Arrival

10/1

I arrived in London on January 10 at London Heathrow airport.  Coincidentally, I ended up next to two fellow badgers on the plane (one who was studying in Dublin, the other in Milan, but both spending the weekend in London), so I was able to stick with them in the airport and on the Underground (aka the Tube).  Of course I was excited to finally have arrived, but I was mostly just exhausted!  The houses on the way to my stop at Gloucester Road (pronounced Glouster, so weird) looked very country and Privet Drive-esque (Harry Potter reference!).  Getting through customs and the tube were easy compared to the trek to my check-in spot.

I got off the tube with my heavy backpack and even heavier luggage.  When I arrived at two flights of steep stairs a very nice British man helped me carry the larger bag up the stairs! (A very good, but deceiving impression of British hospitality)  Once out of the station I asked a taxi driver to take me to the address- 3-7 Queens Gate Terrace-, but he told me I could simply walk there. "Two blocks up, take a right".  Well, to my unpleasant surprise, every single street in that area is 'Queens Gate' something or other and his directions were incorrect. I spent about 25 minutes wandering around a two block span.  Just as I was about to go into a full on panic attack a nice British woman helped me get there and it turns out I was only a block away!

After check-in I walked up one more block to my flat at 37 Hyde Park Gate.  I am in the Kensington neighborhood, the most wealthy neighborhood in London.  Some of the flats here (which is one floor of a 4 or 5-story building) cost 2,000 pounds a week or 300 million pounds to buy.  The exchange rate is double our money, sooooo double the pounds and that's how much they cost. It's insane!  The area we are in is also very safe because we are surrounded by embassies.  The Dutch embassy is one neighbor.  Near the Kensington Palace (home to Kate, William and Harry), the Israeli and Russian embassies are heavily secured.  I've also seen the Thai and Bangladesh embassies.

I am on the second floor and have 3 roommates, who I get along with pretty well.  Our flat faces Hyde Park, which I think we walked through today, honestly they all look the same!  There are 6 other rooms on our floor and I've made friends with some of the other girls too.  

After I got settled in I took a long nap, but even on day 2 in London I'm still exhausted.  We had an orientation cocktail hour type event where I sampled lots of food that I still can't even identify.  We also went to a couple convenience stores with lots of brands and food I've never heard of.  After a few girls from my floor had some wine then went to a pub down the street called Gloucester Arms.  I tried a beer that I did not understand the name of and it was pretty good.

So far it's been really awesome, however what you hear about British hospitality is true.  Not very pleasant!