In London

Wow, remember how I was freaking out and stuff? That was so completely unnecessary. The flights went smoothly, my luggage was not lost, I peed without incident, and arrived in London rather exhausted but otherwise in good shape. And let me tell you something about London....it is everything I wanted it to be and more. And I'm saying that without even seeing the central city! My flat is in a place called Nido Housing in the neighborhood of Islington. I looked up the wrong place online, so it was a wee bit disappointing when my room was not the penthouse style arrangement I thought it was going to be, but I'll be out and about enough anyway, so it doesn't really matter all that much. Plus my roomie Carrie is super cool and nice and has been here since August so she has a wealth of info to offer for my seemingly endless questioning.

Here's a brief tour of my room, if you're interested:

There's only six people in my specific program, but there's a bunch more Americans attending London Metropolitan University, so although some of my trips and outings are just the six people, there's more variety in people to hang out with than I expected, which is nice (although my GSE group is pretty kick ass, I must say).

I know I talked extensively about how I was going to eat fish and chips ASAP, but unfortunately I still have not been able to make that dream a reality. In fact, I have yet to have a proper British meal. My first day here I had lunch at a French restaurant and dinner at an Italian place, the next day my plans for take away (take out) after the pubs somehow turned into McDonald's (I am so ashamed, but I couldn't fight the majority vote), and this afternoon my need for caffeine drove me to Starbuck's. To redeem myself, I did have a pound crossaint (cost, not weight) and a cup of coffee from a little outside food stand called Cafe Benjamin in Camden. And fish and chips WILL HAPPEN soon. I will make sure of it.

On the bright side, I did succeed in some parts of my self-designated scavenger hunt (see previous blog).
The first day here, I was riding the elevator with a couple other people, and a man with a walkie talkie was sort of laughing to himself and mumbled something along the lines of "bloody rum trumpy" to no one in particular. It's not "bloody hell," but it was still pretty hilarious, and he was bald so he could have been potenially ginger. Therefore, I award myself ten points. Additionally, this same man proceeded to engage in the following conversation with another man who entered the elevator soon after the bloody rum incident:
New man looking at hair straightner that Potential Ginger is holding in his hand: "Are you using that on your hair?"
Potential Ginger: "Only on my chest hair" and gets out of elevator.
I think that's worth a good twenty points if I do say so myself.

Also, I get 8 points for going to a pub! Or I guess 16 for going to two? Last night, we went to Camden and visited The Leaky Cauldron.....gotcha! Just kidding. Actually, we went to the Elephant's Head and somewhere else nearby (I forget the name). I drank a pint of London Pride

and a tequila shot (visible shudder) but it was a nice and mellow (which you wouldn't think would happen where tequila was involved, but stranger things have happened), and I look forward to more of the pub scene, especially where accented men are involved.

Speaking of accented men, American boys, listen up.Why can't you flatter American girls as much as Europeans do? When I was having key troubles (and locked my key in my room, surprise, surprise) both security guards I talked to fixed my problem and added a "There you are, my lovely." And to top it off, my second day in London and first trip to Camden market resulted in a wedding proposal as the answer to my dilema about which dress to buy ("Marry me, and you can have them all.")

I love flattery. And Europe. And I sort of miss you stateside suckers too.

<3
Sarah