Japandamonium!!!

Supplies

I ran a bunch of errands today and discovered that it can be a surprisingly exhausting occupation of time. I got some things I very much needed though, like toothpaste. I forgot mine at home and have been using the little tube of airline toothpaste they gave me on Virgin. It ran out in the morning though, so push came to shove and I went to the drug store, Boots. Wait, is it a Chemists? Who knows. Anyway. I was very happy to see my favorite kind of toothpaste there for cheap – I love it mainly because of the name: “Colgate Fresh Confidence Toothpaste.” It makes me really happy; now my teeth can finally have fresh confidence! It’s so silly, but it makes me chuckle every time I brush, so that's none too bad.

I also got a mobile phone! Part of my adventure yesterday included a lot of incidental research into the different plans and phones, and I’m satisfied I got the right deal. For those of you with a mind to call me up sometime, my number is 079636 93980, plus country codes beforehand, and I don’t get charged for incoming calls! I got some household essentials yesterday too, toilet paper and soy sauce and a 10lb bag of Japanese rice. The rice was too expensive compared to US, but a good deal for here.

I really need to start buying food. I’ve been spending like L2 to 2.50 or so per meal and haven't really started cooking for myself yet because I just moved in like two days ago and haven't really even unpacked or anything yet ... and also cause the supermarket scares me. It’s partly the whole buying-all-my-own-food thing which I intimidating since it requires a pre-emptive investment of a larger sum of money, and either a prescient or a planned-out understanding of what I’m going to eat in the next week. That's part of it, but the supermarket itself also just scares me – Sainsbury’s is its name and it’s really expensive and very busy, and there's so many people doing stuff and buying things. There's also arx & Spencer but i think that's more expensive. I think that I will have to brave Sainsbury's tomorrow afternoon though. I can get cornflakes and milk at least, and that shouldn't be too much money. And maybe I’ll get some kind of veggies and some cooking oil, and then I can fry them up to put them on my rice. So that's maybe a good sounding plan. I can do that. Ooo, I can get bread and jelly too (it’s probably called Jam here) and have sammiches too, since Mom and Dad were brilliant enough to make me take peanut butter with me. Thanks parents, that was spot on. And maybe i could go for canned tuna fish and mayo; those could be good investments. In the kitchen for my hall everyone has their own cabinet with a lock on it, so no one has to worry about storing or safekeeping their stuff. I can horde me treasures there! Yarr!

I will report on my success/possible failure later.

I will also fill you in on my fabulous adventure yesterday, involving a Welshman and the Brazilian Exchange among other things.