Still going, but different transportation

Yeah... Eurostar kinda didn't work out. We would have had to book seats at least 14 days in advance, so we're going by plane. I already got the tickets and Ethan sponsored one of them, so it'll cost £45 each, which is kinda cheap if you think about it...

I had my first Saturday off yesterday because my boss hadn't called me untill 2 pm and I got pissed and sent him a messege that I had other plans and wasn't planning to come in, so than Ethan and I went to Clapham Common with the lap top and worked on my resume and had a few beers. We ran into Paula's ex-colleagues from the embassy and it was fun. After that we went to Bodean's and had this awesome hamburger with fries (it's a BBQ place, really cool).

I'm really looking forward to next week. I can't believe Ro is coming in a couple of days!!!
Expect pictures!! (because Paula's bringing the lap top so it'll be easier to do that. I'll have my own computer now. Hurray!)

I should go now. It's 12:10 and I have to wake up early. But I do't feel like going to bed at all....

Paris for the weekend!!!

It's all set! (I mean, Sabrina has to agree to us staying there for the weekend...)
But anyway, Paris is a real possibility and if everything turns out ok, we're going by Eurostar next Friday and return to London on Sunday!!! How cool is that?
Man!!! I'll finally get the chance to see Jim Morrison's grave! And the Eiffel Tower! And walk on Champs Elisee!!!!
I'll keep you posted!

COUNTDOWN!

It's kinda harder for me to write now because I don't have a computer at home. Paula is in Brazil, Ethan is in Brussels and I don't want to spend a lot of time at school writing in my blog.

But the great news is: Ronaldo is arriving on 28th!!!!
Is Paris a possibility? ALWAYS!

I'll try to write tomorrow because I'm starving, exhausted and I want to go home. On the top of that, I want to get my free issue of the Lite Evening Standart (it's been like a week since I last read it!)
I'm off now, see you guys later!

BTW

Well, just to say that Paula wanted to have a pint and we went to The White Horse just around the corner and had a couple of pints of Guinness (she had the half pint). We talked a lot and it was pretty good.
I bought a 10-cigarette pack (always painful...)
She said it was ok what I have in mind, now I have to ask Ethan about it. I hope he's ok with that too.
I'll have a sandwich now, but I'm gonna finish my John Smith's first.

That's life, full of ups and downs...

I was totally miserable last week. But then you suddenly have something to look forward to.
I'll talk about this later on.

Yesterday Paula bought tickets to see Franz Ferdinand on November 30th!!! Now I've three concerts to go within a month! But, of course, the one that I'm really excited about is FOO FIGHTERS!!!
I bought their DVD yesterday but only had the chnace to see it this afternoon: WONDERFUL!!! I wonder when they're launching their video collection (it's a must!!!)

I'm having my second beer in the afternoon and have just called Paula to see if she want to have a pint after work. She said she might, but I really doubt about it...

SOS

So they're doing this construction work at home... It's a pain in the ass because you have those guys coming and going all the time and you can't go home and just chill.

I bought my first Marlboro pack this morning and I have to say it was quite sadening. FIVE FUCKING POUNDS for that shit! It tastes better than the Brazilian one (it better! It costs £5!!!) and I enjoyed every minute of it. So I went to class and on the break I bought my coffee, as usual, and went outside to have two cigarettes. I don't know, man...
I sarted to think about what I wrote yesterday, that I'm kinda pissed about this lack of interaction, but I'm not doing anything about it either!
I started to think that my life is a constant wait. I always wait for every fucking thing to happen but in the end, as you might already have assumed, nothing does!!! I keep waiting for the big and little things, waiting for a job, a boyfriend, money, excitment, and all these things seem to be just around the corner but somehow I can never reach them! It's very frustating!

I don't know why the idea of the highway is constantly on my mind. You know me, all the things I imagine, the stories, they're all set in this 'On the road' kinda thing, but I'm starting to think that this might have affected me in a very wrong way! I'm always on the road and I see people and situations and opportinities passing by and I never stop to see what they're really like. (Again, the emptiness)
It sort of stopped being cool to become frightening. The first image I picture when I want to feel good is the road. Empty. A long ride awaits me. And I'm on the side of the road listening to some music, smoking cigarettes and waiting for somebody to pick me up. Does it mean that I will HAVE TO BE PICKED UP BY SOMEBODY eternally? Why can't I just learn how to drive (metaphorically speaking or not) and make my own trip, by myself, instead of waiting for somebody or something for ever?
This might sound stupid but on Orkut there's this community called 'I want to leave'. Well, I LEFT Brazil, but I'm still in the community. Didn't I get where I wanted? Isn't it enough? Where the hell do I want to go anyway? (Again, being dumb)

It's never good enough. For some people this may be good because that means you will never stop dreaming and you will go for the things you want. However, I'm feeling a little tired... I want to get somewhere at least once in my life before I die! I want to achieve something and not to give up in the middle of the road, abandoning the car I was in and start waiting for another ride. Is it worth it? Because the waiting usually takes a long time...
For those who read the blog, help me out here! Say something!

Dumber

It's incredible how much you remember things or special occasions because they are really meaningful to you or because the media does their job.

Yesterday was Brazil's Independence Day. September 7th. This should be important to any Brazilian as it is, for example, to Americans. But when your away from "the environment" you simply forget.
I know, I know... The date, for most Brazilians, is just about the holiday itself and the possibility of having a day off work and getting hammered the day before. But the country is going throught a very delicate fase.
I haven't been following the news (well, not even when I was in Brazil...) but I know things are going down big time. How people are feeling now is something I can't tell at all. Should they be patriotic and demand urgent changes or should they be miserable - as I think they might be-?
I wonder how the connection between the Independence Day and all the political shit was made. I have some time to check the news but I simply don't have the patience to sit before the laptop and start reading. I read the headlines and check the football results and that's it. And gossip, of course.

I was talking to Paula yesterday about reading newspapers and magazines to increase my vocabulary and she told me to buy The Sun if I want to learn the infomal lingo. But The Sun is rubbish (although I was kinda used to watching rubbish on TV... Datena...). Anyway, this morning's class we talked a bit about the book 1984 (which I haven't read) and Dan said that in the book, each year the dictionary got smaller and smaller because people were controlled and couldn't pass information on, so what's the point in having language anyway?
I thought about it and I realized that I'm sort of going throught this process. I'm getting dumber and dumber everyday!!! I don't read much, watch lots of TV, listen to music all the time and don't know what's going on around me. So back in Brazil, I new all the holidays before the year began but never cared about the importance of each one. I just wanted a day off, you know? And being in the UK makes me feel even dumber because now I've gotta get used to all this new culture but I don't care about my own culture to begin with. It's something that's gotta change now! Otherwise I'll be speaking in monosyllabels... Not that I don't normally do this... anyway...

I feel empty. Emotionally and intellectually. Sometimes people talk about the morning news and I listen to BBC every day before coming to the school. My excuse is that I didn't understand the vocabulary much, but if I had these chinwags in Portuguese would I be able to carry on the subject? What's been going on?

I reckon I'm afraid of not being absorbing the whole input I'm having or I WANT to have. I obviously have some limitations here, either regarding language or knowledge about the place, but I don't feel like I'm improving on any area. Everything I do is very automatic and, with a few exceptions, I'm pretty much doing the same things I did on the first week I got here. I don't interact much, people aren't very interested in getting to know you. A classmate of mine didn't come to class last Monday and nobody asked what happened apart from me. Not even the teacher! The guy could have been sick or something and nobody seemed to care!
And this all leads back to the emptiness. How can I have the input I want if the sources aren't willing to share? What is the easy way out? Television, CDs, billboards on the streets or anything that doesn't require interaction of any kind. The only piece of interaction I get is when I bump into people and say 'I'm sorry', and this is not exactly the kind of interaction people normally look for, you know?
I've never had problems getting the bus, in fact I kinda like it, right? I'm supposed to get the famous Bus 159 back home and I get to see Big Ben and London Eye as I told you before, but this week I bought the tube pass and I prefer to get the tube home because then I don't have to interact with the "collector". I just sit on the tube and get home in no time. This is kinda sad, right?

Getting dumber... that's happening alright.

FOO FIGHTERS DEC 18TH!!!!!!!!

It's official: I'm going to Foo Fighters gig on Dec 18th (Sunday) at Earl's Court!!! I bought the ticket yesterday (actually, Paula had to buy because, being poor as I am, I don't have a debit or credit car, YET... but I gave her the money already: £32)
I'm soooo excited about it! I'll definitely get the chance to see their concert!!!



But Anyway, let me fill you in about the things that have been happening so far.
On Friday my classmates and I went for a few pints at a pub near the school. It was Tamara's last day in London so we got together for a kind of farewell celebration. When we got to the pub (it was about 5 pm, it was empty and we sat at this table on the sidewalk. The price of beer is high, but I'm guessing it depends on the area you're getting hammered. For example, near Oxford St (which has a high concentration os tourists) prices tend to be expensive. The pint of SSSssstella is £2.95. But in Brixton, you can have a pint of Young's Special (which is the beer the pub Trinity serves) for £2.55.
But anyway, we started to talk and drink and talk and drink... I invited my sister over and also had arraged with Ricardo for us to meet up after his class. So there we were Paula, Ricardo, Tamara, Maria, Jenny, Lisa and myself (Nick - the teacher for the week - stayed for a little while) having a good time.
The pub started to get crowded, really crowded. For me to go to the bathroom or buy another pint was an ordeal. I was already kind drunk and I kept on bumping into people and had to say 'I'm sorry' like a thousand times... And some of them got a little pissed by being bumped all the time... I also ran out of cigarettes pretty quick and I bought this Richmond pack (really nasty! but it's ONLY £3.95)
Ronaldo called me and we spoke for a little while. I can't wait to see him in London!!!
After the beers, Paula and I went home and watched Duran Duran's video collection. Ethan was in the kitchen working and we were in the living room drinking and singing our lungs out!!! It was really funny our little ball... hahahaha

Saturday and Sunday I worked in the afternoon. On Saturday there were the European qualifiers for the World Cup next year and the pub was absolutely full of people! I saw the cute guy there, but he didn't buy any Mexican this time. Damn!
You know, I'm feeling a little bit more confident about the work, though there are always the ones who want a speacial dish with a different kind of spice in their elaborate burgers... Why do people have to be so complicated? I'm not saying that everybody should be the same, but c'mon! Put the fucking different types of food in the fucking menu for God's sake!
At the end of my shift, Denise and I had a beer sitting in the garden of the pub. It is so strange to drink around those people whose empty glasses I was collecting a few minutes before...
On Sunday I got home pretty tired. Paula and Ethan were at the movies and I had a few beers and talked to Adri online. I know things aren't this simple, but I think he should get here ASAP.
I went to smoke outside the building with Ethan, we talked a little about the construction work inside the apartment that's been happening this week...

And today it's pint time again. I think my cousin Patricia is joining us this afternoon, maybe I'll invite Paula as well, but I'm not sure she's going.

One last thing: yesterday I bought the tube travel card for the week (almost £22!!! Too fucking expensive!) at Bond St station (which is the nearest to my school). The traffic on Oxford St was completely jammed and I had no doubts and got the tube home. I took the Jubillee line up to Green Station and from there I got Victoria Line up to Brixton. Every time I use the tube it makes me feel like in a big city, you know? That I lead a very busy life with lots of appointments and can't afford spending much time getting the bus. Anyway, from Green station I made four stops before Brixton (Victoria, Pimlico, Vaxhaull, Stockwell - the station where Jean Charles de Menezes was killed-, and Brixton is the end of line). When I got closer to Brixton the train suddenly stopped. In the middle of nowhere. You could only see black outside the window and I started to panic! Everybody seemed to be pretty used to this kind of thing but I'm not! The sensation is awful, you have nowhere to go, the ventilation sucks and if something has to happen it's gonna happen and that's it! After about 7 minutes the train started to move and got to the station. Man, what a relief!!!
This morning Lisa told us that her traind stopped for 35 minutes!!!! I would've gone nuts if this had happened to me yeasterday!

I'm starving and I'll get something to eat.
FOO FIGHTERS!!!!! U-HHUUUUUUUU!!!!



And before I go I'll leave you with this james Dean's phrase that's written on the poster in fron of me:

"Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today"...

Think about it.

Going native

First of all, I seem to have gotten rid of my cold now (thank God!) and I'm feeling much better now.

I've been here less then a month but I'm definitely going native. It's inevitable, I know, but I didn't think it would happen so fast. Maybe it's because I come everyday to this part of the city (I'm at the school now) and there are ALWAYS tourists. They're everywhere! EVERYWHERE! Crowding Oxford Street and Regent street and the Tube and the buses that cover this area.



Sometimes this is really annoying because you have to stand in line for ages to buy a bottle of water or to ask for some information. And if you walk on those two previously mentioned streets in a hot sunny summer day it's hell! You have to say 'I'm sorry' at leat a dozen times per BLOCK! I just hope that when the fall and winter come it won't be like this.

I saw actor Michael Caine walking on Oxford St. yesterday. You definitely know who he is, but if you can't connect the name to the person click here and you'll see who I'm talking about.

I'm having a few pints with my classmates this afternoon. One of them is coming back to her country and we just want to socialize a little. I brought a digital camera, but it's so small and it seemed so simple at first but now I can't figure out how start using it! I hope I can take some pictures to post here later on.

I worked two days in a row and yesterday was the best day because the boss took the night off and it was just Denise, Franco and myself. There weren't many people and we had few laughs. But tomorrow afternoon England is playing Wales so the pub is gonna be TOO DAMN CROWDED!!!! Oh boy...

I'm starving now! It's 1 pm and I need to have lunch because after 4h30 pm only beer is allowed!!!
Cheers!