Yesterday Elizabeth and I took a train to Egham, which is about 45 minutes south of London -- it's really interesting to see the dramatic change. London is a huge, metropolitan city, while Egham is this quaint, quiet city where all the shops close at 5:00. We visited Royal Holloway, the college where Elizabeth studied abroad for a semester, and it was quite the sight to see. The clock tower was used in one of the Harry Potter movies, cool! I have pictures but am too lazy to post them right now, but will post them tomorrow.
We then met up with two of Elizabeth's old flatmates, Will and Matt. I've met Will before -- he came to California and we all took a trip to Yosemite, but I never met Matt. We went to a pub for pub quiz, which is a big thing over here. Basically, you're not social unless you go to pubs, it's that big of a deal. People go to pubs during their lunch hour, and as soon as work lets out, they go back into another pub. Even the BUNAC orientation I went to, which is the name of my student work permit, emphasized the fact that you should go to pubs if you want to interact with British people. The Brits don't interact with you on the tube or when you're walking down the street -- it's only at pubs that they'll finally talk to you. The BUNAC representative encouraged us to go to pubs with our co-workers so that we'll find new friends and interact with them. Pub quiz is a popular game played on Sunday nights throughout Britain. Basically, you throw in a quid so that you can form a team with your friends and answer incredibly hard questions. It pretty much makes Americans look unintelligent because it mostly involves world history and current events, and I don't know about you, but all I learned in middle school and high school was American history. So, basically, Americans are useless and the British people are pretty impressive. Of couse, we lost, because those questions were really hard. But this is an example of how important pubs are to the British -- it's a place to unwind and relax, and it's a common pasttime -- it's nowhere near what we would call a bar. In fact, pubs usually close by 11:30, which is pretty early compared to the 2:00 am time for American bars.
Today I spent my time searching for jobs, which isn't very fun at all. I have one lead -- a media research assistant position that's right up my alley -- so here's hoping I get it. Tomorrow I'll be searching for waitressing jobs, which is really quite horrible because most only pay minimum wage, and it's next to impossible to live in London on 5.05 an hour. It makes me feel much better knowing that I'll only be here for three months.
What's cool is that Elizabeth is working for Arcadia, a study-abroad program, and they give special weekend rates to go out of London and into places such as Bath, Oxford, and Brighton. Elizabeth and I get to go for free -- sweet! Also, we have free tickets to see the Producers on Wednesday, and next Wednesday we're seeing Avenue Q -- all for free! That is very beneficial considering our less-than-average income as of present.
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