The Establishment of the Blog

Hello folks, yes I am in England. Specifically in Cambridge, which is an hour-long train ride northeast from London. It's old and damp and cold (except for the past few days, which have been gorgeous, it got warm enough by early afternoon that you can be perfectly comfortable in only one extra layer). Everbody bikes everywhere in Cambridge because it is flat, biking is cheap, and because non-student Cambridge-folk are somewhat like Whole Foods people in their income-tax bracket and desire to save the earth. People also seem to be very trusting here when it comes to their bikes. You don't have to lock the bike to something, you just have to thread a lock between the frame and one wheel so that no one can ride it away and rest it against a wall. In Santa Cruz, it felt like you had to thread a lock through both wheels and the frame and then to a fence or something, take off the lights and even then you risking someone stealing your seat.
What else... the niece is adorable though she has fussy days because her fourth tooth is coming in and it probably hurts. She is beginning to recognize me when I walk into the room and smiles at me, though she clearly prefers her parents.
The plane ride was... pleasant. Which was weird. I had the entire middle section (five seats) to myself so I watched "Dan in Real Life" (a movie that I kinda wanted to see but never got around to it in Santa Cruz) with my legs spread into the next seat (because I could) then I pushed all of the armrests up and slept for four hours. Then, the guy at immigration barely looked at me, then stamped my passport with the correct stamp and sent me on my way. I was expecting some sort of Spanish Inquisition at customs, but apparently wholesome-looking Americans with the correct paperwork don't warrant a second glance (note: I was not wearing visible jewelery in my septum at the time, though I went through US customs this summer with a visible dealie while traveling with my parents and the immigration dude didn't even ask to see our passports, he took one look at us and waved us through. So maybe the septum piercing isn't as noteworthy as I'm afraid it is).
As for culture shock, it hasn't been an ongoing problem because so far I have spent most of my time with Americans, (my sister Caitlin(KT), her husband Will, and Nick [hi Nick!]). So, I have been pretty comfortable for the most part, but then there are great screaming waves of it when I have to interact more with actual ENGLISH people. I become meek and excessively smiley and I lose control of my eyebrows, which draw themselves up until I look concerned and upset. I also lower my voice to a whisper because I am so aware of my accent. In summation, I haven't been experiencing culture shock so much as mass loss of confidence.
For example, today I went to sign up with some temp agencies and one of them brushed me off pretty effectively, which wouldn't have been a problem but she gave me a very pitying look as I left. I had to walk around Cambridge collecting myself for the next hour to gain the necessary confidence to go into the next one. I NEVER needed that much time to recollect myself in the states. Luckily the next one worked out well. It's a temp agency for catering. They gave me a hygiene test that apparently I scored very well on (I think that I may add that to future CVs and applications, "scored well on hygiene test") and hired me on the spot (I think that my ability to speak English fluently was my edge there, it sounds like many people from the EU who don't speak English sign up with this agency) the staff also kept talking about my experience "at the front of a business" which also gave me the warm fuzzies, I am not sure what it means, but I imagined myself posing in a big glass window, and my first thought (which was rather irraitonal) was "ooooh, I may have to buy some new clothes!" I think that they are referring to my experience with customer service, so more waitstaff/cashier/coatcheck than sous chef/dishwasher/janitor, which is all right with me.
Ok, running out of enthusiasm for writing this, more later.