Three Months - Is The Probabtion Period Over?

I just realized that today it has been three months since we arrived here in London. Wow time flies.

Today is the first day off in what feels like forever that I have not had a ton of catch up to do. I'm sitting at a little restaurant in Wimbledon Village (basically the fancy part of Wimbledon) having a glass of wine and some lunch. I wanted to go explore Camden Market but it's pouring rain today for the first time in quite a while so this will suffice.
I'm sitting at a large share table with 5 moms and their babies. Mommie meet-ups like this seem to be really common here, or maybe just in the area I live and work in. It's funny to listen to them talk about yoga and poop, and then get distracted because one baby did something cute. To be perfectly honest I have to clean up after so many moms at work that I would rather be somewhere without children right now, but this place has good food and free wi-fi so beggars can't be choosers. Also, I have never seen as many breastfeeding women as I have in the past 3 months - just thought I'd throw that in because I can see 2 right now.

I should be researching the company that I have an interview with tomorrow (yay!) but I need a bit of a break from looking for work every second I have a day off. I got a call yesterday from Pilate Media (http://www.pilatmedia.com) asking me to come in for an interview and seeing as this is only my 4th interview since living here including the job I currently have I was pretty stoked. I'm not sure if this role is something I want - it's an 'Implementation Consultant' which I imagine is basically a liaison between broadcasters who use their system and the company. The advert said that extensive international travel was part of the job so it will be interesting to hear about what that means exactly. I had a brief conversation with Justin about being away for extended amounts of time last night just to see what would work for him and what wouldn't. We will cross that bridge if/when we get there.
And just FYI I did meet up with the lady who sent me the rejection letter but I haven't heard from her since then.

A quick story for you: The other day at work I commented on a guy wearing almost all green and asked him if he had green pants. When he told me that no in fact he didn't I said he needed to work on that. That same day on my break I saw a girl wearing green jeans and so when he came in the next day I said to him "I saw someone wearing green pants yesterday and thought of you." He laughed and said that he was very flattered. When I elaborated on the fact that they were jeans, he was like ' Oh! You mean trousers... I thought you were talking about underwear!" ... So for two days a customer thought I was making conversation about his ginch. Awesome. I should have known better because Kim (a friend here) told me a similar story - but her's involved a child who she was teaching, so she wins.

So we will be assessing our situation here in about a month an a half, which seems way too soon. I love being here and it is so awesome being close to amazing countries to visit, but we can't afford our place on the wages we are making. Hopefully something gives in the next 6 weeks.

I thought the hardest part about being so far away from home would be missing out on the good times and great moments in peoples lives - which does suck - but I've realized it is actually not being able to be there for your family and friends when something bad happens. I hope to baby jesus that nothing shitty happens to any of you. Ever.

Send us your good vibes and thoughts if you think of us.
Love you all.
Genny

Foxes In My Neighbourhood, Orcas In My Dreams.

Justin and I had our first fox sighting on the weekend. We were walking home from seeing The Adventures of TinTin in the 'cinema', as they call it here, and had a fleeting glimpse of a large fox with a huge tail about a block from our house. The next morning when I was leaving for work there was another one in the driveway across the street from me. It saw me and immediately bolted. It wasn't as big as the first one we saw but I got a better look at it; It was so awesome. They look more like coyotes here than the cute foxes in Grizzly man. Foxes are WAY batter neighbourhood pests than raccoons. (PS I stole this fox picture, but it is a fox in the back yard of a home in London.)


Everything is pretty good here right now with the exception of the job front. Don't get me wrong, we both have jobs now, and I think Justin is going to stay at his for the time being, but we are just getting paid so poorly. I have put together a CV highlighting my office, administration, and reception skills (wink) as it pays at least 2pounds more than I'm getting currently and have been contacted by a few agencies. I went and met with one of them today and had to do all sorts of testing. I found out I type 48 words per minute and that I suck at power point among other things. I guess we'll see what comes of that. I enjoy my job at the cafe and the owners have been really good to me, but I just need to make more money bottom line. I'm spending every day off at an internet cafe online looking and applying for jobs, TV, reception, and otherwise.

On the TV front I have received an insider tip that ITV is going to be undergoing some serious changes in the next month and to keep my eye on jobs there. So I am. I have applied to quite a few TV jobs recently. Just about an hour ago I received a call from an agent who deals with film mostly (I was given her information from Rhys who works at Technicolor here) and she was very helpful and lovely. She gave me some advice on my CV so I just bumped it up, and she said she was going to contact Sony and Disney to see if they had anything available that would suit me. Again, I guess we'll see what comes of that. At any rate it's nice to have people (including all of you who have given me contacts) who are trying to help you out.

London is obsessed with Christmas and it seems that since we have been here there isn't much talk of anything else. There are even Christmas movies already playing every day on TV. We are looking forward to going to all the outdoor Christmas sites we keep hearing about.
Justin and I decided that we didn't want to wake up alone in our empty home on Christmas morning (even though a co worker of Justin's invited us to Christmas lunch at his house which is too cute) so we booked a trip. Turns out the cheapest place (by quite a bit) to fly to in Europe over Christmas is Amsterdam. So I guess it's going to be a very green Christmas for us haha. We've booked a hostel - The Stayokay Amsterdam Vondelpark - but haven't really looked into what exactly we are going to do there. I'm looking forward to seeing the canals. It's certainly not a place that was at the top of either of our lists to visit - but poor ass immigrants can't be choosers.

Our internet should be up and running in a week to 3 weeks. When that happens I'll upload another video here. In the mean time if you want to give me a call please drop me an email asking for my number.

I hope you are all well. I saw there was snow in Vancouver the other day!! How crazy. Send me a note telling me any new and exciting events happening in your life. I'd love to hear from you.

Getting more comfortable here but still missing you all,

Gen

The Stressful Bits

As some of you have heard we rented a flat (yay!). It was a very different process than renting in Canada. Most things here, even jobs, go through agencies who act as middle men between renters and landlords, or companies and potential hires. I guess there is a reason for it, but it seems like a cash grab in most cases. Anyways, Justin and I went and looked at a flat in Wimbledon and ended up renting it through the agent who showed it to us. I pretty much pressured Justin into it; He was hesitant because our walk to the flat was through a pretty grim area. But I was told by a friend I met while still in Vancouver that 5 minutes away from the really shite areas in London is usually a good area, so I had faith that on the other side of us would be something good. Turns out there is. Justin says I just got lucky.

The flat is expensive, yes, but we knew it would be. We expected to pay about double what we were paying in Vancouver, and we are paying almost exactly that. The one real killer was that because we don't have jobs or any references here in the UK we had to pay for 6 months upfront to secure the place. It sucks but I get it. There are so many people moving here every day and the landlord needs some sense of security... anyone could pretend to be anyone. So I guess we are staying here for at least 6 months! :)

It's a really big place (by London standards) and has a living room with a futon in it, PERFECT for visitors to sleep comfortably on (HINT HINT). That is actually one of the main reasons we both really like the space- We really hope that you use us as an excuse to come visit London, especially now with a large comfortable space. Here is a link to it online so you can take a look. Keep in mind that the pictures greatly exaggerate the size, especially in the kitchen): Click here to see our flat!

We move in on Friday the 4th, and so now with that sorted we can focus on the next stressful bit - getting jobs.

As our flat was located only 3 tube stops from the cafe I had my interview at, I was really hoping I would get the job. On Thursday night Magda called me and offered me a part time position! Magda and her partner are really sweet and the Cafe opens this Monday. My first day training will be Wednesday. There is a facebook page you can check out if you want to see what it looks like. It's going to be very different for me but I'm looking forward to interacting with the customers and having a little money come in.

I also had a contact through Ben from Citytv ask me to help him out at a IIFF event at a film school in London. I went out and lent a hand on Thursday night and met a very sweet girl named Tamsyn, who is in drama school to be an actress, and an Italian director-hopefull named Fab, who both gave me a ton of advice about the city and were really fun to chat with. I am hoping to meet up with more of the contacts I have been given once we move into our flat.

Justin has started the process of getting his equivalency paperwork and will begin focusing on finding a job soon.

We've been having a lot of fun too.. went out to Windsor castle, had a good few drinks last night and met all sorts of people from different countries, explored some of the tourist areas of London... but that's another post; I just wanted to update you all on the tougher parts of this adventure. We'll tell you more about the fun stuff shortly.

I'll leave you with this - A couple nights ago I woke up and heard an animal in our room rustling in the garbage can. I elbowed Justin to get up and see what it was, so he reluctantly did. When he went to tie up the garbage a mouse jumped out and ran so fast across the room that there wasn't even a moment to try and catch him.

I guess mice are something I'm going to have to get used to. They have been here for centuries; I've only been here 6 days.

Deep breath.

Genevieve