1. Planes--Anyone who knows my travel history understands my bad luck with airplanes. For some reason, I am always seated next to the person who...needs a seatbelt extension. So for the first time EVER, I had an entire two seats two seats to myself on my journey across the Atlantic. On the down side, a dinner imitation with rubber chicken. I ate the Oreos instead.
2. Cars--Upon arrival, I was greeted by a cab driver who spoke little English. Great. He hauled my giant matching REI suitcases to the car and I instinctively got in on the right side to avoid the awkward sitting-right-behind-the-driver seat. To my surprise, the steering wheel was on the right side. I literally jumped, this was one aspect of British culture that all my guidebooks had failed to remind travelers like me. The car ride was even more disorienting-everywhere I looked I saw people on the wrong side of their cars on the wrong side of the road.
3. My feet--On my first full day in London I walked about five miles. I was lost for about four of those miles. I blamed it on the whole change of road system thing combined with jet lag. In the process of losing myself, I did discover a little bit of the neighborhood surrounding my building. Within a five minute walk are two tube stops, two local grocery stores, three streets of jewelry stores (I'm talking serious bling, with giant security men standing out front), a handful of chain cafe/lunch places, a few pubs/bars, a KFC, a Subway and not just one Starbucks but three! I feel right at home. After getting lost in my area, I got lost on my way to the touristy Oxford Street and then again on my way home. Nothing wrong with getting lost, but it gets embarrassing pulling out a map at every intersection. I might as well wave an American flag over my head. Also, the British put their street signs in the most obscure places, so determining my location is like playing I-Spy with the neighboring buildings. Despite my recent troubles, I am slowly acclimating to London streets and can now successfully get to school, the Tube stops near me, and the gym without a map! Baby steps.
4. Trains--This past weekend, I decided last minute to visit my friends at St. Andrews in Scotland. I had been in London for approximately 44 hrs before I left the country. I hopped on a Naional Express train at 10:30 am and got to Leuchars train station (a train station in the middle of a field) at 4 pm. My first lesson of trains: don't sit in a reserved seat. I sat down in an open seat when an old lady snapped at me that the seat was for her as she pointed to the slip of paper in the headrest. I thought it was a free coupon. Wrong. So I had to move across the aisle to a four-person-table arrangement. I cannot think of anything more uncomfortable, both physically and mentally. It is hard enough to sit next to some weirdo you don't know, but when they are in your line of vision the entire time, it becomes even more difficult. I glanced up and made awkward eye contact with my seat mates way too frequently, so I had to half smile and then pretend I was doing something else so I could look away. To my right was an Indian man who spent the entire ride reading medical books with grotesque pictures and interpreting his friend's dreams about snakes and overflowing toilets over the phone. Now I know that fat snakes mean family and skinny snakes represent enemies. A witchy-looking woman complete with warts and thick glasses that change color in the sunlight sat across from me and spent the whole ride itching herself and re-applying lotion to the places she scratched. I prayed whatever she had wasn't contagious. To my diagonal was a Scottish guy who in the course of the ride, ate a placemat sized bar of Cadbury chocolate and a party size bag of Doritos. He was also reading what appeared to be porn and tabloids, which I later found out was the newspaper! My companions on the ride home were slightly more pleasant--a group of 30 something women and their moms who were still drunk from the night before and spent the ride getting more drunk, popping pills, and laughing hysterically about their weekend antics. Trains are GREAT for peoplewatching.
5. Tube--I am in love with the Tube. In love. It is fast, easy, and also insanely expensive.
6. Bus--I got on my first bus yesterday. The double-deckers are fun and I feel like I'm in a movie when I ride them. Almost as easy as the Tube. The two catches. Catch 1: even if I am at a bus stop, I must wave my arm in the air like a flailing idiot to signal the bus to stop. Catch 2: While on the bus, I have to press the "Stop" button before my intended endpoint otherwise the bus does not...stop.
7. Boat--My school put on a boat party for all of the students in the Junior Year Abroad program. They locked approximately 300 of us on a boat for 4 hrs and we cruised down the Thames so our only options for entertainment were introducing ourselves to random people and hitting up the open bar. Now that we are all of legal age to drink, the dean of my program actually encouraged us all to partake. Would that have happened at Williams? Absolutely not.
I have been moving around a lot. It is a fast paced life here in London and I intend to try and keep up!
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