O Little Town of Beth-Leeeeee-hem

At the grocery store here, you can't just use a grocery cart for free, you have to put a deposit for it to become unlocked from the railing, much like those luggage carriages at the airport. Strange? Of course our refrigerator is so small anyways and we live right, literally, right next door to the huge grocery that we just buy what we need when we need it. It's really refreshing and nice not to have to do that "big" grocery trip where you are planning meals for days and then once it comes down to eating them, you don't even crave that anymore.

As Ellie said, I heard back from the london south bank university and received a position with them. My offical title is faculty administrator and what I do, I am not entirely sure. I think I help students and faculty, with what you may ask, I'll answer you on the 2nd after my training. The campus is really diverse apparently to the point where in the interview the woman asked me if I had a problem with diversity. Obviously, she couldn't have asked a dumber question because as I enthusiastically responded, I LOVE diversity.

Until then, i've been doing the casino thing a lot. I work five straight days starting thursday until christmas eve and then i am off on christmas and then I work the day after christmas through the friday I leave for scotland, edinburgh to be exact and I am really excited. We leave at midnight on the bus on friday night and arrive in scotland on saturday morning. It will be me, Lauren and Ellie.

Also, They call the day after Christmas here, boxing day. It is a holiday and basically what it means is that everyone gets to sit around and be lazy for another day, except i have to work on it. Christmas and boxing day are really intense here because the subway stops running basically for those two days so you are pretty much stranded where you are unless you want to walk across london or take a cab. Some tubes run on boxing day but it's every half hour so getting to work next week should prove interesting. I personally came up with the solustion that we need some jewish subway drivers who could care less about christmas and working on it.

Last weekend we went to notting hill and the market called portobello road street market that is on the main strip of notting hill. Notting hill is the cutest little neighborhood. It has really cute clothing boutiques and little sandwich places. We shared a huge falafel from this stand called happy vegetarian and we walked around and window-shopped. Then later that night we went to chinatown and ate sweet and sour tofu, rice and veggie spring rolls. Being a vegetarian in this town is the best. I haven't been anywhere where I have been hard up to find something i could eat. Every single restaurant puts a little (v) next to items that are meat-free. After chinatown, we walked around soho and had a nutella crepe for dessert. Then we went to sing christmas carols at a non-denominational, all inclusive church called st. anne's. Here they say beth-lee-ham, even when they sing christmas carols. They gave everyone mulled wine afterwards and ellie and I went home tired from our busy day.

The other day, ellie and I decided to walk to this indian vegetarian buffet we read about. We invited lauren and met her there. It was a fifteen minute walk and the food was pretty good. I am no expert at indian but i thought it was pretty tasty. Then we stumbled upon this weird museum and looked around for a little bit. It was a mix of a science and art museum, it was called the wellcome collection. I kept hearing people say I lived on regents park and I was determined to find out where and what this was all about because everyone just says that regents park is like central park in nyc but better and lovelier and then i realized it is just down the street from me and it is so lovely. i really want to start jogging there.

Later that night, Lauren, Ellie and I wandered through our "Fresh and Wild" which is owned by whole foods and is just teeny and so sweet and cute. It's right down the street which is great. Then Ellie went to her babysitting job and Lauren and i, along with laurens old roommate ashley went to primrose hill. Primrose hill is apparently the major hub for celebrities, because it's quite residential and all of the homes are probably 5064568 pounds. The little main strip was cute with shops and restaurants but really was the most amazing thing was the actual hill. We climbed up it with our cans of beer in hand and when we turned around it was a 360 degree view of London. Apparently Primrose hill is one of the highest points in the city. It was breathtaking and cold and stunning. Somewhere I will bring anyone who comes to see us.

We miss everyone as Christmas gets closer. Having a Christmas dinner (a week before) in a work canteen cafeteria style sure does not beat mom's green bean casserole hot out of the oven.