So I was supposed to be headed for Rome today. But instead, my passport is still in the hands of the...to be honest, I don't know who...but someone took it to stamp my new Visa in it, and they haven't returned it. It's been 2 weeks, and I was told it took...2 weeks. This is very lame.
Hopefully next weekend will work out. If not, I am out of weekends to go. And this is the one place I absolutely wanted to visit during my 12 months here.
What I'm Reading...
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
Tonight we had a fund raising pub quiz event after work. I originally wasn't gonna go, but it's been advertised around the whole office for weeks and most of the people I knew were going, so I decided to head over. After all, I had bought a few raffle tickets and I thought I'd skip the quiz part and just try to won free stuff.
It turns out, they started late so I ended up on a team with some co-workers. I was worried it'd be all British trivia, but luckily we had 3 Brits, and they also asked a fair amount of US-esque questions (Mount Rushmore, history, etc). And at one point, they had the pot of gold making the rounds, The idea is you buy as many tickets as you want for £1 and all the money goes into a jar. The winner gets half. Not a bad little investment, so I bought 2 tickets.
And wouldn't you know it, I won. My other raffle tickets were bunk, but who cares! I wasn't even gonna go to this thing, and we ended up taking 3rd (out of about 12 teams) and I won some cash.
The moral of the story: skip work and drink beer.
It turns out, they started late so I ended up on a team with some co-workers. I was worried it'd be all British trivia, but luckily we had 3 Brits, and they also asked a fair amount of US-esque questions (Mount Rushmore, history, etc). And at one point, they had the pot of gold making the rounds, The idea is you buy as many tickets as you want for £1 and all the money goes into a jar. The winner gets half. Not a bad little investment, so I bought 2 tickets.
And wouldn't you know it, I won. My other raffle tickets were bunk, but who cares! I wasn't even gonna go to this thing, and we ended up taking 3rd (out of about 12 teams) and I won some cash.
The moral of the story: skip work and drink beer.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
You know you've lived in London too long...
...when you're wondering on a Friday night at 8pm if anything is still open.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Crazy Shoe Hand Man
I don't normally ride the bus to work. I live within 15 minutes walking distance, and the weather is quite nice nowadays. But today I was feeling lazy and slightly jet lagged from my weekend jaunt to Philly, so I decided to be a lazy bastard. So I head on down to the stop and hop on the U3 (ironically, the first bus route I ever took after moving to London) and moved towards the exit door. I only had a a few stops to go and didn't want to sit down with my backpack full of soccer, ahem, football, gear.
As soon as the bus starts moving, some old man with wild hair starts shooting me looks from the front of the bus. He just kept turning around, glancing at me kind of nervously, and then would turn back around. I didn't pay him much attention until after the 4th or 5th time he got out of seat and started yelling at me. I had my head phones on and he had a thick English accent with a hint of cuckoo, so I couldn't understand him. So I ignored him.
We went through this exercise a few more times: he'd get up and shout at me, I'd pretend the whole bus wasn't staring at me, and then he'd sit down and put his fingers in his ears while rocking back and forth. Finally, he got up and walked right up to me and I could hear him loud and clear: "Sit down pleeease!!!!!".
What the hell do you say to that? He apparently was not comfortable with people standing in his presence, so rather than cause a further scene and risk getting my ear bit off, I acquiesced and took the empty seat by the door. But only because he said please. Luckily this seemed to relieve him, though he kept shooting my glances for the remainder of the 4 minute ride.
And now you know the story of the time Mike decided to never ride the bus to work again.
As soon as the bus starts moving, some old man with wild hair starts shooting me looks from the front of the bus. He just kept turning around, glancing at me kind of nervously, and then would turn back around. I didn't pay him much attention until after the 4th or 5th time he got out of seat and started yelling at me. I had my head phones on and he had a thick English accent with a hint of cuckoo, so I couldn't understand him. So I ignored him.
We went through this exercise a few more times: he'd get up and shout at me, I'd pretend the whole bus wasn't staring at me, and then he'd sit down and put his fingers in his ears while rocking back and forth. Finally, he got up and walked right up to me and I could hear him loud and clear: "Sit down pleeease!!!!!".
What the hell do you say to that? He apparently was not comfortable with people standing in his presence, so rather than cause a further scene and risk getting my ear bit off, I acquiesced and took the empty seat by the door. But only because he said please. Luckily this seemed to relieve him, though he kept shooting my glances for the remainder of the 4 minute ride.
And now you know the story of the time Mike decided to never ride the bus to work again.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Still Alive
Sorry for the lack of updates. Not much to update on, though. I have managed to cut back my hours at work in favor of a) being more active and going to the gym, and b) finishing that pesky Masters degree. This officially is my last semester, and I have about 3 weeks to finish my coding and turn in a preliminary thesis to my advisor. I expect about 2 weeks of revisions before turning the whole thing in and hopefully getting a slip of paper. It's been one hell of a journey trying to finish this damn thing, and words cannot describe how relieved I'll be to have it past me.
One bit of exciting news is I have booked a trip to Rome for my birthday at the end of the month. I figure if I'm gonna spend it alone, it may as well be in a cool place. I am only there for 2.5 days so I won't get to see near everything it has to offer. But I'm thinking I can get 2 full days of the main attractions.
As for departing the UK, I am still tracking to an April 13 end date, followed by a few days in Greece, a few days on the east coast, and a cross country road trip back to Denver. Once settled, I'll...I honestly don't know what I will do first. But whatever it is, it will be glorious. And also probably involve a 2,000 calorie burrito.
One bit of exciting news is I have booked a trip to Rome for my birthday at the end of the month. I figure if I'm gonna spend it alone, it may as well be in a cool place. I am only there for 2.5 days so I won't get to see near everything it has to offer. But I'm thinking I can get 2 full days of the main attractions.
As for departing the UK, I am still tracking to an April 13 end date, followed by a few days in Greece, a few days on the east coast, and a cross country road trip back to Denver. Once settled, I'll...I honestly don't know what I will do first. But whatever it is, it will be glorious. And also probably involve a 2,000 calorie burrito.
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