August 30 2012

Good morning Rain! Where is the sunshine?!  I am so ready for a field trip! Today was all about business (getting new tires) and having full afternoon and evening of fun! As much as I feel very confident I am a great jobseeker I really like taking the occasional break.  After breakfast - put on my coat and scooted out the door with Craig in Scarlett.  To make the drive go quicker for me he cranked up the music on his Mp3.

Welcome to Middlesbrough 
We finally made it - and it looks like the rain must have followed us.  I could definitely see those grey gloomy clouds in the rear view mirror following us.  Scooted into the auto shop and waited while the tires were being put on Scarlett. So nice to see in the waiting room a mini old school style TV was showing the Parolympic's - women's swimming which was really interesting to watch. I can't believe these ladies all have some form of a disability but that doesn't stop them from competing to win a gold medal :D so much determination - and we are all set! A little after 10 am Craig got the keys and we set off to continue our adventure to York! (for my readers who don't know I spent a year living there as a MA student at York St. John University 2009-2010).

York
Greeted by Rawcliffe park & ride we pared the car. Boarded the bus. Once we arrived in York we had 6ish hours to spare before meeting Craig's friends at Nando's in Middlesbrough.  It was around the lunch hour and we went to grab a pastie and sit down to chit chat.  Afterwards we hit Starbucks for a nice caffeine jolt with relaxing in nice red arm chairs.  Our next mission was to find a scale for making exact measurements for pasta etc.  We looked all over and ended up at Lakeland. I can now say Craig is the owner of a nice flat silver scale.  Both of us were in the mood for chocolate so we decided to split a double chocolate cake at Patisserie Valerie with a shot of espresso for Craig. I then asked if we could go to YSJ for some memories. Really good to see the buildings where i had classes
- before we walked back into town he took a photo of me in the front garden. One word can describe
it : SCRUMPTIOUS! Few more hours to go so we decided to head to the museum gardens for awhile and walked by the river.  Walked around town and stopped in the VisitYork shop where I bought this lovely purple hoodie :) Both of us had a little more time to kill and wanted to do something FREE so we headed to the National Railway Museum - full of trains, artifacts & memorabilia, videos etc.  We then took the bus home (super packed and we had to stand up).  Hopped back into Scarlett and off we rode to Middlesbrough - a car journey filled of music.  Dinner is set for 7:30 - so we thought we might be late.  Luckily enough at 7:15 JoAnne (mate of Craig's) called and said dinner is for 8pm which we were relieved to find out - so Craig kept cruising then another phone call from Neil (friend ii) said our reservation is set for 7:45.

                                                   (not a photo I am proud of but Craig took it)



 Middlesbrough ii

Arrived to Nando's on time - waited a few minutes for the rest of the gang to show up. We were then ushered to a giant long table in the back.  In total there are 6 adults and 2 kids (daughters of Joanne and Mick).  Orders were placed and we all casually chit chatted over drinks (non-alcoholic) and olives (which I tried one and it was ok not super yummy). I sat next to Craig on one side and Neil on the other. Neil is Craig's boss - very nice guy and his partner is LeAnne (such a firecracker). I had a great time talking to Neil about Greece - where I'm from etc.  While waiting I got to know Leah (one of JoAnne's daughters) very talkative girl - I just wish I could have kept her myself. She sorta reminds me of me - likes ponies - likes firey rainbow colors and has long hair like me :D.  After dinner finished we all went our separate ways into our cars.  Part of Thursday night group (which Craig ALWAYS goes to) is to drive over to Mick and Jo's to watch TV and chit chat.  I had a great time of laughs - getting to know everyone - etc. Neil also talked to me about the opportunity of crafting up a social media strategy for 2Touch. Pretty awesome I think.

Got home around midnight. Really amazing how many stars there are in the sky! Night!

August 29 2012

Happy Hump day friends! Yes the week is already half way over - though it has been short because of Bank Holiday on Monday. As I keep chucking along with my journey down the path of job ads I start to fall off the path where my mind wanders - what would I be doing if I didn't come to England? How do I cure being homesick? Why do my friends on Facebook have to torture me with photos of their food excursion at the Minnesota State Fair. I really don't know how this has all come about but it has! This reminds me of the Robert Frost poem - The Road Not Taken. 

Job Update
The job hunt is still going along well - applying for jobs from various sectors 
*hospitals*universities*social media companies*temp jobs* As some of my friends know I am a job snob - I won't take ANY kind of job here in England like some of my classmates have (who are currently still in England) - I have a great education background and plenty of work experience to get something decent right? I know it has been a long time since May 2012 but I am hopeful something good will come along. Maybe for a birthday idea (November 20) I will receive a job :D

Dinner
Unfortunately Craig is not able to join me for dinner as he is back in Middlesbrough getting his MOT finished.  So I decided with extra cash to spare why not go to the Italian Farm House Happy Hour.
I had a nice meal for all under 10 pounds! Chicken Parmesan with salad+chips plus 1 drink.  Craig and I are quite frequents of this establishment as it is only a 5 minute walk from the house. The food is SUPERB! I was able to meet the owner who I thought was Italian but turns out he is from Turkey and has been here for 12+ years. Very nice guy.  


Orange Wednesday
 
I love movies! One of the pluses of living back in Edina is that we are only 5ish minutes away from the cinema. There have been times where I have gone to 2+ shows in 1 day. Tonight Craig and I saw The Watch starring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn . So hilarious!

Here's the trailer.

  

August 28 2012

Hello friends :waves:: today is another full adventure of me mainly staying inside the house job hunting. I swear I could turn this into a profession but then again who would actually pay me? Don’t get me wrong I love living in West Rainton – but sometimes I just wish I could walk into the city – like I could when I was a student at York St. John – that was so easy!  But I am sorta confined to use only the internet or take a bus/train ride to other cities here in the Northeast.  Craig has the whole week off which is nice for him but I hope this won’t keep me away from my job hunting. Still taking my tablets – my glands are all perfect now but I really wish I knew what happened.

Job hunting skills

Every day I have a set routine.  I check various job boards – network with my social media friends and start doing google searches.  On Tuesdays I join #YorkshireJobsHour (a Twitter chat) which is 1 full hour of employers tweeting out jobs (which I have applied to a few jobs that I have seen).  Usually in the beginning of the day I bookmark job ads and put them in a folder so in the afternoon I have a whole pile of job ads to respond to. 

Break Time!

About noon today Craig asked me if I wanted to tag along with him in Durham – I said yes! I mean its really good for my mental health to get outside and see people other than just my laptop and iPad2. Once we got there we strolled around and went to Waterstones (bookshop) – Starbucks – Subway (I wanted to get a Tuna sandwich with veggies mmm) and walked down to the river. 

iScream!

One of the many pleasures about living in England is that during the summer there are ice scream vans that visit your neighborhoods – but it is quite annoying when you hear that music – and don’t actually see the van.  Here was me sitting on the floor on my iPad2 and I heard the music – Craig didn’t want to come with me so I just stayed put. I heard it again and convinced him to go on a hunt with me.  It took some time to find the van – but Craig found it! Yep – I was quite the happy camper or as Craig said happy kid with my Magnum White chocolate bar and Craig with his Mint chocolate bar.

Barista

As many of my readers know as well as Craig I don’t drink coffee nor tea.  So I always like to order my standard Chai Latte when I am out at various coffee chains like Starbucks.  Recently I found out Craig’s espresso machine steams! So yesterday we went to Tesco and bought Chai tea bags – and now I can make my own Chai Lattes. Here is a photo of my work. Pretty frothy I do say so myself.

Italiano 
Ok I really don't speak any other words besides ciao! in Italian but I wanted to end my blog off with my dinner this evening :D - over the weekend Craig purchased a pasta making machine. It's quite the mini machine 

Final product: 

 Ingrediants: Chicken, Onions, Red Peppers, Prosciutto, in sundried and tomato basil sauce

(this is not actually the music we heard today but its a sample from another ice cream van)

Bank Holiday (August 27 2012)

Greetings friends and thanks for tuning in to hear about my journey.  After another sleepless night I decided to start job hunting – even though I knew there wasn’t going to be any new job postings online as today is Bank Holiday. What you say is that? I personally don’t really know but it’s a day of British people get so that is cool right? Yep and Craig is off this whole week too – pretty exciting right? :D I will just have to figure out how I can stay focused job hunting every day with him being in the house but he isn’t a distraction to me – but he for sure keeps me sane. So I hope there might be some good field trip breaks set for the week. 

Another note I am feeling much better – as a previous blog post mentioned I had swollen glands for about a week – I have no clue what had caused this issue. Thankfully I am all swollen gland free but the NHS nurses suggested to still take my tablets til the end of all 3 boxes. I really wish I knew what caused them to swell up – felt like mini baseballs on each side. I was never in pain but it just felt weird when I would put two of my fingers up against my neck.

Healthcare 21^st century

As many of my readers might not know I have had times when I was never on health insurance or having to pay big amounts of money out my pocket.  I am not saying having health care is a bad thing – I take advantage of it all the time when going for annual checkups etc.   Also I am thankful that we have really great medical institutions in Minnesota such as the Mayo Clinic – which many might not know helped fix my nasal issue as they performed a septoplasty on me.  As a kid I had frequent visits to the urgent care.  I don’t want to turn my blog into a political speech in favor of universal healthcare – but since my visit to the NHS walk in Centre – it has been an eye opener – Yes I had to wait like when I am at Urgent Care – but I don’t really have to pay any money! I got 3 boxes of Penicillan (which would be valued at ($50+ per bottle from a DR (roughly) )  - for FREE.

Back to the rest of my day with Craig – we went to Tesco to buy some groceries/chai tea etc.
Came back and he took a nap and I started job hunting more. Watched more episodes of Revenge. My favorite show. Can’t wait til season two starts.

Here is a clip if my readers haven’t heard of this program.    

An Englishman on an American Blog

The following is a guest post by Craig Butters (@craigbutters), who blogs over at www.craigbutters.com and has suffered the past 102 days with the plight of an American girl, desperately seeking employment in good ol’ Blighty.

 

No one ever said it’d be easy

 

To quote the mighty Coldplay “No one ever said it’d be easy” and how right they were.  Exactly 103 days ago on the 15^th May, an American girl armed with a plethora of suitcases, bags and a UK work Visa arrived back into my life following a breakup almost two years prior – only this time, the reasons for our meet were based entirely on different circumstance.

 

This time, there was a clear goal, an objective if you will; a timescale of exactly one month and three days to find and secure a job - not just any job mind, a career job – before the clock ran out and the long return flight back to the USA occurred. 

 

No one ever said it’d be easy.  Living alone for the past two years has afforded me the luxuries of being able to set my own agenda, do things on my own time, enjoy quiet time when required or blast music whenever such an occasion was called for.  My corner of a sleepy little village in Durham, England was about to change; no longer was I a single entity, I’d now be cooking for two, watching my energy bills rise and entertaining every single night – as well as continuing to fulfil a full time and demanding job that often requires some early morning starts, late finishes and weekend activities.

 

Fortunately, I actually quite enjoy cooking and having recently re-kindled a passion for noodles and Chinese food the prospect of having a victim someone around to sample was a welcomed enhancement to my little hobby.

 

The difficulties arose when trying to keep entertainment flowing night after night; you see Katie has a very different outlook on life when compared to my own.  I work all day and enjoy time in the evening to relax and chill out before the madness of the next day ensues.  Katie, having time at home to search for a job during the day, is always ready for something to occupy her by the time I arrive home from the office in a variety of stressed states of mind. 

 

However, try my best I did; movie nights on a Wednesday, a village walk in the evening, a few meals out every now and again – a pretty normal existence given the circumstances and differing energies of two people who spend their days in vastly different environments.  My dislike of English soaps, in direct competition with those of an American girl hell bent on soaking up every iota of English culture, also introduced an odd situation where soaps were banned from my living room television.

 

But these minor inconveniences to life’s every day differences of two people from vastly different cultures and countries were nothing compared to the hatred that had built up inside me and would cause massive amounts of possibly irreparable frustrations.

 

i

 

Anyone that knows me or has at least glanced at my blog will know that I’m a techie (an “IT Systems Manager” to quote my full and rather flashy job title, which I’m not ashamed to tell people proudly in any way what-so-ever).  As a techie I have a ‘standard’ to live up to and a certain computer manufacturer, I swore would never be allowed on my property, was brought into my home – two fold!

 

Those devices, ladies and gentlemen, are an Apple iPod and an Apple iPad!

 

I can already hear half of you recoil and gasp in absolute horror; I can also hear some of you exclaim ‘what is wrong with an Apple product?’ Well, let me tell you that I’ve long been what is referred to as a ‘fanboi’ of Microsoft and their products – as a technologist who uses their products daily and has built my career from their tech, why wouldn’t I be?

 

In my eyes Apple are the company that should exist, but shouldn’t be as successful as they currently are – their technology is based on closed-walled technology and suckering users into that walled-garden by locking their music and movies into their eco-system.  Their clever marketing has created a word-of-mouth approach to consumer electronics that is based on nothing more than a perceived ‘cool’ factor, rather than a technical or logical choice for users who don’t necessarily understand the IT environment.

 

Without ranting about the Cupertino companies ethics and technology any further – sufficed to say, Katie bravely brought those devices into my home, despite my insistence and claims that I have a perfectly good hammer just waiting for an excuse to be used in anger.

 

Platform 4

 

As the owner of a fine automobile, prior to 15^th May, I could count the total amount of times I’ve ever been to Durham Train Station in my entire life – 3! 

 

Within 103 days, I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve been to drop off and pick up Katie as she’s travelled the length of the English Isles for job interviews, follow-ups and searches for accommodation after the Ipswitch adventure.

 

Most of the trips there have been rather insightful though of a connected eco-system of people visiting the North East and Durham City.  It’s often forgotten that people arrive in the dead of night and leave early mornings – even in this digital, online age of technology (and rising train fares!)

 

Bucks

 

If there is a lesson, at all, to be learnt from the experience it is this; Starbucks is universal.

 

The coffee giant with the comfy seating, the very embodiment of American culture, is the place that everyone, regardless of country of origin (America or England’s green and pleasant), can sit and drink and talk rubbish for hours, safe in the knowledge that good coffee will be served - or an alternative for those who don’t embrace the coffee culture (*cough* ahem, Katie *cough*). 

 

The coffeehouse is still a magical place and Starbucks still leads the way in my opinion. The only other place that comes close is the cinema, with its silver screens and ability to transport you into just about any world or situation you could ever possibly conceive of.

 

Both places are locations that have brought the pair of us together and shared memorable experiences, fuelled by the wonder that is film and caffeine based beverages.

 

The Soundtrack

 

For the past 103 days though, the soundtrack has not been the Coldplay classic – the soundtrack has undoubtedly been something just a touch more rock and roll, a tad more nerdy – and some would say a slightly funnier!

 

That’s right pop-pickers, our last 103 days have been undertaken and subjected to the fast and clever lyrics and piano playing of Mr Tim Minchin.  I personally couldn’t have picked a better soundtrack – from the ‘Rock and Roll Nerd’ anthem; but the songs have certainly started to pick up meaning.

 

Without sitting on the fence, my unbiased, dark side view would be that whilst not perfect, the ditty of ‘You Grew on Me” would definitely be thee song of choice for the past 103 days – and every word would mean something.

 

I just wish there was more white wine and sun.

 

In Summary

 

Whilst the daily activities of – well – the day are largely the same as at any other time, the differing cultures of an American girl and a good, old fashioned English, North-East boy provide an interesting perspective on life and living.

 

No one said it’d be easy and it certainly hasn’t been at times – but wow, it has been fun and it has highlighted many a thought and challenges on the day-to-day rigours of life from two people who come from very different places, yet somehow find themselves together.

 

It’s been an experience.

August 25 2012

Hey friends! The weekend is here - Woohoo! and I really can't believe how fast August has flown by. Just a recap about my Friday as always I focused my jobhunting on applying with Universities and hospitals.  A little before noon I registered myself with the local surgery (doctor's office) here in West Rainton - sort of odd for a new patient I guess they want me to pee in a cup before I come to my first appointment on September 5th. I then went for a walk in the afternoon - and when Craig got home we drover to Sunderland to find the NHS walk in centre - which was a goose chase because the Sat Nav actually brought us to the right address but we couldn't find it.  So we just decided to go to another location BunnyHill Primary Centre. This was really quite easy just walked in and registered myself - a nurse took my vital signs and then I had to wait to see a doctor.  I explained that I had a sore throat earlier in the week and the swelling has completely gone down on my left gland but my right gland is still swollen. They immediately wanted to look inside my mouth and noticed the problem that I had a virus (trying to keep out the gross words for my readers so I don't make anyone feel nausea) - I was then prescribed penecillan for 10 days and will just hope it all clears up.

Craig has been a real trooper for driving me here.

August 22 2012

Greeting friends! I really haven't been able to get back into the blog buzz on a daily basis yet - but I am promising you that I will start blogging more frequently.  The week is half way over :D woohoo! My day really consisted of job hunting - I actually applied to many positions with the NHS and a few at Newcastle College today. Made an omelette for lunch today - turned out to be crap! so I just had some cereal.  Went for a walk and saw some horses in a nearby field.  When Craig got home we had burger for dinner - Went to Cineworld and saw The Wedding Video for Orange Wednesday - was a good film - British people which was neat. Then went grocery shopping.

August 19 2012

BOO! Yet another morning where I wake up at 5am - with a sore throat. I don't know what is actually wrong just that have swollen glands and I have a hard time swallowing the morning. I will talk to Craig later this morning probably about going to the NHS Walk In Centre possibly. In the mean time I was able to do some washing up. Later this morning Craig and I hung around the house for awhile and chilled - we looked on google for information about my sore throat and he suggested we should go to Boots instead. So we headed to Durham in Scarlett - I bought some nice lemon/honey drops - went to Starbucks and grabbed some lunch.  After that we went to B&Q (equivalent of home depot) and Craig bought a fire pit - and logs as well (the kind that you keep the wrapper on and just light a flame to) - so we had a fire in the back garden this afternoon. We listened to youtube clips of broadway musicals. Then Craig (master chef) opened up his cookbook and made Poppa Wan's Simple Soy glazed Chicken with noodles (Cookbook is here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gok-Cooks-Chinese-Wan/dp/07181595190

August 16 2012

Good morning friends! The weekend has finally arrived. Happy Friday! What a week it has been indeed. Well today was a very interesting day - I had an informational chat with this company based in Consett (1 hr from Durham) today and they were very nice. Afterwards I headed back into town to take the bus to Newcastle (thought it would be a shorter bus ride) so once I got there I went to go grab a quick lunch then headed off to the train station. Took bus back to Craig's. Continued job hunt - found a few great positions up in Newcastle area.

August 15 2012

Good morning friends and family! So good to finally get back into the blogging mood. I can't believe it is already the middle of August - how time has sure flown by. I am really sad that I will be missing the Minnesota State fair this year - I went 7 or 8 times last year as I volunteer for Memorial Blood Center. Its actually quite a nice service we provide - we type your blood. I know that might sound scary but most medical facilities won't have a need to type you unless you need a blood transfusion. It only is a small prick and we can tell you on the spot. I am an O+
Still job hunting - refocusing my search on the Northeast (Newcastle/Durham/York etc) as I can't really afford to apply all over England as I don't have a BritRail pass anymore :(

Watched an interesting movie last night with Craig starring Justin Timberland called In Time

Lastly I wanted to share a photo with you - a few weeks ago the Queen was in Durham and I am quite proud to have gotten a good photo