Travel Bucket List

A friend of mine (Brandy) and I are going to be spending about two weeks traveling in the UK in December and into January, so I've been going through travel books at the library and googling things like "castle + UK" and "UK + free". I already knew, but it's really hit home now, that there was no way we were going to see and do all things I want - especially because as a friend I have to let her have some input on the itinerary. *sigh* Oh the hardships I must deal with ;)

So since I have discovered there are so many places I would like to go I decided to create a bucket list of travel - a list of places I want to see before my demise. It's a work in progress and I plan on adding to it in more detail as the years progress and I am financially stable enough to take vacations/holidays, but so far I've come up with a smattering of places in the UK.

• ALNWICK (Northumberland)
• Castle and gardens, lived in by the Percy family since it's founding in the 1700s (?)
• Saturday markets
• BARNARD CASTLE (Co Durham)
• Bowes Museum (established in 1869)
• Castle ruins
• Market Cross (built in 1747)
• BEVERLY (Yorkshire)
• Walking tours
• St Mary's cathedral features architecture from the 12th century to the Reformation
• Wednesday markets
• BUXTON (Derbyshire)
• Roman spa town
• Perrier water own the water plant
• Gardens (pavilion)
• Edwardian opera house
• Water can still be drawn from an old fountain in town 
• CHIPPING CAMPDEN (Gloucestershire)
• Market hall
• Alms houses
• Inns with hanging signs
• 14th - 17th century honey colored cotswold stone
• LUDLOW (Shropshire)
• One of the only walled towns
• Castle
• St Lawrence's Church
• Medieval street plan with Georgian facades
• GLASTONBURY (Somerset)
• Abbey
• Jesus' undocumented trip to England ;)
• Earliest English monastic centre
• Graves of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere found here?
• Glastonbury Festival
• New Age flair
• CORNWALL COAST
• HADRIAN'S WALL
• I've actually been to one spot on the wall but I would love to explore around it more
• BATH
• Roman Spa and museum
• LONDON
• Buckingham Palace
• Changing of the Guards
• Tower of London and Beefeaters
• Key Ceremony
• London Walking Tour
• British Museum
• Enlightenment Gallery
• Assyrian Lion Hunt from Nineveh
• Clocks and Watches Gallery
• East Stairs
• Shakespeare's Globe
• Greenwich (boat needed)
• Houses of Parliament and Big Ben
• STONE HENGE
• OXFORD
• THE COTSWOLDS
• CAMBRIDGE
• STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
• CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL
• YORK
• CHALK FIGURES
• Dorset and Wiltshire
• Uffington White Horse (Bronze Age)
• Cewne Abbas Giant (17th c.)
• EDINBURGH
• Royal Mile
• Edinburgh Castle
• Mary King's Close
• GLASGOW
• CARDIFF
• BEN NEVIS
• LOCH NESS
• GLEN CO
• Hiking trip 
• WINDSOR CASTLE
• WARWICK CASTLE
• STIRLING CASTLE
• CAERNARFON CASTLE
• CONWY CASTLE
• LAKE DISTRICT
• SNOWDONIA
• THE TROSSACHS
• YORKSIRE DALES
• YORK MINSTER
• DUBLIN
• KYTLER INN (Kilkenny)
• Descended from Alice Kytler the witch

Sheesh.... this is going to take a while...

Job Front

So I know that the job market is pretty dismal right now, especially in California - at least this is what I keep hearing. But silly me, I thought I'd get a job much faster than I did. I started looking in early May and now that is is early June, I have one part-time position which I just received yesterday. Yep, starting next week I will be working the evening shift three days a week at a hostel in Fullerton. I'm really looking forward to it - I can't wait to meet interesting people from around the world (do people from ALL around the world stay in Fullerton? I guess they must since the place is doing well and it is only six miles from Disneyland, and lots of people show up for that...).

The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the prospect of having to kick out homeless people. Apparently that is a problem for hostels - people treating it like it's a shelter. I'm not so good at the confrontation, so hopefully these instances will be few and far between for me.

Before I got this job I went on a few interviews (Knotts Berry Farm included) and I even signed up with two employment agencies. But the issues I've found is that I'm overeducated or overqualified in some way. At Knotts everyone was all friendship and smiles until I let it slip that I had an undergraduate degree already and was working on a post-grad degree. And even that would have been fine I think, except I also had goals. After they heard that you would swear I had the plague the way they avoided me and looked down their noses at me. Now it could be in my imagination - I will give you that. I have a tendency to overreact. But there was a definite shift in attitude towards me. In the end it appeared that they would rather have the solemn guy with two weeks of warehouse experience taking photos of people as they walked into the park instead of me, the person with seven years customer service experience and who has worked at tourist attractions before. But fine. Whatever.

I also ended up at a few interviews who misrepresented the job on their add and over the phone. I decided that I would pretty much do anything this summer (wear house, picking, administration, receptionist, call centre, server, janitor, maid, whatever) but I refuse to be a telemarketer. I've already done the cold calling and dealt with the angry people whose personal space I just invaded. I don't need to repeat that. I don't have a problem upselling things over the phone - I just want to be the one who is called, not doing the calling, that way I know the person is really interested and I haven't just ruined their day. And I know those call centers exist because I have called them after seeing an infomercial at one o'clock in the morning because of my acute desire to have the Magic Bullet or the bamboo Spanx. So a few places that I interviewed at (and got the job but I had to turn it down) didn't let me know there was cold calling involved until I got to the interview - even though we discussed what I would be doing over the phone. It was a bit disheartening.

But finally getting this hostel desk clerk job has been a real boost. I'm excited to get started and earn some money!

Why do I need money you ask? Well, other than the regular reasons of bills and basic living expenses, I am planning on doing some United Kingdom based traveling come December, so I need me some mula! There will be more to come on the traveling plans. Oh I have so many ideas all jumping around in my head. I need to sit down and figure them all out.

So if anyone is reading this, the lesson I feel I've learned this past week is that you can't be too cocky. I'm really proud of my education and my work experience, but I was a little too sure of myself. This past month of doing nothing and watching what little money I had saved flow through the gas tank of the family van has been an eye opener. The saying also goes: "Keep calm, carry on." And it really does ring true. There is always going to be stress, but deep breaths and reminding yourself of the good things in your life really does help calm you down. And carrying on and not giving up does wonders for you self-esteem when you finally get what you've been searching for.

Lil' Brother's 8th grade pre-graduation board meeting thing

So today I joined my Step-Mom for a pre- 8th grade graduation presentation/lunch/board meeting thing for my brother. We were treated to a lovely cello performance by one of the students and a rendition of some religious "The Lord is King" type song by a group of girls. The entire time the girls were singing the words of Eddie Izzard kept running through my head:

"There is something phenomenally dreary about Christian singing...all those Christians religions [other than Gospel singers] (which is mainly Caucasian white people) with all the power and money - enough power and money to make Solomon blush ... they are the only group that can sing Hallelujah without making it sound like a Hallelujah."  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuEuY4BUMfM

After that we got to watch all the parents whose 8th graders were their last kid in the school and would be leaving stand up and express their fondest memories of the place. So that was about 45 minutes of listening to people I'd never met before, knew nothing about, and would never see again. The parents put in PIP (dunno what it stands for but I'm guessing the p's are 'parents' and 'participation') hours - at least 20 per year. This involves going on school field trips, volunteering to cut out papers, sell ice cream every Friday outside the school - all sorts of helpful stuff. So I guess these parents (80% moms) spend a lot more time at the school then my mom and dad ever did - I went to public school - so in a way they feel like they are graduating too, I guess.

I should point out that my brother goes to a private Lutheran school. And I'm not sure how I feel about that. I definitely don't think that private religious schools shouldn't be around and everyone has a right to their beliefs and as far as I can I try to respect that. But if these are the people who are teaching my brother to be homophobic, then I'm not too keen on them. Last night I heard him say: "I'm kind of okay with gay people, but I don't think I'm okay with them getting married." This is the kid who uses the word 'gay' to describe everything from a situation to a colour. Last week he and his cousin kept yelling about the colour yellow being gay. I asked how a colour to could have a sexual orientation. One minute of silence later I got: "'Cause it can." Very clever boys. Very clever.

Now, my brother didn't use to be like this. To be fair I've been living in a different country than him for six years and have only seen him sparingly on summer visits, but I'm pretty sure this attitude began around the time he started going to this school. My other sister who goes to public school doesn't have any such notions. So private religious institution, I think I may have to blame you.

So now I have to decide how to handle this. Do I be the overbearing older sister who calls him out on his idiocy every time he brings it up? Or do I be the quite reserved one who tries to 'respect' his opinions and all that rot while subtly giving him things to think about like civil liberties and basic human decency? Hmmm... Lots to think about. All I know is that I love my family, but I wont be around bigatry and hate. It's not worth my time when there are so many other amazing people in the world that I can spend my life with.