'Ello London

On Thursday I packed myself a nice dinner to eat on the plane and then I was off for a fun weekend with Briana. Unfortunately it took way too long for everyone to board and we sat on the runway for a good amount of time so the plane took off an hour late, which made me nervous about my transportation options when I would arrive. I got into London and I made my way to the trains and after I picked up my tickets I found out I had the perfect amount of time to catch the 11:16 train. Originally Briana was supposed to meet me at the tube stop and we'd go together but she somehow had the wrong information about the Tube (London's subway) closing at 11 PM. I caught the lady right before she shut the window for the night to buy an oystercard and filled it with 20 pounds. I asked a few girls which line went to King's Cross, managed to get on going the right direction and made it to King's Cross around midnight where Briana met me.

At the dorm her friend Riley signed me in to get a guest pass under his name because they have a rule that there can only be one guest per room and her roommate Jess already had her friend Kim visiting. We went upstairs and sat in her communal kitchen to hang out for a bit because Jess and Kim were sleeping because they had to get up at 5 AM to catch a train to Brussels. Briana and I got all caught up and then went to bed fairly early with big plans for sightseeing the next day, which turned into an off the beaten path trip instead.

Around the time the girls were getting up I heard someone sniffling and crying. I was afraid to say anything and luckily Briana asked Jess what was wrong. She said she felt horribly sick and didn't think she'd be able to go to Brussels. I wasn't sure if she was crying because she felt sick or because they were going to lose the money they spent on tickets, but we all tried to figure out what was wrong with her and how we could help. She was feeling really nauseous and had the chills so Briana figured out what the deal was with their health center. Unfortunately it didn't open until 9 and it was only around 6 AM so we decided to just keep an eye on her and wait.

They called the front desk and all they offered was calling an ambulance for her, which didn't seem to be what she needed. Since Kim was visiting from NYC she talked to her parents about switching her plane ticket to be able to go back early and not spend the weekend if Jess was feeling sick. As Kim was getting signed out Jess wandered away from the desk and fainted, hitting her head and was out for a few minutes. All the people working at the dorm were aware of the situation at that point and decided to call a cab for us to take her to the hospital. Kim felt so terrible and started crying, but she had to catch her plane so we did our best to keep her updated. Briana and I waited in the hospital for about an hour but she was getting a lot of tests done and so we just decided to go home. She had booked the London Eye for 7 PM so we decided to wait at the dorm for a while to see if Jess called an then left around 5 PM (which happened to be the time she got home).

After such a stressful morning it was nice to go on the Eye. It's hard to describe the experience except for that it's like a slow moving ferris wheel with incredible sites of London. We went at the perfect time, just at sunset to see everything with a beautiful sunset and then also at night all lit up. London is HUGE, overwhelmingly huge. Not like NYC tall, but just massive in how far it expands. On my trip I only saw the tiniest fraction of it. We got back, were relieved Jess was home and sleeping, and made some pasta for dinner and were so exhausted after the day's turn of events we went to bed super early.

The next day we went to go see Westminster/Big Ben, St. Jame's Park with the Buckingham Palace, and I got to try out my new art appreciation skills at the National Gallery. I was quite impressed with my newfound ability to spot Spanish artists from across the room. It was a great museum and was free. It was nice to go to a museum and see other artists outside of the Prado, today in class I really impressed my teacher, too.

WINSTON!

I stayed in a hostel for my last two nights due to all the restrictive rules of the dorm and the fact I had to get up at 4 AM on monday morning to go to the airport. It did the trick and was RIGHT around the corner from Briana and even closer to the train station, which made it very convenient. We spent Sunday shopping on Oxford St and I found a lot of great buys and was able to use the rest of my 20 pounds that would be a pain to exchange.

Overall it was a really great getaway and it helped to have a lot of the things I missed including hummus(which I ate the equivalent of an entire big tub of), pomegranate, cranberry juice, bagels, and Briana! It put me in a really great mood and after a stressful week in my homestay due to various reasons, it was exactly what I needed. Now I'm in my last week of school before Spring Break, and I have a big paper due.