The Not So Stunning Adventures of a Not So Stunning Superhero!

Alright, well hopefully this blog will be a bit more interesting than the last. At very least I've seen more so I think life in London is a lot more interesting than life on a plane but maybe you don't think so. And if you don't think so, it may be time to consider a career in aviation. Or for me to work on my writing skills which is a definite possibility.

Anyway, massive thing I have discovered is that for the most part I love the tube. Seriously there's no driving; once you get the hang of the tube map, very little thinking; and, also once you get the hang of the tube map, if you can find a station, you can eventually get back to someplace familiar enough to get back. The only thing I don't like is when it gets crowded, which it was on the Victoria line today because the Victoria line is connected Victoria station where there are trains to one of the airports and the national rail service.

But the tube can get you about anywhere pretty fast. One of the best things so far has been to discover that the cheap grocery store and a market are right outside one of the tube stations. Yesterday was the first time we went to the market, which was a bunch of booths selling clothes, fruit, meat, and even one had bedding all along this one street. It smelled kind of funny but I got some pretty good tomatoes and plums. There was a lot of noise around it and a lot of different sorts of people. It was one of those places I wish I could hover above and become invisible so I could stay and people watch for ages.

We've also been, as a group, on a couple of walking tours. The first started near the Tower of London, which I thought was pretty cool to see as I've spent way to much time reading the books in the Other Boleyn Girl series (I know, I know). But it so strange to see the actual place. It's huge and has a whole lot of towers in actuality. Apparently their even used to be a zoo in there (okay, I think it was three or four large animals but still). We then moved on and looked at the river where there were three bridges we could see, Tower, London, and Millennium. Millennium is only a walking bridge and yes it is the one torn apart in the Half Blood Prince movie, don't think I've abandon my geekiness. I've also been looking for a cafe on Tottenham Court Road. I had an excuse for being there though; the British History Museum is near there (with an Egyptian display with mummies I might add). So far, I've been their twice and still have only covered maybe half the building. It's huge. Though surprisingly enough, not very much of it is actually British history.

We also got to see Wicked on Thursday. To my friends who have seen Wicked before my comment is now "yeah well I've seen it too and Fiyero and Boc had accents so ha ha". Well the rest of the cast had accents too but Fiyero and Boc were my favorite. Okay, I'll stop being a snob. Or at least I'll try. But I saw Wicked, finally!

Classes haven't started yet; I found out non-Central ones don't start till next week which is a little annoying. I surprisingly enough want to study. I guess next week, I'll have to sight-see a little more or something. I have Central classes on Thursday and we have a day trip to Cambridge on Friday.

Anyway, hope I haven't bored you too much. If you've read this far, I'm afraid you don't win a prize. We were told if you felt a sway while on the Millenium bridge you won a prize but I tend to doubt that (especially since this was the same tour guide who pointed out the dedication to St. Arbucks in London. Very amusing tour guide).

Pretty Snazzy?

Right, so I told quite a few people I'd start a blog so I suppose it's probably best that I try and start one now that I'm actually in London. Specifically in my room at Vandon House, on my computer in my room. Pretty snazzy? Sure, let's go with that.

Anyway, so far, I've been in London for about seven hours. One of those was spent sleeping and almost three were spent getting to the place where I would be sleeping. Probably a good thing I went with a group of people. My sense of direction has not magically improved by crossing the Atlantic.

Anyway, summary so far, I went to Des Moines Airport, got on a plane to Atlanta after meeting up with some other people studying abroad in London this semester through Central, got to Atlanta and eventually got on this huge plane. I mean, really huge. And there were television touch screens in the back of the chairs where you could choose between a bunch of movies and some games (including Bejeweled and Zuma) and, what I spent most of my time on since my headphones weren't working with it very well, this map that shows you the flight route and estimated time to arrival, ect. I think I've picked up two words in French from that thing.

Right, guessing you don't care a whole lot about the plane, right? I wouldn't either (although I did find the games part down right fascinating). Eventually we got off the plane and went through border control (where out of our group of six, the process ranged from some of us getting two questions to some getting twenty to some getting fingerprinted. I was just asked two). Eventually we got on the Gatwick Express and went to Victoria before walking to Vandon House.

We saw a lot of houses and things on the Gatwick Express. Maybe I'm the only one who find it cool but then I'm not used to row houses. They looks so cute to me and there's so much made with brick. I'm used to most things, especially houses, being made with wood and covered by siding. It's different. Really pretty if you ask me and since this is my blog, I'm going to assume you did.

We walked through a more commercial area to get to Vandon House, lots of shops and things. I haven't yet seen Big Ben but I have now seen a British edition of the Biggest Loser. There's a television in the room and I may have turned it on and fell asleep for about an hour. I have since wandered out though with Kristen because I wanted my computer to charge and needed a converter.

Anyway, that's it for this fairly boring post but I thought I should probably say something. Overall summary: I'm here and I'm alive.