Lab Rat

Good grief. My brain feels tired. I spent four hours of my day transcribing a 20-minute interview verbatim - it's physically draining to listen so intently for four hours, rewinding, relistening, etc. Plus, I've had way too much stimulation the last 24 hours. I feel like a lab rat - those poor things.

We had an interview this morning with a health official. She was super nice and quite helpful. She cycles 5 miles to an underground station, then rides the train to work to be environmentally sound. She rocks my world.

Then on the way home, Ming and I took a cab (my first time) to get some thoughts about the new green tax (it's a 20p = 40 cents surcharge to every cab fare that goes towards making taxis more environmentally friendly). First, we tried to ask this guy if we could interview him on the way home and he said no, drove off. So we decided we just had to wing it. We got in a cab, pretended like we were American tourists, which isn't very hard to do.

Ming: So, I heard that you guys are starting this green tax thing? Have they started that yet?
Cab driver: Oh yeah, they started that this month.
(He proceeds to go on and rant about how useless it is)
Ming and I chime in every so often with our American-ness: What? 20p? That's like 40 cents! What's the government doing? Wow, it's gonna take a lot of 20p's to fix the environment.

Meanwhile, I'm taping the entire thing. He didn't say anything because he probably assumed I was taping anything and everything because I'm an American tourist. So he dropped us off near our flat, but didn't know exactly where our little street was, so he offered to show us a map, but we said we would just ask around. So yeah, I feel that it's a bit unethical; but I shall share the truth with you all - my friends who will not judge me (minus you, yes you).

I have to get this project done! It's really stressing me out - can't sleep, no appetite, the usual symptoms of stress. It's all good though - we'll get this baby done by next week then it's relaxin' and finishing up my museums 'til I go home.

I practiced packing and everything fits. The only issue is carrying my ginormous bag that I've replaced my suitcase with. It's basically a huge shopping bag. Hmmm... gotta think about how I'm going to manage that.