Settling In

My feet fuckin' ache. Yowza.

For the past two days I've been walking the streets around my London flat in a fresh pair of Redwing boots and my toes feel worse than those of a mid-19th century Chinese foot-bound concubine. Back in the States I was told by my shoe store's Al Bundy that in order to have the leather mold to the contours of my big ugly feet, I've got to cinch up the laces extremely tight and wear thick acrylic socks. There's a Cantonese proverb that speaks to this folly: Embrace your fashion and you reject your health. I hope these boots break in before society rejects me for having horrifically deformed feet.

Here's a short story that corroborates the old cliche about how terrible English food is. The night we arrived, the people from ACCENT (the London institution that runs the study abroad program) took us to a local pub for some finger foods and soft drinks. In retrospect, I would've rather eaten actual fingers than eat what lay on the party platters that night. The g'damn in-flight dinner I had the night before was better. Ugh, thinking about the minced meat pie I half-ate makes me shudder. I hate to sound ungrateful to my hosts, but c'mon, you managed to disappoint a very forgiving and unbiased palette. However, the plate of Fish and Chips I had earlier in the day was superb. We ate at a nice overpriced diner called Munchkin's across the street from the British Museum. The heavily accented Russian waitress had an annoying habit of asking each group of patrons what their nationality was. She smiled sarcastically as we replied that we were Americans. What fucking difference does it make? Does decent service hinge on correctly answering, "Are you English?" But she played nice thereafter so I forgive her. The F&C was nice. The fries were cut thick and the fish was prepared well: crispy on the exterior and flaky inside. Everything was cheery until I had to pay the £9 tab. Which brings to my concluding point: money.

Holy. Fuck. England is expensive. I exchanged $90USD yesterday and today I've got just about 2£. Er? With that money I've purchased the following items: the aforementioned plate of Fish and Chips, a dinky LG mobile phone, some toiletries, groceries for half a week, and booze.

My granny's going to flip her shit when I call her in mid-March begging her to wire another grand or two.

I'm going to soak my feet in warm water sans the salt (it just costs too damn much).

Best,

C