Wow

Wow. That is all I have to say right now. I’m going to let your minds wander and wonder at what I could be talking about. My hints are:
• I went to Oxford today
• I had my interview
• I am going back on Monday to work half a shift with the manager to see if I can actually do the job
• Pictures are available at
• Barring a terrible day on Monday I am moving to Oxford
• I can’t wait to work in Oxford
• Holy crap, I love Oxford
• If you want old England, go to Oxford
• I love Oxford
• Oxford, Oxford, Oxford
• If I get paid £6.75/hr like it says, which is what I will make, I don’t care. I’m working in Oxford
• £14/hr? What’s that? That’s not in Oxford, so sorry!
• Yeah…Oxford.
• I’m gonna take fencing.
Good luck with that everybody. I hope your minds someday have the same “blowing up” experience mine had today. Check out the pictures and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Wow.

Oh yeah… Cheers. Mates.

Sweet, Another One

Alright, I've got another interview tomorrow, this time with a hotel in Oxford called Bath Place (www.bathplace.co.uk) for a front desk position.
Upsides:
1. It is in Oxford, a couple blocks from where C.S. Lewis lived. Dang.
2. Days off are consecutive, the shift before the day off is 7-3 and the shift
the day after the days off is 3-11, so basically three days off in a row.
3. Oxford actually is only an hour away from London by bus, so...
Downsides:
1. Pay is £6.75/hr, and accommodation is NOT included. So I'd have to live on
£1070/month, which really isn't too bad, but I'm pretty confident I could pull
at least £10 in London.
2. The lady I talked to seemed nice, but kind of nervous and a little out there.
She didn't seem dodgy or anything, but it certainly wasn't Julie Andrews on
the other line.
3. London is growing on me.

So after my trip to Oxford, I'll know for sure. I'm actually going to look for a hostel in Oxford for tomorrow night, so that could be a lot of fun. I'll take plenty of pictures, so get ready!!!

I also opened a bank account today. Free and at a pretty big bank in London, HSBC, and that was a fun experience. I got there, put my name in to be helped (it was like putting my name in for a restaurant back home), and they told me it would be about 20 minutes. I say ok, and go to get some food. I eat, come back in 15 minutes, and they'd already called over me. The lady who first took my name saw me still sitting and starting going crazy with "I'm so sorry, you had just popped out and we called you directly, I'm so sorry, I'll try to find somebody, etc." I sat for a couple more minutes waiting and she returned with more "Sorry's" in her lovely British accent and led me to a room where a young black girl was to take my information and help me out. Apparently, the first lady had pulled her from cashier duty just to open my account. I'm sitting here stunned as I'm being offered coffee while I wait and being apologized to non-stop, receiving service like never before back home. I actually can't remember having been served like this before. Anyway, we get going and since I don't have a job yet I have to get a special override from the first lady in order to get "the proper" account, as she put it, which basically is a free checking account with free internet/telephone banking and a free ATM card. The black girl and I get to talking and she had been to New York and Miami before and had loved it. She said she really enjoyed the atmosphere "at the universities" and how the students were all about their own school, sports, Greek, clubs, everything. She would have been a cheerleader if she had gone to an American school. She found it amusing how the black guys in the clubs in Miami would just start hugging them and calling them "mama" and doing what those of us who have been in clubs witness every time. It's funny to me, but even funnier when I hear a Brit talking about it. She proceeded to do her American accent, which was hilarious (quite good actually!), and poke fun at my British accent. Then I left with a new bank account, and now all I need is a job to make some money to put into it. Woot Woot!

It's 5:55pm here, the sun is setting, and the sky is clouding. It rained early morning, sunned up during the day, clouded up in the afternoon, and is now staying overcast. BUNAC is having a pub meet tonight in Camden Town, and there's a song about Camden Town and I can't think of it. Dang it, that's gonna drive me nuts. Anyway, BUNACer's will go and people who work there go too. So I'll probably go because I haven't anything better to do.

As of right now, the best thing I can do is go take a shower, since I haven't yet today, and get geared up for the interview tomorrow, yay. Time to get "suited and booted" as they say here.

Cheers!

Still in the Saddle

I'm not "back" in the saddle, cause I never got off the horse in the first place. I'm still looking for a job, still applying, still wondering whether or not I really want to work in London (unless of course I get the AmEx job), and wondering where I want to go if I don't live in London. I applied today for a front desk job for a small hotel in Oxford, which would be great if accommodation was included, however I think it's just going to pay £6.50/hr, which is of course half of the AmEx job. I shouldn't have even interviewed for the other job because now I'm turned off at the thought of making only $13/hour as opposed to $28 an hour. HA! I'm in flippin' England regardless! I just need to go have a pint and enjoy myself here, right Mrs. Combs? Or should I just get some ice cream. By the way, is there a way I could justify paying $7 for some ice cream on a stick? I can justify paying that much for a pint and a half of cidre, but I don't know about ice cream. I'll just wait until tonight for the BUNAC pub meet. I don't have anything better to do, so I plan on heading to that. I don't want to sit in my hostel and watch Lord of the Rings then go to McDonald's again. So bitter's coming tonight!

As for other jobs, I'm just gonna have to open myself up to anything. I am going to see what work would be like in the Lake District, because I know life would be amazing. So, anybody have any towns they want me to live in? Or specific areas of England at all? Luke, you want me to move to Cornwall and surf all winter? It's crazy because there's so many jobs available. Oh, man, I'm ready to have a job.

Since I applied for that hotel job in Oxford, hopefully I'll get an interview requiring me to go to Oxford! I haven't left London yet, and I'm ready to go I've got at least the weekend to see them, especially since it's the Colt's bye week, so Sunday night is definitely free. Oxford would be nice, perhaps a day trip to Cambridge in the next couple of weeks. Paris is only two and a half hours by train, as well as Brussels. The world awaits. And so do I.

Pictures soon, the camera is being charged right now. Cheers.