Just Touched Down in London Town

Yes, they have Cheerios in London. I'm eating some right now, actually. And don't worry, I figured this out within 12 hours of landing at Heathrow. Now I know I will survive this trip.

Now that the important stuff is out of the way, this is the best way I can think of to keep in touch. Many of you have the same questions, and I thought I would answer them in the form of a blog instead of email so everyone could read them! Also, that way we can all save money on phone bills so I can call more often. But here is where my story begins...

Jen happens to be the best roommate in the world. I know this because she drove me all the way from SLO to LAX, even though we left at 6am. We expected a lot of traffic, and although I happened to sleep through at least 2/3 of the drive, I'm pretty sure we had hardly any. The beautiful girl dropped me off at the airport, and I was on my way! I got to the airport close to three hours early and security took all of 30 minutes to get through. Lovely.

The plane ride was the shortest 10-hour flight I've ever been on. I sat next to a 17-year-old girl named Julia from Kazakhstan who was on her way home after 10 months of an exchange program in Minnesota of all places. If anyone felt bad for my 10 hour flight, she still had a four hour layover at Heathrow, another 10 hour flight, and a 15 hour car ride until she was home. Gross.

I flew with Jill and Tia, which meant I was one of the lucky ones who had company getting from the airport to our flat. We had to navigate the Tube for the first time immediately and with all our luggage. Mind you, this was 7 am here/11 pm California time, and I barely slept on the plane. The ride was about 40 minutes long before we were thrown out on the streets of Kensington at Gloucester Road. Of course we walked the exact opposite direction of our flat, but in the most roundabout way we could. By the time we figured it out, we were about 6 or 7 blocks in the wrong direction. After a looooong walk we finally found Metrogate, the location where we got our keys. Then we walked another 3 or 4 blocks to stand in the middle of a side walk staring blankly at an entire street of buildings, one of which was ours. A few minutes and three keys later we were in our flat. I'm pretty sure we have the best room in the flat: it's fairly big with two bunkbeds, our own bathroom, and four armoires. I'm on the top bunk, one of my drawers is broken, and the shower is about 2'x2', but it's perfectly lovely.

So after traveling halfway around the world, we of course got about 45 minutes in our room before my friend Max (my husband Zero in Zero to Infinity) began incessantly bugging us to go out in the city. Now, those of you who know Max know how relentless he is. Add to that how adorable he is when he just wakes up with his Jew 'fro everywhere and his sleepy little boy eyes peering at you through those old man glasses, and needless to say, we were out the door and on our way to Piccadilly as soon as our teeth were brushed.

Back on the Tube for a few, and all of a sudden we're someplace completely different from Kensington. We didn't do much; Max was only there to see if he could snag some student rush tickets for Hair and the rest of us were walking zombies. We walked through some back alleys, found ourselves in the middle of a sex district, and immediately scrambled out. Awesome. After some paninis, Max convinced us to walk the "only twenty minutes" from Piccadilly to Kensington. Well, that walk was waaaaaay longer than twenty minutes, and I was still wearing my boots. Barely in London a few hours and I already had blisters. BUT we walked through a lot of city, including past Buckingham Palace while catching glimpses of the London Eye. When we FINALLY made it back we were exhausted. I climbed into bed for a 30 minute nap and woke up two hours later.

Dinner was at Wagamama, an Asian noodlehouse with several locations throughout London. Soooooo good! It was really close (just a short walk west on Kensington Road). I got yaki soba which was amazing (thanks for the recommendation, Jeff!) and a lot of food for the price. After dinner, it was pints of Guinness (for everyone but me), then back to the flat for showers for each of us before passing out.

This morning we had our orientation for our classes and FIE. Long and practical. The real fun started afterwards! I woke up this morning with a craving for a bit of London with more edge than "The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea" has to offer, so I suggested we travel to Camden. Camden is famous for its fantastic outdoor market and its history as the origins of the punk scene. I rounded up Natalie (the Bride in Blood Wedding), Jill, Tia, Max, and Ryan (Inspector Oodles in Zero to Infinity), and we headed to the nearest tube station. Gloucester to Leicester, switch trains to Camden Town. As soon as we walked out of the tube station, you could feel the difference in the air. It was exactly the raw, rough-around-the-edges feeling I was looking for. The storefronts were all extremely unique and artistic, and some were actually disturbing. However, the best part was the ENDLESS outdoor market. It was a dense maze of kitschy souvenirs, fabulous dresses, cheap sunglasses, (all free game for bargaining) and oh my goodness THE FOOD. There were stands representing nationalities from all over the world. Stand after stand was shouting, offering free samples of their food. (Andy, I have a feeling your heaven might look something like this city...) Max and I decided the best way to go about it was to each buy a meal from different stands and share. Max got shrimp and salt and pepper chicken from a Chinese food stand with one of the best salesmen I've ever encountered, and I got Tarfulette (or something?... basically potatoes and sausage prepared to create amazing comfort food) from a stand offering food from the French Alps. Delicious. We ate overlooking the canal in Camden sitting on the craziest little motorcycles seats... Literally like the back half of motorcycle after motorcycle lined up like dominoes (Jen: if you haven't seen these, you would absolutely love to kick them over). Sadly, it started looking as if it would rain so after getting ice cream from an ice cream lab (not like Doc Berstein's, they actually make the ice cream from scratch right in front of you within minutes - sooo weird), we trucked it back to the tube. This time though, we decided to get off at Leicester Square to walk past all the the theaters. It's the Broadway of Europe!!! I can't wait to get student rush tickets to everything. We continued walking and came across the most amazing art project. There were elephant statues lining the streets to raise awareness for the disappearing Asian elephant. Some of the greatest artists of London were asked to use the statues to create a unique piece to be sold for the cause. We all know how much I love elephants. Well, apparently I love them even more when they are covered in hearts, geometric shapes, flowers, ducks, question marks, wild animals, and scenes from the London streets! Incredible.

Back at the flat much later, we all decided we were hungry. We only had one stipulation: where ever we went had to be showing the England v. Algeria World Cup match!!! The only way a soccer game can get better than it already is? Watching in an pub (Goat Tavern) eating fish and chips. The game tied, but we were fat and happy...

And TIRED. The last hour or so has been spent typing this while watching Glee (!!!) on the common room of our flat.

So, that's it so far. I apologize for the less-than-eloquent language in which this is written. Time is precious! (Hey Mom, no need to proof-read. Thanks. :) ) I miss all of you so much already! Please, please, please continue to email me or leave comments! I'd love to hear from you as often as possible. Goodnight from London!