First US visitors

Last weekend I had my first visit from friends from the US. Geraldine and Andrew were on the way to see their parents in Yorkshire, where Andrew's parents live, and Belfast in Northern Ireland, where Geraldine's mom lives. They landed in Heathrow around 7am on Saturday. We texted each other a coule of times after they landed. They took the heathrow express to paddington station and tube to Baker Street. We met them on Marylebone High Street as they were walking to my flat. We hung out at my flat. It's funny that I was a bit concerned of what we're going to do at the flat. I only have a love seat and two dining chairs. Since I'm leaving for Rome in several days, I didn't want to buy groceries before the trip. I only have green tea that I can serve them. No juice, milk or soda. The good thing is they're happy with green tea. We went to Providore for breakfast which is just around the corner. The place came highly recommended by Lizzie, Amy's friend that also lives in Marylebone. I had two eggs scrambled with bacon, mushroom and roasted tomatoes with a piece of canary toast. Bacon in UK is different. Wider cut and even though I asked for extra crispy bacon, it wasn't crispy at all, but it made it easier to cut off all the fat. I can't decide if Providore is better than Granger & Co. I went there with Amy and her friends, Lizzie and Jen. I found out that Jen was going to have Keggiving party, instead of thanksgiving Friday night. I told them that I wasn't sure that I could go since that's the same day that Julie came. She was so nice and said I could bring her too. I think I would stop by because I need to meet more friends. 

Talking about meeting people, I went to a meetup group for American Professional women and a couple of new friends. Ilda is a Canadian Mexican that has lived in London for 2 years. I asked her where the best Mexican restaurant here since I had a high hope for Chipotle but ended up disappointed because it didn't taste the same. We ended up planning for a Mexican dinner after I get back from London. She has her own global marketing research company. Basically she's the middle person between companies that need research and companies in other countries that offer marketing research services. She works with Indonesian companies too. She told me she wants to go to Indonesia someday, not knowing that I'm Indonesian. Her jaw dropped when I told her I grew up there. 

Back to Andrew and Geraldine, after breakfast, they stopped by at Waitrose, a grocery store that I visit often. It's been 16 years since they left UK, so they were out of touch with how much groceries cost in UK nowadays. I probably mentioned in the previous blog that the prices for groceries are practically one pound equal to one dollar. I later realized that this wasn't entirely correct because the sizes for everything are a lot smaller here. I meant two pounds for a two dollar Spaghetti sauce, but the jar is not your typical prego size, it's more like an Minutemaid glass bottle. The weather that day was the worst day I had since I moved here. Cold and rainy for hours. We braved ourselves to go to buckingham palace. They had an exhibition for Castiglione, a Italian Baroque artist in 1600's and Queen's personal collections of her jubilee presents from the Royal Accademy. The paintings are great but the collections are so so. We ended the visit with an afternoon tea at pattiesieri Valerie. English scones are like American biscuits, a lot moister than American scones. 

I had Chrysanthemum tea. Proper tea making with a strainer.

Andrew showed the pinky tea. I accidentally deleted my and Geraldine's picture.

After tea, they left to see their other friends. I purchased a ticket to see Once the musical earlier in the week. I didn't realize how close the West End theaters were to where I lived. It turned out only 1.5 KM. I walked to the theater walking pass bond and Oxford streets, where people go shopping. I passed at least two H&M stores. The show was good. There wasn't many stage or background changes but it was cute, funny and has great sound tracks.

I forgot to mention that a bank invited me to ATP World Tour Finals at O2. I saw Djokovic and Federer played. Djokovic won. It's the best 8 players played in this tournament.

This is a bit random. At the Waterloo station, I pass Pastis stall every day. It smells so good. Finally I bought one. It's good but I bet I ate half of my calorie allowance for the day. I was full until 3PM. Flaky crust with creamy chicken and mushroom filling.

Random thoughts

Even though Brits speak English and  UK is a developed country, there are differences in the language, culture and customs.

- Brits are big on serving and offering drink any where. I went to HSBC to open an account. They asked me if I want coffee or tea, and they mean it. Because of UPS connection, I could open a premier account with minimum amounts waived. It's a lot, $100k or 50k pounds. I don't know if I just open a regular account, they still offer me drinks or not. 

In the office, when we have outside guests. Our office assistant always asked how many people are coming. She always has cups and saucers, a pot of tea and coffee and Biscotti biscuits in the conference room. The inside joke is they judge the banks that we work with by their biscuits. One guy says, one time he went to a meeting in UPS Germany and the local UPS guy didn't offer tea or coffe to the outside guests. He, my coworker who's a Brit, was embarassed and offered to buy a drink to everyone in the meeting. I told him, don't get offended if he ever comes to the corp office in Atlanta, because nobody will offer him a drink. Go downstairs to the cafeteria and get yourself a drink.

-  Brits say 'how are you?' with 'are you alright?' The first few times that question stunned me. What's the matter? Do I look like crap? But that's just their greeting. They don't really mean to  ask you if you're doing okay, so don't start telling them your sob story if you have a bad day.

- Before I made an appointment to open a bank account, they emailed me and asked if I want to 'call in'? I was confused I was very clear in the previous email that I would like to open account in person. I want to come in, not calling them. Before I replied, I asked my coworker, she said call in means come in. I'm glad I asked, otherwise I was going to sound like an idiot.

- Brits say uni or university, not college or school. I was in the same lift with an intern, who seriously looked like he's 10. I attempted a small talk. I said, oh you're still school? He quickly corrected me by replying 'oh, yes... I'm in uni, second year'. 

- They love to say 'sorted'. That means it's done or taken care of. Open a bank account? Sorted! Book a trip to Rome? Sorted! Buy a ticket for Once the musical? Sorted! Okay I'll stop before it gets annoying. By the way the Rome trip and Once ticket are for real. I'm doing these in the next two weeks.

- Fancy dress means dressing up in a Halloween costume, not attires like going to a ball gown. Isn't that funny? 

- Random words: Way out is exit (these signs are every where in the tube stations). Car park is parking lot. Flu jab is flu shot. Take-a-way is to-go. Loo or WC for water closet is restroom. Unisex bathroom is common. They like to abbreviate words, telly for television, brolly for umbrella. Pop in is stop by (i.e.  Thanks for popping in this morning). Pop out is coming out (i.e. to a bar). Out means going out but not too long. Out out is really going out like staying until the bar is closed or bar hopping. Piss is drunk. I'm sure I forget some.

- Profanity at work. People say s!$& like nothing. One time my boss in the US said something like the system is f-ing messed up on a conference call. She didn't say the whole word. One coworker said what is that? I laughed because over here, they just say it, no need to cover up.

- People love to queue or stand in line. There's  a joke, I can't remember the whole thing but something like, two Irish will drink. Two Scottish will fight. What will two Brits do? Queuing. 

I'm sure I can add more to this later...