A Day in the Life...

I'm already 2 weeks in to my Liverpool experience. It seems like I've lived here for much longer, not because it's a bad spot, but because I've become a part of things so quickly. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm settled, but I'm working towards it.

I've managed to land myself a job -- bartending. Of course, I had to get hired at the most busiest bar in Liverpool, an Irish Pub called O'neils. As if I didn't have a hard enough time understanding the Liverpoodlians (isn't that a fun word) or the Scousers [(skaus-sir)Brit. Inf. ~n. a person who comes from Liverpool.Scouse (skaus)n. 1. the dialect spoken by such a person] my job requires me to deal with those individuals from Ireland and fun places like Cork. Now, I can hardly understand what people from Cork are saying at the beginning of the night -- so you can just imagine what it's like after a few pints. I'm sure they think I'm retarded when I ask them to repeat themselves about 4 times before they order a drink, but I provide the excuse that I'm new and if that doesn't work I tell them that I'm Canadian and they seemingly understand. I love that I can play the foreigner card and rely on my accent to get myself some slack.

Anyway, I'm bartending part time which is fine by me. I don't think I have it in me to do that kind of work full time like I once had... Drinking over here seems to be like a sport. And when there is a football match on the tube drinking gets shifted into full gear and I begin to run around like a chicken with my head cut off. An interesting sight. Nevertheless, I enjoy my job and it keeps me in some kind of social circle. Bartending is hard work and as I found out tonight in my training session -- Bartenders in England are in the same category as Pharmacists in that we too are distributing a controlled substance... imagine! Lots of pressure.

Apart from this I'm working at a hostel and going to the gym. I've come across this work for stay business... it's not a bad deal for the time being. I'm in a huge hostel (which my roomate Sally likes to describe as a refuge rather than a hostel) anyway, its more like a big house -- perhaps like a half way house, minus the convicts of course. Being here also keeps me in a another social circle. There are some other 'long termers' hanging around and we've managed to forge some kind of family unit. Being here also has meeting people from countries that I hadn't encountered in my other travels -- Greece, Iran, Turkey, Argentina, and some countries that I haven't even heard of. It's fun but at times difficult to both work and live in one place. It's like hanging out at the office I suppose... but for the moment, it is home.

The gym... this too is an interesting experience. They have a pool -- so that's enough to keep me interested. I have perhaps even come across some womens hockey here -- though I haven't qutie followed up on that lead yet.

Anyhow, I am busy to say that least. So much so that I haven't even gotten around to snapping one photo of my new town upon returning. I had complained about not working for so long and I'm certainly making up for it now. I work over night shifts at the hostel from mid night until 7 am, sleep for a couple of hours and am off to work at my bar job only to begin the routine all over again the next day and some how squeeze in time for the gym and a very brief life outside of my 2 jobs. The long term goal is to save some money up and rent a room on my own some where in the downtown area. And I'd like to find a day job... I suddenly have a whole new respect for the office job. I miss Monday to Friday's... and having evenings to myself. I'll see if my years of university incarceration will finally pay off -- if not... may be Starbucks will take me in -- god help me.

Apart from it all I think I'm settling in quite nicely and am growing to love the city. It's difficult to describe what it is exactly that I really enjoy about the city... I think it reminds me a lot of home (home being Canada) in an odd way. The streets are broad and wide unlike most of the other European cities -- the only problem that I'm having here is that it will be any day now that I walk out and finally get hit by on coming traffic - considering that I am constantly looking the wrong way (almost got run over by a bus in Dublin... and still haven't learned). Also alluring is that Liverpool seems to be a blue collar town therefore making the people much more friendlier and life here is genearlly laid back.

So... this is what occupies my time here in Liverpool for the moment. I don't predict any major changes in the near future -- Ideally I'd like to stay here until the end of August and then mosey on some where else for a while...but we'll see when the time comes really.