After well over a month of blogging, I have finally arrived in London, England.
First of all, I can breathe a huge sigh of relief that I have managed to get on my flight at Pearson airport, not turn back at Chicago’s O’Hare airport and head straight back to Toronto, and spent a total of 36 hours in this city without feeling painfully homesick. I think this adventure can be a success.
Me on the Heathrow Express after lugging my two suitcases and MEC backpack all over Heathrow and the train station. 15 minutes later I had to do it all again when I got off the train.
In my first 36 hours of London life I have felt a great tension in myself between the part of me that is a resident and the part of me that is a tourist.
The tourist wants to explore. My psyche can barely understand that I have spent a night in this fabulous city without seeing Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Abbey Road, platform 9 and three quarters, and all of the sights that the Fodor’s guide which has never left my person keeps recommending. My inner tourist is begging me to take photos of everything as my camera goes with me everywhere. The tourist is begging me to spend precious pounds on admission fees, tours, and souveniers.
The residents wants to get settled. Part of me knows that I begin working on Tuesday and that is not a whole lot of time to get settled into a brand new country. After signing a six month lease, tired out from over a dozen hours of straight travel, I know that I am living here for at least half a year. This means that there are certain things that I need to have here. Primarily, a phone number and an internet connection. Secondary, but also important are cooking gadgets and utensils, dinnerwear, toiletries, and groceries. Lastly, I need some sort of consistency. This means that I need to work out regularly, eat well, sleep a decent number of hours a night, and do all of the other things that keep me satisfied.
Simple things, like decorating my room, are important to make this place feel like home.
So far, the resident is winning.I have been so productive in these past two days that it is almost unbelievable. Check this out:
- I am the proud owner of a cell phone and a London telephone number. Literally within hours of arriving I was in a store on Oxford street swiping my card to purchase the cheapest phone and plan combo that I could find.
- I have a wireless internet connection in my room. Even before I purchased my cell phone, I had my internet activated.
- My kitchen needs are complete. With a quick trip to Argos (the British equivalent to WalMart) my friend, Mike, and I had managed to acquire a much needed compact fridge; a dish set; and a kitchen starter set that includes pots, pans, utensils, knives, a cutting board, a can opener, and more! An added bonus, because we agreed to split the goods, we were able to split the already cheap price!
- I can stop towel drying and use my European hair dryer. This tiny, black compact hair dryer is a gem that I found at Argos. For four pounds I purchased a dryer that converts from UK electricity to all other European electricities. I now have a hair dryer to travel with!
- Living a hop and a skip away from Tesco (think Superstore food prices without the extra goods), I have already been on my first grocery run. For a grand total of 11 pounds and 64 pence I purchased diet coke, pasta, pasta sauce, trail mix, 2 bags of dried apricots, apples, peanut butter, whole wheat bread and tea. Because our fridge does not arrive until November 10th, I currently have to make do with mostly non-perishable items.
But, the tourist has seen her fair share of London too.
I have managed to combine business with pleasure. While making all of the necessary purchases above I was able to stroll up and down Oxford Street. This street is one of the major shopping areas around. Imagine Yorkville or Yonge and Dundas square multiplied by twenty five.
Nearby Oxford Street at Night.
This morning I opted to join Mike in watching the Arsenal versus Tottenham game at a London pub, even if this meant that I did quite go grocery shopping as early as I wanted too and had a beer for breakfast. The game was great. Arsenal won 3-0. This was a relief since we were in an Arsenal pub filled with crazy, hardcore, die hard fans that chanted, screamed, and sang the whole time.
My first venture into a London Pub on day two of my stay.
Since we walked to and from the pub we managed to see some cool things along the way. First, it is impossible to walk down any London street without seeing gorgeous buildings and architecture. But, one building in particular that blew me away was St. Pancras Station. What looked like a building made for royalty is just your average tube stop. We also stumbled across King’s Cross Station (the home of Harry Potter’s departure point for Hogwarts) and the British Library.
Just your average tube stop.
Then, marking my first official run in London, I slipped on my Under Armour and ran over to see Hyde park for the first time. I brought my camera with me, but next time I will have to resist that temptation. I ended up stopping every 5 minutes or so to snap some photos. My proudest moment while I was there was when two tourists mistook me for a native and asked me where the Memorial Fountains where. I am not equally proud of my response, which took a few second to create as my baffled self composed, and I finally stuttered, “Man…. I don’t even live here”. Whoops! That is a lie. I do. Hyde Park is gorgeous and I swear that one day I will find the Memorial Fountains for myself.
One of the lanes I ran at Hyde Park
Tomorrow, to make it up to the tourist for taking the backseat for so long, I am putting the resident to rest after an early morning run and spending the day toting my camera and snapping photos of every landmark I can manage to see. Thames River here I come! Though, sticking true to my budget savvy resident side I am bringing a backpack filled with trail mix, peanut butter sandwiches, and apples so that I do not spend any more money on eating out.
No comments:
Post a Comment