First Night on the Town

Seeing as how I've been fairly miserable in my new home, Ro and Craig decided to take me out for my first night on the town in London so that I can start finding things about London that I enjoy. This was a pretty big deal since Craig lives all the way down in Ascot. He came into London from work with me but getting home required a 15 minute tube ride to catch the last train leaving Waterloo Station around 11:30pm. Then once reaching the station in Ascot (an hour train ride later) it's another cab ride. Funny that he doesn't mind that convoluted trek whereas I need to live less than 10 minutes away from central London*.

Originally we were planning to go out into central London but we decided to meet up with some other Altera colleagues who live in London. This was mainly for my benefit since these are other young single people at the office who may be able to show me around a bit more later on. Craig and I began with a pint at The Westbourne, which is a fairly famous local pub blocks away from where I am currently staying. It's quite a nice large pub with a great outdoor seating area to enjoy all the splendors of the English summer. After our drink we met up with Ro, Kostas, Sumant, and their friends at The Elgin in Maida Vale. The Elgin was a slightly more posh pub with a crowd that included young professionals and a men's cricket team. I hear that Jude Law has been known to stop by The Elgin on a Sunday every now and then. The beer and snacks were really good and it was nice to have a night off in London with some locals (basically every other night has been consumed with looking for flats). I could have done without them stopping every 5 minutes to ask why I would ever consider leaving San Francisco though. Although it hasn't been very long, I am starting to grow a huge appreciation for the Bay Area so I can understand where they're coming from. In actuality, because of the great weather, culture, good schools, availability of jobs, friends, family, and plenty more, I could really never leave the Bay Area and have lived a great life. People in other parts of the world don't have the same options. For instance Kostas is from Athens but came to the UK for university and stayed for the abundance of jobs compared to Greece. All in all I really enjoyed myself and hope to meet up with this group again. We may even go out clubbing at some point (yikes!).

On the housing front, I was still deciding whether I should get my own place or have some flatmates so the search has been going in both directions. On Wednesday night I looked at a great master bedroom with en suite bathroom (very unusual for London) in a mansion block flat in Maida Vale. I'd be sharing a 3-bedroom flat with two Kiwis (New Zealanders) who seem really fun and super laid back. One guy is in a band that toured in the US for two months last year and the other guy works in finance and is currently dating an American ex-pat (yeah, someone who speaks proper English). It's a bit expensive (then again what isn't in London) but I'd get tons of space and my own bathroom in a really great flat. I just found out that the guys are interested so if all goes well I'll be moving in with them by the end of the month. Awesome, one major thing done.

*If you're not familiar with London, the city of London consists of 12 boroughs within a ~10 mile radius and is basically bounded by the M25 motorway (a circular freeway that goes around London similar to the beltway around Washington D.C.). Within the city of London are 6 concentric circles or 6 zones with zone 1 being central London. Central London is 1 square mile that contains most of the popular tourists attractions like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, etc. I will be living in the district of Maida Vale which is zone 2 and part of the city of Westminster.