Current City: London

I’m here! It’s real!

Sorry for the delay in posting, but it has been hectic here! I have been trying to get settled in and go exploring a little as well. Thank you all for your sweet messages and thoughts!

I feel like I’ve been saying that I’m moving to London and getting ready to leave for years and mere hours at the same time. In July when I found out that I had the position in London, October seemed like a hundred years away, but the time flew by like I found out yesterday.  Leaving Mom, Dad, Tab (+baby), & Jason at the airport on Sunday was really hard. We are really close, so hugging them for the last time for five months was heart wrenching to say the least. I do have the comfort of knowing that Mom will be here to deliver hugs from everyone in just 51 days. Yay! Being able to see them every day on Skype has made the transition easier as well. 

I left Memphis on Sunday and flew to Dallas to catch my flight to Heathrow. Both flights were great! Sidebar: I get extremely motion sick, including flights. I was flying to San Diego last fall when I had to switch planes in Chicago and got so motion sick that the ambulance met my plane on the runway and the paramedics rushed to my seat to take care of me. Yes, that really happened. Oops! It’s a funny story now, but not so much at the time. Needless to say, many prayers were answered when I landed in London feeling great. I boarded in Dallas, watched a movie, fell asleep, and woke up with the flight attendant saying 45 minutes to London. Another one of the volunteers met me at the airport and we were off to Pax Lodge!

What a nice message to wake up to on the plane!

My first sight of the city

When I got to Pax Lodge everyone was really friendly and excited to see me. I dropped my suitcases off and Kristin took me for a walk around Hampstead. Kristin is from Orlando, and she is the Event Assistant volunteer.  We live in a really nice area of London that is close to the tube (the subway) and numerous bus stops. I feel really safe in this neighborhood, and it’s so beautiful here!

Parliament Hill near my house

If you want to meet my new friends check out the Pax Lodge volunteer page. I’m not up there yet because I haven’t turned me stuff in yet. Once again, hectic. http://paxlodge.org/en/people/volunteers

I am the new Marketing and Communications Volunteer, so I will be working on the Pax Lodge Facebook and Twitter, writing newsletters, working on brand management, and lots of other marketing type things. I will be training for a few weeks, so I won’t have much exciting work news for a while. My manager Susan is great, and my heart started beating fast when we were talking about my fun upcoming projects! I think your heart beating fast at the thought of work is a sign of a correct career choice. You can find the Pax Lodge staff that I talk about here: http://paxlodge.org/en/people/staff

I had my first day off on Thursday, and I went total tourist! I got a little bit of a late start because I’m still a little jet lagged. There was an 80% chance of rain, but I decided to go check out the Tower of London. It was amazing! It was like stepping into a History Channel special. My favorite part was seeing the Crown Jewels! It was mind-blowing to try to comprehend that the massive jewels were real and not just pretty costume jewelry. Another mind-blowing aspect was thinking about the age of the Tower of London and its rich history. (I will post more about my Tower tour later.) After the Tower, I walked across the London Bridge and wandered around the area. Being on the London Bridge was surreal. I have been singing about the London Bridge since I was tiny and had seen its picture in books, but I was physically walking across it. It was beautiful!

Fun Fact: I had lunch at KFC! You can take the girl out of the South, but you can’t take the South out of the girl. (I pretended that it was tasty chicken from The Veranda instead of KFC, but it was fried chicken either way.)

The Tower of London guards, the Yeoman Warders.

The London Bridge

That night I got to see a fellow Southern Belle living in London, Childs Koon-King! Tab and Childs are the same age, so I grew up knowing her. She married a guy from England, so they are living in London now. She was a fabulous tour guide! We walked along the Thames and she showed me where all the nearby attractions are. We passed the London Eye, Big Ben, Tate Modern, Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, and lots of other places. I am planning on going back during the day soon to see it all again. I was excited to see all of those places, but I was even more excited to see Childs. It was nice to chat with someone that understands my sweet tea cravings and missing Mi Pueblo in Ripley. I can’t wait until we hang out again soon!

The London Eye and Big Ben

Big Ben 

Westminster Abbey

I worked the early shift today, so I had an afternoon break before dinner. I decided that it would be a good idea to run get a blow dryer a few bus stops away. Wrong. I was fine getting there and had fun shopping around, but getting home was a challenge. I’m not very good at the bus system yet. The tube is a little easier for me after living in New York and riding the subway all of the time but the buses are not my friends yet. The store that I went to was worth reporting. It is a catalogue store called Argos. http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Home.htm So you go in and there aren’t any products anywhere but there are lots of stations with catalogues that look like the JC Penney catalogue on steroids. They sell everything from blow dryers to refrigerators there. You just fill out the little form with the catalogue number and quantity, go to the checkout, and they gather everything up for you from the back. It was weird/neat.

I have lots of other things to tell everyone, but I have to work early tomorrow so I will update you again soon and I will post more pictures on Facebook!

In case you were wondering, I am 5 hours ahead right now but it will be 6 after the time falls back again.

Most importantly, I love snail mail! Hint, hint!

Tiffany Brady

Pax Lodge

Olave Centre

12c Lyndhurst Road

London

NW3 5PQ