The past two weeks

Time is flying by.   We just hit the one month mark.  Do I have a British accent at all? No.  Do I know my way around Central London fairly well and public transportation? Yes. Two weekends ago we took a train to the English sea shore because we are in fact on an island except it doesn’t feel like it and no one seems to really think about it like that.  While it was pretty, we are not talking sandy beaches or anything you would want to swim in and lots of broken crab shells and fish skeletons.  We went to Whistable in the Canterbury area which was a very nice small town with little stores including a sandwich cafe with the best hot chocolate and a cupcake shop.  Pictures will best describe the “beach houses” that line the shores.  These were the funniest little things.  Little sheds really in different paint colors lining the hillside in tight rows.  Without plumbing it is mostly a place to store your chairs and still on the porch.  I kept thinking about the houses compared to Folly Beach and it was so different.  Jim and I met these great 12 year old boys and played tag.  This was hilarious and ended with me wiping out on my butt.  We chatted with one kid for a while and his dream is to be a professional football player for Portugal cause England sucks or a fireman like his dad. 

The Saturday markets in the city are amazing.  The big three appear to be Borough, Portobello and Camden and are all unique.  We decided that we will rotate these any Saturday we are in town.  Borough is all about insanely fresh food like prosciutto being sliced right off the leg and aged cheeses.  The US FDA would freak out if they saw the amount of food sitting out not enclosed, no refrigerated and not pasteurized.  We sampled tons of cheeses and sausages and walked around chopping on a loaf of rosemary foccacia.  Portobello is more antiques and food vendors with different ethnic foods. 

This past weekend was really pretty tame.  Friday we both spent separately with our respective groups of work friends which I think will continue to be a trend.  Saturday was the market and then a get together at our new friends from Houston’s house with other people from my work including two from Amsterdam.  This night was super fun and ended in us crashing at their house and taking the Tube hungover the next morning which is not advised.

Sunday the weather was particularly nice so we opened our apartment window and sat on the sill for awhile (no screens which freaks me out about with bugs and that our windows are constantly open 24/7.  We’ll hope for the best.

Oh yeah and I went shopping!  I wandered down Oxford Street and went into every store because I had no idea what was what and had to check them all out.  There are so many and lots of fun.  Now I am decked out with my proper trench coat (a must), work shoes that no longer have holes and a purse bag for my computer because the backpack they gave us was not going to cut it.  I don’t need any more help in looking like I’m 5 years old at work J

Travel plans:

ITALY – right now J

Barcelona – October 8^th weekend

Turkey (Jim only, boo work on a year-end client – late October)

Alps – December TBC (This use this instead of TBD)

Paris – with the Vosses after Christmas!!!

English really can be a whole different language.  I think I understand about half of what people are saying (Exaggeration).  Accounting lingo is the worst.  Who knew the Turnover means Revenue, huh?  And financial statements are called accounts.  Every internal PwC word is also a different acronym. 

This blog entry is a mix of a bunch of random thoughts because the internet is really hard to come by.  To show my dedication I am actually writing this in Word and going to transfer this to the blog in the morning once I get to the office.  Apparently internet at the hotel is €80 + a week, what?!  That means there will be delays in all the e-mails and pictures I was planning for the week. 

Tonight I sat there thinking life has become really random as I was sitting in Italy with three British guys and one from San Antonio and all from the client and ordering bottles of wine and them telling drunk stories.  In the Italian hotel in Padova you have to insert your key card into a reader on the room wall in order to make the lights work.  This I did not figure out until I went down to the front desk.  After dinner I watched Mean Girls on TV dubbed in German and then the Miss Italia competition which was in Italian but still interesting.  Jim is coming to Venice on Friday for the weekend, yay!

Miss you all.

Love,

Michelle