I gave directions. I went grocery shopping. I got a job.
Coming here, I had visions of a glamorous life of freelancing, as Yan would be making the bigger income and I didn’t have health insurance to worry about (national health insurance is a beautiful thing). I even had a vague notion that I’d only freelance, thus freeing me up to have a baby (of course, I did not run this by Yan). But freelancing is always better in theory than in practice--for me anyway. The problem I’ve had since I started working at 16 is that if I don’t like what I’m doing, I just can’t make the money matter. The work and the money start to feel disconnected. So I freelanced for four days, which went a long way toward getting my confidence back after those disastrous interviews last week, but essentially entailed me sitting around for six hours for every one hour of actual work. Enough.
The other rather enchanted thought I had about a life in London was that I’d take an extended vacation before I got a job, perhaps a minimum of one month and no more than three. But then I realized that without the structure of the work day, I’m prone to watching 18 hours of television in a row and not bathing till 4 in the afternoon. I do not patronize museums and lovely little cafes; no, I do exactly what I did in New York--sit on my duff and warm the couch, only now I can’t pretend I’m spending time with the dogs. (Alas, the dogs are afar.)
So, I finished my freelancing gig yesterday and will spend the rest of the week opening a checking account, obtaining a mobile phone, and running other sundry errands. And then I will start my new job on Monday. It turns out that for me, the best way to get to know a city is to really live in it.
Relief.
Aahh, I'm jealous! :) I thought we'd be there now, too. I will simply live vicariously!
Posted by: Kat | Wednesday, 25 October 2006 at 02:16 AM