Got up in time for the ridiculously early 10:00 breakfast in my hostel and managed to put hot cocoa mix on my corn flakes, thinking it was some exotic kind of cereal topping. American has managed to find my bag, so I can make it through the summer without having to stick to the same outfit. Met 2 cool people at breakfast: an Australian actor and someone from South Africa looking for a tech job. The actor’s waiting for a show to open up and the tech guy is waiting a bar, which probably isn’t the best of signs for my job hunting prospects.
For my first full day in London, I was a tourist. I’ve figured out how to use the underground, so I started off at the Tower of London. It looked like a less-than-enjoyable place to be, but the Haagen-Dazs within a few hundred feet of where bodies used to be pulled in from the River Thames definitely offset the ferocity.
Crossed some bridge, wondered around for the better part of an hour, took some pictures of the tiny little smart cars, and then found the Globe Theater. Apparently the reconstruction’s so accurate that they didn’t even use nails… exciting, huh? I didn’t go in because it shared the London Tower’s problem of wanting much of my money for entrance, but walking a few more blocks and photographing the unstable-looking Millennium Bridge did allow me to find the Tate Museum. This place was sweet: modern art almost makes a little sense to me now. Strangest display? Probably the simulation of a pharmacy. It took up an entire room with meticulously arranged drugs and other standard pharmacy fare, but in the middle was one of those florescent light insect-o-cutors with 4 combs of honey surrounding it. The info box said the artist felt that the way people were feeling about drugs was exactly how he wanted them to feel about art: as if it has the power to create some kind of immortality. I wouldn’t go that far, but there were definitely a significant number of pieces that rose above the scribble-is-genius type of modern art.
After the Tate, I walked around to groovy little shops and other tourist jazz along the river. Saw the London Eye, whose name should not deceive you: it is a big Ferris wheel and nothing more. Ended my tourism of the day by seeing Big Ben’s tower: Big Ben is actually the bell atop the tower.
I normally fall asleep randomly, but this jet lag is an exceptionally strange animal. I was so exhausted at the Tate that I had to sit down and doze off for a few minutes. Slept again on the underground as I was coming back to the hostel; either the subway was going really slow or I slept past my stop and then all the way around the route again, because I felt really rested when I got to my station. Now I’m ready to pass out again, which makes absolutely no sense with the time here being 10:00 and Wilkes-Barre at 5 pm. Permanent jet lag probably isn’t going to help me get a job…
A way in which people everywhere are most definitely not the same: the concept of spicy. My Indian dinner was absurdly hot, even in the dish that was supposedly just “medium spicy.” Everything on my plate made Tabasco taste like water.
Success story of the day: finding wireless internet. No more using strange coin-operated computers to get online; now, I just have to walk double-digit blocks:)
In my first full day, London’s interesting but tiring. Didn’t find a job, have yet to learn the meaning of life, and still spend a lot of time sitting here missing everybody, but I did learn how to use the underground, see some sights, and learn a new meaning of spicy.