Thursday, October 28, 2004

The weirdest City

Hi there.

One of the first things I noticed about London is how weird is it constructed. The fact is you can find any kind of building style on any street or borough. I mean, you just walk on London Bridge and see this horrible factory-type building that belongs to Lloyds TSB, and in front of it a very wonderful and gorgeous classic house. And then if you walk a bit more you find that egg-shape new building. That's something you'll notice on every street, and as I said on other posts it's impossible not to find a gorgeous building to look at. That's why I really love walking on London, better than using the tube (of course I do both). But even when my feet are suffering from horrible pain I keep on walking because if I don't I'm sure I'll miss something really interesting.

And you also have those luxurious hotels, with the guys with the hat and the suit at the door to help you with the luggage. That's something we don't have in my town, where the most approximate to that is an old chap dressed with an old suit who can't really manage to carry your small suitcase and finally you carry everything 'cause you feel guilty. I'll fancy to stay one night on one of those hotels, but I'm sure they are prohibittly expensive (does that expression exists in English?).

There's something I found interesting. Those big white limos with dark windows. I always wonder who is inside them. It might be a famous and/or rich guy or chick, a gorgeous girl, a politician (I won't say anything good about them), or even a group of drunken chav chicks on a stag night (is it spelled like that?). But that's what makes limos with black windows exciting, as Forrest Gump said: "Limos are like a chocolates box, you never know what you are going to find.". I wish one of them stop in front of me, pull down the window and ask me to go in. The problem with that could be either chav chicks, or an old chap (or mis) that wants me, I don't really know what would be worst.

There's something else I find weird. As well with the buildings are people clothings. You can find a guy dressed with an armani suit sitting on the tube beside a punk style mate. Or that old woman with green hair, green skirt, green and red striped long socks, and trainers beside another one dressed entirely by DKNY. I feel I bit weirdo too, as I'm just normally dressed, I don't have a particular style, just normal, so I guess that in fact I'm the less normal here, and that makes me happy.

So if I had to find a short sentence to describe London it might be "the city of contrasts".

Anyway, I feel very humorous today as you can notice.

Have a great time.

Manoel.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

The Capital of Tourism

Hi again.

If there's a city, that I know, in the world with a lot of tourists that's London. I talked in the past about how annoying they can be, especially if they're a crowd of loudy Spaniards or screamy children. Here we have both and also Japanese, Chinese, Americans (even louder than Spaniards), French, and almost every nationality in the entire world. This time I'm not going to talk about Spaniards, in fact they aren't the loudest, this time are Americans (and some times Dutchs). But I'm not also going to talk about Americans, just about tourists.

There's some parts of London where you can find them. Those areas are exactly the ones I wanted to visit. But it's not only tourists what annoyies me, it's also school boys on a visit. If there's some places in wich silent is appreciated those are museums. I wanted to walk either on the British museum, or the Science and Natural History museums, or the National Gallery, anywhere, but sometimes I had to leave the rooms without seeing some of the finest pieces of art/history just because I couldn't stand so many noise. I thought British children were more educated, but they are as uneducated as Spanish children. It must be a question of age, not education, I'm just not sure. But I don't blame them, I blame the teachers who allowed them to run in the mummy hall on the Brit. Mus. Come on! let them rest in peace.

Those mummies where resting in perfectly peace for thousands of years but now they have to bare all those screamings, runnings, playings... I think that's not fair.

On the National Gallery they were quieter, but not as would like them to be. On the science and natural history museums they were even worst than on the British Museum. On those you have science games, so you can imagine them destructivly playing with those poor artifacts designed to entertain and educate but not to encourage violence.

And what about tourists? They weren't that horrible, in fact sometimes I looked like them with my camera. In fact I think I'm the worst of them because I take pictures of almost everything, even on the street, They must believe I'm a Japanese.

Tourists behave better on the museums than Spaniards on their owns, even if they are Spaniards (I mean Spaniards in London). They also have the guided bus sighteen tours in wich they see all London from a Bus (I really preffer walking, you have more time to see things, or not, because on a Bus you have to stop several times as the traffic is not really good here). And they also have a ship on the River Thames, and walking guided tours on the city. I must be a bad guy, but I don't give a shi... about all the info guides gives. I find no interest on knowing that a famous writer I never ever heard about lived in that small horrible house 50 years ago. What I like is walking alone so I can stop to see that building nobody notices but is so pretty, gorgeous. So there I am with my camera to take a picture of it. And also I don't find interesting joking about those poor soldiers at Buckghingham palace, I believe that's a punishment for they bad behaviour in the past, so they have to stand there without moving while a crowd of bloody bastards are telling him jokes in languages he doesn't know. I feel sorry for them, but I took a picture too.

Well. I found something to talk about, and everytime the subject of my posts is different, but it's a question of inspiration.

Kind regards.

Manoel.



Sunday, October 24, 2004

3d Week

Hi there.

I hope things are going well for all you. I'm having great times and not that great times as well. That's good news, I guess. I tried for the very first time Sushi and just that worths have came here.

As time passes I notice the differences between Spaniards and English. There are some, but I still believe I need more time to notice them all. One of them is coffe. In all the houses I've been it's not very common to have sugar, because they don't have tea with sugar as I do, and because they don't normally drink coffe that much. While in Spain coffe is really common, as common as tea in England. So, as I'm a coffe drinker I had to buy sugar twice. I could have coffe on Starbucks, or in any other shop/bar, but I really like to have my first coffe just after I wake up.

Another thing I want to talk is trash. I know it isn't something you'll like to talk about, but I'm amazed about something. There's only two days a week in wich the trash lorries comes to collect the trash bags, while in my town (and I guess in the whole Spain) it's everyday. That sounds a bit weird for me. I know they have dettached and semidettached houses here, so they can put the bags beside the front door, there's no need for them to leave the bags inside the house. I also know this is quite a cold country, so the bags don't really smell a lot. But I was also told they pay a lot to the council for those services, much more than in Spain. They don't also have a lot of time for cleaning the house, so now I know why Spaniards believe English are dirty. If they go to houses in wich they have trash bags outside the house, on the front door, and they leave them there for days, and also they don't clean the house so often (because of time problems) they'll find them dirty for sure. But I also look at the whys and know the answer of those whys, so I believe they aren't that dirty, it's just they can't be more clean, it's impossible.

There's some other things, small things that makes life in England different. The bed sheets are different and bed sizes as well, and also pillows. They eat those full english breakfasts that are horrible for me, because I can't eat in the morning, it's impossible I promise, I'll vomit just trying. And also the marmite (yeast extract) wich does smell great but taste not that great for me, it's too strong. But they love it. Muffins, a lot of different bread, tea, and something called fruit squash, food is different, especially on breakfast time. Evry shop in England has millions of different things I didn't even know they exist.

Species, prepared oriental (and not oriental) sauces, noodles, pre-cooked oriental meals... But there's something we don't normally have in Spain (except at Colin's house) and it's kettles. I find them useful. If you need to prepare coffe, tea, pasta, just need a few minutes to boil the water. Why on the bloody earth we don't have them in Spain? It's not that I want to preapare tea, but for pasta and coffe they're great.

So food is different, and also food habits and timing. I'm still not used to English timing, and I'm having my lunch at different times everyday so my body is not used to anything. But I still can't have Full English Breakfast.

Well, I'm stoping now, I hope I'll still finding differences so I can continue writing. The language differences aren't valid here, we all know we speak different languages. (But I could tell you about what's rude and what's not rude here, but I think I need more time for that).

Reagards.

Manoel.

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

From SPEC (Whatever it means)

Hi there.

I'm here again. Just trying to talk about the things that happened to me this last few days. And there are some things I'll like to talk about and so little time.

This was the flat-share-looking-week, which means I spent the last three days looking for a place to stay in. Of course it was infructuous. It's not that I couldn't find anything, it's not it's impossible to find anything. But when you have little time and you don't want to spend too much money, and you can't promise to stay a long time, the search can become "mission impossible" but of course I'm sure with more time it's not impossible, in fact I could have stayed in some houses.

But why didn't I stay on those places? I'll explain to you. The first thing that happened is I went to an agency. I had to pay 59£ for them too call people and give me addresses. I thought at the time I was at the office it was well expended money. That changed when I went to see the first house.

It was a very old house, completely dirty, dark. The room was ridiculously small and the bed... The owner, or something like that, was a pregnant east-european who looked really tired. She was nice, but she told me she was living with another 8 guys from different places. This was 80£ a week. And it's not that I'm too meticulous, but knowing I could stay in better places if I wasn't so shy... Anyway, on the way to that place I saw a group of black people on a car taking a photo from a mobile of... me? That scared me a bit.

The second was the house of an old couple from jugoslavya. The miss wasn't at home neither their son. The guy who attended me was a 70 year old parkinson poor old jugoslavyan. He needed so many time to walk up the stairs that finally he decided to tell me walk in front of me. He was very sweet. But more of the same, a tiny, tiny room, dirty place and 80£ as well. Do the Jugoslavyans stay with their parents 'till they are 50 like in Spain?

The third more of the same, except this time the old woman was english. And also 80£.

So at the end of that day I had visited 3 horrible houses in very horrible neighborhuds. I had another meeting at 7pm for the house the guy from the agency said was the best, so I was still hopeful. Then I checked the internet and saw an advert really interested. Then I called the guy, a kiwi, and went to his house. This time I was amazed. It was 90£ pw and on a very posch place. The house was inmense, gorgeous in fact. I talked to the guy, he was either nice, and it wasn't that dirty, just a bit, considering that 9 people lived on that house I believe it's normal, and it's something I can dare with when I'm in such a hurry as I am.

So he told me to wait 'till next day (today) because another couple would come to see the house. He didn't told me but I suspected the couple would pay more, because of something he said. I was dammed right. He has just sent me an email to tell me the share has been taken, dammed couples. Just one question, Why the hell couldn't he tell me the same on the phone, or by sms, I think it could have been nicer.

I forgot to tell you that on Monday I went to see another share, just for 2 weeks and from www.gumtree.com as well and it happended exactly the same thing, he told me I was late. And that's exactly what happened today. I went to see another 2 houses from the agency but I couldn't even describe them, and another from gumtree but I was also late. It seems finding a cheap house in London takes some time. If you have a job it's easier, because you can get a bedsite or a studio, for the same price and clean, without sharing with dirty filthy strangers.

Anyway. I decided to go back to Mig's house, I called him and he told me to go. I'm waiting for him to call me to check again. I'll be there as much as I can while I can't find a job and then a studio.

The other thing that happended to me was at Monday night. Hannah (Faye's sister, Colin's daughter) told me if I wanted to join them for a kind of catholic meeting. Just to have a chat for a couple of hours with other people (catholics) and argue about things. I thought I could lie if I was asked, so I decided to make Hannah happier (she earned points for bringing me to the meeting, whatever points means here). It was interesting at the begining, free food, drinks (water, cofee, milk, tea, no beer) and the opportunity to relax and chat. There I was in the middle of catholics arguing about how much they pray, or someone asked how do they do not to fall asleep when they're praying at night, or if it's good to pester to god on prayers. I just wanted to shout, to scream, to yeel them what I think about praying. One girl said something about praying because she wanted a catholic boyfriend and I thouhgt, "go out, drink something and dance, be sexy and I'm sure you'll find somebody, perhaps not catholic, but religion it's not the most important thing in life". I had a good time, and I really needed to chat with somebody. They were good people, but you know, I can't bare straight catholics for a long time, talking about conversion, talking about the meaning of life and the rules of the catholic church.

I'm sorry if somebody is offended with these, I just ask them to be patient and tolerant because I don't believe in all that ......... (put your own words, please, so it won't be my fault)

Hope you like this new post.

Have a nicer time than I'm having at the moment. Well, that's not exactly true, I had an opportunity to walk a lot and to go to a lot of different places in London, including that gorgeous house on a posch street I'm not going to live in.

Cheers.

Manoel.

Monday, October 18, 2004

Writing from McDonalds

Yes, I'm in a bloody McDonalds, writing with this annoying keyboard, but at least it's quite cheap. Anyway, that's something I would never expect.

It's time to talk a bit more about English behaviours, as it's quite difficult to write with this thing I don't know how much I'll write.

I've been on a British motorway, at night and during the day, with and without rain. So I learnt quite a lot about English drivers. The first thing I noticed was the amazing quality of English motorways. They have 3 lanes normally, and sometimes a few more. While in Spain the normal amount it's just to. The second thing I noticed is that they are straight roads, with no curves at all, just one or two in a certain distance so you don't fall asleep. I know the rate of deaths on English roads is with a long distance less than in Spain. I could say that it's because English drivers are better than Spanish, but I think it's only because they have really good roads.

I might say they don't drive really well. There's 3 or even 4 lanes and it's said and written on the sides of the motorway that inner lanes are only for overtaking. But that's just a lie. Everybody overtaes in any of the lanes. On the right, on the left, on the middle lane. There's no visible rule for that. You just drive on the lane you most like. I think that's not only unsafe but annoying, specially for a poor Spaniard used to overtake in only one lane.

The other thing I noticed, and wich most scares me is they don't respect the safety distance at all. It's said you should leave a gap between you and the car in front of you for if he suddenly brakes you'll have enough time to stop your vehicle without crashing with him. I saw they just get as close to the next vehicle as they can. That really scares me.

So I can't believe their statistics, it might be they are better drivers than us, or just they have better roads. But if I have to drive here I'll get crazy.

Changing the subject, I tell you I've been in Congleton, wich is a small town near Manchester. It's really beautiful or I should say gorgeous. It's full of cows, cow shit smell, rain, and farmers. It's peculiar, and I could see my first "boot sale" wich consists on selling all the crap you have at home and you don't want. You put all that stuff in the boot of your car, afterwards you put it on a desk and tell your children to sell it while you go to spend the money you're going to earn in the local Pub.

It was nice, and I'm sure you can find some good bargains in there. But it's also quite weird somebody would like to spend a Sunday morning selling the crap somebody gave you one day, or you bought on a boot sale.

The other thing I want to comment is I saw for the very firt time the real, the only one English typical Pub. Full of local people having beer. I had the opportunity to try local ale's. I'll say I missed the bubbles, but it does taste great. I'm sure I'll have more opportunities to drink ale beer. (I'll still miss the bubbles).

Anyway, I hope you're still enjoying my Blog. I just hope I can continue with it, wich will mean I'm still here. But I promise this is my last time on a McDonalds internet Blody machine.

One question. Would you still be reading my Blog if finally I have to go back to Spain? I promise it would still be funny. It's just a question, I hope I don't have to go back, it's just a question of me being a it lucky.

Cheers everybody.

Manoel.

From Cow-Town

Hi again.

Now I'm in Congleton, where my friend Faye's mum lives. It's such a beutiful countryside place, full of cows. It smells of cow shit, wich reminds me of Galicia and makes me feel at home a bit. Wherever I look I see cows, green and rain, it's such a rainy place.

Well. I thought I could write more these days but finally, even when I had enough time to do it I didn't. It seems I feel better to write when I'm in a rush. I mean it, because now I'm waiting to go back to London and I'm in a hurry.

I hope I'll write soon a new post, this time I think I'll write about English Motorways and the countryside, it's easy. I didn't have too many new experinces but being in a proper English Pub, watching a "boot sale", wich is something I've never seen, and walking in the countryside.

Weel, see you soon.

Manoel.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Efficiency and Disabled

Hi again.

I'm quite amazed about how efficient a country could be compared to Spain. It seems this is a really efficient country. There must be some clever guys thinking about ridiculous, but usefull, things all the time. How much are they payed?

So lets talk a bit about efficiency in the UK. I see some bizarre (bizarre for a spaniard, I mean) things on the streets and on the tube. For example:

On the mechanical stairs you have signs saying "Please stand on the right" or something like that, I certainly don't remember the exact phrase. That's really clever and efficient. So the fastest people can walk up the stairs while the slower ones can stay on the right.

Anywhere you have tube maps, and more specific ones that indicates almost perfectly how to reach your destination. You have also somebody speaking telling you wich trains is coming, and also where is that train going to, and also he reminds you to mind the gap, the gap between the train and the station. You have also signs saying "mind the gap" and more tube maps inside the trains. It's quite difficult ti get lost at the train if you're clever enough and don't mind on asking somebody.

On the streets there's this painting I told you saying from wich direction are the cars coming. So even if you're a blody foreigner you don't have to be worried when you cross the road. When you want to cross you just have to take a look at the ground and read, meanwhile you'll be pushed by some Spaniards that just want to cross the road without looking because they're really clever, well, they aren't that clever, is always better to look I think, but in fact I preffer them not to look, so they can be kill....., ups!, I'm sorry, I was just letting my murderous instincs to fly.

But there's always a bad side on that kind of efficiency. It seems those clever guys aren't disabled or don't know any disable people. They forgot completely that some people can't read, they can't ever see. As not all the traffic lights have acoustic signals for the blinds, and as not all the cross roads have even traffic lights for pedestrians, I wonder if they can really live in this city. Somehow I haven't seen any blind yet. And it's quite hard even for non blinds to cross the roads as not all of them have traffic lights for pedestrians, just only for cars.

And about the wheel chair guys, I believe they have to "walk" (sorry, I don't know a proper word fot that) the whole city if they want to go anywhere. The tube doesn't have a lot of lifts. And, what's most strange, some of them have lifts but then they have stairs to reach the platforms. Of course it's impossible to "walk" on a mechanical stairway with a wheelchair. And on the streets, not all the crossroads have any kind of help for them as well.

So I see this is a country of efficency, but really unpolite with poor disableds. Somebody has to speak with Mr. Blair, or with the major, or with those blody clever guys that decided to put a sign saying "LOOK LEFT" instead of an acoustic signal for blinds.

It's strange that Spain is better in that sense than England. I'm amazed to see we do something more efficiently than English. At least our traffic lights have acoustic signals and paths for wheelchairs even in my little small town Pontevedra.

I hope you like it this time and also that I could stay as long here as I can really tell you all the differences between you and me.

Cheers.

Manoel.

From outer space

Hi again.

Living on a different country is not quite easy. Almost everything is different. Things are slower than in Spain if that's possible. Before coming here I had wonderful dreams about it being so different from Spain as it would be a wonderful place to live. I was wrong. As it's really different from Spain, the differences go exactly on the same direction, althoug with different manners.

In Spain is not rude to tell somebody "you are rejected", in fact that's what we expect from them (unless you are a relative of any kind of boss in the office). But here they really polite, so they don't doubt on telling you "the IT market has been stopped for a long time, there's no jobs on IT" either if it's true or not. I don't really know the answer of that question, but I really know I sent hundreds of CVs with no answer. After calling them to ask if they had recieved my CV the answer was always the same "NO, send it again". As my especiality is IT I know that's not true. It might have been they deleted accidentaly (or on purpose) my CV, or they just don't have enough time to look at all the CVs they receive everyday.

So the fact is that I haven't received any nice answer from them, just only bad news. That's not funny, I believe.

So now I'm here, with not only no job but with the idea of being impossible to find a job. And if that's not enough I still don't have a house. But that's something I could fix.

So I'm a bit annoyed about English behaviours. I'm sorry not to be funny this time, but it seems life is not as easy as we normally believe.

Anyway, I'll try to stay here 'till my bank account says "empty" or 'till my mind and/or my body says "STOP". There's some things I really like from being here. Especially the loooong walks I'm having.

Next weekend I'll be in Manchester. I hope people is different there, warmer and nicer. And I also hope I can find a job there, a house, or even a life (Could I say a girlfriend too???, joking, more or less).

Ok then, cheers from London.

Manoel.

PS: I hope next time I'll be funnier.

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

More than a Week

Well, the time has passed. It seems I'll stay here as long as I can. But the money is running out and I still don't have found a job. Apart from that I really need to find somewhere to live, so things are getting worse in some ways but in some others they're getting better.

I'm getting used to the English standards and also I miss less my family. I really like to walk in the city and watch all those marvellous buildings and enjoying the Brits.

It's just you can find almost everything you need.

There's something I forgot to mention on my last post and is that I received my first English smile on a street on Sunday. But I may say it wasn't in London. Althoug today I recieved as well my first London smile. That was nice because I thought Londoniers didn't smile at all, but at least there's one who does smile.

Anyway, I'm just here siting on "my bedroom" thinking about all that. I really like this bloody place.

This week I'm using my sight to look at what the people do on the tube. Some read newspapers, some just stare at nothing, some talk with their fellows and some just sleep. How can you sleep on a washing machine?, I mean the tubes moves like a washing machine, you go up and down, and then left and up and right and it does never stop. Apart from all the noise and the movement, how can anyone could feel safe sleeping on the tube? I'm glad to say tube should be really safe, with no crime at all, if not I know some guys who just had lefted their wallets, suitcases and even clothes.

About newspapers I should say they spoke a lot about Beckham this week and the fact he is playing well again. I might say it was just ONE match but it doesn't really matter for the press so they have their hero back again. That's more or less what they do with Raul in Spain so I'm not really surprised.

I'm still scared of the roads. Althoug I got used to look first to the right instead to the left as it is in my country (I might be wrong, it could be right in England but it's dark and I'm too tired), but if I wasn't used it doesn't really matter because it's painted on the road. So if you don't know wich side to look first you just take a look of the ground to see wich one is it. That's brilliant.

Well, I'm going to sleep now. Cheers for everybody.

Manoel.

PS: Does anybody now how to get a job on IT in this blody city? And does anybody have a cheap spare room to share?

Sunday, October 10, 2004

English nightclubs and some apologizes

I received a comment on the last post from an English chav that sounded just a bit offended. I'm really sorry if I offend anybody. I know I can be quite rude an offensive sometimes but my idea is to laugh about ourselves. So what's the point on only telling the good things with really nice words and not telling the not so good things with an ironic tone.

So I'm really sorry if I offended somebody. I'm quite tolerant with everything (well, I have some exceptions of course) and every kind of people, colour, style, religion, ...

Anyway. I had my first English night, well, they were 2 nights in fact. What could I say? The first thing that impresses me is the time. Everybody goes back at home at 1,2 more or less (sometimes more, sometimes less) and they start partying at 19:00. So it's said as they don't have so many time they drink as fast as possible to get drunk. My English friends are really proud of that, they said English drink a lot, and it could be true, but I'm sure it's comparable with Spaniards. As I noticed the quantity of alcohol in the drinks is 3 times less than in Spain. They drinked over 6 or 7 drinks during the night. My friends in Spain drink 10 drinks a night and with three times more alcohol in them. So I bet English don't really drink that much. Of course it was my first weekend and I can't really bet at 100%.

In same ways I felt at home in the disco, except for the music that it seem to be a bit better than in Spain. Of course I need more experience to verify that. And basicaly they do exactly the same as in Spain, drink, dance, talk and pull girls (or boys, of course). That's why I felt at home.

Yesterday we went to Bristol to go out. It's quite a nice town, really beautiful. I could have had a wonderful night but finally it wasn't that good, but that's a story I can't tell, I'm sorry. Anyway, the disco's staff were annoying. They asked everybody for a photo ID but they said it wasn't for aging purposes. What for? that's what I'm asking, I can't really understand what other purposes they could have. Do they really want to check if I'm not Osama Ben Laden? Later I wanted to go and buy some cigarettes outside the pub (of course the machine inside it didn't work) but they didn't aloow me to get in again if I leaved the disco (sorry, it was a disco, not a pub), so if I wanted to get back again I'll have to pay another 4£ to get in. Finally I decided to go and buy them and stay out of the place, what caused me some problems.

Another thing happend at the pub. It was something like one out one in, that literaly means one person leaves the disco, one person enter the disco, but of course that person wasn't any of us althoug we were the very firsts at the queue, VIP I guess. So that made me feel at home as well.

Anyway, I'm stoping now, I think I told you quite a lot of things again. I hope I'll stay here a long time, I don't want to leave my readers without my experiences.

Cheers, and apologizes for the chav.

Manoel.

Friday, October 08, 2004

Such a wonderful place

How can anybody describe what London is? Just a big city? The answer of last question is NO.

I don't think New York is like London. You just walk around the city and everything is amazing. The people, the buildings, the food, everything. For a poor little boy from Pontevedra it's such a big new world to discover. Of course I feel a bit overwhelmed sometimes, but I think it's just a question of time to feel better and to estabilish.

And what about the museums, I don't have enough words to describe them. But I'll just say English stole a lot of things from other cultures and countries in the past, so you can see all of them distributed in more than 4 big buildings. And I also could see a mummie!!

I said Londoniers are cold, and they really are cold in the tube and the streets, they just walk as fast as they can so they don't miss next train, and then they sit without smiling at all, looking to nowhere, reading a newspaper. It's said it's rude to look at people in the tube, and it might be, but I can't do it, you know I love to look at people.

I saw my first chavs this week and I can only say OHOHOOHGGGGG!!!. They're even worst than spanish chavs. And I also went shopping (the thing I most hate) and I could see more chavs and chavs clothes. Clothing, that's something I could talk a lot. I saw English clothes at shops, and I can only say they're chavier (I believe I have just invented a word) than anything in Spain. So the believe of English being not really stylish might be true. I'll check later.

I'm also having my first English night. I was amazed to hear we'll be back at home at 12 or 1 more or less. They say you have to drink as fast as you can so you can enjoy the rest of the night, so you start drinking at 7PM and you only have 5 hours to dance, talk and find girls. I hope it'll be enough for a poor Spaniard.

Ok, let's finish it. I'll talk more and more later because there's so many things to say I won't ever finish.

Hope you're having such a nice time as I'm.

Cheers to everybody.

Manoel.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Here I am

Hi, I'm finally in London.

It's more or less what I expected but much more than less. Everything is so different...

I still find hard to deal with all those changes but I hope soon I'll feel better. I can't still forget my own country and there's so many things to miss... I try not to think about it.

Anyway. It's too early to speak about English but I can tell you how marvellous is the city, and so big. I came from a little town so you can imagine the shock when I found myself walking in the city for a whole day, I think I walked 40Km and my legs went down at night. There's so many coulours, so many different people, but so cold (I mean the people). I know that it's because I'm in the city and everybody is either a tourist or too in a hurry to smile, that everything seems so busy.

But just walking you can see so many different places to eat. Wich bloody Spaniard said that in England they eat really badly? How can they eat badly when there's so many choices.

Well. Hope I'll write something else soon, meanwhile I'll continue seeking a job. I'll tell you later.

Manoel.

Saturday, October 02, 2004

Some Goodbyes and Some Hellos

Well, in about 3 hours I'll be at the airport walking to the plane. It's time to say goodbye, but later I'll be time to say hello.

I had never flighted and today I'm going to do it twice. But that's not the only excitement I'll have today. At night I'll have my first impressions about England. Also I'll see the difference between spanish and English airports and it's something might be significative. So I guess as soon as I can use a computer with internet I'll write a post.

So this is my last post from Spain (in some time, I'll come back to visit my family).

I'm very busy so I'm going to stop writing.

Goodbye Spain, hello UK.

Manoel