Horseback riding in Wales

Last weekend Joe and I took a weekend trip to Wales. We left Friday night from Cambridge and stayed overnight on Lakenheath Royal Air Force Base because that is where the van was leaving from in the morning at 4:30 AM - that's right 4:30 AM!!! That's what I get for taking a vacation with military folks.

I got to Cambridge a bit late that evening too because I was coming straight from an all day work meeting that I had organized at the Dorchester Hotel - one of the poshest hotels in London. Really cool :) We'd booked one of their penthouse suites for lunch and it a huge patio complete with waterfall over looking the city for us to sit out on.

Anyway, back to RAF Lakenheath. Joe and I arrived there around 10 or so and it really is like being back in the US, except people drive on the left. Everyone that we encountered was American, driving American cars, all the stores/gas stations sold US brands and everything was priced in dollars. Really odd and yet nice if you're missing home.

We got to the van the next morning right around 4:30 and got ready to leave. The lady that organized the trip does this as her full time role - cool job right? Only problem was that she was a bit too enthusiastic for 4:30 in the morning. Joe and I pretty much just put our earplugs and eyeshades (we've been preping for weeks sleeping like this!) and went to sleep. 5 or so hours later and a few wrong turns, we arrived at the Grange Trekking Center. It was down a sleepy road in the very green hills of Wales (near Abergavenny, for those of you familiar with the geography).

We ate lunch and immediately thereafter headed out to the stables to meet our horses. I got assigned to Develin (that's right folks, after the Devil). Joe got assigned to the tamer Indiana. After brushing and tacking up, we headed out on the trail for a 4.5 hour ride, complete with waterfalls, open range trotting and cantering, muddy hills and all. I even fell off my horse at one point in slow motion as the saddle slid around to the side of the horse with me on it just as he was really starting to run.



The scenery for the whole ride was amazing. We saw wild horses, sheep, tons of different trees (which our horses always tried to eat) and flowers. It was a beautiful night.

The less fun part was stepping in all of the horse dung.


That night, we stayed in tents provided by the base. They were really nice and new and we all slept great. In the morning, we headed out for another shorter ride. I think we all were a bit sore from the day before, but it was nice to see our horses again and I felt so much more relaxed around them. I even got the hang of trotting much better that day, so my but hurt less :)

It was a cool weekend and so nice not to have to drive home - the eager lady (who was pretty much singing) did it all.

Visitors!

A week ago Monday, I had 2 great friends come to visit - Lauren arrived first on Monday, Jessica later that week on Thursday. Lauren arrived at my office in Piccadilly Circus around 6PM, but unfortunately it was the one night a month that I have a late night standing meeting in the office (7-9PM), so she went out to Soho and just looked around before heading home. Lauren came to visit me and another friend that she has in Sweden in a break before starting business school at UC-Berkley next month.

Tuesday offered us a bit more time to hang out and we headed to famous Brick Lane for dinner. Brick Lane is a street in East London with a good 100+ Indian Curry houses to choose from. From what I can tell they're all pretty much inter-changeable with the same menu, prices and quality. Its all pretty cheap an good. I'm loving the Peshwari Nan (coconut flat bread) and chicken tikka masala. Yum!

Wednesday night there was a live broadcast of The Marriage of Figaro from the Royal Opera House in Convent Garden to 6 or so huge outdoor screens around the city. Lauren and I picked up sushi and headed to the one in Trafalgar square and ate dinner and watched it all for around an hour or so before heading home.

Another great friend from college and my time in Atlanta, Jessica arrived on Thursday on a really early flight. We made dinner at the house and caught up and then headed to a show in the West End (the theater district in London) called Avenue Q. Its a crazy take on Sesame Street, with the puppets, lewd songs (i.e. 'Everyone's a little bit racist', 'My life sucks', etc.). It was hilarious, if a little odd at first with the people singing for the puppets standing right next to the puppets they were manipulating. We were still cracking up a day later about all of the funny moments (my favorites were the 'bad idea bears' - ooooooh!).

On Friday, I took the day off and we all headed to Cambridge on the train. Once we got there, we went to Joe's apartment and took out the bikes and rode all around the city and parks surrounding Joe's place. We went to dinner at a Moroccan place called Al Casbah. It had a fun atmosphere with tents above and a big open fire grill. From there, Joe showed us a few classic Cambridge pub including a place called The Eagle with a whole back room filled with pilot memorabilia. RAF and USAF pilots had burned their names and equipment types and troop names into the ceiling with candles, including a few famous people from the Memphis Bell (and related movie on that topic). Pretty cool.

On Saturday we all headed back to London and to Camden market to walk around, in particular the Horse Tunnel Market, which has all of the vendor booths built into old horse stalls.

That night, I'd invited a friend from work, Ashvin, over to join us for dinner and from there we went out on the town.

Ashvin new all the cool places to go. We started in South Kensington (the posh area) and a bar with these really cool watermelon drinks. from there, we went on to this crazy place called Sketch. The place looks like a space ship, complete with egg-shaped restroom stalls (see pic) and a saucer-like lounge. Go if you can.

After that, we headed to one of Ashvin's friend's parties in east london and danced the night away. They had this huge loft apartment that was clearly used to hosting parties and had a pro DJ spinning. It was a great way to end the night.

Sunday, we got up late and headed to Spitalfields market. I love this place (that's Lauren and I in the pic outside a restaurant built into an old double decker bus). Its a huge covered market with all sorts of ethnic & health foods, artist booths, and vintage stuff for sale. There's also a large community of art schools in the area and there always seems to be some cool student work on display. We all got food, Jessica got a massage and walked around most of the afternoon.

Lauren left on Monday morning and Jessica on Tuesday, but it was great to have them both in London with me for a while. Thanks again for coming, gals!

A week in the life

So I'm catching up on my blog this weekend and going to write about what I did 2 weeks ago because it was a pretty fun week (well, weekend mostly!).  The week went smoothly enough.  My roommate (they call them flat mates here in the UK) is now staffed on a project based in Oxford, so she's actually gone during the week, Monday through Thursday.  Her name is Frances and she's new to the UK like me - having relocated to London from Capetown, South Africa where she was a medical doctor before joining my firm as a consultant.  She's taller than me, thin, blond, and super friendly.  She loves to cook and has already showed me a thing or 2 in the kitchen.  We get along great.

Every Friday morning I have a standing 8AM call to lead (kinda sucks because that means sometimes late night prep on Thursday and an early morning on Friday - I try to get in by 7:30 or so for those).  Every Friday afternoon, though, we have a gathering in our little technology Practice area of the office around 4 for drinks and socializing.  I've actually learned that this usually just means I wind up staying at the office way too late on Fridays!  This one was no different and I just wound up hanging out with a 

bunch of friends from the office for a bit and then heading back to my office to finish up my work before leaving late.  Joe was out of town this weekend attending his friend's Lacy & Sagen's wedding in Pawley's Island, South Carolina (it looked like a really pretty wedding from the pics I saw - see left) so I was on my own.  

On Saturday morning I got up and headed out the door to try to track down a Whole Foods before taking a ballet class later that day.  The one I had tracked down online was just 2 tube stops away in Camden (the kind of huge version of Little 5 Points in London, with lots of punky people and organic random food).  The call the stores 'Fresh & Wild' here and they had y saving grace for sale:  EmergenC (its that powdered version of vitamin C plus other supplements that keeps me from getting sick, or atleast has that placebo affect :).  $40 later...I walked out with a single package of them (that's right folks, it costs almost 3 times as much here!) and headed on to 'The Place', a large dance studio complex around the corner from my house and St Pancras station that offers dance classes.

I took a ballet class from a guy named Raymond at 'The Place'.  It was my first in a good 5+ months and it actually felt great, though I was definitely rough around the edges.  Most of the people that were taking class were hobbyists, but definitely not professionals which is great for me.  The space was great too  (that's it in the pic)- lots of windows and a live pianist, although I actually found the pianist this time to be a bit too harsh in creating the down beats - sounded a bit too much like banging and not soft like the CDs of orchestral music I'm used to in Pamela's classes back in Atlanta.

After ballet, I walked back home past beautiful St Pancras station (that's where Harry Potter heads off to school in those movies, see picture) and took a shower to get ready for my office's summer party.  

The party was a BBQ held in the grass under a tent in beautiful Regent's Park, see pictures, in the grass behind Regent's College.  It was great to meet the families of all my colleagues and the kids were just too cute.  We had a quick lesson in jive dancing from some professionals and then wrapped up the afternoon around 7PM.

From there, some friends from work invited me to join them for a night out.  We went to a mediterranean place first for mint teas and shisha (those big middle eastern water pipes that people smoke fruit flavored tobacco from).  From there, we headed out to Shoreditch, the hip spot for dance clubs in London.  We went to a place called Platinum and I danced for a bit and then headed home.  After buying my yearly tube & bus pass earlier that day for a whopping sum of $2,000, I was determined not to take a taxi home - besides I'd heard the night busses were fun & very safe.  Unfortunately, I got on the wrong one at first, so the ride home took me almost 1 hour after changing & waiting, but it dropped me off just one block from my house.  Great!

On Sunday, I met up with Ashvin - a guy from my office that is quickly emerging as one of my closest friends here.  He's really chill, is up for anything and knows tons of people in London through the MBA program he completed at INSEAD.  INSEAD is a large international b-school in France that people from all over the world go to.  Its only a year long program, but sounds really cool.  Apparently, Ashvin & his friends even rented a 14 bedroom chateau while they were there, which only makes the experience cooler, right?!

Anywho - I met Ashvin an 10+ INSEAD people at a Chinese dim sum place for lunch.  It was cool because 2 of his friends were Chinese and picked all the good stuff for us.  My favorite are these duck taco-like things.  Yum.  At lunch, I met 3 really cool girls that all live together from INSEAD and we exchanged numbers - I could definitely see great friend potential there.  After lunch, I headed with Ashvin and another one of his friend's, Annie, to an athletic center with a huge climbing wall facility.  I just watched (too tired from the ballet class the day before), but it was really cool.  I left Annie & Ashvin there to do their thing and headed home to get ready for a new week.  

It was a great weekend in London.

More pictures!

More pictures, as promised. Below top is the view from the lobby of my office in Piccadilly Circus (before security threatened to kick Joe out for taking pictures :). Next is a picture of me and my bear wearing the requisite sleeping gear in my apartment in London: eye shades and ear plugs (the sun doesn't go down until around 10 PM, rises at 3AM and I'm right near a pretty busy road so its a bit noisy indoors even with double paned windows).

Below top are some people practising rowing on the River Cam outside Joe's apartment. Then there's me typing away on his couch.

Below top is the British Museum down the street from my house in Bloomsbury. Joe took my Mom and Grandma there when they were visiting. Then there's my Grandma walking on the sunny streets of London. Joe's been getting into photography lately and many of these pictures are ones that he took with his new fancy camera, including the last motion one with the car. I think those kind look really cool. Last is a pic of a Londoner Joe spotted while walking around the city. Hottt.

Finally Joe and I in front of the famous Odeon Theater before we went to the Indiana Jones film. It was good, but what we both most remember is the fact that our night out at the movies cost us $70: ~$30 each for tickets and $10 for popcorn. Welcome to London!

This weekend has been a slow one. I'm still sick because doctors in London won't give you the strong antibiotics for fear of creating immune bacteria, so I had to go through level 1 antibiotics before they would give me anything even remotely strong. So...20+ days after getting sick, I'm just now starting on the semi-good stuff and feeling better, though I've mostly just been relaxing in the apartment this weekend. I asked my doctor for Z-pac (the anti-biotic I often take in the states for sinus infections) and their response was that they save that one for those people in hospitals as a level-4 treatment, so I guess if I'm still not well after this week, I'll just have to head to the hospital!

Enough on sickness. Joe came in town this weekend and we went to a former colleague and friend, Andrew's graduation party from London Business School at a restaurant in China town by Leicester Square. It was a fun time, but the waitress did spill water all over me half way through dinner.

On Saturday, Joe went to get his car - a red mini cooper. He'd parked at a a nearby tube station to avoid paying congestion charges for bringing it into the city on a weekday and came to the house to drop off a TV stand that he got for his flat screen that he generously has loaned me for my place (its huge!). He set that one all up and it looks great.

Saturday night, Frances (my new roomie and a new colleague at work) and her friend Dan who was visiting (via the Eurostar from Paris) cooked a WONDERFUL dinner for us. They made roast chicken with lemon and thyme and a tomato-bread salad - very Tuscany. It was great and we all had alot of fun.

On Sunday, I finally got around to sorting through my closet. I cleaned out a bunch of hangers that were just taking up space and put like items together. Much better now. Joe also helped Frances and I put things in the attic that we weren't using and we cleaned out the kitchen to make room for other stuff. I also made a yummy lunch - my famous gnocchi with diced tomatoes, basil and olive oil and pesto chicken sandwiches.

Its 9PM, so I'm going to head to bed in a bit. Hope you all have a great week!

Worth a thousand words

OK - I've got lots of pictures to share, so I'm jut going to put a bunch in one post.

In Cambridge, Joe and I bike along the River Cam. That's him seated along the river with his bike. Joe's apartment also has a long balcony that overlooks the river (that's where I'm standing above). - its so peaceful to look out over it. People go 'punting' on the river in those little boats where you poke the the ground and push with that long stick. Joe and I tried it one time and it was so tough that we wound up just hoping on the shore and pulling the boat back.

In London, everything is just so picturesque. Mainly, those cute red phone booths, beautiful old buildings (the building above on the corner is the old Finsbury town hall), down the street and of course, Big Ben (the clock).

That's Joe and I in the pic at the top laying in the grassy area in front of Wesminster Abbey. You'd be surprised to see just how many other people were laying around in the grass too! On a sunny day in London, everyones out in the parks! That's Wesminster Abbey in the middle and my Grandma and Mom on the right when the came to visit the other week.

OK - signing off for now, but more pictures in the next post.

All settled now...

So its now June 28th and I've been in London for 5 weeks (I arrived May 23). I'm finally feeling pretty settled, mainly:

• I've got furniture, including a bed!, in my apartment (see pictures)
• I know how to get to work and back (I walk just around the corner to the Pentonville Road entrance to the tube - Piccadilly line - and take it to the Piccadilly Circus exit)
• I can find the nearest grocery store (Tesco, 2 blocks away)
• I know some basic Britishisms: i.e. when talking about trash use the word 'rubbish', offer tea to any and all visitors to your home (and not the fruity herbal kind)

All said, I pretty much now feel like I live in London and am not just visiting there, but have only really touched on the basics of a local so far.

Let me tell you what I've been up to so far. On the weekdays, I've just mainly been getting up to speed at work. Everyone is still really friendly and helpful, although my main coach (the woman who previously did my role has now left for her new role in Asia), so I'm pretty much doing my job on my own now and I feel capable. Haven't really done much of anything after work. The weekends have been a bit more fun. Joe and I have been trying to go to one show per weekend. So far, we've seen:

• Joseph and the amazing technicolor dream coat
• Indiana Jones (on the BIG BIG premier movie screen at Odeon at Leicester Square)
• Strictly Gershwin - a big ballet, big band/orchestra, and ballroom production at the Royal Albert Hall

We've also done some toursity things and visited:

• Hyde park and Kensington Gardens, including the Princess Diana memorial
• Portabello Road market - Notting Hill
• Camden market
• Curry house restaurants on famous Brick Lane
• Westminster Abbey & Big Ben

The week before last, my grandma & mom came to visit me, which was really nice of them. The trip pretty quickly turned sour, though, once mom and grandma realized that I really didn't have any furniture (see the box chair that Joe and I used, left) and they'd really have to sleep on an air mattress, sit on the floor, and climb atleast 2 flights of stairs to get to the bathroom (my house is straight up and down and you have to climb a flight of stairs just to get to the living room/kitchen area and another flight to get to the bedroom bath room area).

Mom and grandma also balked at the prices of everything (any American will - it really is shocking sometimes), but they still got around to see the British Museum, Hyde Park, and Piccadilly Circus.

Unfortunately, with all of that getting around, my Grandma tripped and fell on her way to meet Sana, Alison & Tara (our friends from Atlanta who were in town visiting family) for lunch on Baker Street. Its hard getting around London, if you're not used to walking everywhere and taking the tube with lots of stairs in and out of the stations, so I think her muscles might have just been tired. All in all, she didn't break any bones, but she was pretty bruised up and her rotator cuff (?) in her shoulder was likely hurt (they can't test for it), so we just stayed in the last few days. Mom and Grandma were also in town when my movers delivered my stuff and it was really helpful to have them there for that. By the time mom and grandma left early Sunday morning, though, I think they'd had enough of being away from the comforts of home.

I'm typing this blog from Joe's place in Cambridge, with the hopes of getting caught up to the present (without typing 5 more blogs)! Hope that works!

Things I'm liking right now:

• Homemade smoothies - Joe made me one with pineapple, mango, and bananas this morning
• The train to Cambridge - its SO quick! 45 mins and you're there.
• Flip flop weather - its still here!

In Cambridge

Joe lives in Cambridge, which is about 45 minutes northeast of London by train.

We made a pact to spend every other weekend in each other's town, so my second weekend in the UK, I headed to Cambridge. As a bonus, Joe had furniture at the time whereas I did not, so it was like being on vacation having a bed, chairs, internet, and a TV. I was thrilled and slept really well.

Cambridge is a university town housing the famous Cambridge University (on par with Harvard or Yale for those of you in the States looking for a reference). The university has a beautiful campus with a river running around it (see above with the famous 'punting' boats) and many historic landmarks. The city is kind of a classic academic haven, with students out and about in parks, cheap eateries, and lots of cool activities going on year-round, despite its somewhat small size of just over 100,000 people living there.

Joe has a really nice apartment that he shares with a friend, Benji (see picture left). Its right along the river Cam and has a big porch and large floor to ceiling windows. Going there is like being on vacation - everything seems to move slower than usual. There are always lots of people out on the water rowing with their crews and tons of folks basking in the sun, when its out. The weather was fabulous when I visited that first weekend and Joe and I biked around the city on saturday and visited an art market. That night we went to the Sex & the City movie, which I loved (what did everyone else think?!). I liked how they didn't try to tie everything together into neat endings and kept things a bit messy and let the girls age in real time.

On Sunday, we took care of some things errands for me. My air freight shipment still hadn't arrived (it wound up being almost 2 weeks late!), so I broke down and bought another blanket and pillows. Joe has a big shopping center just a few blocks from his apartment (or flat as they call them here), so its really convenient to just pick things up there, rather than in the city. Plus - there are even some discount stores (i.e. TJ Maxx - which they call TK Maxx here). In the city, I've only seen full price retail stores, but I guess I don't know where to look yet. On the whole, I'm trying to avoid buying anything over here because its pretty much just 2 times as expensive.

Joe made 2 great dinners when I visited: sushi one night and chicken then next. He's becoming quite the chef :). I headed home late Sunday night on an easy train ride (Joe drove me to the station) and walked the 2 easy blocks home from the Kings Cross train station home to my place for bed. It was a nice, restful weekend.

Things I'm liking right now:

• My furniture, which finally arrived last week
• Wireless internet at my house, which finally got installed last weekend
• British summers, so far so good! The sun has been out every day for the past few weeks!

First week at work

I took on a totally new role at work with my move to London. Before, I was a ‘Knowledge Specialist’ focusing on transportation industry research for a consulting firm. Now, I’m the Manager of Professional Development and Staffing for our Technology Practice in London. This is kind of a cross between office manager and consultant scheduler (i.e. working with the consultants and partners to select the right consultant for the right project). Before heading to London, I’d never done this role but it had been interested in it for a while.

Our offices in London are FABULOUS! There are so many perks to working here. They are centrally located, in famous Piccadilly Circus (left), with tons of amenities:

• Gourmet meals are served daily for free in the cafeteria (breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you’re working late) and wines are served on Fridays with lunch – hey we’re in Europe!
• There is a gym, staffed with personal trainers, in the building available (again for free) to all colleagues
• You can sign up for on-site massages and music lessons for a minimal fee
• Dry cleaning gets picked up and dropped off right at the lobby
• Every Friday, we have a cocktail hour in our Practice

Even better, I have my own office for the first time.

On my first day at the office I met the woman that has done this role for the past few years who I will take over for. She is petite and pregnant, in the middle of a move to Hong Kong and a total power house. She regularly works really crazy hours and is totally on the ball, but she has a brash style that had me a bit confused before I started. I was a bit nervous before meeting her, but my fears were totally alleviated on the first day. She was warm, funny, and straight forward and produced a really comprehensive training schedule that could have me more than prepared by the time she left for Hong Kong 3 weeks later.

The rest of the group was really cool too. Everyone was really friendly and welcoming. The office atmosphere is really different than in Atlanta, where the office is mostly empty during the week (while the consultants are at the client site). In London, many clients are in-town, so the office is bustling every day of the week and consultants are regularly working from there, so there’s always someone to talk to or go to lunch with.

On Friday, we did a big group dinner celebrating my joining, among other things, at a really cool trend restaurant called Gaucho around the corner from the office. It was very chic with a ‘bouncer’ at the door letting people in. we had reserved a private room for dinner and the large table had two enormous candelabra on the table. The dinner was a blast and we stayed late into the night. I already feel close to many of the folks I’m working with.

More on my weekend in Cambridge with Joe in the next post.

Things I’m liking right now:

• Waitrose – the fancy super market about 10 minutes from me in the Brunswick shopping centre in Bloomsury with all sorts of fun stores and on Saturdays they have outdoor vendors selling gourmet foods
• Afternoon tea at the Ritz – we went there this week as a celebration of my starting. Its expensive (~$80 pp), but a great experience with a live pianist and all sorts of cute finger foods
• Finally getting my air freight shipment after 20 days in transit!

First weekend in London

I arrived in London on Friday, May 23 and went straight to my new apartment via the famed tube (that's it to the left with the brown door and white-framed windows). The Piccadilly line only takes about 45 mins from the airport and drops me off pretty much at my doorstep. My new landlord, John, was there waiting for me (perfect!) and we went right in. From there, we read through the multi-lingual instruction manuals to try to figure out how to work all of the appliances. Some were easy (the refrigerator - once we figured out how to turn it on), some were hard (the oven - which started crazy beeping at us and we had finally just unplug it). Keep in mind all this occured after spending the night on an airplane with minimal sleep and still wearing the same clothes (yes - I probably smelled).

Just when things were getting really fun with the appliances, a courrier showed up with 4 boxes that Christine had packed up for me. Christine is a great friend from GA Tech who lived in London for a few years only to decide to leave just as I was moving there! The good news is that she gave me all the things that she either didn't want to take (i.e. UK appliances) or couldn't take (mainly liquor & spices). Thank you SO much, Christine!

My flat (as they call them here) is fantastic. Its actually its own house spread across 3 floors with its own front door on the street and was just built this year, so I am the first person occupying it. The first floor has the kitchen (large US-sized fridge AND dishwasher - unheard of in London) and the living/dining room. The second floor has a bed & bath and the 3rd floor has a bedroom and bathroom. The flat comes unfurnished (which isn't typical in London), so I'm bringing over my stuff from the US. Attaching a few pics below, but there are more on the real estate agent's website (but they'll probably be removed soon).

After what felt like Christmas, unwrapping all of Christine's goodies, Joe arrived and it was Christmas all over again. He came in by train from Cambridge after work (45 mins!) and brought me a blanket (for the air mattress), & some food and other goodies. It was SO great to see him in my new home after spending so many months preparing to be together!

From there, we went to my new landlords' (Margaret & John's) house for drinks. They were so gracious to have invited us over on our first night in the city and spent a good hour or so chatting with us in their really cool traditional house. Margaret is a solicitor (that's lawyer to us) and John a consultant. After that, we went to the grocery store and picked up some basics and then I was pretty much out (no sleep adds up).

The next day, we did some exploring in my neighborhood (Bloomsbury/Kings Cross) and packed a picnic lunch to enjoy in one of the many parks. From there, we walked up to a neighborhood called Angel just north of me (see the angel wings below - their symbol). This is where the famous Sadlers Wells theater is. After that, it was dinner at Wagamama, our favorte Asian chain restaurant (that we have since avowed not to visit in favor a supporting the locals, though they're good, cheap and everywhere, so I'm sure we'll cave soon).

On Sunday, we went to the famous Camden Market. It was really crazy and funky. I wish I pick to show, but it was kind of like a HUGE little 5 points. They had a historic indoor market that was set inside of old horse stables & a fun restaurant there called PROUD too.

On Monday (a bank holiday in the UK), we went to a cool exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery of Vanity Fair portrait photos. There were lots of pieces by Annie Leibowitz including the one below of Hilary Swank.

After that, it was on to Indiana Jones at the famous Odeon Theater at Leicester Square. It was HUGE and the tickets were crazy expensive (i.e. $30/ticket + $10 for popcorn = $70 for a night at the movies for 2 in London). The movie was lots of fun, though.

Joe left that night (sad) and I spent my first night alone in the city...with earplugs and eyeshades on (its really loud and bright in my apartment right now with no curtains and being close to the street with no furniture to absorb the sound).

In the next post, I'll tell you all about my first week at work!

What I'm liking right now:

• Joe - my boyfriend who makes sushi for me
• My mom and stepdad Tom - who helped me sell the Z last week!
• Jessica - who's sending regular updates on her crazy single life :)
• JJ's painting abilities