On My Time In London

If I've learned anything over the past few days, it's that London really is the most expensive city in the world. They literally charge you for everything, right down to your bodily fluids. Yes, they charge you to pee. 30 pence, to be exact, if you have to go at the train station. Outrageous! Anyways, I suppose I will try to start at the beginning!

Tuesday morning, I woke up early so that I could go to SVC and meet with the second head of English. She was a very nice woman, who was very bubbly and energetic, and eager to get me settled and started. I think I will have a fairly solid support base at the school. They are all aware that I'm Canadian, and therefore not totally comfortable with the British curriculum. They're also very flexible, in that they constantly are telling me I have complete freedom with how I teach, as long as I meet the objectives. Definitely a plus. I also found out that the school will provide me with a laptop! Not too bad at all, eh? I don't think I get to take it home or anything, nor would I, but it still is a great help to be able to have my OWN laptop to do school work on. Every classroom also comes with one of those new-fangled projector boards. They are much more useful than those ancient projectors that we still use too much in Ontario. Now I don't have to worry about making overheads, which I usually dread (its so easy to melt the plastic when you do the photocopy wrong).

After about an hour at the school, I walked back to the B&B, and packed for my trip to London. I wasn't sure what to bring, so I brought a bit of everything, in the hopes that I could mix and match to make outfits that worked.

I had to take a county bus from Swavesey to Cambridge, which was ridiculously cheap and a very nice ride. I got to see a few of the area villages, all of which are equally quaint and cute. I wasn't nervous at all this time, since it felt like I'd just done the trip, in the other order. I knew where I had to go this time, so things were slightly more familiar.

However, once I arrived in London, things really started to go downhill for me. My first impression of London was not good, not good at all.

So I got off the train, and then headed out of King's Cross, with the intention of getting a cab to take me to the accommodations that Dream had arranged. I had, naively, written down the name of the Hotel, but not the actual address or phone number. I stupidly assumed that the cab drivers would know all the hotels in London. I honestly cannot explain where that stupidity came from, because if I tried to think of every hotel in Toronto I couldn't do it either...so why would ANYONE be able to do it in London, which is bigger? So dumb of me!

Anyways, I get in the line for the taxis, and eventually am ushered into one. The cab driver asks me where I want to go, and I tell him the Vandon House. He stares straight ahead, with this stupid look on his face, like he has no idea what I'm saying.
"Where?" he asks.
I start to panic, immediately.
"Um...the Vandon House Hotel? I think it's on Vandon Street..."
"Are you sure it's in London, never heard of it..."
"Yah...positive...." I say.
He goes on his CB, and asks dispatch to call him back after searching for the hotel name in the directory. They call his cell phone, for which he has a blue tooth earpiece. I can't hear anything from the other side, only him as he keeps repeating "Vandon", spelling it out letter by letter.
He finally turns to me, after an agonizing few minutes, and informs me that dispatch cannot find the hotel in directory, and if it's not there, it must not exist.
I stare at him, dumbfounded.
"It does exist, I have an e-mail with the address..."
"Yah well you should have brought that, huh miss?" he asks me, snarkily.
"Well I didn't think it'd be a big deal...." I reply.
He talks to someone a bit more on his phone, asking them to check Google Earth, or Google Maps. However, apparently they don't know how to work the Internet, because they also come back with nothing. Meanwhile, I notice the money is slowly going up. I start to get annoyed, not wanting to pay to SIT in a cab, while the cabby haggles with me over whether or not a place exists.
Finally he turns to me, as cold as ice, and says "I don't know what to tell you...it just doesn't exist. The address is not online, it's not in the phonebook, not even the cops could find it now..."
My eyes start to tear up, as I start worrying about all the ways I could have been scammed. I start thinking the whole teaching job was a total scam, and that they just wanted to get my....my what?! I don't have any MONEY, ha ha ha! Anyways, let's not detract from how scared I was...I was terrified. I was sitting in a cab, with literally no idea of where to go.
"You owe me 5 quid though," the cab driver says to me.
My jaw literally drops.
"What? For what?!" I ask him.
"For wasting my time," he says.
I start to really cry now, totally frustrated that this asshole a) told me my destination didn't exist and then b) wants to suck money out of me for NOTHING.
He locks the doors, and refuses to let me leave until I pay him the 5 pounds. I show it through the hole in the divider at him, and jump out of the cab, yelling "Thanks for nothing, you asshole!"
"Go check the Internet in the station!" I hear him yell at me.
I'm still not sure why he told me to do that, but he did.


So I take his advice, against my best interest (I really didn't have much else to do), and walk into St. Pancras station. The building itself looks like a large gorgeous church on the outside, but on the inside it is the vision of modernity. It's the Eurostar Station (the train that takes you under the Channel to France), but it also has almost a mall-like atmosphere to it. There are cute cafe's and restaurants inside, a grocery store (Marks & Spencer), as well as high vaulted glass ceilings. It was lovely. I walk into one of the cafes, buy a coke, and ask where I can find wireless Internet access. The teenager behind the counter shrugs at me, and says he doesn't know. I leave, frustrated. However, outside there are a number of tables, and many people sitting at them have laptops! I boldly approach one table, and ask if he has wireless access.
"Yes of course!" he says.
Elated, I run into the center of the mall/station, plop myself flat on the floor, and dig around in my bags until I pull out my laptop. Turning it on, I quickly find I DO have Internet access. I thank my luck that it was available to me, because otherwise I'd have been screwed. So I checked my e-mail, wrote down the address, and hopping into another cab. This fellow took me where I wanted to go, thank gawd.

When I got to the hotel, I was less than impressed. Based on North American standards, the hotel was really more of a boarding house, and it wasn't the classiest place. My room left much to be desired, as the pictures on Facebook will show. It was small, like a dorm room, with a single bed, a wardrobe, a small ancient TV, and a sink. No toilet, no shower, just a sink. I cringed, and wondered how I was going to survive. I also found out that to use the Internet, I would have to pay a pound per half hour. That's basically two dollars Canadian for half an hour. What a ridiculous markup! I paid it, anyways, because I had so many people I wanted to talk to. I spent two hours on it, which went by far too fast! After it timed out, I decided I was hungry, so I decided to venture outside alone. I walked up to the first pub I saw, and noticed a tall fellow also reading the outdoor menu. I didn't mind what was on it, but noticed the pub was full, so there was no sense in looking. Unsure of where else to try, I decided to go back to the hotel to ask the receptionist. When I got into the hotel again, I saw the fellow again, and decided to see if he was part of Dream as well! Turns out he was, so we decided to forego eating alone, and join each other. Darren, which I soon discovered was his name, and I went to a lovely little pub (see picture) and had a delicious meal! After, he walked with me to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye. It was a nice walk, and seeing London lit up at night really won it a little more respect in my eyes. It really is a breathtakingly beautiful city.

The next morning, I met Darren and his roomie Andrew (a fellow Canuck, from London) for breakfast. We spent the remainder of the day attending a boring seminar/meeting about teaching in England, and about how to get ourselves paid. It was fairly informative, but I found that most of the stuff was kind of common sense. Besides, they provided us with a booklet that explained everything, so hashing it out repeatedly really got on my nerves. I was overjoyed when the day ended, and we headed to a pub for free drinks and dinner.

At dinner, I met the other Canadians, and we all bonded and had a lovely time getting drunk. Hilariously enough, it was the group of Canadians that ended up staying at the pub the longest, just drinking and chatting till our hearts content. We really are a lovely, drunken people. Gotta love that. So we all drunkenly stumbled home, at about 9:30 pm. London gets bizarrely dead at night, unless you're on the Thames, so we didn't run into too many people. We were going to go to a club, but decided to just stay in a room and drink beers all night. It was very much like being back in University, drinking in a dorm room. Regardless, it was very fun, and I enjoyed the company a lot!

This morning, the Canadians stuck together again, on making our way back to our prospective towns. As it turns out, most of the people I befriended are teaching near me, so we all exchanged e-mails and Facebooks, and agreed to keep in touch. You can never give up Canadian companionship, because we just GET each other, you know? We can share the same jokes, and all that.

The trip home was uneventful. I took the Cambridge Express, and then bought a Day Trip pass for the bus ride home. I stopped in Bar Hill, at the Tesco, on the way back to Swavesey. I had to pick up a duvet cover, some sheets, a cell phone, a blow dryer, a razor (I left it at home, but brought the blades...stupidly enough), and some towels. It was kind of nice to go shopping for ME again....I liked it. Was a good feeling. Buying a phone was interesting to. I walked up to one I liked, said I wanted it, and was handed a box. Easy as that. I activated it, and was ready to roll.

When I got back to Swavesey, I dropped off my stuff, and hopped another bus to St. Ives, to view that second room. I had a quick look at it, decided I liked it much more than the room in Willingham, and decided to take it instead. I'll be living with a couple, a man and a woman my age, a 23 year old guy, and possibly another 24 year old guy. I just liked the prospect of having people my own AGE around; that's instant friends!! It was also cleaner, my room was nicer (its purple!), and St. Ives is AMAZING! It's so absolutely gorgeous, I can't believe it. I will take pictures on the weekend, for sure. It's just....amazing.

I e-mailed Henry as soon as I got home, to tell him I was unfortunately backing out. I invented a bit of a lie, because I felt bad, but that's that. I !didn't sign anything, so I'm not breaking any contracts or laws, just perhaps being a slight asshole. Oh well. I'll never see him again, so who cares, right?

I move into the place in St. Ives tomorrow. I am excited, and can't wait to get settled. Should be fun!

More later!

Cheers