The tube rejected me. No joke.

Ok. London Day Three.

Today was great and not so great. I didn't really go to sleep very well last night for some reason so I was up until five thirty ish? I took a shower around five AM because I can't help but feel clean before I sleep.

I think I'll start with the complaints people have been having lately about the apartment. And when I say people I mean my flatmates. I think I somehow got the best bed in the whole apartment. I've slept on it for three days and it's really comfortable. Also, I managed to get a bed that is in the corner and so I sort of have my own space. I also thought, since it's right next to the door it would be good for me. Sometimes I'm an insomniac and I didn't want to wake my flatmates at, say, five AM.

Also, I have a chest of drawers (yes it's small, but stuff fits in there with a little cramming) and I also have my own closet. It's not in the wall or anything, but it's nice and I have hangers. I was able to hang everything that I brought that didn't need to be all wadded up. So I don't have any complaints except for that it is absolutely freezing in my room. I was so cold last night. I don't know why, but in there it's like fifteen degrees colder than the rest of the flat.

I feel bad for my other suitemate/flatmates. They don't have chest of drawers or closets and their beds are very uncomfortable. I did get here really early though. First come first serve I guess. Silly eight AM arrival time worked out I suppose.

Anyway onto business. The whole group had an orientation with Dr. King today. Dr. Kind is our Hendrix professor traveling with us. He gave us the information we needed to know about tomorrow. I start class tomorrow and all afternoon we have various orientations. I think I get my ULU card tomorrow, but Dr. King said maybe not. Apparently buearacracy is worse in the UK than the US. I am inclined to disbelieve...

Anywho, so we had that meeting and I was sleepy because it was this morning at nine...after I went to bed at five thirty. But Claire and Laura and I had breakfast (Momma - I had some really good yogurt. We don't have stuff as good as this in the US. It. Was. Amazing.) And then we decided we wanted to go exploring. We wanted to walk to Covent Garden because they supposedly have really cool street performers.


Well...somehow we ended up by the river with Big Ben, the parliament building, and the London Eye. Haha. It was a great time. We traversed through Trafalgar square and sort of bustled by Westminster Abbey. I totally enjoyed it because we were so touristy with our cameras and we got to take our time. However...we were gone a long time and I have no idea how far we walked. We finally made it back for lunch and I thought I was going to pass out.

Wrong. Today was Kate's birthday and it also happens to be the weekend of the Notting Hill Music Festival. Apparently the Notting Hill Festival is the largest outdoor music festival in London. When they told me this I should have asked for more information...but no...I just said ok let's go celebrate Kate's birthday. I was thinking something along a small scale like Riverfest or Memphis in May.

I'm pretty sure this little adventure decided for me that I don't want to live in a big city like this. Call me a city slicker, ok fine. But give me a small town kind of city. There must have been a bajillion people on the streets. We had to be careful of the tube travel because some lines were closed and they didn't let you reenter the tube until a certain time. Well we went. I saw a huge mob of people scantily clad, dancing crazily, on drugs, blatantly and belligerntly drunk, and what of the music?

Well...apparently the festival honors a different country every year. This year was Jamaica themed. I like reggae so I thought that the music would be cool. I might have been thinking along the lines of Beale Street in Memphis. NO. No. no. Actually there was some really strange techno rap screamy metal stuff. I'm pretty sure I exploded my second ear drum. Ewww.

So my flatmate Claire and Laura and I and a couple of other girls and one of the guys told the rest of the group that we wanted to leave and they could stay if they liked. They decided to stay and we went off looking for a tube station. Of course we got hopelessly lost and couldn't find a station. As soon as we got out of the nasty crowds we ran into a beautiful catholic church - St. John's. We found ourselves in Kensington, which is a pretty high end neighborhood. That was nice and since it was nice out (it's been sunny all day and around 65 degrees) that we would get dinner from a cheap take-away and eat in Hyde park which we were really close to.

Unfortunately we couldn't find it no matter how hard we tried. We finally just asked a nice looking bobbie - police dude - for directions. He was very nice and very British accenty sounding. When he finished and we finally understood him - we all chorused "Thank you!" (That was for you Momma.)

We did find Hyde park, but it was about to close. Of course. So we finally were able to hop into a tube station for our return trip to Russell Square. Unfortunately when we got out the machine that lets you out and eats your ticket rejected my ticket. Twice. Three times. Four times. SO finally I just went up to a uniformed dude and held up my ticket. I was almost in tears because I was so tired and my whole group was on the other side just looking at me helplessly. I think Erin was about to give me her oyster card. I haven't gotten mine yet because it's cheaper for ULU student cards.

SO. The guy just took a glance at my ticket and pressed some magic button and I was released from the depths of the tube station. I. HATE. the underground. Nothing but bad experiences with it. It's hot and smelly and people here have PDA issues. On our last ride I was next to a couple that really should have just gotten a room.

I was...needless to say...frustrated and hungry when I finally was released from the tube. Claire suggested we just make a frozen pizza so we went to our nicely priced grocery mart on the way home. I got some cookies. Comfort food will do it every time. I'm in a much better mood now and am so excited that classes start tomorrow.

(The oreos here are expensive. I had to settle for regular chocolate chip cookies - although they were really really really good.) Claire and I are sharing them and we still have some cookies and milk left.

Whew.

Let's see...

I definitely need a cooking list Gramner, my night to cook for everybody is probably coming up soon. Someone already stole my taco idea. =(

I really really miss you guys. I'll upload some pictures of my adventures later.

P.S. - there was one cool thing about the Music sketchival. Some Jamaican looking dude was playing music out of a conch shell. That was the extent of my happiness at that hopeless adventure.

The Sketchival...Music Festival

So we found Big Ben!!!