Day One: The Arrival

Departure Day, started with leaving Po-Town (home of my school; short for poor town) and traveling to the airport. My roommate drove and we were planning on stopping by his home town before going to the airport. But because a certain state in the union has the most horrendous traffic known to man (and a delightful smell to get to be stuck in along with it) I decided it would be better if he just dropped me off at the airport 3 hours early than to risk missing my plane while coming back.

Check-in went smoothly, except for the fact that I thought they were going to lose my luggage because I never saw them put a sticker on it before I left. Security had no line and no fuss. It was just a matter of sitting and waiting to board my plane.

When I got on the plane I thought that I was going to have a window seat with no one sitting between me and aisle seat, since that's the seat a specifically picked the night before. But it wasn't meant to be. Instead I sat with a delightful, older British couple that was going home from Cancun. They had mistakenly thought that I too was going home to England, which pleased me because it proved to me that I was going to look like a complete tourist on sight alone. Although, I never really thought I would stick out since I am a typical WASP, as Highbrow likes to call me, and also because he knows I despise it. (PS-only one of those things accurately describes me. Another two are only close, but my last name sounds sooo British (although, at the same time you know it's a made up name) that I just assume the role of a WASP)

The flight went by very quickly and I was surprised that I was given two meals on the flight. Mmm, I actually enjoy airplane food and thought it died out along with the birth of Jet Blue. Unfortunately though, my iPod crapped out on my after only being played for a total of 4 hours after being fully charged. I think it's time that I get a new one. (hellooo, Christmas and birthday) Mine is that second generation one that has the four buttons at the top, as opposed to the click wheel.

Day 1:
At customs I got grilled like you couldn't imagine. First I was asked the typical questions: how long will you be here, for what purpose. But then she saw my index card with the cell numbers of some of my friends. So she asked what it was as if they were access numbers to a nuclear weapon. Then she asked a series of questions that I thought were really over the top like: why my friends were in London, for how long, when they were leaving, where they were staying, (how the hell do I know) where I was staying, how much money I had on me, if I had credit cards, when I was leaving, proof of when I was leaving. (thankfully I had a confirmation e-mail on me that had my return flight on it) My friends here agreed that the women was a little nuts and were never grilled like that whenever they returned to the UK.

I then proceeded to get my money exchanged, which made me cry. ($370 = 170GBP) Then I hopped on the Gatwick Express and got to the Tube, where I had a little trouble with someone going through on my swipe, and then needing to buy another, but not knowing how to use the machine, so instead waiting on the painfully long time again.

When I got to my hotel the room wasn't ready yet. I was suppose to meet Highbrow at Piccadilly Circus at 12PM, which was about 1.5 hours away. I asked the receptionist how long it would take to walk and he said about and hour, but thought I was crazy for walking that far. Well, I did it, and it wasn't that bad at all. It helped me get situated with the city quickly. But I still am having issues crossing streets. :-/

I hung out with Highbrow for the afternoon and went to the V&A museum. Then I went back to my room and slept for a couple of hours. Afterwards I walked to my other friends flat (but not after mistakenly going into the Dutch Embassy's backwater entrance) and hung out there for the night. I then proceeded to walk home in the rain since the Tube was closed. It rains too much, but I don't mind it as long as I have my hooded sweatshirt, which I guess I'll be wearing everyday here.

This morning (I'd like to stress the fact that it was the morning but for some reason the Bold and Italics option aren't available) I went to the Natural History Museum. It was pretty awesome. The building itself is breath taking alone, And it's not close to as kiddy as the one in New York City. I heard that the Science Museum here is, so I think I'll skip that one.

Now I'm here in Highbrow Hopefull's classroom building in London. We met up for lunch and now we're waiting for his writing group and then I'm going to drag him to some tourist thing that he'll claim to not be able to afford.

This post was much longer than expected but I wanted to get everything down. You're going to have to excuse me though because I don't plan on editing it beyond spell check.

Cheers!