Something I have forgotten to mention is the foxes that we have around here. They are like stray cats, almost, and live under houses in our neighborhood. We have seen them on walls, crossing a busy street, staring us down on our neighborhood sidewalk. We have seen more foxes in the past few weeks (or maybe the same fox) than in our whole lives. On one hand, it's very cool to see a fox. Foxes are very beautiful animals--cat-like and dog-like at the same time and extremely graceful and silent in their movements. The other night we stopped and the fox stopped and we had a stare down from about 6 feet away on the sidewalk. The fox definitely wasn't afraid of us.
On the other hand, it's sad to see a fox in the middle of an urban setting, because that means that we have encroached on their natural habitat. Foxes aren't supposed to be living under houses and perusing city streets and scaling walls and dodging traffic.
So I have mixed emotions about the urban foxes here, but I always hope that we'll see one while we're out in the evenings.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Running along the Thames in Greenwich=SKETCHY
After my two days of schlepping around looking at flats, I feel completely unmotivated to do anything in Central or North London and have, in general, lost my motivation to go around doing things by myself.
I don't really feel lonely anymore, even though I spend a large part of my days alone. And I'm still struggling with cultural differences, some of which are the same as before. We have a NEW washing machine (The old one flooded the kitchen..not our fault.) This one has no dryer...great. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it takes three days for our laundry to dry. It's cold and damp here which isn't ideal for drying clothes. Anyway, I have mastered the new washer on the first try!
The other day I was rudely informed that my American Credit Cards were not accepted when I tried to top up (that's what they call adding money to your accounts) my oyster card (tube pass) at a convenience store kind of place. That almost made me cry, since the people who were so rude to me were foreigners themselves. But then I got over it.
And I've been trying to do some online grocery shopping, which is a challenge, since some things (many things) here are called different names. For instance, I have no idea what pie crust is called. When I look it up, I get all kinds of options to purchase mince meat pie, pork pie, chicken pie, shepherd's pie, and other pie combinations that I have never considered before. "Courgettes" are zucchini. "Aubergine" is eggplant. Crackers are "biscuits for cheese." Ground beef and turkey are "mince." There is no such thing as black beans in the mainstream grocery stores here--but they have a million different kinds of kidney beans. They don't have black eyed peas...so we'll have to figure something out for our New Years good luck! Shrimp are prawns here and paper towels are kitchen towels. Kitchen towels are tea towels. Anyway, it's a challenge every time we try to grocery shop, but we're learning.
Language barriers and cultural barriers aside, I still can go running. Today I decided to bypass the killer hills in Greenwich park and go running along the Thames. That was a mistake. The Thames Trail runs along the river. The river in Greenwich, on good days, looks kind of pretty in an industrial, run down way. On days like today, it wasn't looking so hot. There were masses of trash on the shores and it smelled like a mixture of dog poop and rotten garbage. The trail starts out at historic Cutty Sark, where there was something being done by workmen with cranes on the historic ship that is docked there. I weaved my way through and ran past Greenwich Univeristy, behind Trafalgar Pub (also old, historic, tourist trap...but cool! We went there on Sunday. We were the only ones not enjoying Sunday roast.), hopped back on the trail, rounded the corner, and that is when the vague prettiness ended. My goal was to run to the infamous, not used, very ugly Millenium Dome, which looks like the superdome with cranes poking out of the top of it (part of the design), but I found myself surrounded by graffiti, barbed wire topped fences, abandoned shoes, and industrial ports. I was feeling more fearful for my well being than enjoying myself, so I turned around and went back after two miles. It was pretty disappointing. They are really trying to improve the community, and the Olympics are part of that effort, as they will be held in this area, but they aren't there yet. Parts of Greenwich are really nice and "gentrified" and other parts are pretty shady. We are on the cusp of the sketchy part of town right now.
This afternoon, I plan to go down to the center of Greenwich and poke around in some of the shops. I have spent so much time going other places, that I don't really have a good idea of everything that is right here.
I don't really feel lonely anymore, even though I spend a large part of my days alone. And I'm still struggling with cultural differences, some of which are the same as before. We have a NEW washing machine (The old one flooded the kitchen..not our fault.) This one has no dryer...great. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it takes three days for our laundry to dry. It's cold and damp here which isn't ideal for drying clothes. Anyway, I have mastered the new washer on the first try!
The other day I was rudely informed that my American Credit Cards were not accepted when I tried to top up (that's what they call adding money to your accounts) my oyster card (tube pass) at a convenience store kind of place. That almost made me cry, since the people who were so rude to me were foreigners themselves. But then I got over it.
And I've been trying to do some online grocery shopping, which is a challenge, since some things (many things) here are called different names. For instance, I have no idea what pie crust is called. When I look it up, I get all kinds of options to purchase mince meat pie, pork pie, chicken pie, shepherd's pie, and other pie combinations that I have never considered before. "Courgettes" are zucchini. "Aubergine" is eggplant. Crackers are "biscuits for cheese." Ground beef and turkey are "mince." There is no such thing as black beans in the mainstream grocery stores here--but they have a million different kinds of kidney beans. They don't have black eyed peas...so we'll have to figure something out for our New Years good luck! Shrimp are prawns here and paper towels are kitchen towels. Kitchen towels are tea towels. Anyway, it's a challenge every time we try to grocery shop, but we're learning.
Language barriers and cultural barriers aside, I still can go running. Today I decided to bypass the killer hills in Greenwich park and go running along the Thames. That was a mistake. The Thames Trail runs along the river. The river in Greenwich, on good days, looks kind of pretty in an industrial, run down way. On days like today, it wasn't looking so hot. There were masses of trash on the shores and it smelled like a mixture of dog poop and rotten garbage. The trail starts out at historic Cutty Sark, where there was something being done by workmen with cranes on the historic ship that is docked there. I weaved my way through and ran past Greenwich Univeristy, behind Trafalgar Pub (also old, historic, tourist trap...but cool! We went there on Sunday. We were the only ones not enjoying Sunday roast.), hopped back on the trail, rounded the corner, and that is when the vague prettiness ended. My goal was to run to the infamous, not used, very ugly Millenium Dome, which looks like the superdome with cranes poking out of the top of it (part of the design), but I found myself surrounded by graffiti, barbed wire topped fences, abandoned shoes, and industrial ports. I was feeling more fearful for my well being than enjoying myself, so I turned around and went back after two miles. It was pretty disappointing. They are really trying to improve the community, and the Olympics are part of that effort, as they will be held in this area, but they aren't there yet. Parts of Greenwich are really nice and "gentrified" and other parts are pretty shady. We are on the cusp of the sketchy part of town right now.
This afternoon, I plan to go down to the center of Greenwich and poke around in some of the shops. I have spent so much time going other places, that I don't really have a good idea of everything that is right here.
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