Maniacs, Dogs, Mazes, Instruments and Real Sugar!... My strange adventures in London...

So most people with Blogs like this would tell you that I went to Buckingham Palace today or that I spent Thursday night taking pictures of Parliament and The London Eye for a while but if you are interested Rachel's blog has a really lovely accounting of those trips and some pictures too! I am going to tell you about some of the strange things I have seen since I got here.

First, Londoners are ridiculous drivers! At home we complain about old people driving and our families but the people here are maniacs! They have two speeds for driving here in London: GO! and STOP! I could not believe that there are not more accidents involving motorists, but I guess since everyone drives like maniacs the only people you have to watch out for are pedestrians who can't duplicate the behavior of the maniac drivers.

Second, we have dogs. I truly believe that almost 80% of the population of London have dogs and that they were all in Hyde Park on Thursday when I was walking through. I can't remember seeing that many dogs in one place before. I saw all different breeds and sizes of dogs, even some with sweaters on! We even saw a police dog tonight checking for drugs on people coming out of our tube stop and it wasn't some big German shepherd or rottweiler but this cute fuzzy dog that you would expect to see a as a family pet in the suburbs of the US.

The third position goes to the Underground. The Underground, aka the Tube, is exactly what it is call, its a series of tubes. Never have I experienced anything quite like it before. Except for our home tube stop of Angel on the Northern Line, every other station seems to change every time we make a trip there. The worst one is King's Cross. King's Cross is on of the largest tube stations in the system and it never seems to keep changing every time we go through there. Rachel and I believe that the group that runs the Underground keeps changing the hallways in the station. We think they are doing it just to mess with the Americans who are new to the system. More likely however is that we just finding new passages to different tube terminals.

If a series of tubes wasn't bad enough, the tube performers are a sight to behold. This is only my second day riding the tube and in that time I have seen a harpist, clarinetist, guitarist, a bagpipe player, and someone playing a "miniature" didgeridoo. The few, proud musicians put the poor saps in the US to shame. In the US you only see violinists and the occasional saxophone player but here you have noble people who play things like a full stringed harp for money. I am still holding out hope to run into someone who is able to get a grand piano into the tube station and play for the commuters rushing by. I will empty my pocket of all the cash I have to the bold person that does that.

Finally we have real sugar. I have officially fell in love with soda once again. This is due to the fact that here in England Coke and other sodas are made with real sugar and not high fructose corn syrup. Now to most people this would not be a big deal but to me it is because soda taste 1,000 times better with real sugar and I will really miss it when I go home.

Well that's all for now. Cheers!

One weird morning...

So its day two today and my flatmates and I had a very weird awakening this morning. Housekeeping showed up this morning at around 9:20 am. We were told last night that housekeeping would be coming around but we didn't know that they would be here today. Luckily it turns out that our housekeeper had her time wrong and isn't going to be starting until next week which is good since we have only been here one day.

Well, I have arrived... hopefully I have survived...

So my first day went pretty smoothly. I am pretty exhausted but I am trying to stay up a little longer so I don't wake up at 3 am feeling well rested tomorrow. Rachel and I ate dinner at a very lovely pub tonight who served really good food but we are still unsure what the tipping etiquette is here in London. However, I am now unpacked and as settled in as I am going to be. I am really looking forward to getting some rest tonight but I have a slight problem. My bed is on wheels and I have this sneaky suspicion that while I sleep my wheeled bed is going to be sliding across the floor. I have had enough motion sickness problems so far on this trip that the last thing I need is to get motion sickness while I am resting! Grrrr!

Stop One: The Hotel...

Here I am at the Embassy Hotel waiting for my flight tomorrow which will take us to London. The rooms are nice and the food is good but sadly overpriced. This hotel is pretty cool because it has a small stream running down the center complete with fishes and a pair of ducks. I can't wait to get going on this trip. The suspense is pretty obnoxious. Sadly there is a seven hour excursion inside of a flying metal tube (not fun). Wish me luck.

Procrastination...

Here I am the night before I leave for Philly to stay overnight and then catch my plane the next day and I am not packed yet. I really just felt like procrastinating so I have decided to post another entry. Woohoo! I get the feeling that most of the post I will make on here are when I am supposed to be doing something and decide to procrastinate instead. I'm about 85% packed and I am not really looking forward to doing anymore work, but I must press on. In less than 24 hours I will be leaving Central Pennsylvania and in less than 48 hours I will be leaving the country not to return for 4 months. I am really excited.

Preparing and Packing

Hey everybody. In case you don't know I am spending a semester in London and I am really excited. I really hope to remember to post on this site while I am over there. I am packing up because Rachel and I are leaving on Monday to go stay in Philadelphia until our plane leaves Tuesday. Wish me luck.