From New England to Old England

Hello Everyone!

I enjoyed my time in Boston, Massachusetts and even road tripped up to some of the other US States in the "New England" area including New Hampshire and Maine. I got to see the Bush (as in the George Snr. and George W.) family Summertime retreat in a beautiful seaside town called Kennebunkport. The people around there are super friendly.Not only did I get to drive for the first time on the 'right' side of the road, but managed to drive in three states and tackle Boston peak-hour traffic. I loved driving the Buick, thanks Longin! Of course as fate would have it, upon getting used to driving on the right side of the road, time to jet off to the UK where driving on the right side of the road is generally frowned upon.I checked out downtown Boston (thanks for the tour, Dave), packed and headed off to Boson Airport the next morning at 6:00am. Thanks for putting me up in your beautiful home and for looking after me so well, Arijana and Dave - it felt like home.

Six hours later I was at London Heathrow Airport. Rach, Stevo and their friend Emma met up with me at the airport and took me back to Rach and Stevo's house. I enjoyed the weekend, going to a few pubs and generally chilling out, taking in the London atmosphere.

Within the about first 24 hours in England, I even managed to see my first English pub fist fight. Ahh, the home country. England does feel a lot more familiar to me than America did - it really is to some extent the same culture as Australia. I like it. But I did convince Rach and Stevo to take me to a "Walkabout" (a chain of Aussie pubs) so I could have some Aussie beer (VB of course), listen to some Aussie music (in America Jet and The Veronicas were popular but other than that no Aussie music) and see some AFL.

Today I am seeing some recruitment agencies about temp paralegal work to earn some British pounds. The Aussie dollar doesn't go a long way here, especially after its recent slump. What are you guys back at home doing to my dollar? At this stage I have a flight booked for Prague on Friday, but I'm not sure whether I'll take that flight or move it back and stay in London longer.Thank you Melburnians for keeping me up to date on what Melbourne is/was like with the Commonwealth Games on. I managed to catch some of the coverage here in England but there was no coverage of the Games in the USA and I suspect many Americans wouldn't even know there's such a thing as the Commonwealth Games. Incidentally, as a final note and while on the topic of the Commonwealth, I got asked a couple of times by Americans whether we use British Pounds in Australia! No wonder our Aussie dollar is so weak compared to the American dollar, when they haven't even heard of it. Take care and let me know how you are going.

Cheers,

Daniel(in an Internet cafe on Commercial Street, a couple of blocks away from Liverpool Street Station - yes, the one in Monopoly)