Category: Planning

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10 things I need to do to survive in London Town

If all goes to plan, two months today (August 21st) will be my first day waking up in the city of London. (UK, not Ontario, which I need to clarify often). It’s come up so fast and so slowly, all at the same time. “Yikes!” it’s the best way I can describe it at this point.

Disclaimer- It’s still not official. My application and passports have been in NYC for weeks now and I’m just waiting for final word. Through this entire process I have been assured that my chances are good, but I still can’t say for sure which way the cards will fall. I’d say I don’t want to get my hopes up, but let’s be honest here- My hopes were up a year ago, the second I decided I wanted to do this!

Anyway, I’m currently trying not to succumb to heat exhaustion, and realized I hadn’t blogged in ages, so here we are!

10 things I need to do/learn to survive living in London:

1. Find a job. I’m poor. Actually, I passed by poor about 5 years ago and can’t even see it anymore. But, such is life after 6 long years of post-secondary, so I’m not going to spend too much time fretting over it. However, I’m also not going to get myself in denial about it! I need to find a job within 2 weeks of arriving to London, and I have every intention of doing so. I’ve been applying like a mad woman, and am h0ping to have something lined up with a temp agency right away. Finger crossed.

2. Become fashionable. I like to imagine that I’m not completely fashion inept, but there’s a good chance I might just be. However, Canada itself tends to be a little fashion inept, so it’s never been an issue. London, however, is not. It’s fashionable, trendy, and my poor little Canadian self will stick out like a sore thumb. Thankfully London seems to also make being fashionable very cheap and accessible, so I hold out hope of this being a possibility. Dear Primark and New Look: I see a great friendship in our futures.

3. Get over my irrational fear of public transit. I have this completely irrational issue with public transit that I’m going to need to get over if I’m to survive in London. It’s not the public transit itself- I can manage on timed things like Coach Canada and GO just fine. It’s the not-so-clear ones like subways and buses and streetcars that get me very anxious. I think I might be okay to handle the Tube and National Rail, but the buses might take some time. But, I think I can handle it! I hope so anyway… Heh.

4. Drink tea. So, I’ve never had tea. Ever. And I feel this may be an issue. I’ll work on it, I promise.

5. Don’t overdue the traveling. One of the amazing things about London is that you can travel to almost anywhere in Europe for next to nothing. As I have a bit of travel addiction, I’m going to need to work on spacing out trips, setting aside money for it, and, generally just remembering that I have 2 years so there’s no need to pack it all in the first 4 months.

6. Learn the slang. Thanks to many of my closest friends being from the UK, I have some slang down. But, I’m sure there’s a hundred more things I’m going to get there are be completely lost on. However, Orla did buy me an Irish slang dictionary for my birthday, so any trips to Belfast are taken care of.

7. See Jedward live. You’re probably asking why this is necessary as a survival technique in London. Well, I suppose in the grand scheme of things it’s technically not, but how on Earth can I spend 24 months there and NOT see Jedward? That’s just unacceptable! As such, it’s on the list. If you don’t like it, tough.

8. Get out to the country whenever possible. London is a big, lively, and sometimes overwhelming city. And the English countryside is only a short drive or train ride away. I feel that short breaks from the craziness of it will be necessary, easy to do, and good for my general mental health. Unless I wind up in that town from Hot Fuzz.

9. Stay in touch. I’ve lived away before, and have friends all over the place, so I know how easy it is to stay in contact. I also know how easy it is to not. So, I need to make sure the former is how it’ll go. If we’re not on each others Skype, that needs to change. I’m also a huge fan of snail mail, so don’t be surprised if your mailbox if constantly being bombarded. I also love getting snail mail, so, keep that in mind… ; )

10. Visitors! You! Yes, you! Come to London! I’ve had so many people tell me that they’ll come to visit, but I know that for many of them it probably won’t happen. I hope to be proved wrong, but I also know that life happens, and money stuff happens, so while I’ll be upset, I completely understand. I will be working and can’t say whether or not I’ll get time off, but you’re welcome to stay and see the city that stole my heart!

So, as you can see, if for some reason my visa is denied, I’m going to be completely heart broken. But, let’s not cross that bridge until we come to it. Which will hopefully be never!

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June

I’m equal parts excited and mortified that it’s June already. This year seems to have flown by! There’s also so much happening in the next few months that I have no doubt it’ll be fall in the blink of an eye.

My post-grad program finishes on the 27th of this month, and the next day Sally flies in for the start of our summer adventure, which will take us to the end of July. At that point I’ll have just a few weeks before heading off to London. And I’m sure those weeks will be quite frantic!

I don’t have an exact date yet for when I’m leaving, but my UK visa will be valid starting on the 16th of August. I don’t want to wait too long after that, as the clock for the expiry date on the visa starts counting down then, and I want to make the most of it! I’m also still anxious about this whole thing, and likely will be until I have the visa in-hand. I received word that my application arrived at the UK consulate in New York City yesterday, at which point I was immediately booked in for an appointment in Toronto. The appointment is on Monday, after which my passport will be sent to the consulate and the visa will, hopefully, be issued!

This has been such a lengthy (and expensive) process, and I’m so glad to be nearing the end of it. Now, if I could just find a job!

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Stationary

I haven’t been able to update this blog in almost 5 months, and that makes me sad. 2010 was such a great year of traveling, but 2011 hasn’t been the same. I did get to New York and Boston, as posted about, but, that was it.

However, I can’t complain. This year has been filled with other important things. The spring and summer were spent working a few different jobs to help pay down some student debt. Two of my closest friends, Kristy and Tara, each got married this year, and I was lucky enough to be in both bridal parties. Tara, and her husband Mike, also welcomed a beautiful daughter, Lily, to the world over the summer. They asked me to be one of her guardians, which was an enormous honour. I’ve been trying to see her whenever possible! And, because she pretty much owns my heart at the moment, I’m going to make you all look at pictures ;)

I also started a grad program in International Development in September, which has ensured a stress filled fall for me! It’s been going really well though. The program is great and I’m finding it to be a great fit. For those of you who know my past experience with school, this is a pretty big deal! The course is a full year, followed by a field placement, which I’m excited about. My dream is to find a placement in London (England) and settle there. However, I’ve learned that long term plans never work out as expected, so, I’m trying to stay open to all possibilities. We’ll see how things unfold over the next 10 months.

I am happy to report that there will be a bit of travel during said 10 months! And I could not be more excited. At the end of the year, for my birthday, I am meeting up with Vi in New York City for a fun-filled few days. Birthday, New Years, Dan Radcliffe- It doesn’t get much better then that!

The big trip is coming up in February though. London. My favourite city in the world. Orla, Aideen and I will be meeting up for a certain someones, certain something birthday. And it’s going to be fantastic. I’m also planning to peruse some development agencies while I’m there, but I won’t hold my breath on getting too far with anything at that point. But, again, you never know!

Anyway, this blog was rather pointless. I can’t sleep, and am bored, so, here we are.

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The Final Countdown

Hello!

Welcome to my new blog! I somehow managed to deactivate my original blog and can’t get it up and running again. Hmph.  So, here we are. New address, new layout, the works. Ah well. Better to happen now than halfway through my trip, right?

Speaking of which: Two weeks to go! I think I’m just about ready. I have everything pre-booked, confirmations are printed, tickets are waiting, money is exchanged. I still need to pack, but no need to get on that one quite yet! Thank goodness. I’m loathing that bit. Six weeks in one backpack? Major stress occurring in just the thought of it!

I’m not sure that I ever posted a finalized itinerary. I may have, but I don’t remember and can not check! Either way, it’s a new blog, so whether or not it’s been posted before is quite irrelevant. Where I’ll be going:

England -> Scotland -> Northern Ireland -> Ireland -> Czech Republic -> Austria -> Germany -> Italy -> Northern Ireland -> Spain -> France -> Sweden -> Finland -> England -> Home

The trip will take 6 weeks and I’m insanely excited!

The next two will weeks are going to be quite hectic, so I don’t imagine I’ll be getting the chance to blog before then. That, and I likely won’t have anything exciting to blog about! Everything is booked, so posting a blog to tell you that I purchased travel insurance doesn’t really seem necessary. Heh.

Anywho, I’ll be leaving on Thursday August 12th, and will land in London on the 13th. Talk to you then!