Leaving on a jet plane

  London, United Kingdom
Tuesday, September 4, 2007

New York

I'm typing this from the living room of my amazing London flat! I can't believe I finally made it here. After all the months of preparing and buying and worrying and more buying I am finally in London! I don't even know where to begin with everything. I guess I'll start at the beginning, meaning the plane. Boy. What a JOY that was. Small plane, no sleeping, crying children, crappy food, and no personal video screens. What a bad way to fly international. Once we finally got to Gatwick I was absolutely exhausted and then I still had to drag my two huge bags, both of which were over the weight limit btw, and my huge carry-ons through the hour long line at customs and then the hour long wait for the motor coach. Thankfully however the fine Brits are much nicer and give you the little luggage trolleys for free! They tended to go sideways on their accord though so it was an interesting experience!

We finally got to our flats and I must say, I lucked out! Our flat is HUGE. And when I say huge, I don't just mean huge by apartment standards, I mean HUGE! Our living room is the size of most people's entire apartments. There is not much to the place looks wise, but all the appliances are brand new, we have a little garden out back, and it's right in the middle of a wonderful neighborhood.

After the endless hours of unpacking and re-arranging to try and get all of my clothes into my tiny little closet and dresser we decided to go out and do some exploring. Me and some of the girls found a grocery store and picked up some of the essentials. I must say, I'm still in a bit of sticker shock seeing the prices on some of the food. Nothing here is "adjusted" to make it less expensive. I can of refried beans is almost $4 U.S.! I'm kinda scared of going to the grocery store now. We gave up on food and decided to all go out to dinner. We ended up in this great and very quaint little Irish pub right around the corner from our flat. I had a very interesting meal... chicken with some sort of bacon that was more like a slab of ham with cheese and something they called bbq sauce. But there was beer so what more could I honestly expect or want from a pub?? We stayed out pretty late but I had a wonderful time and got to meet some of the locals. And because of that I think I'm already adjusted to the time difference for the most part :-)

Today I woke up and went out and about in the city with a couple of girls. Had lunch at a cute little cafe where I had the strangest sandwhich ever. As far as I can gather it was like a chicken salad-type sandwhich but it was just chicken, corn, and mayonaise all mixed together. It was delicious! Haha We ended up getting VERY lost but it was fun! It's good to know that as long as I have my A to Zed map I can pretty much never get lost without finding my way back. We walked all over the place and found the tourist hot spot by accident. We were walking down a street and all the sudden we were in Trafalgar Square! And then I turned to my left and saw Big Ben! So all in all we saw Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Parliament, Westminster Abby, and the Thames. Then we decided to head back and got on a bus that deffinetely did not take us where we were expecting! We wound up all the way by St. Paul's Cathedral and then had to hoof it back to our flat. Unfortunately we couldn't take the tube because all the tube workers are on STRIKE right now until Friday! Perfect timing huh?

So far it has been a great couple of days. Just getting used to the adjustment and settled in. I can't wait to go out and explore some more and see all the rest of the great stuff. I'm going to see The Lion King on Thursday and can not wait! Who knows what other craziness I will see this week! I bought a cell phone today too so I don't feel so disconnected from the world anymore :-) I'll write again soon! Thanks for all the well-wishes I got from everyone!!!

Me + Ben