Christmas Time in London Town

So I suppose y'all would like to know about my Christmas here, eh? Well, it was basically like a week's worth of Christmas.

Most of the singles had left to go back home for Christmas. And since we were fewer in numbers last Sunday we even just had a combined EQ/RS class. After that we were all invited to one guy's flat for dinner. We filled the room but it wasn't overfilled. Played games, ate food, etc.

Tuesday night was another dinner put on by a couple singles living together. It was a good ol' traditional English Christmas dinner, complete with Yorkshire pudding and for dessert was a delicious trifle. Afterwards we played Dirty Santa and other games. As we were leaving the hostess of the party handed out wrapped presents to everyone. She even gave me a couple extra bc she knew I would be having people over for Christmas day.

I had invited anyone who was sticking around to come and stay at my place for Christmas. In my house for 7, I was the only one staying. And the entire transportation system was completely shut down on Christmas Day. So I invited people to come over Christmas Eve and leave the day after Christmas Day (Boxing Day). After I got off work at PJ's on Christmas Eve, I headed home to meet a couple of the girls who would be staying at the house with me. I was expecting a much bigger number, but those were the only ones that came. Everyone else seemed to be sick. We really wanted to go see a Midnight Mass, but since the transportation was to be shut down after midnight the only way to get home would be by taxi - which would be charging a premium. So we decided to just be lazy and watch one on tv. :) We all seemed to get really sleepy really early (shows how interesting the service was), so we were all in bed by 1:00 (separate beds). ;)

We woke up Christmas morning and opened the presents that the girl had given me the other night. If it wasn't for her we all wouldn't have had anything to open on Christmas morning! Except me - I got my soap-on-a-rope. :) But it was really nice of her to do that. It was a stocking filled with random treats in it. And it had a nice little Christmas message from Pres. Monson on a card. There are some generous/creative people in this world! The other day, one of the girls and I had gone to a grocery store to gather up loads of food for Christmas. We planned for a lot more, so we had plenty of leftovers. She was really into the whole feast idea. I was fine with microwavable pizzas, personally. Some people are just more ambitious. But between her and the other girl we had a wonderful meal! And that morning we were joined by another guy in the ward who has a car. So the 4 of us sat down to a great Christmas meal of turkey, lasagna, vegetables, gravy, and sparkling cider (more or less). We had some good plans for the rest of the day - going to a park, going to a church service (since we had access to a car now), going for a walk, etc. None of that happened. We all got way lazy - especially since it gets dark around 3:30 - and we sat and watched tv the entire afternoon/evening. It was wonderful! :) I think we ended up watching 3 movies in all. And among all 4 of us were an American, a South African, an Australian, and an Italian. Not even one Brit in there. How ironic. But it was a wonderful Christmas, and I got to spend it with some really great people.

The next day was Boxing Day. To me it seemed to be identical to our day after Thanksgiving. It was the huge shopping day of the year when everything goes on sale. Most businesses are still closed. And from what one girl told me, it's usually tradition to go on walks that day. I spent the whole day working on a talk. Snappy Snaps was closed but I did go to work at Papa John's in the evening. We were so slow though that they let me go home after just a couple hours. So I at least got my walk in to work and back. :)

Today, since there's still basically no one left in my singles ward, our ward was combined with the family ward in the morning. I think there were about 10, maybe 15, singles there. And I got to be the first speaker followed by the mission pres's wife, then the mission president. It was an interesting situation - I had prepared a rather long talk bc I didn't know what the order of speakers was. While I was speaking I kept my eye on the clock to see how I should narrow it down. I had planned to skip a story and go to an instructional part taken from a general authority talk if time was slim. Well, time was slim but after a moment of hesitation I decided to reverse that idea and share the story instead and just highlight the instructional part. The mission pres's wife got up after me and basically shared the talk that I had gotten that instructional part from. If I had skipped the story like I originally planned, I would've stolen her talk completely. Guess she must've been praying for me not to take her material. :)

Got back after church today with some others - including the ones from Christmas - and cooked up the leftover food we never got around to eating. Communal eating seems to be a very popular thing here!

Job #2

So I got a second job. It's at a place called Snappy Snaps. They develop film and such. One of my housemates saw a sign posted for "Staff Required".

So I went by and gave them my CV. Hadn't heard anything back for a few days so I gave up on it. But I got an e-mail later from the owner asking if I could come in for an interview. I did and we chatted for a bit, mostly about my availability. He wasn't a fan of my limited time here, but since I was the only one who applied who spoke English he took his chances with me.

So both my jobs I got bc I speak English. Who would've thought that would be such a valuable asset?!

I went in yesterday for a "trial day". It was rough! I had no idea there was so much to know and do at a film developing place!!! I basically knew nothing that was going on - like I had no background knowledge in that field. And people were coming in and calling up asking questions about stuff I have no idea. "Can you copy an A4 onto an A3?" Um... what? So it was like a full day of confusion and anxiety. Not a whole lot of fun. I was relieved when the owner sent me downstairs to cut up a giant pile of Christmas cards that someone had ordered. Just me and a cutter. Loved it.

He talked with me afterwards and asked if I'd be interested in coming on. Um... okay. So I've got a day off today, but I go in Friday to really start. This is going to be stress until I figure out what's going on. But what job isn't?

So now I'll be working that job 9-5, then I'll go straight over to Papa John's and work all evening. PJ's isn't even really work to me anymore. It's really easy to me now. So I might as well keep doing it and get paid... and get pizza.

But now I run the dillemma of working TOO much! Who ever would've thought that would've been my problem?! I'm kind of at a crossroads for what I really want to do now. The one I'm leaning towards right now is that I might just keep going with both through the end of January, then quit both and enjoy my last few weeks in February with free time and money to spend. I hope I can last that long though. This Friday, for example, I'll be working Snappy Snaps 9-5 and PJ's 5:30-12. And I think I do the same thing on Saturday too. Sunday will be WONDERFUL!!!

PJ's Update / Christmas Thus Far

I have an ongoing list of things I want to write about, but I keep putting it off and the list keeps getting longer. And since it's only a mental list I know I'll be forgetting things as more things happen. So finally... here's an update.

And the n key seems to have lost sensitivity, so forgive any lack of n's in the text.

PJ's Update
I've been working there like 2 weeks now. It didn't take long to get used to the system. It's really simple though it's really different from what I was used to from before.

I think the guy who owns it knew what he was doing when he hired me. He hired me so I could be the face and the voice for the store since I'm the only one working there whose native tongue is English. I've had SO many conversations with people just based on the fact that I'm American. I've actually received quite a few calls from Americans - probably bc it's a product they're used to. Comfort food. And of course they usually tend to ask about why I'm there. I had one call yesterday who, after she placed the order, said that was the quickest she's ever gotten through an order bc they're usually not able to understand her. I had no problem! It's always such a relief to hear an American accent on the phone.

I get tons of calls from foreigners and it takes a lot of concentration. In fact, just being in the store requires a lot of concentration and simplified speech. The other girl who answers phones with me speaks English very well but there is a limit. Everyone else seems to struggle to some degree. I work with 3 Indians, 5 Brazilians (all the drivers), 1 Egyptian, and 1 Iranian. The Brazilians are all really tall and really laid back. They're always joking around about something. The Indians are always really proper and dignified... and are kinda short. It's fun to see the different cultural differences.

I'm not getting a whole lot of hours there though, so I'm still looking for a 2nd job that I can work during the day time.

Christmas Thus Far
Last week was the annual Christmas party of the house. I was actually at work at the time but got to catch the tail end of it when I got off.

There was a huge feast. There was such a huge variety of food. Someone left me a full plate of leftovers and I had fun just startig from one side of the mountain and slowly moving over to the other side. There was even Yorkshire pudding in the mix.

Decorations were all put up the day of and the night before. One of the girls cut out tons of snowflakes and strung them from the lights in the middle to the 4 corners of the room. And there's a 4-ft Christmas tree with ornaments and lights and strung popcorn that another girl and I made. I remembered doing that when I was a kid! So the room has a very Christmasy feel to it now.

We had a Secret Santa gift exchange. I was assigned the guy whose room I was taking over - the one who just got married yesterday. I got him a box of cards with the title "How to Improve Your Sex Life". I crossed out the "improve" and wrote "start". And they also double as playing cards! He actually had me and got me an American-English translation dictionary. I had fun sitting down with a couple of the housemates and going through some of the words that I never even caught being different.

Once the night settled down there were a few of us Americans left that sat around a laptop and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas. Christmas tiiiiiime is heeeeeere. Man, that brought back so many memories!

That was the party (one of many). Today after church we watched the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional. And after that I was part of the Institute Choir that sang an hour of Christmas songs for the congregatio. We've been working on that for a couple months now. It was so fun to sing in a choir again! There were a few really rough spots, but I think overall it sounded pretty good. Then anyone who wanted to could join the choir to go sing carols on the street to the people passing by. Too bad there was hardly anyone walking by. Maybe they were taking the long way around. I dunno. But we sure had fun singing. :)

Turkey Bowl / Iron Bowl

This has been like a week-long Thanksgiving celebration for me. All the activities normally crammed into one day have been spread across from last Sunday through today (Sat). Sunday was the giant turkey meal. Thursday was, of course, the real holiday as well as a service at St. Paul's Cathedral. And this morning was the Turkey Bowl!

I organized the Turkey Bowl here in hopes that we could get at least enough people to play a game. And we did! It turned out better than when I once tried to organize it in Madison a long time ago when it wasn't a tradition yet and 2 people came. We actually had 9 people playing at one point today! And they were good! Well... not like amazing, but good enough to enjoy a good game of football. One actually was amazing - the one I mentioned from Thursday who has an amazing throw. 6 of the 9 were Americans, the others English. At one point 3 had to leave leaving a good 3 on 3 match. That's like the minimum for a decent game. So I really lucked out that that many people showed up.

We found a spot on a local park to play. There were a ton of kids playing their "European" football. So we had to avoid them and avoid the giant mud patches that were all around. The ground was wet, which made it really hard to play without cleats. But at least we were all at the same disadvantage. It's hard to play football without traction though!

But man, that sure was a lot of fun. And everyone had fun, which always helps. And no injuries! That helps too. I brought my football and pump out with me just for the specific purpose of hosting a Turkey Bowl, and I'm sure glad I did it. Who knows if anyone will host it next year? Only 1 of the 3 English even knew what a Turkey Bowl was - he learned on his mission playing with all the Americans. So at least 2 more have been exposed to the joys of it now.

And this evening at 8:30, I joined 12 others to watch Alabama slaughter Auburn. It was so deliciously sweet. I got a toothache, it was so sweet. 36-0! And half of the 4th quarter was with our 2nd string! We all had scratchy voices by the end of the game bc we had been cheering so much. I can't ever keep up with the enthusiasm of the guys around me after they've downed a few beers, but they sure keep the energy of the game up. I sure wish I could be in Tuscaloosa right now. It's got to be crazy there! And everyone is going to be in a great mood on Sunday at church too. A winning football team always brightens spirits. :)

Thanksgiving Day

I had a unique Thanksgiving Day experience this morning. At 11:00, St. Paul's Cathedral hosted a special Thanksgiving service for the American community in London. It's the 50th year in a row they've done it. There were about 2,500 people there, and all I heard were American accents all around me. I haven't been around so many Americans since I got here! It was a really nice service. The US ambassador was escorted in and even gave little speech. That was kind of neat. There were also a couple Americans who are ministers of local interdenominational churches who gave sermons. And we all sang a few hymns. Luckily 2 of them I actually knew from our own hymnbook. So it was a nice way to celebrate Thanksgiving across the pond. The ushers were, of course, British and one was being a bit too cheesy. He would ask people, "Have you eaten your pumpkin pie yet? (a dish they don't have)" and "Are you ready to go eat your turkey?" I don't know... it just sounded weird. I should've asked him if he was ready to go have a spot of tea.

All week I've been eating a giant pack of Russian dumplings with a friend. She has a kitchen so we always eat together. It's been great for saving money on food, and we've been attacking that giant 2.5 kg bag for the past few days with plenty to spare. But today we celebrated Thanksgiving by eating at Walkabout (an Australian pub) since they have real meals but still semi-cheap. I had the Southern Fried Chicken meal since it at least sounded American - the best I could do for an American holiday. Btw Tammy... I showed my friend the trick about making an energy ball and she flipped out with excitement when she did it.

I brought my football to Insititute so I could practice for Saturday's Turkey Bowl. A couple of the local guys were able to at least get it to another person, and they usually didn't have any problem catching it. So that gives me hope for a productive game. But one guy totally blew me away! Out of nowhere he was throwing perfect spirals and with good aim. Apparently he just likes the sport. Don't know where he picked that one up, but it'll be a big help on Saturday. We got trumped by the volleyball game that everyone else wanted to play, so I joined in that for a bit.

At one point, I left to go join a few other Americans (two from Seattle) to a pub that was showing the Seattle Dallas game. They were losing so bad though, that by the time I got there, they weren't really interested in watching anymore. Can't blame them.

So that was my Thanksgiving Day in London! I sure enjoyed it! I hope everything went smoothly back home. I sure could use a turkey sandwich right now. Yum...

PJ's

This story is best explained with a bit of background...

I had given up completely on ever finding a "real" job, so I had settled my mind on just working at some min wage job. I enjoyed my time with Mom and Tammy and used it as an excuse to delay the efforts of finding that job.

Monday I did a lot of walking. I walked all up and down a street close to the house where I'll be moving into in a couple weeks. I figured it'd be best to find something close. I only found 4 places decent enough to work at, so I stuck my head in but got rejected from all. I quit around the time the food places were starting to get busy. No use going in asking for a job when they're surrounded by customers. So I called it a day after that.

Tuesday I used my knowledge of Monday's events to plan my day more effectively. I went out with particular stores in mind. I went into over 10 different stores including 3 Waterstone's (bookstore). Got rejected by all. A couple were still friendly and accepted my CV. A couple others were sorta rude. By around 3:30 I was tired and annoyed. I ate dinner and hung out with a friend for a couple hours. Then I just relaxed in front of the computer for the evening.

I got up today knowing that it would be more of the same as yesterday. I didn't know a more productive way of doing it. I figured if there was at least a slight percentage of success, then the odds would eventually work in my favor. I started out by calling up a Waterstone's that I had applied to last week. I got to talk to a manager who said they were all staffed, but she was really friendly about it. So that was a semi-good start to the day's adventure. I had on my list a couple of Papa John's nearby. I went to a closer one first. The first the guy asked was if I had experience. Yes! Yes, I do have experience! I may not have experience in all the other jobs that are out there in the world, but I do have experience working at Papa John's! He got my name and number and said he'd pass it to his manager. Also dropped by a Costa (coffee shop) on the same road. He said there aren't openings right now, but people come and go, so he asked for my CV to have for future reference. Then I took a journey over to another Papa John's and got a similar response to the first one but not quite as positive. On my way back from that one, I got a call from the first Papa John's asking if I could come in for an interview at 3:00. A what? An interview? Someone actually called me for an interview?

I went in at 3:00 and chatted with the manager guy who can't be more than 5 yrs older than me. His basic attitude was the job's mine if I want it. All the workers there are foreigners and can struggle with the language at times. He wants me to be the face and voice that the people interact with and feel comfortable with. So I'll be working the phones and helping people that come in. It's the same thing I did when I was 16-17! It's come full circle. I'll only be earning just enough to get by, but that's more than I'm earning now! And he was totally fine with letting me off on Sundays, and even on Thursday nights for Institute.

The place is REALLY small compared to what I'm used to, and some things are a little sketchy. Like I think I'm just getting paid under the table. He had a long and complicated explanation for it (he talked a lot and very loudly), but I think that was the main point. There's only 5 drivers and I'm helping the Indian girl who was the only phone person before (there's only 2 phones). I don't think he even has any other assistant managers or shift leaders. Oh, can I point out one irony here? After Brom has gone to India to teach people there to do his job, I'm here in London being taught by an Indian girl how to do my job. Hmm.

So that's pretty much the scoop. I go in Fri evening for a couple hours of watching/training. Then I'll go in Mon to start work. Should be fun. And maybe I'll get some good food out of it. :)