My first Few Days

To start, I'm so sorry it took me so long to get my blog up. It was a mixture of laziness and lack of time. So here's what happened 3 weeks ago. lol . . .

My trip to london . . . wow, where to start . . .Well the flight went well. It was long and boring. I sat by the same British guy on both flights - he zonked out 5 minutes into each flight though. So i was pretty much bored. I did flight by the huge fire in LA. It was so cool! Sadly, my camera was above me so i didn't get really good pics of it.

After my flight and discovering that one of the suitcases i brought had broken on the trip, i had the great pleasure of figuring out the tube and how it works. Meanwhile, there were no elevators, just good old stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. If it weren't for the nice couple of guys who helped me out occasionally, it would have been terrible - oh wait it was! I got blisters on my hands from it! Also, I got lost on the tube - it's london 's subway. Not an easy place to haul luggage. It was an complete nightmare!

It was already extremely hard to haul the luggage in the first place. Now you have to add stairs, people, uneven pavement, stairs, climbing into the cars of the tube, and stairs. The bags hurt my arms so much!

Well after all this, i finally made it to the paddington station where i had already spoke to a hotel and they were holding a room for me. Here in london though, maps aren't too easy to read and street signs appear only at the end of the street. Not so great when ur in the middle of one. So as I walked up and down the street, which seemed like forever because while the streets are paved there aren’t nice like the U.S. – they tend to be uneven and bumpy. I was tired and in lots of pain and I bet I looked really stupid. Finally I gave up and went into the first decent looking hotel and asked for rates. The receptionist helped me with my bags and gave me a discount on the room. He also gave me his phone number. It was an okay room. Nothing too fancy or special. But it worked, only at night since the doors are so close and the walls are thin, I put my suitcase in front of the door because it sound like someone was trying to get in every time the neighbor went in and out. Plus they were loud.

Well I decided to go look around and explore a bit. This was after I called mom and dad (from by the way a red phone booth like the movies and typical London pics). I was just looking about and observing the great architecture of the area. It was most old Victorian style buildings and everything was extremely close by. On the roads there is hardly room enough for cars to go by without hitting each other; stores and houses share the same wall; there’s no painted lines to guide cars while they drive (there are however signs that say which way to look before crossing). It was a pretty place and neat too.

So while I’m just browsing around, I run into a couple groups of kids about my age. I decided to follow them to see what attraction they were going to (they were tourists). They ended up going to the Nottingham carnival. It’s a carnival to celebrate the end of summer I guess. Well, it really just looked like a mix between a Marty Gra and a rave party. Plus it seems like everyone smokes in London ! And I mean like everyone! Also a good majority drink and get drunk. The carnival was like a hundreds of people doing that. There also was a DJ playing out of a semi truck with the back missing and a band of kids playing on tin instruments. But for the most part it was just a crazy rave!

Well I decided not to stay long. I left and did pretty good getting back for about 3 streets, then I could remember which way I came from. I got lost, like big time. I wondered around attempting to find the hotel for a good hour before an idea struck me. I could follow the buses. (I couldn’t ride them because I only had like 20 pence – like 40 cents. The rest of my money was at the hotel along with my map and wallet. Can u say not so smart?! Well, I followed the great big red buses that go everywhere, and not just any bus. I followed the one headed for Paddington station. It’s right by the hotel. It was a number 27 bus. It took me a good half hour to realize it wasn’t the right 27 bus I was following. Mind u following a bus isn’t easy. The buses wiz through traffic and I didn’t want to look stupid and literally run after it. So I would just rely on the bus stopping at all the stops to catch up to it. To make a story short, Eventually I was able to find the right bus and area of my hotel. But it did take me a long time. Best part was that at least I made it to the hotel before it was dark.

At the hotel, I tried getting my adaptor to work but couldn’t and my laptop battery was low so that’s why I didn’t email anyone. It also cost a ton to call so I didn’t do that either. Sorry everyone. So pretty much that was my first day.

Day two was spent mostly sleeping. I slept until about 2 pm. After that I went down to the receptionist area to hand in key (u turn it in when u leave and get it back when u return). Well the guy at the counter started talking to me and offered to show me hyde park – it’s a huge, beautiful, popular park in westminister and kenningston, close to the hotel. So we went to the park and it was nice until he started acting all weird and creepy. Of course he is Egyptian and didn’t understand what the word “creepy” meant or the saying “you’re creeping me out”. But at least he was nice. I was so happy when he got called back to the hotel. Freedom, without being rude. He also gave me his phone number.

After that I just went out on a little night walk staying close to the hotel. What I found was that there are a lot of Arab/Muslims in London or at least this part. It was crazy – they were everywhere it seemed. Okay that’s an exaggeration, but still there was quite a bit.

Tuesday – the day I go 2 richmond - proved much like first. It was a complete pain hauling the luggage to and about the tube station, especially since the broken suitcase started to just drag along. Then I had to switch lines, which is hard when u don’t know much about the tube. Then I missed my exit to switch lines and had to try and back track. Meanwhile, all this meant stairs and lots of hauling. It gets worst, the tube I was on got delayed and wasn’t going into Richmond , so I waited for the next one.

Finally when I got to Richmond (the city), I had no clue how to get to the school. I attempted to read the bus map and about got it down but I had no idea where to buy the bus pass/ticket at. Well a half hour later and many trips between the bus stop and the tube station, I gave up and got a taxis. The school was close by so it didn’t cost much. Then of course my luck had it that the taxis dropped me off at the bottom of queen’s road. This meant a long (took me over ten minutes but I had help near the end) trip up hill pushing one suitcase and dragging the other broken one. Then there was all the crap and mess up s at the school which I still have to officially take care of tomorrow.

After this, I got to drop my stuff off at my flat which is the very top floor with very narrow steps up (btw the hotel had an elevator – it was nice). I didn’t unpack. Instead I just looked around Richmond and the school. There is this nice park thing that was alright – I’m not sure if it’s private property though. Then my roommate and I went and got a phone for me. My roommate is nice. All the kids for the most part here only seem to be interested in going to a local pub (bar) and getting wasted though. Sad, really.