First Day in London!

So I got to London safe and sound Had no trouble finding my flights or getting through customs, and while the leg of the journey over the Atlantic was boring as hell and quite turbulent in places, all in all, it was a good flight. The plane flew north over the Hudson Bay and the tip of Greenland, then over Ireland before landing at Heathrow - didn’t get to see any of it as I was in the middle aisle and not near a window, but that was the path of the journey at least. Landed fine and it was actually quite sunny with just a little rain in places (actually saw a rainbow as soon as I stepped out of King’s Cross).  Took the Heathrow Express to Paddington station and then got on the Underground and took that to King’s Cross, then walked a couple blocks down to find the IES building. All went well and people were EXTREMELY helpful. On the Heathrow Express, an older gentleman could tell that I was sifting through papers, trying to figure out where to go and asked if I’d like any help - seeing as how he was also on his way to Paddington, he let me tag along with him and even carried my guitar at one point while I was wrestling my suitcase over the gap between the platform and the express train. He was a really interesting guy and told me a bunch of stories about his travels around the world - he works for the weather service and has been to and worked on all seven continents (including Antarctica). He also sifted through a map book with me and helped to point out the various places I was trying to find to help me get my bearings; nice guy, and we chatted the whole way to Paddington.

So I lugged my guitar, backpack and suitcase through the crowd. Stopping only for one or two pictures; by this time I was tired and eager to reach the NIDO building, and also not wanting to hold up the traffic on the sidewalk. But I did get at least one good picture of the ornate clock tower above King’s Cross Station. I followed the directions as best I could but ended up being baffled by the seemingly lack of signage to identify the street names. Thankfully, while I again stood there, sifting through papers and trying to calibrate my map with the street corner on which I was standing, a nice older lady leaned over and asked if she could help point me in the right direction; turns out I was on the right street, only needing to go on a bit further, but her description of the building was what ended up being most useful.

I found the place, filled out the necessary paperwork and made my way up to my room. At that time it was about 2:20 and I was now running up against a mandatory “walking tour” at three, so I threw luggage onto the bed, tore out new close, jumped in the shower for a very brief time, and got myself feeling a bit more refreshed in record time. My roommate was nowhere in sight so I made my way to the lobby where I met up with a few other Puget Sound peers, Katie and Hannah, and together we went with the group on a brief tour of the two blocks near the dorm building. A few pubs were pointed out to us, stores, the train station (they also took us there to buy our “Orca card” which would allow us onto public transport), and the bus stop which we would be using to get to the IES center building when classes began. Upon our return, the same group immediately embarked on another “tour,” this one for shopping. We boarded a double-decker and took it to the closest Prismart where we were then turned loose to find whatever necessities we would be needing for our dorm. Katie, Hannah and I found that we did not need much for our dorms so after a while we branched off on our own and explored down the street a ways. We ducked into a few stores, looking for things such as shampoo, soap, etc. (Prismart, having only mostly house-ware and clothing had been lacking in this regard). We found a few more of the items we needed and then began to turn our attention to the next pressing issue: we were starving.

Once at Paddington, several other of the workers were helpful and friendly enough to show me how to work the ticket machine, lug my suitcase up a flight of stairs for me, and give me clear directions to the platform I needed to be on. From there I was taken to the King’s Cross Station exit, and made my way out to the London streets for the first time.
One of the first things that you notice about London is that though it is a hustling and bustling city, lively and fast-paced; it’s ancient roots are still very evident. The architecture of the buildings is stunning, and I have never before seen so many buildings composed of bricks. Brick buildings are scarce in the US, compared to London. One or two of the buildings had tile, mosaic lettering embedded into the brick as well; and it is that sort of detail - reminiscent of a day when time was about beauty and not money - that betrays the city’s true age. If it wasn’t for that though, the city would be just as any other metropolitan. The blaringly red double-deckers go blasting by alarmingly close to the sidewalk and the pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists weave sickeningly through the dense and fast traffic - always looking as though they are going to be crunched at any given moment, and the sidewalks are nearly as full as the streets in the way that people weave in and out of one another, constantly missing collisions with one another by no more than an inch.

The three of us took the bus back to NIDO, where we dropped off our goods, and then embarked on a hunt for dinner. We ducked into a few of the pubs which had been pointed out earlier but found that they did not have food, at least not for dinner, so we wandered around and eventually came across the only place which had a menu posted outside its door; which was in Spanish. We wandered some more and eventually ran into two other girls from the program who were on the same quest, they joined us, and we eventually decided that Mexican was better than nothing at this point - first day in London or not. The place was nice and their food was good. I had a chicken skewer served with a kind of sauce that I could not describe the taste of other than to say it was delicious, as well as a glass of a fruity white wine. Afterwards, the exhaustion of the previous two days began to sink into us all; we were fairly dizzy from being so tired. So we made our way back to the NIDO building, and said farewell for the night. I went back to my dorm and began to unpack and organize. After a while, I finally had the chance to meet my roommate, Peipei Jin, who is from China and studies at Indiana University in America. She is very nice and we talked a bit as we unpacked. She is also fairly quiet though, although obviously a very brilliant person; last summer apparently she had also been in England and had taken a class at Oxford. Little intimidating, I admit, I know I am nowhere as accomplished. But she is sweet and was very curious about the guitar I had brought. So the night has wound down, and we’ve settled ourselves down with our laptops. But even though it is still “early,” having completed this first update, I have decided that I am going to go to bed early and get caught up on some much needed sleep.
Goodnight!!