I'm. in. London.

I strained my wrists a little while hauling my baggage from Heathrow to my friend's flat, so I'll have to keep this relatively short. So far I've been to Greenwich, the British Museum, Chinatown and Covent Garden. Last night involved wickedly good Malaysian food followed by a packed pub called the Wh1te Hare, and a sprint for the last tube home. Today: walking around the palace, Hyde park and then off to a football match. I'm a little nervous about sitting in a spot surrounded by 20,000 lads, but looking forward to it nonetheless. Saw my first hooligan last night, but it was mostly just a dude with too much alcohol in his system wanting to have a bit of a shout in the tube.

Officially, it is done. I received my damage deposit in the mail from my landlord (less $61 for "cleaning", which I'm pretty sure is bogus, but I need to just let it go for the sake of my sanity). I have moved. I no longer live in a dilapidated heritage house infested with cannibal zombie squirrels, and I can already feel the difference in my health. Despite my love for the neighbourhood and my fondness for my unique and historic home, under the surface it was a very sick building and made my asthma and general state of health immeasurably worse.

I never want to move, ever again. The last days of 2006 were all about delerium, getting 5 hours sleep within the span of 50 hours of packing, eating junk food and cleaning. It was bad, and painful. On the upside, I got rid of two car loads of old clothes, shoes and tchotkes (to the thrift store), and gave away a writing table, a chair, a bed and a dresser. Craigslist's "free" section rocks my world, hardcore. You put up an ad, you get a bunch of emails, you put the stuff outside and someone else takes it away. Everything I advertised was gone within a day. The dresser and bed were both somewhat damaged (repairable), but I mentioned that in the ad, and they were taken away just as quickly as the mint stuff.

And now, it's final days until I leave for Eastern European Capital city (EEC). Wednesday I take off for four days in the UK, and then on to my new home city. I've got a meeting set up with the housing coordinator, a fabulous hostel booked and some contacts who will show me around and put me up (after a few nights of hostelling) in return for some crunchy peanut butter smuggled from home. I am excited and somewhat worried that I am forgetting something important.

Apparently my visa documents are on their way as we speak, and will be sent on to meet me in a neighbouring European country once I arrive in EEC. I will enter as a tourist, leave the country for the afternoon, pick up my documents and return as a temporary resident. I freaking love the fact that I can travel in any directions for less than 6 hours and arrive in a new country. I hope to do a lot of travelling.

I will be updating, posting photos and checking comments here while I'm away, and I've got a seperate blog under my real name that I'll be working on. I decided to have a non-anonymous blog so that I can post details about my travels. If you'd like to read the other one, leave me a note in the comments and I'll send you the url (point me towards your email address if you don't think I have it already). I'm happy to give out the other url to people I don't know IRL, but no anonymous requests please.