New job

I can't believe it's been three weeks since I last posted; it seems like just yesterday. A lot has happened since then, though.

Most importantly, I got a job. I had the interview the week after my last post, and I got the offer the next day. I started last Monday, and life has been pretty hectic since then.

My official title is Assistant Website Manager for a government information portal: www.info4local.gov.uk. Thrilling stuff, let me tell you. The job is fine. I mostly just import content from other government websites. There's some editing to be done and some web statistics stuff, but it's pretty basic. But it is a job, and the pay is not too bad. Also, the people I work with are really nice. I mostly work with a girl named Amy. She's from New Zealand and understands my frustrations with living in England as an immigrant. Plus, she knows a bunch of people who were extras in the Lord of the Rings movies because she lived in Wellington, so she's pretty cool, all told.

It has been weird to go back to work after six months, but I fell back into the routine fairly easily. I have to leave a little before 8:00 to get here before 9:00, and the commute is trying, to say the least. I'm getting used to it, though, and I can usually finagle a seat on the train.

The most exciting thing about my job is that I get an hour for lunch, and since I work right smack dab in the middle of London, I can do some serious exploring. My favorite thing to do is wander through the streets looking for the blue plaques that note who used to live in the houses. I like the one for General Gage, who led the British Army to ignominious defeat in the American Revolution. I'm also just a few minutes' walk from Regent's Park. When the weather gets nicer, I can go there for picnics. And the other day I was walking around and found myself on Wimpole Street. It sounded familiar, and then I realized that was where Henry Higgins was supposed to live in My Fair Lady. I was on "the street where you live" like in the song!

The other reason I haven't posted in a while is also temporary. I've been doing A LOT of other writing, along with Andrew, because we're taking part in National Novel Writing Month, where you pledge to write a 50,000-word novel just in the month of November. I hit 32,000 words last night, so I'm right on track. Soon that will be finished, I will be settled in at work, and I will be able to refocus on the blog. Plus, I'll have photos of holiday decorations and maybe an ice skating excursion!

We're really looking forward to seeing everyone next month for Christmas, Amber's wedding, and New Year's. Until then, cheers from England!