A (not really) Brief Introduction

I know I'm against personal blogging. Well, in theory. However, I'm (finally) overseas, and therefore cannot update all my friends on my goings-on on the regular basis to which I (and they) am (are) accustomed. That, and my good friend Jen suggested I keep a travel journal, which seemed like a great idea except for the laborious hand-written part.

Hence: blog.

So, welcome to my (hopefully often-updated) chronicle of my life whilst abroad.

For those of you who don't know, I'm spending 8 weeks this summer working at British Telecomm doing some stuff with user interface design. Today was my first day, and I have to say I absolutely loved it. I work with fantastic people and my project is really great.

But more on that later.

First, to explain the URL, it is how most people in England take their tea. They drink a lot of tea, as do I. I'm in heaven (except for the no sugar part, of course).

Life in the UK thus far:

I arrived in the UK around 8PM on Saturday, May 16. Having not slept the night before (hint: don't start packing for 8 weeks in a foreign country at 10PM the night before departure) and having slept maybe 3 or 4 hours on the plane, I was sufficiently disoriented when I arrived. After a nail-biting trip through immigration, I was met at the terminal by my good friend David (a post-doc in my lab back at MIT who happens to be in the UK renewing his visa, as he is conveniently for me and inconveniently for him a UK citizen). We proceeded to galavant around London for about four hours before spending the night at his brother's house.

Observations during London galavant:

-The subway in London is called the tube. Similar to Boston, the final destination of the "tube" is announced after every stop. On the ride back from the airport, the final destination was Cockfosters. I laughed every, single time it was announced, therefore earning much-deserved glares from fellow passengers (and eye-rolling from David).

-Everyone really does drive on the left side of the road. This almost got me killed a few times because I (out of habit) look left and then right before crossing the street. This is not the correct order in the UK, it turns out.

-London is an amazing city. More on this later.

-Everyone has British accents! Those of you familiar with my feelings about British accents are no doubt smiling right now.

-The Thames is absolutely stunning at night.

-London has a GIANT ferris wheel. Plans to ride said ferris wheel are in the works.

-The buses are all double decker. Like a true tourist, I insisted to David that we ride on the top level at the very front ("right, we can pretend like we're driving the bus," David said sarcastically, not wanting to also be mistaken for a tourist by association). Fun fact: sharp turns feel a lot sharper while sitting on the top floor of a double-decker bus, but it's amusing for everyone else when you dramatically get flung into the aisle.

-It is not necessarily the best idea to, in a jetlag-induced haze, scream "oooooo! Americans!" when you hear fellow tourists with American accents.

-It is very convenient to have a tour guide who is 6'5'' in Picadilly Circus, which is, incidentally, a wonderful way to wake oneself up whilst jetlagged.

Because of my inclination to talk like whomever I'm spending the most time with, I attempted to have a British accent a few hours into being in London. David bluntly told me that if I continued to talk like that people would think I was making fun of them. Ah well. Perhaps I'll try again in a few weeks.

Words that I cannot say:

"College" (must instead say "university")

"Truck" (must instead say "lorry")

"Shopping cart" (must instead say "trolley")

"Subway" (must instead say "tube")

"Umbrella" (must instead say "brolley")

Still cannot bring myself to refer to bathroom as "loo." Working on it.

After spending the night at David's brother's house, we woke up and galavanted about a bit more the next day. I got on the train to Ipswich (my base of operations for the next 8 weeks). My host here, John (who works for BT) picked me up at the station. I've got a very small but very comfy room here and there's free wireless, so I can blog whenever (awesome). John cooked a FANTASTIC dinner last night (Sunday) for me, our other housemate Lee, and an ex-Cambridge-MIT exchange student working at BT named Jia-Yan (of course we got on famously, as we traded MIT banter). If you ever have a chance to try toad-in-the-hole, I highly recommend it.

Like I said, I started work today and loved it. Jeff (my indirect supervisor) is taking me up to Cambridge on Wednesday to meet some people and experience the place in general. I'm quite excited.

Amusing observation of the day:

News stand called "Cockram."

Over and out.