LONDON! Seriously!

This morning, as my toast was toasting, I looked out the window to the people on the street and the short buildings across the way.  Then I had a silent freak-out moment that I was in London, what was I doing here?  Oh yeah, I'm here to study and see the world and experience new stuff and make friends for a lifetime and come back a better person than I was.  But even so, I have to be in LONDON to do that!  It's crazy!  Then my toast finished and life was normal again.

Today, the Underground was on strike.  Boo.  I initially thought that meant the ENTIRE Underground wasn't working so the buses would be packed.  But on the bus to Euston station, I saw quite a few stations that actually WERE open.  This made me wonder. . . .

At Euston, I looked at the Overground trains and wondered if I had enough money on my Oyster card to take one.  (The stupid Oyster top-up machines won't accept my card because it's American.  I have to resolve the fact that I have to withdraw 50 quid just to stick it on my card.  Such an inconvenience.)  Then I noticed a few people with flyers that said "how to get around London during a Tube strike".  Those were my people.  I asked a woman if some of the Tube was still running, she asked where I needed to go, and I said I needed to get to Northwick Park station.  The Baker Street Station was apparently still open and the Metropolitan line still running past zone 1, so that's what I took.

Good thing too.  I've had enough of unfamiliar transport.  Lucky for me, I left three hours before class to give me enough time to get to class.  Managed to get there at three so that was nice.

In the courtyard, Devon saw me and we started talking.  I told her that I needed a travel partner for Edinburgh and she said she would go with me.  We'll be adding each other on Facebook and making plans very shortly.  I'll be sending her the link to the hostel I want to stay at.  It's a cheap hostel and it got good ratings on Hostelworld.com, so I trust it.  I don't know how much or how long it'll take to get there by train, but I'll figure that out later.

We talked about characters in movies in class today.  It took two hours before we got a break, and we relished in it.  We really did.  I bought a Mars bar.  They're good, Mars bars.  Got my chocolate fix because of that.  The second part of the class, we talked about Classical Hollywood Narrative.  It was interesting, but I still filled a notebook page of doodles.

Oh, I'm still here to study?  That's too bad.

Vicky was meeting a bunch of friends after class and neither Devon or Chloe could come out.  So I kind of felt bad and went with her.  It was a good time.  Sam was suuuper excited I was from Wisconsin, from America, like, the States!  No joke.  He was also fairly drunk.  I still laughed at him.  Probably the first time I had someone give me that "You're an international student?  No way!  That's amazing!" look.  I know I've given that look before.  I had no idea what to say to that, so I just laughed and didn't say anything.  What was I supposed to say? 

I left about nine (to Vicky's dismay, but I was tired and I had stuff to do before I went to bed.  Besides, I have to get up early tomorrow).  The tube ride back wasn't bad, but the WALK back was horrible.  Since Lambeth North station was closed, I got off at Waterloo since it's closer than the other option, which was Elephant and Castle.  Maybe I would have been better off at Elephant and Castle because, yet again, I got turned around walking out of Waterloo station. 

There was another silent freak-out moment walking in Waterloo.  There were the platforms with all the trains and the sight was so NOT American that I went "I'm in London.  Not just any part of London, but Waterloo station!  It's so famous, I'm actually familiar with the name Waterloo!  I'm in Waterloo station!  And it's big and wide and would feel like Heathrow except there aren't any planes.  There are TRAINS here!"  And then I had to find the exit because I was hungry and wanted to get home.

Mini-pizza and chicken tenders for dinner.  The Brits need to be introduced to ranch sauce.  How could they live without it?

Called Smoky.  Called Mom and Dad (get on Skype more!  I prefer video chat).  IM'd with Ali.  Finished watching Full Metal Alchemist.  And now I'm going to bed.  Good night.