Week Three- Jeri in Germany

Wednesday, March 24

I’m on a flight to Frankfurt, Germany – my first official “business trip”.  I’ll attend a conference all day Thursday and make client calls on Friday.  I’ve finally felt that I’m getting my head above water (just barely) in terms of wrapping everything up in the States so I can focus on clients here.  Still quite a lot to do personally back at home – the house isn’t rented yet, although there are several people apparently interested.  It will be a big relief to have that done.

We’re finding out the “client service” difficulties of the UK…getting a phone line, internet service and cable has been challenging to say the least.  Setting up a bank account seems virtually impossible.  Slowly we’re getting everything in place.

I’ve been walking to work pretty frequently, it’s about a 40 minute walk through Chelsea, down Sloane Street, past Harvey Nichols, past Green Park and along Piccadilly down to Regent Street.  It’s a great walk with high end boutique shopping, great parks, loads of people and beautiful buildings to keep me occupied.  Once we get more settled I will run in and work out at the LA Fitness in the base of our building in the mornings and walk home at night. 

Amy’s been working hard at getting us settled in and into a routine, which has been awesome.  She walks me home from work sometimes and we always have nice, relaxing evenings together.  She’s making lots of different soups that are incredible!  We’ve learned to love beet root salad and make it often for dinner.  The kitchen is small so it limits our ability to get overly creative, but so far keeping it simple has been great.

We haven’t had a TV until yesterday.  So now we have a TV and a bed. J  Our air shipment arrived Saturday after having gone missing for 10 days.  It had been sitting in the Memphis airport in the rain, uncovered.  So we received 30+ wet corrugated boxes.  We had to go through everything to determine the damage.  We sent everything off to be cleaned and will have all our clothes back Friday to determine the damage.  Surprisingly, it has been easy to live on 1/10^th of our wardrobe, shoes, dishes, etc.  We wonder where we’ll put everything when our big shipment (incl furniture) arrives in a month or so but I have t admit I’ll be happy to have a sofa!

Since I was sick the first weekend, last weekend was our first chance to get out and explore together.  It was a blast and the weather even cooperated.  We ended the weekend after walking all day Sunday by stopping into a local pub, QueensHead and having a couple beers (London Pride – yum!), veggie chili nachos and a great salad.  It was an unusual stop for us to make but after a day of walking and shopping was just what the doctor ordered.  Amy realized it was a gay men’s bar after we had been there for about 20 minutes…I was reluctant to admit it but after some observation realized that she was right.  I mean, what are the odds???? J

This coming weekend (I can’t wait!) we’re headed up to Notting Hill and Portabello Road, the antiques market mecca.  There are many things we still have to find…Costco, a yoga studio, good hummus, etc…but we’re feeling optimistic.

Amy’s starting work next week and is already making friends at the Pilates studio.  I’m excited for her and I think she’s going to have a lot of fun working down the street in the cool little studio above the art gallery.  She’s been a trooper and keeps my spirits up when I get the occasional thought of “what the hell was I thinking????” or the more common homesickness.

The civility of London is really amazing.  It’s a city larger than NY, but it operates in a completely different way.  The culture is very subdued, nice and calm.  Americans stand out because they’re often (unknowingly) loud, boisterous, animated and inconsiderate.  It really is true.  I’ve seen a few instances on the bus and at the coffee shop that made me realize why we’re perceived the way we are.  I’ve noticed becoming more aware of the cadence of my speech, the tone and the volume – just based on it being so conspicuous if I don’t.  People’s interactions here, for better or worse, are more civilized.  There seems to be a natural inclination towards diversity of thought and lifestyle and it’s demonstrated in people’s willingness to listen and look at things from a different perspective.  It’s not a subtle difference, it’s actually quite profound.

Religion (again, for better or worse) isn’t at the heart of things like politics or interpersonal relationships.  People embrace differing opinions and make no judgement based on any of it.  Politics are heated here, but the debates are civilized and seemingly based on issues, rather that political parties denoted by values deemed “religious” and therefore better.  No one has the higher moral ground and people see one another on a much more even playing field it seems.

There are social differentiators, I mean you should the cars in this city!  The people who have money here have LOADS of money.  Bentley’s, Ferrari’s, Jaguars, Mercedes, BMW are the cars of the day.  Flat black paint is the new “it”- it does look pretty gritty and cool I have to admit.  People are well put together, the men dress equally as esquisitely as the women and seem to enjoy their interactions with one another more.  They’re just more present, all the time.  I remember noticing that when I travelled to Italy on vacation but it’s weird to live it…I mean it’s great, it’s just an interesting observation.

Getting close to landing.  Mom, Jan and Jamie lived in Frankfurt with my dad in the 60’s so I’m going to call Mom when I land to find out where and see if I can find their old place.  That’s the adventure on this trip.

Oh, and I have managed to find my way to the “loo” at work, finally.

Jeri