The Crazy Life

I feel bipolar in London. I’ve never quite experienced such a dramatic range in emotions from one hour to the next as I have here. It’s like my day can be pure hell for seven hours and then poof, all of a sudden it turns out brilliant. I don’t really understand how that works. On Thursday, I spent the whole day looking at apartments, packing, waiting an hour and a half for Money Gram to approve my transfer so I could pay for an apartment…I was terribly exhausted. I’d toted my heavy bags around London on the tube, up the stairs, down the stairs, my back feeling like it might split in half at any moment, and I just wanted to fall into a hole and cry. And then, just like that, everything was better. The man from the Money Gram shop was gruff and solemn but once I started asking him about his country and telling him the food I know from neighboring countries, he perked right up. Suddenly, he cared for me as I got my money. He let me come behind the counter and count it out and showed me where to put it in my bag and how to carry it around. “Be careful, there are pickpockets all around,” he warned. Another man in the store, who saw me standing around for an hour, must’ve taken pity on me and bought me a candy bar. When I got to the apartment, my roommates welcomed me with a cup of tea and the manager drove me to my hotel to gather my belongings. See, brilliant day.

Today at orientation, I met a few girls who are also doing just the basic patisserie like me. We might all take a day trip to Stone Henge and Bath. A female chef, I’ll call her Mdme. Flour, came and chatted with us for like thirty minutes and we were all laughing and there’s a French chef, I’ll call him Msr. Chocolat, who showed us around and was cracking jokes left and right. He showed us all the fire escapes, including the window, which he said we could use if we had a parachute. He says things like “bow-tuhr” and “flow-erh.” I have a feeling there will be more stories from that guy. Anyway, I found out I have off until next Thursday. Nearly another week to explore! And there are several weeks I only have class two days. Are you kidding me? I can travel over Europe now. Amazing!