Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Hello Everyone, 
So I have created this in order to avoid having to write the same email millions of times. I will try to keep a constant post on this and give you updates. Feel free to post comments, questions, and opinions. To my family, I will only write in English, it's easier and faster, if you have questions as to what I mean by something, ask me, and I'll explain. Also, I tend to write inside jokes in parenthesis, so if you don't get it, then it was clearly not meant for you, but I will be happy to explain it. 

So far it's been crazy. The plane ride here was ok. As usual, my impatient self got very bored. I can't stand the long long plane rides. I know they show 6 different movies, but they are bad movies and don't keep me entertained. I enjoyed the new ipod, although I didn't have enough time to put a lot of videos in it, and of course the new noise-canceling headphones were awesome. There was a baby a few rows back crying the entire time and I didn't even notice. I feel bad for the other passengers. The food . . . . well, it was airplane food. 
I finally arrived at Heathrow (London airport) and went through immigration and customs without a problem. When I came out, Cameron (my boyfriend, fyi) was there waiting for me. He had roses, yay. so sweet, haha. We drove back to Cambridge, about an hour and a half, and had a bit of a late-night snack. Then finally got to bed, since I was exhausted. Of course, 5 hours later, I woke up. It was 11 pm in the states, and EVERYONE knows I'm a night person, so of course at 11 pm I was wide awake. Small problem: it was 4:30 am in London. hahaha. I tried to go back to sleep, and woke up again at 8:30 am London time. Very rare for me. But since I couldn't go back to sleep, we got everything ready, had breakfast and left for London. Turns out I brought a bit more than needed, so Mom, Dad, I will probably send back some stuff. I also forgot some things I needed. 
Anyway, we took the train to London, along with my 20 thousand bags. Cameron was a darling and helped me carry them all over London. After checking in and all, we got to my mystery apartment. Turns out it sucks. No really, it's tiny and there's three of us in it. Since there was only one guy in the program, he actually gets a single room. The apartment consists of two bedrooms, a single and a double, one bathroom, kitchen and living room. It's divided, the bedrooms and bathrooms are downstairs and common areas upstairs. So I got there and in the single bedroom was one girl, who had arrived earlier and had settled in. She didn't know they had assigned a guy into our apartment so when I got there, I told her "um, there's a guy in this apartment, so I think the single bedroom is his." I wasn't about to share bedrooms with a random guy. 
Regardless, our bedroom is absolutely tiny, we only have one closet for the two of us. each gets 4 tiny shelves and we share hanging space, which is practically non-existent. no drawers, and we share night-table. nice huh? 
the rest of the girls in the program got lucky, i think. Their apartment is way larger, of course they have to share it amongst 5 people, all girls. They get two bedrooms, one triple and one double. The triple has a bathroom in it, then there's a second bathroom, and they even get a balcony. I think I should become good friends with them, haha. 
My roommate, can't remember her name, says that as soon as the sun comes out she'll try to get a tan in their balcony. Poor thing, little does she know that the sun, in fact, does not come out in this country, haha. 
Anyway, I will be keeping one empty suitcase in Cameron's house, since it wont fit here. So after a bit of unpacking and settling in, Cameron and I enjoyed an evening in town. we were a bit hungry so we decided to try out new pubs. Heading in the direction of Temple Church (from the Da Vinci Code) we walked along the river for about 20 minutes (Dra. Alvarez, como ud. recomendo, nos salimos dos paradas antes en el metro, jeje) then found a nice cozy pub for dinner. After dinner, we were walking around, saw Temple Church, it's beautiful, but it was closed, and realized we were smack in the middle of the law and justice section of London. All around us were the National Courts and lawyers EVERYWHERE. It felt like a movie set. 
We came across a pub called the Ale and Pie, which is where the National Bank of England used to be. We decided to have tea there. Turns out, the building stood right between the barbershop and the pie store from the Sweeny Todd legend, which means that it was in the vaults and tunnels of the old bank that his victims were butchered, aaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!

For those of you who don't know the legend: first of of all, it's about to be made into a movie with Johnny Depp (yes Emily, you HAVE to see it!!!!!!). Sweeny Todd was a barber and his mistress was a pie-maker, the meat kind, not the sweet, fruity kind , whose store was one building down from his barbershop. Sweeny Todd was a crazy mad-man who used to take his victims into the vaults and tunnels of the old bank, kill them, cut them into pieces, and then together with his mistress, would use the human remains and cook them up into pies, then sell them to her customers. EEEWWWWWW!!!!!!! I know, I was just as disturbed when I heard the legend. So, everyone, go see the movie, Johnny Depp is a good actor, and now you can all think of me, having tea, in a beautiful, old building, underneath which victims were killed. Nice huh?  haha. 

Ok, so afterwards, Cameron went back to Cambridge, poor thing, he got back to his house at midnight and had to be at work by 6:30 am today. I got to sleep in, since I don't have anything until 1:30. We have an orientation today, where I assume they will tell us about our jobs,which start tomorrow, and how to get there, and all sorts of other boring details. 

Look forward to talking with you all again soon. I will keep you updated with all sorts of shenanigans from here. 
How is everything back home??? 
I wish everyone the best for this new year. Oh and come visit me!!! 

2 comments:

madelapaz said...

Lore!!!!!!!!!!!! Me encantan tus london-adventures!! Jejeje ¿dos paradas de metro antes? Suena rico caminarse Londres....por cierto, cómo andan de frío? Ya viste la fotos de Puerto? En las de la tortuga, algunos son videos! Te mando besos y abrazos.
Luv ya!

Senora Duran said...

Hijita:
Claro que te mando lo que necesites. Mil besos