My year in England

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Chapter.1


Hello my name is Peter Ferguson I’m 29 years old and I live in washington right now for a while. I used to live in Stockholm in Sweden but I am a scientist of capital cities. I do researches about capital cities all around the world. I take the day as it comes. One day I wake up in London and end up in Paris. I’ve been to lots of capital cities. For instance
London , Stockholm , Washington , Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Madrid, Paris etc etc. I travel everywhere but capital cities have become an interest for me. I like to look back at every capital city, to compare them with each other, and share the information about them to other peoeple, there is something special about the capital city of a country. It’s like the country shows there best things in the capital cities. Every capital city has a great history to tell the visitor. I just love them. I try to live in every place for a half to a full year. Sometimes I have too little money to stay the day in some cities, then I travel to a new place and get a new job. That’s the bad thing, I do not come from a very rich family, we are pretty normal so I have to get every single penny from working. If I come to a great city and think
-Yes, I want to stay here!
Then I have to get a job first. No money, no living.

I do not really know how I got into this “capital city scientist thing”. It started as a funny thing after High school I and som friends were travelling a lot after high school and I just loved it.
And then I started writing my book “Travel capital” I’m about to finish this book now and Washington is one of my last destinations. I really hope that some book company wants to buy my book and then sell it in the stores all around the world. It has been the dream since I started writing it. I’m feeling like I am that kind of person that wants to share my stories and experiences. I like to talk and I think that I am kind of good at talking and reach out to people. That’s why I started writing this book.

I was born in Wales , Aberystwyth, it is a city on the west coast of Wales. My family now lives in Brimingham, England. They moed from Wales two years ago. I have one brother , one sister and of course a mum and a dad. I have a very strong connection to my family back in England. I often call them and send them letters. I try to travel home as much as I can to see my family but sometimes that’s not possible. I feel that they miss me but they are also glad for me, that I have the oppourtunity to travel almost where I want.

One thing I miss from my time in Wales is Rugby. I do not play that so often anymore. Or more clearly speaking I do not play rugby any more, which is kind of sad because I really enjoy playing Rugby and that was my main interest before I started travelling.



Chapter.2

I live in Washington, the capitalcity of USA. It’s a big city with lots of things to do. I live kind of central in Washington. I live in Redparkstreet 43a in a qiuet big flat. Three rooms, a kitchen and a big bathroom and a big hall it’s pretty big for me because I recently lived in a oneroom-appartment in Stockholm. I can afford this flat because of my job I work at a very big mall. The name of the mall is Greenstreetcheapy. It has lots of stores with good prices on quality merchandise. And it is known for their good salary. I have 35 dollars per hour. That is almost 250 sek per hour which is really, really good.
How did I end up in Washington?
-Hmm.. I was qiuet fed up with Stockholm, so I started looking for flying tickets to other cities and especially capital cities of course. And there it was, a last minute ticket to Washington, Usa. I immediately baught the one way ticket to Washington it cost only 30 dollar that is about 200-230 Swedish crowns. I packed my bags and leaved the key to the man how owned the little appartment. I took a last walk through “gamla stan” as the swedes call it. It is the old part of Stockholm. My strongest memory of Stockholm is “gamla stan” it is a very cosy part of the city with narrow streets and small shops and cafès. Sometimes I walked there for hours just thinking , I think deeply to my self about things that happening to my life right now and so on. Very refreshing for body as well as my mind. Then I took a taxi to Arlanda and four hours later I stepped out of the plane and breathed my first USA air ever. Therefore this was my first time in the States.

The first thing you would think when you step into my flat is my big hall. It is very big almost as big to be a real room. To the left you have a big shoeshelf that contains every shoe I have for the moment. After the shoeshelf a big warderobe is. That is where I store some clothes and jackets and some other stuff. On the right side a big mirror is placed. And believe me, it is very big. It almost covers the whole wall. Pretty cool I think. If you contuine down the hall you will find a door on the right side that leads to my bedroom. I have a small bedroom that almost contains only my bed and a bedsidetable. The room is painted in Blue and everything follows the bluecolor, for an example, blue table lamp and blue bed clothes and so on. In the ceiling a big golden lamp is hanging. It hang here when I moved here and I like it so much. It is really big and the whole lamp is covered in gold. It shines very well when the sun lights at it from my window. I have a balcony here in this room and a big window I live in the tenth floor so the view is just fantastic, perfect when the sun is shining, the birds are singing, a cup of coffe and a newspaper. If I would’nt work I would be sitting there for hours just watching all stressed people running around all day long. I think you got to take things calm and easy to feel good, not run in to things.

Yeah, yeah. If you walk out of my bedroom and contuine down the hall you will find a big entrance to the left, that entrance leads to my TV-room. The walls are painted in black and everything goes in black and white, real trendy and cool. There is lots of small lamps in the ceiling because there is not any window in this room. So it is very important to have good light. My TV is on the left side if you are standing in the hall direction. On the right side there is a sofa and two armchairs at each side of the sofa. There is also a bookshelf right infront of you where you stand now but I dont have any books there , though I love to read and both reads and writes a lot. That is beacuse I have no place to take any books with me when I am travelling. I just can’t it’s almost impossible.
Opposite this room on the right side of the hall, is my Bathroom. It’s a big bathroom with a washbashin, and a shower, a toilet and a big bathtub almost as big as a Yakuzi really nice. Everything is in white tile. Absolutely my favourit room after my kitchen.
Next to the bathroom there is one more room. But I don’t use this area for anything specific I just keep all my things that don’t have any place in the rest of the flat.

When you have walked this corridor you come to a big entrance, to my favourite room, the kitchen! I like to cook, and this kitchen is just unbeliveble. It recently has been renovated so it is big, open and very modern. There is a dinner table at the left side of the room with four white wooden chairs, the table is also white and made in wood. To the right of the dinner table in the middle of the room there is a big working area. Where you can prepare your food and bake and do whatever you need to do, I call it “Kitchen Island”. It’s made in wood, a very light and bright wood. In this “kitchen island” there are drawers where I store my food that does’nt needs to be in the fridge.

Right in front of you is the sink. It is right into the wall, and it is made in wood. The sink continues down the wall to the right corner where it stops. To the right in this corner the fridge is. It’s white.
There are kitchen shelfs over the sink, where I have my porcelain. The whole kitchen goes in White and black, pretty much as my living room and it’s just adorable to look at. I love to cook so this kitchen is like a dream for me.

I feel like I never want to move away from here. It’s like a dream come true, big cosy and very nice flat, good work, starting to know people better here. I like the whole atmosphere.



Chapter.3

07.30
I woke up but I fall to sleep again.

07.55
I woke up for real and got into a hurry, my work started in less then 30 minutes. I tumbled around in my flat for 20 minutes looking for clean socks and at the same time I had breakfast, an apple and a Snickers bar. Not a healthy breakfast but I was in a great hurry. So that would do it.

08.36
Got to the job 6 minutes too late and my boss were really angry. That’s why we get so well payd because we are going to be here in time every morning no matter what, that is the licenese agreement. Even if you are ill. If you are ill and need to stay at home you need to take out those days as vacation days, and then you get less vacation at christmas and at summer. “Well, well this is the last warning” he said to me. “And it is the first warning I said”, Then he became real angry and I said that I just joked and tried to get out of the conversation fast. I ran into the employeers changingroom and changed to my red white working clothes with my name tag on it. I felt very positiv today and nothing could break my mood. Not the boss and not my working mate, John Thorsson sometimes I feel like I just want to strangle him. I have worked a lot with him, and I just can’t stand him, there is something about him that I do’nt like.

He is a thin guy, he is 25 years old I guess. He has almost white hair and he wears some kind of ugly glasses.

I like working with Susy more, she is a positiv funny and intelligent girl. She is 23 years old, and I like her very much as a friend. I have been to her place twice to dinner. We have never been to my place, but that is because I have not got everything fixed in my flat since now. So next time I see here I am going to invite her to my place. We have so much in common.

Ohh. I am day dreaming again, Now I got to work.

09.57
I work in a clothes shop. “Caarlings” is the name of the shop and it sells trendy clothes for a decent price. The most of our customers are teenagers. And they are not coming before 14.00-15.00pm because they are going in school at this time. So it is pretty peaceful now.

12.00
I am going to have lunch at my favourite place since I moved here, Dino’s Cafe and restaraunt. Very nice employee. And of course very good food, top class!. For a pretty good price. You pay 15 dollars for a good big lunch with a free drink. I ordered a steak with fries and lots of salad and a coke. I finished my meal and thanked every employee at least ten times before I left the cafe almost one hour since I first stepped in here.

13.00
Got back to work and started packing up new clothes and hanging them up in the store. When I asked John about help I just got a nosy answer. So I finished it my self.

17.00
I left the store for Mike and Richard to take over after me and John. I like Mike and Richard, they are two funny guys. I have played bowling with them twice and I enjoy their company. But they are pretty lazy at work. They have worked here a few more years then I have, so they are fooling with me sometimes and give me their work but it’s just for fun and I can take that and just laugh about it.

oops daydreaming again.

17.15
Have been daydreaming for fifteen minutes now. I’m just unbeliveble. Now I’m in a hurry again, got to take a shower, change to my own clothes and catch the 17.30 bus home.

17.29
I made it! 14 minutes that’s kind of a record. I’m now at the bus heading home to my flat.
Hmm what should I cook today...

18.30
I like to cook but today I am tired, though my mood is very good today, I just did’nt felt like cooking humor today, so I ordered a pizza instead. And now I am enjoying it infront of
my Tv when I am watching “Jay Leno show”. A typical night show here in America.

22.30
I must have fallen asleep, I woke up and the Tv was on, it was some dumb boring wordquiz.
I turned off the Tv. And went into the bathroom for a shower and to brush my teeth.

22.56
I went to bed and turned the light off. I felt very tired it had been a long day. And I knew that tomorrow is going to be real hard. I am going to fill in for Mike so I work twice as long as I did today.

22.59
zzZZzzZZzz....



Chapter 4

Saturday

I woke up and felt in a picknick-mood, haha. What is a picknick-mood?
I do not really know, I just felt like to go somewhere away from the city and have a nice picknick in the nature. The weather was really good. So I called Susy.
Susy thought that the idea was great and she said that she gladly joined me.
I called Mike and Richard, the guys from the store. Mike was going to work today but Richard liked the idea and he told me that he wanted to come.
Just a minute after I hung up with Richard, Susy called. She asked if her friend Linda could come. Of course! I answered. I told everybody to bring some food and drinks and to come to my place at 16.00pm.

I got into the shower and after that I rushed down to the local store. I baught some different small cheese, grapes, beer and some cupcakes. Everybody where gathered at my place at 16.15. We left my appartment at 16.30 and took Susy’s car to a place called “Indian Park&Zoo” it is a really big park a few miles from Washington city. Susy and Linda braught a big red rug. We found a nice place to sit down and we placed the big rug in the green grass. We started to unpack our food. I felt so good, far away from the rush in the city. And it has been stressful this week at work, so this was real refreshing.

We sat there and talked and ate for two-three hours. We talked about everything and we had so much to talk about. I like to talk but I like to listen too. I could stay here all night I thought. We ate all food that we had. Then we talked for two more hours. Then we packed our things and got into the car that lead us home. We decided to go out and have dinner and grab some beers at 22.00. I got hom at 21.00. I dressed up for a night out.

I wore a pair of blue Wrangler jeans, a red shirt, and a vest. I fixed my hair and put my shoes on. Then I left my appartment at 21.45. I took a walk through a few blocks until I got to Gingers Bar&food. I got in and neither Susy, Linda or Richard had arrived. So I sat down at a table and told the waitress that I was waiting for three buddies, I ordered a beer. This little restaurant had a cosy atmosphere. It was decorated in sea theme. Everything was in dark wood, and the ceiling was covered in fishing nets and other things that is common in the sea. And they also had a real rowing boat in this restaurant. It was cut in half and they had fasten it in the wall. The waitresses were nice and the food seemed to be good.
Richard arrived right after I had finished my first beer and we ordered in two more. The time was 22.30 and still no sign of Susy or Linda.

23.00
Susy and Linda arrived. I could see that something was wrong on Susy’s facial expression. Susy told us that she and Linda almost had been robbed. They had been on their way here when some guys had pushed them into a corner and they had got away with a total of 12$. Linda and Susy had throwen their handbags in a trash can when they understood what these guys was up too. That way they had saved their mobilphones, money and creditcards.

They where shocked, but they still wanted to eat. So we ordered some food. I ordered ribs and fries. It was not that good. It could be better, a pretty ordinary meal. We ate, laughed and drank. When we had finished our last beer we leaved the Restaurant at 00.30. We decicded to go to a night club. We partied all night long and we got home att 04.30.
It had been a wonderful day. All four ended up at my place. I and Susy shared my bed, and Richard and Linda slept at a mattress in my living room. I and Susy were talking almost one hour before we fall asleep.

Maybe something is going on between me and Susy, Who knows?



Chapter 5

I woke up and looked at my watch on my wrist, ”ohhh nooo the time is 8.55 I should be at my work at 8.00am today”. My boss is not going to be happy. I ran down to the mall and got in to the employee’s changing room. When I was going to take my working shirt on, my boss stepped in he said: “You don’t need that shirt anymore, boy! Because you are fired!. The last words he said really cut deeply into me. I thought to myself “No work!? Waht am I going to do?”. Well I changed to my ordinary clothes. I took my working clothes and went to drop them off at my bosses office.

I said sorry to my boss and I begged him to take me back. He said:
“We have our policy here,boy! And you didnt held to that, then I must fire you for someone else.”
I thought to myself “what a dumb bastard, ohh I hate him so much!.” But none of that was coming out of my mouth. And I just stared at him and answered him “Yes boss” and “of course boss”.

Well, well I got my last salary for this month of working. I got 2000$ wich is qiuet good I think that the money would cover up for a month or two. “but then what!?”. I hate to not have any job. I must get a new one, really soon. And if I don’t!? then I have to leave my flat for a smaller and cheaper flat. And I don’t want to do that because this has been the nicest flat I have ever owned. When I step into my wonderful flat , then I really feel like home, This is my home!. I don’t want to leave Washington right now, I got good friends , a nice flat and my whole soul feels like home. I must get a job! and I need to get it now!.

When I took the bus home I fell asleep and woke up six blocks from my flat. I thought to myself “This is the worst day of my life”. I walked home it took about 40 minutes, and it was qiuet refreshing though I was really angry, and sad for all the bad things happening to me right now.
I got home and I sat down in my living room. I took this mornings paper and looked for the “worksearchpages”. I found it, but no job there fitted me.

The days passed... and I did not find anything that was good for me.

11 days after I was fired:
I becom more and more worried. I first thought that this 2000$ were going to last for a month or two, that is not possible!. Maybe two or three weeks more, then it is over. Then I have to leave my wonderful flat and probably I have to leave Washington. Maybe I am going home for a while?. It has been a while since I was home. “hmm, my thoughts were shattered and I did’nt know how to do?.”

16 days after I was fired:
I found a job at a McDonalds, “hmm, that is not my kind of job, but if I have to do that for staying here, McDonalds it is!. They whould have a job interview tomorrow and I dialed the number that was in the advert.

04-43556... a male voice answered, “McDonalds , Michael!” We talked for two or three minutes. And there was no place for anymore, but he said that he liked me so he let my come any way. I thanked him and hung up.

Next day I took the early 7.30 bus to Smenders corner where the little McDonald’s is. I went in to the McDonalds and asked a girl that worked there. She said that I should go to the office that was right opposite the toilets. I went there, and yes a wooden door with a sign “OFFICE”. I knocked at the door and a voice inside the office shouted “IT’S OPEN!”. So I opened the door and went into the room.

Mr. Smithers as his name was told me to sit down. I really recognized him, hmmm. So I sat down in a big brown leather armchair. Mr. Smithers was a big man, he was not fat but he was big!. He had a nice tan and he looked like he had been on a vacation not long ago. He had brown big eyes that were watching me and his hair was even more brown then his eyes.

We talked for fifteen minutes and he seemed really nice. He told me that they had some problems with disloyal employee’s and so on. He told me that he was really hard and if I get this the job I need to work for my money.

He ended our meeting and said that he would call me tomorrow weather I got the job or not. I got a positive vibe of this meeting and I think he like me. But I can’t remember where I have met th...