London baby yeah!

30 September 2006

To view this blog with pictures see http://kiwigirlnextdoor-uk.blogspot.com/2006/11/30-september-2006-well-this-weekend.html

Well, this weekend marks my two week anniversary of being in London, and what a crazy two weeks its been. Ive been really busy running around London to interviews but in the end everything has worked out swimmingly. Actually Im so ecstatic that I dont even know if Ive spelt that word right, and apologise if this blog gets a bit wordy as Im excited and very likely to get carried away with how perfectly everything has worked out. I've got a new place to live, new job, new bank account and a new phone but Im still the same old Melissa you know and love, enjoying getting thrown in the deep end overseas, and still missing the company of her awesome mates in the evenings and weekends - big hug :)

So details...
New Place - A room was available at Jayne's place that I've dossing at for the first couple of weeks. Its a nice area called Fulham in SW London, close to the tube and supermarket and I get along really well with her flatties so am excited about unpacking my bag and moving in this weekend. Its £66 a week for a single bed in a shared room (mines right next to the window, upstairs in the pink house - working on uploading a pic - im sharing with two other chicks, one from Poland and one from Spain) in a fully furnished flat with 6 of us in all (its balanced with two Aussies and two Kiwis)

New job - After attending heaps of interviews and having to put together pros and cons lists for the positions I was offered, I start my new job on Monday. Im working as a temp for Man Investments (www.mangroupplc.com) and will be their Compensation and Benefits Administrative Assistant (working on sending out letters about payment of a bonus to 1400 of their 4000 employees in 14 countries) for the next month. Its a basic Admin role but pays £11 an hr (double the minimum wage) its a nice office right on the River Thames and by the Tower of London and there are free lunches in the cafe or other restaurants nearby, I will be there until the 25th of October. On the 26th of October I start a 6 month maternity cover contract as the HR/Training Administrator of a Media Publishing Company close to Oxford St. Its a close-knit HR team of 5 and I'll be providing administrative support to the whole HR function so it will be great to get an experience of all of generalist HR and will keep me going right through the winter in London until the end of April.

So things couldnt have worked out better if Id planned them - that seems to be a common theme for this trip - and a bit of a scary revelation. It has been actually kind of fun juggling interviews and phonecalls and company research for the past couple of weeks, I feel like Im always on the computer or phone sending out CVs or confirming times etc but it has allowed to get out and about in London a bit - albiet inbetween interviews in a suit. Its great to have everything sorted in under two weeks and I think Im really lucky. Its exciting to know Im settling down in London for the next 7 months and then I think Im gonna try and find work somewhere else in the UK for the remainder of my time here. So keep checking out this blog for updates of how life in London for one crazy kiwi is going. Luv and cake xx

From the Big Apple to Big Ben

A big hi to everyone from England - well Ive finally arrived here for the working part of my big OE, and have been greeted with fairly nice weather, cute little streets with identical looking houses and extortionate prices - exactly what I expected (well apart from the nice weather - but Im sure that'll only be for another couple of weeks or so). Was met at the airport by an old next-door neighbour and family friend, Jayne, and am lucky enough to be able to doss on her lounge floor for a couple of weeks until I find a place of my own. After spending two days inside, online applying for jobs I finally got out of the house and got myself a simcard to go in the cellphone Im borrowing from Alastair - cheers mate! - and got out to Guildford to meet up with some of Claire's family - Uncle Ian, Jo and cute baby (well if you can call 22months a baby - but shes still a cutie!) Clara.

In the next couple of days Im hoping to do boring stuff (but pivotal to my life here now) like get to the bank and get my account sorted, get a tax number, and meet with a couple of recruitment agencies to be put on their endless list of Australasians looking for work in the UK - but Im special so Im sure I'll find something soon - will keep you updated :) All my love from the other side of the world - Liss, Mel, Lissa, Melly, Risa (however you know me) - love from me xx

A week on the East Coast

Washington DC

This was a pretty cool place to spend a few days, and the best thing is that most of the things to do around the city are free because if you're not aware DC is the nations Capital. With a pretty good subway system (and an awesome map) I was able to get around a pretty decent portion of the city (well the North-West anyway) in three days. Arriving at 6am on Sunday morning I went to the Eastern Market on Sunday and had a Philly Cheese Sub (well I was as close as I was going to get to Philadelphia...) and wandered around Georgetown and along the Potonac River.


My final two days were spent covering almost everything in Downtown DC; the National Mall, Chinatown, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Air and Space Museum. Got to catch up with April (a mate from my first semester in Tokyo) while I was in DC too, we hadnt seen each other for two years so that was awesome. Feasted on yummy home cooked food and got to meet her new kitten Molly - what a cutie!

New Haven, Conneticut
Spent the day travelling by bus to New York and then train to New Haven to have dinner with Chris (she was doing some work in NZ and staying at Sam's when I was there in 2nd yr) so it was great to catch up after three years. Had the most delicious white pizza (no marinara sauce) with mashed potato, bacon and mozarella cheese all washed down with some locally brewed beer and gelato for dessert. Got to have a look around the city, seems really cute, and the Yale campus - very flash. Thanks for the tour Chris :)

New York, New York
Wow cant believe Im at my final stop in the US already! I arrived on Thursday morning and was flying out to England on Saturday night so didnt have a lot of time but was determined to make the most of it, despite the fact that it rained for the first two days! I really enjoyed NYC (although I didnt venture much further than Manhattan) more than I thought I would, it kind of reminded me of Tokyo; busy, with a great public transport system.

I felt safer here than I had in downtown LA - even catching the subway at 5am to make it to a free Black Eyed Peas concert (despite my next stop being London...it was awesome!) at the filming of the Today Show at the NBC studio at Rockefeller Centre. There was a Nesquik "Lactose Tolernace" campaign on so I got free strawberry milk while standing in line and more later (as well as a teeshirt) when I visited their campaign headquarters. Also got to go to a free taping of a sports talk show called "Quite Frankly" and they even fed us pizza, soda, popocorn and candy floss beforehand!

I did all the regular touristy things there too although some were dampened a little by the weather, caught the free Staten Island ferry and took some pictures of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan Skyline, didnt go up the Empire State building because it was zero visibility but looked up at it :) Saw Times Square, Broadway, the Rockefeller Centre, Trump Tower, 5th Avenue Shops, bought cheap "IheartNY" souvinears in Chinatown, caught a street festival in Little Italy, played on the giant piano at FAO Schwartz Toy Store.

Then of course I spent some time in Central Park (with a heap of people out and active on the beautiful Saturday morning) and visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art - which was huge and amazing and the only museum Ive been to where I dont have to be sneaky about taking pictures (thanks for the recommendation Chris!!) Also caught a Germany/US Celebration parade before heading out to the airport to queue for an hour to checkin, losing my earing at security checks and having my flight delayed an hour and 45minutes before finally heading of for London, England. (Sorry for some reason it wouldnt let me upload my pics from NY on here :( but will hopefully have them on my photo page in a week or so)

Looking back on it my time in the States and Canada has been absolutely amazing. I never could have imagined that things could have worked out this well and there are a lot of people to thank for that, thanks to my family and friends back home for supporting me to this and keeping in touch - it means a lot and also wanted to say a huge hi and a even bigger thank you to all the amazing people Ive met and who've helped me along the way, it wouldnt have been the same without you - big hug.

So you came back to Canada EH?!

So I managed to finally make my way back to Canada - Toronto to be exact - via a 10 hour bus ride with a layover in scary Detroit so definately glad to be back :) In Toronto I managed to catch up with Jonathan from camp in Japan 2 years ago! took a ferry ride across to the Toronto Islands and danced along the boardwalk by Lake Toronto (my 3rd great lake), went to St Lawrence market and found a New Zealand Shop?! went to Chinatown to buy 3 huge punnets of strawberries for $2, checked out the shops and graffiti at Kensington Market, the underground shopping mall at the Eaton Centre, Rogers Centre (baseball pitch with an opening/closing roof), and the CN Tower


But the most fun I had was at the hostel, I booked into Canadiana because they had a movie theatre with airplane seats and a free pancake breakfast - who can turn that down! - and ended up meeting some amazing people. Three Canadian guys (Adam, Skye, Kael) who were on their way to volunteer for 10 weeks in Costa Rica, a guy from the UK (Rich) on the last days of his one year world trip, two French guys (Aurelien and Laurent - both of which I can't pronounce!) and a couple of german guys (Christian and Yan) as well as a few other Aussies and Brits whose names I cant remember off the top of my head - had an awesome time at the pub with ya'll tho - yay for 50c beer!



So spent my couple of days in Toronto walking around with new friends, chilling and chatting at the hostel (they also had a quiz and we won a tee-shirt each!) and of course we hit the bars both nights (backpackers dont care what day it is!) - had a wicked time, thanks everyone was awesome to meet you!

Niagara Falls
Headed back into the US for a bit, enough time to eat Buffalo wings at the place they were invented - Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY - to check out my 4th of 5 Great Lakes (Lake Eire) and catch up with Shoko (my buddy from Japan) who had flown up from Denver, Colorado. Together we headed to Niagara Falls which was amazing and we got to cover both the American (more nature focussed because its a National Park) and Canadian side (more touristy coz the views are better)


Got to do the three main Niagara experiences, Cave of the Winds where you can walk right up to the Hurricane Deck and experience the full force of the Bridalveil Falls, the Maid of the Mist boat ride right up into the river below the falls and the Journey behind the falls where you're only 9m above river level and you get to actually walk behind the thundering Horseshoe Falls. We even got to wear these sexy ponchos - and you all know how much I love those!




Funniest thing was putting my wallet in my backpack (good idea because I got totally drenched) before going into Cave of the Winds, but locking your backpack with your keys inside requires a police officer with a huge set of bolt cutters to open it for you ^^ Despite that I had an absolutely amazing time, we walked across the bridge to the Canadian side and saw fireworks and the Falls lit up beautifully at night, its something that photos really cant describe (although check out my pics) and it was great to have somebody to share it with :)

Hope you guys are enjoying reading up about my trip so far :) If so leave me a comment :) Sorry the posts seem to be getting longer and longer ... but reading back through these Im amazed at how much Ive managed to do and how perfectly things have worked out in the States (and with very little planning beforehand!) Ive got less than a week left here (just DC, CT and NY to go) before heading over to England - wish me luck!!