What an amazing thing, to be living in Thornton and sleeping soundly there one morning, and to find oneself, totally transplanted to another country, and one of the world’s largest and most important metropolises the next. How odd indeed, to have a secure life full of friends and knowledge about what is around you, and then move to a place almost totally alien to you, alone and with barely a soul that you know, saving a friend who lives two hours away. I must admit, though, I do take some comfort in the fact that he is as close as that. The most interesting thing though, I suppose is that I must now become completely self reliant, which in a way is terrifying, but in a stronger way is extremely gratifying. My trials and tribulations in both my travel and the one day that I have already been here were many, but I am here and alive, and happy simply to have gotten myself this far. So I will now begin the narrative of my migration to London thus:
To begin I awoke in Denver Sunday morning around 4:30 am, upon waking I bathed, shaved, applied cologne and tried to put my contacts in, but my left eye revolted forcing me to take it out, and in so doing, I forgot both of my contacts at home. Fortunately, I have many spare sets, so I was relieved when I got to the hotel, and was then able to again wear contacts. After getting dressed and the car packed, we were off to the airport by route of C-470, for what purpose I really am not sure. When we arrived at the airport, my mother got out of the car with me and helped me check in at the desk for the plane, I walked her back to the car where my father was sitting and bade them good bye for the last time. Now this is significant, because as I was walking to go to the gate, I then realised that I was now totally independent of all help, I no longer had a cell-phone, or anything but what was around to contact people, it was a strange feeling to be put to the mercy of location like this. Upon arriving at security I had been preselected to be specially screened, but as I had three hours ahead of me, and the lines were not very long, I was not upset by this. After getting through security with nearly everything showing some trace amount of metal at the screening, I was happy to be on my way. Arriving at the gate for my flight to Atlanta, I thought it best to watch a film, luckily, the gate had an outlet, so I plugged in my laptop and began to watch Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Soon after starting this, a horrible surge of doubt swept through me, proclaiming “What the hell are you doing?! Don’t you realise you’re moving to a place where you have no idea what is going on?!” I started to get afraid and wanted to call my parents back and ask them to pick me up and take me back home, but eventually I started to calm down and tell myself that I would figure it out, and not only survive in London, but thrive. Eventually we boarded the plane, and I found myself somewhat at ease by doing this.
The flight from Colorado to Georgia was about as pleasant as any other, they played the Will Farrell film “Kicking and Screaming” which was fairly funny, but somewhat stupid as well, but it served to make me laugh on occasion. I still found myself coming to doubts, but I tried to push those behind me, difficult though it was. I sat in a window seat next to an older middle-aged couple, that I presumed was going to Florida, but that was only a guess. I was glad to have a window seat because when we arrived to Atlanta I was able to see it in much detail, and I thought it looked very serene and comforting, especially since I knew, that though I had never been there before, it was familiar in that it was still part of America, and it would really be my last glimpse of my natal land. At the airport in Atlanta I got some pizza and began to watch “It Happened One Night” but did not finish it. Then finally I boarded the plane go to England, which I must confess was rather frightening for the prospect of it. But I was seated comfortably near a partition, meaning no one was behind me, and though I was in the centre column, the seat between me and the other person in the column was not occupied, so I put my bag under the seat in front of that one, to allow for better stretching with my seat now free. During this flight I had a good beef supper (good for airlines) and some other food, it was rather nice, and the last thing I really got to eat for a long while. The film was something about a big Boston Red Sox fan, I forget the name, but it had Drew Barrymore, and it was a fairly funny movie. They also played a show about Belgium and Luxembourg, and that was pretty interesting, besides that, I tried to finish “It Happened One Night” but kept dozing off when I did. Otherwise they kept showing statistics about our status in arriving to London, which was strangely mesmerising.
Finally we did land, and at that point walked through a rather long corridor to arrive at passport control. Getting past that point I went and fetched my luggage, which was easy enough, but then I tried to go to the Gatwick Express to get to London, and seeing only a sign that said trains, I was not sure it was the one I wanted, but I figured that it was the only train there was so it must be right, getting on I got off less than five minutes later, because all that train had done was take me to the other side of the terminal, but I finally found the Gatwick Express, and tried to get a ticket, which I had pre-ordered but I could not get the machine to give me my ticket, it was rather frustrating. I finally asked a teller to direct me to where to fetch my ticket and he told me to simply board and they would have the information there, I was a bit concerned but decided that would be best. Sitting down, I was rather pleased to look out over the countryside of England, and the ride lasted for about half an hour so it gave me some time to think. An usher came through and was checking tickets, but he said if you did not have one you could purchase another, so it was a little relieving to know I would not need to go to jail if anything happened. When he got to me, I told him I had ticket-less travel and had ordered mine online already, I showed him my credit card and he gave me a receipt.
When we arrived to Victoria station, I found myself quickly in a cab, but the streets were very clear on the way, I then discovered this was due to the fact that it was a bank holiday. Arriving finally at the hotel, my fare for the distance was £11.00 a little steep, but I was just happy to have a semi-permanent and safe place to rest my bags and self, so I gave him a £2.00 tip, a little steep, I suppose, but it was reflective of my happiness and relief, plus I am still unsure as to tipping customs here, and that is something I would like to discover very quickly. As soon, as I got in, I went to the desk to check in, and the lady I could barely understand I supposed she was from somewhere in Eastern Europe, but she told me she would have my bags checked in, and I agreed to that, and proceeded to sit in the lobby, and she called me back and then gave me a room, and a key card to it. Happy to finally get in my room, I tried to call my parents (I had also tried to call them at the airport, but to no avail) at the hotel, every time I tried to place a call, I was unable to, so I finally went to a payphone outside the hotel nearby, and called them from there using my credit card. Telling them I had arrived that this call was not from my credit card I quickly hung up, and returned to the hotel, and fell asleep, for what I hoped would be only two hours... apparently that was too optimistic of a guess and I awoke around 15:00 sometime.
Pondering what to do in my room, I decided to take a shower, and then to put my contacts in, and go and see the city. It was an absolutely gorgeous day out, and not knowing this I had put on a jacket and left, wandering around Kensington Park, I came back took off my sweatshirt and returned to the park. It was simply amazing, I eventually wandered all through Hyde Park (they’re attached) and found myself looking at cool things such as the statue to Physics, and the Peter Pan statue... where I heard some nearby Germans reading a description of it in German, I caught most of it, but was not paying complete attention to them either. The amount of people in the park was staggering, it was like being on the Norlin Quad times 50, or some such number. I finally found myself walking toward Speaker’s Corner, and listened to some guy talking about the Israeli problem, and eventually getting into a discussion about circumcision... it was pretty funny because he mentioned that he was himself circumcised and added that most of the ladies there should already know that. Leaving that great oratory, I left and found some phone booths nearby, and decided to try and call Thomas. Talking to Thomas was very heart-warming though it was hard to hear him at times, because traffic was fairly busy by my booth. I told him the hotel I was staying in, and he said he would call me tomorrow evening and that he was to be visiting London sometime this weekend, so that has me fairly excited.
Returning back by way of the north end of Hyde and then Kensington Park, I decided to go up Queensway and find something to eat, because I was starving or so it seemed at this point. I found a place called Café Verde where I ordered Lasagne and two cokes (I was dying of thirst). The plate was not very large, and the cokes were half the size I was used to (maybe a pint), and altogether it cost me £10.70, which is like US$20.00, it was then that I decided to find cheaper fare if at all possible, and hope that my stay at the hotel covers food as well. Leaving there I decided again to return to my hotel room, and this time for good, hoping to discover a roommate when I got back, but no such luck. So, I simply turned on the television, and watched a show about Admiral Nelson’s surgeon at the battle of Trafalgar, it was really rather entertaining, a docu-drama sort of thing. I dozed off for a while, and then decided to finally finish “It Happened One Night” and did, and then found myself writing this, about ready to prepare for bed, and hopefully a bit more successful day tomorrow, and maybe finding some friends, or at least doing some good sightseeing or getting set up for school, something, but we’ll see.