Welcome to London, check your sanity at the door!

I’ve been up for the past 29 hours. Therefore, I reject any responsibilities for bad grammar, poor spelling, or stupid jokes that seem much more humorous after international travel than after a good night’s rest. I landed in London today at around 6:30am (London Time) but it took me a good three hours to get to my dormitory. I recommend this little tip to all London travelers. Do not attempt to take the Tube from Heathrow all the way into central London on the Blue (Piccadilly) Line (and seeing as how this is the only Tube line you can do that on I’d suggest a cab or a bus) during rush hour traffic seeing as how in all the suburbs of London, more people get onto the train than get off of it. I ended up doing that. Had to get off at the South Kensington station in order to change to the Circle (Yellow) Line. Ended up not being able to get back on seeing as how the trains on the Circle and District lines were delayed because police had requested that an old, unexploded, World War II bomb be removed from near the tracks. I didn’t mind them doing this to be honest, but if it hasn’t exploded by now, don’t you think it could wait until after rush hour?

So, I walked from the South Kensington station to King’s Road to get to my dormitory. The walk seemed about a thousand miles long, but then I made it on an empty stomach after fourteen hours of non-stop travel while carrying all my luggage, including a backpack about half my height and a third of my weight. I made the same walk about three hours later with a guide in order to get my rail pass and it seemed a lot shorter then.

Anyway, after I got to King’s Road the dormitory was easy to find as it is the tallest building in the surrounding area at ten stories high, which lets you know that I am not in a very built up area. It’s actually fairly residential and as I type now, I looked out over a large square of houses with a nicely forested central garden from my 8^th floor window. I’m in Chelsea, and I keep expecting Perez Helton to peer his brightly festooned head around from a corner because everywhere I walk I hear people in my program say, “That’s where so and so lives,” or “That’s where A-lister number One had his house but now he sold it to A-lister number Two.” I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it’s quite fun to listen to.

So, I’ve also learned a few lessons, a few pieces of wisdom before I shut down and go completely comatose right around 32 hours of no sleep…I still have time:

1. The lesson mothers teach their kids, to look left and then look right before crossing the street, is going to get me killed. Instead, I have to fight against all instinct, and look right, and then look left, because otherwise, while I see an empty street while looking left, the large car on my right is running me down because I am an idiot, and a sleep deprived one that cannot quite work through the wrong side of the road thing right now.

2. McDonalds will take over the world someday. There’s one right down the street from my dormitory. But, if McDonalds is the only fast food I see in a 24 hours period, then everything is A-OK.

3. I have discovered the secret to driving in London. The lines on the road are merely for decoration and should be ignored and avoided at all cost, even if this means swerving into oncoming traffic, nearly running over motorcycles, bicycles, and baby carriages, and that yellow lights, and the first five seconds of a red light, actually mean, “Hurry up, slowpoke!”.

4. Traveling alone has its pros and cons. If you get the chance to travel and have to do it alone, do it, don’t worry about it. You’ll make friends. I’ve already found a group of people that I’m hanging out with. But, at the same time, there were a few moments of being overwhelmed that would have been spared had I had someone with me. After all, even for a fairly independent traveler, when you arrive in a city as big as London and are suddenly stuck with the realization that you don’t know a soul in the entire country, much less the entire city and you’re going to be living here for six weeks. It gets pretty scary, pretty quickly. But, I can tell you from experience, it’s worth it.

Well, I think I’ve just about exhausted my writing abilities for tonight, and my vocabulary for that matter given the fact that I had to take a break I’m now pushing my barrier of consciousness. I’ll be sure to add more tomorrow, or, sometime soon anyway.