Day One

Song: She'll never understand
Artist: Matchbook Romance
Lyric: "The choice is up to you, to find out what to do."

My first official day as a Londoner begain today. I was a little restless last night. I managed to sleep until 3 a.m. and then I woke up and couldn't stop thinking about all the great things that I'd get a chance to do while I was here. My cellphone has SNAKE II which I haven't played in a long time and I got to playing it for close to an hour until sleep ran back through me. I suppose it was the anxiety and excitment of finally realizing that I was in a big city and living her for 6 months. It felt like the first day of school after you've been on summer vacation. You're excited to see everyone and how much they've changed.

I awoke early to attend an orientation at the campus so I was able to go into the actually university for the first time today. I took a picture of the outside so that you could get an idea of how small it is. It's a nifty little building, small like every other building in the city, but seems to never end as far as height is concerned.

The group decided that it would be a wise idea to go to IKEA to buy a few necessities. IKEA is a cheap bed, bath & beyond but with furniture and this massive waerhouse in the middle of a suburb. Twelve of us decided to go and pick up extra hangers, and other things since the dorms didn't really give us much to work with as for organization. I got the chance to ride the tube and learned the benefits of getting an all day pass to travel on it. It took about 20 minutes to get to our final destination at Totteham-Hale. We shopped for awhile and the store is overwhelmingly huge. It's designed so you have to walk through every department to reach the exit. It's good marketing. The things they sell would be cheaper if we were in the U.S. but witht the exchange rate it somehow doesn't seem inexpensive.

The adventure really began when the group decided to head back home for the evening. The days seem to end so early her by 4 o'clock it's dark outside and throughout the day it's so gloomy you never feel like the day began. You're waiting for the sun to come up in order to start your day. It's very different than Florida where you sort of take the sun for granted. Anyways, we had to take one of those historic red busses to get to IKEA from the underground station. Well, to return to the underground you had to take the same bus #192 back to the station. Just as at school. The only difference is that the buses in London don't really run a full circle like in Gainesville where it'll just loop back aground. Their public transportation is their life and there are probaly 10 buses running the same route at teh same time. We hoped on the 192 but failed to look where it was that it was heading, but one person starts running to the bus and 11 others follow assuming we should be on that bus. It was about 45 minutes into the bus ride and there were people crammed into this red bus and 12 of us with 2 bags each from IKEA. We decide to ask the bus driver how much longer until we reach the underground station and he says another 40 minutes to an hour and that it would be better to get off. So, 12 of us grab our belongings and begin to get off the bus. Mind you there are at least 30 to 40 other people on this bus and there is absolutely no place to move. We are holding up the entire bus until we are able to get off the bus and maneuver our ways off with all our belongings. You could almost feel the nasty stares from all the people on the bus and their snotty english accents mumbling "stupid Americans."

We get off the bus and then quickly realize we are in the middle of NO WHERE LONDON in some residential area that seems gloomier than any part of town. There's only homes and cars parked along the street and no sign of people or a bus stop ANYWHERE. We begin to pace the sidewalk looking for a designated stop going back in the direction we came from because it was quicker than riding out the bus we had just got off. We're stuck on the street until I finally ask a lady where it was the bus picks people up and her response was completely vague. She says to me "It stops at the flats over there." Mind you we are surrounded by "flats" and she points in the general vacinity of the flats. We pick an area to squat and hope that a 192 bus going towards the underground station will pass by and we can hail it. Meanwhile it's 35 degrees outside and a light drizzle begins to fall. People start panicing and the bus utlimately comes. This time the bus ride back is a mere 40 minutes back in the same direction we were at. A funnier story had you witnessesd. It was our first adventure and lost story.

Later tonight a few of us decided to hit up the London night life. We went to Chinatown to a bar named uniquely enough Bar Room Bar. The atmosphere was great. Dimly light, small tables and large counches bordering the walls. The drink prices were ridiculous and I'm almost greatful for the prices at Rue Bar. Also, their servings and pricing are all so strange. For instance they serve beer in pints and half pints. They're pretty much what they are at in the U.S. but you're paying 6 bucks for a pint of Amstel. Also, shots are considered drinks. If you order a shot you have to know whether you want a 50 ml for 3.50 pounds or a 25 ml for 2.50 pounds. Multiply the prices by two and it's ridiculous. I order a half a pint of Amstel because its familiar and learn to pay in coins. Big accomplishment for me. Tipping at bars is ont customary so I save money in that sense.

One of the girls that is ont he same program from UF is Nadine. While at the bar ordering her drink there is this sketchy guy standing at table near by. He stops her starts talking to her and being the polite person she is she pays him some sense. She doesn't know exactly what he's talking about because he seems to be mumbling jargon. We get our drinks and head back to our lounge area where we're hanign out with a group of friends consisting of Germans, Japanese, some Missippi girl and other UF kids. The sketchy old man who is probably in his late 50s early 60s follows us back. He's a tatter old man with gray stringy hair, unkempt beard and oversized clothes. Typical sketchy old man. He makes his way to our table and just sits down in an open chair. We figure its a bar and its loud that we dont' really have to pay him much sense but he keeps staring at Nadine and she begins to get uncomfortable. He's just sitting there staring. So finally I decide to ask him if we could help him with something. He mumbles something inaudible so I ask him to repeat it. He takes out what looks like a yellow tube and extends it out as if offering it to me. I ask him what he wants and he says "are you looking for something" with this hinting kind of glare. Sort of like he's getting at something. I ask him what he means and he responds "well you're in a bar aren't you?" in a drunken, slurish and hostile way. He seemed to have gotten annoyed with my tone and snaps the tube at me which turns out to be a lighter aiming the flame in my direction. I jump naturally thinking he fired something at me and I start getting realyl weirded out because this guy could potentially follow us back to our dorms and who knows what. Finally, the server asks the man to get up and leave and he refuses. The server than physically grabs him and takes him away and apologies for ithe incident which I mus admit was pretty fucking creepy. I mean what did the guy want?

We then hit up Leciester Square (pronounced Lester). This place is a tourist trap and makes Turlington plaza look like central park. What I mean is there are a ton of clubs and bars around the area and there are hundreds of promoters outside each club who are fearlessly handing out fliers for their club. The don't just stop there. They're sharks. The used car sales man type. They feed off of large groups of people. They stop the entire group and ask where you are headed and follow you if you just keep walking. They insist that you give their club a chance and offer group rates and promise drink specials. They're very persistent and extremely annoying because they seriously won't leave you alone until you are out of the square or you enter their club. FInally, we decide to go to the most popular club in the square named "Zoo Bar." We get in for 3 pounds instead of 5 and fell for one guys scam. Turns out they work on commission which is why they are so damn annoying and intimidating. They are very forceful and the entire situation can be stressful if you don't know what you're doing.

We wenter the club and it's like any other club in Gainesville. Dim lighting, strobe lights and expensive drinks. The music the play is allll American from the early 90s and some early 2000's. They played Will Smith's WILD WILD WEST for goodness sake. It was nothing I'd never heard at a club before though. The main difference is they have a place to check your coat for one pound. Also, the bartenders fuck tourists over. Since we obviously don't know anything, or at least they think we don't they find ways to cheat you. For instance, I was lookking at the drink menu and it said that a glass of a long island iced tea was 3.95 pounds. I wanted to know what a glass was and how big it was. It was a standard cup, but I wanted to know what I was getting. I aske for the drink and she fills it half way with pepsi, puts one shot of something in it and some mixer and that's it. It was basically pepsi in a cup and no liquor. I paid almost 8 dollars for that. We arrived at the club at around 11 p.m. and it was dead, but we stuck it out. It eventually got more full and we ended up taking shots for 1 pound of rasberry schnapps because it was the cheapest shot they had. The club felt like an all ages club and I felt like it was filled with more Americans than anything else. Also, Londoners are weird. They show up to clubs alone. They are content with showing up to a club, grabbing a drink and dancing alone. They also don't observe personal space. They'll begin dancing up on anyone with anyone and join any group randomly. It's awkward but hysterical to watch. There was a kid Patrick who goes to UF but is studying abroad with an FSU program and I were amazed at how ridiculous some people dance and acted while in public dancing alone. It's something I'd never witnessed in Gainesville.

My roommate situation is a little off. My third roommate still hasn't arrive. He was suppose to arrive Monday like the rest of the UF kids, but hasn't showed up. My other roommate Andy is a hermit. I think it comes from going to a small school and the other kid from UF is on the boring side. Neither wanted to go out to club tonight so I was greatful to meet Patrick through a mutual friend. I dindn't want to be the only dude with the couple of girls who were going. It turned out fine though cuase some of the older graudate students from Germany came out with us and one of the RAs believe it or not. I'm hoping this kid Chris will be up for more partying cause I'm here to live and learn.