Epilogue - Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

I wanted to write a short epilogue in regards to the poem I wrote and posted on Christmas Eve. (see here) Part of the poem reflected my lack of enthusiasm for the upcoming Christmas parties and events that the family had planned for the following days. I wrote this mostly in jest though those that know me know that I am not the most social of people and I’m not particularly fond of events that cause me to be surrounded by people I don’t know that well so there was some truth behind my jest. But the week did not end up working out the way it had been planned instead of having a schedule packed with events I ended up only attending one party and a small family gathering that happened at our place. Now if someone had told me on Christmas Eve that during my five days off I would only be going to that one party I would likely have been pretty happy about it but what actually ended up causing this to happen made my Christmas quite cheerless. I woke up Christmas morning with a high temperature, bad cough, stuffy nose and a terrible headache. For the next three days I basically lived in bed getting up only to use the bathroom and eat. On Saturday, the fourth day, I still wasn’t feeling that well but I got up and participated in the evening party. That was the first time I had left the house since Tuesday. Currently I’m still dealing with a cough and stuffy nose but the worst of it has passed, which is good since I am back at work now. It seems I had the flu. I’ve had colds here and there but I had not been this sick in years so it came as quite a surprise to me. So it seems that my “freedom” from the social events of the week came at the price of me being a prisoner to my bed. Pick your poison I guess.

So while it certainly wasn’t fun at the time it is hard not to look at back and laugh a bit. Maybe this is just what I get for writing a Christmas poem that poked fun at the upcoming Christmas affairs.  On the bright side I wrote the poem for laughs, which it hopefully got and now here's an addition that should be good for another laugh or two. So while I did not get to have much Christmas cheer for myself hopefully I was able to spread Christmas cheer to others this season.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and now I say Happy New Year. Have some fun.

A Poem - Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

(note: I wrote this piece playing off the Christmas poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas". So when you read this use the rhythm from that poem. If you don't know that poem take a look and/or listen)

Twas the weekend before Christmas, as I sat in the house
it was filled with people cooking and cleaning, I felt like a louse.
I learned of the plans for the coming week that had been devised with such care,
and I was already worn-out knowing that friends and family would soon be there.

Every day off so many people to hang with what a family I’ve wed,
I’ll struggle to sleep as I am haunted by visions of socializing in my head.
As fear crept in I looked over at Colby our cat,
only to be jealous of his peace as he took a long nap.

I tried to look at the bright side of things as I sat there,
that I wouldn’t be at work for five whole days so who cares.
Still it was hard to be positive knowing how days disappear so fast,
and time alone with Priya just never seems to last.

I gazed at Priya and of course she did know
I wasn’t very excited with my lackluster glow.
After the schedule was finished she came near,
making a small smile on my face come to appear.

With Priya nearby my poor mood wouldn’t stick,
her affect on me is like a real magic trick.
To have fun this week became my new aim,
though Priya knows I prefer to be alone with her all the same.

Come now aunt, uncle, cousin and brother
come friend, neighbor, father and mother.
To our house, then your flat and maybe the mall
we’ll eat, shop, talk, anything as long as we’re together above all.

We soon talked about all the gifts we did buy,
and if we’d have time to open them on Christmas with all the cooking and cleaning that did apply.
We took some time to decide but I think deep down we both knew,
we’d unwrap them that night quickly before our decision was opened to judicial review.

As the four of us gathered I was a little aloof
I wanted to be there but my head was hurting and that was no goof.
As the presents were opened much fun was found,
and thankfully the pain in my head died down.

We brought the presents in and got off our feet,
and soon we were opening them enjoying the treat.
Take this, it’s a present for Zach,
I opened and found a beautiful art piece no mere knick-knack.

I hand Priya a gift and she is not wary
as I watch her open it I know she was the perfect girl to marry.
It does not take her long to know,
a pajama set from Victoria Secret was behind the bow.

After that to her a rug I did bequeath,
on windy winter nights to keep warm underneath.
Joan and Kan provide us simple beauty,
multiple gift cards to go see some movies.

It was Kan’s turn as he received nice sweaters for himself
mostly because he deserved them but also to keep him from taking the ones off my shelf!
An iron skillet, oven glove and baking sheet were Joan’s spread,
now she can cook us her cookies, treats and breads.

As we looked at our gifts I couldn’t help but smirk,
I was so glad Priya liked them after all my shopping work.
It was as good a night as one could compose,
as for the busy week before us nobody knows.

So now our break is coming at us like a missile,
and I admit part of me still wants a dismissal.
But don’t worry I’ll be good and keep my spirits light,
let me say thank you for reading and "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

London: Where to "Go"

I have lived in London for over a year now and during that time I have spent numerous hours in the city just wandering around seeing what I could see. As I explored the city one of the most important questions that arose was, “where to go?” And of course by “go” I mean where can I go to the restroom and which places are the best? I am a person who drinks a lot and by that I don’t mean alcohol I just mean drinks things like soda, water, etc. So when I’m out on the go I often need to find a place to “go”.  

Not surprisingly two of the nicest restrooms I have found downtown are in museums. The British Museum, which is located near the Tottenham Court Road and Holborn stations, offers great facilities that one can get to fairly easily with no cost. If you are further South in London by Trafalgar Square then definitely go to the National Portrait Gallery. Both of these places offer large restrooms with numerous stalls and are kept clean. And, of course, when you go to and at these places you end up in some really cool places to visit.

Next is Oxford Street where I often end up amidst all the shopping. Here you can find numerous restrooms in various stores particularly the larger department stores. Often these restrooms are fairly small and are not as well kept as one would expect but they are generally easy to find and they are usually unpopulated particularly if you go out of your way to visit the basement or higher floors. If you are on the west side near Marble Arch and Bond Street specifically go to Primark, House of Frasier, John Lewis or Debenhams. I put that list in geographical order with Primark being the furthest west, closest to Marble Arch and Debenhams being the furthest east about a block east of Bond Street. Now if you are on the eastside of Oxford Street closer to Tottenham Court Road there is a Marks & Spencers on the south side of the street, which has decent facilities. But beyond that there are not a lot of great places to go on the eastside of Oxford Circus.

Now if you get to Tottenham Court Road station one can quickly find more restrooms by venturing south. One of the restrooms I use the most frequently is the one in Foyles Bookstore just south of Tottenham Court Road station. The reason I have used that restroom so much is not due to it being very nice, in fact it isn’t, but because of its location. Tottenham Court Road station is the station I usually get off at when I am coming downtown to meet up with Priya so after an hour and a half on a bus and train I often want and need to go. Also the store is directly across from the Chipotle I eat at so after a big burrito and bottle of water and around 30 minutes I often end up across the street at the bookstore. Let me say again that these are not very nice bathrooms. They are small and old and they are cleaned just infrequently enough to be bothersome. Again the main reason I use them is their location both where the store is and where the bathrooms are in the store. In the store itself I like where they are because they are on the second floor (what Americans would call the third floor) in the back on the same level as the philosophy, history and religion books, which is right where I end up whether I need to go or not so that’s nice.

If you continue further south you’ll end up in Leister Square and there you’ll find the bathroom that after Foyles' I have gone to the most. It’s in Burger King. It is a two level restaurant with the restrooms on the top floor. While they don’t exactly want people who are not customers using their facilities it is easy enough to slip in and out without being noticed due to the location of the bathroom in the store and that there is usually a lot of people so nobody is watching. This is not always the case there have been times when I have gone here and they have a employee sitting upstairs by the bathroom watching people come in and out. I have never actually seen this person stop anyone so I don't really know if they are their for security or cleaning duties or what? Now most of the time I will be a customer here due to the fact that Burger King is one of the few restaurant chains here in London that provides free refills on soda so I don't have to "sneak" in. So really this Burger King not only provides me a restroom that I use quite often it also provides me liters (gallons for Americans) of soda that facilitate my need to use their bathroom and the many others I have mentioned on this list. Now the restroom itself is not a large one (two stalls and two urinals for the guys) but they keep it relatively clean considering it is a fast food restaurant.

When I’m down on Strand Street and have moved east of Trafalgar Square towards Priya's office there are a few places one can go for sure. The best bet is Mcdonalds. There is one just to the east of Charring Cross station. It is a two level restaurant and the restrooms are on the bottom floor. Similar to Burger King they don’t really want you using the bathrooms if you aren’t a customer but it’s pretty easy to get in and out without being noticed. And unlike with Burger King I am usually not a customer here but I feel I’ve bought enough McDonalds over my life time to justify “going” there. Now you can also use the facilities at Charring Cross or a little further south by Embankment station but those are pay toilets. So that means you need 20 to 50 pence to get into the bathroom. The turnstiles for getting into the restroom are about waist high and the type with the three bars that make a triangle shape that you pay and push through. While paying is bothersome when you’ve got to go you’ve got to go. Now I will admit there have been a few times that I was desperate for a bathroom and found myself with no money in my pocket so I surveyed the scene, waited until I thought no one was looking and jumped over the turnstiles and used the facilities for free. The restrooms by Embankment station are not very guarded so it isn’t that difficult to sneak your way in to the,. Believe me that is not something I’ve made a habit of but it has happened.  

If you are on the south side of the river and find yourself near the London Eye there are facilities right next to it but similar to the ones at Charring Cross and Embankment you have to pay to use them.

There are of course other places to “go” in London but these are the places I have gone to the most often since I’ve lived in London. So if you ever find yourself in London wondering where to “go” hopefully this will come to your mind and help you find the relief you so desperately need.  

(pictures and actually ranks are forthcoming)

Christmas Fears - An Empty Box

I consider myself to be a fairly thoughtful person whether that be as a husband, a friend, a son, a brother or any other role I may fill. Traditionally part of being thoughtful has meant I am fairly good at getting presents for the people I care about. I tend to keep track of things they like and I am then able to figure out things that will likely enjoy receiving particularly things that they will not simply get for themselves. But this Christmas I find myself stuck in a way I never have before. I simply cannot find or think of good presents to give to the most important person in my life, Priya (my wife).

Now unlike last year at this time I currently have a job, which brings both good and bad with it. It is good because it means I have more money than I did last year. Last year I was basically getting Priya presents with her own money, which is not the most rewarding feeling for the person giving the gift. Really it just feels like rather than giving someone a present you are just running an errand for them. The downside to having a job is that unlike last year I do not have very much time to shop or look around for things. There really is no way for me to go shopping alone without Priya knowing exactly what I am doing. I tried to do that Sunday. I told Priya I was going to go out for a bit but there was no way to hide what I was actually doing so I finally admitted I was going to the mall.

I went with multiple items in mind and had done some research online to see if certain stores carried the things I was looking for. I headed to the mall with high expectations but after 3 hours there all I had accomplished was buying myself lunch and a new drink container to take to work. Before I left I did buy Priya a small gift. It was a book of origami on how to make different origami animals and it included lots of origami paper. I of course know Priya likes to do origami but what made this stick out in my head at that moment was that she was doing origami at home when I left and she had been doing it the day before. When I saw the book I could have sworn that the day before Priya had said she didn’t have any instructions on how to make origami animals and she wished she had some. She had been spending a lot of her time Saturday making origami ornaments for our Christmas tree. Then that morning before I left she told me she was going to be doing origami all day along with a few other assorted chores. So when I got home, deflated and defeated from my failed trip I went ahead and gave her the origami book right away rather than waiting until Christmas. Yes, given my lack of any other gifts this was not the smartest of moves but I thought for sure that it was something she would want at the time to make animal ornaments for the tree so I shouldn’t wait. Maybe that is a bit too practical of a way to look at it but that’s how I saw it at the time. Anyway after I gave her the book she was happy but I discovered that she had never said she needed instructions for animal origami but rather already had a bunch. I was shattered. Of course I couldn’t hide this and I soon confessed to Priya that I had not been able to get her anything that day and in fact I had nothing. She told me not to worry about it but of course that was a bit hard to do especially knowing she has already gotten me at least two gifts which she went out of her way to get.

Part of the difficulty I currently face whenever I try and get gifts for Priya is that many of the things I know she likes are things that are best bought by the individual themselves unless they have been specifically pointed out to you (clothing, bags, scarves, shoes and the like) otherwise you will most likely only be getting them something that they will want to return in which case all you really ended up giving them was an errand to go run. Sadly at this time no random pointing out of outfits or bags has occurred and if I were to take Priya shopping and just hold up an item and say “What do you think? Do you like this?” than it would not be very difficult for her to figure out what I was really asking, “Do you want this for your Christmas present?”

So as Christmas grows ever nearer I find myself ever more fearful that my first Christmas married to Priya will be one filled not with joy but with empty boxes.

An International Thanksgiving

Living here in London Thanksgiving is not a holiday that is celebrated. Now it isn’t totally ignored either. The people here are aware of Thanksgivng in fact the retail world here has tried to create a Black Friday here like the one we have in the States. It’s kind of weird going around the town and seeing a bunch of Black Friday sale signs and having no Thanksgiving associated with it. So far the rush here to go out shopping is nowhere near the frenzied levels we achieve in America. I think one of the main problems with Black Friday sales here is that most people don’t have the day off like they do in the States. The simple fact is you can’t go shopping if you are at work.

In our house two of the four people living there are American so it was decided that we would have our own little Thanksgiving. It wasn’t really because Joan or I really felt the need to celebrate it rather we just thought it would be fun also Priya and Joan wanted to do some cooking. We decided to have it on Saturday rather than Thursday because no one had Thursday or Friday off so we didn’t really have the time or energy to try and do it on those days.

Of the four people in the house I am the only one who doesn’t do any significant amount of cooking. Priya’s father, Kan, does a lot of cooking. He specializes in Indian food constantly providing us with delicious curries. Joan and Priya like to experiment a bit more and they cook and bake all different kinds of food. Given all the talent for cooking in this house Thanksgiving seemed like a natural things to do. After some serious deliberation about what to make for the meal they decided to make a Mexican meal rather than the more traditional American meal of Turkey with all the trimmings. I, of course, will never say no to a homemade Mexican meal so I was excited by the decision. I didn’t need turkey or anything like that to feel like it was Thanksgiving just hanging out with family was enough for me.

Saturday came and Joan and Priya spent much of the day cooking. Kan spent time working on the living room. It’s being repainted, rewired and basically just redone. I spent most of the day upstairs cleaning the bathroom and our bedroom and such. Priya’s brother and his wife were coming to dinner so cleaning the bathroom was important. Don’t get me wrong the bathroom wasn’t disgusting it gets wiped down fairly regularly but still it needed a good scrubbing so that’s where I came in. I really hate scrubbing the bathroom because by the time I’m done I’m hot and sweaty and all I want to do is take a shower but I don’t want to get in the shower and defile my work. A clean bathroom just doesn’t last very long.  

Priya’s brother and sister-in-law showed up around five ready for the meal. Priya’s sister-in-law, Pat, is from Brazil and she brought black beans and salsa both of which were delicious. Joan created some salsa of her own, guacamole and quesadillas. Priya made green chili chicken, rice and a pineapple upside down cake.

As the meal was being prepared Kan cleverly noted how international our Thanksgiving was going to be. We were celebrating an American holiday with Mexican food at an Indian’s house in London. The guest list included a Brazilian (Pat), a Japanese American (Joan), three Indians (they are ethnically Indian not nationally. Kan grew up in Kenya while Priya and her brother were born and raised here in the UK ) and myself.

The meal was great and the conversations were fun. During dinner Priya’s iPhone was softly playing music in the background and at one point an instrumental song came on being done by a full orchestra, which caught my attention. The music sounded very familiar to me but I couldn’t place it. She then told me that it was the theme music to the character Guile in Street Fighter. Someone had actually decided to take all the video game music from Street Fighter and use an orchestra to play it. The idea seems silly but it really was quite cool. Anyway this discovery led to a long conversation about video games, cartoons and general activities all of us did as children. Joan found this conversation pretty interesting because she did not have children nor did she watch TV so she didn’t know any of the cartoons, games or music we were talking about. The fact is Joan got rid of her last TV in 1971 and didn’t live in a house with a television again until she moved here to London. Nor did she listen to much music so she has this sort of 30 year gap of knowledge concerning TV, music and movies. Of course she has one of the most interesting lives anyone can imagine so I don’t think she needs to worry about what she “missed”.

The great thing about talking about Street Fighter was that it went along well with our international theme in that each character is from a different country. We laughed as we went through all the players and where they were from and how those players made our countries look. We got to tell Joan about E. Honda who is the sumo wrestler from Japan. He can launch himself like a bullet and move his hand very quickly allowing him to strike you numerous times very fast. Then there’s Dhalsim the Hindi Yogi who can stretch his arms/legs extremely far out and spit fire. Then we just couldn’t stop laughing as Pat described how much she didn’t like Blanka, the Brazilian character who was basically just a green monster. America was represented by Guile, an air force member and Ken a karate guy. The whole conversation made me wish we had a good old Super Nintendo with Street Fight 2 along with some other games (Mario Kart) to play.  

The night went on with good food and good conversation and then we found ourselves in front of the TV. During dinner one of the things that had come up was the show Honey Boo-boo. For those that don’t know it is a show based on this weird little girl and her family. They live somewhere in the American south. She was “discovered” on the show Toddlers and Tiaras. Now Priya and I had watched an episode recently because it was playing On-Demand and we were bored. It was the Thanksgiving episode so we thought it might be fun. It was filled with disgusting and weird things that just make you shake your head. During dinner we found out that Pat was a huge fan of that show. So after we all ended up in front of the TV it wasn’t long before we were playing Honey Boo Boo for everyone. It really isn’t a show I could follow on a regular basis but it is just so odd it’s worth watching once. It’s funny because in America I know people from the South who get embarrassed by these people and don’t want people to think that all Southerners are like this family. Now I admit if I was watching this show in America I would simply associate this family with the South and feel no connection to them. But here in Britain one quickly becomes embarrassed of this family because they are American and you realize that many people who watch the show here just end up associating this family with all Americans. It’s funny how one’s location can affect one’s views about other people, ideas and events.

So that was our family Thanksgiving here in London. It was a great time with almost nothing I associate with a traditional Thanksgiving in the State be that food, events (watching Honey Boo-Boo rather than football) or even conversation. I look forward to see how next year goes assuming we are all still around here in London.

Good But Not Good Enough

So it’s official I did not get the job I wrote about in my last entry. Apparently I passed the test though I’m not sure how that is possible given that I was told I got 13 out of 27 questions right. That score would not be considered passing on any other test I have taken in my life but hey I’ll take it. When they called me in I was told I did really well in my interview. They said I was very thorough with my answers and they liked what I had to say but clearly in the end that was not enough. I was told that if another spot became available I should definitely reapply. Now while that’s all nice to hear but at the end of the day the fact remains I didn’t get the job. Further I was told that my current position could only be guaranteed until the end of December. After that time they may have to let me go or they may be able to keep me on. Basically moving forward this is a month to month position so I really need to find a new job.

That bums me out for two reasons. First is I just don’t like looking for work. It is all consuming and very depressing especially as a 32 year old person who is just going from job to job with no real path towards a career. Second and probably more important is the fact that I actually like working here. Now this is not due to the work itself though that is just fine. Rather it is because I get along so well with my co-workers and just enjoy being here. For the most part I think all Admin jobs are the same when it comes to the work and how fulfilling it is or should I say how not fulfilling it isn’t. So I would say that what really makes a good Admin job is your co-workers. If you like who you are working with you’ll like your job if not then you won’t. And here I really like everyone I work with, which I admit is a bit of a surprise to me. There is almost always someone who I don’t really get along with that well but that just isn’t the case here. So that is what I will miss most about this job.

Back to the internet to once again surf for another job.

Back to Work

Well Priya and I returned home from our trip to Denver last Friday and while we were only gone for 10 days I feel like I’m still trying to get back to normal here in London. The first few days back after any long trip always include some jet lag and just general tiredness but this trip has taken me a lot longer than normal to get over. Priya and I returned on a Friday so at least we had the weekend to rest before we both went back to work but it wasn’t enough. Obviously neither of us was looking forward to Monday but it was for different reasons for each of us. Priya because she had a lot of work to return to and she knew she would be working long hours (staying late and working on the weekends) trying to accomplish all the new tasks that have been placed upon her since Penguin Publishing and Random House decided to merge. For me I didn’t want to go back to work not because I didn’t want to work but because I was afraid of how much I had forgotten after a two week vacation. I had only been training for two weeks before we left and now I had been gone just as long. I was scared because I didn’t want to let my team down or just look stupid.

Sunday night I did not sleep well. All I could think about was the fact that I honestly couldn’t remember how to do my job. In my head I couldn’t remember what systems I was supposed to use, how to help the customers with new claims or even what my user name was. The next day came and sure enough I had to ask for help just to open my account. In many ways it was similar to my first day of work because I had to have someone sit with me for the first hour and remind me of all the things I had forgotten. They told me not to worry about it but I was quite embarrassed about all the help I needed. The timing was particularly bad because I had applied for a full time position at the company and was offered an interview Tuesday the 12^th. The interview was being preceded by a test and that is not the best time to have forgotten things. The worst part about the test was the fact that no one could really tell me what was going to be on it. I was handed study materials that covered months of training for the position and I had no idea what I should study. All I knew for sure was that there was no way I would be able to even look at all this information let alone study it before the test. I had to just pick and choose what to study. I focused on a more general overview of the department, the systems they used and the most common tasks they worked on rather than the specifics such as varying statistics or housing pricing. I also spent a lot of time memorizing vocabulary and various welfare benefits that affect the work they do here. I spent all week and weekend studying. I find it truly frustrating to study for a test for which you don’t really know what material they are going to test you on. Give me the information I need to know, let me go learn it and then I know I’ll be fine. But if you make me guess what kind of things you might ask me then it makes studying seem all but pointless.

So Tuesday came and I took the test in the morning. Sure enough a majority of the test was over material I had not studied. The test was composed mostly of very specific questions such as knowing the exact number of claims the department deals with or what the set award amount is to a family with three children and a non-dependant adult in a house with 4 bedrooms. These were not the types of things I had studied. Like I said I had decided to study the more general overview of everything the department did. The only good thing about this test was that it was multiple choice not fill in the blank or essay format so at least I could guess and who knows maybe I got lucky a few times.

My interview came in the afternoon and overall I felt pretty good about it. I was with my interviewers for quite awhile, almost an hour. That was mostly because I talked a lot and provided them with long answers to all their questions. Now I might find out that I ended up saying something I shouldn’t have simply due to the fact that I said so many things. But generally I think it is better to give too much information rather than too little. None of the interview questions really stumped me so that was another thing that I took as a bonus. At the test there were four other people taking it with me so I knew they were all up for the same job and all of them were being interviewed that day. The test was at 9am and my interview was until 3pm so I was their last interview for the day. Whether that is good or bad I don’t know? After my interview they told me they would hopefully have their decision by the end of the week and they would talk directly to everyone they interviewed and let them know what their decision was and why they made it.

So today is the last day I have to live with hope for a full time job before I find out if I’ve got it and if I do if it is a job I should take. The main problem I had with the interview is they were not very specific about what the salary would be. It was clear that the salary would vary depending on who they asked to take the job. After talking to my manager and Priya they both thought that in a sort of weird way my lack of experience might be an advantage in that they would be able to pay me the least amount of money to do the job. When I heard that it made me both optimistic and a little sad because I really want to be offered a fair amount if I’m going to do this job. I don’t want to just make minimum wage. But that isn’t something I really need to worry about unless I’m offered the position.

Now Priya’s time back has been really rough. She has had to stay late at work almost every day and even had to work on the weekend. The company just doesn’t seem to grasp how much work is required to make this merger succeed and have thus not picked a sufficient number of people to work on it. Most nights Priya is not getting home until 8 or 9pm leaving her with no time to do anything except eat, shower and jump right back into bed to sleep for 4 to 5 hours before she has to get up and do it again. Sometimes I hang out late downtown so I can go home with her but I still get to stop working at a reasonable time. Priya deserves better whether that means more help or at least more money.

So that’s where we are at right now nothing exciting to offer just a lot of work. Anyway fingers crossed about me being offered the new job here.

Off To Denver

Another journey over the sea begins tomorrow. (22-10-2013) Priya and I are flying to Denver to attend my sister’s wedding. We are both pretty excited though I think Priya might be a bit more excited than me. Don’t get me wrong I’m eager to go because I always love going home but I think Priya needs a holiday more than I do. I admit part of me is actually nervous about going on this trip right now. I say that because I began working only two weeks ago and while the place I have been working has been very understanding about this trip, since it was planned before I began working here, I still worry a little that leaving right now might weaken my desirability to them when they are considering whether to keep me on or not. Alright enough of my worries and back to the fun part, the trip.

Priya and I will be in Denver for about 10 days, which sounds like a lot but when I look at the schedule it is really packed full and there won’t be much free time. Priya and I don’t show up until 10 pm Tuesday night so the trip really begins the next day and what a day that will be. We will be getting up quite early that morning and taking a day trip to Mount Rushmore with my parents. I use the term “day trip” loosely because it actually takes 6 or 7 hours to get there, which of course means it takes 6 or 7 hours to get back. That’s 12 to 14 hours in a car the day after spending almost 12 hours on a plane and 9 hours in various airports. That should make for an interesting trip. Now the length of the drive also doesn't leave tons of time for looking around if one is truly trying to get home in the same day. Hopefully we’ll get there around 1 or 2 pm and have the afternoon to look around before heading back, which would get us home sometime around midnight. I really wasn't expecting this to be part of our trip but Priya really wants to see Mount Rushmore and hey there really is no reason not to go for it. I do have a feeling that Priya may sleep a good portion of the way there given our travel just the day before and that of course already makes me a little jealous of her. I don’t tend to sleep well in cars but who knows I may doze off for a bit.

The next day, Thursday, is the rehearsal dinner for the wedding. It is at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I love that choice of location by the way. Of course, that event will not occupy the entire day so that may be a day Priya and I use to do a little shopping. In particular we want to go to Target. That is probably the store I miss the most over here in London. They just don’t have anything quite like it here. Priya loves Target too, which makes it even more than fun to go to. We will be shopping for numerous things that you either can’t get here in the UK or that are cheaper in the US. One of the great things about this trip for me is it will be the first time that the money I am taking to the States ends up turning into more than it was where I got it. When I went from Korea and China back home the value of my money dropped considerably but going from the UK to the USA my money will increase in value. When you look at the prices of the things here in London verses the things in the US you’ll find that the numbers are usually the same meaning that a $15 DVD in the US is likely to be a £15 DVD in the UK but since the pound is stronger than the dollar what that really means for us coming from London is that the DVD in America is only £7 or £8 pounds making it much cheaper than it is here.

On Friday a bunch of the rest of the family (mine and Rich’s) shows up so we will be at the airport and hotel hanging out most of the day. Then that night my mom got tickets for the Avalanche game so I will be taking Priya to her first NHL game, which of course I’m very excited about. It’s even more exciting with the Avs playing so well this season.

Saturday is the day of the wedding. That morning we will be at the airport again, oh joy, with the last few family members coming in and then hanging out at the hotel once again until it is time to go to the wedding. The wedding takes place at the same location the rehearsal dinner did, the Museum of Nature and Science. We have to arrive by 3 pm for photos. Then sometime around 6 pm is when the actual ceremony will take place and the vows will be exchanged. Around 7 pm the cake will be cut and toasts will be given, which makes me realize I have no idea if I am supposed to give a toast or not and if I am I have no idea what I should or will I say. Whoops. Then dancing will fill the rest of the night. I want to think I will let go, be free and just dance with no cares but most of me thinks that will not be the case and I’ll just stay stuck to a wall somewhere. But who knows maybe Priya will inspire me to dance since she inspires me in so many other ways.

Sunday morning we are going to hang out with the family before most of them leave that afternoon. Then Beth and Rich may go up to the mountains with Rich’s nephews. The afternoon may be free but that night Priya and I are going to go to the Wright’s house (my second parents) to hang out and actually spend the night. I’m really looking forward to that time. I don’t know if I’ll get to see Mike at that point I have a feeling I won’t, which means I probably won’t see at all and that makes me sad.

Monday Beth and Rich head off on their Honeymoon up in the mountains, though I’m not sure exactly where? But I really should find out where they are going because the truth is Priya and I are going with them. We are going to go to the same hotel and spend a night or two there. I mean come on who doesn't want their little brother to tag along on their honeymoon? Isn't that what’s it’s for, to grow closer to your siblings? I admit it is kind of weird but we don’t have a lot of time there and Beth and Rich actually did invite us to do this as opposed to me interjecting myself into their trip. So we’re going to do it. That means the next day or two (Tuesday and maybe Wednesday) will be spent up in the mountains. I’m hoping it isn't too cold though I have a feeling it will be.

Then Wednesday we will go shopping. We will go either in the morning if we get back from the mountains on Tuesday or in the afternoon if we come back that morning. This time we will be trying to hit up the outlet malls and grab some cheap clothes and whatever else. Priya really like to buy people gifts so I have a feeling we will be looking for things for her father, Joan (mother-in-law), co-workers, friends and anyone else she can think off. The goal will be to get them something they can’t get in London. What that will be I don’t know? I do know her father loves cowboys and cowboy movies so being in Denver that makes for a good chance of finding something he’d like. As far as everyone else goes I have no idea what we’ll be bringing home. I just hope there is enough room for me to bring some of my stuff back too.

Finally Thursday Priya and I leave to go back to London. Thursday is Halloween which creates a very specific goal for me to try and accomplish before we go but I don’t know if we’ll have time. In the past Chipotle has provided free burritos to anyone willing to dress up like a burrito on Halloween. I have done this before and would love to do it again. The only problem is that Priya and I’s flight leaves at 13:45 meaning we’d have to be at the airport around 11 am. Getting through customs requires leaving a bit more time than just a normal flight across the country. Anyway most Chipotles open at 11 am so I wouldn't have time to grab one. And even if I did I’m not sure it would be wise to scarf down a burrito right before getting on a plane to fly back to London. Though whose kidding if there’s time I will definitely do it.

So that’s our trip laid out nice and neat though I suspect many of those things may change and if they do great it will provide me more to write about when we get back. 

Employed - Finally

I finally got a job and I just finished my first week. I am working for the City of Westminster with the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support Service  Now in honesty I’m not working for the city directly rather I got placed through a recruiting agency. I was offered a temporary job that will last two months at the end of which I may be able to stay on and get a permanent role if they like me. But after having no work for almost a year even getting a temporary job feels like a huge victory.

Last Monday was my first day of work. I got to shadow a co-worker and then be shadowed by her for the entire day. I liked it because it allowed me to practice and learn without fearing that I was messing up people’s accounts. People who need government paid housing for varying periods of time come to our office to deal with all the things they must do in order to enable them to receive the money. For some people it is a short term issue and they are placed in hotels or bed and breakfasts whereas for others it is more long term and they are living in flats and apartments with controlled rents that are either fully or partially paid for by the government. When clients come in to provide required documents like proof of their financial circumstances (bank statements, payslips, employment contracts, etc) or proof of their identity (passport, license, etc) or various forms they have to fill out they come to me in my little interview room and I take those documents and put them into our system. I scan them and then use the system to label and save them where they are supposed to be. I also help change or update their accounts such as if they get a new job or one of their children moves out or things like that. Lastly I help people who have no benefits set up new accounts. They come in and I interview them and fill out a long application with them. At this point that is pretty much the limit of what I can do. I am not able to handle most people’s queries about their accounts such as why their benefits may have been cut or what they need to do in order to fix various problems they may be having. Those kinds of issues are dealt with by my co-workers and hopefully as I learn more about the system I will be able to deal with more of those issues and thus with more of the clients.

Monday started out well but turned a little rough because the second client I dealt with after I had replaced my trainer on the computer was very aggressive and rude. Now I certainly wasn't fast at what I was doing given that it was only my second attempt at doing it myself. Further the client didn't make it any easier for me to deal with her problems because she didn't bring any of the documents she was supposed to in order for us to update her application. So of course I didn't know exactly what we were supposed to do and I had to turn to my trainer multiple times. When the client found out she hadn't brought in the necessary materials for us to finalize her application she basically blamed me for her mistake as if I had forgotten to personally call her and remind her of what she was supposed to bring. Thankfully the person training me was very calm. But then the client became even more upset when she discovered that I was new and being trained. She harshly asked for me to be removed from the computer and trained later because she was in a hurry and needed to get on with her day. I almost left my chair but my trainer apologized kindly to the woman but explained that I had to be trained and thus wouldn't be removed from the computer. I simply kept my mouth closed to prevent myself from saying anything I shouldn't. Actually in situations like that I am less worried about the words I will say but rather the tones and inflections I will use. I am very “good” at saying the right things but in the wrong ways. I needed to remind myself of how I have felt when I was in difficult situations like trying to obtain my visa, or figuring out how to get a background check from Korea or opening a new bank account here. These are things that affected me very personally whereas the person helping me obviously was not affected by what they are telling me or how it would work out for me. And yes I have been guilty of speaking harshly towards people who didn't seem to care enough about my situation. I’m fairly sure that if I didn't know if I was going to have a place to live in week I would become quite irritated especially if I was being helped by someone who was new and clearly didn't know how to help me. Thankfully the rest of the customers I dealt with that day were nice to me and patient with my training. It made me want to help those people all the more even though I knew I personally had no control over the decisions being made about their situation. In a way I think most of them where nice because they realized that they were receiving benefits rather than something they had earned. This was something they were being given and I think most of them were thankful for that.

By the end of Monday I had gotten fairly decent at managing the system and doing the things I was being asked to do. Still I was not at a point in which I thought I could do these things on my own. Then, to my horror, before I left my trainer and my manager told me that they thought I had done well enough that on Tuesday they would let me work on my own. They said I could, of course, call them if I needed help but still the idea of already being alone scarred the crap out of me. On the trip home rather than being able to think about the progress I had made during the day I could only dwell on the fact that I would be on my own the next day and would likely look quite foolish and/or confused in front of a majority of the clients I would be working with. Even though I was worried all night I actually ended up getting into bed and dozing off fairly early (around 10pm). This was in large part because the night before I had only slept about four and a half hours as I worried about my first day of work. But the night did not go well. I only slept about three hours as I constantly tossed and turned. A large part of this was due to the fact that I kept thinking, even dreaming, about that second client I had dealt with and that the next day I would be in the room alone possibly stuck with a person like that by myself. To make matters worse that night the power went out sometime around 10:45pm and the clock simply reset as if it was midnight and kept running. So early in the morning when I looked over and the clock said it was 5am little did I know it was actually around 3:45am. When I saw the 5 on the clock I just couldn't get back to sleep rather I just laid there waiting for my alarm to go off at 6. I dozed off a little after about 45 minutes and then I looked over at the clock and it said 6:10am. My alarm was set for 6am so I jumped out of bed and went into the bathroom freaking out that I was already late. I brushed my teeth and washed my face. Then I look at my phone trying to figure out why the alarm hadn't gone off and it said that it said it was 4:55am. I turned on my computer to check another source and it said it was 4:55am too. I didn't know what had happened. The power had never gone out before so I didn't know the clock we had in the room would simply start running again from the time the power came back on with no blinking or anything like that. That really threw me off and for the next half hour I just laid there not really sure if I should trust my phone or the clock in the room. Around 5:30 I got up and went downstairs and turned on the TV and all the programming said 5:30 so I finally felt okay about what the actual time was. Still it cost me over two and a half hours of sleep and only added to an already stressful night for me. It was so bad that Tuesday morning Priya said we might have to sleep in different places the next night because I was disturbing her sleeping so much.

So I came in Tuesday and I was taken to my room, logged on to the computer system and left to fend for myself. As I said I work directly with the clients and these situations can come with a lot of stress since one is dealing with their living situation. I am one of two people on my team who deals with the clients face to face. The other person doing this with me varies day to day. It is based on a consistent rotation of my co-workers from upstairs. I admit when I first found this out I was a bit jealous of my friends upstairs who weren't dealing with the clients face to face all the time. But as the week went on I have become more comfortable dealing directly with clients on my own.

I've found that one of the ways to get people to be more patient with you is to get them talking about themselves or their children then they don’t seem to notice how long the process might be taking. The drawback to that tactic is that for me it is difficult to appear to be listening to a person while concentrating on something else. And since everything I was doing was brand new I had to concentrate extra hard on what I was doing making it almost impossible for me to give someone even half of my attention when they were talking. So the other thing I began to do was try to explain to people what I was doing while I was doing such as explain how I was scanning their information into our system and then making sure it was save in the right place or that I was writing up their receipt to show what we had done together. That allowed me to not ignore the customers while also concentrating on my task and making sure I was doing it right. Still this can be hard because saying something like, ‘I’m putting your documents into our system’ only takes a second to say but was taking me a long time to do. But over the past week I have become better at what I was doing both through repetition and by learning from my co-workers not just what I was supposed to do it but why I was doing it. For me ‘why’ has always been an important question. I find it much easier to do something when I understand why it is being done. It also helps when customers ask me questions about their accounts fully expecting me to know all the answers.

Wednesday went along just fine. A majority of the clients I dealt with were nice. Many of them actually enjoyed guessing where I was from and then asking me questions about America. The one time I was a little nervous to say I was an American was when I was helping two men who I discovered were from Iraq. They were speaking to each other in their own language, which I assume was Arabic though it might have been Kurdish or even something else. At one point I heard what sounded like the word America or American. Finally one of the guys turned to me and asked me where I was from. I nervously said I was from America. The one who asked smiled and clapped his hands saying, “I told you so” to his friend. Apparently his friend had guessed that I was from Australia. The rest of the time I was with them they were quite talkative and friendly. They asked me why I had moved to London and if I like it there and all sorts of things. I, or course, returned the favor asking them many similar questions until I was finally finished with their account and sent them on their way.

By the time Thursday came along I felt like I really knew what I was doing or at least that I knew who to turn to if I ended up in a situation I couldn't handle. I had become quite comfortable with my co-workers making it easier for me to ask for their help and not worry that I was annoying them.  Towards lunch time one of my co-workers came by and asked me to come see her when I was done with the client I was with. I said okay. So after I finished up with the person I was helping I went over to the interview room that she was in and asked her what was up. She asked me how I was doing and what I thought of the job. I told her that I thought I was getting better and overall I really enjoyed working there. She then told me that I had been progressing much faster than most of the other people who had come in to do that same job on a temporary status. That made me happy. She then went on to tell me that a permanent position was going to be opening up for an Assessor on their team. An Assessor is the person who goes over peoples applications and determines if they qualify for aid and if so how much. She told me that many of the people upstairs really liked me and thought I could do the job well. I was of course glad to hear that especially that I was coming across well to my co-workers. Generally speaking I don’t think I am a people person but I have to say it is much easier to be social with people when you have spent the majority of your time in the last year with a cat. Just having people to talk to was nice plus I get to be the fun foreigner in the office who everyone asks questions about America and enjoys listening to speak, due to my accent. It was funny when I realized that when you are in London people don’t speak with a British accent rather they simply speak and it is in fact me who is the one speaking with an accent, an American one. Once I told my co-worker that I would be interested in applying for the job she said great and within the next hour three other people came down to say they were glad to hear I was interested and to offer me help for my interview. The position requires a lot of knowledge of the legal system and all the rules and regulations surrounding benefits. This of course takes training but my co-workers offered to help me study before any interview I may get so that I could come in sounding as smart as possible. Now when a person gets this job there is a big training session they have to go through which includes an online training course that only those people who have the job take. One of the ladies offered me her user name and login in so I could take the course myself even before being chosen for the position. I was very grateful for that. Now there is no guarantee that I will even get an interview let alone the position but it is nice to have so many people hoping I get it. The girl who trained me has that position and she told me that she didn't get it the first time she interviewed for it but that they offered her another position due to her interview and she thought something similar could happen with me. Many of them think that just by trying to get the job I would be demonstrating to the company my commitment to wanting to work there and make it more likely that I would be kept on in my current position if nothing else.

Overall I can say I have really enjoyed the job and I am quite glad I am doing this as opposed to substitute teaching, which is what I thought I would be doing only a few weeks ago. Substitute teaching is a very draining job. It really is just a more difficult form of babysitting because just like a babysitter both you and kids know that it is only a temporary situation and thus your authority is not that strong but unlike babysitting you are trying to get them to study and work rather than just watch a movie or eat dinner. Now I've never been a person who particularly loves his job or sees work as his life. Rather I work so that I can make money allowing me to do the other things I would rather be doing. For me work is a means to an end. But I can say that I have become a lot more appreciative of work and have generally enjoyed it after being unemployed for almost a year. I left my teaching job in China last July and spent a few months in America working with my dad in his lawn and garden business but since I got to London at the end of last November I have been living like a house husband just cleaning the house, taking care of the cat and shopping for groceries all while I waited for my visa to be approved to work here. While this position is certainly not something I ever saw myself doing I find that it is something I could be good at and something that would provide me everything I need from a job enabling me to pursue the other things I want to do with my life. So for now one week into my temporary position I am quite happy and quite hopeful that this could become a permanent place of employment for me. 

If you are interested in seeing exactly where in London I'm working the building's address is:

101 Orchardson Street

London

NW8 8EA

Make Your Own Kale Chips!

Recently I've been making more vegan friendly food and I came across this kale chip recipe which I tried over the weekend. I was surprised how tasty the kale chips turned out so I thought I'd share. It's very easy too! 

Ingredients

1 bunch of kale 

1 bell pepper (any colour you like, I used yellow)

1 cup walnuts (soaked over night and drained)

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 tbs lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

I could only find pre-cut kale, but if you can get whole leaves it's much better and you get better results, just be sure to remove the stems. 







Method...

Pulse all the ingredients, except the kale, in a food processor until everything in incorporated. 

Place the kale leaves in a bowl and add the walnut mixture. Coat the leaves thoroughly with the mixture. 

Spread the kale over a wire oven rack, spacing them out. 

Bake in the oven at 94 degrees Celsius, or 200 Fahrenheit, for 2 to 3 hours, or until crisp.


Voila! Healthy and tasty :) 

Ranking My Cities - Infrastructure

This is part two of my series on ranking the 9 cities I have lived in during the past 10 years. In my first piece I focused on the weather. (See part 1) In this piece I will be focusing on each city’s infrastructure. The term infrastructure can be used to describe many aspects of a city including the actual physical networks needed for a modern city like roads and sewers to the institutions needed for the economic and social health of the city like schools and hospitals.

This piece will only be focusing on a few aspects of each city’s infrastructure and they will be the ones I used or saw the most often. So while I feel this list will be valid in the aspects it deals with it certainly won’t be an exhaustive look at each city. One example would be that I will not be judging the cities hospitals or health care systems because I did not use each cities health care facilities in fact I used very few of them. Similarly I am not an expert on the electrical grids, factory layouts or emergency services (fire, police, and ambulances) of these cities. So really this piece is meant more to be part of a fun series just for me to judge the cities I lived in based on my experiences as opposed to an academic evaluation and assessment of each city’s infrastructure. 

Transportation

One of the most important parts of every cities infrastructure is its roads and transportation services. For me each city’s transportation system sticks out very clearly because I relied on them heavily. I am a person who has not had or driven a car since 2005 so everywhere I've lived in the past 10 years is a place I have had to rely on the public transportation system of that city. So when I judge these cities transportation systems I am focusing on their public transportation rather than just on the quality of their roads and the amount of traffic they have.

So here are the rankings of the cities I've lived in based on the best transportation system:

1. Seoul: Seoul may not have great weather but its transportation system is amazing. Seoul has a great train system that can get you all over the city. Most of the trains provide a lot of seating and space for standing and are kept quite clean. But what really pushes Seoul to the top of this list are the buses. You can get to almost any place in the city by using only two buses. The have a colored system with three types of buses. Green for neighborhood buses that travel short routes to yellow buses that cover a larger area more like a city or suburb size to red buses which are for long distance travel and have fewer stops than the green and yellow buses. The red buses have great seating. They are large seats all facing forward with four in each row, two on each side of the aisle. For those in America it is basically like a big Greyhound bus. The other great thing about Seoul’s transportation system is it is fairly inexpensive compared to most of the other cities. The buses are pretty cheap with green buses being the cheapest and red ones being the most expensive. But one of the things I loved was that when you pay to get on the bus or train you are given one free transfer to another bus. So basically paying once can gets you two buses and like I said with two buses you can get almost anywhere in the city.
2. London: Of all the cities I've lived in London has the largest and most extensive transportation system. You really can get anywhere you want here without needing a car and you can get there at almost any time. The buses come almost every 10 to 15 minutes during the day, even more frequently during peak hours and the trains depart every few minutes. I've never had to wait more than 7 minutes for a train. In fact it is often much better to use the public transportation rather than a car due to traffic and parking issues that come with using a car. Now there are a few things that make me place London after Seoul even though its system is larger. First is the price of traveling in London is really expensive. The bus prices are okay but you have to pay for each bus individually so if you need to take two buses to get somewhere you have to pay full price for each bus unlike in Seoul where you get that one free transfer. The trains are really expensive. The city is divided into zones and the number of zones your travel determines the price of your trip so the more zones you go through the more expensive it gets. Also the time you travel matters because during peak times (rush hour) when most people are going to and from work the price increases. For me to get downtown to spend time with Priya I have to use one bus and a train that crosses 4 zones. That trip ends up costing me between 4 to 6 pounds one way and then the same coming home. One day of travel in London using the train or buses once or twice can quickly cost you over 10 pounds ($16). Another downside to London’s system is a lot of it is very old especially the trains. What this means is a lot of the trains are not that nice. Many of them are just dirty because they have been used so much. The seats are stained, the floors are all scuffed and scratched up and many of the walls have graffiti on them or things carved into them. Perhaps the worst part of having an old train is that there is no sort of temperature control in the trains meaning there is no heating or air conditioning. During the cold months it isn't so bad because once the train is full it gets warm but during the summer those trains get hot and everyone is sweating and people’s smells just all mix together there underground and it isn't nice. The buses have the same issues as the trains in that many of them are just dirty and there is no sort of temperature control so they are hot in the summer and cold in the winter.  Still despite these complaints London has a transportation system that can get you anywhere you need to be and it will get you there fairly quickly.
3. Shenzhen: Shenzhen has some of the most modern trains and buses of any of the cities I've lived in. Their trains are large, comfortable, clean and air conditioned. There buses are also quite nice. But unlike London and Seoul their bus system did not encompass the whole city. There were certain places that you had to use a taxi to get to but there weren't many. The fact is Shenzhen is a fairly small city, by Chinese standards, and you could tell a lot of their transportation system was new and thus also a bit limited. Also the trains did not run all day their services ended at midnight and while that might sound pretty late to most folks when you are working at a job that doesn't finish until after 10pm and then you want to grab some dinner and do a little grocery shopping before you jump on the train the time can be a little tight. I did miss out on the train one or two times and had to get a taxi home from work. Now Shenzhen was right next to Hong Kong and once you cross that border into Hong Kong you will find another wonderful transportation system of trains and buses that can get you anyway in the city at any time of day.
4. Los Angeles: LA is not known for its amazing public transportation system and there is a reason, it doesn't have one. Now I will say L.A. system is better than I expected when I went there and better than I think most people realize. L.A. has the largest train system of any of the U.S. cities I've lived in. If you are near a train station they are great but they aren't spread all over the city they way stations are in Seoul or London. L.A. does have a lot of buses but they don’t come that frequently so you really need to know your bus schedule. The trains are nice for getting to the beaches and major tourist sites. Perhaps the best thing about L.A. transportation system is that if you have to walk a bit or wait awhile you are almost always doing it in nice sunny weather.
5. Oakland: Oakland uses the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train. There are 5 trains you can use to get around the bay area. If you are near one of the trains and need to get somewhere near another station than the trains are great the problem is that they are very limited in where they go so you have to rely on the buses to get you anywhere in the actual city. The train was nice for going from Oakland to San Francisco but for the most part unless you had longer distance to travel the train didn't do a ton. The buses were okay but nothing amazing still they worked.
6. Denver: Denver has been developing a train system, which was not there when I was growing up. During the times I have lived in Denver as an adult I have found the trains to be decent. You can go north and south or east and west into the city along the freeways but besides that the trains don’t go out into the suburbs much. The buses in Denver are not great in that they just don’t come by that often. Again if you are right downtown than everything is fine but out in the suburbs you have to know the bus schedule or you can get stuck waiting an hour for a bus.
7. Seattle: Seattle has lots of buses but not much of a train system. When I was there I think they had one or two train lines neither of which helped me where I lived. They do have a fair amount of buses and if you work during normal business hours the buses come around fairly frequently during those peak traveling times. But if you want to go out for the night you need to be careful because the buses don’t run all night and you can get stuck somewhere you don’t want to be with no bus to get you home. And of course if you get stuck waiting for a bus in Seattle there is a good chance you’ll be waiting in the rain.
8. Sacramento: Sacramento has a small train system but it was of no help to me and their bus system was very limited. I had to do a lot of walking just to get to a bus stop and then I had to know right when I had to be there or I would miss the bus and it often took multiple buses (3 or more) to get where I needed to go.
9. Phoenix: Of all the cities I've lived in Phoenix is probably the one whose public transportation system I used the least. This was in part due to the fact that I could still drive when I lived there so even though I didn't always have my own car I could borrow one from friends. Also I was going to university the city (Tempe) was designed around the campus so a majority of the stuff I wanted was within walking distance. I didn't go into downtown Phoenix that often. But the times I did use the buses in Phoenix I found there routes to be limited and their frequency to be very low. Things might have changed since I last lived there in 2005 but at that time it was not a good place to be without a car.

Before going on one will notice that I ranked all the foreign cities I've lived in as the best for public transportation and that was easy because no American city came even close to offering all the public transit that these cities did. So the gap between number 3. Shenzhen and number 4. LA  is large. After that ranking the US cities was a little difficult because the fact is most of the cities I lived in didn't have great public transit especially if you weren't living right in the middle of downtown. So while I still rank the cities the distinctions are not nearly as large as the one between the American and foreign cities. 

Cleanliness

Next I will rank the cleanliness of each city. What makes a city clean or dirty? There are of course numerous factors which include their waste management system, how often the trash is picked up, where the trash is placed, how various public places are taken care of or maintained, how businesses take care of their property but ultimately the cleanliness of a city comes down to the people in it. If the people in the city throw away their trash in the right places and clean up after themselves and their pets than for the most part the city is clean but sadly many people in many cities just can’t seem to do this. So let’s go ahead and rank cleanliness of the cities I've lived in from cleanest to dirtiest.

1. Seattle: When one steps back and just looks at Seattle it really is a beautiful city and the people there tend to take care of their city. Now while I don’t like the weather I do believe the constant rain does help Seattle be cleaner than it might otherwise be. If little things get tossed on the ground they are often washed away into a storm drain and the streets are left clear. Also the rain really helps dissipate any bad odors that might otherwise linger in any given spot. Considering how much plant life (trees, bushes, flowers, etc) exist in Seattle it really would be easy for a lot more litter to build up but for most part it doesn't  So I must give kudos to Seattle for staying clean.
2. Sacramento: Sacramento is not the most beautiful of cities but it is clean. The streets are clean, the buses stay clean and the parks are clean. This might be in part because it is the capital of California and they want to maintain a good image but who really cares why when the fact is it is clean.
3. Denver: Similar to Seattle Denver is a lovely place and the people there seem to know it and try and take care of it. Denver does a good job of picking up the trash frequently and providing convenient places to throw away your garbage whenever you’re walking around. One of the big problems that Denver faces is smog from the cars and factories in the area. Due to the mountains the smog can actually build up like it is stuck in a bowl so some days when you looked out over the city there would be a thick cloud of exhaust. Not the prettiest of sights.
4. Phoenix: Now Phoenix might not come across as very clean to many people. Part of the reason for that is simply the fact that a majority of the landscape is made up of dirt, sand and rocks. If you throw a little wind into the equation it won’t be long before cars, buildings, streets and sidewalks are covered with sand and dust. Still I found that as far as actual litter goes the city wasn't that bad. I lived next to the university so there were certainly days, after parties or football games, when there would be a lot of debris and litter lying around but I felt that stuff got cleaned up fairly quickly considering how much of it there was. Also most businesses did a good job of keeping their store fronts clean.
5. Los Angeles: L.A. is a weird mixture of immaculately clean and sadly dirty depending on where you are in the city. Like most places when you are in the richer neighborhoods things look nicer than when you are in the poorer neighborhoods but I found the contrast between these places to be quite extreme in LA compared to a lot of other cities. Similar to Phoenix the natural landscape included a lot of dust and sand though much of LA has been designed and covered with plants from other places in order to make it look pretty. The beaches themselves are a place where you get an odd mixture of clean and dirty. There were many times I would be at the beach and see people just throw trash on the ground despite the fact that there was a trash can less than 20 feet away but then I would often see people come along and pick up that same trash and throw it away even though it was not theirs. Part of the issue LA has is just how large and spread out it is. The larger the city gets usually the more difficult it becomes to maintain its cleanliness. Then of course there is the issue of pollution particularly from the cars. There are a lot of days when the cloud of smog over LA is just disgusting to look at and there is really nothing you can do except go on with your day and perhaps wonder how much of that junk you are actually breathing into your lungs. Overall I would say LA is okay but certainly not great when it comes to being clean.
6. Oakland: Of all the US cities I've lived in Oakland was the dirtiest. I don’t know why that was but when you walked around Oakland there was just more litter and garbage lying around than in any of the other cities. There was a lot of graffiti on buildings and overpasses that just made those places seem dirtier. The trains and buses were not cleaned up frequently enough for my taste. There would be cups, newspapers, food wrappers and things like that lying on seats all the time.  Oakland is an okay town but it certainly isn’t a clean one.
7. Seoul: Seoul is the second largest city I've lived in and that fact alone makes it no surprise that it isn’t the cleanest city in the world. Now similar to LA the contrast between the clean areas and the dirty areas was quite drastic. Almost all the public places in Seoul, including the trains and buses were kept quite nice. You could tell there were people taking care of these places. But when you got into the neighborhoods where people lived things could quickly change and you’d find yourself walking around large piles of garbage bags on the street or just litter lying on the ground. In the neighborhoods there were a lot of small alley ways in between the buildings and many of these allies just stunk, particularly in the summer, as they were filled with rotting food and stuff like that. They did have a constant flow of dump trucks but the fact is there were just so many people that the trash built up a lot faster than it was being taken away. I also noticed that the culture was just different there than in America. Often the older generations there seemed to have no problem throwing things on the ground, spitting on the sidewalk or whipping their nose with their hands right before grabbing a door handle you want to use. There were just a lot of smaller things like that which stuck out to me. So I would say Seoul deserves to be towards the bottom of this list.
8. Shenzhen: I’m not actually sure if Shenzhen deserves to be under Seoul or not. Almost everything I complained about with Seoul happened in Shenzhen. Public places were clean but allies and neighborhoods just weren't  I think part of the reason I put Shenzhen lower is that the entrance to my apartment building was through a back alley and a majority of the time I walked through there I would hold my breathe due to all the horrible smells coming from the garbage that was just thrown outside along with all the small restaurants and the smells of their cooking. The constant heat is another thing that did not help Shenzhen especially when it came to bad odors. The trash outside was just baking in the sun and that created lots of strange and bad smells. Again Shenzhen perhaps could be above Seoul but only because it is a smaller city not because it is really that different. 
9. London: Before I moved to London Priya told me it was a fairly dirty city and I admit I didn't think much of that at the time I just figured it’s a big city so that is no surprise. But when I got here I was shocked to find out just how dirty it was. London is a huge city so like I said that instantly makes it more difficult to keep clean but the sheer amount of litter and garbage just lying around on the streets is sickening. I really don’t like going on walks in my neighborhood because it just feels like a dirty place. There is junk everywhere. The buses, particularly the smaller ones, are not nice the floors are often sticky with some spilled soda or fruit juice and there are wrappers and junk all over them. The trains are not very clean in part because they are old but also because people just don’t seem to care about throwing their trash away in the proper places. When you are in the middle of downtown things aren't as bad. There are a lot more trash receptacles to throw stuff away in and a lot of the people are tourist and I think they don’t want to litter in a city they don’t live in. But really everywhere else just feels dirty. It’s really hard to explain how bad it can be here if you haven’t been here but there is hardly a day I get home when I haven’t stepped on something sticky. There is also a lot of pollution from the cars. When you get home and blow your nose you will discover a lot of black and grey stuff has come out of your nose. It’s not nice. I have developed the habit of instantly washing my hands when I get home particularly when I've been on the trains or buses and I can tell you they do get dirty. 

You might have noticed that all the US cities ranked ahead of the foreign cities in regards to their cleanliness and I think one of the big reasons for that is the car. In the US more people use cars than public transportation or walking so I think a lot of the trash people produce in those cities ends up in their cars rather than on the streets as is often the problem in the cities that have more pedestrians and superior transportation systems. This is of course not the only factor but it is one that I think is worth noting.

Public Parks

As someone who enjoys walking not just to get somewhere but in order to relax I often went to parks or trails that the cities had. Each city approached their park system differently some of the cities were able to rely on the natural landscape while others had to create their parks from scratch. Places like Seattle and Denver often didn't make their parks as much as block off certain areas from being developed. But places like London and Seoul had to truly construct their parks in the middle of highly developed areas.  So here’s my list based on all my walks in the various parks in these various cities.

1. Denver: The mountains give Denver a large advantage over other areas because so much of the work has already been done for them by nature. There are numerous hikes and trails that cut through the city as well as just blocked off parks that make Denver a really fun place to walk around.
2. London: London has more parks than I would have ever expected. The ones downtown are particularly lovely. They are well constructed and filled with lovely trees, flowers and animals most of which are native to England.
3. Seoul: Seoul did a great job of giving people nice parks to walk and relax in. I lived in Ilsan and they had a park called Lake Park which was just beautiful. I spent a lot of my free time there. Google it and you’ll find some great pictures of it.
4. Seattle: It is not hard for Seattle to make nice parks. With the beautiful forests they are able to make some great places to walk around in. Besides London it is probably the best place to see a lot of flowers in bloom. 
5. Los Angeles: LA has small mountains in the east and tons of beaches on the coast. Really it is hard to beat walking along the beach in LA. The weather is great, the wind is fresh and it is simply beautiful. But LA does not have a lot of parks inside the city itself so you must rely on the naturally beautiful places around the area, which I assure you are not lacking.
6. Shenzhen: I lived near the some mountains by the coast and they had some great trails to hike. When you got to the peak you could see out over the whole city to the north as well as look south and see Hong Kong. Inside the city there were some nice parks though nothing I would call spectacular.  
7. Sacramento: Sacramento has a lot of parks most of which are planned and constructed. They are not based on any of the natural vegetation and while they are nice most of them are kind of cookie cutter copies of each other.
8. Phoenix: The natural environment of Phoenix makes creating parks difficult. Parks filled with sand, dirt and cacti are nice at first but can get old. The places where the city has created green parks you can tell they don’t really belong there and I can only guess how much it costs in money and water to keep those places in existence.
9. Oakland: There just aren't any parks worth mentioning. You can go to the bay and look out at San Francisco but even that is not much of a view.  Oakland is mostly just a big city of concrete. You can go north up towards Berkeley or south towards San Jose and find some nice areas but that requires some travel and takes you well outside of the city.

Water

Here I am ranking the tap water of each city. When it comes to the drinking water I can say that for the most part I want my water filtered no matter what city I am in but you end up using the tap water in all the cities for numerous things including showers, washing the dishes, washing your clothes and other things and some water just ends up being better than others. I'm not going to spend time trying to describe distinctions between the cities but there were enough differences that I could make a list.  

1. Sacramento
2. Seattle
3. Denver
4. London
5. Phoenix
6. Los Angeles
7. Oakland
8. Seoul
9. Shenzhen

So judging these cities based on their infrastructure ended up being a lot more difficult that judging them merely by the weather. Unlike with the weather the categories don’t all match up giving one city a clear edge. Here the cities with the best transportation weren't the most clean and such so this list took a lot more thought. So here’s how I would rank them overall based only on their infrastructure.

1. Seoul:
   
   It is hard to beat Seoul based solely on their transportation system and while it certainly was not the cleanest city it was clean where it counted the most, which was in large public areas and on the trains and buses. Seoul is a city that is well run, easy to get around in and provides a lot of lovely parks to play in.
2. Denver:
   
   While Denver certainly does not have a great public transportation system it is decent for an American city in the west and it is hard to beat Denver when it comes to parks and places to hike. It is a beautiful city and it is clean.
3. London:
   
   Part of me wants to drop London even lower than third but I can’t because when it comes to transportation and the basic running of the city it is hard to do any better than London has done. The major problem with London really is how dirty it is. It is difficult to monitor and clean up after so many people but still so much of London is just gross so I dropped them from the top two spots.
4. Seattle:
   
   I put Seattle here because similar to Denver it has great parks and is quite clean. I put it below Denver because I feel its transportation system is slightly lower than Denver’s and while it has wonderful parks and trails it rains so much that access to those parks and trails is more limited than in Denver.
5. Shenzhen:
   
   Like the other two non-American cities Shenzhen is superior in its transportation but falls short in its cleanliness. I put it above the rest of the American cities because ultimately the transportation system was the most important part of the infrastructure of each city for my daily life. And while it didn't have the best parks and was a bit dirty than a normal American city it remained clean in the most important places, just like Seoul, on the buses, trains and in public areas.
6. Sacramento:
   
   Sacramento is a clean, well run city but the transportation system is not good and the parks are pretty boring.
7. Los Angeles:
   
   LA is just a tough place to get around in that being said I loved it there especially for going on walks. If you have a car you will rarely find a day without significant traffic issues but when using the public transportation system you can get around to a lot of the major areas without much of a headache.
8. Phoenix:
   
   I really do like Phoenix but as far as getting around without a car and just the overall cleanliness of the town it drops to the bottom of my list.
9. Oakland:
   
   Oakland belongs at the bottom of this list. Its public transportation is okay but in every other area it falls short and is not a place that I would consider well run. 

On my next list I'll rank the cities based on social and cultural things such as tourist sites, shopping areas, restaurants, museums and generally just things to do