Introduction to London

I've had a few requests to write a bit about my experience here in London so far, and seeing how today marks exactly 1 month since I started working at St. Joseph's Hospital in London, I thought I'd take a break from Taiwan/Japan to share my apartment and London with you.  

I moved to London on the 11th of August and started working on the 13th.  There have been a number of adjustments to make since I arrived, especially since Josh did not move with me.  Let me back up a moment.... earlier this summer I applied for a six month full time contract position at St. Joe's in London.  I got an interview and then the trouble started... I couldn't provide a copy of my M. Div degree because I haven't received it yet because I'd decided to do the bonus year of research and clinical work on top of the usual course work (which is all completed).  Instead I needed a letter from Knox college indicating that the course work for the M.Div was done.  When I asked Knox for said letter for a brief moment Knox said they didn't think I could complete the research year if I left St. Joe's Hamilton... panic... cause they have no room for me to stay come September... moment of panic passes and Knox tells me that it should work out fine.  I pass the letter to St. Joe's London (I know st. Joe's London and st. Joe's Hamilton gets a little confusing, you should try living the change!!) and they tell me they will begin to check references.  Over a week later only one of my references has been contacted, then suddenly I get a panic-ed message saying they can't get a hold of one of my references so I do a bunch of phone and emailing and sort that issue out.  Then it's the wait.  But obviously it was a happy ending cause I've started the job!  Hence for 6 months I will be living in London and Josh is staying in Hamilton and we get together on the weekends.  

To be honest, it's not been as bad as I thought it would be.  Sure dinner time is pretty lonely and if I don't keep busy I realize how much I miss being at home with Josh and Meeka, but we sure make good use of weekends now!!

I've joined a Bible dinner and study at a Presbyterian church here in London which takes up most an evening one day a week, and I've decided to take a tap class that will start next week.  I'm pretty excited to see how that goes!!!

As for my apartment... I got a little Bachelor apartment in a low rise building within walking distance of the hospital.  The building is not much to look at and it seems to have some real characters living in it, but my landlord is GREAT!!!  Allow me to give you a tour:

 This was my first dinner alone in my new apartment.  real classy eh! I look at it and think, "hey I actually cooked!" 

 Here's a view from a little further back of my dining room and office.

 And a little further back again to include the bedroom and kitchen. 

 This is my rec-room and you can just see the door frame to the bathroom, and my bedroom reflected in the mirror.  

So that's a tour of my space.  I think it's pretty awesome.  And what make my landlord so awesome was that I gave him a call at the end of my first weekend being there to tell him that the carpet smelled a little like cat urine (I hadn't noticed before I moved in cause it had been freshly painted and they were putting new tiles for the kitchen back splash) and he had the carpet removed and replaced by laminate wood flooring the next weekend... no fuss, just done!

As for my new job, it's been going really well I think.  I'm enjoying the challenge of working in a hospital full of outpatient clinics and fewer than 24 inpatients who generally stay for 1-2 days.  I love that this hospital values spiritual care so much!  Everywhere I go staff are so excited that I'm here.  (Bit of background info - the other chaplain on this site has been on leave for over a year so they have only had emergency on-call response for spiritual care).  Most of my time thus far is spent in the breast clinic, the urgent care centre, the diagnostic imaging department and the inpatient area.  I imagine now that the day surgery area has met me and continues to meet me over this next month, I'll be spending more time there as well.  If you want more info about my work you'll have to ask specific questions, cause I'm not really sure what else to tell you.  I'm really enjoying it!