" Ha, I never would have guessed. I changed the comment section of the blog so that you don't have to sign-up or anything. However, please make sure you leave your name!
I'm leaving my parents' house in Connecticut today, stopping by NYC to pick up my beloved bicycle, and then heading to Newark to fly (finally) to London. So for those of you who may be out of the loop--I got my visa, I have a house to live in, I have a job (for the most part), and I'm all packed and ready to go. The only problem is that I can't shake being horribly sick...which seems to be the theme lately. My immune system has gone to hell (in a handbasket. har har.)
How am I feeling about the move, you ask? Well, I'm anxious, for one. I'm ready to start this new chapter. I'm ready to be settled in a place. (My house lease is for a year, so I guess I plan on staying at LEAST that long, unless of course Ireland decides to give me a visa.) And, I'm excited. I'm excited mostly, to finally meet my new roommates who I have been talking with for 2 months, but have yet to meet. I REALLY hope they are chill, cool (clean!) people. I have high hopes for them because for starters, a couple of them (Tim and Jaz) are coming to pick me up at the airport and help me lug all of my stuff home. How sweet is that? In addition, Tim and I have already admitted our pseudo-dorkiness to each other, and we have plans to go to the NOT FOR TOURISTS release party (yes, they are releasing their first edition of London!) AND we are going to a Last.FM gig, because that is who he works for. I have at least one housemate, then, that will go to cool music gigs with me!
And of course, I am (probably unduly) nervous. (Is that how you spell unduly? It looks funny.) I'm nervous about making friends. I know, I know. "Sarah, you are, like, the most social person, EVER." I know, but still, I only know a couple people in England, and I am getting a little tired of making new friends. But I know Alex (of Montenegro fame, and a lovely friend of Tiana's), Xan (from New York with whom I will be celebrating Thanksgiving!), Adam (a friend of my friends in Ireland who I met at Cois Fharrage), and Eamonn (who doesn't really need parentheses). I also have five housemates. In other words, "There's nothing to worry about." But still, I'm feeling lots of love towards all of you, and making new friends doesn't make me miss the old ones any less.
Right-O. I'll be starting up the blog again (clearly), so you all can expect to see pictures of my amazing new house sometime in the up-coming week.
I love you all and I'm going to miss you TONS, but I'll be back for Christmas! (And those of you that I won't see over Christmas...start planning your Europe trip...Andrew Mugler is going to be the first. YAY.)
Love, Sarah
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