1. World of Wanderlust

The whole thing.

It's full of travel tips, advice,

destination recommendations,

and just about anything you've ever wondered about travel.

I can spend hours on this site just browsing around.

2. My job.

Because while I've been falling in love with this family for the past few months,

I've really been able to see this week how much they mean to me, and how much I mean to them.

Not only do I get to spend my time with two of the greatest little girls on this earth, but I am around a family who is so caring and so loving, towards each other and towards me.

It's so much more than a nanny+family relationship, and I never expected it to become what it is.

I've been so ready to leave and move on with life until I met these people.

Sooo I'm just going to have to figure out how to bring them to London with me...

3. This post fromThe Laughing Medusa's Expat Diaries about wanting it bad enough.

I love this post so much.

I have always come across people who talk about how much they'd love to do this or that, and why that could never happen. 

Why can't it?

If you're content at where you are, and that's where you'd like to sat, then that's fine. But if you're constantly window shopping on everything you'd love to do, then make the move towards doing it.

Taking that first step is always the scariest, but I'm a huge advocate that if you want something bad enough, you can absolutely make it happen.

4. Jim Carrey's commencement speech at a University graduation.
Everyone's seen this, I know.
But I have never heard anything truer to life.
"You can fail at doing what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance at doing what you love."

Just a few little tidbits, fun facts, songs or stories

to end your week with.

Because who doesn't want to end their week with The Beatles?

Since I'm beginning this,

we'll start with some fun facts from their beginning.

Although the boys of The Beatles began dipping their toes in the music scene through the late 50s,

It wasn't until 1960 that 'The Beatles' became the name of the group.

And it wasn't until the fall of 1962 that The Beatles became The Beatles that you know;

John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

Before that,

they were The Beatles - John, Paul, and George, with friend and drummer Pete Best.

These Beatles are known for their famous audition with Decca Records in London.
They had their audition the same day as another band,
and the end result?
The Beatles were rejected for a recording contract,
and Decca selected the other group, Brian Poole and The Tremeloes.

The songs that they played at the audition were recorded,
and some of them are on the Anthology albums that were released later on.

One of my favorites, that's always on repeat in my car,
is one of Paul McCartney's earliest songs,
called Like Dreamers Do.

There is already a lot of research and work that goes into finding a home.
Doing this in another country, from another country - makes things a little more difficult.
A lot more difficult.

For those of you who are going through/may be going through a jump across countries.
I've got a mini  (meaning I broke it up in parts because it's not mini at all) guide for how to go about this in an organized way.

This is pretty specific to London, but I'm sure this can relate to any type of apartment hunt as well.

Heather and I have been at this for quite a while now.
We've gone through the dirt and grime of the hunt,
and feel like we could be estate agents ourselves,
with how much we now know about renting in London.

Going into this, you are starting from scratch,
so you need to lay down the foundation (the easy stuff) to this building process.
The preparation.

What are the things that are most important for you to have in your home

for the next 12+ months?

1) Budget

 - This is probably the most important of anything I'll list- make sure you know your exchange rate with the British Pound - if I had a guess, I'd say it sucks.  The British Pound is one of the most expensive currencies in the world, so unless you live around the Persian Gulf, you're probably going to be hurting with this.

Now, accept the fact that you are going to be converting everything for the unforeseeable future. 

London is expensive. Like New York City, but more expensive. So having a budget of what you'll be spending a month for everything will help you figure out how much you'll be able to spend in rent.

An example list of things you may be paying for on a monthly basis:

Rent

Utilities (Gas, Water, Electricity, Wifi, Cable)

Transportation (Tube Pass)

Groceries

Mobile Phone Bill

Leisure/Emergency/Miscellaneous

This may also include a Council Tax if you are in London for work.
(Council Tax - basically a monthly fee everyone have to pay to simply live in London - used to pay for local services i.e. police force, firefighters, trash collectors, etc.) 

Full-time students do not have to pay Council Tax in the city - make sure you know this if you are a student. Council Tax is a pretty expensive bill, so being exempt can make a noticeable difference.

You'll want to have a general idea of how much money you will have monthly to spend, then break these payments down to how much you can spend on each.
It's a bit of a process, but having the clearest idea of how much you will be spending makes the next few steps easier to get through.

2) Transportation Links

-  Commuting through London is a long enough process - you definitely want to make it as easy as you can.  If you have a job or are going to university, know what Tube lines are nearest to wherever the place is.  You'll want your flat to either be near a direct line, or where you are only needed to make one line change during your commute.

3) Safety

- I'll get into areas in the next section, but this is something to take note on from the start.  Safety is very important to me - meaning I want to be able to walk home from the Tube Station by myself at 10PM at night and not feel like I need to kick off my heels and make a sprint for it to keep myself out of danger.

This may mean finding a property in a safer, wealthier area, or preferring to look at flats that are within a close distance to your Tube Station - we choose this, meaning we normally look into flats that are (at most) around 0.5 miles away from the station.
You may be more okay with a flat that is a mile away from transportation, or you may not want to go farther than a quarter-mile. It all depends on you, and what you are most comfortable with.

4) Convenience to Necessities

 - Being near these shops just makes life easier. Groceries, Cosmetics, etc. - in my previous flat, we were right down the street from a Tesco (grocery store), and a few blocks away from a mini-Boots (health, pharmacy, cosmetics, etc).  You want to be close enough to these that if you need to make a quick run to pick something up, you'll be able to with ease.

5) Furnished Flat

- This is a necessity simply because if you are reading my blog, you are probably somewhat similar to me and don't have enough money to ship furniture, or buy furniture on top of your rental fee.  This is okay - London always deals with internationals, and many properties are available furnished for you. Just make sure the ad lists the property as furnished, or ask about this when in communication with the agent/landlord.

6) Miscellaneous Needs&Wants

- Do you prefer a double bed, or are you able to survive with a single? What about a desk? Do you need a washing machine in the flat, or are you okay with going to a laundromat?  Do you like the idea of living in a residential area, or more of a place with nightlife and things to do?  Little things like these questions will come into play later on in this process.

This is a general list of the first things that Heather and I discussed.
Once we created the big picture of 'what' we wanted,
we were able to move on to part two - 'where' we wanted it

.

Check out part two --> HERE

I'm pretty upset I didn't remember it for that post,

though I'm not sure it would surpass the one I did include about dodgy dudes and police officers..

Anyways,
while Heather and I were on our mini backpack excursion through Europe,
we spent a couple days in Interlaken, Switzerland.
The hostel we stayed in had an underground bar,
which happened to be really the only thing that was open at night in the small town.

The last night we were there, we made our way down to check out the place.
A tiny, but typical hostel bar, full of different groups of foreigners.
We got some drinks and took a seat at a table by ourselves,
but it wasn't too long before three guys who had been at the bar approached us.

They were three French guys
who spoke some English
... and by some English,
I meant they knew how to say "um," "no," and "what??"

One of the guys knew a little bit more, and was able to translate as best he could,
which wasn't very well.
But he disappeared once he realized
his friends had each grabbed one of us to talk to.

They sat with us for a few minutes.
Heather talked to one guy, and I was in conversation with another.

I use the word 'conversation' incredibly loosely,
as our conversations really went as followed:

Me: "Where are you from"
Him: "Where... em.. ???"
Me: "You have no idea what I'm saying do you..."
Him: *blank look of confusion*
Him: "You .. uh ... no ... um... " *waving his arms around trying to speak in sign*
Me: "well then..."

We didn't get much farther than that.

I did notice out of the corner of my eye though,
while Heather was focused on talking to the other guy,
the one I was speaking with gave his friend a look/nod,
as is the universal guy code for "dude we're totally going to nail these chicks!"

Which really just made me laugh.

It wasn't too long after that until Heather and I made our getaway
and mingled around to some other folks.

Later on in the night though, the guys showed up again and came straight over to us.
Attempt number 2 I guess..

The friend who spoke the most English leaned in to us
and explained that
"they had lost the key to their hotel room,
and they were going to have to stay in ours."

Um, what?

Heather and I gave a stare
as blank as the one I received trying to talk to the guy.

There wasn't even a need to use the excuse of a boyfriend.
We couldn't help but laugh with each other, followed with a
"Uhh ... no .. you're not staying in our room."

We floated around the bar a bit,
until we found a clean getaway
to get back to our room without being followed.

Let me break it down for you.
Three FOREIGN dudes,
can not understand a single word that comes out of our mouth
yet still think that they can 'read' signals we were (not) sending out,
that give them the impression that we were down to hook up?
And then their big plan for success,
is actually to say that they lost there key
and oh man, there's NO WAY we can get back into our room,
so we need to sleep with you.

How mind-boggling is it that this seriously happened?
How hilarious is it that it was an ACTUAL attempt to hit on a couple of girls?
And how easy was it to shut them down?

Too easy my friends,
way. too. easy.