official update #1

22.april.05: i officially got the job as a barista in nottingham. i’m very excited about it, i know it will be good for me. even if i start working there and find a higher paying job, i know that this is where i’m supposed to go in the beginning. but i’m also open to staying for a good while. it seems really friendly and “hip,” since nottingham is a college town (known for its fashion design program, apparently). might be the shift i need. but i’ve also heard from other people that nottingham was “interesting” and “just okay.” we’ll see. the nice thing about nottingham is that, like visalia, it is centrally located. unlike visalia, tori amos is going to be playing there in july. so there.

but before i move there, i’m going to be using my britrail pass all next week, after i’m done with the weekend and the orientation in london. i’ll be visiting all sorts of different UK cities, from cambridge, bristol, bath, nottingham, york, glasgow and edinburgh. i wanted to visit first so i can scope out possible job/living sites. but i also might save a few days on the flexipass so i can just do daytrips or weekend holidays to some of these places, instead of in one blow.

this experience is a series of firsts. never been to britain, unless you count some transfers in heathrow airport. never lived on my own outside visalia, let alone the country. never flown on my own. never worked in the food industry (or any job that required interacting with everyday people, for that matter).

i’ve also never been away from my dogs for this long. i wonder how i’m going to handle it, and what i’m going to explain to my british friends why i keep randomly saying that roxie has no brains.

when am i going to finally move from the “i’m going to get there” to “i’m already here” already? the map on my airplane mini-screen says we have 5 hours and 44 minutes left to go. hurry up already.