Excursions and Shakespeare Adventures, Oh My!

On Saturday, I existed in the same space in which Shakespeare was born. On Sunday, I stood in both parts of the world. Needless to say, the weekend was full of jumping around with excitement.

To begin:

English Countryside!

Saturday, we woke bright and early and met the ISA bus to go to Stratford-upon-Avon. After a lovely nap and foray through the beautiful English countryside (we were blessed with gorgeous sunny weather, and the green grass and rolling hills were breathtaking) we arrived in Shakespeare's hometown! Stratford-upon-Avon defied expectations. It was a fascinating mix between the centuries-old and the new - across from the H&M was where Shakespeare went to school. Incredible.

The Birthplace

The Birthplace (as everyone reverently called it) was very interesting. No pictures allowed, unfortunately, but we did get some nice pictures of the outside. It was a much larger home than I had expected - Shakespeare's father was relatively well-to-do (he was the equivalent of the "mayor" of Stratford when Shakespeare was growing up, despite his somewhat shady past as an illegal glove maker). Before you entered the actual house (designed to look like it would in 1575, when Shakespeare was 11), you were treated to numerous rooms with videos about the bard himself, one of which held an original copy of the first folio! Incredible. To my delight, David Tennant was featured heavily - both when they played a clip of the Doctor Who episode about Shakespeare, and in the "Hall of Fame," where his beautiful face was put up on a banner to commemorate his time as Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Afterwards we wandered through the house, saw where Shakespeare was born and grew up, and departed through the gift shop (of course).

Warwick Castle from above

Then, a few of us walked to where Shakespeare is buried with the majority of his family (pictures were allowed here, luckily!). It was a beautiful little church, and the people there were very nice (though it too had a gift shop haha). Then we returned to the main tourist-y spot next to the Birthplace, and nommed some pasties. Then we cheerily departed to Warwick Castle!

Self-proclaimed as "Britain's Ultimate Castle," Warwick is a wonder unto itself. Owned by the same people who own Madame Tussauds, it was filled with wax statues re-enacting what daily life at the castle would have been like. You were also allowed dizzying access to the turrets and towers of the castle on a one-way venture up and down these terrible spiral staircases. We very often resorted to literally crawling up the stairs, as the next step was roughly the same height as our hands. Absurd. But it was worth it - the views were beautiful.

The Royal Observatory

There was also a Merlin thing going on - though it cost extra, so I didn't do it (too bad, the BBC nerd inside me says). But I got some nice pictures of the banners! And there were peacocks. Just cause.

The only unfortunate part of the day was that my voice was all but completely gone throughout. It's only just coming back now - and as Danielle (and everyone else here) can attest to, I sounded more than a little bit pathetic.

Then on Sunday we woke up at a leisurely time and headed over to Greenwich. Only about a half an hour trip on the tube and the DLR (the Docklands Light Railyway - we passed Canary Wharf on the way, and once again my BBC nerd self squealed for joy), Greenwich was absolutely beautiful. It didn't hurt that we once again had beautiful weather!

Both hemispheres!

After hiking our way up a rather steep hill, we paid a small fee to enter the Royal Observatory (one of many different museums, etc in the area) and had a blast standing on both sides of the world! We also saw a lot of clocks, which Emily assures me are really cool. We headed back on a river cruise down the Thames just as the sun was setting, and I sat there gushing the whole time at how absolutely gorgeous London is. I took about twenty pictures of the lit up Big Ben and Parliament - too beautiful to pass up. One thing that anyone who visits me will be treated to (dragged to?) will definitely be that area at night.

Then a very satisfying Sunday dinner at a pub in Trafalgar Square rounded out a fantastic weekend! And now it is Monday, and I need to go do homework. Booo. Oh well. All part of the experience, right? Cheers! :)

Class? What's That?

Well, I'll start with an apology, especially to my three more vocal followers (Anne, Katrina, and Doug, I'm looking at you) - but now, after some delay, I am back!

It has been an eventful five or so days here in Londontown. I experienced my first classes as a student in one of the world's educational capitals! (Or so they tell me.) Class is definitely very different here. To begin, they aren't even called "classes," but "modules," and rather than "professors" we have "module leaders" and "module tutors." The leader is the one who organizes the whole thing, and the tutor is the one who actually stands in front of class and teaches you. Most tutors prefer to be called by their first name, though it's not as though they're TAs, these are fully qualified experts in each subject. Very interesting! Further, most tutors don't really care about attendance - well, maybe they do, but it isn't factored into your grade. In only one of my classes does my grade depend on participation and attendance, and it's the class geared to foreign students! In all of my other classes, my grade hinges on one or two essays, and maybe a final. Very intimidating.

My week begins in Other Worlds: Fantastic Narratives. It is the most advanced class I'm taking, but it is also by far the most interesting. We are examining theories of the fantastical, and the fantastic narrative, and what makes something fantastic, etc. We do so through the lens of such works as Alice in Wonderland, The Tempest, and...oh, yeah, Inception, and The Matrix. Pretty cool, if I do say so myself. It's kind of intimidating being in a class of students in their final year of study, but the higher level of discussion is definitely worth it.

Then on Tuesday I head to Early Modern Identities in Renaissance English Literature. (As an aside, they pronounce Renaissance differently here. Rather than Ren-uh-sance, it's Ren-ey-sance, they "ey" being pronounced like the end of "hey." Sorry, that's probably really difficult to imagine, but I promise it's significantly different.) This class was not nearly as interesting as my Other Worlds class, but I think it has a lot of promise to it! The first class seemed to be a lot of background and such, and I'm sure that as soon as we get into the actual literature, things will get much more interesting.

Wednesdays I have off. I spent my Wednesday watching Modern Family and wandering around Shoreditch. So that was mildly productive, I guess. I also got to talk to Doug for a while, which is always fantastic.


I'm going to interrupt my week to add some things that didn't really fit, but are notable enough to mention:

• I saw a lady doing her nails on the Tube. She was doing French tips. So impressive
• I'm losing my voice. Very unfortunate.
• Cadbury Eggs are one of the single greatest desserts ever, and should be available year-round State-side.
• They take credit cards very seriously here. When I give them the card, they look at the signature on it, ask for an ID, check the signature on my driver's license (thank God it has it on it - otherwise, some places wouldn't accept the card), then compare the picture on my license to me, then ask me to sign the receipt which they then scrupulously compare to the one on the card and the license. Very different from America, where they don't even look at the signature on the card. Good, I suppose, but different.
• All Time Low is coming to London and I have no one to go with me.

Now back to regularly scheduled programming. (Cliches say what?)

Thursday brings me to Writing London, which is in tight competition with Other Worlds to take its place as my favorite class. The module tutor is a little batty, I think, but I adore her - she's very funny. And we did a lot of fun little writing exercises (talk about your name, where is your safe place, discuss your earliest memory, and so on), which I love to do, and being able to closely study works about London and then try to re-create it to reflect my own experiences is going to be so, so cool.

Don't judge my super-English nerdiness, okay?

Finally on Friday is Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. I met this really nice French girl named Zooey (though I might have just butchered the spelling of it) who was really quite cool to talk to. I'm really hoping to get to know her better - she's really funny (which is especially impressive to me, that she can be funny in a language other than her own) and really clever. So that was fun! But this class above all else proved how shy I am to speak up - we were supposed to read Shakespeare's "Henry V" for class and I did read it, along with some other guides to understanding it, but I kept my mouth shut pretty much every time he asked a question. Oops? Confidence will come, I hope - I wish we sat in a circle, things are far less intimidating that way.

After getting out of class today (and being awkwardly hit on by the Indian guy at the convenience store  - awkward also because he was trying to hit on me but I was having a really hard time understanding his accent...my life is just one large awkward disaster, I can't even deal with it) Emily and I went to the British Museum! Let me tell you, if there's ever a time to visit the British Museum, it's on Friday evenings, when it's open longer. It's nearly deserted, and there's something wonderful about the lighting of the exhibits at night. The building itself is magnificent (and of course I forgot my camera - don't worry, I'll be going back again at least once!) and the exhibits are overwhelming. There is an astounding amount of history, and relics, and artefacts - it's hard to wrap your head around, and impossible to take it all in in one go. But I did see the Rosetta Stone, which was incredible. And though I looked everywhere for a statue of Priapus, the only one I could find fell short of all expectations (Katrina knows what I mean). I plan on searching further when I return though, so don't worry. I will also remember my camera; promise!

Before coming home, Emily and I stopped by a pub and I tried to order fish and chips (they weren't making them, unfortunately - my quest was foiled again!). Despite this setback, we enjoyed a lovely evening of burgers and beverages. The bartender convinced me to try a strawberry cider, which was quite delicious, but unfortunately the most girly drink ever conceived - it was a pink cider, for crying out loud. But it was still yummy, and I enjoyed it, despite Emily's claims of it being nothing more than a Shirley Temple (sass.)

And now, after a lovely skype session with Katrina the sorostitute, I am off to bed - we're up early tomorrow to get to Stratford-Upon-Avon and Warwick Castle. Then on Sunday we're going to Greenwich, so expect a picture-laden blog post to come in the next few days. Cheers! :)

The Best Days in the Who-niverse!

Camden

Yes, gratuitous puns. Get over it - I like puns.

It has certainly - as has become habit - been a busy few days! On Friday, we went down to the Camden Market, where I acquired a dress, a sweater, and a owl clock necklace! I'm proud to say I bartered for all of them, and got pretty good deals if I do say so myself! Definitely a good use of time. We're hoping to get to the Portobello Market soon, too - good vintage stuff there, we hear! The Markets are great, and the whole haggling system is really growing on me.

Then Saturday I made my way to King's Cross on the coach - very skillfully if I do say so myself! There I met Shelby, and we took tourist pictures at Platform 9 and 3/4. We enjoyed a lovely £5 lunch before heading out to the Doctor Who Experience! And what an experience it was. The actual experience itself (as it advertised on the website) was geared for kids. You went on an "adventure" with the Doctor, who needed help escaping the Pandorica (again). Only Whovians will understand that, but it's all good. What was most impressive about that part was the intricacy of the rooms they set up for it. From the exact replica of Eleven's TARDIS (complete with little interactive consols for the kids), to the Dalek spaceship, and even the gratuitous 3-D video at the end, it was all extremely impressive. Especially considering that the exhibit is about to move and be set up in Cardiff in a few weeks! The amount of effort that must have gone into every detail must have been excruciating, but I will say wholeheartedly that it paid off.


Then, for the older viewers, once you left the Experience you entered a maze of rooms filled with Doctor Who paraphernalia. The TARDIS, all of the Doctors' costumes, Nine and Ten's TARDIS, outfits for companions, K-9, and every monster and villain you could imagine. It was incredible, and basically nerd heaven. I took a staggering amount of pictures, most of which can be found on my Facebook. But I'll include a few, of course! A fantastic day - made all the better by being able to see Shelby! It's kind of disconcerting to see old Easton friends around London-town (we're so far away, after all) but it was really a great time. And I can't wait for more old Easton (and Wilmington! and New Canaan! and Redding!) friends to arrive.

A couple of Whovians!

Today, Sunday, we went on an excursion to the Tower of London. It was kind of freezing, but the sun was out and the Tower is magnificent. It's staggering to think about the amount of history that happened there. It's one thing for a tour guide to tell you that so-and-so many people died right on this spot, and that William the Conquerer built this in 1078, and that this wall has been here 2,000 years, but then when you take a step back and actually consider the length of time between what was their world and what is ours it is nothing short of awe-inspiring. One of the things I have begun to appreciate most about London is the juxtaposition between new and old, which was exemplified beautifully when visiting the Tower. Just over the old turrets and structures that had been standing for hundreds - if not thousands - of years, you can see the construction of the Shard, which - upon completion - will be the tallest building in Europe. It's (obviously) very tall, very slim, and very modern. That you can have such innovative and forward-thinking construction happening right near these blood- and history-soaked walls is absolutely brilliant. You just don't get that in America!

The Tower of London

Anyway, enough gushing. The Tower was awesome. We got to see the Crown Jewels, which were difficult to comprehend. They looked fake! But, of course, they aren't; just magnificently encrusted with diamonds, sapphires, rubies, pearls...they were incredible, and - as our tour guide put it - "absolutely priceless."

They loved me. 

There was so much history in the Tower that I could go on forever - but if you wanted a history lesson you'd be in class. ;) So I'll end there. Today ended with some homework (gasp!) and a impromptu skype-sesh with the family. I missed them all, and it was great seeing everyone together - even if they got hard to hear at times. So it was almost like I was really there! (Kidding, of course...sort of.) Tomorrow is the first day of classes, so I'll be up pretty early to get down to class at 10. I'm nervous, but also excited - I can't wait to see what class is like here. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up!

I miss you all, and I hope to hear from you soon. Cheers!

All You Need is Love

So I was going to wait to update until this weekend, but I was worried I'd forget things so here I am again! I bet you're sick of me - oh well! ;)

We went to this fantastic Spanish restaurant for dinner the other night - it was called Salvador and Amanda (http://www.salvadorandamanda.com/) and it was absolutely delicious! The place didn't look like too much from the outside, and you walked into this tiny foyer and downstairs into this astonishingly large room. It had a great atmosphere. They served very small portions (tapas), and I had the sarten con patatinas, which was phenomenal - very rich, very flavorful. We were there for happy hour so we got a pitcher of sangria, and Amber said it was the best sangria she'd ever had, so I shouldn't get my hopes up for the next time I try it. But it really was good! Mom, get ready - this might be one of the places we try.

The National Gallery

Wednesday, Emily and I went to the National Gallery - we saw a lot of really cool paintings (and a lot of ugly representations of the baby Jesus - I guess everyone just assumed he was really, really fat. Emily said that a lot of early Renaissance painters didn't like painting Jesus as a baby, so they would just paint a really tiny man. Talk about creepy looking). I got to see some Van Gogh, some Monet, and Raphael, some Michelangelo (half of the ninja turtles!) - there's this really cool DaVinchi exhibit going on, but it's really hard to get in...we think we're going to try anyway!

Trafalgar Square

The Gallery is in Trafalgar Square, which is really cool. There's a great view of Big Ben in the distance from there, a lot of sweet lion statues, and a countdown to the Olympics that you can see in the bottom right of the picture right over there. There were also some street performers, a living statue guy, and a lot of pigeons. But that's pretty normal. (Also, Mom - note that I added captions for you. See, I listen to your guys' suggestions!)

Us? Tourists? No.

After heading home I had a lovely impromptu skype session with my wonderful roommates back home, all of whom I miss very much, but all of whom seem to be doing fine. And that was yesterday!

I am the walrus, koo koo kachoo.

Today, we played the tourist again and headed over to Abbey Road. We walked across the crosswalk (and took pictures of each other doing so - Abbey Road is busy and it's kind of awkward to walk through the traffic with someone taking pictures of you. Oh well). We also wrote on the walls outside Abbey Road Studios. It's very cool; the whole brick fencing up and down the street is covered in writing. They paint over it again every few months, I would guess, but it's still cool to have ourselves on the wall for now. That picture at the top of the blog is a tile someone added to the wall. I have a lot of other pictures where I tried to be an artsy photographer - they're all pretty embarrassing, but will probably be posted on facebook at some point or another.

We then acquired some books for class (as a side note it is next to impossible to find notebooks, pencils, etc, in this city - we're probably looking in all the wrong places, but without a WalMart or Staples or even CVS, I have nowhere to look! We're going to find them tomorrow, though - that's our goal). I have two separate but very similar Renaissance Drama Anthologies - of course. Can you guess from the picture which one I like more? There is a whole lot more I'll be reading for class this year, but a lot of it is done online - whole books, even! And I'm going to be utilizing the library as much as possible. Note that I, of course, like the honors kid I am, got myself a planner - I'd be lost without it.

Well, I'm going to relax for a while more and go to bed. These days of constant walking are very tiring. But I'll be nice and fit by the end of this semester! This weekend the tube line out of our station is closed so I'm going to have to be creative to get myself to King's Cross to meet Shelby, but I'm sure it'l all work out. I'll just give myself an extra hour (or two) to get around haha. Directions aren't my thing. I miss you all! Cheers. :)

Week One

Sorry for the delay! My camera is being a loser and I didn't to post without adding pictures, but today I went with Emily and Megan to some of the tourist-y places and so with triumph I am back!

To start where we left off on Saturday: we went to a local pub for dinner, where I met many people and was mildly embarrassed by the size and volume of our group. But it's all good; hopefully if I ever want to go back they won't remember me. I got carded, though, by this very intimidating bouncer guy, which was exciting. Then as we went back a guy professed his undying love for Lauren. Otherwise, the evening was uneventful. Collapsing ensued.

The following day we were up and at 'em pretty early. We went to a quick ISA orientation and then road on a double decker coach tour (see Amanda? I'm getting it), for which my pictures are marooned on my camera, but rest assured it was really cool. I was sitting right in front of where "The Royal Duchess Catherine Middleton" sat to get to a wedding (not hers, though). The coach driver was very proud. And even though I fell asleep (much to the amusement of those around me), I really did enjoy it. The bus was just so warm and lovely! Plus the tour was two and a half hours long...but I digress. Hopefully I'll be able to contact the Nikon people about getting a new cord.

Then we headed back to the dorm, and found ourselves wandering the streets of London to find an Indian place recommended to us: Aladin's. As someone who has only had Indian food once, I was very very impressed! The food was delicious; I had Tikka Masala Chicken, and it was very good. If anyone is visiting me, that might be somewhere we go to eat. Once again, I was very aware of the size of the group; only seven of us and we were louder than the restaurant combined. Americans don't even realize how noisy we are. Then we managed to navigate the tube back to the dorm! All in all, pretty successful.

On Monday, we were up to the Westminster orientation early - and it was long. But informative, I suppose. Got my student I.D. card and such! And my timetable. So unfortunate - class on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I'm sure I can work around it though...hopefully.

From there, we shopped around Oxford Street - the longest shopping street in London. It was really fun; we went to a bunch of places, but Primark was my favorite. I got a great bag for five pounds and a scarf for three! Fantastic.

One of the things that has been most difficult for me to adjust to is how everything is switched. And I don't just mean what side of the road people drive on, either. People walk on the left side of hallways in the tube, walk on the left side going up and down stairs, go in the left of two double doors, and so on. Even which way to look across the street before crossing; it's all opposite. I didn't know that was something I'd have to adjust to, and I didn't even realize it was something that needed adjustment. It's so reflexive! But I'll get it - just in time to come back to the States and re-learn it again. On a brighter note, I've been adjusting much better to the tube than I thought I would, so that's good! A few mishaps, but nothing major, and nothing to do with navigation errors. Yeah!

Today, we went around to a bunch of different places. First, to Big Ben (fun fact for all those Yanks who don't know: Big Ben is the bell, not the tower). Right as you get out of the tube station (to impress you at home, we took the Jubilee line from the Bond street entrance to get to Westminster) Big Ben is right. There. I took a lot of pictures - Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament are so, so cool to me. I want to do a tour at some point, but I'm not sure when. I'm sure we'll work it out!

Then we walked to Westminster Abbey (which we'll be touring with ISA later) and grabbed some lunch at a stand and ate outside. We then grabbed the tube to Buckingham Palace. The Queen was in residence! The guards marched around a bit, but we were too late to see the changing of the guard (we plan to come back, probably in the summer, when they have the red coats on again.) But it was still cool. We went into the gift shop of the Queen's Gallery, and enjoyed perusing the various books and such that they had on her. I'm still bummed I'm missing the Jubilee - but I'm sure I'll see the preparations, though!

And now I'm back at the dorm! We're going to head to Convent Garden for dinner, then back to Skype with Doug! :) It's been good so far - starting to get a little homesick (and collegesick - is that a thing?), but I'm sure we'll be keeping busy when classes start and I won't notice. This weekend is the Tower of London, and Shelby and I have tickets to the Doctor Who exhibition! That'll be great - and kind of weird to see a familiar face in a strange city. Very exciting. I'll post again soon, I promise. Cheers!

Welcome to the UK!

Well it has certainly been an eventful day, and it's not over yet. In about half an hour a bunch of us are going to dinner, then probably back here to unpack and sleep in preparation for a relatively early start to tomorrow. But before I get there, let's start at the airport. Get ready, this post will probably be a long one.

After a long wait with Mom and Doug at the inappropriately named "Bag Drop-Off," it was through security and onto the plane. The plane itself was huge - a double decker, with this gorgeous first class area that looked like a space-age restaurant or something. Then they teased you with the Premium Economy section - all these leather seats and purple mood lighting - and then tossed you into the harsh reality of dizzingly patterned seats and bright lights. Lights, I might add, that were only off for two hours of the entire five-or-so hour flight. So guess how many hours I slept?

I found myself wedged between two men, and one looked an awful lot like Billy Boyd (and for those of you who don't know who that is, look here: http://e2de.com/data_images/billy-boyd/billy-boyd-01.jpg). Though I imagine Billy Boyd wouldn't be travelling economy, I nevertheless affectionately dubbed him "Billy" in my mind. Billy and I were great friends. The other man I called "Rico Suave," as he was about eight feet tall, black, and wearing a spiffing vest, bowler hat and dress coat combo, and carried with him an umbrella. It was looking like sleep would be next to impossible. They took up a lot of space.

But then out of the blue a flight attendant approached Rico Suave and told him that if he so wished, there was a seat open in the exit row! Ah! Sweet merciful Lord there is a God. After Rico squeezed his extremely large person past me and Billy, I politely turned to Billy and asked him if it'd be okay if I took the window seat. He told me of course, and then very calmly informed me that he planned on drugging himself heavily, so if I needed to get out at any time to just climb over him. I thanked him for his kindness, and shifted over a seat, congratulating myself on having my first real conversation with someone on my journeys.

The flight was alright apart from the whole "leaving up the cabin lights" deal. There was this delightful little Indian baby that serenaded us with its screams for the entire five hours. Can babies get laryngitis? This particular bundle of joy seemed immune. And because I know my mom was interested, the food was pretty good. I had this chicken and rice thing, with bread and butter, a little salad, and a pudding. Pretty good.

We landed before the sun rose and filed off the aircraft. I relieved myself in a British bathroom for the first time (WOO HOO!) and began the long trek to immigration. Heathrow is huge. And the immigration line took forever. Poor Billy left a book on the plane and only realized when we were at the immigration line (it took about 20 minutes to walk there), and stopped me very politely (yet awkwardly) to ask if I'd grabbed it. Unfortunately I had not, and he ran off in the other direction as I shouted apologies at his back. Then, I approached the dreaded line.

Waiting in line was boring and sucky and I won't make you listen to it.

Long story short, I waited for an hour and a half, to go up to the guy and only need to give him my landing card and passport. Yes, Mom, all the stuff we scrambled to get together didn't even get looked at. Awesome.

I retrieved my bags and successfully got myself from Terminal 3 to 4 (only having to ask directions once). There, Maria was waiting with a few other ISA kids. She greeted me, sold me a cell phone, and pushed me off to the cash point to get money, which I totally burnt through in the first day. Whoops. We sat there for a while - and by a while, I mean from about 9 until 12:30. But I made friends - acquaintances? Well, one way or another we're going to dinner in about 15 minutes, so I'll count that as a win. Do I remember all of their names? Absolutely not.

We then were ushered aboard a coach bus, which proceeded to blatantly drive off on the wrong side of the road (crazy British drivers), and I kind of fell asleep for a bit, but the parts of the country I did see were very nice! We dropped some kids off at various locations and finally, finally, arrived at the Alexander Fleming dorm at about 2:30 or so. We checked in, lugged our bags where they needed to be, and kind of collapsed for a bit before getting right back up and legging it to the tube station to get our Oyster cards (like a MetroCard), then to Argos to get bed things.

Now, for those of you who don't know what Argos is, let me take a moment to explain. You walk in and go over to these rows and rows of catalogues roughly the size of phone books. You then leaf through them to find the item(s) you want, check on this pin pad thing if they're available, and then write them all down on a card. Then you take that card up to the cashier, who puts in the order, you pay, and then move to a waiting area. When your number is called, you walk up to another counter, and they have all your stuff from a back room in bags. It's kind of ridiculous. I can't decide if it's an efficient system or not - we had more than one confusion in our group, including me, who didn't know about the little pin pad and had to go back to find a replacement for an item that was out of stock, and then wound up getting the wrong thing, then waiting in line to return it, and getting the right thing. It's just because I hadn't filled my awkward quota for the day with Billy that the gods of social interaction had to smite me.

Anyway, then we went right next door to a grocery store (where I came to the realization that the ad outside announcing two bottles of wine for the price of one could actually mean something to me - don't worry, Dad, I did not purchase any booze. Just cereal, milk, and a whole bunch of pre-made sandwich/pasta/salad meals to eat while I get situated. Oh, and chocolate. Duh). Then we hobbled across all of London to get back to the dorms. Well, maybe it was like two blocks. Po-tay-toh, po-tah-toh.

And here I am! Writing furiously to finish before 7 and dinner. I'm not sure where we're going - hopefully somewhere delicious, as my stomach has been noisily reminding me of its existence for a few hours now. So now I am off! I miss you all, and wish you were here to experience all of this with me - it's been a whirlwind so far, and I'm not sure I'm taking it all in properly. But I'll get it eventually! So here I go - to dinner, then hopefully to unpack and sleep. Cheers!

First!

I am two days from leaving, and I have packed nothing. In fact, one duffel hasn't been unpacked yet.

Things are looking grim.

On the bright side, my Google Calendar and this blog are up and running! I'm so technologically inclined. And now, even if I get to London and don't have clothes, at least I'll be able to get places on time and talk about myself. In theory, anyway.

So. Flight out is at 7:30 p.m. from JFK. Never been on a flight this long, and I imagine my restless tendencies will not take kindly to it. We shall see. For now, I'm going to go stare at my empty suitcase for a little while longer, then probably go on tumblr and bed. The productivity (of sorts) ends here. Ta!