Tyler London Summer

Check Ignition And May God's Love Be With You

I flew out of Detroit last night and made it into London this morning. For some reason I could not sleep on the plane so I made it all the way through "The Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie. I thought it was very well written, however, some of the dream sequences were a little off the wall. I am now running on 28 hours straight of no sleep, and hopefully I can stay up a few more hours so that I can resume a normal pattern in the morning.

Besides the insomnia, the flight was tolerable. There were no delays, and I didn't end up stuck next to a fat slob. I even lived it up in my cramped coach seat drinking Red Wine out of the plastic drink cup and eating string cheese. We got into Gatwick at about 9:30 in the morning. Due to an obscenely long wait for the passport check, I didn't get out of the airport until about 11:30. This is where the fun began.

For some reason the baggage handlers took half the bags off the carousel, but left the other half of the bags for my flight on the carousel. Hence, I found my one suitcase in the line and then it took me 20 min to realize there were bags from my flight still going around. My large suitcase was also torn over the course of the flight. Luckily I did not lose any clothes or books. I did a juggling act with the bags to find the train (The Gatwick Express), which I took to Victoria. I then left my Puma jacket on the train and had to bang on the window before the train left to get it back. I then attempted to get on the Tube to King's Cross with luggage. In the process of doing this, My bookbag came open and I spilled all of my belongings out across the walkway in Victoria Station. I then gave up and hailed a cab the rest of the way. Then I had a mentally deficient cab driver who could not find his way to my residence hall. In summary, I got to the dorm at 1:30 (was then locked out because no one was at the front desk) and my shoulders are still aching from carrying all the bags. I am going to split a cab with someone on the way back to Gatwick, that was absurd.

My room here at the John Dodgson House is nice. It is about the same size as a single dorm room at U of M, with nicer furniture. I have a corner desk so I can work on one side and have the computer on the other. It also gets cleaned once a week. I have my own bathroom and shower which is nice. My only complaint is a lot of road noise because I am on the ground floor facing out onto a major road. Although its usually the opposite problem in the UK, the shower head is insanely strong and has a wide radius to the point of almost hurting me. They also only provided one towel. I am not sure whether I am supposed to put it down on the floor and air dry or to get the bathroom all wet. I am going to attempt to purchase a new one tomorrow. The toilet is similarly high powered though, which is a good thing.

I was a little upset and homesick, when I first got here but I think it is going to be better than I thought. The fact that someone in the vicinity is broadcasting free wireless internet is a definite plus. I also got to see where everything is and there is a health club near by so I won't be completely alienated from my normal routine.

We had our introductory meeting and the excursions through the trip sound fun. I get to go to Bath and Stonehenge again which I highly enjoyed and we also are going to Cambridge and Greenwich along with numerous sites around London. We also got a nice dinner at a gourmet homemade pizza place paid for by the University. Though, I did feel a bit weird wolfing down my pepperoni pizza when everyone else was getting exotic pizzas or vegan non-cheese pizzas. But then again I don't think one's amount of culture is necessarily dictated by pizza preference.

It is also sort of intimidating being with 15 girls and only 3 guys. I'm going to settle in this week and probably won't do that much traveling. Though I may go to some places around London later this week and this weekend to get some pictures. Leave me a Comment.

posted by tyler @ 7:42 PM