The past few weeks have been a mix of excitement and emptiness. I knew it was going to be hard to be away from all my beautiful friends and family, in fact, it's been harder because I keep comparing my life now to my life back in Canada, but that's the odd beauty about moving to a different country. I can't wait for the day that I am truly comfortable here in the UK, but in the meantime, here's to figuring it all out again, for the relief that comes after the anxiety!
That aside, work has been great! Just last week we had a dinner among the analysts team and then there was an entire RMCC team event where we got to dance, make music, rap, and do some awesome artwork! It was great getting to know all the faces in our team of almost 100 people. It is amazing how supportive and patient everyone is! However, in the times spent alone with my thoughts, I can't help but feel lonely in this huge city.
I was worried that I had to be alone for my birthday, but that wasn't the case. As I mentioned there was the RMCC team event, so I treated it as a celebration of me being in the UK. Then on the day of and after my birthday, Amelia and I did a lot of exploring in London!
We started our adventures at the National History Museum and the Science Museum of London. Both of which had free admission which was great, but expect to see a LOT of people during the weekend. But damn the architecture to the National History Museum was just NICE, see:
We proceeded to have late lunch just around the corner, some Chinese place that had £5 lunch specials! After that, we walked along Brompton Road, doing some window shopping and even going into the Harrods!
We were somewhat bummed that one of the UK's most luxurious department stores did not have someone open the door for us. I know, first world problems, but you would really think that door opening would've been a thing. We continued walking, passing by the Wellington Arch and Wellington Memorial, and eventually joining back onto Piccadilly Road.
We then made our way to the Japan Centre! Samir had told me about this just last Friday and it is a place that sells Japanese snacks and cooking related goodies! I definitely had to consciously remind myself not to buy everything but it was nice to be able to get some great ingredients that would make my meals that much better!
After that, we headed to Chinatown for dinner! We ate at Joy Luck Restaurant (talk about original names) and had some spicy deep fried pork intestines!! Definitely birthday meal worthy, who cares about how unhealthy they are!
The next day, we went to the Borough Market! Quite some places were closed but we still managed to get some Malaysian chicken curry and paella! I'm don't think the paella was authentic but it addressed my seafood needs!
We also got Chili Hot Chocolates from Rabot 1745,
I didn't taste any chili but it was darn good hot chocolate!
We then made our up to Spitalfields Markets, passing through some real hispter and even sketchy parts of town. Spitalfields was just bustling, not to mention we got some BEAUTIFUL Turkish Delights!!
Then we walked through the Columbia Road Flower Market
(it was BUSY) but it was so beautiful!
Finally we went back to Spitalfields for some awesome cheese fondue
(late lunch/early dinner?) at Androuet Cheese Shop
Not the best photo but I was eager for fondue, could you really blame me? Thank you so much Amelia for taking me around London and buying me awesome food while at it! I'm so incredibly blessed to have such a great friend here with me in this new country! Cheers to being another year older and debatably wiser! ♥
Listening to "Can't Stop the Feeling" by Justin Timberlake
Images by Me
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