Promised Update

Hello everyone,

The Internet is back on in the flat (it has been for a few days now, thankfully!). Knock on wood though because you never know when it might mysteriously disappear again. I'm not sure what all to include in this entry, so it might be a little scatterbrained.

You know I got the shoe store job. Still stoked about that. I have to be go through a training day with Selfridges, but they only do those on Wednesdays, so I wasn't able to start today like I had hoped. I assume I'll be doing that on this Wednesday. I should get a call tomorrow to find out for sure. I'm just ready to start working because I need a routine. I've had a lot of free time these past two weeks, which is nice, but it also means I have time to think too much. I'm realizing thinking too much can make you depressed, so I want this job because it will get me on a schedule.

I suppose one big piece of news that I haven't mentioned on here yet is that Maggie and Matt have decided to move from the flat to a hostel. I'm bummed out about it, but I understand their reasons, so it's alright. However, it means I've had some stress and frustration about finding their replacements. Luckily, Maggie has been replaced by Kim, a sweet German girl who is interning with the Mayfair Hotel. She's going to move in tomorrow. I hope that goes well.

Matt hasn't moved yet, and we haven't found a replacement for him yet. Hopefully, we'll get some calls this week in order to make that second transition. Honestly, I wish Matt would stay here, but once again, I understand. I'll just be really happy when all of this gets panned out. Then, I can relax.

Another source of stress (and don't get me wrong, I'm not at all depressed or anything) is me being homesick. I know, I never really get homesick. When I was at college, I could go home anytime. It was just a 2 1/2 hour drive to Evansville. I think it's the sheer distance and inability to visit home whenever I want that is making me miss home right now. As a friend said, the honeymoon stage of this London experience has worn off, and now it's real life. I'm loving it, so that's a good thing, but...

I do miss a lot about home. Family, friends, my house, college, all of that good stuff. In fact, I just started a Moleskine notebook entitled "Memories and Misses." I'm just going to list fond memories and things I miss. It's actually quite comforting instead of making me sad. I had one nice memory on my walk home from dinner tonight. It's starting to cool down in London as Fall approaches, and I immediatly had a nice thought of UE soccer games and warming up under a blanket with mom, drinking hot chocolate. (This is the part where my mom starts to tear up; sorry mom!)

Like I said, this entry is a little scatterbrained, so in summation so far: I'm excited to start my job, the flat is going through some transitions, and I'm a little homesick, loving the things I miss back in the States.

Moving on, what have I done lately in London. Well, the biggest thing that sticks in my mind is this weekend, going to Loud Tate. It was a really neat, free youth event. We attended workshops on art making, watched a powerful play about knife violence, and coolest of all, got to see Metronomy live. They were so much fun! Here's a video:




The next day I went to Brick Lane for their Sunday street market. It was pretty amazing. I got some cool vintage and home-made clothing. More importantly, I ate a lot. I had a plate of noodles and chicken curry. A little later I had a tuna empanada with two different salads. A few minutes later I had a huge crepe with bananas, nutella, and dark chocolate flakes. It was all so delicious. I don't know what came over me, but I couldn't resist eating everything I saw. It was a nice day. I walked home from there, and it only took about a half hour. It's nice to be a short walk away from such a cool area.

I just realized this is a pretty long post. Sorry. Luckily, that's about all I have to say for now. The next update will include info about the new job once I've gotten into that. Until then, I miss and love you all very much!

I Promise Another Update Tomorrow

see title

A Follow Up to Yesterday

I GOT THE JOB!!!

Obviously, I am so pumped about this job at Selfridges, working for Offspring shoes. Visit their website: offspring.co.uk. It was just launched, so I'm sure there will be improvements soon. The actual area of the department store is amazing. They have the hippest trainers and really chic shoes, too. I'll let you know more when I start, which I think will be next week. However, I might have general training for the department store tomorrow. I'll keep you up to date.

In other news, it looks like I'm only going to be able to get the Internet at Roastars, a really cool coffee shop right down the road. So, that sucks! But I'll deal with it. That's all for now. Leave comments if you have any questions or possible topics for future posts!

Sorry I've Been Distant, Literally

I know, it's been a little bit since I've updated. I apologize for being distant, literally and metaphorically. I'd love to see everybody and visit the States for a bit, but that will have to wait. London is calling, and I have to stay. Just a quick update because my internet at the flat disappeared (hopefully I'll find a solution soon), and I'm at a cafe down the road, using their free wireless.

Nothing too exciting has happened lately. This past weekend was a quiet one, which was nice. I mainly wandered during the day and spent the night at home, watching movies. However, one exciting piece of news: I had an interview for a shoe store!!! This is what I really want to do for my short time in London-->work in a sweet shoe store.

I went to the Office across the street from Poste (where I had tried to get a job, but they don't have any spots open). Unfortunately, Office didn't have any spots open either, but I chatted with Dawn, and she said she thought I would be perfect at Offspring in Selfridges. So, she called Paul and told him I should work for him. In a hot second, she told me to go there right away and chat with him. I did. It was amazing. He was really cool, and we set up an interview for the next day.

The next day...the interview went so well. He even joked about cancelling his other interviews. Well, tomorrow I should find out for sure if I have the job. Please think good thoughts for me! I really want this job. Offspring is exactly what I wear when it comes to shoes: a mix of hip trainers (Converse, Vans, Nikes) and nice chic shoes (Office, Ask the Missus). I'll update tomorrow with hopefully good news!

That's about all for now. I'm sure there's more, and I'll fill in on the rest when I have some more free time.

Love from London!
David

I Have Seen and Heard a Lot

The title pretty much sums up this entry. I have seen so much and heard so much over the past few days. After getting let go from the job, I had the weekend to just relax and have fun. Today I started the third job search (no results just yet), but I don't want to talk about that. Let's focus on how nice the weekend was.

Friday, Matt and I traveled to Brick Lane (not too far of a walk, and well worth it) to find a great thrift/vintage store where most items are under 10 pounds, which is nice. We wanted to get something crazy to wear to Circus @ Soho Revue Bar. And crazy we got. Then we found out there is a larger warehouse just down the road from our flat. It was so refreshing to hear that there was a cool clothing store so close to our flat in little Pakistan.

So, that night was quite awesome. But let's skip forward to Saturday. Scott crashed at our flat, so we spent the next day wandering around the area. That night was a free in-store Deerhunter gig at Rough Trade East back at Brick Lane. We traveled back that location and meandered through the shops and markets. We had a wonderful dinner at the Bustaurant. It was so neat. A group of people had converted this two-story bus into a really nice restaurant. Hence the name.

I had vegetable stir-fry with tofu.

Pretty soon it was time for the Deerhunter gig. They were awesome. It was a free in-store show, so they didn't play a very long set. Nonetheless, they rocked the whole time despite a few technical issues. Here's a short clip from the song "Never Stops":

The next day was the Thames Festival. It started out nice and ended incredibly. While it was still light out, Matt and I just wandered around the South Bank, looking at booths and smelling all the yummy food. Then we watched some free-runners/parkour people perform. They were the people who did the choreography in Casino Royale's famous scene where James Bond chases the guy through the construction site. Anyway, that was kind of cool (a little underwhelming though).

Then I had an entire gourmet pizza at Gabriel's Wharf. Scott met up with us, and we traveled to the Tate Modern only to arrive right when it closed. So we killed some time until it got dark, and that's when things got amazing. First was the lantern parade. Tons of performers and people carrying big lit up sculptures. Cue pictures/video because I can't really put it into words how cool it all was. However, I can say it was one of my favorite things ever.







So, after that magical hour of street performers, marching bands, glowing lanterns, and all around amazing-ness, we walked a little further along the South Bank. We found a nice area to sit right on the river. The fireworks started a little late, but it was well worth the wait. Somehow, we picked the most ideal/perfect spot possible. The fireworks were shot off from two different boats, and we were sitting directly in the middle of them. It was breathtaking, so here are a few videos/pictures to let you see what I mean.

Ten Days Later

Wow. So much can happen in a London week. This is going to cover the past ten days, beginning where "What a Good Day" ended. It will cover my Street Fundraiser job and end with an unexpected twist.

Tuesday and Wednesday were training days at the office. They were exciting. The time flew by as we learned about NDCS (Nation Deaf Children Society) and how to properly disperse all of its information to the public. We practiced and role played and hammered in all the information. Fun stuff; I was really pumped to start work on the actual streets.

Also, Tuesday night, Scott and I went to see the Shout Out Louds @ 223, which is the club connected to ISH. Scott is from the States and goes to Ithica College. He is interning with a music company, so he can get us on guest lists and into clubs. Pretty awesome. Anyway, the concert was loads of fun.

Wednesday, I worked out after training. Then I met all the other BUNAC-ers at a pub for a group get together. It was nice.

So, Thursday. My second first day of work. I was on Charing Cross Road. The day started off with a bang. Thankfully, I don't mean a literal one. What happened is Vitold, or V, our team leader (my least favorite of the four I worked with), stupidly locked a big red bag with our backpacks in it right outside the tube station. Well, he left for just a short bit and the police saw it there. Cue potential bomb threat. All of a sudden, they are having to temporarily shut down Leicester Square tube station and take our details. Crazy, I know! It was all fine in the end.

On a higher note, one girl was unable to give to the charity because she didn't have a bank account, but she liked me, so she wanted to help somehow. She leaves and comes back with two ice cream cones. "Mango or Strawberry?" I took mango and thanked her very much. How sweet is that. The first day was fun. I didn't get any sign ups, but I started to learn more.

The second day, I worked in Kentish Town. It was ok. More of the same (minus the dramatic bomb threat). I still didn't get any sign ups, so that was kind of a bummer. I figured I would start the next week fresh. A clean slate.

That night, wow, we went all out. I've wanted to have an all nighter, but I was apprehensive, seeing as it takes a lot out of you, is physically draining, and means you have to sleep all day tomorrow. We did it though, and we did it well. Not gonna happen again any time soon, but this once was really fun.

Let's see, first I met Mirko (a co-worker at Jigsaw) for dinner at Veg, this wonderful chinese/thai vegan buffet. It was delicious. He caught me up on the happenings at the shop. Nothing too exciting. He sort of hates it, too. Then we got a couple drinks at a bar. And then I met up with Matt and Scott. We also brought along a French kid named Steven that we met on our way.

The destination: Circus night @ the Soho Revue Bar. This club is where celebrities like to visit. It's also crazy fun with two rooms. One is a dance floor, the other more of a sit down and chat area. We chose the dancing room, and dancing we did. Then, I saw someone who looked really familiar. I turned to Matt, and I said, "I think that's Patrick Wolf!" So, I wrote on a piece of paper the following: Patrick Wolf? Yes of No. Circle one. Well, he just told me, "Yeah, that's me." Of course, I went into fan mode, but I tried to stay cool, so we just chatted about this and that (Did you know his hairdresser is half deaf? She is.). Cue picture:

My first celebrity sighting/meeting, and it was great. He was so nice. And he is such an awesome singer/musician. What an honor. So, we danced a bit more. Then we left to find Punk because Scott's friend Emmanual could get us in free. It ended up we still had to pay a little bit, but it was well worth it. Punk was such a sweet place. We just danced and danced.

After that, we found a late night cafe, and I had smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, and coffee. Soooo good, especially after a long night of dancing. After that, we wandered to Trafalgar Square until the sun came up. It was a great night. We took the tube home, and I slept until about 2 in the afternoon.

Saturday was just a lazy day at the flat. Then Sunday was the Regent's Street Festival. It was kind of fun. We got free champagne at Calvin Klein, free Pimm's at another shop, free popcorn at a furniture store. Yeah, I just ate a lot. Also, we rode a carousel that played Beatles songs. Cue video:




Monday, back to work. I was in Enfield Town, which means Zone 5, which means I had to take the rail. Turned out to be worth the trip because I got my first sign up!!! It was such a rush. Her name was Victoria, a young mother. She was so cool. That night Matt, Maggie, and I finally had a dinner together. We went just down the road to this great little fusion restaurant. I had chicken kebabs with lamb. And then I had an incredible Toblerone milkshake. To die for.

Tuesday, I worked Bond Street. Well, it was not working well. In fact, I didn't get any sign ups that day, so that was unfortunate. But my skills were improving. I was just having trouble getting that last and most important step: the sign up. I pretty much had to get some the next day.

Wednesday (yesterday), I worked in Kilburn. Basically, everyone was old and/or didn't speak English. Still, I had to get some sign up because that's the name of the game. I mean, they can't afford to pay me if I'm not actually getting people to donate money. So, I worked really hard. The first session, I didn't get any. Right before the second session, Sean, my team leader, told me, "You pretty much have to get a sign up during this session."

I tried, but I did not succeed. This is challenging work, you see. So, during my second break, I was chatting to the girls I was working with that day, and Sean comes up to me. "David, you actually need to go to the office now." I thought, "Holy Crap." Or possibly a few expletives. I kind of teared up a little, but all the girls told me it was fine. So, I jumped on the bus and made the journey to the office. I had a lot of time to think about the situation (i.e. me failing at the job). There was a part of me that just hoped they would let me go. I mean, it's going to get cold pretty soon, and do I really want to work outside? Let's be honest: no. Also, I was enjoying the work, but I was truly having trouble getting people to sign up. I'm not used to failure, but I was failing.

Now, I wasn't emotion or anything (besides the initial news that I had to go to the office). I got there, and Henry sat me down. He asked me how things were going. I said I enjoyed the work, but I was just not quite connecting with it. He told me all of the team leaders like me a lot, and I have great enthusiasm. But, I just wasn't making the money they needed me to make for the charity. So what am I getting at? Why having you been reading all of this? Could this be the surprise ending I promised? Yes, it is:

I GOT FIRED!!! Well, it was more like being let go. Apparently, they have a high turn over rate. I'm not the first to be prematurely rejected. I was just not born to be a street fundraiser, and you know what, I'm perfectly fine with that.

So, let's do a recap: I got a job, and then I quit it. I got a second job, but they let me go. Now, it's on with job hunt #3. Will this be the one that sticks? Let's cross our fingers, ladies and gentlemen. After all, third time's a charm!

What a Good Day

Yes, before you complain, I know I still need to finish the last entry. I know you're dying to see pictures of our flat in little Pakistan. But wait just a few because I want to write about today. It was a good, solid day from start to end, and here's why.

Well, my interview was at 2, so I didn't have to get up super early. I dozed in bed for an hour instead of waking up at 9 like planned. Then I had some breakfast and finished a movie on my laptop. Then it was shower time, get dressed, and take the tube to Victoria.

I stopped by Pret for a sandwich (chicken and avocado...so good). Then I walked past the Billy Elliot theatre to the Elliot House (nice) where the Outreach Fundraising office is located. Signed in and waited, met a sweet girl named Annabel. Then Kevin camed down, brought us up, and we began. It was just myself and Ali, a nice fellow from Pakistan. We filled out paperwork and chatted about school, hobbies and our Obama love.

Kevin came back. I introduced Ali (a display of my communication/learning skills, I suppose), and he introduced me. "Well, this is David. His favorite color is orange."

Blah, blah, blah. Interview stuff. I learned about Oxfam and gave am impropmtu presentation about it. Kevin bought it. Then I asked a lot of questions because I do not want to rush into a mess like Jigsaw (shout out to Jigsaw!). I made sure to cover all the points, and honestly, I was satisfied with the answers. It really sounds like a nice albeit challening-when-it-comes-to-the-incessant-rejection time. Did that make sense? Anyway, if you want the conclusion to that chapter, scroll down a little and skip the next few graphs.

So, from there I walked past Buckingham Palace because it's really close. I felt really touristy, but let's be real, it's a nice place. Cue picture:

Don't those roses look vivid?

Then, I walked through St. Jame's Park, and I saw this nice little stand with ice cream, and I just decided to splurge. So, I got a scoop of pistachio, and it was brilliant. I asked a couple if they would snap a photo of me eating it. Here's that:


After a nice breeze through the walk (I'll be going back), I phoned Matt, and we decided to meet at the American Apparel on Carnaby Street (I wanted to try on a pair of trousers). While I waited for him to get there, something amazing happened. It was one of those moments in which you just smile and thank goodness that you were there to see it in person. What could this be? Well, a woman was standing not too far from me, and she all of a sudden started belting out a song. I thought she was a kook, but then another person joined in. Gradually, the song turned into a whole street production. I got my camera out and took a video. Here's the proof:

(well crap...technical difficulties...I'll try to upload the video tomorrow)

I loved it. They were a troupe from the Soho Youth Theatre. I talked to them a little bit and complimented them on the performance. They were cool, and I'm pretty sure I want to go to their performance (maybe this week). Geez, I haven't been to any theatre yet.

So, Matt showed up (he unfortunately missed the song), and we did the shopping thing (minus actually buying anything). Then, we went to a great crepe shop, and I had an awesome tuna crepe for meal #3. Oh, right before we went inside, I got a phone call. It was Kevin from the interview. He offered me the job, and since I had had time to think about it, I said, "That sounds like it should be good." So, end of job search #2. I'm gonna stick with this one no matter if it turns out to suck. I'm sure there will be another entry all about it.

After that, I wanted to check out a cafe I found on the internet. It's called the First Out Cafe, and on Mondays, they have "Life Drawing." Basically, a model comes in (each week a different costume), and everyone sits around a draws her in different poses. It was so neat.

notice the funky model and the people drawing

We drew for a little bit, then we decided we wanted to stay out for just a little bit longer, so we stopped at a bar and hung out. Cue another picture (as if there hasn't been enough in this post):



Then we got free wrist bands for entry to the Ghetto, and since it's one of our faves, we decided to make a quick appearance. On our way though, we passed a vegan Chinese place, so we got a little take-away plate and devoured it. Delicious! (Although my tummy hurts a little bit now). Then we arrived at Ghetto. Monday nights, their party is called the Frat Party. I know, how appropriate. So, we danced for a short bit, but then I wanted to come home before it got late.

And now I'm here. Hope you enjoyed my day; I know I did.

Oh, wait. One of the last things I saw. This guy in the Tottenham Court tube station: