London: First Weekend-10% Enrichment

My first weekend in London has been one of a lot of jet lag and a lot of cultural experiences. The first was of course arriving in Heathrow Intl. My flight on Virgin Atlantic was all but restful in my wonderfully small economy seat. To my left sat a tall black man who sounded like he was from some African country like Ghana or Senegal. Maybe Algeria, but thats not the point. The point was he was REALLY tall and wanted to complain about it every two seconds.

Anyway, great flight with seemingly everything in sight being red. Although I got no sleep because the tall guy was leaning on me all night after he nodded off to sleep, still was fun. I got to watch the Karate Kid, which was actually pretty good despite the fact that i knew how the plot would be during the entire movie. Jackie Chan actually makes a pretty good Kung Fu master guy.

Upon my arrival in the UK, I stood in line with like 10 other people from my program waiting for customs to approve my entry. Most people decided to take a taxi, but myself and a few others huffed it on the tube. It was pretty expensive, at 4.50 pounds, but when we got to orientation, we all got something called an Oyster card. This is like a smart trip, since u just swipe it, but better since the program paid for our unlimited use when we use the card all four months! Sweet I know.

The past weekend was a lot of fun. It is very different to get check for ID at the grocery store and be OK to buy the English version of a six-pack, which is a four-pack of pint sized cans. The English tend to stay away from the 30-packs Americans find so popular, and generally at the local Tesco the portions are smaller, and more expensive. It runs 4-5 pounds for a four-pack, so portion control is a large part of English life.

Living in the richest area in London is quite nice, yet probably expensive for everyday stuff. We went to a local pub on Friday night to check out the England vs. Bulgaria game. Crazy fun atmosphere at a place called the Greyhound. England won 4-0 so everyone was very happy and had fun. Beer was kind of pricy of course, but worth the experience. Last night we went to a club called Sound. Great dance floor, and they played basically all American songs. That definitely made us feel awesome. And then luckily they played a bunch of 80's songs, which was a lot of fun.

After the night was over, we took a double decker bus back home, and Matt proceeded to ride an ironing board down the stairs thinking that was great idea. I mean yeah, it is a great idea at 4 in the morning. I know this is a very long post, but this was quite the weekend. As seen in the title, I consider my fusion with London to be currently at 10% enrichment. A lot to go, but significant progress made.

PEACE!