London!

Well, I've been in London for nearly a week now, so it's about time for a proper update. I've been meaning to do this all week but, well, I'm in London. I've been distracted. This could be another long one... What am I saying, all of my blogs are long because I always procrastinate the day of my writing.

So, let's back up shall we? I finished work on October 31. It can only be described as bittersweet. My 2 years at Wall Decor and More has been wonderful. It was so hard to say goodbye to the people who have been so good to me. Since my last day was Halloween, they were concerned I would have plans after work, so on Tuesday they brought cake! And my old boss from The L.A. Gallery showed up as well. It was fantastic to sit with two brilliant employers, nibble on cake and dream of London. It was just another example of how wonderful they are. They each own a custom framing business and are able to be in, what they have dubbed, "Co-opetition." Cooperative competition. :-)

So, I finished work and then packed up my life for storage and tried to fit 2 years into a suitcase. I had a good bye get together with all of "The Ladies." Then, off to Great Falls MT to see my best friend and some friends from the mission. My friend and I spent our time just being us. No rigid plans, just hang out on the couch and talk. Oh yeah, and we had a Marvel marathon. "Thor: The Dark World" premiered in North America on Nov 8, so we watched all of the previous films and then went to the movie. It was really good. It needed more Loki though. I don't just say that because I love Tom Hiddleston; Loki makes everything more interesting. Also,  I do very much enjoy Tom Hiddleston :-)

The hardest part of all? Saying goodbye to family, especially my little niece who will probably forget me without me in her house anymore! We had a dinner on Sunday night and on Monday, my brother and sister in law drove me to Calgary.  We're not an emotional bunch, but I got teary saying goodbye to each one. Moving across an ocean is a difficult enough endeavour, but doing so as a very small step towards achieving a much bigger dream is even more intimidating. And saying goodbye to family feels somehow weightier than saying goodbye to friends. But then, my buddy friend took me to the airport and we couldn't stop hugging!

OK, enough of the sappy stuff. On to LONDON! The flight was as all flights are, long  and uncomfortable. But, the beauty of an overnight flight is eating breakfast over Ireland. Seeing it gave me a reality kick. And then England came into view. I don't even know how to explain the emotions that came over me then. Excitement, anxiety, fear, hope. Everything all at once. I nearly cried from it all. Right, I was done with be sappy, wasn't I?

West Coast of Ireland

I was lucky enough to find housing before I left, so when I arrived I co-ordinated with the realtor and met her at one of the Underground stations. She then drove me to the house. It's a nice little cottage in North Kensington. Now, when I say that it's nice, it's nice for London. It's clean, but definitely not a new modern flat that you see on TV.  North Kensington is an upscale neighbourhood now, but it wasn't always. I like the neighbourhood though, it's safe and my house is only about a 10min walk from the Ladbroke Grove tube station on the Hammersmith/Circle line. I'm not overly familiar with the bus system, but there are a lot of buses in the area, so I will pick that up eventually. For now, I'm using all of the stairs in between trains as a nice workout routine!

My future?

The rest of my week has been spent setting up my bank account, buying groceries, getting a new SIM card, finding copy centres and generally trying to settle in for more than a 2 week stay. I've been doing site seeing as well. It's strange to get up and try to decide what I want to see today in the areas around my errands. When I went to my bank appointment, I realized that I was fairly close to RADA, one of the schools I'm looking at, so I decided to pop over and find it. I need to get my head on straight before I go in and talk to someone, but it felt good to see it in person and prove to myself that it actually exists. I'm going to see the broadcast of David Tennant in Shakespeare's "Richard II" on Monday, which will be at the cinema in Notting Hill. My plan is to check out the Kesington Palace and Gardens nearby and then make my way down to LAMDA, which is in Hammersmith, the neighbourhood south of Kensington.

Since I'm came here with assistance from SWAP/BritBound, I went to the Arrival Information Session at BritBound on Friday night. They went over a lot of good information for getting settled here: tax info, travel, housing, work, health care. Apparently, the NHS (National Health Service) covers me while on a visa! I had no idea. That is one thing I wish I'd known before I bought travel insurance! But travel insurance covers baggage as well, so I suppose I still might need that. But, I think that I'm going to get my teeth cleaned a lot here. A basic treatment of exam, x-rays, cleaning, and flouride is only £17.50! That would be at least $200 in Canada! Root canals or pulling a tooth is only £48.00.  Income tax is a bit more, of course, but that's still amazing!

View of Picadilly Circus from the club.

After the info session, the people at BritBound took us out to their regular Friday Drinks Night. I went along to attempt at being social. It was a big step for this introvert, but I'm glad I went. BritBound booked an event room at the Picadilly Institute, which was decorated like a pscyh ward/office. I made friends with a few of the girls. 2 Aussies, 1 Portuguese and a Canadian. They were all really fun. It didn't take long to cover the "I don't drink" topic though!  Looking back, I should have just said that I don't drink, not because I'm a control freak with a bit of religion thrown in, but because I might become attracted to the annoying guys who drink. Seriously, how is walking up to a table of girls and saying "Two shots to the first girl who does 'The Running Man'" a good way to impress anyone? Oh, well. At least now I can say that I've been to an exclusive club in Picadilly Circus and move on. Really, when I left a security guard opened the gate for me and there was a line of people waiting to get in. Definitely a first for me!

Well, I think that about covers it. I had a fun Sherlock (BBC) themed day today and next week, the job hunt begins. BritBound helps with perfecting your resume and registering with recruiting agencies, so now the real work needs to begin. Finding a job needs to be my new job. I'm not looking forward to this bit. It takes some people over a month to find work. I hope I'm one of the exceptions. I'm one of the lucky ones that already has a place to live, but I like to think that's partially because I worked on it before. At the orientation, they asked if anyone had their CV ready and I was the only one, so maybe that bodes well? Wish me luck!

P.S. MANY MANY THANKS TO ALL WHO ARE HELPING ME OUT ON GOFUNDME. YOUR GENEROSITY AMAZES ME!