i left seattle on wednesday at 4:30pm, and after a 7 hour flight, landed in iceland at the local time of 6:40 am, had a 30 minute layover, and was on my way to london. i landed there at 11:30am their time. i wasn't sure whether or not i got my baggage first and then went to customs, or if i went to customs first, and then got my baggage. it ended up being customs. either way, i made my way towards the "baggage reclaim" as its known here. in case you've never been to heathrow airport, it is GIGANTIC.
here's an embarrassing story: when you go through customs, you have to fill out a few forms if you're studying abroad. one of the questions asked for your nationality. i wrote "caucasian" on it, not even thinking twice. once i got up there, the customs agent asked me what my nationality was, and i said, "uhh...caucasian. i'm white!" and he said back to me, "no....where are you from? are you American? I know you're not from Caucasia!" hahaha. i'm a travel noob. anyhow....the next challenge to tackle was tracking down the girls i was sharing a cab with. i knew they were going to be in terminal 4....i was in terminal 1. the problem is, i thought they all wound up at the same place after customs. they didn't. i ended up having to take a 5-10 minute train subway thing to terminal 4. with my GIANT suitcases. terrible idea. it was soooo embarrassing. i was on the struggle boat....captain of the struggle boat. after some miscommunication (or lack thereof...) i did end up finding them, thankfully! our cab ride ended up being an hour from the airport to our flats. i was so tired and didn't even know what time it was, all i knew is that it was thursday.
on thursday night, we took a little walk around the neighborhood and saw where we'll be catching the tube for class. then we went to a little pub to have some pub food and become further informed. friday was orientation at campus. saturday was a walking tour which included: the millenium bridge (aka the "harry potter" bridge), the london bridge, the tower bridge, shakespeare's globe, big ben, westminster abbey, st. paul's cathedral, parliament, the london eye, st. james park, burroughs market, the national gallery....etc. did i mention that this was a WALKING tour?? i must have walked at least 10 miles. my dogs were BARKING if you know what i mean. i severely underestimated how much i was going to be walking here. ok mom, here is your chance to say "i told you so." after our tour, we went to a little thai place just down the road. it was actually pretty good! not quite like seattle though. today (sunday) included a visit to the eclectic neighborhood of Camden (think 90s + portland + new york city + RANDOM everything), as well as king's cross station where the harry potter platform is located, going to westminster abbey for the 3pm evensong. it was SO SO SO beautiful inside. if photography was allowed, i would be all over that. but the sculptures, the stained glass, the incredibly high ceilings.....magnificent. AND its where will & kate got married...thus upping the awesome status.
in an effort to blend into my surroundings, i've taken it upon myself to incorporate British slang into my daily life. so far, i've substituted "lift" for "elevator"; "i'll give you a ring" for "i'll call you"; "trainers" for "sneakers"; "flat" for "apartment"; "cinema" for "movie theater" and "uni" for "university/college".
the biggest differences i've noticed are...
- people here are so skinny. i think it's a combination of eating way less (their portion sizes are tiny compared to America) & they walk EVERYWHERE!
- starbucks does not accept my gold card. pretty peeved about that one....
- I HATE THE METRIC SYSTEM. grams...liters...milliliters....kilometers.....degrees/celsius i have no idea. i was never good at it in chemistry, partly because i thought i'd never need it. wish i would have listened a little more to mr. vasereno.....
- people in london actually use umbrellas when it rains. i'm so used to people in seattle not even bothering. i've heard "umbrellas are for wimps" more than once at home.
- driving on the
rightWRONG side of the road. luckily for dumb foreigners like me, it says "look left" on the street so you don't kill yourself. - the British don't refrigerate ANYTHING. not even eggs. they don't put ice in anything either. crazy, right?
- hangers are a rare commodity round these parts.
- censoring is a little different here. for instance, i was reading a newspaper and the f-word was mentioned more than once. so weird!
the things i don't like...
- the 8-hour time difference from washington to england.....kinda makes it difficult to communicate
- pandora AND hulu are both non-UK friendly. which sucks. how am i supposed to listen to music/catch up on my tv shows??
- having to start over making friends....it's like freshman year all over again. but it'll be good in the end!
despite my annoyances of non-American life and my homesickness, i'm learning to take everything slow, and enjoy the time i have here. it's so funny....since i'm so immersed in British culture and the accents, i find myself talking in a British accent in my head. then i say it out loud and i realize how bad and fake it sounds. who knows...maybe i'll come back with an accent ;)
i'm going to save my pictures for another post -- because this one ended up being WAY longer than i meant it to be. oh well.... a lot has happened in the last few days! OH and there is a starbucks two doors down from my school. i'm going to have to exercise some SERIOUS self control unless i wanna go broke....
tomorrow i start school!! wish me luck!
