Sasoozie's Secrets

Posted 8:58 AM by Sasoozie

At last I have some time to Blog.

I brought the laptop back to the apartment so that I could write this offline and post it once I am back in the office. It's Monday 24th October and I have tomorrow off as I am getting cable installed and my sofa/couch should also be delivered, although given my recent history with things being delivered I'm not holding my breath. Although I do have a mobile/cell phone now so at least I will be able to chase people if stuff hasn't arrived by the time that it should have :)

Ahhhhhhh the cell phone, there's a story of how it's the worst thing in the US not to have credit or your social security number (SSN) yet. If you have none of the previous then effectively you have a worse credit rating than that of a bankrupt. I am sure that if I was a 16 year old spotty teenager then things would have been easier. I signed up to a pretty good package with C*ngular. 66.99 a month including 900 minutes of calls, unlimited calls to other C*ngular customers, 3.99 a month to add international calls (6 cents a minute to UK landlines, 25 cents a minute to UK mobile/cell phones, all getting signed up and sorted with Luis, my friendly C*ngular store rep. However when it gets to the point of asking for my SSN, I explain that I am new to the country and haven't received it yet.. Apparently all kinds of alarms get raised at HQ> Next thing they want copies of Two forms of Photo ID, which I have fortunately in my Driving Licence and my Passport. Unfortunately they are at the apartment, which is a 20 minute walk... each way.. As I am carless, (Not careless lol) I trek off to get them both.. Did I mention it was raining that weekend? In fact it rained all day and all night..

Anyhooooo I get home, get the ID and Get back to the Store.. Back on the case of getting me connected to the rest of the world. Next hiccup, a $500 deposit.. Oh Yes, because I am credit rating-less then they don't trust me enough not to run off with their phone, rack up thousands of dollars of calls and abscond. No matter that they have a copy of my VISA and could bring the full force of the Immigration department down upon me.

, I am so glad that I am fiscally responsible to be able to fork out all the cash that I have had to over the past few weeks. First Month, Last Month and a Months rent for the security Deposit.. and Boston/Cambridge are known for their high rents throughout America. In one recent survey, Boston bet New York as having the highest cost of living in the US. I am paying almost double what I was Paying for a mortgage on a 2 bedroom house back in the UK. Fortunately I am well paid enough to cover it. They have a guideline here that your rent shouldn't be more that 1/3 of your months wages. Mine is just under. I'm not a fan of renting, feels like dead money.. Who nows, maybe I'll look at buying somewhere next year?

So at least now I have the capability to call people, have people call me, and joy of joy's, text people !! Even people back in good ol' blighty.. :-)

The stuff that I have had shipped over is now in the US, I have no clue at which stage in the process it is, I've emailed the agents for an update. I had to fork out more money to get it out of customs, so hopefully it's that far. It will be odd having my stuff here. I've been getting by with plastic plates and cups and a cutlery set that I packed in the luggage I brought over with me. I'm almost concerned about where everything will go. I was watching "the Grudge" the other day, and thought that the minimalist approach that Japanese households go for has alot of merit.

The other weekend I did get a set of pans, a coffee maker (a bare necessity for me LOL). My boss gave me a 6 chest of drawers/Dresser that she no longer needs, so at least my clothes are out of the suitcase. Oh and a TV, hence the cable arrival tomorrow. Man oh Man will that make a difference.

At the moment I don't even have a radio here. On the one hand I feel really blessed that I enjoy reading so much otherwise I might have gone slowly crazy. The TV I bought has an inbuilt DVD player, so I have been to best buy and Newbury Comics and pretty much bought anything on sale. I love the extended features...

Books I've Read
Clive Cussler - The Icarus agenda
Robert Ludlam - the Bourne Ultimatum
Jon Krakauer - Under the banner of Heaven
Bill Bryson - I'm a stranger here myself

DVD's I've watched
The Grudge
Antwone Fisher
Revelations
15 minutes
The Falcon and the Snowman
The Chronicles of Riddick,
Fahrenheit 9/11

Plus the Metro which is a newspaper that gets given to all the commuters each morning on the T - the local name for the subway system. It has Sudoku in it everyday, which is just starting to catch on here.

So what else has been going on....

This weekend I was at two party's.

The First was on Friday night out at South Weymouth

The party was given by a Sales Guy who used to work in the UK Office. He's an American and came to work in the UK office about 15 years ago. Let's call him Buddy. Buddy moved back a couple of years ago, I think in part to find a new challenge and also to be nearer his family. His Brother-in-law is the owner of the company and buddy is financially comfortable in his own right. Since he's been back he bought a small house on a significant piece of land and has turned this small cottage into a house that is worthy of Home and Interiors magazine!.. it is breathtakingly gorgeous. Style beyond anything I have seen.

So, Friday Night I catch the train out of Boston to South Weymouth with an overnight bag packed as the last train out of S. Weymouth is 9.19 at night !!!! Buddy's sister comes to collect me (and the plan is that I will be staying at her house that night, she works in the same team that I do) and after a slight detour to the Liquor store we are off to the party. After being initially stunned by the house (Yes I had a sneaky peek upstairs :-P) We head out to the garden which is as magnificent as the inside. There is a massive inbuilt grill, a terrace area and in the middle of the garden is a sunken fountain. I seriously expected some kind of light and water show like they have at the Bellagio !...

Buddy's niece and nephew are there helping out as the barman and waitress with the canapes all evening. I think at the height of the party there must have been about 50 people there. All very respectable ;-) even me for most of it. There were a few people and I spent most of the night talking to them and then just drifted between the other groups of people, mingling and chatting to all and sundry. Most people started to drift off after midnight. By which point I was told that I was staying at Buddy's house instead of Buddy's sister. I didn't mind as long as I had a bed for the night.

So it gets to around 1.30am, 95% of people have left, there are family in the kitchen helping clear up and then they leave. So there is me, buddy another girl from work and her boyfriend who is also staying over. Buddy and the girl from work turn to me and say "Fancy a dip in the Jacuzzi?" turns out that the fountain is also a Jacuzzi !. So I queried what should we wear in the Jacuzzi as I hadn't brought my swimming costume.. Work girl said "Bra and Pants". I should point out at this point that Buddy is gay so there was no shenanigans going to be going on. .. Next thing I know there are the three of us in the jacuzzi enjoying the bubbles at 2 am in the morning.. Man oh Man not something that I ever thought I would be doing :)

So at 3am after Work girl and I had righted all the wrongs of the world, we both disappeared up to our rooms, where I texted a friend of mine. I don't drunk call people, I drunk text them. I forgot to mention I was a little tipsy at this point, in full control, but tipsy, none the less. I woke up around 9am and went downstairs to find workgirl's boyfriend watching the History Channel, so we watched that for about an hour. Work girl then got up and by 10.30 we were on the road back to Boston. Buddy was still in bed, but as most of the cleaning up had been done the night before, we didn't feel guilty about leaving.

I arrived home about 11.30am and decided that bed was a good place for me to go, lol. I slept till around 4.00pm and then headed off after showering and changing to the second party of the weekend. This one was at Cherub's house with her housemates. There was some more drinking, this time I stayed on the Martini's. One of the guests was an expert Martini maker :-) It was a completely different mix of people from the Party at Buddy's, a much younger crowd. At one point there was the comment that the kitchen looked like a Frat Party, and it did. There was many a game of Flip-cup, which I didn't participate in as I don't drink beer. There was no dancing, but I had many a good conversation and a real laugh. By 3am the party had started to dwindle and by 5am I was on the couch with a duvet (as I didn't fancy the 20 minute walk home at that time). I slept pretty well until 8.30 am, when I did head off home. I did feel a little guilty disappearing off this time as there looked like much cleaning up to do. Home just before nine and off to bed again. I did think about staying up and going to church, but the call to bed was too strong.

I woke up again about 1pm, and decided that if nothing else I needed to get a new pair of shoes as I had broken the strap on the only work pair that I had with me. I also intended to get a TV stand for the TV. I managed to get 4 pairs of shoes from Payless (buy one get one half price) and a Couch! Which also should be arriving tomorrow. I got it from Cort/Putnam. They do furniture rentals, after the furniture has been rented for a while, they the sell it off, so you can get a fairly decent sofa for not a huge cost. It might have a mark or two on it, but nothing major. Home around 4pm and back to bed (one of the downsides to no TV is that sometimes a book just can't keep you awake) awake again about 10pm, had some food and then read my book until 2am, then back to bed..

I did manage to reset my body clock that way.. fortunately :-)

It was the best weekend I have spent here so far although I couldn't do it every weekend. Saying that there is another party coming up this weekend which I will go to.............. LMAO

I am sure that you are expecting a synopsis of the differences that I am finding between living in the US rather than the UK. Jennie suggested that I should do that before I stop noticing them.

There are the obvious language differences that most people know about,
Pavement = Sidewalk
Tap = Faucet
Handbag = purse
Purse = wallet
Lift = Elevator

but there are far more subtle ones as well

If someone offers you a ride there are not offering to have you jump up on their back, they are offering you a lift home in their car
Can you spot me a twenty/ten - does not mean can you find me one, but can you lend me one.

Are you all set? (or just All set?). This is used for many things and has quickly become my least favourite expression.
All Set? - do you have everything you need?
All Set? - are you ready to leave/ is it ok for me to leave now?
All Set? - Have you finished doing this task/eating your meal/reading the paper/
All Set? - does everything match up?
All Set? - Do you understand?
I am all set - I am fine thank you.
I am all set - I have finished
I am all set - I don't need anything else
I am all set - I understand.

I am also having to get used to living in the City. I have always tended to reside in the Suburbs, where people have front garden/yard, usually a back garden/yard, the houses are set slightly back from the street, but often the houses are terraced/townhouses, or are semi-detached/duplexs. Most people in the 'burbs have a car, very few people use public transportation because it is 1) expensive and 2) bad (infrequent, doesn't go to where you need, slow), so there aren't many people walking around. Most of the stores are out of town and you need to have a car to get there. There are many parks or open spaces for Children and dogs to play, and lots of trees because trees are good and make you feel like you are more rural than you really are.

Cambridge is a city. Boston is a Much bigger city. In Cambridge there is little space, but they have tried to put in little green spaces. There is a little parkway that I walk through on my way to work and there are small play parks for the kids dotted here and there. Most houses when they were originally built had a nice piece of land behind them, where you could have a fairly decent sized garden. Most houses where built from the 1850's onwards I would guess from the architecture. So there are a number of very nice Victorian, fairly grand houses. Most of these have been converted into multi-plexes, houses where multiple families live. In most cases this doesn't affect the outside of the house, except to need to put a couple of extra entrances in.

In areas like the one i am living in however they have done something slightly different. When the land was originally being sold off in lots (divisions) each lot would be the same size, what many people have done is subdivided their division creating a Subdivision, as selling off most of their back garden netted them a significant amount of money. More so than Increasing the size of their house would increase its own value. So now you will have two houses on a plot/lot/division originally intended for just one house. In most cases this means no or little back yard and the place looks very crowded. Sometimes these extra houses will be condominiums/block of flats and will dwarf the original house that is there.

I do love the fact that, unlike in the UK, when there is a housing development all the house will look the same, none of the houses in a street look the same here, one of the upsides of people buying land then tending to build their own houses. They are not the same in their shape, their style, their architectural references and usually not even in their colour. As houses here tend to be Wooden frame construction, with Sidings, they are all shades of the rainbow. There is a Purple house near me, not a subtle lilac, but a grape jelly/plum jam kinda purple. All of it, even the window frames.

Ah.. I love screens.. on your windows, just like the screen doors of many a movie, you also have screens on your windows. This means during he summer you can leave your windows open, not worry about the bugs or about your curtains finding their way outside of the house. It allows you to be inside, but feel like you are outside. The only reason I can think that they haven't made it big in the UK yet is that here all the windows tend to be sash windows, in the UK Windows tend to open outwards, so screens would block access to doing that.. But still, dudes, these are great!!

City life also means that there are lots of people, all over the place, all the time. Especially people, like me, who use public transport or walk everywhere, so where ever you walk there are other people walking. Americans eat out alot more. There was a survey that found Americans eat out 40% of the time and I am not surprised. There is every kind of restaurant here, and most restaurants will also do take out/take away. One thing I hadn't realised is how much talk there is around food, all the time. Everyone seems to know all the restaurants, and there will always be plenty of debate over the best of this or the best of that. Eating out in the UK tends to be reserved for getting together with people, or celebrating events. There has been a move towards eating out for Sunday Lunch for example, but it isn't something that you would do everyweek. Eating out is also alot more expensive in the UK, here it's not at all. I can totally understand how obesity has increased for the general American population over the last 20-30 years.

One thing that is helping me not to gain weight in the way that I had dreaded I might is that, as I have mentioned before, I have to walk everywhere or get public transport (subway). I walk 12-15 mins to the Subway stop, take a 15-20 minute journey and then walk another 5-7 minutes to work. Before it was walk 20 steps to the car, drive 20-30 minutes, walk 1 minute to the office from the car park. I have noticed a slight change in my shape, and some of my trousers are starting to fit better. I do hate having to walk with my grocery shopping though and my larger purchases, such as the TV, are always based around someone's offer to take me to the store. My grocery shopping is limited by how much I can physically carry for the 20 minute walk home. Fortunately there is a small grocery store just a 5 minute walk from me, that's on the way home, so I can pick up those last minute things that I need. It's next to a Laundromat that I hope to use later this week. I'm just getting to the stage where I need to do Laundry. Some rental places have laundry facilities in the basement, but it's certainly unusual to have them in the apartment. This house has a basement, so I am not sure why the landlady hasn't installed something.

The Landlady, Molly, lives in the house next door, we have a joining wall, with her grandson and his girlfriend. Molly's son has been 'round doing a few handy man things, putting in a new toilet, putting up towel rails, but every now and then I will come home and find that some of the back stairs have been replaced, or a hand rail renewed. It's great that I don't have to worry about these things, or even notice that they need doing :-)

I live on the 1st Floor UK/2nd floor US.. There is a guy who live downstairs, Barry, I've met him twice and he seems nice enough. He keeps himself to himself, I don't hear much noise from downstairs and I hope that he doesn't hear much from me bimbling around upstairs.

Ok, Time to sign off and watch the lovely cable that has just been installed.....

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