As I settled into the couch, I was interrupted by an ear splitting alarm. Yes... the fire alarm. I looked at the girls across the room, raising my eyebrows. They shrugged their shoulders, so I picked up my bag, my laptop, my bagel, and walked down the stairs in sweat pants and no shoes, into the pouring rain...
***
London in the rain is glorious. I walked home tonight on cobblestones glistening from the wet reflecting the street lamps and headlights. Granted, the umbrella I bought at Tesco is less than efficient; it has this tendency to collapse perpetually, and then blow inside out at the slightest gust of wind. But it's better than holding a newspaper over my head- and it's cuter too.
Today was busy, but the rigor didn't seem to wear me out like it has the past few days. (The jet lag is finally starting to wear off!) Class was easier to stay awake in, though I'll admit I haven't done hardly any of the homework, so I didn't add much in way of intelligent insight or conversation. Don't worry, we're dedicating tomorrow evening to Macbeth, and other readings.
We took a little detour on the way home, in search of a subway (you know, sandwiches) the missionaries had pointed us to, and found a little street with countless eating venues instead. Robyn and I got italian paninis. Mm! Delicious. After that, we stopped at the flats for about half an hour, and then headed out to see the city.
London is busy on Fridays. We got used to the less crowded, slower paced city that we found when we arrived. But today the tube was JAM PACKED. And let me tell you, if you are unfortunate enough to get stuck with your head in the armpit of a very smelly man while in the tube on a Friday (like Rachel), there's nothing you can do about it. We could smell him from four feet away! That poor girl. I'm surprised she survived.
After seeing the exterior of Westminster Abbey again, (deciding we didn't want to pay the 15# entrance fee afterall, preferring instead to attend a service someday for free), we headed to the Tate Modern. It took a little time, but we found it. (after finding these gorgeous orange flowers, which I totally trespassed in to get this picture).
That part of town was... sketchy? Though no ghetto, it was certainly a little less classy than our own Hyde Park Gate. (except for the flowers). But the trip was worth it. We thoroughly enjoyed the exhibits- Robyn, Rachel, and I.
We even saw Monet's The Water Lillies in person! And then we stopped off for a quick dinner at the Tate Cafe. Excellent! Mushroom soup, complete with bread and tap water. (yeah, we're cheap).
But after this, the real adventure began. We had to get to the Rose Theatre in Kensington. The first leg of the trip was by tube, the second by bus, which (supposedly) would drop us right across the street from our desired venue. In theory, this would have been a great plan, had we not been kicked off the bus early. Twice. Now, before you get to thinking it was because of our own bad behavior, let me tell you it was no fault of our own. They just decided they were running late, so they were going to skip a few stops at the end of their run to make up for it. WHAT?? I wanted to stomp my foot and say I had rights as an American Citizen, (just to be funny), but I decided they wouldn't appreciate that. Needless to say, we BARELY made it to the show. And we only found the theatre because one woman we asked for directions happened to be going there. London is an absolute MAZE. Lucky chance.
Can I just say that drivers in London are insane? First of all, driving at all is kind of risky business here... The roads are about three feet too skinny and they don't have stop signs, the roads are hardly ever labeled, there's no rhyme or reason to where they go or how they connect, and the roundabouts have a dot in the middle about the same size as the bottom of your garbage can. And here, you not only drive on the wrong side of the road, but often switch lanes when oncoming traffic is only seconds away, take corners at alarming speeds, AND don't yield to pedestrians. The bus drivers are no acception to the crazy London driver stereotype. In fact, they're worse. I'm surprised we didn't hit at least 14 cars and 28 people on that one journey. Seriously.
This doesn't do it justice... of course I only video during a straigh stretch. bah.
But I'm not going to say that riding at the top of a double decker bus isn't fun. IT'S AMAZING. It feels like a ride at disneyland... you think you're going to hit stuff everytime you turn a corner or skid into a bus stop... but miraculously, you don't!
Finding a subway home was ridiculous, because everybody had different ideas about which platform was right, and which train to take. But, we made it eventually. And I walked home with my broken umbrella in that glorious rain.
***
My toes were definitely cold from standing in the rain without any shoes. We had congregated at our designated meeting place, if there were ever to be a fire. ... No flames... No police... No firetruck... No professors... No phones... Interesting predicament really.
Not to worry. We got hold of the landlady eventually. She checked everything out, and let us back in. We still don't know what made that fire alarm go off. But we're all alive.
What an adventure, this.
No comments:
Post a Comment