Posting at the 66th Hour

I had this vague dream that my blog would be very polished, very contained, and very coherent. I would never just ramble about my day; I'd always have a very specific story to tell--maybe even a thesis statement.

Also, I forgot to take my camera to Buckingham palace.

So while I can't guarantee what future blog posts will hold, I promise that this one may have little coherence and no pictures of Buckingham palace.

It's been a whirlwind since we got here.

The first day felt a bit like: WAIT (this was the 6 hour plane ride) deplane-baggage claim-emigration...WAIT...eat celery-customs-atm-try to call home- fail at calling home-tubestation-buy an oystercard-board tube without dying...WAIT...drag baggage up escalator, down to flights of stairs, three city blocks in the wrong direction, three blocks in the right direction, into hostel...WAIT... try not to fall asleep...WAIT...walk around squares, buy cellphones, eat lunch, walk some more...WAIT...call home(succeed this time), move into room, unpack, do battle with shower...WAIT...walk to find dinner, eat dinner...WAIT...try not to fall asleep and fail. Sleep for 12 hour. It was completely uneventful, but still a whirling dervish of a day. I had been in London 13 hours and without sleep for 30.

No longer sore and sleep deprived, Saturday was much more leisurely. Even after 12 hours of sleep, I was up and VERY awake. My roommates were still asleep and it was too early for breakfast, so I ate my emergency grapefruit and set out for the wide world. London is by no means on a grid, but the street seemed generally straighter than the night before.

The afternoon held a trip to the grocery store and to the British museum. We went intending to see an Native American exhibit, which we did, but we also ended up standing in a stairwell, stareing at an engraving of roman numeral and talking about Queen Victoria's line of succession. This discussion may have included a plot to put Princess Beatrice on the throne by seducing Princes William, Harry, and Andrew. I am living with good people. That evening included singing happy birthday (loudly) at a quite swanky Italian restaurant, and cheering on a straight-jacketed juggler in Covent Garden with most of the students on my program.

And by that point I'd only been here for 40 hours.

By this point, My Roommate the Chem Major needed some greenery. London is very green, especially compared to, say New York, which just lumps all the green in the middle. There are squares of varying sizes every couple of blocks, and ivy and window boxes lodged in every possible cranny. (no pictures, sorry.) But this girl more or less lives in the Arb at school, so she needed some park time. We hiked through Trafalgar square to St. James park, which looks like it could be the setting of Sunday in the Park with George. It has the weeping willows and everything, but not ladies with fancy parasols. We than wound our way around Buckingham Palace, down the Grand Mall to Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster castle.

We arrived back at the hostel for orientation at hour 57. Yikes!

...and I have to go to class tomorrow?

Love,
The Mouse