Finally! The LONG Awaited Trip to London and My First Impressions (Part 3)

This is part 3 of the parts one and two below. I know, a lot of parts, but a TON has changed for me in the past 4 days, so bear with me. I left off at the hostel on the day of arrival...

After I got my tiny bunk situated and convinced myself to hold off sleep for a little while longer, I realized that I hadn't eaten in almost 24 hours. I hopped on to Google Maps and searched for anything within walking distance that was gluten free. Finally I came upon a place called Wagamama's that was only a 30 minute walk from where I was. I jotted down the directions from what I could see on the map, and I was off!

Fact number two about London: GOOGLE MAPS IS NOT A GOOD SOURCE FOR DIRECTIONS. It gets ya there, minus half of the street names. Good luck trying to find which street you're supposed to take to connect to the one that the maps actually mentioned.

Fact number three: Half of the streets in London are not labeled! Or if they are, the signs are high up on the corner buildings themselves. Which added onto the second fact about London and my frustration. It's hard to find a place that's not on the maps when the last place you came from wasn't marked.

Hence the story of how I got lost...

I set out around 4pm intent on finding food, following my directions as closely as possible. Now, I should mention, that I am the WORST with finding my way. I have no sense of direction and hate to ask for help. Not hard to see how I got lost, huh? Anyway, I set out and made it pretty far without getting totally confused or killed by the passing cars. They don't drive recklessly here, but they do drive fast! And God save your soul if you should challenge one of them by crossing the street blindly, which I was really good at. As is common knowledge, the driver's side, the directions of the road, and the driving rules are reversed here to what they are in America. Therefore, as I crossed the street (in areas that did not have cross walks) I would look the wrong way out of habit, expecting traffic from the other direction. Luckily, the Brits aren't ruthless, otherwise you might not be getting this update. It also helps that London is very used to foreigners and has kindly painted "Look Left/Right" signs on the ground. The traffic still trips me up though... Which brings me to a fun little fact about London that isn't as important as the others, but is still interesting.

Fact number four: People on the sidewalks will pass you on the "wrong" side. As in America, people tend to walk along sidewalks in the same manner that cars travel on a street, except here it's reversed.
This causes for a lot of awkward "mirror movement dances" between you and people you bump into as they try to pass on your right and you try to pass on their left. (This was pointed out to me and is not hard-and-fast, but is something that I have noticed happens)

Finally, I reached my destination alive! It was a very nice place with not a lot of gluten free options, but enough for this starving stomach. The staff was very friendly and helpful and knew plenty about gluten free. And the portions were HUGE! I had to take half home. While I was waiting for my food a very British man at my table struck up a conversation. I say very British because I couldn't understand more than a handful of words from our entire conversation. Plus it didn't help that he was mumbling the whole time. But I just smiled and tried to comment on what few words I could make out, which worked better than I had hoped! The man left and I went to pay for my dinner. Let me just say, there is nothing more humbling than standing at the register, money in hand, examining every coin like you're a four year old whose mommy has let her pay this time, yet you still don't have a grasp on which coin is which. I smiled meekly to the cashier who was also foreign and was forgiving of my struggle. Speaking of foreign...

Fact number five: London is more foreigners than native British. Or at least it seems that way.

Anyway, I paid and was on my way home. This is where I got lost. Somewhere between making sure I heeded the "Beware of Pickpockets" sign and navigating the massive amounts of people and things in Camden Market (Huge and intense is all I have to say about that), I took a wrong street. I ended up circling myself for at least an hour if not longer until I recognized that there were a few, scattered city maps I hadn't noticed before which set me straight. During this journey I discovered several facts (which makes sense considering how long it took me to get back).

Fact number six: Stop smiling at everyone, you look like an idiot. Seriously, no one smiles unless their being told a joke. I had heard somewhere that this was true, but actually experiencing it, when I'm so used to giving a slight smile to everyone who passes, was unnatural.

Fact number seven: London is surprisingly safe, even children are let to walk around without any supervision. Ages from elementary to teenager roam the streets just like every other Londoner, without a care.

Fact number eight: People run in London! This fact is especially exciting for me as I am a runner. I was worried that it wouldn't be a thing over here. But it is! However, almost everyone running was wearing a Camelback backpack. I almost thought it was something of a rule if you were to run in the city and began to panic, as I didn't have one, when I then saw several people running without one.

After several hours of what I'm deeming "successful exploration," I made it back to my bed and slept like a rock. Being in the hostel is so fascinating. I keep overhearing conversations and waiting for their words to make sense in my brain when I realize it's not English their speaking. The Brits are also very smart about their energy usage. Each outlet has a switch to turn the power feeding it on or off. However, what is not so updated is their music. I'm sitting here in a section of the basement next to the kitchen and lounge listening to a mixture of British pop and R&B and American 80s-90s music broken up by some Coldplay. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" in several different locations throughout the city. Otherwise, I'm getting along fine here and even met a nice Italian guy who is 20 and is staying in the same room as I am. He's here to perfect his English. He didn't like his job in Italy so he picked up and moved to London to learn English as he figures out what he will do next. I wish we had that type of mobility back in America. Well, there. I think you're caught up now. OH! and I successfully registered for classes (all psychology) and begin Monday! I'm official now!!! (Pic: My officialness with important stuff blotted out) It's all panning out! I will try to keep you posted as classes start, but don't know how efficient I will be.

Now, off to find a real place to live!