Brussels

On the way back from Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday night, I realized it had been a while since I last traveled any farther than a day trip and that I had no solid plans for the weekend. This was dangerous, but it got me started on "where can I go that's relatively affordable on short notice?" After looking at a map, I decided on either Brussels or Dublin. The last minute Eurostar tickets to Brussels were cheaper than the last minute flights to Dublin, and I figured I'd want to spend more time exploring Ireland but could do Brussels in just a few days. So, when I woke up Friday morning, I booked myself a hotel room and a round trip ticket to Brussels.

After a day of work and happy hour with my colleagues on Friday, I came home and slept. I woke up early Saturday morning and read through a few email messages I'd gotten from Steve, Areej, and others with their suggestions for travel in Brussels. After a few quick searches online and writing down addresses of places since I didn't have a printer available, I headed off to St Pancras to catch the train, still with not that much of a view as to what I'd be doing for the weekend. Regardless, it was an adventure, so why not?

I got off the train, took the subway to the stop near my hotel, and dropped my bag in the room. At this point, off to explore! I took the suggestion of the guy at the front desk and ventured toward the center of town. I found the Christmas market, a few back alleys full of restaurants, and some amazing hot chocolate. After meandering around the Christmas market for a bit, I found the Cathedral of St. Michael. I walked inside just as they were starting a mass, so I decided to stay and watch. I have to admit, I completely followed the format of it but had no idea what was being said the whole way through... at least in Munich for Easter Sunday mass, I had been able to roughly follow along with the priest. Regardless, the architecture was phenomenal and definitely worth the visit!

After the mass, I went back into the Grand Place, where you can see several of the nighttime photos I took from the link in an earlier post. I found a great restaurant a few blocks away... had the best French onion soup EVER, a rabbit dish that was incredible, and a Leffe.

On Sunday, I went through the grounds of the European parliament, then toured an automotive museum. They had cars from the early 1900s through to the '60s in great condition. However, their more recent additions were a bit lacking. They showed a few "concept" cars including a '99 or '00 Audi TT as something that's the "wave of the future." Good idea, but design has moved on in the past decade. Also, they had mini remote controlled cars racing on a large open area of the floor, following a track set out by FedEx boxes duct taped to the carpet. Kinda funny, but definitely worth a photo.

I then went through a Mercedes office / sales room / ode to F1 racing and saw some completely ridiculous new stuff. At a friend's request, I stopped at a chocolate store to pick up some chocolates to bring back to the UK. WOW that was a good idea... I think I picked up more for myself than for Areej. Sorry to disappoint, Areej!

I then toured an old hotel right off the Grand Place, found another Belgian beer, and eventually made my way back to the train station for the return to London. In all, a somewhat relaxing and quite fun weekend! Had I been traveling with others, I likely would have gone into more of the museums and other attractions, yet wandering the city worked in its own way to take in the surroundings and atmosphere and the like.

Next stop... to be determined.

Thanksgiving

So, Thanksgiving was great! Christine and Cecilia, two other American expats on the same exchange program, hosted 11 of us at their place for Thanksgiving. This was the first I'd celebrated the holiday away from family, and I did miss that. It did feel weird going to work on Thursday morning and seeing the news stories on the web focusing on Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade and Black Friday sales, yet everyone worked as if it was nothing here. However, we all went over to C&C's place for a late-ish dinner and were blown away! Christine had taken the day off and had apparently not just spent the day preparing, but also the better part of the preceding week.

The turkey was on a platter on the table, golden brown, ready for Norman Rockwell. Whereas I'm living adequately but by no means extravagantly in my flat here, they had full place settings for all 11 of us, with coordinated EVERYTHING. The photos I posted yesterday barely do it justice. Oh, and the food was amazing. All of it. The veggies brought by everyone, the pies Cecilia baked, the turkey, the two types of stuffing, the homemade cranberry bread, everything!

So, no, I wasn't home with the family over Thanksgiving. However, for not being able to be there for it, this was one of the best alternatives I could think of -- great food, great friends, and great times.

I'm alive

So, I need to post both on Thanksgiving and on my last-minute decision to do a weekend trip to Brussels. Photos from the two are here:
Thanksgiving
Brussels

Also, for anyone else in London, can I convince you to join a few of us expats running this next weekend? Should be a blast!
Santa 6K

Thanksgiving Thoughts

I have to admit, I've adjusted relatively well to living in another country. It's now been four months since I moved from New York to London. It'll be interesting spending Thanksgiving here, though, as it's my first time not being home and with family for it. A group of us American expats is getting together at Christine's tomorrow night for a Thanksgiving dinner -- she's cooking the turkey and we're bringing all the trimmings. I have to admit, though reading this (again) this morning, it hit home that yes, this definitely will be different being away from home this year. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122765723215458175.html

More coming in a few days...

Cambridge and rugby

So, walking back from lunch on Friday, I realized I had no particular plans for Saturday. I decided it was a good day for a day trip. After looking at a map and checking train schedules, I decided I'd go to Cambridge for the day. I got there early, had breakfast at the Fountain Inn, then ventured to the colleges. I walked through Trinity College and Kings College, including the cathedral in the photos. It was a great day, and I was home by mid-evening.

Sunday, I met five other American expats for brunch in Chelsea -- not the cheapest brunch, but absolutely amazing! They even understood the concept of breakfast foods beyond the full English breakfast! After that, the rest of the expats went in search of fresh veggies at Whole Foods (yes, the one in London) and I went off to meet a few guys at a pub and to see the Quins v. Wasps rugby match. It took a bit of help from John and Chris until the rules fully came back to me, but it was a great time!

Remembrance Day

I ended up going to Whitehall today to catch the end of Remembrance Day events and walk around the sights at Westminster Abbey. I've run by these areas many times, but had never spent any substantial time there during the day.

http://picasaweb.google.com/trenshaw/RemembranceDay

TfL

So, I think it's safe to say that I'm officially sick of public transit. I try to not whine on here, but, well, this is me whining.

I've been commuting to Canary Wharf from north of Angel -- I've made the trip in 30 minutes off peak times, but it can take an hour or more during peak hours. At peak hours, it's not uncommon to wait for multiple trains to go by before squeezing between three other people and a door to get onto the tube. Oh, and the trip is only five miles. There's nothing quite like getting out of the tube, having been crammed between two fat guys, smelling what they had for breakfast, before even getting to the office.

Also, it'd be SO nice to be able to take a change of clothes with me. I went to a spin class this morning, which meant I had the gym bag and the laptop bag with me on the tube, at rush hour. It was great to get in a workout, but completely not worth the aggravation of trying to get onto the tube at 8:30 afterward. I then ended up coming home to drop off both the gym clothes and the laptop before heading out to an election night party... so I'm at two hours on public transit so far today, and headed off for another 20-minute tube ride each way. I miss having the space and utility of a car -- not necessarily driving one on London's roads, as that would just be stupid, but the ability to leave something in the trunk and get it out after work. At least being in traffic has some amount of solitude, I find it somewhat relaxing, and can even make phone calls, listen to the radio, or the like.

I guess the other option is to figure out, if I move at all while over here, where I could go such that I could walk to work and still have public transit available for evenings and weekends...

A quiet weekend

Yesterday, I met up with a group of other expats on the same exchange program with our firm. We found the Breakfast Club for lunch, then went to a wine tasting festival and dinner at a French restaurant nearby, all in Angel.

The Breakfast Club could have been at home in the East Village -- small place, typical American brunch menu, huge line outside, random photos on the walls, and 80s music playing that completely fits with the cafe's namesake movie. I definitely need to make it back there sometime soon!

I had no idea what to expect at the wine festival, but it ended up being probably 60-80 vendors in a huge convention center. We each got a glass as we walked in, and were able to taste wines from around the world. After five hours, I restrained myself and ended up walking out with only two bottles -- a Chilean cabernet malbec blend and a cabernet franc.

After the nine of us left the festival and had dinner, we all went our separate ways... I actually enjoyed having a quiet weekend evening for a change, and enjoyed being able to sleep in today. No particular plans here today... other than I'm doing some chores around the flat this morning, then likely joining a gym this afternoon. It should be a nice, quiet Sunday!

Sailing

So, after last weekend's marathon and redeye flight back to London, I was planning to have a relatively quiet weekend here, see a few friends on Saturday, and maybe find a museum today.

Friday night, I went to have a drink with coworkers after leaving the office. At some point, one of my coworkers mentioned that he was heading out early the next morning to go sailing, so he was going to head off shortly. When I looked interested in his comment about sailing, he asked if I wanted to join, as they were a person short of a full crew. With just about no deliberation, the answer was "Yes!"

John picked me up at 5:30 Saturday morning and we drove to Port Solent, on the southern coast of England. There, we met four other current and former employees of my firm, loaded up our 37' boat, and were off for the weekend. We were one of eleven boats in a racing series, and did two races on both Saturday and Sunday. We had a great time, a few close calls with the boom, and absolutely perfect weather. I've posted a few of the photos from the weekend here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/trenshaw/OctoberSailing

It's now 9:40 and despite an amazing 8 hours of sleep on the boat while docked in Cowes last night, I'm completely exhausted. Time for bed...

Chicago marathon

Last weekend, I traveled back to Chicago to run the marathon. I took a Virgin Atlantic flight direct to O'Hare on Friday, which was amusing since more than half of us on the plane had running shirts of one type or another... there was very little drinking on the plane, but plenty of random running stories with strangers.

Friday afternoon was my quick "I'm in the US, buy stuff now!" trip. I found a new suit, a few dress shirts for work and new dress shoes, before going off to meet a friend for sushi. Right about the time I returned from dinner, two of my friends got in from their travels -- Stu from Seattle and Julie from Hoboken. The three of us ended up out for another dinner, as neither of them had eaten yet, and I hadn't seen either of them in months. By the time I finally got to sleep, I was more or less delirious and had been up for just shy of 24 hours.

Saturday was a great, relaxing day... we walked around the city, tried and failed to get on an architecture tour, spent some time relaxing in Millennium Park, and went to the race expo before a charity dinner and an early night.

Race day was infinitely better than last year! It was still 67 degrees at the start line and got into the mid 80s during the race, but the humidity was much lower, the temperature peaked about 8 degrees lower, and the course had many more fluid stations. I'd been feeling great in the first half of the race and ended up trying for a 3:10 pace. At the halfway mark, I felt like I was pushing as hard as I could for any reasonable duration of the race and I crossed at 1:35:30 chip time. As I didn't think I could reasonably maintain that pace, let alone make up the 30 seconds that I was off of my 3:10 target pace, I dropped back a bit from a 7:15/mile pace to something closer to 7:45. This was the first race where I hit the wall... I ended up just feeling incredibly lethargic from miles 18 to 20, before slowly picking it up again after that. I also had another first after that... cramps in my calves. I stopped several times to stretch, before continuing. In all, I finished in 3:37 -- it's a personal best by seven minutes, but noticeably short of my goal time that I had known was somewhat unrealistic. I have no regrets, though, as I gave it everything, had a great time that weekend, and noticeably improved on my previous times.

That afternoon, Stu, Julie, and I went for burgers before Stu had to leave for his flight back to Seattle. Several hours later, Julie and I met a few other friends at a steakhouse and I ordered a fillet -- definitely something I have not seen readily available here in London. WOW it tasted great!

I met two coworkers, one of whom had run the race as well, for deep dish pizza for lunch on Monday before heading to the airport. The flight back was great -- even though there was a crying baby two rows away, I put in ear plugs, spread out into the seat next to me, and slept for almost the entirety of the flight, before landing at 8am Tuesday, showering, and heading into another (admittedly shortened) workweek.

An update...

It's been two weeks since I posted because, well, I haven't been traveling recently. Here's why...

Last weekend was a quiet, relaxing change. I ran my last long run before the Chicago marathon, by doing two loops around Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James Park. Doing this run the morning after going out for drinks with work colleagues, running on my own, not in a race atmosphere, I maintained a 3:06 marathon pace and still felt pretty good afterward. After this, the goal of coming in at a sub-3:10 time in Chicago seems slightly less impossible!

The rest of the weekend was somewhat quiet... my flatmate and I went out to dinner at a French restaurant in Angel on Saturday night and actually got to talk and be social for the first time really since I moved in. Although we see each other pretty much daily, we're on somewhat different schedules and don't always end up talking that much -- not out of trying to avoid each other, but just out of timing. This was our first time we'd had a relatively relaxed meal together in the two months I've lived here and it was great to actually start to get to know her after being here for a while already!

This week, I came down with a cold. I generally try to insist that I'm not really sick, take some Sudafed, and get on with life. However, with the marathon coming up, I tried to take it a bit more seriously so it'd be gone before the race. Thursday felt substantially better than the previous two days, so I thougth this might have been my shortest-lived cold ever. Friday morning, though, I woke up feverish and achy. I had to go into work because it was my first day at a new client with a new team, and I couldn't start off by just not being there. By 2:00, though, I was mentally useless and had to head home. I slept for three hours or so, woke up long enough to watch Fargo and have a bowl of soup, and then slept another 11 hours last night. I'm feeling substantially better today, but still am going to force myself to have another quiet weekend, to make sure I'm over this before the race.

So, next weekend, I'm on a Friday morning flight from Heathrow to Chicago, planning to do some shopping on Friday afternoon to pick up some stuff that is substantially cheaper in the States (running shoes, dress shirts, and the like), doing dinner with a coworker on Friday night, prerace stuff with Stu, Andrew, and the Hoboken running club on Saturday, the race Sunday morning, and then likely touristy stuff around Chicago on Monday before taking an overnight flight from O'Hare to Heathrow Monday night and going straight into the office to start another new project on Tuesday morning. We'll see how this actually works out...

Edinburgh

This weekend was my first substantial experience of traveling alone for fun, rather than with a group or traveling for work. I'd had a rather intense week this past week, and had heard from a number of people that this is the time of year to see Scotland -- the weather's decent and the crowds aren't quite as insane as during the summer.

On Friday afternoon, I took the train from Kings Cross up to Edinburgh, where I found the hostel that I'd booked for the two nights in town. I started talking with two girls who were also staying there, and the three of us decided to head out and find dinner. After walking through the Grassmarket and looking at a number of different places, we found an amazing French fusion place. Their venison special was phenomenal, and I have to admit that yes, I tried haggis as an appetizer. It isn't something I'd order frequently, but I figured I should at least try it since I was there... it was fried and served with potatoes... definitely a bit more refined of a way of trying it than in the more-traditional manner I saw at many places for breakfast the subsequent day. If you really want to know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haggis

Saturday morning, I went on a run through a nearby park, and saw an incredible view of the city, sea, castle, and countryside. All in all -- phenomenal.

After breakfast at a local cafe, I took a tour of the Edinburgh castle, did a scotch whiskey tasting, found a streetmarket, toured the Scottish parliament building, and found a pub for some scotch and dinner. I tried a bit of the other side of Edinburgh life later that night, joining up with a group doing a pub crawl. Probably not the best way to keep up my marathon training, but I ended up having a blast with a rather wide group of people -- from 20-year-old students studying in Edinburgh to an asset management guy on a weekend vacation from London, to a few guys from Texas over here for a week.

Sunday morning was a bit more relaxed. I went to an Anglican church right in the center of town that I'd seen before and wanted to explore inside. After the service, I walked up to the top of a hill I'd seen but not climbed on the Saturday run. I'm now writing this on the train on the way back from Edinburgh to London, sitting on the floor between two cars. I guess I've learned my lesson about buying a train ticket on short notice and not purchasing a seat when I do so. Apparently flights would have been cheaper than the train, had I booked this trip more than three hours in advance of my departure.

All in all, my lessons from the weekend: Definitely get out and explore more like this. Just plan a bit more in advance to get a more-sensible and yet still somewhat affordable way of getting there.

My next stop for a weekend trip is likely to be Ireland. I don't yet know when or with whom, but I'm thinking it'll be after the Chicago marathon, as there are only two more weekends between now and when I travel back to the States for that.

Politics

I've intended to write this entry for a while, but haven't gotten around to it. It's not quite as timely as I'd like, but so be it.

During the Democratic and Republican national conventions, I was shocked at the coverage in the UK. The popular dailies -- Metro, City Paper, and other free papers handed out at tube stations -- had their lead stories for about three weeks straight focusing on Obama, Biden, McCain, and Palin. Likewise, the BBC One morning news TV show was hilarious. I don't watch it often, but I had it on at 7am one day as I was getting ready for work. The introduction at the beginning of the show was a 45-second intro into their coverage of the Republican convention, 15 seconds or so on something to do with politics here in England, and then a five-minute segment on the previous night's RNC speeches.

It almost seems as if people here know more about our politics and election process than many in the States.

Zurich and Geneva

Departure
So, on Friday afternoon, I went straight from the office to Heathrow, on my way to four days in Switzerland. As much as BA has been hyping Terminal 5, I have no particular desire to fly through there again after this. The train stopped about a mile outside of the airport and the conductor said it was due to an evacuation at Terminal 5. We waited for 15 minutes or so, and then continued on without hearing any further announcements. When the train eventually got to T5, the public transit transfer area was deserted. Apparently an alarm of some type had gone off, so they were keeping everyone outside of it. Police escorted us up the escalators and outside into a huge crowd, without telling us anything about what was going on.

Eventually, I noticed people inside the main terminal building, fought my way through the crowd, and walked through a wide-open set of doors into the terminal. Now, I was on ground level, which is two stories (four escalator rides) below departures. The elevators were not working due to the evacuation, so I found a set of escalators and took them up to departures. Security was uneventful, except for the government statistician attacking me as I tried to put on shoes. However, the terminal itself was virtually empty, and my flight left from a gate at the absolute end of the terminal. The nearest food was six gates away, and it was closed. I ended up finding a takeaway sushi place another 10 gates further back toward civilization, and was able to eat dinner with chopsticks as I walked onto the plane.

Granted, after that, the flight was uneventful and the service was great. No lost baggage, food and alcohol included, just a bit of a hassle getting to the plane itself.

Friday Night
I got to Zurich just after 10, and met Chris at his place. He started a rotation to his company's office there just a few days prior, and is in corporate housing until he gets the keys to his actual apartment. After dropping my luggage there, we explored the city a bit, found a bar, and split a bottle of a decent French wine. It was great to catch up and to hear the stories of someone else who's doing a similar international rotation, but with a completely different company. Granted, I give him massive credit for doing it in a country where he doesn't yet speak the primary language.

Saturday
We found a decent place for brunch. Wow, brunch! We had issues with interpreting everything on the menu, but both settled on a Swiss breakfast plate. It had a few types of bread, fruits, jams, eggs, and more... it was phenomenal!

We meandered through the city for most of the afternoon and took a number of the photos posted here. Originally, we'd considered going swimming in part of the river through town, which is apparently great when the weather cooperates. Unfortunately, though, it was 20 degrees and off-and-on raining, which made that a bit tough.

We found a great little Italian restaurant around the corner from his place for dinner, ventured through the city at night, and crashed much earlier than the previous day.

Sunday
We went to a design museum for a bit, before I hopped a train to Geneva.

...or so I thought.

I was supposed to get off the train at Bern and transfer to a train on the opposite track to continue my journey to Geneva. Now, the train that I was on left Zurich 10 minutes late or so, and it was only a 6-minute connection in Bern. I should have thought of this, but it apparently didn't register. So, I walked across the track, asked someone "Genève?" heard something resembling yes, and got on the train. I buried myself in my book again, until the conductor came by, looked at my ticket, and told me I was not headed southwest to Geneva, but rather southeast. He told me to get off at Thun, the next stop, transfer back to Bern, and then on to Geneva. I did, and got to see some amazing countryside in the process, but it did put me into Geneva a bit later than initially expected.

Geneva
Sunday night was a quick walk through town. Monday morning, I got up and did my first run in five days. As the sun was rising, I went north along Lake Geneva. It was a crystal clear blue sky, clean air, light breeze... it felt perfect! After the meetings for which I was actually in town, I ventured out to a coffeeshop on the lakefront to write up my notes, go through email, and organize myself. I'd originally expected to have dinner with someone from my client, who was supposed to be coming in from London that night. However, he said he was on a later flight than expected, so I ended up getting dinner on my own at Restaurant Le Lacustre‎, overlooking the lake.

Today was a much quicker day -- I had a meeting that ended at 10:30, spent a half hour writing notes afterward, and then was back in London in time for a 4pm meeting. Now, off to a spinning class!

Switzerland!

So, one of the projects I'm working on is with a team based in Switzerland.  They suggested I meet the team out there at some point.  Somehow, this ended up leading into my first trip:  I'm flying to Zurich on Friday night, spending the weekend with a friend who's working for a different US company there, and then taking a train to Geneva for two days of meetings there before returning to London next Tuesday evening.  Should be a great trip, and even though I'll be in a strange city alone on my birthday, I think it's worth being able to explore Geneva!

Back to work

So, this week is the first that I've felt that I'm fully back to work in the sense of a "normal" week in the States.  I had meetings in two different offices -- one in Canary Wharf and one in the City -- yesterday in between working from our office that is in neither of those locations, and had my first 12ish hour day today.  For most of the time I've worked in the States, I'd consider this normal, but it's the first I've gotten back to this level of engagement and "wow, I'm mentally exhausted" at the end of the day.  Granted, the difference here:  At about 7:30, a partner walked over on his way out of the office, genuinely concerned about why I was working so late.  Maybe this is an exception here... and if so, that's a great thing!

Whirlwind

Wow, it's been a crazy week. 

Last Wednesday, I left work in time to meet the running club for the normal run.  I've been doing the mid-distance option, at a decent pace, but not going so far as to completely exhaust myself.  For some reason, though, I felt ambitious that night and decided I'd go out with the group that runs the longer option, up through Hampstead Heath.  A group of 10 or so of us ran together at the same pace, up through a wooded park, with some incredible views down into London.  It was great, despite the rain starting about halfway through the run.  Needless to say, after that 12-mile run, I was dragging a bit Thursday morning, but it was worth getting in a good distance run and meeting some new people!

Friday morning, I started my first trip out of town since having arrived in London just about a month ago.  Rather than going to explore Europe or the like, this trip was back to Pennsylvania for a high school friend's wedding.  I was on a 10:25 am flight from Heathrow back to NYC on Friday, which ended up taking off about 90 minutes late.  My parents met the (late) flight in New York and drove me down to Harrisburg, just missing the start of the rehearsal.  We ended up going through the full rehearsal again after that, and then to the bride's parents' place for an incredible barbecue, bonfire, and dinner.

Saturday was a morning at my parents' place to pick up a few things, drop off clothes that I don't have space to keep in the flat here in London, and to enjoy some fresh corn on the cob with lunch... something I definitely haven't experienced here. 

It was an outdoor wedding and reception on Saturday afternoon, at an amazing location headed up the mountains along the Susquehanna River.  I had a great time catching up with friends I hadn't seen in forever, and was even dragged out onto the dance floor for a bit.  It does happen!

The trip back here yesterday was a bit less exciting... I left Harrisburg on a 1:10 pm train, stopped in Newark airport long enough to join the second half of my fantasy football league draft, and then got back to my flat here in London at just after 9am today.  Fortunately, today is the summer bank holiday here in the UK, so all offices are closed.  That makes it infinitely nicer, in that I can catch up on a few things around the apartment and have an early night, rather than having had to go directly from the airport to the office this morning, which I had originally expected when I first booked this trip.

In all, it was a great, if exhausting, weekend and I'm glad I was able to catch up with as many people as I did, despite the amount of travel time involved.  At the same time, though, now that I've arrived back in London, this seems in some ways much more permanent now than it did just a few days ago.  I'm not sure if it's because I've actually talked with more people about living here, or if it's just had more time to sink in that this really is home for at least the time being.  The city itself continues to be great, but I'm becoming less and less excited about the weather... it's mid-60s and cloudy again today -- not bad for autumn, but this is August.  Also, I've met a number of great people here in London, and have been having a lot of fun, but also realize just how far away many of you are, over across the pond.  (note:  yes, you CAN visit for a weekend... as I just demonstrated :p )

Stuff

...and lots of it. I moved into my apartment on Monday night. The apartment is slightly smaller than my last one in NJ, but arranged differently, such that I have less storage space than before. I realized this because I ended up having just about everything from my previous apartment shipped over here and delivered on Tuesday morning. I didn't have much time to stay and organize everything after the movers unpacked it, so the bedroom looked like a disaster for the remainder of the week. There were literally piles of clothes, camping gear, and kitchen stuff all over the floor in my bedroom. Today, though, I finally organized it. After sorting stuff, getting rid of a trash bag worth of extra clothes, and packing one of the two trekking backpacks with extra stuff for a one-way trip back to the States, this looks much more like home. I feel remarkably domestic this weekend, after having baked cookies yesterday, gone to a dinner party, unpacked, hung photos on the walls, and cleaned the apartment. This is weird!

Now that I'm getting more settled in here, I'm starting to consider options for travel. One of my goals while living in London is to travel throughout the UK and Europe. If you want to visit me, either in London or elsewhere, let me know! I'm somewhat limited on vacation time, but certainly can make a full weekend of going to other cities, leaving either Thursday or Friday night, returning late Sunday or early Monday. Also, I'll be getting an air mattress shortly for anyone who wants to visit and have a place to stay here. I honestly haven't done much of the "touristy" stuff in London yet, but have rather tried to get into a normal life and settle in, figuring that I can go to the museums, the Eye, the Tower Bridge, and the like when others come to visit.

My goal at this point is to spend at least one weekend per month somewhere other than London. Next weekend, I'm back in Pennsylvania for a friend's wedding, and October 12, I'm back in Chicago to run the marathon there. I'm not sure that either of those necessarily counts as my at-least-monthly travel, though, as neither of those involves traveling Europe. I'm thinking I want to start by booking something for one or two of the weekends in September. The only one where I have plans so far is September 13, when I'll be staying in town for a concert in Hyde Park.

Now, to start planning... Let me know if and when you want to visit!

Moving

I picked up the keys to my new flat yesterday. One suitcase worth of stuff is now there, and I'm planning to fully move in on Tuesday, before giving up this temporary flat where I've been living. The new place definitely isn't quite as nice, but it's in an area with more happening on the weekends, and should still be reasonably accessible to the rest of the city for work and life and whatnot.

There are a few photos of the inside here: http://picasaweb.google.com/trenshaw/MyNewFlat
I was going to take other shots of the area, but it decided to start raining by the time I bought linens, unpacked, and the like.

Random thoughts and observations

So, this is just a collection of my initial random thoughts and observations after my first full week in London, and after having started work...

Running through the city
Running is a great way to explore a city! I've done a number of runs on my own throughout town over the past week, and it's been a great way to get somewhat lost, find my way around, and also see a few of the sights. I ran down along the Thames to Canary Wharf, through Shad Thames, through Hyde Park, and back and forth across all kinds of bridges. It felt great!

Serpies!
Along those lines, I also did my first run with the Serpentine running club here on Sunday. After four people from Hoboken all recommended that I join this group, I figured it was time to give it a try. We went out in Richmond Park and did two laps around the perimeter, for a rather brisk-paced long run for the week. I've now broken down, signed up for the club, and plan to get out with them once or twice in the next week. It's as much a way to meet new people outside of work as it is a way to get in mileage while training for a race later this fall.

Liveable
London is a remarkably livable city. I still don't believe there are 7.5M people in greater London... it is much more walkable, open, approachable, and less overwhelming than New York City. I think a good portion of this has to do with the lack of the "urban canyon" feeling that you can get in Manhattan at times. I keep hearing that the weather here can be miserable, but so far, I'm liking what I'm experiencing!

The Underground
Despite the city being so livable, there is a very different approach to operation of the Underground. First of all, I have to say, it's been remarkably useful. I've been able to get anywhere I've wanted to, in a mostly reasonable time. However, there are numerous service outages. Last Wednesday, when I was going all over the city searching for a flat, I heard announcements at three different times stating that portions of three different lines were closed due to signal problems. That doesn't seem to be a particularly rare occurrence. Also, it seems that there are major closures each weekend. Once again, I'm not trying to complain, as the system is redundant enough that there always seems to be another line or a bus route that goes toward my destination. It's just a different mindset, where it's not safe to assume everything is open. Everyone takes it in stride here, and it works, but there would be riots in the streets of NYC if the MTA had outages like this.

Drivers
I've mostly gotten used to just looking both ways multiple times before crossing a street. It seems to be safer than trying to remember which way traffic is supposed to approach, and then also determining whether or not it's a one-way road. The only time the left-side driving came as a bit of a shock to me was after the run on Sunday, when one of the other runners offered to drive two of us back to the tube station. He unlocked the car and walked around to the trunk ("boot," if you will) to drop a bag in there. Without particularly thinking about it, I went around to the right side of the car, opened the door, and stood there while talking to him. He looked at me with a weird look, I was confused, and then realized "um, oops, there's a steering wheel on this side."

...home!

So, after looking at a number of flats so far this week, I decided to go for a bit more space at the cost of being a bit further from activity. Granted, I'm by the Holloway Road tube stop, only two tube stops away from Kings Cross, and a late-night bus stops right outside the building.

I'll have a Canadian flatmate in a building built within the past decade, large kitchen, and decent-sized dining/living room.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&q=n7+7ay

It looks like I'll be getting the keys next Saturday and I'll move in over the course of the following week.

There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...

Now, the decision: where do I want to live for at least the next few months, and potentially for the full 18 months of my assignment in London? I visited a number of neighborhoods with two friends this weekend, and then spent a good six hours today with a relocation specialist who showed me a few other neighborhoods and flats within each of them.

Now, for background, I'm imposing a somewhat arbitrary limit on what I will spend on housing. It is approximately the midpoint of what my firm's mobility team said I should expect to spend (high end) and what a few other expats who have lived here several years recommended (low end). I would very much prefer to spend less on housing and have more money to travel throughout Europe and explore. However, I will not live in a slum to make that happen.

The biggest decision in my mind is whether or not to do a flatshare. I could no doubt afford to live on my own, and there is something to be said for that independence. Having my own place precludes confrontations with flatmates, late night noise when I want to sleep, issues with guests from out of town spending a few nights crashing there, and other factors. However, to afford my own place, I'm likely going to be in a slightly less central area, with a slightly longer commute. The relocation guy showed me a few places in Bow Quarter, Islington, Camden, and Surrey Quays. Of all the areas we saw, I'd be leaning toward Bow Quarter or Surrey Quays based on commute time, proximity to social life, and other factors. If I decide to live on my own and enter into a lease via an agent, he'll arrange viewings of a number of properties in the area, take care of all lease paperwork, and help to set up utilities in my name before I move into the property. If I follow this path, I'll probably do a day of viewing flats in Bow Quarter and a day in Surrey Quays, select a property, and let him work his magic from there.

For several hundred pounds less per month, I could live in a flatshare. I'd have a less formal lease, one or more flatmates, and potentially live in a slightly more desireable area. It would be a bit more of a challenge for others to crash when visiting from out of the country, as there would be flatmates to take into account. Likewise, I'd have somewhat less privacy, sharing common areas with one or more others -- either in similar situations as me, or as students. It would provide me the opportunity to move to different areas throughout my time in London to experience multiple neighborhoods by living in them, but would also potentially require me to move against my will sometime during my initially agreed-to 18 months, as opposed to having much less of a chance I'd need to move unwillingly from a location I lease on my own.

Yesterday, I viewed a flatshare that's about a 5-minute walk from the Angel tube station. It's in a fun, lively, somewhat crowded part of town, but two streets back from the main street and in a somewhat quiet area. It was newly furnished, and the kitchen was spacious. My flatmate would be the owner -- a 20something real estate insurance broker who had posted the availability of this flat via a running club here in town. However, there was no dining or living area -- just a small table in the kitchen and whatever living area I set up within my bedroom. It'd be a great place to crash for £675 all-inclusive (council tax, utilities, etc.) but far short of a homey feel, a place for dinner parties, or the like.

At the other end of the spectrum, I saw one-bedrooms in Bow Quarter and Surrey Quay today for £230 per week, plus utilities, plus council tax, bringing them to £1200 or so per month all-inclusive. I could somewhat comfortably afford to do this, and the privacy and independence would be nice, but it would mean substantially less money to set aside for travel and other activities while here.

While writing this, I was contacted by another owner looking to sublet a room, via a London Business School bboard posting I'd made via a friend a few days ago. I'm going to try to take a look at it in the next few days, and determine whether or not I want to re-engage the relocation company to seek something on my own.

The beginning...

Greetings! I said I'd never have my own blog. It made no sense. I didn't want to tell the world everything going on in my life. Close friends would see or talk with me frequently enough that it made no sense to post rants visible to the world. Others, well, maybe I didn't want to share everything with them.

Alas, here I am, writing my inaugural blog entry. It's happening. Then again, there's a lot happening now that I didn't ever seriously expect to happen. Primarily: I'm living in London, for at least 18 months, on a rotation from my job in the States, where I've been working for three years, to do similar work with our practice in the UK.

In writing this, I do not intend to bore the reader with every minute detail of my life. If I do that, yell (or stop reading, for that matter). This is just a way to keep a record of my thoughts, experiences, and interpretations of my experience as an expat.

Having just stated that goal, I am almost immediately going to contradict it with a description of "my first day." In my very few previous trans-Atlantic flight experiences, I was able to catch at least a few hours worth of sleep. However, this time, I couldn't fall into a decent sleep after the first 30 minutes or so of a nap that I caught while taxiing in the queue of planes waiting to leave Newark. I'm not sure if it was the excitement of moving to another country as opposed to just visiting for a few days, the crying baby two rows away, or something else, but I just couldn't nod off. So, I thought I'd have a quiet Friday upon arrival in London, and maybe take a bit of a nap...

I was dropped off at my temporary apartment, arranged through work, with an envelope that had a keyring and two keys on it. Balancing two large suitcases, a carryon suitcase, and a laptop bag, I got everything up the few steps to the front door, opened it, and moved all four bags inside. Next, I saw the sign showing that my apartment is on the fourth floor... great, an elevator, perhaps? Fortunately, there was one. I got everything through the second entryway door and into the elevator to go up to my flat. After restacking everything in the hallway on the fourth floor, I went to open the door. Neither key worked. At all. It's not as if I could insert a key and it wouldn't turn... neither key even looked like it fit either of the keyholes on the door. I looked around, and the building was deserted. It was 8am or so on a Friday, and there was nobody to be found -- the building has only 10 flats, and there is no doorman, maintenance person, or the like on site. After trying a few more times, I gave up and called the emergency contact number for the management company. The guy on the other end of the phone didn't believe me in my jetlagged state and American accent, but begrudgingly said he'd drive over to help. Fast forward 20 minutes... he walks up the stairs, looks at the keyring, and says "oh, oops! wrong keys!"

So, that was mildly amusing and mildly frustrating... but if that's the worst experience I've had to date in a new country, life's great!

Friday afternoon, I settled in, bought some groceries, a UK SIM card for my phone, set up Skype, unpacked the luggage, and went for a bit of a run. I was thinking of cooking a quiet meal and heading off to sleep at 8ish, when I got a message from Christie. Now, two funny things here: I've never met Christie at this point, even though we've had many email messages back and forth about American expat experiencies moving to London, and Christie works for a competitor to my employer. Note that at this point, I have yet to be able to get in touch with anyone from my own firm's office in London, despite several email messages to different people, yet here I am getting a message inviting me to a competitor's Friday afternoon happy hour. Why not?

After a great time and way too much Champagne that night, Saturday started a bit slower. Regardless, I got to experience breakfast from Borough Market, lunch outdoors in Chelsea, a walk through Marylebone, and an incredible wine bar. Thank you, tour guide Christie!

Today was another slow start, followed by a run through the docklands to Canary Wharf, and then meeting up with a former coworker who showed me other parts of Marylebone, Regents Park, St. Johns Wood, Maida Vale, and Little Venice, before I went to view a flat just off the Angel tube station.

There's much more I could say, but it's time to catch some sleep here. As a note to myself and others, here are a few items upon which I'd like to comment at some point in the near future:

• Housing considerations and trade-offs
• The weather
• Why am I doing this?
• Travel plans