Chips's (aka Eryn's) Week in Review

Our first "real" week in London is done. It's not quite real yet because we don't actually live in the city but it was real in that Trisha is now working. We also have British bank accounts now so we are "real people" in the eyes of important official types.

We've spent a fair amount of time in London now, and are starting to get more and more accustomed to things. Crossing the street is still a harrowing experience though. We were given many warnings about street crossing before we left. Many people gave us grave looks and implored us to be careful about which way the traffic comes from.

Of course the obvious hurdle is that traffic all flows in the opposite direction of what I'm used to. There are a couple other kinks that add to the difficulties. First of all there's the one way streets which are hard for me to spot because the signage is more subtle than what I'm used to. Second is the fact that people park in in both directions on all streets. So you can't necessarily tell the direction of traffic by how the cars are facing.

My initial solution to the problem was to simply be extra careful. To look both ways 3 or 4 hundred times before crossing the street. It turns out that this is quite impractical as your windows of opportunity always close in the time it takes to assess the situation.

Eventually I learned to trust that my instincts are always wrong and to do the opposite.

This puts me in a strange position now because at this point my instincts are generally correct, but I'm used to not trusting it, so i second and third guess myself until my window of opportunity closes again.

It's fun.

Our time in London this week really begins last Sunday. We trained into town in order to participate in out first "London On Board" gathering. LOB is a regular board game group that I heard about on BGG. I figured it would be a great way to meet some people as well as participate in one of my favorite hobbies.

It was great success, the pub was very easy to find (and conveniently right across from the tube station). There were about 20 people in attendance, all of whom seemed very friendly. We played a long game of citadels and a prototype of someone's own design. Both games were really fun. Trisha and I both were glad we did it.

The Pub Where London On Board meets:

From London On Board

LOB in action:

From London On Board

After our time at London On Board we thought we'd do a some "preliminary" sight seeing. We were quite close to some of the major landmarks of the town so I figured we might walk around a little bit and take a quick look.

Our first stop was Westminster Abbey. I should reiterate at this point that Trisha has never really traveled much so this was her introduction to "enormous churches in Europe". It was so fun to watch her reaction to all this. It was late in the day so we didn't have time to explore these places, or even walk around inside. This was more to whet her appetite than anything else.

Next we strolled over to the parliament building and Big Ben. This was even more awe inspiring. Trisha was full of "wooooooa"s and "what's that?"s. She took millions of pictures and a big grin on her face the whole time.

It was really cool for her to get a taste of what makes traveling fun, especially since she's been so stressed out by the build up to our journey over here. Between meeting some local Londoners and Seeing some big sights, it was a great travel day.

In front of the Abbey

From Exploring the City

Trisha excited:

From Exploring the City

Big Ben!

From Exploring the City

Case of the Mondays.

I'm still not adjusted to the new time zone we're living in and have trouble falling asleep at night. Before Monday we had the luxury of sleeping in and mid-day naps, but now it was back to business - Trisha's first work day was upon us. So after a night of minimal sleep we woke up early and struck out for the train into the city.

Having made the trip once or twice, we didn't have too much trouble navigating our way through the trains tubes and streets, but being on an actual commute along with the rest of the London workers was an entirely new experience. Going into the city wasn't really too crazy until we got on the Central Line tube (which is always hot even when it's not crowded). The journey home is always packed though. We're used to the idea of standing on a quick 10 minute tube ride, but it's a little disappointing to get crammed into a standing only train for 30 minutes.

For the most part though our travels to and from work have been pretty smooth (but exhausting).

Tube Escalator

From Exploring the City

Paddington Station at Night

From Exploring the City

So Trisha goes to work everyday and I do my thing. I don't really do much site seeing (I'd rather wait for Trisha to do that stuff together), I do like to walk around the city and just sorta explore. I try to pick a different direction to walk in each day.

One of my favorite things to have happen while I'm wandering around is for someone to approach me for directions. It's amazing to see how fast their expression goes from one of "hopeful optimism" to "crestfallen disappointment". It seriously takes about 2 words with my American accent for them to give up on me completely. I wonder if that will continue to happen once I do start to learn my way around.

The main thing I do every day is hang out at Starbucks looking for places to live. I seriously spend almost all day in Starbucks. It sort of kills me a little bit that I've come all this way to sit in a Starbucks, but let me explain.

1). I need to find a flat. Our commute is killing us. London is an amazing city (as far as I can tell from inside a Starbucks) and we really need to live here.

2). Despite the fact the humans have thrived for millions of years withOUT internet...i really need it. Starbucks has free WiFi and they are everywhere. I can cruise around and explore with confidence because I know I'm always at least 5 minutes from free WiFi (aka Starbucks).

So typically what I do is i escort Trisha to work, pick a random direction to strike out towards and walk till I find a Starbucks. I then sit with iPad, and surf the rental sites for flats. I write down the numbers I need to call and send out my emails, then I head out to find a park. There's lots of parks in London. I sit at the park, enjoy the sunshine and make my phone calls to various lending agents and landlords. Typically the places I am interested in have already been let.

Rinse and repeat. Strike off in a random direction. Find a Starbucks. Look for housing. Go to a park. Make some calls. Strike off in a random direction....

Anyway. That's my day. It's not too bad, but I feel a bit guilty about spending all that time in freakin Starbucks.

Hyde Park

From Exploring the City

Some fun stuff we've encountered this week.

Ice cream with Trisha in the rain at Marble Arch - their vanilla soft serve tastes very different. I suspect that like everything else in this town, there was tons of butter in it.

The discovery of a better tube line to take to Oxford Circus from Paddington. No more crowded Central line for us!

The brave squirrels in Hyde park. It was so close I thought it might be about to attack.

Marble Arch (minus the rain)

From Exploring the City

Royal Art Academy

From Exploring the City

We were probably the first people to think of taking this picture

From Exploring the City

Squirrel!

From Exploring the City

One more thing. Friday we headed back to Paddington Station (which is where we transition from overground train to tube - or vice versa), and got a nice little surprise...that paddington train station band (click the picture to see video):

From Exploring the City

-Chips