Squatters Mansion

I landed in London late Sunday night and spent Monday mostly hanging out with Dan in Guildford. Dan is starting a law course in London on Monday, and had yet to find an apartment in London in which to live. So I was his personal assistant, to quote Dan, "I own you" and spent most of the afternoon helping him search for cheap yet not delapitated apartments.

This is a difficult thing to do, yet we earnestly pursued Dan's dream of London dwelling. In between internet cafes and coffee breaks I did managed to stumble across the Westminster Cathedral. It is situated next to "the nicest McDonalds ever" according to Dan, and is built in the Byzantine style. The cornerstone was laid in 1895 and the the entire insides of the church are tiled with Biblical mosaics. Granted, they are relatively new mosaics, but gorgeous nonetheless. Dan helped me find a phone and I now am also the proud owner of an Oyster card, which is what real London people use for city transportation! Look at me go!

At the end of the day, Dan and I had two places to check out. The first, was about a 12 minutes tube ride from his college. It was on a little street of all typical looking British brick flats. It was an upstairs apartment with three guys already living there. One guy, Aden, was moving out and needed someone to take over the lease.

how can I put this..the first place was..kinda gross! I mean, I understand that three guys live there, but I'm pretty sure they have never cleaned it. But, the room Dan was offered was large and furnished and once cleaned, would work out.

The second room was a 25 minute tube ride to class, more expensive, and I'm pretty sure knife fights happen on a regular basis around that neighborhood. The flat was pretty nice, very new, and the people living there are students, and very very quiet. The kind of quiet where sneezing gets you shushed.

In the end, Dan decided upon the first flat. The room was big, the guys are VERY chill..maybe almost too chill? And it's closer to school.

Plus he has a friend that looks exactly like Tim. I have named him British Tim....

And as of this weekend, Dan will reside in Squatters mansion, as I like to call it. I'm sure there will be stories coming out of that house....

Finally, an Update

So, I have finally made it to England, and made it to my dorm, which now has computer access. I managed to get my computer hooked up with minimal questions to the IT department (the ones I asked were met with "you are slow" looks) and very few curses...out loud at least.
So here I sit, listening to Jakob Dylan, mostly because he's great and I need music to calm me down. Today was international orientation day, which basically adds up to standing in queques for AGES and getting tons of papers thrown at you with minimal explanation.

Geez, I sound frusterated!

Since I missed a few days of travel and adventure I will post a few blurbs about the last few days of my life. And now that SexyRexy (my aptly named Toshiba laptop) is functioning, I will keep this baby updated as best I can!!

Squeaky Clean Spider

Last night I am minding my own and using the restroom. All of the sudden a HUGE (and yes, that is a girlish exaggeration) spider comes running from under the door towards my feet! My pants around my ankles, I say "holy crap" and look at my options. Being barefoot, and having no shoes in the bathroom, I am trying to find some hairspray (college trick). Alas, I am not high maintence to own some, so what do I do? I end up grabbing a can of Febreeze from under the sink and Febreezing the stupid spider! Not at all phased, just overwhelmed, the spider then sprints under the bathtub.
Now I fear the shower because of the large, yet sweet smelling, spider that is lurking beneath it.

and it kept getting weirder.

Sorry, that post was getting long. The night continued and we left the beerfest, having no beer and some awkward conversations.
We decided to head to the Greek Cuisina, which is a staple in our friendship. We have had many awkward conversations (ask Nicole) and we have discovered that if we sit outside, the fun never ends!! The fun began with a drunk guy caressing Nicole's shoulder about thirty seconds into entering the restaurant. Nicole knew the hostess, which I didn't realize, so I thought she was being EXTRA friendly! We were sat outside and the girls at the table next to us enlightened us to the fact that our waiter was a bit slow. Actually, he was really slow. It took him about twenty minutes to even come over, and twenty minutes to understand english. He was just in his own little world. At one point, he came outside whistling and this is what followed;
the waiter: "Do you ever get just super passionate about whisteling?"
Nicole "I can't whistle. no."
the waiter: "You can't whistle? Do it!"
Nicole " I can't! No."
the waiter : "So you never just get really into it?"
me : "Like Bing Crosby kinda whistling?"
the waiter : "hunh? no, just like good whistling. I hit a really high note."
me : yeah, I know. I heard. can we get some food?"
he was a champ.

THe night only got better when a somewhat drunk skinny black guy walked past us cursing up a storm and tripped over a grate. I, of course, laughed out loud and a few minutes later, he of course, came back. He saw Nicole (who passes for any race really. Her dark skin and all. She may be part eskimo. I'm not sure). As soon as he sees Nicole he stops and leans on the grate and kinda of yells at her. "Hey, whats your name?!" Nicole, being really sweet, is being very nice. But about three minutes into him yelling and being friendly/creepy, it is obvious from my viewpoint that she has NO idea what he is saying. I happen to be fluent in Urban Exploreese and he has mentioned somthing about having a baby in vancouver and that everyone over there is a horrible driver. Nicole is smiling and nodding and I am trying really hard to not to spit my beer out. He ends the conversation with, "None of them all can drive. HELLO!?" and wandered off. I am laughing so hard that I am CRYING into my beer. Nicole is totally thrown off and has no idea what to think and our waiter has finally wandered over and stops whistling long enough to ask if I'm okay.

It was great.
the night, not his whistling.

and I don't think I really know how to spell whistling.

Good times Nicole. Quality!

We Kept Portland Weird.

Saturday night found me in the Couv, spending some girl time with Nicole. Our plans were pretty flexible and low key - Ikea, beerfest, food. Our first stop was the land of nordic furniture love-IKEA. I have a love/hate relationship with that place. I love the goods they sell...the clean lines, crazy names and tasty swedish meatballs. However, I really, really hate feeling like a cow being led to the slaughter of long checkout lines. Have you ever tried going against the current? Not a good idea.
After having a difficult time deciding on a duvet cover for school (committment is something I'm working on) we decided to head into the Portland waterfront where the Oregon Brewfest was taking place. This is the biggest brewfest on the continental United States (though I find it hard to believe that either Alaska or Hawaii would have bigger ones..but whatever).
Admission was free, but beer was ridiculous, as were the wasted patrons who were wandering around under the large and loud tents. Nicole and I decided to take the safe route and people watch. Apparently, with Nicole and I, people watching is not a safe activity!
As we are seated in leaning metal folding chairs, three guys approach. Here is the conversation that followed:
"Hey, do you have a swisher?" (says the drunk boy to Nicole)
"Umm, nope! Sorry" (Nicole being polite as always :))
"Do you smoke weed?" (the drunk again)
"No, we don't" (Nicole still nice.)
"What?!? Whats your world like??" (the drunk guy VERY amazed at our sober status)
"A bit more coherent than yours" (me...still trying to figure out what a swisher is)
"whoa. It's a like a brave new world" (the drunk)


As they stumbled away I was very much impressed that he referenced the book a Brave new World! Especiallys since that was a pub quiz question last week!

The Gist

Allright...I have decided to become a 'blogger'. Yes, I do realize that I am about four years too late to ride this trend like a superstar, but it's the easiest way to keep my public up-to-date. And it makes me feel like I have a public (the pressure is actually daunting).
So the gist of this blog is pretty selfish...keeping this baby updated means less e-mails for me to send out to everyone. Don't get me wrong, people will get individualized e-mails (yes, you are that important to me), but in between trying to keep up with British slang and studying, this is gonna be a time saver!
I haven't quite figured out what I will be posting, but if you know me, you know that my life consists of awkward situations. So, I'm pretty sure you'll find a lot of those here. As well as pictures of the UK.
I haven't left quite yet...I have a few weeks left.

Now is the time for quality time.