A Fish Out of Water Across the Pond

Cheers! Greetings! Salutations! It is day four of my little rendezvous here in London (although as the director of BADA has so firmly said: “This is NOT a holiday.”) and so far, the city and the people have treated me very well.

Day One: Arrived at Heathrow around 7 in the morning – was happy that flight time was shorter than expected but not so happy about the possibility of having to wait longer for a comfortable bed to crash in. After nearly having a nervous breakdown the night before about not getting through customs, it took about 8 minutes and the workers were very friendly. Grabbed my bag right away and hopped on the tube. Here is where I made my first rookie (or I suppose I should say Yankee) mistake: There is a small area reserved for luggage on the tube. But thinking that multiple empty seats and space on the tube was going to remain, I plopped down in a seat with my large bag blocking most of the aisle. Well, soon the tube was completely packed from wall to wall. My hope that people would get off was not realized so I had to be that girl and made everyone make room for me as I tried to get off the tube. Then there were the stairs. Ah, the stairs. Second rookie mistake: Wearing a cardigan and a heavy coat. Let’s just say by the time I got to the hotel after lugging around 70lbs of luggage, I was a hot mess. Thankfully, the very nice people at the London Marriott Regents Park saw me coming from a good 500 ft. away (hopefully couldn’t smell me…) and came to my rescue. And despite the fact it was 9:30 in the morning, my room was ready. Thanks to whoever for the good luck this day. Really needed it.

Do I look like a native yet?

Day Two: Rookie Mistake #3 (I should have a counter or something for this) – Thinking that jetlag wasn’t going to be an issue. Let’s just say I went to bed at 6am and woke up at 12. Whoops. Anyway, so I hopped back on the tube to go meet Chantel at Heathrow. I guess the good luck gods were feeling generous and made a meeting that could have gone wrong so many different ways go perfectly. We managed to get to Terminal 1 at the same time without any prior communication via phone and Facebook. Score 1 for the Americans. After derping around a bit in the airport trying to find the underground and then getting an oyster card (some very nice people came to our help), we got on the tube. Then at the transfer came those hated stairs again – and this time we had three very heavy bags to lug up. Then, in a sweeping gesture of British hospitality, two natives helped us take the bags up the stairs, to the line we needed and off the tube at our stop. Didn’t catch the nice gentleman’s name but Madeline became our first British friend. We chatted a bit and thanked her greatly. Realizing that neither of us had eaten in almost 24 hours, we headed out to an Indian place nearby and smashed. The guy serving us was really cute, but was clearly trying to upsell us like crazy. We weren’t buying it.  One thing we’ve noticed: people here talk very quietly. We felt like we were almost whispering during all of dinner and on the tube as well. So gotta work on that one.

Day Three: So the day before Chantel and I had asked the front desk for directions to BADA from the hotel. The guy was said it was super close and about a 20 minute walk. Well, a 20 minute walk with 5 suitcases (between the two of us) means an hour and a half walk with lots of stops along the way. It was an absolutely beautiful neighborhood to walk through (sort of like Dundee but way better, for Omaha friends) and I’m sure the locals got a kick out of the two of us struggling mightily with our luggage. Thankfully we got some motivation when we looked to our left and saw a giraffe roaming by.

Oh, hey look, a giraffe…

…oh, it’s the London Zoo!

Yep, BADA is just down the street from the London Zoo, another pro to add to the long list. Just as we thought we were going to die, a very nice guy asked us “Here for BADA?” and directed us across the street where a bus was waiting to take us to our apartments. Thank God. Got settled into our apartment and then got lunch at the pub down the street. Unfortunately made the mistake of crashing from 7pm to 10pm. Guess the jetlag hasn’t quite worn off yet. Oh well, at least I was able to unpack everything (which those of you who know me well is a miracle).

Day Four: So our empty kitchen was in need of some love, so today was grocery shopping day. Going grocery shopping to fill an empty kitchen is always stressful, but this was a little more stressful than usual. First of all, I’m used to only shopping for two people instead of four. Then there were a fair number of things we got that were not called the same thing as they are in the United States. Also, I don’t think the little grocery store was used to people with large orders. Rookie Mistake #4: Assuming that our things could be split 3 ways. Also you bag your own groceries here. So again, we were those people by causing a very long line to form behind us as we frantically threw things into bags. Then there was the task of carrying all of it back to our apartment. I guess people in London don’t usually struggle with lots of groceries because we got plenty of odd looks as we waddled back to our apartments. My arm muscles have gotten more work the last couple days than they have in a year. Sign of things to come? After we got our groceries, my roommate Gabby (who’s a year long student) showed us around Oxford St., which is probably comparable to The Grove/3^rd Street Promenade in LA except bigger and longer. Absolutely beautiful and really tempting to spend a lot of money. It will be a struggle not to do that.  

Oxford Street

The group is going out to dinner tonight at a pub called the Beehive. We’re taking a tour of London tomorrow. In an attempt to not make this post eight million years long, I’ll stop here. Ta-ta for now!

KP

Rookie Mistake Counter:  4

P.S. Add me on Skype! My username is broadwaybabykp (don’t judge me, I was in high school). I probably won’t be able to video chat much because our data allotment per week is not very much, but I still appreciate chat/phone calls J