My first week in London

I'm already thinking about New Years resolutions, and two of them are:
- putting more effort into this blog
- try to keep a diary of my life in London
So this a first attempt to kill those two birds in one stone.

I already tried keeping a diary in Oxford, but I failed and only wrote some stuff on several days (never posted any of it), so hopefully I'll have more success this time.


So... I already finished my first week in London, damn, how time is passing quick.
When I came here last saturday I didn't really know what to feel, about my situation, my hostfamily, my 'new' life, so the only thing felt was 'lost' and a bit confused. Now I feel much more at home.
My hostfamily, house and especially my room are quite nice. I found it hard to 'judge' the family, as I realized I was so used to my comfortable situation in Oxford and the family there - i could basically do whatever i wanted and had a sortoff friendship relationship with the mother -, that I couldn't put things in perspective anymore. I found it really hard not to compare them to my hostfamily in Oxford, and they would in no way measure up to them. Nonetheless, they are nice people and I could've ended up at worse places.

My house is in a nice street in Kenton/Kingsbury about an hour from the centre, in zone 4, past Wembley stadium. It's quite far from the centre,which is a bit dissapointing, but hopefully I can adapt to that... (and if I don't I'll have to move) The nearest tube station (Kingsbury) is a 15 minute walk and there are 2 other tube stations in the area. Unfortunately Kingsbury station is closed on the weekend, due to improvement work (2012 Olympics, etc), so if I want to go out on the weekend I have to take the bus to Kenton station. The tubes also stop going between 12 and 1, so if I go out or to gigs or something, I should really keep that in mind... no all night parties, I'm afraid.
My room is quite big and I finally have a desk (and an uncomfy chair though), which is nice. Here's some pictures [as you can see I alreay managed to make quite a mess]:



I live with 5 people in the house now, the hostparents, hostbrother and sister (16 and 22-year olds) and another student, a Swiss girl called Lucie. She goes to the same school, has been here 2 months and is leaving in April. I haven't seen the hostsister and the other student much though, as I've been out most of the week.

I've spend most of the week exploring London, collecting luggage, buying concert tickets, going to some instores and taking care of some bureaucratic (school) stuff.

On monday I visited the school, it took me hours to find it, as it was not actually in Covent Garden (where I made the terrible mistake of taking the stairs at the station - about 200 steps - and nearly had a heart attack when I reached the top), but across the street from the Holborn station. Note to self: never rely on your intuition only, always take a map as back up. The school seemed quite nice. I've been trying to apply for a student oyster card, which took some effort (i've been sent back and forth to tube stations, post offices etc), but at the end of the week I managed to get the answer: 'you'll receive your student oyster card in 2 or 3 weeks'.
I also sorted out something with the director of studies about what i'll be doing in London. I'll start in higher advanced/profiency class at the Covent Garden school and take IELTS-elective classes. When there's space in the IELTS class at Leicester Square, I'll transfer to that school. And for the time left, I'll just have to wait and see what the options are going to be. Was a bit dissapointed though, when I didn't hear back from my tutor in Oxford, as he promised.

I've been to a friends house in London to pick up some luggage and later back to Oxford to pick up more luggage there and say goodbye to the hostfamily. When I came back from Oxford in the evening, it had started snowing and I had to pull my suitcase through 8 centimetres of snow, which was not very fun.
It has been very cold since I arrived in London, well it is winter after all, and it has also been snowing a bit. Not much snow in the centre though, probably good as else it might cause problems with the tube.



I've also been exploring Camden, East London and Brick Lane, the spots where all the 'London hipsters' hang out. Found some really cool stores and markets and had some nice conversations, one with an old stinking guy in a vintage camera store, about analogue photography and also one in an Episode store in Camden, where I found out - after noticing a picture of the Dutch crownprince behind the counter - Episode is actually a Dutch company. Strolling around in London makes me feel really good, I feel very much at home in the city itself, too bad I don't live closer to the centre. I also love tubing already: I mean what is more enjoyable than watching a 4 year old girl doing a pole dance act? Or watching a man next to you play tetris on his mobile phone? Also managed to trick a group of Brabanders (dutch people from the south of the country) into a state of confusion, by saying they were going the wrong way/were on the wrong tube line. It was funny. Evil, but funny.

Buying concert tickets turned out to be a real pain in the arse, atleast without a credit card. I can't buy tickets online, so have to go by all the box offices, and some gigs don't do box office sales, which is fuckin great -.- It gets even worse when newbies fuck up your ticket/don't provide you enought information and you have to go back all the way to sort it out. This week I spent almost 200 pounds on concert tickets for the next year, so I should really stop for now...

I saw Slow Club at Pure Groove Records on the 15th (PGR are having some sort of christmas festival instores) and 3 days later I saw Bombay Bicycle Club (acoustic). BBC was quite short, since they were afraid to miss their gig at Koko, but it was OK. Slow Club was awesome and Charles from the band came up with a funny quote: 'Yesterday I had a ginger ale and it was called 'ginger tosser'... It had a picture of Mick Hucknall on it...'.

So, what's next, with the first week London gone? Well, tonight I'm meeting up with my parents & brother at a hotel in Victoria. They're going to be here for a 4-day holiday, which should be quite nice :) The 24th we're flying back to the Netherlands for Christmas. I'm looking forward to meeting my friends again. And I get a chance to dump all my bought stuff and sleep in my own bed for a few nights...
The 30th I'm flying back to London, so I can spend New Years in London. Before my school starts I also want to do some photography in London, I'll have a few days for that I think, since my school starts the 4th.

I'll be back on my blog, in the Netherlands in a couple of days. (i'll do another disposable camera post today. should also really catch up on my digital photography work from oxford, still have to work on pictures from november 0.0)

The week that was...

Not really a special week I suppose, worked my ass off pretty much. Monday and wednesday morning cleaning old people's houses again, monday I had to work at the trailerpark again, the freaky 49 year old son came over again, he didn't say a word, just grabbed some coffee and just started watchin some tv with coffee and cigarettes. After 15 minutes he left and the whole time he was at his mom's trailer he didnt say a word, not even to her... The lady told me he goes to bed late sometimes because he sits at the computer all night, so I'm actually suspecting he watches porn all night, has a wank and then he falls asleep...

Thursday I had to do a very annoying computer job at the insurance office, where I temp once in while. After work there was a barbeque party... Well I went there and I can say I haven't felt quite so awkward in a while as I felt at that moment..... I felt really out of place there between all those men in suits... I just wanted to fade to the background or disappear in the walls.... You also had to fight for a piece of food, because there wasn't much of it, apparently....

Friday was really exhausting, in the morning I had to clean a house again and when I came home I had to sort out a lot of mail and then deliver it, I had not just my own postround, but another one as well, so a double shift... there was a lot of wind outside and when I came home I was really tired.
And then I also had to go see White Denim at Rotown, in Rotterdam. Well, I already had my ticket and I didn't want to miss them. But then I had the WORST night of public transportation ever. First I missed my bus, so I had to take another one half an hour later, who went to a different part of Rotterdam, that wasn't much of a problem, I just had to change lines while I was at a certain subwaystation. Well, there were some technical problems at a station on the erasmusline, so I had to travel the other way, and then change lines there, and from there it was like 10 stops to the station where i was supposed to get out... It was horrific. But thank god I made it just in time, I was inside for a minute or two and then White Denim started playing. It was alright, but all in all, it took me longer to get to the place, than the band performed, which seems a bit of a waste to me. But the gig was alright and I had a nice night of music, but I probably would've felt better about it if I wasn't so tired already, and the whole public transportation thing also got in my nerves. Thank god I could sleep it all off the next day!

And then Torchwood season 3 wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. As a series it was really, really good, it turned out a perfect drama, the plotline was really good, there were no major loose ends or anything, there was a lot of action, angst, drama, crying and laughter.
But as I am also a 'fangirl' of this show, who especially loves the Jack/Ianto relationship, they couldn't have made it more terrible. In the first few episodes, the Jack/Ianto action was really good, but the writers broke my heart when they killed off Ianto - my favourite character - in the 4th episode. I cried my eyes out. Also, after watching the 5th/last episode, it seems likely that this is the end of Torchwood. Jack is gone, and there are no team members left, but a pregnant Gwen. I don't think I'm gonna watch next season unless they bring Ianto back or something, but like I said, after seeing how this season ended, it seems unlikely there is gonna be another season...

There are however a few options, like, how I imagine they could do it if they would;
- A torchwood season set between series 2 and 3, when there was still Ianto, Jack and Gwen.
- A torchwood season set in the past, long before the team we know existed.
- Just a series about Jack, like not even set on Earth, but maybe like how he lives his life out in other times and spaces.
- A season set on earth, where Jack is with a brand new team.

But still, it was horrible enough when they killed off both Tosh and Owen in season 2, but now Ianto aswell... that's just being cruel. Mostly being cruel towards the fans, especially because they said Jack/Ianto-fans wouldn't be disappointed for series 3, how can that be, when they KILL Ianto? :(

The week that was...

I had a good week at work, I work for an organisation which provides help for old people. I work in cleaning, and I have to clean old peoples houses. Not the best job in the world ofcourse, and it isn't that well paid, but while you're busy doing it, it's quite alright and if the people are nice it's pretty satisfying.
This week was good, cause I'm finally starting to get way around when I'm at the houses and this week I also met some really nice people. Monday I had to work at a trailerpark, I didn't really know what to expect, but the lady in question was really nice and... interesting in a way... but also kinda weird. She told me that her son, some 40 year old single who lives next door, sometimes stays at her house (and I believe he also actually sleeps next to her in her bed, cause there was a sleepingbag next to her on the bed...), so that was a bit freaky, she also had some weird trailer-habits, like I couldn't put the soapy water I used in the sink in the kitchen, but had to flush it down the toilet.... But the lady was quite nice and I'm cleaning there again tomorrow.
On wednesday I met the nicest people ever, I really wanted to adopt them as my grandparents, the man of the house was really adorable and friendly, he wouldn't stop giving me coffee and kept asking if he could something to help out and he wanted to talk the whole time. He just made my day, I left the house with a big smile on my face, and I'm really happy that I clean their house again this wednesday.

Thursday was my graduation at school, so now I'm an official HAVO-graduate. I think I could say I can be proud of myself, since I graduated with honor and I'm very satisfied with my grades:



Fridaynight I went to a movie with Hidde and Desiree at Cinode, which was quite nice.
And yesterday I got a new toy:

I went to buy this laptop with my parents, it was my graduation+(belated)birthday gift. And I'm really happy with it! :)