Church/Bank Holiday/First Day of Work

i'm a few days behind. i have way to much recording of events going on in my life. it takes up way too much time. but here goes highlights:

Church
i didn't know what time church started. i only knew the address bc it was listed in the packet of papers we were given in the list of places of worship. i figured the earliest it would start was at 9, so i planned for that. turns out i guessed right. i didn't know any details whatsoever about the singles ward. this was the family ward.

the church was just a section of a bigger building, so it was thinner but 3 stories high. the chapel and gym are actually parallel to each other. so the rows of the overflow, still in the gym, were actually angled to face the podium.

people still give the exact same testimonies over here. for some reason that amused me enough at the time for me to write it down.

and get this - the mass majority of the people i heard at church were American! the bishop is. so is the sunday school teacher i had. and so are almost all the people who gave answers during the lesson. i was rather disappointed. in priesthood all the visitors stood and introduced themselves. literally 9/10 of the room were visitors and all from america - maybe a couple from canada. a good chunk of that was byu students here for a couple weeks for something.

i found out that the singles ward met at 2:30, so i went back to church again at 2:30. :) it's a good sized singles ward here! again i think about 1/3 of the people were visitors - mostly american, otherwise canadian. and probably half of the regulars were americans/canadians. i actually overheard a girl's thick southern drawl so i went up and talked to her. she's from texas and is working here. the sunday school teacher was a hoot! she was the jolliest lady and had a thick lower-class british accent. then the priesthood lesson was given by a guy who used the recent soccer game as a symbol for his lesson.

i was kind of annoyed that no locals ever befriended me. i can understand it bc there were so many visitors but it just wasn't what i hoped. it wasn't like back home when a ysa visitor comes to the ward and everyone wants to talk to them bc they're new. so i never got to chat with any real locals. the only people who came up to me were a few american visitors. get this: one guy came up to me bc he recognized me from the b-ham stake! he's in another ward there. another guy who actually went to both wards just like me is here starting a 6-week internship through a different program. he's kind of older though, but still single. it looks like no one else in my program is mormon. :( speaking of which, it never takes long for everyone around me to learn i am mormon. interesting how that always works out.

Bank Holiday
monday was a bank holiday. and as tradition holds, when the banks close companies can't function so they close too. i don't know the significance of the holiday other than it's called a bank holiday. i think it's just coincidence that i falls on the same day as our memorial day.

did more sightseeing. it was rainy so we went to a museum. i also ate my first "traditional english breakfast". i had about the same reaction as i did to fish and chips. a lot of hype for a large lack of taste. traditional english breakfast = eggs + bacon + tomatoes + hash browns + sausage + baked beans. give or take one or two items, but the beans are always there.

in the evening i went to my first show here - Avenue Q. i don't remember the last time i laughed that hard! that was probably the funniest show i have seen in a long time. if anyone gets the chance to see it, it's got my recommendation.


First Day of Work
i went to work today. i met marianne who showed me around the office and everything. she's actually from birmingham, al and she was really excited to have another alabamian there with her. i'm SO glad she's there. she's really really happy and helpful. just the kind of personality i need to have around. i was actually in her office for like an hour in the afternoon just chatting. so get this... not only is she from alabama but she used to do theatre! she actually got a degree in voice, training to be an opera singer. but she got nodes on her vocal chords which basically restricts you from doing any regular singing. so we had a lot to chat about. and we actually got onto the topic of what my plans are after i graduate. i mentioned i'd love to find a job in london. she was really supportive about the idea and suggested i keep a look-out for openings in that company around that time. she said that the problems i'll have are getting a work visa and everything that entails. basically i have to get a sponsorship to work in the uk which sounds complicated enough as it is and i've barely looked into it. and this company won't do sponsorships bc of the huge hassel. apparently the company would have to prove that the job could not be filled by any uk citizen (basically impossible) plus mounds of paperwork on their part that they don't want to do. so it is possible but it would be really really hard. she gave me hope though with this program that she said a few of her friends did - http://www.bunac.org/usa/workinbritain/eligibility.aspx i'll have to do some more research on the subject. but that's more than i expected to get on my first day!

so all did all day was data entry - put information from business cards into outlook. then i was taking pictures one-by-one of the ton of shirts that were sent to us for one company. i'm working in the product development department and this was a way to get all the products from that licensee on the computer to look at simply. or something like that. i'm actually working with 2 girls younger than me and another one in her late 20's. i think about 2/3 of the whole company were women. and a couple of the guys, i question their sexual preference. and it's so diverse within the english language. in my department is one girl from south africa. there's already a couple americans there. there's a few there from australia. all we need is a canadian and we're set! so the work day had highs and lows. plus, first days are always annoyingly awkward... basically in anything. it'll be nice when i'm actually in the swing of things.