London, where do i start?

I keep meaning to write something about being here, but just haven’t had the time – which is a good thing I suppose.

I’m staying at my normal 4star London penthouse - Ross’ floor – but hopefully for not much longer. A girl from Louisiana that I’ve met thru the BUNAC program, and I, are trying to find a place to share – it’s a little disheartening, because it’s soooo expensive here – but I’m sure we’ll find something – it just might not be in the part of town that we want to live in.

I started work last Monday. I’m working for the London branch of IDA Ireland, the same Irish gov’t agency that I was working for in Dublin. I’m basically the office manager – I don’t think it will be too difficult – only 4 people in the office, and we have a fancy espresso machine. It’s certainly not my life’s calling, but I think it will be fine for now…

Let’s see, fun stuff that I’ve done. Last night Ross had a BBQ – it was good. Lots of nice food, and when it started raining we all moved inside and played SingStar for a couple hours. I am officially the SingStar champion – so far I’m unbeatable. (SingStar is a karaoke game on Playstation – it scores you on how accurate your tempo and pitch are – I may have been winning because I was the only sober person in the room – but I’d like to believe that I’ve just got skills.)

Last Wed. my friend Stephanie and I went to a free movie at an ampitheater on South Bank. I know I’ve been to London many times, but it was still a little surreal sitting there on the Thames River, London Bridge on one side, Tower Bridge on the other, watching “In the Heat of the Night”. The best part was when it started raining – instead of scrambling for safety, everyone just calming pulled out their umbrellas and continued watching the film. On Friday, we went back to the same ampitheater and watched a documentary on Glastonbury. After seeing it, I’m not too bothered the by fact that I didn’t go to the festival. On Saturday, Stephanie and I packed up our laptops and went to this cool bowling alley we’ve discovered that has free wi-fi. We spent about 5 hours looking for places to live – but didn’t actually get anything accomplished – oh well, it was a start.

We’ve been bowling a couple times. On Monday nights, they have £3 games, cheap drinks and a band plays. They also have a restaurant modeled after a retro American diner, and a theater that plays random films. It’s a good place just to hang out. A little scenester studenty – but there’s really nothing wrong with that.