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Thursday, July 5
Very very long first day in London, yesterday. I slept for a couple of hours on the plane until someone put a pastry and fruit cup in front of me at about an hour before we landed. I had an orange juice instead of coffee because I felt awake, relatively, and was feeling some of the first pangs of excitment about arriving. Customs was not bad, though someone in line compared the line to the lines at Disneyworld. Sounded about right. Troy found me after I got my bags and we headed to his flat in north London. He went to work and I got an Oystercard to ride the Underground (subways). I walked around Tralfagar Square, saw Big Ben (not that exciting) and some small Egyptian tower which was on the side of the road for no apparent reason. I got used to looking left instead of right to cross the street and not paying much attention to the 'not a good idea to cross the street right now' signs, since all the pedestrians seem to ignore those signs. There are no jaywalking laws, it seems. In that way the place reminds me of Boston.
Anyway, saw some basic sights. Stood in the rain. Took some photos (I'll try and post some later). And then Troy met up with me and we visited a touristy pub, then walked through the chinese restaurant district and headed back to north London to a real pub to meet up with his flatmate, Andy. But before that we spent an hour at a local pub Troy worked at for a bit and met up with his current boss, wife, and kids (Troy does 'security' and translating work, as far as I can tell). I played patty-cake for about an hour with the guy's 7 year old daughter and learned that biscuits are cookies and one would not eat them with gravy.
Oh, I was getting a bit tipsy at this point-- we are now back at the third pub with Andy that I mentioned and I am trying to ascertain if my favorite british band, the Manics, are even popular here. Instead we discuss Muse for a bit and how Troy ran into one of the Oasis Gallagher brothers and spoke to him for awhile not knowing who he was. But we did not really have dinner and my "Cheedar and Pickle" sandwich from about 15:00 that I got at a sandwich and coffee place was not holding up.
I ended up passing out at about 22:00 local time and sleeping until about 2am when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Slept from 5 to 8am, then got up for a traditional english breakfast (egg, 'bacon'which is really ham, sausage link, baked beans, toast, and something called Bubble which is a friend mixed vegetable dish) across the street. Now I am off to unlock my phone or get a cheap new one and a local SIM card.
I learned that 'cheers' means thank you, and the kids actually do say 'wicked'. And the best way to say good, I've found, is smashing and not brilliant.
Anyway, saw some basic sights. Stood in the rain. Took some photos (I'll try and post some later). And then Troy met up with me and we visited a touristy pub, then walked through the chinese restaurant district and headed back to north London to a real pub to meet up with his flatmate, Andy. But before that we spent an hour at a local pub Troy worked at for a bit and met up with his current boss, wife, and kids (Troy does 'security' and translating work, as far as I can tell). I played patty-cake for about an hour with the guy's 7 year old daughter and learned that biscuits are cookies and one would not eat them with gravy.
Oh, I was getting a bit tipsy at this point-- we are now back at the third pub with Andy that I mentioned and I am trying to ascertain if my favorite british band, the Manics, are even popular here. Instead we discuss Muse for a bit and how Troy ran into one of the Oasis Gallagher brothers and spoke to him for awhile not knowing who he was. But we did not really have dinner and my "Cheedar and Pickle" sandwich from about 15:00 that I got at a sandwich and coffee place was not holding up.
I ended up passing out at about 22:00 local time and sleeping until about 2am when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Slept from 5 to 8am, then got up for a traditional english breakfast (egg, 'bacon'which is really ham, sausage link, baked beans, toast, and something called Bubble which is a friend mixed vegetable dish) across the street. Now I am off to unlock my phone or get a cheap new one and a local SIM card.
I learned that 'cheers' means thank you, and the kids actually do say 'wicked'. And the best way to say good, I've found, is smashing and not brilliant.
