Entry #7: Big Country, Small World

Greetings from the beautiful town of Sidmouth, Devon. The last few days have been quite wearing, but exciting to be sure.

Backtrack to Sunday: I was cranky and frustrated. I woke up at 4:30 without explanation and couldn't get back to sleep. I knew I had to find a proper blouse if I was ever to find work, so I travelled across London to Brick Lane Market, situated in the Indian diaspora of London, which apparently sold clothes as well as displayed an exciting array of local artware.

Allow me to specify : London is expensive. Very expensive. The pound currently costs around 1.8 CAD--so twice the Canadian dollar-- but the prices remain unaffected. A pair of plain black shoes which might cost 15$ back home will cost 15£ here. It's easy to forget how much you're spending.
Anyway, I'm a total cheapskate, so three hours later I trundled my rather disgruntled self back to the hostel with one blouse in my bag. It seemed somehow very difficult to find one that was at once appropriate and affordable.
It was time to face the facts:

1. I had nowhere to sleep Monday night, not in London nor anywhere else;

2. I couldn't afford to live in the city much longer without work;

3. I wanted to see some forests, some farm animals and some coastlines, not dodge buses and sit sweaty in the tube.

A friend I'd met at the previous hostel--a kiwi occupying the upper bunk--had told me about the beautiful county of Devon, about mountains (woo!) and ocean (eee!). I decided to look up jobs in the area to see if there was anything I could find.

I got a call back from the manager of the Mount Pleasant hotel almost immediately. They were situated in Sidmouth and were looking to hire waiting staff. So I decided to buy myself a train ticket and head southwest to the coast to see something new.

Luck pelted at me from every angle. I am staying with a lovely couple for a few days. They also have a ukelele. The town is beautiful (I have some pictures that I'll upload when I can, but you should Google it). Furthermore, as soon as I got off the bus, I ran into my friend from the London hostel. He'd just gotten off a different bus from a different part of the UK.
I essentially know three people in the UK, and I happened to run into one of them in a tiny coast town. Let that sink in for a moment.

Turns out he lives and works here! We had ciders on the beach and went for a swim. The water was cold but paled in comparison to the frigid baie st-Laurent that I jumped into not two weeks ago.

My job interview was this morning. I got the job, but it is only 16 hours per week and does not offer live in accommodation. I spent the rest of the morning handing out my CV to other business, restaurants and hotels. I'm confident I can find something else. Two part time jobs would be ideal for me.

There's quite a noticeable social shift between England and Canada. I'm not sure what I expected; I feel as if I've always been told that English folks are cold and awkward, and I've found the reality to be quite different. Everyone is very chatty. Young men flirt quite outrageously (the BANK EMPLOYEE that set up my bank account gave me his phone number and invited me to his house in Greenwich. Thanks but no thanks, stranger). Old men are a lot more conservative. I sat opposite a man on the train to Devon that was appalled at the notion of sharing a room with strangers, of sugary drinks, of swimming in the ocean and of Britain's Got Talent. I encounter all kinds.
I haven't hung out with women that much yet, save for my host and her friends when I first arrived, but they seem much less likely to engage in conversation. Maybe I'm just more shy around them.

The weather is beautiful here. It's my seventh day and not a drop of rain. Wishing you a lovely Tuesday! x