11:31 a.m. - 2002-06-22
What have I got myself into? Part 1
Hey everyone. Long time, no....diary entry. (doesn't sound as smooth, does it?)
So, I'm in London. I've been here just over three weeks (three weeks? just three weeks? all of three weeks?) and, well, what can I say?
I can't say it's going all peachy keen over here on the other side of the ocean, but I won't go so far as to say that it's hell. I'm at somewhere in between peachy and hell. It's peachy hell. I'll start to go over some major events over the last...ahem...three weeks.
First off, I got to London on a Thursday morning and John and Charlotte (who I am still staying with, bless their sibling and soon-to-be sibling-in-law hearts) were at work. I saw them that evening, we chatted, talked about what I was going to do while I was here, yadda, yadda, yadda. The next morning, they went to work and I didn't see them again until Tuesday. You see, it was Queen Jubilee weekend so everyone was off work until wednesday (well, those who had, you know, a real job). So, JandC decided to go to Nice for the weekend (by the way, it really is Nice in Nice...ha ha).
The point of this little tidbit of information is to illustrate that I have been on my own a lot since I got here. Not that I was expecting JandC to entertain me every moment or whatever, but it was a lonely introduction to what I was trying to make a temporary home. I spent the weekend looking for a job during the day, and drinking by myself at night while watching bad English television (for a couple of days, I was seriously considering the possibility that London was going to turn me into an alcoholic, but I've since changed my mind. I don't need London to do that). And since I got here, I don't see them very much at all. For example, I'm on my own again this weekend (John is in Toronto...the lucky bastard...and Charlotte is out doing fun stuff with work colleagues).
But I digress...the job search on that first weekend was annoying. I was trying to find a good waitressing job. Little did I know that these two terms don't actually go together here in jolly ol' England (but, trust me, I found that out quicker than I might have expected). I had had three interviews all weekend. I wasn't having a huge amount of luck on that front, and at the time I was trying to get a job as quickly as possible, so as to get a place on my own as quickly as possible and thus leave JandC's place and cease to be a burden to them. It was this logic that lead me to take the first job I was offered, and I've come to realize what a big mistake that was. The word "oops" doesn't even begin to cover it.
John and Charlotte got home on Tuesday evening, and it was on the Wednesday morning that an annoying Sicilian man with a very strong accent named Eddy, whom I had met two days prior, called me up and told me to come into his pub at 11 that morning. I said ok.
"Do not ask for whom the bell toles, it toles for thee")
The pub was called The Globe. There were actually two pubs (the globe and John Keats) and a restaurant in this establishment. I was explained when I got there that I would be working in the restaurant during the day and the pub at night. This actually got me a bit excited, because it meant I would be bartending in the evenings. I've wanted to bartend for a long time now, but it's one of those positions where they won't hire you until you have experience, but you can't get any experience because no one will hire you until you have experience. It's a catch 22 job. The point being, I was pleased that I would be bartending. The job had a set schedule of hours that, at the time...AT THE TIME, didn't seem so bad, and the pay was crap, but I figured I could live off of it. Maybe even get a second job for some extra spending cash. All in all, it didn't seem such a bad situation.
But, as they say, hindsite is 20/20. I look back on that first day, all those 2 and a half weeks ago, and realize that I was kind of trying to convince myself that this job would be fine. Deep down, I knew that this job was going to suck, but maybe I would have the stamina to stick it out until I could find a better one.
Apparently not.
And that is the cliff hanger, folks. I've got an interview today (no, not for a job, it's a much more boring British Beaurocratic thing, but I'll leave you to wonder about that, as well). So I have to go get ready.
To be continued....
