My First Impressions of Foggy London Town
By Jen Lewis
It’s 8am London time, midnight back home—on May 9th! Oh, time changes, I will never get used to you. I’ve been up since four this morning (yesterday morning?), and I’m still going strong. Thanks to an endless supply of chocolate covered coffee beans (I need some mints).
The flight from San Francisco to London was lonnnnnnnng and weird, but I got through it alright (helped out by a lot of movies and the cute couple with English accents beside me). I got to switch my aisle seat for a window, so I consider the flight a win! Also, I watched the sunset and sunrise... two hours away from each other.
I watched Captain America (oh, love it), Anchorman (I’m really mad at all my friends for never making me watch it before!), One for the Money (the Jersey accents were hilarious), Crazy Stupid Love (Ryan Gosling…), and at least one other, I think. I also watched parts of Iron Man, Casablanca and Chronicle. It’s a long flight, don’t judge me.
Now that I’m in London, I was going to go order a beer or something, but although I feel like it’s late afternoon, it’s morning. And do people drink in the morning? Well. Some people do. First time drinkers do not.
ANYWAY, first impressions of London:
- Fog. Fog, fog, fog, fog. Good golly, London, do you produce nothing else? I didn't think the plane would be able to land with all the ridiculous cloud cover! Once we hit the ground, it was all grey and drizzle. Quite lovely.
- Accents! They’re everywhere, and I love it. I swear, I’m moving here. (or I would, if it weren't for all the fog).
- Nice airport. It’s a lot cooler than San Francisco, but maybe that’s just me being racist against America? I leave for a few hours and BAM, I go all Londonese.
- HOT. Damn, London Heathrow Station, WAY TOO HOT IN HERE. Ever heard of air conditioning? Although, I AM going to Morocco, so I guess I should get used to this times ten. But still—air conditioning. Please.
- Freak out moments. Okayyy, once we finally got close enough to the ground to see London from the plane, I had a major freak out moment… I SAW THE PLACE THEY FILMED “FEAR HER” (Doctor Who episode). And then I saw the same place again, and again, and again. THEN, I figured out that a freaking lot of communities look like that. (it looks a lot like the house where Harry Potter grew up, too!)
And, um, ever heard of free wifi, London? Please? I’m typing this out on Word right now (who does that?), and I really just want to call someone on Skype! (okay, it’s midnight in Bend, no one would be awake) Unfortunately, I’m super cheap and I don’t want to exchange my money for whatever they use here (and I can’t even Google it, cos I don’t have wifi! Vicious circle.)
But as nice as this airport is, I’m really disappointed that I can’t go out and see London (okay, I could, but again—I’m cheap and I would have to go through security again!). I know I’ll see it on my way back, but this is morning in London town! I need to go find a café! Ahwell.
Okay, had to report—the girls sitting across from me in the waiting area just dumped bags of sugar into their lattes. WHAT? And they look American too. Ha—how does someone look American as opposed to Londonese? I’m going crazy. Also, they just spoke and I swear it was a different language. So the verdict is… crazy.
I should probably get some sleep, but I’m paranoid as well as cheap and lazy, and don’t want to leave my bags unattended. Ahhhh, ‘cest la vie. I’m going to go browse shops and pretend I have money… more later!