My Workout Plan

Slowly, I am taking steps to establish roots in London. A few weeks ago, I found a hair stylist even though I almost freaked out as he was cutting my hair. I had been going to Ella in Chicago for 6 years. It felt like I was cheating on her....I have my favorite Thai place that I go to often. A certain brand of bread that I really like. Little things that are becoming routine for me.

I haven't quite been able to commit to a mobile phone package yet.

The biggest commitment I made so far was to join a health club. I joined Virgin Health Clubs which is a popular chain of gyms throughout the UK. Note - I only signed up for 3 months. I had to pay a bit more however because that I walk everywhere, I am afraid it won't be convenient enough for me so I am on my own personal trial basis. I also decided to sign up for two personal training sessions to give me the extra motivation. Today as I met this young 20-something girl, I wished for my old trainer Lisa. My new trainer was really nice though.

She asked me the typical questions - What are your fitness goals, how much weight do you want to lose, blah, blah.... We proceeded to take my BMI measurements. The first obstacle to overcome - how to convert my height into centimeters....no idea....Second obstacle - translate my weight in pounds to kilos and stones....She had no clue so she had me go on the scale at the gym. It was so funny.

As we proceeded to develop a workout plan, I went on the treadmill to warm up. When I was initially on the treadmill, I noticed I wasn't going as fast I would have expected had I been on a treadmill back home. She pointed out that I needed to be on the treadmill that calculated miles per hour. We were trying to figure out what my mileage would be in kilometers. How complicated. I swear the treadmill I used at my old gym gave me the distance in kilometers.

My experience pointed out the obvious that I already knew - only Americans have their own metric system. The rest of the world uses kilometers, centimeters, celcius, the correct date format. However, it's sooo hard to unlearn all the years of thinking in a certain way...Sometimes I get a headache when I have to write 13/04/2010 or 12-Apr-2010. Imagine big project schedules??

After my training session, I went home and converted my weight from stones into pounds! I turned to my trusty google tool bar for a conversion tool. Geez I have some work to do!

Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?

I love the lyrics of Paloma Faith's song for so many reasons. The truth is that I am really loving London. At times, I am torn between the familiarity I have in Chicago and the newness of London. London always wins out because I will call a new friend and make plans or think about all the things I still have to do in here.

This weekend my cousins are here from Chicago. Tonight we had drinks, dinner and drinks in Covent Garden at Harry's Cafe and Lounge. Despite the rain, it was a great night. We ended the night at Cafe Boheme. Most of the pubs close around 12:00a.m. so we walked over Cafe Boheme and ended the night there. We also made friends with this Australian guy.

It feels really good to have family here. Hopefully I will get to see other friends soon.

5 Month Reflections

March 2nd marked my 5th month living in London. Wow..almost half a year. Ever since I came back from my trip to Chicago, I've had a renewed spirit for London. I look forward to planning my social activities and holidays here. Perhaps it wasn't that my spirit needed to be renewed however, I just wasn't quite sure how I felt about London.

The last month has been milestone month for me living here. I feel like I've hit my stride at work. I love my job. My responsibilities have expanded here. I have a great working relationship with my manager. He supports my career goals and really sees me as an asset to the company. I travel quite a bit. Every month for the next year, I will be in Paris for a monthly client meeting. When the weather is nicer and Sofia is free, I will make a few weekends of it. This Friday I am flying to Copenhagen for a meeting and then I am extending the trip into the weekend to do some exploring.

Personally, I continue to meet new people and explore different areas of London. For the last two weeks, I had been in the West End for a few nights out. Last weekend, I had two friends of a friend turn up and stay with me. I had never met them but they knew a friend of mine. They were grad students doing their MBA and needed a break after mid-terms. I was meeting up with my colleague and his friends for lunch so I brought them along. We had pizza in this really cool place not too far from me that I never knew existed because I had gotten in the habit of going straight to the tube for work - http://www.francomanca.co.uk/ Everyone got on very well. Later that evening, they also met up with me in Notting Hill for drinks which resulted in us making our way to the West End.

This weekend was pretty relaxed. On Friday, I met up with Jacqui and her mum, and sister-in-law for dinner at the Cattle Grill in Balham - http://www.cattlegridrestaurant.com/. I had a really tasty burger...not the salsbury steak texture they typically have here. Her mum invited me to Perth for Christmas and to Melbourne for New Years Eve.

On Saturday, I started training hardcore for the 10K Bupa run that I signed up for in Edinburgh, Scotland. From what people tell me, Edinburgh is very beautiful. It's about a 4 hour train ride. Most likely I will be going solo. I am looking forward it. This will be my redemption for my past experiences traveling alone. I also realized it had been awhile since I ran regularly so it's definitely a good training challenge.

On Sunday, I was in East London at the Spitalfields market with my friend Lucy. I love hanging out with Lucy. She encourages me to shop and we talk about the fashion in London. Spitalfields is a very funky, eclectic market. I love to people watch and see everyone's individual style who roam the market. Unfortunately, there was a power outage where the main stalls were at so we didn't do too much shopping. We did find a really good food hall and I had an arepa with chicken and cheese. Somewhat of a Mexican gordita. In the food hall, you could find everything from Ethiopian, Indian, Chinese, French, Italian, to Mexican food. Lucy and I had fun tasting the samples including the cheesecake.

After I left Lucy, I headed to an American Expat meet up group that was being organized in a pub in Hackney not too far from the market. I met Amber there. It was a really great time. We were kind of skeptical because Amber said they were not very organized in the past. There was about 10 -12 people and they were all very friendly. They were from all over the place - New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, New Jersey, and Milwaukee. We even had two Brits. One of them was a die hard Bears fan. He was sporting a Bears cap. I love him already. He said that there is a Facebook group for London Chicago Bears fans. I am all over that! I was great to hear their personal stories about how they came to England and their perceptions of this country. We definitely agreed it was hard to make British friends. (That's my new mission, befriend 3 British friends outside of work) The single girls talked about dating here which is very intriguing to get their perspective. By the end of the meeting, I had exchanged numbers with most of the people I met and I am looking forward to making plans with them when I get back from my trip.

So this is typically how my weeks have been in London. I try and make new experiences for myself and meet new people. I am keeping an open mind and taking every opportunity to venture out and create my own way here. It's been great!

Double Three 3-3

Two weekends ago I celebrated my 33rd birthday in the West End. I met up with some friends that I have made here - Jacqui (right), from Australia, Amber (left) who I met in Barcelona, from Oklahoma but last lived in Chicago for 6 years, Jacqui's friend, Louisa and some of her friends.


In looking back at my blogs, I realize I've never speak too much about the new people that I meet...So here goes....

Jacqui's been one of my best friends since I've moved here. She's so sweet, the life of the party, enjoys cheap wine with me and loves Stanley. She's been a great Auntie, watching Stanley when I am away for business or on holiday. She even had him running short sprints with her! Her husband (also a great person) introduced me and Stanley to Sunday roasts which we love.

Although I just met Amber, I think we knew each other in another life. We arrived in London around the same time, both from Chicago, have similar interests, share similar stories, fellow single lady....to name a few...Notice how we almost match! And it was not done on purpose. I'm looking forward to our Easter holiday in Lisbon.

Back to my birthday....We headed out for a nite on the town stopping first at a "Mexican" restaurant for dinner. Food was tolerable for British Mexican food. From there we headed to Verve, a lounge/club in the West End. In the West End you'll find the theater district, night life, Chinatown, and loads of people always up to have a good time. The night was spent dancing to great music, laughing and just being silly. I had a memorable night that evening.

On Sunday, my actual birthday, I was invited for a Mexican lunch at my friend Rob's house in Chelsea. The food was awesome and it was great to meet his friends.

To cap off my birthday weekend, I met up with Jason. We had a few drinks in Chelsea at the Big Easy and he surprised me with a nice gift. I walk around with these white bobbie socks. Well Jason upgraded me to some white and purple checkered socks from a foo-foo place. I love it!


Jason was my first friend in London. We share a love of R&B music, he gives me great advice and he just cracks me up. He's shown me the ropes around my neighborhood and in London yet empowers me to learn some things on my own. I am truly grateful for his friendship.




It is my wish that every year, I continue to meet great people like Jacqui, Amber and Jason and make lasting friendships for a lifetime.

The Passport Stamp Demystified

Another stamp on your passport. Although it may sound worldly or distinguish you from those who are not fortunate enough to globe trot, the truth is it's not that glamorous.

I'm here to tell you about some of my travel woes and mishaps. It seems like every time I go somewhere, something always happens. I don't want to continue to jinx myself but it's a pattern lately.

When I leave and enter any country, I can always count on being questioned about my occupation, if I still live in the same place, what type of business I am here to conduct, what is the name of the company that I am visiting, etc. Once as I walked away, I heard another agent, say to his colleague next to him "You see what I was trying to do." Deport me????

I also have to go into the "special" queue for non-EU citizens where there is only 1 or 2 agents for 3 or 4 flights that have arrived at the same time. I guess we do the same in the US. I have gotten used to it and succumb to the fact that this comes with being an immigrant in a foreign country. It also gives me more sympathy to what we in the US put our immigrants through. I am sure they have had to endure far worse.

So in my one of my earlier blogs, I wrote that on my first business trip, I went to the wrong airport. Well on Tuesday, I had to be in Paris for a very important meeting I was facilitating. I arrived at the station only to realize that I had forgotten my passport! I talked to the French authorities and there was no way I was getting on. My US drivers license wasn't going to cut it. I rebooked for the next train and rushed back home to get my passport. That day I must travelled the Victoria line 6 times! In the end, I was lucky to make it on time. Not a single hair out of place.

Today, I travelled Ryanair. They are notorious for wanting to make money off of you. They have very strict boarding procedures. If your bag is too big, you are charged. If you are late to check in by 5 minutes they refuse you. On the advice of my manager, I made sure everything was sorted before I left the office. I printed my boarding pass. I entered my passport information. Well how come I made it through the initial airport security and when it came time for me to board, I was denied? Turns out because I am a non-EU resident, my passport information had to be validated at the front desk. So really, what was the purpose of me checking in online and entering my passport information? There was no budging. I was told I needed to be escorted out of the airport. Embarrassed as hell, I had to call my manager yet again to tell him that something had happened to me as I was travelling and that he should not wait for me at the Dublin airport. After waiting an hour and a half for someone to walk me out of Gatwick, I finally made my way home. For a moment, I was ready to scream false imprisonment because the woman said that I need to stay near where she could see me and that being escorted was the only way I could leave the airport .

On another occasion after I arrived from Barcelona, I took the train home from Gatwick. It was delayed at 1:00a.m. (go figure). When I finally made my way home, I got off on the wrong stop in Selhurst (never heard of the town) at 2:00a.m. and there were no other trains until 6:00a.m. I was able to get a taxi. Of course the taxi driver asked me a million questions about why I was out so late, where I was from because I don't sound like I am from around here, etc.... I told him my train situation and that my fictitious boyfriend didn't have a car otherwise he would have come to get me and that he was waiting for me at home.

So what I have I learned you may ask? Going forward, I am going to read the fine print not once but twice and not take anything for granted. I'm in a new country with new rules. I also need to pay more attention to detail and make sure I have a plan when I travel. Perhaps subconsciously my nervousness gets the best of me. Maybe I need my friend Andrea (human map) with me permanently....or maybe I can just marry a British man and my passport problems will be solved!

I've Got a New Attitude

Last week I returned from a 10 day trip to Chicago primarily for business. Yes, I've only been gone for four months and have been back 2 times but I think this trip really put things into perspective. I was lucky enough to have my trip paid for by my company and I was able to add a head and tail weekend to visit my friends and family.

Because I've never been in the situation where I lived away from Chicago, I never had to go back "home" to visit. I must say that it's quite stressful trying to make sure I see everyone. Then there's the added stress of shopping for things I don't get in London and eating food that I normally don't get it. Well that part is not so stressful but rather over indulgent.

What a week it was. Work was mentally draining. I caught a cold from the weather. I was jet lagged the entire time waking up at 5:00a.m. My colleague made fun of me because she said that I went away for 4 months and forgot what it was like to live in Chicago. I celebrated my birthday a few weeks early. Spent time with my favorite people in the world. Got to meet my cousin's baby for the first time. My cousin Ashley added my mom's name to her daughter's middle name. I was so touched. My aunt made this great photo album for me. All in all, it was a great trip but draining trying to do everything.

I arrived back home, with an extra suitcase more than I came with. As the taxi driver was driving down Clapham High Street, I was really glad to be coming back "home" to London. The streets were lively and bustling. The people were dressed really nice. As I stepped into my flat I felt a sense of home. I really, really like living London. I am starting to make more friends and have a more active social life.

This last trip helped me appreciate London even more. I am not homesick. By the time I left Chicago, I was ready to return back to London. I actually feel silly for buying soo many things. I also came home feeling like a fat American for eating so much.

Since I've been back (aside from getting food poisoning from some Cuban food I ate right before I left), I went to my first play in Covent Garden. I've been exploring some great restaurants in my neighborhood. I found Stanley a dog walker and he got his first groom (so cute!) I went to see some live bands play in Brick Lane last night. Today my client from Chicago was in for business. I showed him around London and in turn I learned how to navigate the city even more.

Life is definitely good in London.

Just Dance, Gonna Be Okay

Wow, today I was invited to a mediation class in the form of dance. It is called 5 rhythms dance - http://beatrootdance.webs.com/5rhythmsislike.htm

You basically let your body go with the flow of the music and the emotions that you feel with it. I have to admit, when I saw a 60 year old man and a middle aged women galloping around the open area of a church, I could not help but laugh and wonder what the heck I was doing here.

But then I closed my eyes and just let the music take me away. Music can bring back so many memories, good and bad. After I left the session, I left very refreshed. I definitely recommend doing something out of the ordinary for your spirit.