With tons of history comes...old buildings.

It's amazing how crazy the actual process of getting to London is. You don't even really think it. You just say: "Two planes. Gatwick Express. Taxi." Simple. 

False. I AM EXHAUSTED. And used to having to follow my parents around when we travel got me spoiled. Getting here...was intense.

The best part of the journey, however, was probably finding out I had been upgraded to first class on my flight to London Gatwick. Any other first class, not that big of a deal. But first class on an eight hour flight to London... BIG DEAL. And we regular economy class sitting citizens have no idea such things that are being hidden from us in the first class. So I will relate them to you to let it all be known:

-Chair moves every way. not just into a bed. EVERY way. move this move that, you feel like you're on a slow moving Disney ride. 

-You have two lights, one in the ceiling and an adjustable one behind your head

-Before take off you receive your choice of orange juice or champagne; I alas had neither

-you also receive a FULL size pillow and blanket, and the normal travel kit everyone else gets

-Once you are in the air you get your first hot, wet towel, to wipe your hands and face with

-you have 3.5 feet of space in front of you (thereabouts)

-You are brought not a bag of overly salted peanuts, but a glass bowl of assorted boiled nuts...warm. 

-Alcoholic beverages...lots. A luxury I could not participate in.

-Soda in glass cups (not the dumb plastic ones)

-a 3 course meal 1st course, soup, salada, shrimp cocktail with avocados, and three choices of bread, two choices of salad dressing, a TABLE CLOTH for your tray table, 2 forks, 3 knives, 1 spoon, personal salt and pepper shakers, and butter for bread

-main course, is sorta the typical

-dessert: your choice of assorted cheeses or ice cream sundae. You can probably guess what I had.

-cool tv

-we have our own private potty so dirty economy class people don't mess around in it.

-they give you Dasani water bottles every three seconds

-oh and 2nd hot, wet towel much later on in flight

Yes, that was my experience. The only downsides: Left leg was numb so I didn't sleep, food wasn't all that great, and the guy I was sitting next to slept the whole time with his chair in bed mode so I couldn't climb over him to go to the bathroom! BAD.

Blah blah, got to Victoria Station, got a nice taxi guy, and saw a whole bunch of buildings that I said to myself (I remember those PERFECTLY, but not what they are / were for) haha. hopefully we'll do some good site seeing because classes and shows. 

I miss being able to text or call people whenever I wanted. You have no idea how often you look at your cell phone, until you realize you're looking constantly at a phone you can do nothing with. not cool.

We got to Langton Close, which is our residence hall on a street off of Gray's Inn Road. It, itself, is nothing to talk about. But definitely makes my dorm room back at Duke look like the Grand Floridian Hotel. It still blows my mind how...different England is. I sorta expect them to be up to standards with us, but these buildings are SO OLD (well, our buildings can't compete with hundreds of years). It says something outside our residence hall about how it used to be a sort of hospital (just with nurses I think), I can't remember the date, I'll go look at it again.  The wall papers peeling, my closet is teeeny, and there's a sink in my room. no air conditioning. toilets down the hall you have to crank a couple times to get to flush, and no wireless internet. Definitely a reality check for how easy we have in the US. I try to not take things for granted, but even I sometimes forget. 

Don't get me wrong though, it's fine for a bunch of college kids. But it definitely made me miss my bedroom. still does. the bed is clean at least. 

Charles Dickens lived in a flat not too far from here, I dunno how long ago though. I'll try to go back over there too.

I talked to a girl from Italy today! She's staying at Langton Close and taking class to learn how to speak English, because no one she knows in Italy knows how to speak it. It was really cool! She talked to me, and sometimes used a dictionary and we talked for awhile waiting for the guy who could let us into our rooms to show up. She's working on a film critic magazine that's going to be presented at some festival in the fall in Italy; she showed me some of the stuff she'd been working on, was frustrated I didn't know any of these amazing producers she talked about in some of the articles, and we had a good time just talking. The other kids just talked to each other while we waited, but she was all alone, so I was glad I tried to talk to her. It's so interesting to hear how different people's lives can be just because they were born in a different country. 

We walked to this pretty cool shopping center, with shops, a grocery store, a cosmetics store, and a bunch of restaurants, starbucks, too (theyre everywhere [starbucks], and Pret a Manger). It's a pretty cool little area, I wish I could go shopping there. All these little boutiques with cute clothes; maybe my one item will come from there. 

And even though right now it's 1 pound is a 1.68 dollars; their prices are still exactly what they would be in dollars in the US! it makes me so mad! I got a smoothie for 3.45 pounds at a cute little restaurant we wen to for lunch called Giraffe, and was like dude, this is what I would pay in the US ($3.45). ...frustrating. food is very expensive.

I got from the grocery store waters, chips and salsa, granola bars, and carrots. sounds like a good diet, huh. It's close though so I can go back whenever. It's just hard to pick out food without having all your favorite brands right there; hard to know which is the best brand that everyone buys. I need hangers. 

I'm SO TIRED. 

Tomorrow, I start class at 10:45. Professor Clum is taking us on a tour of the "center of London" he said, and then we're seeing "A Little Night Music" by Stephen Sondheim.

It was, overall, a pretty rough first day, but I'm excited to get this show on the road (buh dun ch) tomorrow. 

More when I can...

Love

Becca