The Weekend

This weekend, I finally went to a proper pub in Oxford for a beer festival. Those of you who know me know I am not a fan of any beer except Guinness, but I thought I would give it a shot and try some of the local flavor. I am pleased to report that the beers I had tasted were really good~ Unfortunately, I don't know which two I drank (there were 40 different ones), but the night wasn't a complete bust of me pretending to enjoy beer and reluctantly drinking it. 

The place I went was called the Turf Tavern and it is tucked away off of some random street that if it wasn't for this guy, I would have never have found:

Here is the link to the other dazzling pics of this minstrel-slash-sign post. These pictures are during the day, but I went over around 8PM because I was waiting for my long anticipated delivery from Sainsbury (which went fine except the guy who delivered my food was Methusola and I felt really bad watching him carry these huge crates from the truck!). This is one of the alleys I had to walk down to get to this bar:

I thought Jack the Ripper was going to jump out from the shadows at any moment, but then I remembered I was in Oxford in the year 2008, so I was fine. Walking around quiet, dark streets on my own is something I have to get used to. No one would even think to take this way in New York unless they had a death wish!

On Saturday night, I went to a Brazilian BBQ joint down the road from me. It was nice, and the meat was good, but if you have been in the US, the frequency of the meat delivery was not on point. The Brits show such restraint! I remember when I went for my birthday years ago, and we couldn't stop the meat avalanche. 

Not much else to report. I did watch some Mad Men, which I have become hooked on. There is the one episode in season 2 (not a spoiler, really) where there are some British ad execs, and the way they were portrayed was ridiculous! Perhaps back in the 50s British people used to say "CAPITAL! CAPITAL!" all smarmy, but I haven't heard one person say that yet. Should I start saying it? Also, there was this line where one of the Americans says "You can't trust the Brits." I wonder where that comes from? Should I be heeding the sage words of Roger Sterling? Another thing that I thought was funny was their reaction coming back from a trip to the West Coast. It's exactly how I feel about California...too slow, NOT New York. I am glad this is a feeling New Yorkers have passed on for generations.

Things take some getting used to...Part 2

Laundry: I did laundry this past Sunday, starting at 3PM and wasn't done until about 11:30PM. GEEZ. I feel like I could have used a washing board and a blow dryer and would have gotten it done faster. As I mentioned before, the washer and dryer are really small in capacity so I had to wash about 3 loads of clothes. The first cycle I did not put on quick wash, so it literally took a good 2 hours for the entire thing to run. I lost time after about the 6th time I checked to see if it was done. 

This is an accurate depiction of the relative size of my washer.

Prior to this, I was staring at the settings trying to figure out what the hell was going on. In the States, we have the easy settings of Cold, Warm, and Hot, with possibly a setting for delicates and perm press. This was all crazy symbols, temps in celsius, and repeating symbols in different colors. I don't think I can even tell you what I eventually set it on. Then the dryer has another set of crazy settings: Super Intense Dry (which made it sound like my clothes would catch on fire), Cupboard Dry, Damp Dry, Wet Dry (how does this even make sense), and a Why Bother (j/k, but there might has well been). With that, another load of swirly symbols. 

None of these laundry settings were for less than 2 hours, so a thousand years later when I finally could put stuff in the dryer, I just put it to Cupboard Dry. When it was finished and I had grown a full beard, the things were STILL WET. So I put it in again for another century and they were STILL WET. I don't know how laundry even gets done. Most people I have asked this to say they just hang their clothes, but there is literally no space for me to hang stuff because all the banisters in our house are occupied with sheets, sweaters, and whatever else all the English folks in my residence are drying. When I told people this story, their first question was "How much were you washing?" I don't think it was an insane amount, but they all wondered at how many pairs of pants (underwear) I owned that I could go for so long without doing wash. From what I can tell, it seems most English girls own 14 pairs of underwear. At least I hope they do. 

Appliances: To continue with crazy symbols, almost all the major appliances I encounter have wackadoo symbols all over it. You probably thought to use a toaster, you just press the lever down. Nope, I had to choose from 3-4 settings. One was a snowflake, which I couldn't even understand what possibly something referring to cold had to do on a toaster (I did come to find it meant defrost). I went to use the oven the other night and again was confronted by no words, just symbols. It's like ancient Egypt up in here. The oven has a temp knob in celsius (normal), but then another knob with about 6-7 settings on it. I am used to everything being bake unless I set it to broil. After toying with the oven for 5 minutes, I just gave up. Once my roommate came home, he showed me what the settings were (in the "how come you don't get this? Are you retarded?" - tone), there there was an extra step of literally fiddling with random knobs until a light came on. Perhaps the house I live in is just ghetto?

Stone: Someone asked me "How many stone do you weigh?" My reaction: "What kinds of stones?" After the laughter died down, they told me that this is how people gauge their weight. After consulting my Conversion widget, a stone = 14 pounds. What if I am not a multiple of 14? How do you then express weight? I would guess I am a little less than 7 stone. Is that what I say? Why were they asking me my weight anyway? How rude...

Tescos: I have given up on doing my own grocery shopping. I tried and tried, but the idea of having to go to Tescos after work makes me want to pop 3 Xanax. I started doing online delivery of Sainsbury, so hopefully it will be better. E-mail me some good, easy recipes so that I can start cooking properly if you guys know any!

Cycling: So I have been cycling on and off to work for about 3 weeks, and I can say that I can get to and from the office pretty safely. I need to get a new helmet because the one I have IS huge (as Suzy can let you know as I modeled it for her on video chat). It's still rough work, but it actually feels pretty good on the soul in the morning. Not sure if I can keep it up when it gets colder, but we'll see how much I can take. I also find that cycling is definitely the fastest way. It rained the other day so I took the bus, and because the bus doesn't stop at each stop, I missed mine and ended up getting off at the next stop which was like 5 minutes away. Total time into the office: 45 minutes, 35 of it which was walking. Riding takes me about 15 if I don't get interrupted by cars and buses. However, this week while I was riding my shoe flew off into the middle of the street as I was mounting my bike, so I need to get some bicycle riding kicks or shoes that actually fit me.

Pronunciation: If I thought that vocabulary was a slight issue, now I have trouble understanding words that I should know. My co-worker asked me why I was out of work last Wednesday, and I told her I had a bad headache. She goes "What? A meegraine?" It took me a few seconds to get that she was saying migraine, but each time she repeated the word in this conversation about meegraines, it still sounded really strange. Then we were talking about making a good ragu sauce, and she kept referring to oregano as ore-GA-no. Again, slight pause before I could understand. Also when people say herbs, they pronounce the H like in horse rather than honor. Maybe it's because she is from Northern England? It makes me wonder, is British pronunciation correct because it came first? Should I be saying words the way they do?

Dryness: For a country where it rains a lot, my face is always dry. As I have told many of you (and some of you have seen) my skin for the first two weeks here was flaky, gross, and at the same time breaking out more than ever in my life. I thought I caught leprosy from somewhere! I think I have it under control now, but I am a low maintenance gal, and the lotion regime I have to go through now is tedious and annoying. I guess this is what it means to be a girl? I used to just use face wash and lotion. Now its using cream cleanser, then a toner, then eye cream, then night cream. How do other chicks do this?! 

The reason for the eye cream is that my eyelids feel like they are going to flake off at any second. Then because my eyelids are dry, my eyeballs start getting itchy and feel like they are going to fall out. My contact lenses become like cornflakes, and drops don't work, so I have started to wear my glasses towards the end of the day at work because my eyes are so irritated. I used to be able to wear my lenses all day and night, but here the max is 6 hours it seems, before I start having issues. In summary, I look insane.

City Mouse, Country Mouse

This weekend I got to go up to London to catch up and see some familiar faces. The train ride was really easy and only about an hour on the fast train, which is like commuting from NJ to NY, so really convenient and easy. I love riding trains, and the countryside we ride through is really lovely (minus the occasional nuclear cooling tower here and there; I tried to snap a picture, but we were moving too fast and I am not sure the guy sitting across the aisle from me would like me hovering and falling over him).

I wanted to sit under this tree...look at all that land!

I had a really nice Thai lunch at Busaba Eathai with a friend, which has now got to be the best meal I have had so far in the UK. Civilized food at civilized proportions...imagine~ It was so nice to eat things that had actual flavors and spice in them! I have found the food I have been eating in Oxford to be either cooked by me (=no good), or under-salted and bland. I need to start cooking better so my palette doesn't go to shit. My friend invited me to a home-cooked Sunday roast, so I hope to take up the offer. The one I had at the pub was good, but apparently I haven't had it real yet. Perhaps I thought the pub roast was good because I hadn't eaten meat in 2 weeks (probably the cause of my massive migraine this past Wednesday), and have been living on soup and sandwiches.

After lunch, I met up with Michelle and went to this work event called Le Book, walked around for an hour, and then ventured to go meet up with Yuan and Andrew at their apartment (flat). I have decided that the Tube is torture during rush hour (more than the subways). Unfortunately my trip from Victoria up to St. John's Wood was during rush-hour, and there were massive delays on the Jubilee line, so I had to wait for 3 train before I could squeeze myself on. The Tube itself was like a sauna and so claustrophobic. Because of my stature, people couldn't see I was in the space that seemed unoccupied and at one point I had to raise my hand to let them know there was a person here so NO they could not move in any further. 

I was a sweaty troll by the time I got to their place, which is right across the street from some cricket grounds. Their place is so central, spacious and nice, and I was quite jealous of it. I live in a house and still don't have that much space, but having a yard is a plus here for me (even though it is a hot jungly mess). After I dropped off my things and freshened up, Yuan showed me to her business school and we met up with some of her friends. Andrew was working late, the poor soul, so he joined us a little bit later at the pub. He looked like he was having it ROUGH. He has only been here a week, but his office seems to be putting his nose to the stone right away. 

After the pub, we just walked around a bit, grabbed dinner, and then went to a wine bar to catch up. By the way Kevin, these pics are for you. The shwarma wasn't as good as last time, I didn't think, but perhaps it was because I wasn't drunk and Somalian this time:

Our conversation veered towards our initial experiences in the U.K. so far. I think the biggest difference that colors our mind-sets is that I live in Oxford (a city, but not really), and they live in London (a proper city). I had no expectations that Oxford would be or have anything that NYC had for me. It has been a pleasant surprise when there are things that are similar in that way. They came to London, which is a large sprawling city, so it is easier for them to compare city to city. I understand their qualms with certain things for sure (pull switches in the bathrooms? no Duane Reade?), and I am sure given time, it will just become part of their routine, quirky, and perhaps even fun in it's own way. There is definitely a difference in the culture shocks we are experiencing. I tend to think nothing is a city compared to New York in it's efficiency and manic-pace, but then again, that is part of the reason I decided to take a break from it and chill out. However, we did have a drunk session of lamenting the things we did miss, seen in this picture below:

It was great to see someone who has known me, for what is it now, 10 years? It's a lot of work getting to know people, and add in a dash of cultural differences, it makes it a bit more complicated as I don't want to offend or become a typical American (what did my English friend tell me: fat and stupid? hahaha, I am American, and I agree that is true to a certain point). It's strange, but because both America and England are English speaking, developed countries, I didn't expect there to be such differences in social mores, but maybe I am just being too cautious to not come across as my sardonic self. Also, I am not around that many Americans, where Andrew and Yuan seem to only know ex-pats. The only American I did meet was at this party, and she had no interest in talking to me. How rude. She was from Philly so whatever with her.

Anyways, I digress, back to the weekend. The following day, Andrew and I went around together because Yuan had to study, so we had brunch and just strolled the streets. I saw these things on the way:

Cabbages AND frocks?! I saw many frocks (dresses), but not a cabbage in sight. 

I want the little one of these vacuums. It makes me happy.

I just liked this remote, because its size is ridiculous. At least you won't lose it?

After that, I knew of the Frieze Art festival happening at Regent's Park which is right by their apartment. This is about as close as we got to the festival:

The admission cost was 25pounds, so we thought it best to avoid at this point as Andrew and I have not received our first UK pay checks yet (still living on the sad dollar). We ended up just walking around the park, which was gorgeous. Unlike Central Park, none of the grass areas are cordoned off, so you are free to chill anywhere, and the landscaping was beautiful. There was a free sculpture garden, so we trotted around there a little bit taking silly, unrefined pictures with the sculptures:

This little house is now my dream home. I was telling Andrew that this shed was nicer and cleaner than where I was living at the moment, and this old couple turned around and started laughing with me. Sadly, my laughs were laughs of sorrow. On an off note, I think I look 12 years old in this pic. 

Here are more pics of the park:

These flowers are for those of you who took Euro-History with me. Danton-4-life! Viva la France!

I got back to Oxford on Saturday evening, because I didn't want to over burden Andrew as I am sure he still has some things to sort out. That evening, I went to go watch this movie with Michelle at the local cinema, which was way local around the block. Unfortunately, I did not know this and walked up and down the Cowley Road for 20 minutes and made it just on time. The theater was really old-school, bare bones. One theater, no concessions, from the ticket booth outside, you walk right in, no previews. I liked it a lot!

The movie is called Man on Wire, and I suggest you see it. It is about this French guy who tightrope walked across the top of the World Trade Center, and this movie solidified to me why people love and hate the French. This dude was nuts~ I love documentary films because it shows the randomest people with the randomest passions, and it makes me thankful that there are people to amuse me with their craziness. You all know how I relish in the random. I don't know, part of me was thinking "If some dude came up to me and was crazy about walking tightropes, riding unicycles, and wearing top hats and black jumpsuits, would I fall in love with him or would I run away? It's a tough call. 

The movie still photography was amazing, and there was something magical about what this guy had done. I think me having acrophobia made the movie somewhat thrilling. I could never imagine being able to stand on the edge of the Towers like it aint no thang. But I guess I was tricked into skydiving, so anything is possible. 

Also, seeing the Towers is always a combination of sad and moving. How amazing those structures were in our skyline... I always feel funny seeing them.

Enough nostaligia. My Sunday has been laundry day, and since our washers are big enough to wash one pair of jeans at a time, it looks like an all-nighter. I will also probably hear about destroying the environment from my roommate since I will be using the dryer. The guilt I feel for the earth! Check you next week!

The 9-to-5

I thought this week I would talk about the differences from my working in the US versus working in the UK, because it definitely has it's pros and cons. Mind you, I have only been working for 3 weeks here, and not fully acquainted yet, but this is my impression so far. 

My office here spans an entire block and is basically a labyrinth inside, unlike the single floor I worked on in New York. I had to go to the Pensions department to talk about my options being a US citizen, and it literally took me 15 minutes, a lot of double backing, many strange looks from people at their desks, plus asking 2 people how to get there. My meeting lasted all of 8 minutes, and then it took me another 15 minutes to figure out how to get out. I also bumped into this guy on the way.  Just kidding, but I kind of wished I ran into the Minotaur, as he may have known his way around better than the people I encountered. A random thing that I have also experienced here is that it seems many Brits are REALLY bad at giving directions. The way they express directions is either really confusing with a thousands turns, the history of everything I will pass, and no street names; or just really terse where I am supposed to some how intrinsically know what they mean. Also, I must blend in better than I had originally thought because within my 3rd day I had at least 2 people a day asking me directions on how to get places. Beats me why they would ask me rather than someone who looks possibly more native, but luckily I had a handy map, and was able to assist in a very efficient way. You know me and efficiency.

Anyways, here is a list of pros and cons to keep it even more efficient!

Pro UK/Con NYC:

25 vacation days and no guilt for taking them!

Research travel opportunities (I found out I was due to go out to Egypt in November for research the day I started)

Internal cafeteria, coffee bar, and shop (all costs money, but very convenient)

Gym in building (there is a membership fee, so prob not going to join)

Bicycle servicing every Wednesday (only relevant here since I have a bike now)

The ability to use a wider range of art styles 

More readers published through this office, so ability to use more trade styles

Pre-primary titles for really cute stuff

Only showing 5 -8 hand selected artists samples rather than every illustrator known to man

More Art Editors to bounce ideas 

Electronic invoice approval (no more stickers!)

Pro NYC/Con UK:

Smaller staff, so it's easier to get to know people (and find where they sit! I don't really know where my editors sit)

Not as much walking around because the office is smaller

Free coffee and tea, and free bagel Fridays

Summer Fridays will be missed by me

Electronic contracts and electronic photo selection

Less meetings (if that seems possible)

Tracking and Excel (because I am nerd, I still use my tracking, but I don't see a comprehensive way art is tracked in the UK. The photos are tracked well though, it seems)

Working on a wider range of product (where in the UK I only work on Primary, which I like, but I will miss working on adult titles eventually I think)

Not having to ride a bicycle into work

Manicure meetings with Stacy

My own cubicle, rather than open plan office

As you can see it is a trade-off in some areas, but I think overall it all amounts to it being just different rather than worse or better. 

On a funny note, I have been making some SERIOUS vocabulary offenses in the office as well. I was talking to my co-workers about how I was getting so annoyed with the lines in Tescos that I just wanted to "bum-rush" the line. This apparently means something completely different than queue jumping (just think of what Brits mean by the word bum). Then we went into this charity shop during lunch, and there was this hot belt that doubles as a "fanny-pack." The girls started cracking up in my face after I said fanny pack, so you can also imagine what that means to them. The last one was while we were walking around on a gray day, Michelle described the weather as "ming," so later that day before we were leaving, I repeated it out loud in the studio, but mispronounced it as "minge." Well, little did I know that "minge" refers to rank lady parts, and I basically shouted it in front of one of the design managers. OOPS! I wonder how long I can get away with being the ignorant American.

Anyways, as for updates on the weekend, I just chilled out. Was going to go to London, but Andrew moved here on Saturday, and I think on a red-eye, so I didn't want to go annoy him as I know how crack-a-lack'ed out I was when I arrived, so I def hope to see him and Yuan next weekend. Just went out to a bar on Friday night, watched some people make-out in our faces at the bar, and then went next door to get a kebab with a friend. She just got something, and I ate from hers because it was HUGE and crazy. The meal was Dona meat, french fries, tomatoes, lettuce, white sauce all in a pita. The first few bites were good, but then it just made us feel gross, and we were just talking about going to Spain, so I doubt eating this will help us get into beach bodies any time soon.

On Saturday, Michelle took me to the Botanical Gardens on our way into city center (free for all employees at my company). The weather has been gorgeous here, so it was a nice walk around. Also, I didn't explode into allergies, which usually happens when I am exposed to anything more than one tree at a time. Here is a pic:

I think I have just been exhausted because my body isn't used to so much physical activity like biking and walking (or apparently moving voluntarily), so hopefully I will soon be able to cope with such an active lifestyle! The convenience of city-life has made me a shell of a human. 

I also got invited to a "fancy-dress" party for someone's 30th birthday. Fancy-dress doesn't mean ball gowns and tuxes, it means costume party. The theme is anyone from the past 30 years, which is really broad! I was thinking of being Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice because I have a dress I can wear and can just do my hair up, but leave in the comments if you have any other suggestions! I have already been told to be Lucy Lui from Charlie's Angels... if this was anywhere else, I would be offended, but here I think they were trying to be helpful. I think Margaret Thatcher was another popular choice. hahahahaha...HOT!

My Abode

So I finally finished unpacking and stuffing my things in the limited amount of space that I have. Here are some pics of my room. The suitcase next to my computer actually is another place for me to store clothes. I don't think I am allowed to hang things on the wall either, so it looks a little bare, but I hope to get some hooks with that removable adhesive backing to hang things from so it looks a little less prison-ish.

Other highlights of my room is that there is literally one electricity jack that I can find, with two plugs, so not much in energy usage. Fire safety is the utmost of concern, so my bedroom door is actually a fire door. In the U.K. all electricity jacks have on and off switches to turn off the flow of energy, which I think keeps things economical. I have been trying to shut mine off when I don't use it. Look at me being green! I also bought reusable shopping bags for grocery shopping as well. 

The person who used to live in this room set me up with all the bedding which included one of the best pillow cases on earth:

These dolphins keep me company on my cold evenings. I actually didn't know how to turn the radiator on so I asked my one roommate who was not so helpful. She thought I was from outer space because I didn't know how to operate a manual radiator. Possibly I am to people here. I was suppose to "bleed" the radiator, but other than telling me that, there was no clue as to what that meant. After futzing around, it worked, so now I am cozy. 

I found the main thing I miss about NYC (besides all of you lovely folks who keep up with me). The concept of 24-hour or late hours. There is "late"-night shopping night, and by late, they stay open until a red-eye inducing time of 6:30PM! I tried to go to the supermarket today (Sunday) at 6PM thinking I would get some food for my dinner. Unfortunately, the Tesco closes at 4PM on Sundays! There were these two homeless chicks (yes, there are homeless people here) outside of the shop that started laughing at me going "It's Sunday love, shops closed!" I feel time pressure like you wouldn't believe! My mind revolves around when the stores will be open for me. Forget about stopping by anywhere after work to pick things up! I work until 5:30 so there is no chance of catching anything open except on Thursdays, and I am spazzing out around town just to complete errands. 

Luckily, this Sunday I ate my first Sunday Roast. This is a traditional Sunday meal where you choose chicken, beef, or lamb, and get it roasted up with potatoes, veg, and Yorkshire Pudding. It was the best meal I have had here so far, and I was so full I came home and passed out. I wanted to take a picture of it, but the order took so long to get to us (ah, amazing British service!), I started gorging on it immediately and by the time I realized I wanted to take a photo, it looked like a mess of food, so next time I hope to. Also, I didn't want to weird out the people I was with by being stereotypically Asian and taking pictures everywhere. 

People have been remarking on how they LOVE my New York accent. This is weird to me, because I don't think I have a typically New York accent (unlike my lovely Jaclyn - S.I. for life!). I was walking with my friend down the street to a bar on Friday and there were these two people yelling, and she was like "hahaha welcome to the Cowley Road!," and I remarked how them telling each other off sounded more dignified than the street fights I hear in New York-ese. She was surprised that I thought it sounded refined, but a lot of things have been coming up where something exotic and wonderful to me is just mondo lame to someone who has been around it for long. I guess I would feel the same if I was walking around New York with someone from here and they were to encounter a typical guido showdown in the streets. But then again, I always enjoy anything involving guidos.

Didn't do much this weekend. Just met up with an old co-worker from the OUP-NY offices (Anna) for a drink, then went to a random person's birthday party. On Saturday, I went shopping for some things, ended up going into Zara where nothing fit me, then went up to the kids section of Zara and bought a heavy coat (not originally on the list of things I needed, but the weather is colder than I had thought so it was good I got it). What was great about Zara kids clothes is that it looks like stuff adults would wear but for way cheaper, unlike Gap Kids where most of the stuff looks pretty kid-like with flowers and ponies all over it. In the evening, I just went to this bar 3 blocks down and drank some sangria and chatted with one of my current co-workers which was nice and chill. That and a Sunday Roast, it was a pretty relaxed weekend. Next weekend, I hope to venture up to London!