The Journey Here - 2 (great big long post)

Some pictures and a few stories for ya. Picture it, London, 2011:

I woke up, apparently the only one who slept on the plane, just in time to see my first sunrise in the UK:

Well, hello there, England.

After cajoling our luggage into submission on two trains, we made it to Paddington Station:

The beautiful archways seem to empower the pigeons, who have remarkable aim.

And promptly got lost. We got our bearings after looking at a map for 10 minutes, giving up and asking a hotel doorman which way we should go. We were only two blocks away from our hotel.

Since it was only 7 am, we couldn't check in, but thankfully they let us leave the rebellious luggage. Then it was off to breakfast, and lots of errands.

Like me buying new shoes, because I couldn't take the walking in mine.

Most of this was uneventful- turns out opening a bank account in the UK is just as boring as opening one in the US- so for your enjoyment, here are a bunch of ok pictures of beautiful things!

Cheap Strongbow is a beautiful thing.

Father-Daughter time over some fish and chips!

Sight seeing on top of a double-decker tour bus. London from the River Thames.

Me and my Aunt Phoebe, enjoying the sunny-but-cool weather.

Going across Tower Bridge.

Big Ben!

I read his sweatshirt as "Student fart" because I'm 12.

And if I ever get homesick, I can go here and judge their BBQ:

Nothing says home like paying $40 for mashed potatoes.

And now, for pictures with stories:

So, there are a few culture shock things that I've encountered. Some of them you expect, like the look you get from a cashier when you inevitably refer to British Sterling as "bucks" or "dollars." Some of them catch you by surprise, like going to Argos to buy things for your dorm.

"It's a big shop, they have lots of stuff you can find there, blankets and hair dryers, anything. And at discount prices, and with guarantees."

So you thank the helpful hotel desk clerk and you follow his directions to Argos. And you hear it's like a Target, and you're excited for some kind of familiarity because it's been a long day full of new things.

You see the door sign from the street, a bright beacon of wonderful retail therapy, and you walk in and see.... computers. And little papers and tiny pencils.

After the "these are not the droids I'm looking for" moment, it turned out to be kind of cool. You browse through a touch screen for your items, write down the number and bring it up to a clerk. If they have it somewhere in back, you pay for it and they bring it to you. So as long as you don't mind blindly trusting a picture to depict what you need, it's pretty brilliant.

Aside from a disastrous attempted trip to campus, and an equally disastrous trip to Tesco through the seedy outskirts of London (only to arrive 15 minutes too late to buy a phone), everything has been splendid.

And even though I still take too long to count out change, I'm adjusting fairly quickly. For example, it only took a brief few seconds to realize that my new iron takes a while longer to change temps than my old one.

A few seconds is all it takes to burn a triangle into your shirt.

But if things get crazy I can just look out my dorm window.

Oh, right! It's ok because I live in London now.