Jason's Daily Notes

Last weekend:
Saturday, 8 September
It was a warm and sunny day. Went to the park (London fields) to meet Maria and her friends for drinks and a picnic. It was crowded. Isabell was outgoing and friendly. Cotta and her Hungarian friend were there too.
Mike's brother, Roy, was visiting from the Netherlands. They went out to watch The Expendables 2, and really wanted me to join, but I chose not to. Instead, I went on a little adventure myself, taking the tube around to Euston and riding the bus back. Back in the flat, Roy and Mike had brought back Katie (Roy's friend who traveled with him in Australia) and her friend Christie. We stayed and had plenty of drinks, while the two boys tried to work their moves on the girls. I ended up playing some guitar, haha.

Sunday, 9 September
Went to see the London Paralympics marathon. There were not many people there at all (both viewers and marathon participants). Still, it was good to wear my flag one last time for the games. Mike and Roy were at football 7 a side at the Olympic park.
I went to Volleyball in Hyde Park again! There were more people (because the weather was really warm).
Met up with BJ (Maddie's boyfriend). Some friends joined me from the volleyball (Amanda, Craig, Marie, and Heidi from Finland). We searched for a cheap pub serving food, and ended up going to O'Neills by Chinatown. Then, parted ways, and BJ and I went to the south bank, where we met Mike and Roy to watch the fireworks. Fernanda was there but she didn't want to leave her spot to join us. The fireworks were very cool. BJ was very jet lagged.

Monday, 10 September
There was the victory parade for Team GB. No buses were running from Waterloo except for the 521.
I had a drinks meeting with Josephine from Sharehoods. It's a startup that I'm really interested in. I just want to work for some startup somewhere, so why not get experience here. We chatted at the George IV for some time, and I made plenty of suggestions regarding crowdsourcing and such. But I didn't get a job. Oh well.
I went to the boat party (organized by Kurt for the language exchange group). It was nice, although the boat was rocking. Swag was there with his friend Olga (who was in London last year but whom I never met). I ended up dancing with Fränzel and Lily.
Roy and Mike went to watch Ted.

Tuesday, 11 September
I slept in a little bit. Went out with Roy, as it was his last day in London (his flight was at 5pm). We walked across Tower Bridge, and we climbed the Monument. Then back across London Bridge, we eventually met Mike for lunch, at Borough Market. We finished our food at Southwark Cathedral, where a woman noticed my American accent and then asked if she could do an interview with me. She just wanted me to share my experiences of 9/11 since it was the anniversary. Oh man. Well, she wasn't actually a journalist, just a contributor to Audio Boo (you can find her recordings by searching "Delores").
Mike went back to work, and Roy grabbed his things from home and I showed him off (to keep his oyster card).
That evening, Amanda came over for dinner. I made an amazing batch of vegetarian chili (I credit the mix of bell peppers, celery, lentils, beans, cumin, frozen veggies, tomato paste, and chili powder - basically the whole recipe!) We discussed possibilities for staying in London with our visa (she's not being sponsored by her company) and started job searching together. By this point I had pretty much decided to stay in London.
We watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother. I decided to call Mike "Swarley."

Wednesday, 12 September
I decided that it's primarily important for me to find a job, even before finding a flat. I somehow woke up early, drank coffee, and spent the morning browsing through job postings. I chatted with Jonathan for a bit on Gchat.
It was already the mid-afternoon before I went out. I didn't have an itinerary, just decided to go to Old Street and try to find the elusive Google Campus. I think I found it. It doesn't seem particularly impressive from the outside.
Returned home. No one was there. So I went for a walk to Stave Hill, which I realized is my favorite place in London. Cold War Kids' "Royal Blue" was playing on my iPhone as I climbed up. Perfect.
Mike and I grabbed a beer at the China Hall. We played pool. He was clearly more skilled than I was, but somehow I won 2 out of 3 games. (By default - he pocketed the 8 ball in the last game).

Thursday, 13 September
An exhausting day of flat searching! I responded to ads in the morning, set off around noon to visit as many agencies as I could, starting around Bermondsey, and I signed up with each of them. At Tower Bridge, the agent said that he's holding a viewing of a flat by Bermondsey in an hour, so I joined him for that, and I invited Mike to come over too. The flat was very nice, exactly what we wanted. But it did not include bills in the price, which made it too much for us.
Back home, then I pulled myself over to Old Street for a quasi-agency that had no rooms for us but offered us to live in their basement (?!). Took the bus to Whitechapel, where I had a viewing for a dirty and small ex-council flat on the 5th floor with no lift. (Obviously, no deal.) At least the girl, Tina from Bulgaria, was nice and helpful.
I then walked toward Shadwell to view the next flat at 5:30. There was a group of people outside, at least 10. As I waited for my turn, more people kept arriving, bringing the total number of prospective tenants to over 25! And it was only 1 room available! I asked if they had any properties with 2 bedrooms available, and there was one in Shoreditch, and the guy drove me over there straight away! It felt weird to be in a car in London. All this time, I was chatting via WhatsApp with Ragnhild and Kristi and Mike. The Shoreditch flat had an amazing location, a respectable price, but a measly kitchen and a smelly staircase. No, sorry, I wanted something nicer. So I guess we'll have to search farther afield.
I was absolutely exhausted by the time I got on the Overground home. Swag had gotten a citation for biking on the pavement in the construction zone. Mike tried to scare him from behind the window. I made ghetto lasagna. Chieh was texting me via Viber. She was clearly interested in me and wanted me to come over asap.
I called home, since it had been so long. Only my uncle was there.

That's it for now. Whew, things are going by so fast! Let's hope this chaos settles down now.