March in London

My 4-week stint in London has gotten off to a good start. I arrived last Sunday and will be working out of our London office until the beginning of April. I’m helping out on the brand I work on and get to spend some time in Britain while I do it! This post contains the highlights from the past week. Fun times.

Day 1

I had a pretty smooth trip from my apt in Queens to my temporary apt in Camden Sunday morning. Now with any red eye flight, I didn’t get much sleep. The only way to try to attempt to get over jet lag is to stay up. So that was my mission on Sunday and boy did I stay up. I arrived, checked out the apt, unpacked a little bit and dug out my running clothes. I decided to wake up a bit by going on a 4.5 mile run to Regent’s Park and up Primrose Hill. Now since I ran 9 miles the day before, trying to conquer Primrose Hill may not have been the best idea, but the view was amazing (in it’s typical London dreariness).

After a quick shower, my friend (and coworker) Leia and I wandered around Camden Town to check out the markets, and eventually made ourselves to an English pub. We quickly learned that American girls are a novelty and we may get more attention than we expected. Well if Prince William (or Harry) comes along, I’m fine with that.

After a couple of pints, we decided we needed to stock our temporary kitchens with wine and sustenance. We headed to Sainsbury’s and wandered up and down the aisles to familiarize ourselves with British grocery brands (I was keeping an eye for the McVities caramel digestives). Good thing we didn’t stay at the pub for a couple more pints—apparently grocery stores in London close by 5:30 on Sundays. 5:30?! A fact that I will have to remember on errand Sunday.

Day 2

Monday was my first day in the London office for the month. It’s in a prime location near Covent Garden (next to the Lego building). Good spot to wonder around at lunchtime. When I have time, which I did have that day. Luckily the weather was nice. Not only was the sun shining in my window, I have a great view of the gym’s swimming pool. This pool is outdoors and it’s March. And yet somehow there are people swimming in it, without wetsuits. My only guess is that it must be heated. Why else would you jump into an outdoor pool during the winter in London?

After a longer day than I had hoped, I prepared to leave the office. Well apparently the front doors are locked by 9pm and I had to exit via the car park. Well that was interesting. I was hoping the British doorman wasn’t going to kidnap me as he led me on a long journey through the depths of the building. We passed some rat traps, and I left by the huge sliding door. I hope the front door gets fixed soon…

Day 3

You know that scene in Love Actually where the sandwich guy comes into an office and tries to pick up a girl? Well that didn’t happen to me, but the sandwich guys exist! He came in and dropped off a bunch of sandwiches that people had ordered. Next thing I know, this guy is going to make his way to Wisconsin with the intention of meeting hot, American girls.

We had another sunny day! So I wandered around Covent Garden and made my way to Nike. Of course I inquired about a running group and sure enough there is one! I will hopefully make it to one of the weekly runs this month.

After lunch, I realized that I was still jet-lagged. Wanna know why? I noticed my shirt was on backwards. Yup. My shirt was on backwards for most of the day. Awesome.

Day 4

Another day at work. Woop woop. The usual, except a group of us went out to dinner out at Christopher’s in Covent Garden that evening. I started off with a delicious Thai Spicy martini and had some yummy halibut and spinach. Portions were definitely smaller than in the States (or America?). I was still a bit hungry; luckily dessert came.

Day 5

I went for another run on Thursday and got my first British cat call. Now I was listening to my shuffle, so I didn’t quite hear what the guy in the bright yellow jacket and funny looking vehicle yelled. But I’ll assume he was cheering on my awesome running form.

Now my apt is equipped with a nice TV (nicer than the one I have back in Queens). It’s large (I have no idea what inch), flat-screen LG. A great TV to watch shows on, right? Except it looks as if I only get one channel—BBC One. Yeah, so that’s the only station I’ve been watching. Luckily I get the news and some humorous British shows.

Day 6

Friday finally came. It was kind of a long week, especially being jet lagged. Our London co-workers welcomed the Americans in the office by going out to a British pub nearby. Typical American fashion, we were late to our own party since we were busy at work. During this month, I will be doing my best to adopt the British working habits. We did have a couple of pints before last call. However, last call wasn’t at 4am, it was at 11pm. Yeah, 11pm! I guess this is intended so people don’t get ridiculously wasted and get in trouble. The Brits have a habit of doing that.

Day 7

Leia and I decided to check out Notting Hill with our boss. However, we didn’t actually see much of the neighborhood. We headed The Ladbroke Arms and proceeded to have a 4-hour lunch. We were entertained by the stories of our boss and her friend. After a few bottles of wine, we made our way back to our apt. We made dinner plans and then headed to Islington, a fun, young neighborhood. Lots of restaurants and bars. Good spot to hang out I’m thinking.

This was a lot to read, but a lot of new and different things happened this past week. As I go into week 2, I have to figure out how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit.