Tag: Planning

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And the official freakout begins… NOW.

I think it’s safe to say that my official freakout over moving has begun. I’m trying to rationalize that all of the things I’m freaking out about aren’t as catastrophic as I’ve made them out to be in my head, but my right and left brain are not finding any common ground. Current freakouts include:

Money

I know, I know. Who isn’t freaking out about money. This is the first summer since I was 15 that I haven’t been working 40+ hours a week. In fact, I’m working no hours a week, as I don’t have a job! Or, I should say, I have a job that has no hours. Same difference at the moment. My place of employment for the past 5 years went under, leaving me with a decision at the end of classes late last month: Find a job for 6 weeks, or travel. At the time travel won out, but I am regretting that decision a little bit at the moment. My trip was fantastic, but chewed up most of the savings I had put away. But, realistically, it would have taken me a couple weeks to find a job once I got home, and I would be handing in my 2 weeks notice right now. This leads in to my 2nd freakout…

Finding A Job in the UK

“What?! You don’t have a job in the UK before moving?!” Yes, this is very true. But, in my defense, my rational is that my choices were to find a min. wage job in Niagara and be paying a fortune in car insurance, payments, rent, etc, all the while not being anywhere near where I want to be finding my career. Or, I can move to London, find a min. wage job right away, work as much as I can while living very cheaply w/ friend before finding an apartment and the whole time be actively looking for a job in the city where I’m residing. Might be crazy, but I’m hopeful that it will work out. My main concern in finding an internship, but as I’ve already gotten offers that I couldn’t take because of my current location, I’m hoping my odds of finding something will be even better once I’m there! Right? Sure, why not.

And as for finding something right away – I have been applying, have friends asking around about openings, and have access to the SWAP working holiday employment program. I’m still completely freaked out, but I feel that I might be okay in the end.

Getting There

Going back to point number one – I have no money. And getting to London can be very expensive. Thankfully Air Transat has these fantastic seat sales where you can get a one-way ticket for $2. It requires a great deal of patience though, which is not my strong suit. I’m holding on though! My visa starts in 18 days, and their website sales section is slowly getting closer to my departure date. Just have to keep my fingers crossed on this one, as it’s really pure luck at the moment.

If not seat sale? Well, I’ll be shoving $900 on to my Visa card and figuring out how to pay it of later… Always a brilliant plan!

OMG WE’RE HAVING A FIRE sale

I need to sell my car. And my couch. And I need to donate or throw out about 3/4 of everything I own because I can’t bring it with me, or keep it here. In summation: My inner hoarder is losing it’s shit right now.

My Awkwardness

I’m awkward. Like, painfully so. If you know me, you know this. I’m okay with it about 99% of the time. However, this is the 1%.

Some wonderful friends have offered me immediate shelter and eventual flatmate status, and my brain is freaking out that when I get there no one will like me, and people will revoke said offers because I’ll turn out to be a pain to live with, and I’ll wind up homeless and broke and having a panic attack in the rain in the middle of Trafalgar Square with all my possessions. Slight overreaction? Of course. But, it’s my immediate assumption, so there you go.

Rational brain is saying it’ll be fine, even if we don’t get along swimmingly, things can be easily worked through, blah, blah, blah. I know. But, I’m awkward and crazy and don’t see the world the way I should.

Missing Home

I’m going to miss home. But, this is the sacrifice one makes when deciding to move halfway around the world. You leave family, friends, and familiarity. It sucks. But you do it in the hopes that the trade off will be worth it. You lose a lot, but you hopefully gain a lot in return. I’m hoping to spend the next few weeks spending as much time with family, friends, and Tim Horton’s as possible ; )

And thankfully the wonders of technology make separation less difficult. Skype, FaceTime, free international calling, and social media leave the ones you love closer than ever. It’s not the same, of course, but it’s still pretty awesome. Now, we just have to help my mom find that darn “Answer” button on her Skype!

The Gamble

At the end of the day, this is a total gamble. Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. But, I know that if I don’t try, I’ll regret it forever. And maybe, just maybe, all the pieces will fall in to place. Bring it, London.

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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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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.