London is missing out

There are a few CRUTIAL things that I've noticed are missing from this country:

1) RANCH DRESSING - First of all I must say I'm a little surprised my favorite red headed Italian (also lover of ranch dressing) did not warn me about this travesty.  When I left I said to Jess "you know, I'm a little worried about moving across the world, but as long as they have ranch dressing I'll be fine."  And yet, here I am, sans ranch.  Clearly I'm making a stop to cosco when I get home and stocking up. 

2) Pandora - The sad thing is, even some Americans don't know what they are missing out on because they never had it when they lived at home.  Some licensing laws say they can't have pandora here.  Stupid.

3) Root beer - but I don't really care because I don't like root beer.  

Other than that things are going well!  Last week went really well (despite my discovery of no ranch).  Work is starting to go really well, I had my first sale, kind of.  Friday night I met up with Susan's friend Andy.  He's been here for 3 years from Boston and he sounds like he just walked out of Fenway.  His accent is wicked bad.  Carolina (roommate) and I met up with him by his office and then journeyed over to Clapham (pronounced Clapam, not Clap-ham like I called it at first), went out for dinner and then went to another bar.  Its a very cute area in south London.  

Saturday morning was rough because we had to move.  It wasn't that bad because I only had three suitcases but I was mildly dehydrated so it was a little painful.  I realized I've never moved not hungover.  It probably is not that bad if you aren't.  But anyway, we signed the lease, moved in and then went to "THE MALL".  This is something that everyone I have met in London (including cab drivers) have talked about.  Basically its a mall, like Pentagon city or Bridgewater Commons.  They don't really have them here and they just finished building this one so everyone is obsessed with it.  They think you can get anything there (including ranch dressing----you can't).  They say its the biggest mall in the UK, in Europe, in the World..I've heard it all.  I would compare it to Pentagon City, but with a thousand more people crammed in it who all walk slower than a snail.  I actually told one girl "You can't just stop there, keep walking!!".  She looked at me like I just told her I killed her puppy.  Oh well I had like 20 pounds on each arm.  Move it or lose it sister.  Anyway, with the mall you have to let the London people think they are better than Americans sometimes; it keeps them happy.  So we got bedding and bathroom stuff there, went home and I passed out at about 10 pm.

Sunday I woke up very early realizing I am in charge of mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner at Allison and Chris's and I have no pots, no potatoes, no milk, no butter, nothing.  So I try to bit the bullet and buy pre made mashed potatoes.  The first grocery store I went to --oh yeah and it snowed Saturday night into Sunday morning, but then was washed away by rain..shocker--- ok I went to the store to buy those but the first store was closed at 9.  Then I found another and found frozen mashed potatoes.  Great success...and they actually tasted really good too!  So I slaved over the hot microwave all morning getting those ready and then got ready and went to Allison and Chris's.  They had 30 people over for Thanksgiving dinner, Americans and Brits.  It was so much fun!  I met a bunch of new people, including one of the largest men I've ever seen in my life.  He plays professional rugby here and is like 6'6'' and probably four feet wide at the shoulders.  Not fat though.  He's called big james, and the other james who is like 6'1'' is called little james.  So it was a big success, and I got a ride home from new friends who live pretty close to me so that was good...always a plus to get a ride because, as Kirsten says, who takes public transporation on the weekend?

Today I'm hopefully getting a cell phone and pillows (I forgot those on Saturday).  Soon I'll be all settled in!