Breaching Blonde

One Year Mark.

It’s crazy to think it’s been a full year since I first landed in London. I know, nobody likes a cliché but, it really does feel like I just got here yesterday. Time has literally flown by and I’ve got to say I’ve probably had the best year of my life. On November 22^nd 2010 Steph and I touched down in London to do….something. To be honest, we had no idea why we came here or what we were going to be doing. We got to our hostel around 9 pm that day and looked at each other and said “Sooo, we live in London . What do we do now?” the obvious answer was to order beer. About ten beers later and blurred vision it was off to bed in our 22 person room in the disgusting hostel we would be living at with no known departure date because the next day we would need to start hustling and build up some sort of substantial life in the UK. A year later I never thought my life would be what it is now. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being here for the last year, it’s that you can’t plan anything in life. Sure, you can have guidelines and a direction you want to go in, but to have a detailed picture of where you want to be in a years time is crap. Everything I had planned a year ago, the job I would be working, the people I would be friends with, the type of lifestyle I would be living went out the window a long time ago. I had a perfect picture in my head of what my life would be like living in the UK and I couldn’t have been more wrong in anything I thought was going to happen. This is probably the best thing that could have happened though, because the last year has been filled with tons of excitement and surprises. Sure it hasn’t been all ‘super fun-my life is amazing because I’m living abroad-everything is peaches and roses’. Moving so far away from everything and everyone you know does funny things with your head. It is absolutely amazing being able to say I live in London and to travel at the drop of a hat to pretty much anywhere in a couple hours time for pocket money. It gives you a super high and makes you really excited for life as a whole. The days you get homesick though can be horrible making you question why on earth you ever decided to move so far away. After a year of being here I think I’m able to deal with both of these extreme ups and downs. The travelling now whenever I want is kind of becoming normal for me now….as crazy as that sounds. The excitement of being able to travel for so cheap and so frequently rubbed away a while ago. Yeah I know, I sound like a total snob by saying that. But it’s true! If I have to pay over £60 for a plane ticket now, I call that “expensive”.  That being said, I don’t plan on stopping any of my travel excursions anytime soon or that I won’t find any of them exciting, I guess what I’m trying to say is that travelling somewhere on a weekend, or doing a three day trip to Spain is just the norm over here. I’ve also though been able to control the times when I’m really upset or homesick. I still get homesick, I probably always will for however long I decide to live here, but the homesickness is definitely not as bad as it used to be. When Steph left in January after a month of being here with me, I don’t think it really bothered me that much. I was still enthralled with the excitement of meeting new people, planning travel excursions, starting a new job and just being overwhelmed in a good way with having this new and exciting life. I think about a month and a half later in February it hit me that I was really, really alone over here. I remember just sitting in the empty flat I was living in with no real friends or anyone I could call up or meet up with to dilute what I was feeling. And I think that was the problem. Even though I was in this giant amazing city with a billion different things to do and see, for the first time in my life I literally did not know what to do with myself and I think I just sat there and questioned everything I had planned for the seven months prior. After that minor breakdown, I got my shit together and told myself to stop being such a little bitch and to start enjoying myself. I think since then, I’ve been completely fine. London can be one of the most exciting places ever, but also one of the lonliest. It can actually make you go a bit crazy. You learn very quickly how to deal with emotions over here whether good or bad. Since then it seemed like everything for me just fell into place. I started meeting loads of people who have since become some of my dearest friends. I think I’ve learned to really appreciate people and relationships I have in my life now. It’s hard being 25 and meeting new people who you can legitimately call “friends”. You’re the new person coming into a circle of people that have potentially known each other for years. People will naturally become territorial of their friends and often snub you or ignore you because you’re an alien to them. Let’s not beat around the bush. These people are dicks. I don’t like being friends with dicks. And the one’s that snub you are dicks. It’s the ones that enjoy your company and welcome you with open arms and the ones that don’t give a shit who you are or where you’ve come from, but just know they enjoy the time they spend with you that you build those friendships with. I must say, I’m a lucky girl to have some of these amazing people in my life over here! It’s true what they say as well that when you’re the new person somewhere, whether that be a city, a school or a job, you never end up being friends with the first people you meet. I think back to the people I was hanging out with a year ago when I first moved here and now think to myself “I wonder what they’re up to?” Why does that always happen I wonder?! Weird. Don’t ever latch onto these people, trust me, you won’t be friends with them in the long run! It’s a scientific fact!

Come the summer time I was having the time of my life. I had managed to travel loads. In the span of five months I went to Italy, Ireland, Holland and Morroco. So I decided to take a nice travel break and enjoy England by spending weekends out and about in London doing London type things, and taking a few mini trips to the south coast of England to Bournemouth and Swanage with travel plans at the end of the summer to Germany for Oktoberfest! I also got a bunch of my English and Canadian friends over here together for Canada day celebrations at Trafalgar Square. It was weird watching Blue Rodeo and the Mahones play in London. I couldn’t succumb to the Molson Canadian they were selling in the square (If there’s anything Canadian that I miss that I can’t get over in the UK, it is not Molson Canadian.) so we got drunk on Red Stripe instead decked out in red and white and made Canadian asses of ourselves around Trafalgar Square. This is also the night I met my boyfriend Dave. What it was about a drunken patriotic Canadian girl double fisting pints and who couldn’t form a full sentence that made him swoon, I have no idea. To be honest, I don’t really remember a whole lot from that night. All I know is that I’m a lucky lady and am happy we were in the same pub at the same time. I’m not going to get any gayer than that so just be happy I just told you as much as I did.

Since then, it’s been a relaxing few months of just enjoying life in London. I’ve gotten a fantastic new job with a Digital Media company that I’m quickly moving up in and finally making a nice chunk of change in. I’ve just moved into a fantastic new flat with Mike, Tara and John and I’ve got more travel plans coming up. Portugal and Scotland in December and  a cheeky weekend trip away to Barcelona with a great group of rowdy friends in January. I don’t think life could be better at this point. Things are good and I’m very happy.The last year has definitelty been amazing. I got through the grunt of being jobless, living in a hostel, knowing no one to having a pretty amazing life over here. I really do have no complaints :)

To end off this entry, I’ve made a top ten list of things that are turning me into a Brit even though I said it would never happen…fucking hell…

1)       I smoke rollies now. I remember watching my mom’s dutch uncles do this all the time when I was a kid, and now I’m one of them. You’d be surprised how much money you can save by rolling your own cigarettes. I’m rich bitch. I should probably just quit altogether…I know, I know.

2)      Beans on toast is my favourite meal ever. Anything on toast I’ve realized is a sufficient meal.

3)      I drink tea now. I never drank tea. Now I do. When did that happen?

4)      I have used the words “cheeky”, “mate”, “cheers” and “hiya” all in the same sentence before

5)      I know who Boris Johnson is and want his haircut.

6)      I put kisses at the end of every text and email I send out. No hugs. Just kisses. xx

7)      I don’t remember how big a regular can of beer is anymore. “King Cans” or “Tall Boys” are regular beers over here.

8)      Primark a.k.a. Primarni is my go to fashion and home décor store now. Eat your heart out, Winners!

9)      I can almost understand a Geordie accent. Almost.

10)   I have a union jack oven glove.

xo

Andrea

Moving & Shaking

On November 22nd it will be exactly a year since I moved to London and to celebrate…get ready for it. I’m moving again! Not back to Canada though…did I get you there? Ha.

No, no. This move will be a much shorter traveling distance…about ten minutes away. My wonderful flat mate Tara who moved in with me earlier this year, her boyfriend John and our friend Mike are packing up and moving into a three bedroom flat down the road. I wasn’t completely sold on South London when I initially came to London, but after living here for a year I’ve discovered that I love it. I find South London has so much charisma and history. Not to mention it’s a million times cheaper than any place on the North side of the river! It may have a bad rep on the other side of the Thames, but I call it home now and really didn’t want to leave. So we found a great place in East Dulwich which is an amazing little neighbourhood in South London. It reminds me of a Queen Street West in Toronto, which is where I lived prior to moving here. Tons of independent shops, pubs, and markets. Pretty much everything I need in life. So at the end of the month we’re hauling all of our stuff out of out little two bedroom flat on Denmark Hill and will be calling Camberwell Grove our new home. We’re all excited to be moving into this place. It’s beautiful. When we first went to see it and walked into the main room our mouths dropped. It was perfect. Massive living room, beautiful newly renovated kitchen, backyard, bathtub, shower, storage…and within our budget. All of us will be saving a few pounds every month moving in together. Always nice to have extra disposable income living in one of he most expensive cities in the world. We’re all really excited to be living together, too. So far we have Pimp-Juice Wednesdays arranged and Bubble Bath Thursdays. Yeah, it’s going to be one of those houses. I’m hoping to get some pictures of the new flat to post on here soon…stay tuned…

Besides the move which has been taking up most of my time the last month, not a ton has been going on over here. I’ve just been enjoying London while the weather is still nice. It’s been gorgeous. Dave and I have spent the last few weekends wandering around East Dulwich and Brick Lane market, mostly having afternoon pints and enjoying the soon to be non-patio beer weather. We made a trip to Cambridge a couple weekends ago to visit Dave’s Mom and Step-Dad. Cambridge is about 50 miles north of London, and about an hour on the train. Really beautiful city. It’s a huge university town with lots of shops and cafes. Did some shopping while we were there where I found an amazing new winter jacket that I can’t wait to wear. Yes, it may have been an impulse buy but I couldn’t say no to this jacket that was marked down to 80 pounds from 400. STEAL! I’m actually looking forward to the cold weather just so I can wear it…the rain can hold off though. Damn I look good in this jacket. We also made an impulse buy at a great fudge shop we found where they make the fudge old school style right in front of you. I can’t walk into a fudge shop without buying some while I’m there. Uuuughhh fuuuudddggeee…..*drool*. We bought some maple fudge. Yes. Maple. Because I’m Canadian. Being Dave’s first Canadian girlfriend, I think he thinks my veins pump maple syrup. Any chance he gets to feed me with anything maple flavoured, he will. Side note; Canadian jokes have not faded even after a year. Here in London, my name is no longer “Andrea” it’s either just “Canada” or “Canadiator”, I put maple syrup on everything, I club seals, I love Bryan Adams and I know a mountie personally. This is as at least how all of my British friends describe me. Yeah, that’s pretty accurate. I mean, I’ve always though people who read Shakespeare while drinking a cuppa’ and eat fish ‘n chips for every meal have a pretty good judgement of character, right? ;)

Last Tuesday was something fierce! Mike and I were lucky enough to get Florence + The Machine tickets for her new album launch for “Ceremonials”. It was a really small show at Hackney Empire which only holds about 1400 people so it was quite intimate and cozy. Despite being two hours late on stage (annoying) Florence was phenomenal and made up for it. The sound was amazing in this venue and her voice was incredible. She did a bunch of songs off the new album which we were so excited to hear before the album came out, and then a few off of her 2009 album “Lungs”. We were surprised though she didn’t do You’ve Got The Love. We though for sure it would be in the encore! My favourite part of the show was when she was gracefully twirling in circles during one of her songs and then turned around and walked straight into her mic stand. She giggled. It was adorable. I love her. Here’s a video from the actual show. She opened with this song; “Only if for a Night” off her new album and a pic.

My new job is going great. I’m loving the work environment and the people. I’m actually making a livable income where I can buy groceries and am actually rewarded…get this…bonuses for doing good work! After two months of working there, I got my first bonus ever from a job on Monday. I thought bonuses were just part of some fairy tale fable and that they weren’t actually real. Like, Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy. I always heard about them, and thought a “bonus” would be something I would like in life, but knew it didn’t actually exist. Boy was I wrong! Did you know some companies ACTUALLY give out EXTRA money when you do a good job?! Shit! Where have I been this whole time?! Oh yeah…..don’t answer that question. Seriously though. I’m finding the digital side of media really interesting. You’d be surprised how much actually goes into getting a tiny little online ad onto a website. 

I’ll be sure to make a special entry at the end of this month to mark my year anniversary of living in fish, chips, cup o’ tea, bad food, worse weather Mary-fuckin’ Poppins LONDON! (Damn I wish I came up with that line myself. Brilliant.) 

Cheers!

xo

Andrea

Prost, big ears! (Err, that doesn’t work as well as it does in English.)

Happy October to everyone! What better way to celebrate than to chug giant beers and wear silly hats with feathers in them while in Germany!

A group of us headed to Munich to celebrate the biggest Oktoberfest party in the world. I expected it to be fun, but fun doesn’t even come close to describing what a great time we all had. It has been decided…this will be an annual trip. I must say, we fit in quite well.

We only went over for three days, which I have to say was the perfect amount of time. I’m not sure my liver could have handled anymore after day three. We left Sunday morning at an ungodly hour in the morning and got into the city around 11 in the morning. We decided to camp while we were there which a lot of people do during this time. Most hotels and hostels are booked up months in advance, and if you’re lucky enough to find a room to stay in, you better be shitting gold from your ass, because hotels up their prices to ridiculous rates during Oktoberfest. Our campsite cost us 20 pounds for two nights and was probably just as good as any run down hostel within the city. The only worry we had about camping at the end of September/beginning of October was the weather. Lucky for us, Germany was experiencing a heat wave and it was around 27 degrees. Hallelujah! I wore shorts and sandals the whole time we were there and even managed to get a sun burn. How does that happen? Anyways. Once we got to the campsite, checked in, and dropped our stuff off we did what anyone would do while at Oktoberfest…drink. The campsite has its only mini beer tent where they served giant steins. I was in beer heaven. I’ve never seen beers so big, so frothy, so yummmmm….I’m drooling just thinking about them. I needed two hands to even lift the stein it was so big. We downed a couple of those in record time and decided to head into where the festivities were taking place. We hopped on the train near the campsite and attempted to figure out what the f any of the signs said. We soon realized none of us were capable of speaking, reading or understanding the German language so we gave up trying to understand where we were or where we were to get off. Luckily during Oktoberfest everyone is dressed in either a leiderhosen or a bavaria dress, so the train was packed with people is these get ups. I was mainly jealous that I wasn’t wearing one of these drinking costumes (or as the German’s call them “traditional/historical German wardrobe”…yeah okay…who are you kidding?), but thankful they were all there because we just got off at whatever stop they did. Seemed to work as we ended up finding thousands of drunken Heidi’s and Axel’s packing the streets of Munich drunk off their tits, including the police. They had a party van going! It was incredible! We decided we were in the right spot and headed for the nearest tent. We walked into the first tent we found which was packed with with thousands of people. I’ve never been in a beer tent quite like that. They had a band playing and most people were standing on the tables singing, dancing and chugging back steins of delicious beer. We realized the only way to get served in these tents was that you had to be sitting at a table. It’s normally easy to find a spot if there’s only two or three of you. You can normally just squeeze into someone else’s table, they’re far too drunk to notice anyway. We however were a group of six and thought it would be impossible to get a table to fit us all. We thankfully met a drunken German guy with a mullet who couldn’t see straight and was sitting alone. He kindly invited us to sit with him. Here we sat for a good six hours doing nothing but guzzling beer, singing the modern rock songs the band was playing with their Oom-pah twist on them, and dancing on tables. Our livers didn’t stand a chance after this. Day two essentially the same scenario. Wake up, eat a breakfast bratwurst and wash it down with your first beer of the day, which always goes down the best. Head into the city, find a tent and sit there for the majority of the day experiencing the German culture. I actually thought for a second “is Germany like this all the time?!” I quickly answered my own question with the only logistic answer “Andrea, you’re drunk.”. Day two though, we bought hats. Hats with feathers. I am telling you, wearing a hat with a feather in it really boosts the drinking experience. It’s like you feel at one with the hat, in turn making you feel at one with the beer. It really is a spiritual experience that I just can’t explain to someone who hasn’t worn a German hat with a feather while drinking beer. It will change your life. To be completely honest, I don’t remember a whole lot after waking up on day two. I know we ate giant gherkin pickles from a bucket, ate a freshly cooked chicken that was delicious, joined an Italian stag party, watched a girl turn down her boyfriend’s marriage proposal in the middle of a beer tent for the sole reason that he proposed to her at Oktoberfest, and rubbed a fat cowboys belly. Seriously, all these things happened. It was wild. I think the rest of the evening involved our drunken group going on carnival rides, which may I add is never a good idea after you’ve had approximately 15 beers throughout the day (I have no idea how those stayed down…) and eating strange and delicious carnival food. By our third day, and the day we were going home, we figured since our flight didn’t leave until 9 o’clock that night that the only reasonable thing to do would be to…drink. Instead of heading to the beer tents though, we figured it would be easier just to find a nice pub somewhere we could set up camp for the day since we had all of our luggage with us. We found an outside table at a little pub in the city where we were soon kicked out of for burping. Yes. Burping. Apparently the Germans don’t take kindly to burping. It’s just as bad as farting loudly or even whipping out your genitals onto someone’s table. They find it disgusting and “get the hell out of my bar” worthy. Can I just proudly add…it was yours truly who let out the alleged “disgusting” burp. Please. Do you know where I’m from? Burping is like a mating call in Canada. We found another pub close by where we were very assertive when it came to any bodily gasses we may have been experiencing. We sat there the whole day and finally headed to the airport where we literally just made our flight. If our flight hadn’t been delayed by 20 minutes we would not have made it back to London that night. This is where drinking can become your enemy. It’s all warm and fuzzy and acts like your best friend, until you’ve got somewhere to be. That’s when it turns on you! Anyhow…my voice was completely raw at this point. Amy’s as well. We both attempted at conversation at the airport which sounded more like two people scratching on chalkboards and us mostly trying to say “What did you just say?!” to each other but not being able to. We got nowhere and then probably smoked three more cigarettes.  

In all seriousness though, everyone should go to Munich at least once for Oktoberfest. It was an absolute blast. Everyone is just there to have a good time. The people are friendly, the music is good and the atmosphere is just really happy in general. You won’t stop smiling and laughing the entire time. It’s almost like I want to say…”It’s not all about the beer!” but who am I kidding. Most of it is. If not all. 

Another update on London life coming this week. I promise! And I promise every sentence won’t include something about beer. Okay, who am I kidding. Most of it will. If not all.

xo

Andrea 

Goodbye Summer, not that I really knew you…

A chill is in the air, the leather jacket has made an appearance, and I can feel the bone chilling cold coming on. Fall is here in London and to be honest, it actually feels a lot like summer, this past summer anyhow.

So we had shitty weather in London this summer, okay, okay, fine. I’ll give Toronto one point. Yes the weather back in Toronto was immaculate this year from what I hear. Big whoop. You just wait. You’ve got snow, slush, strong winds and a dry cold coming your way for the next six months that is bound to tear apart your beautiful tanned skin you worked oh so hard on at the beach this summer. Me on the other hand, well, I’ll still be stomping around in my wellys and a light rain jacket, kinda like I did in the summer. You don’t get the winter blahs or summer blues in London because you never had a summer to begin with! I’m already prepared for winter! Are YOU?!

Okay, so besides the lack of sun and me sometimes being able to see my breath at night in July (guh) my summer has been amazing. London really is one of those places that seven days of damp cloudy weather is worth one beautiful sunny day. It’s the sunny days where you really take advantage of your surroundings in this amazing city, and I made sure to do that as much as I could over the last three months. I didn’t go on many excursions this summer because I felt like summer was the perfect time to be able to explore the city, and some surrounding areas in England.

I’m a sucker for a good market, and London has a ga-jillion of them. Okay, maybe not that many, but there are tons, and they all beat Kensington Market by a long shot. Brick Lane, Spittafields, Stables Market, Portobello, Borough Market (My fave!), Columbian Flower Market…I could go on and on. I spent a lot of time wandering around these markets, mainly exploring the different shops and people watching. Any market is a great time waster. I wonder how vibrant they are in the winter time. We shall see….

No summer is complete without a weekend camping trip, and I managed to squeeze one of those in as well. Me and a few friends of mine headed to the South Coast of England to Swanage for a weekend camp trip. Thankfully the weather was decent. Rained a little bit (not surprised…) but was nice and warm for the rest of it. Swanage is where I experienced my first Ploughmans and I got to watch Amy’s boyfriend Alex almost die from eating a whole Habarnero Pepper causing him to vomit and experience an intense nose bleed. Those two reasons alone made up for an amazing weekend of camping.

One of my favourite Friday evenings was a boat party on the Thames River! My boyfriend Dave’s Ozzie friend decided to have his birthday party on a boat and I legitimately got to say “I’m on a boat m’fer and I’m going real fast.” We weren’t going real fast….but I WAS on a boat so it was half true. Anyways. It was a ton of fun. It was a really nice warm night out with no rain (for once!) and we got to see all the London sights at night going up and down the river whilst doing shots of Jaeger and guzzling beer. Does it get anymore perfect than that? We attempted to get some nice photos of us in front of Tower Bridge because it looked so pretty at night, however, I think at that point the jaeger had kicked in and about half of our faces were in there and neither one of us were able to have both eyes open in any photo. Oh well. I’ll always remember it…

As some of you know, I was absolutely gutted that I didn’t get Glastonbury tickets for this year. Such a kick in the gut. Especially since they’re not having it next year, so I’ll have to wait until 2013 if I want to go. That’s fine. If there is one reason that will keep me in England for a couple more years, that’s it. Anyways, my friend Trevor from Toronto heard about my disappointment and informed me that he would be doing sound for DFA1979 at Reading Festival in August. So being the super rad guy he is, he hooked me and Dave up with passes for the Sunday show. Despite forgetting my bank card that day, Dave not being able to find a pair of Wellys anywhere because they were sold out and his gigantic man feet, and our £170 cab ride back to London that night (don’t ask…) it was an absolutely amazing day! The grounds were really wet, but the weather cooperated. First set I caught was Bedouin Soundclash. I know what you’re saying…why would you see them? You’ve probably seen them play a million times. Yes, yes I have. It was completely unintentional though. They just so happened to be playing the stage we were standing next to when we arrived. Still a reasonably good show though even though I’m not a super fan. It’s always cool to see some Canadiana rep’ing the UK! DFA was amazing as usual, Muse was tolerable (I’m not a huge fan, but the show was actually pretty spectacular), Interpol were mind blowing, Flogging Molly was drunken, and The Streets….my god….The Streets. I think I can die happy now that I’ve seen Mike Skinner live. He is wonderful. I think that’s the most fun I’ve ever had watching any artist live. Guh. Don’t get me started on how amazing he was, I could go on for hours. Amazing day though. Like, really amazing. I unfortunately didn’t get to hang out with Trev at all while he was there because of their tight tour schedule, but he was my festival savior this year and probably has the coolest job in the world. Jelly.

By the end of August the weather had just given up and we had a good three weeks of rain straight, so we pretty much assumed summer was over. But THEN September came around and holy hell! WHERE did this weather come from?! My parents came over here for a visit and I’m convinced they brought it with them. I told them to be prepared for shitty, wet, miserable weather when they came and sure enough, the day they arrived I think it was about 29 degrees with no cloud in sight. Thank god for that, because I played tourist while they were here. I took them around London to see the typical stuff, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, London Eye and of course the pubs. We took a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath, and then spent the rest of the visit catching up, celebrating my Birthday (Erk I’m 26 now!) and drinking pints. Nice visit and yes, Mom cried when they left. Typical Mom. Haha.

Now that we’re at the end of September, I’m a little bit scared of winter coming! You can feel it coming with the weather getting cooler and the air even damper, but I’m excited because I’ve got a few plans in the works. I’m currently planning on spending Christmas over in Thailand. One of my dearest friends in the whole wide world, Maryann, recently moved over to Korea with her boyfriend Migs. So we decided to meet in Thailand over the holidays. It’s still in planning as of now, but I couldn’t be more excited. A) To go to Thailand and B) To see Maryann and Migs. Christmas in Thailand. Has a nice ring to it. We’ve been trying to plan this together over Skype but with the time difference between the two of us, usually one of us is already drunk and one of us is just getting up in the morning for work. Our conversations just never work. We’ll figure this out somehow…

What IS set in stone though is my Oktoberfest excursion to Munich this weekend! Holy crap. I think this might be the most excited I’ve been for any mini holiday I’ve taken since being over here. Amy and I decided back in May that we must go to Germany for Oktoberfest. It just wouldn’t make sense if the two of us were not there. The German’s would worry. So a small group of us are heading there on Sunday morning to partake in drinking beer and…..drinking beer…and like….other…cultural stuff too. Promise.*cough cough*. I’m buying a wench costume this weekend….just sayin’…

That’s it, that’s all. All I’ve got left to say is Ziggy Zaggy Ziggy Zaggy, Oi Oi Oi!!

Andrea

xo

Two months, too long!

I really am shit. I meant to update my blog as soon as I got back from Marrakech in June and ummm…..that was over two months ago. Here I am in the middle of August and so much has happened yet I haven’t shared a word of it. Consider that to be because I have been a busy, busy bee over here in London! I must say, I am barely home or even around my laptop, which is a good thing. I’m enjoying every second here in London and I think in the last couple months, things have fallen into place. I’m very happy here and couldn’t imagine going back to Canada anytime soon. SO let’s begin with Morroco…..

I went to Morroco back in June for four days. I’ve always wanted to go and flights were dirt cheap. Although I enjoyed my time there, I don’t think I would ever go there again alone. At no point did I ever feel unsafe, but the cat-calling and oogling of all the men constantly really does get to you after awhile. I felt exhausted after only about an hour wandering the sooks and paths alone. Luckily I met some nice guys in my hostel that took me out while I was there, so the whistles and comments died down quite a bit when they saw me accompanied by men. The most common names the local men had for me included, “Chicken White”, “Spice Girl” and my favourite, “Shakira, Shakira”. 

My second day there I went on an overnight desert camping trip which was amazing. Youssef and Muhammed (My favourite people ever!) drove me and two others up the Atlas Mountains where we stopped many times on the way for photos, mini hikes through the villages, and food. After about eight hours we got to the desert where we had to finish the trek via camel. There were two Nomads (villagers) waiting for us to take us on the two hour journey…which they walked the whole way. The first 10 minutes of the camel ride was fun, but then it just got uncomfortable and my ass went numb. Not for me. It started raining as well, and was incredibly windy with sand flying into my mouth and eyes. I was an idiot and didn’t think to bring a scarf with me. Lesson learned. When we got there we had a nice dinner that the Nomads prepared for us and then later on in the evening had a campfire where they played music until the wee hours in the morning. We slept for about three hours (not much sleeping was done considering my fear of the giant beetles that were EVERYWHERE in the tent. I had to get Youssef and Muhammed to check my tent for them before I went to sleep!). We woke up around 6 am to watch the sunrise which was probably the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life! Was really beautiful. We sat on the sand dunes for about an hour and a half to see the whole thing and couldn’t take our eyes off of it. I eventually had to go to the tent thought to get my sunglasses, otherwise I would have been blind! Afterwards we had a quick breakfast and coffee and made our way back to the camels and headed back into the village where we were picked up and driven back into Marrakech. I spent the next two days bargaining with 12 year old sook keepers, drinking orange juice, eating delicious Morrocan food, smoking hookah, and observing the craziness of snake charmers, acrobats and fire swallowers that they had in the square at night. It was a wild wild place to be!

Once I got back into London it was back to work. I was really, really hating my job at that point so decided it was time to find another one. I managed to get an interview at a few digital media companies and luckily landed one where I started yesterday. There’s a lot to learn, but so far, I love it. The atmosphere is really laid back, which I missed from working at Corus for five years in Toronto. I went from wearing jeans, chuck taylor trainers and band t-shirts to work everyday (the wardorbe of any radio employee!) to wearing trousers and blazers, with the exception of Fridays. Bleh. The corporate life is not for me. I can’t do business smart. I just can’t. I can’t look at a guy wearing a three piece suit and take him seriously. Isn’t that the point of a suit? So people take them seriously? It really has the opposite effect on me. You can’t define a single person in a crowd of suits. They all look the bloody same! So why the hell are you going to trust that guy in the black suit versus that guy in the dark navy blue suit with your money?Now, the guy wearing the Wilco t-shirt, well, you can tell a LOT about that guy! He has good taste in music, and I’d give him every penny in my bank account. Alright…I’m going off on a tangent. Anyways…I can’t work a job where they tell me what I’m allowed and not allowed to wear. Bite me. I wore jeans to work today, and it was literally a sigh of relief. I am so much more relaxed at my new job, not just because of the clothes we’re allowed to wear, but I think everyone there is a lot more relaxed that it rubs off on everyone. It’s not manic with phones ringing off the hook, people yelling at their computers and e-mails flying into your inbox at the speed of light. Maybe they do things differently here and the manic is just quieter or handled in a different way, but whatever the case, it’s a peaceful quiet in the office that you can tell everyone enjoys. There’s no hierarchy either. The guy on top doesn’t see the little guy on the bottom. He just sees another guy in the office that works there with a different job. Everyone treats everyone with respect and includes them in everything that goes on within the company no matter what their job, or who they are. I’ve always hated that in some places. You come into a company as a support role and get spit on by the people above you. You want to do a good job and want to move up within a company, but then see what an asshole the place will turn you into so say f*ck it, shut up, and just do what’s asked of you until you can find another job. I never want to be a schmuck no matter how well I do in the media industry. And if I ever do, I give permission to anyone reading this to club me over the head with a baseball bat so I become a vegetable and can no longer do evil to the little guys starting out in the wicked and cold world that is media! Oh, and on a side note, no one gives a f*ck that you work in media. That message is for anyone that thinks anyone does. They don’t. ANYHOW….

Besides that I’ve just been enjoying as much of summer as I can in London, which isn’t a whole lot. The weather has been pretty shit for the most part. Cold, rainy, the occasional tease of sunshine and then a big dark cloud to ruin your nice park day out. Nah, it hasn’t been that bad. There have been a few really nice days here too that I’ve taken advantage of. Mostly sitting in Clapham Common, wandering Brick Lane or enjoying outside pints in Camden. London really is lovely sun or no sun. There’s always something to do. 

I’ve got a few other things going on that are exciting and making me very, very happy that don’t need to be discussed on a blog, but yes, things are very good over here and I’m looking forward to many more travel adventures and will hopefully be much better at updating this silly thing. Up next on my plate, Oktoberfest in Munich. Oooooh snap….where’s my lederhosen?

Andrea

xo