Monday, May 20, 2002
As can be seen, I survived the trip across the Atlantic. However, being unfamiliar with British keyboards, I'm having some trouble typing. Nonetheless, for the sake of my fans and my ego, I shall blog.
Okay, let me start by saying that I haven't had real sleep since Friday night. The first of those nights was entirely my fault, but the second one was because not going to sleep immediately is supposed to help with the jet lag. We've been standing and walking through airport terminals and Kensington almost non-stop since noon on Sunday. Anyway, after a short hop to Philadelphia (the City of Clogged Arteries), we headed off on USAir for London-Gatwick. Contrary to my expectations, the flight was fine. The food was pretty good, we were fed snacks quite often, and most importantly, we each had our own free television set in the back of the seat in front of us, where we could watch movies, TV shows, listen to music, whatever. I watched Bandits and part of K-PAX, which were both very good (it's apparent to me however that Kevin Spacey only knows how to play one kind of character, though I'll admit he does it well). I was also offered wine with my meal, which I tried. It was a Sutter Home red, and was pretty bitter and generally awful. Thus, I watered it down to about 1/4 red wine and it was tolerable. Anyway, we eventually landed and went through Customs. Have you ever seen Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch? Remember the hilarious sarcastic Cockneys? Well, one of them was my Customs person, and believe you me that irritating Cockneys suck when you actually have to deal with them. In any case, we ended up waiting for about three hours for another flight carrying the rest of our group to arrive, and then finally reached the place we're to stay for the next four weeks (eleven weeks in my case). Um...yeah. I had no clue they could possibly make bathrooms that small. I know economy of size is important, but this is ridiculous. After a multi-hour walking tour of Kensington (without any sleep yet), we had a little bit of time to ourselves, where my roommate and I went to the grocery store and stocked up on provisions. To any paranoiacs out there, let me assure you that American supermarket technology is light-years ahead of Britain's. It's just amazing how certain things just either aren't available or are barely so. After this, we all went to a pub called the Anglesea Arms, which was very good. I had some light-colored beer I can't remember the name of (Hoengaard? Something like that?) and steak and kidney pie. However, the thing that most amused me was that the first thing that I noticed when I walked into the pub was that the bartender had a shirt that said "AA" on it. Irony at its finest. After that, we returned to our pad, where I went down to the computer lab and typed this.
In conclusion, I rule. And I'm very tired.
Okay, let me start by saying that I haven't had real sleep since Friday night. The first of those nights was entirely my fault, but the second one was because not going to sleep immediately is supposed to help with the jet lag. We've been standing and walking through airport terminals and Kensington almost non-stop since noon on Sunday. Anyway, after a short hop to Philadelphia (the City of Clogged Arteries), we headed off on USAir for London-Gatwick. Contrary to my expectations, the flight was fine. The food was pretty good, we were fed snacks quite often, and most importantly, we each had our own free television set in the back of the seat in front of us, where we could watch movies, TV shows, listen to music, whatever. I watched Bandits and part of K-PAX, which were both very good (it's apparent to me however that Kevin Spacey only knows how to play one kind of character, though I'll admit he does it well). I was also offered wine with my meal, which I tried. It was a Sutter Home red, and was pretty bitter and generally awful. Thus, I watered it down to about 1/4 red wine and it was tolerable. Anyway, we eventually landed and went through Customs. Have you ever seen Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch? Remember the hilarious sarcastic Cockneys? Well, one of them was my Customs person, and believe you me that irritating Cockneys suck when you actually have to deal with them. In any case, we ended up waiting for about three hours for another flight carrying the rest of our group to arrive, and then finally reached the place we're to stay for the next four weeks (eleven weeks in my case). Um...yeah. I had no clue they could possibly make bathrooms that small. I know economy of size is important, but this is ridiculous. After a multi-hour walking tour of Kensington (without any sleep yet), we had a little bit of time to ourselves, where my roommate and I went to the grocery store and stocked up on provisions. To any paranoiacs out there, let me assure you that American supermarket technology is light-years ahead of Britain's. It's just amazing how certain things just either aren't available or are barely so. After this, we all went to a pub called the Anglesea Arms, which was very good. I had some light-colored beer I can't remember the name of (Hoengaard? Something like that?) and steak and kidney pie. However, the thing that most amused me was that the first thing that I noticed when I walked into the pub was that the bartender had a shirt that said "AA" on it. Irony at its finest. After that, we returned to our pad, where I went down to the computer lab and typed this.
In conclusion, I rule. And I'm very tired.
