epistle from London
Well lord only knows how this trip snuck up on me so fast, but here I am in London. Been here all day in fact. Am feeling majorly jetlagged right now, so if this entry makes absolutely no sense it would be because I'm nodding off in my chair. Just trying to hold out to a reasonable sleeping time... shooting for 9. If I can stay awake til then it will be a miracle.
The first day was pretty good. It was a little confusing getting from the airport to the place I'm staying, but that's mostly because the information guy I asked about it was hyper-competent, and the ticket-selling guy he directed me to was incompetent. Anyway so in that kerfuffle I missed a train. But oh well. I was in no rush. Also in that leg of the journey I learned apparently chivalry is not dead in England. Either that or I just looked really weak and pathetic, because not one but two gentlemen (at two different tube stations), clearly going the opposite way from me, stopped and asked me if I needed help carrying my suitcase up flights of stairs. (I probably did look really weak and pathetic. Somehow this is the heaviest suitcase I've ever travelled with... and this is a two week trip, when I've done three week trips before. I didn't think I was overpacking, but I must have.)
Then, after waiting to be able to check in (explored the area a little, sat drinking a mocha a lot), I got settled into my residence room. Gotta say, nicer than I was expecting. I haven't tried the shower yet (of course it's all about the plumbing--those are the two best things about coming home from trips: your own bathroom and your own bed again) but everything else is not bad. Though they are super stingy with the internet. I got a complimentary 15 minutes of wifi when I checked in (fifteen whole minutes! I can barely contain my excitement! ....) but after that I have to pay. And since I can use wifi for free at the library... I'm thinking no to the paying. So I'm writing this entry in Word and when I'm finished I'll sign on for my 15 minutes of fame and copy paste away.
After settling in, I went to the library and got my reader card and headed up to the stacks. Found what I need to work with... it's big. 936 pages big. Jetlag took over before I could do more than crack it open (I did determine that the handwritten parts are not hard to read at all, which is a relief) so I'll have a better sense of how I'm going to work this after tomorrow.
With all of that, I spent two hours or a little more walking around in London. So fascinating to me how much it's obvious I'm not from here. Mostly because traffic baffles me each time I come here. There everyone else goes, blithely jaywalking away, and I'm still standing on the sidewalk staring in all directions because I have no idea where the cars are supposed to be coming from. I had to laugh at myself for one doubletake though... I'm usually pretty good about remembering the whole cars are on the other side of the road thing... don't generally risk getting run over that way. But this one car drove past me with a great big very happy dog in the driver's seat and I stared so hard before I clued in that that seat was not the driver's seat here.
I do really love travelling, seeing all the ways things are different, but the same, but different.
Oh yeah, I did just say that. Brilliant pearls of insight from my jetlagged-addled brain. You're welcome.
And good night. Looking forward to tomorrow, when I will hopefully be more coherent (though I doubt I'll post to lj, since I'm supposed to meet up with my friend who now goes to Oxford tomorrow night and hang out with her until sometime Sunday).
The first day was pretty good. It was a little confusing getting from the airport to the place I'm staying, but that's mostly because the information guy I asked about it was hyper-competent, and the ticket-selling guy he directed me to was incompetent. Anyway so in that kerfuffle I missed a train. But oh well. I was in no rush. Also in that leg of the journey I learned apparently chivalry is not dead in England. Either that or I just looked really weak and pathetic, because not one but two gentlemen (at two different tube stations), clearly going the opposite way from me, stopped and asked me if I needed help carrying my suitcase up flights of stairs. (I probably did look really weak and pathetic. Somehow this is the heaviest suitcase I've ever travelled with... and this is a two week trip, when I've done three week trips before. I didn't think I was overpacking, but I must have.)
Then, after waiting to be able to check in (explored the area a little, sat drinking a mocha a lot), I got settled into my residence room. Gotta say, nicer than I was expecting. I haven't tried the shower yet (of course it's all about the plumbing--those are the two best things about coming home from trips: your own bathroom and your own bed again) but everything else is not bad. Though they are super stingy with the internet. I got a complimentary 15 minutes of wifi when I checked in (fifteen whole minutes! I can barely contain my excitement! ....) but after that I have to pay. And since I can use wifi for free at the library... I'm thinking no to the paying. So I'm writing this entry in Word and when I'm finished I'll sign on for my 15 minutes of fame and copy paste away.
After settling in, I went to the library and got my reader card and headed up to the stacks. Found what I need to work with... it's big. 936 pages big. Jetlag took over before I could do more than crack it open (I did determine that the handwritten parts are not hard to read at all, which is a relief) so I'll have a better sense of how I'm going to work this after tomorrow.
With all of that, I spent two hours or a little more walking around in London. So fascinating to me how much it's obvious I'm not from here. Mostly because traffic baffles me each time I come here. There everyone else goes, blithely jaywalking away, and I'm still standing on the sidewalk staring in all directions because I have no idea where the cars are supposed to be coming from. I had to laugh at myself for one doubletake though... I'm usually pretty good about remembering the whole cars are on the other side of the road thing... don't generally risk getting run over that way. But this one car drove past me with a great big very happy dog in the driver's seat and I stared so hard before I clued in that that seat was not the driver's seat here.
I do really love travelling, seeing all the ways things are different, but the same, but different.
Oh yeah, I did just say that. Brilliant pearls of insight from my jetlagged-addled brain. You're welcome.
And good night. Looking forward to tomorrow, when I will hopefully be more coherent (though I doubt I'll post to lj, since I'm supposed to meet up with my friend who now goes to Oxford tomorrow night and hang out with her until sometime Sunday).