The Adventure School

Check it out! Ellen is in London doing very important things and traveling ecstatically around the continent by EuroRail. She’s got beer, sunshine, Brighton Beach, and a bunch of blokes with accents surrounding her. Clearly, this woman could not be happier.

An ex-Sacramentan-Seattlite-New Yorker, currently expat residing in London. My accent is getting really weird.

Working as an attorney at the London office of an American law firm. Exploring London, the rest of the UK, and going to France as often as possible.

In the north west corner of the City of London for the most part (my office), and also in Islington. Friday I put a deposit on a new flat in Belsize Park, which I also close to Primrose Hill, my favorite place in London (besides Liberty, aka the most beautiful department store on earth).

If “here” is the US – I had lived in NYC for 5 years but never lived abroad, and was looking for a change. In the process I also got a smaller office environment, more client contact, and more responsibility, which is also great. If “here” is Seattle – there aren’t law firms like the one I work for in Seattle, and for now, I like my job.

My job is extremely interesting and challenging and never boring. Like I said, after living in NY for 5 years I wanted a change but I wasn’t ready to move back to Seattle, and I wasn’t ready to move to SF, and I couldn’t think of another American city I would want to live in. New York can do that to you.

Ideas I have had/stolen: Open a yoga studio/bakery, open a wine bar that only serves one region’s wine (region protected to maintain secrecy of this idea), become a house wife, work for the government, work as an in-house attorney for a corporation in Seattle … The list goes on. But the truth is, even though the hours can be long and the pressure can be intense, I can’t think of something I want to do more right now. Or maybe I’m just scared.

I was really weirded out for a long time by the fact that people here say “Are you all right?” in the way that Americans say “How are you?” In America ”How are you” is properly answered with “How are you?” and no one ever reveals how they actually are. But to ask someone “Are you all right” is, I think, the question you are instructed to ask when giving first aid – it sounds like a real question, and possibly an insinuation that you don’t look all right. It took me about 8 months but I finally got over it and don’t really hear the question as strange any more.

Best foreign custom/fashion statement/food preparation you want to adopt yourself?

I am definitely into the shorts over tights thing which is very big here, and little lace up shoes, maybe with a heel, maybe not. The beer here is pretty good too, but that’s about all the positive things I have to say about the food. The food here is pretty bad. People will tell you it’s gotten better in the last 10 years, and that is frightening to me.

I love traveling (I’ve made it to 5 continents and I vow to make it to the last 2 within the next 5 years), but it’s also fun living in a foreign country/city. It’s also amazing that I can go to Paris - PARIS! – for the weekend on a train. You could actually go just for a day to, say, see an art exhibit or go shopping. That is truly unbelievable to me, especially having grown up in the vast spaces of California, where LA is a bit of a long weekend trip. It’s also interesting just how different it is here, even though this is probably the culture that America shares the most in common with. The news is different, food is different, sports are different. I also think that living in vastly different parts of the US can almost be like living in a different country. Between being 18 and 28, I moved 4 times – first to Seattle, and then once every 5 years after that. I think moving is amazing. Change keeps you young. Still, my heart seems to have realized in the last few months that I left it in NYC. I’ll be headed back there in a year and I really can’t wait.