Stardate 001

I've successfully completed my first week here in the UK and it has just been like drinking from a fire hose. Seeing as I've never lived more than 100 miles away from where I grew up, moving to another country has definitely been a huge shock. I naively assumed that since they speak English in the UK that some things may be familiar and I would be able to sort things out for the most part. Boy was I wrong. Everything from setting up bank accounts, to renting a flat, to buying cleaning supplies has been different.

Most of all though, I miss my family and friends terribly. I call home at least 5 times a day. All my life I've had some sort of pre-established connection to people whether it be school, work, church, running club, etc. There is nothing like that here and I really don't know a single soul outside of people at the office. Although my work colleagues have been doing their best to help me out, the dynamic is very different here. In San Jose it was quite normal to spend time with work colleagues on a regular basis outside of work but here people very much like to keep work and personal life separate. It also doesn't help that the British (and especially Londoners it seems) are quite reserved and religiously stick to their cliques.

Not to worry though, my situation has been improving day by day. I'm still stressed about finding a place to live, buying a car, figuring out taxes and finances, and doing a good job in my new position at work. Those things will work themselves out in time though so I'm sure I'll be able to put them behind me soon and start enjoying the splendors of London.

And before anyone asks:

1. Besides today, the weather has been amazing. It actually reminds me of the weather in the Bay Area and has been so warm at times that I'd wish it would rain.
2. The food has been quite good, especially the curries. I haven't had fish and chips, bangers and mash, or bubble and squeak yet but there's plenty of other food to keep me busy for now. I do worry about packing on the pounds though as the "Alice Waters" concept of fresh, in season, and balanced hasn't quite made it's way here yet.

Here's a short recap of my first week to give you and idea of what I've been doing:

• Sunday - Arrived in London completely exhausted. Had dinner with Ro (my new boss), his wife, and their 9-month-old baby at this house. Then went home to my massive (NOT!) studio apartment. More on this later.
  
• Monday - Carpooled to the office with Ro. It was a long day of meet and greets in the office. Then we headed off early to open a bank account for me (first instance of learning about the British need for process and lack of customer service).
• Tuesday - Carpooled to the office with Ro and went to Swindon (~2 hours away in the middle of nowhere) with Craig (work colleague) to train a distributor. In the evening I went out with my colleagues for a drink and a meal in nearby Marlow (a bit like Los Altos). We were saying goodbye to the summer intern and they were welcoming me. A bit much for my second day at work now that I think about it.
• Wednesday - Put the local authorities on alert, I picked up my rental car. Driving on the other side of the road with the stick on the left is NOT an easy thing. Every time I get in the car I chant "drive on the left, drive on the left, drive on the left". I've also hit my hand on the right door countless times trying to shift with my right hand. I haven't killed, maimed, or even nicked anyone so far so keep your fingers crossed.
• Thursday - Drove (yes all on my own) to visit a customer in Havant (another hour away in the middle of nowhere). We basically spent 5+ hours driving to present for 10 minutes. Extremely productive and efficient day I would say. At least I got to end the day with a familiar face. A friend was in town for work so we went out for a nice dinner in my neighborhood.
  
• Friday - Met up with my first estate agent* to look at a couple flats (I need to move out of temporary housing at the end of the month). Nothing looked good and I wasn't too impressed with the estate agent.
• *I've learned that in the UK, property sales and rentals (lettings) are mainly managed by estate agents (real estate agents). The only problem is that there is no central listing service like the multiple listings service (MLS) in California so the estate agents are highly specialized to a 10 block radius. Very very inefficient.
• Saturday - A day at the races. I went to the races at Ascot with Craig, his fiance Rebecca, and some of their friends. This will be a separate blog later.
• Sunday - I was completely exhausted so I decided this would be my day off. I woke up at 2pm, went for afternoon tea, got a pedicure, and drove around some neighborhoods to get an idea of where to live.
  

If you've made it this far then my apologies for the long blog. I promise they won't all be this excruciating. A huge hug and thanks to everyone who has been checking in with me to make sure I'm doing ok. It's great to be missed and to know that people are thinking of you.