In true grade school fashion, I shall title this entry "How I Spent My Spring Break"

Please note: not mentioned, but always present are constant picture taking and double prices to convert them into dollars.

Friday, March 4: Go to classes. Pay some attention. Eat lunch. Go back to ML, do last minute packing. Take suitcases up to campus, hang out in Mertz. Go to train station. Catch train to Philly. Get on another train. Miss the train we wanted to take, the next train doesn't come. Finally get on a train. Much stress. Get to airport about 30 minutes before boarding. Stress. Get checked in, head to gate, where they are already boarding. Get on plane, sit between overly made up Russian woman and kind of sketchy English man. Watch Closer and I <3 Huckabees. Do not sleep at all.

Saturday, March 5: Get into Heathrow airport around 9 am London time. Get bags, go through customs. Sit around airport for a bit while waiting for shuttle. Take shuttle to hostel, feel nauseous the entire way. Thankfully do not vomit. Leave luggage at hostel because it's too early to check in. Go to ATM, discover the bank card I wanted to use will not work, have to use other one from account with significantly much less money. Jet lag plus this equals stress. Lunch helps. Check into hostel room. Give in to jet lag and stress, take nap while others wander around. Meet hostel roommates: 2 Swedish girls, Helen and Teresa (names Americanized for ease). Later meet Dennis, an American currently studying in Italy. Have dinner at a local pub, get a drink despite the cost, therefore cementing my "group lush" status (like it was ever in doubt). Sleep.

Sunday, March 6: Wake up at decent hour, but curse jet lag. Meet up with Maki, a Swattie who is studying in London this semester. Head towards the Tate, randomly passing bits of history on our way: a replica of the Golden Hinde (Sir Francis Drake's ship), the Clink Prison (which gave rise to the slang term), the Globe Theatre. Go to the Tate, discover that modern art does not hold my attention for very long. Tempted to go to the August Strindberg exhibit, but the cost prevents me. There wouldn't have been any mention of Helium anyway. We continue our wandering. See St. Paul's, London Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament from a distance. Cross the interestingly-designed Millennium Bridge. Get lunch in a little cafe, go by Trafalgar Square, where there are far fewer pigeons than I remember. Go to the National Gallery, find that early art also does not hold my attention, but that my love for Impressionism is still strong. Admire the Monets and Van Gogh's most of all, am tempted by a t-shirt in the shop but refuse to pay the insane price. Wander through Picadilly Circus and down Oxford Street to Maki's dorm. She cooks us dinner, we worship her and make use of her free internet. We go to a local pub (I get a rum and coke), then take the Tube back to the hostel. Sore feet, but good day.

Monday, March 7: Wake up, endure cold shower. Head to the Tower of London, see the Tower Bridge on the way. Spend a great deal of time there. See the Crown Jewels -- twice; once from both sides since there wasn't a line. Am drawn to the sparkle. Hear stories of torture, am morbidly interested. Climb many spiral staircases, look at armour and old weapons. Leave Tower, go to a nice pizza place for lunch. Walk towards the Dali Universe, passing the London Eye on the way. Go to the Dali Universe. It has none of his famous paintings, but instead has sculptures, sketches, illustrations for books, water colors, and more. Decided Dali was weird and kind of crazy, but made some awesome art. Wander in the direction of the hostel, passing the Old Vic Theatre, which is advertising National Anthems, staring Kevin Spacey and Steven Weber. Emily decides to see if they still have tickets. They do, put the 12 pound student area only has bad seat left. The lady offers us the 40 pound normal floor seats for 15 pounds. We buy them, then have dinner at Tas, a kind of Mediterranean place. I decide that I love lamb. We head back to the theatre, see Kevin Spacey on the London Stage for about $30 each. The play is pretty good, Spacey is great. Head back to hostel, collapse.

Tuesday, March 8: Greg heads to Paris to visit a friend, Emily and Alex hang out with Maki, and Kyle and I go to Cambridge and visit my brother. We go via King's Cross Station, where they have Platfrom 9 and 3/4 set up with a luggage trolley going through the wall. Yay Harry Potter! Cambridge isn't too exciting, but the college buildings are interesting, and it was nice to see Ben. We have Thai for dinner, and I bring my trip drink total up to 3 with a hard cider. We head back to London fairly early, relishing the fact that we didn't spend the entire day walking.

Wednesday, March 9: Greg is still in Paris. The rest of us head to Portabello Road (home of the market seen in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. The big flea market isn't set up since it isn't Saturday, but there are still many shops to go into. I am pulled away from shoe stores, most likely for the best. Have lunch at a cafe. Go to a used book store that has a section of comics. I buy a copy of Sandman issue 6 from 1989, as well as a Sandman spinoff and another graphic novel that looks interesting. I decide that given my reaction to the comic/graphic novel section (i.e. I could not be pulled away until I was done) that maybe I should go into comic publishing. Vow to investigate the Fantagraphics internship for next summer. Wander through Kennsington Gardens and Hyde Park, go down Oxford Street, and kill time in Foyle's, a large independent book shop. We meet up with Greg, have a nice Italian dinner. We then go to the theatre, pick up our tickets for Festen, a play based off a Dogme 95 movie (something about very simplified production, etc... Alex and Kyle saw it in Intro Film Studies). We wander to a mall/entertainment complex to kill time, then head back to the theatre. The theatre next to ours is showing something with Joshua Jackson and Patrick Stewart, which just seems weird. We see our play, which has no one that I know acting in it. It's amazing, albeit disturbing, since it's about incest/molestation/suicide in a wealthy Danish family. Stop at a little shop to get desert (ice cream for me, cake for Greg, no one else partakes), then take the Tube back to the hostel, where the roommate situation has changed: Dennis has left, and no one has replaced him yet.

Thursday, March 10: Greg goes to southern Wales to see castles. Kyle and I go to the British Library (Alex and Emily went on Tuesday), see many old, nifty books. We take less time than we expected, wander down the streets in the drizzle, have lunch at a tiny cafe. We meet up with Emily, Alex, and Maki by St. Paul's. We wander through the cathedral, but I decide to opt out of the long climb to the top of the dome. I fall asleep in the nave while they climb -- I feel guilty but realize that I have done more sacrilegious things than that. After they return, I decide to head back to the hostel for a nap. Kyle comes with me, Alex and Emily wander the streets of London with Maki until she has to go on a tour with her school group. We (and 2 of Maki's friends and Greg) meet up for dinner at Wagamama, which is noisy and crowded but gives me such delicious ramen and chicken that I don't care. We go to a pub and get dessert (yay chocolate chip cheesecake), and I bring my lush total up to 4 with a double vodka and cranberry juice. We part ways with Maki, then take the Tube back to the hostel, where Craig from Australia has taken over Dennis' old spot. He's moved here with a friend, planning to get an apartment and a job and then see the rest of Europe in his free time. He apparently manages at least the first, because he says he has some leads on the apartment that night and then we don't see him again.

Friday, March 11: We head over to the Houses of Parliament, stand in line to get in and listen to the debates. We wait. People are let in, but not us. We are now at the head of the line. We wait. And wait. And wait. They're discussing their terror bill in the longest running session in history. There are groups that are sponsored by their member of Parliament that are getting in ahead of us. No one is leaving because the discussion is actually interesting, which means we can't get in. After 2 hours of standing in the cold dealing with the bitter wind, Kyle and I concede defeat. Emily, Alex, and Greg do not. Kyle and I find lunch and warmth, then go back to the line. It's been 45 minutes, and they're still there. They say there are rumors that people will be let in soon, since the House of Commons will start sitting soon (before it was the House of Lords). We wish them luck, say we'll see them later. We go to Westminster Abbey, then wander by Buckingham Palace. We head back to the hostel, passing through a market. We get fresh bread, Welsh cheese, and sheep's milk cheese for our dinner. I also get an amazing smoothie and a divine chocolate creation called a Chocolate Nemesis. We go back to the hostel, hang out. Emily and Greg return. They never got in, and eventually left so that Alex could meet up with a friend from high school who he was supposed to have dinner with. Alex eventually comes back, and the rest of the evening is spent playing cards, packing, etc.

Saturday, March 12: We get up, check out, take the Tube to Heathrow. We get checked in with minimal trouble, eat lunch in the airport, board the plane. We've managed to get seated near each other this time, and the plane is only 2/3rds full, so there's plenty of room to spread out. I knit and watch The Machinist. It's good but freaky. Christian Bale does a good job, but I wince every time I see him without his shirt on -- he lost a lot of weight to play the role, and is about 120 pounds or something in the movie... You can see every bone, and it's really scary. I nap. I wake up and knit more while watching Kinsey. We land, wait for our luggage, get through customs in no time. Alex's dad picks us up, drives us back to Swat. It's nice to be back.

Today: I went to bed around 12:30 and woke up around 5:30 am, and the jet lag wouldn't let me fall back asleep. So I got up and read web comics and such... Around 8 am I got tired again (my body thought it was 1 pm and wanted an afternoon nap), so I went back to sleep and got up around noon. I haven't done anything productive yet, and having a nice, long, warm shower was the highlight of my day thus far (yay cleanliness and not having to push a button every minute or 2 to keep the water running!) I'll unpack now, then go to dinner, then attack my work fiercely. Whee.

London trip by the numbers:
Miles walked: Too many. Ow, ow, ow.
Drinks: Only 4, 6 if you count the wine with meals on the planes. Some lush I am.
Plays seen: 2
Number of times Helen told us that reindeer are stupid: Lost count.
Number of Swedish girl jokes and South of France references made (Yay inside jokes!): More than were needed.
Postcards sent: 3
Hours spent on plane: 13 or so.
Money spent: Please don't remind me.
Fun had: So very much!

Things I already miss about London: not being on a set schedule, not having to do work, the accents, eating out every night, being able to drink legally.

Things I don't miss: cold showers, hitting my head on the bunk bed, flat pillows, the prices.

Things I appreciate now that I'm back here: my comfy bed, my own room, continuously running warm showers, lower prices.

It was a good trip.