London Day 1

Hello from London!

I arrived at Heathrow on time this morning, around 7:30am. The plane was awesome, every seat had its own TV screen and it even had USB ports and plugs for my devices as well. There wasn't anyone else in my row, so I took advantage of their TV's and charging outlets, and I slept across the row for a good portion of it, which was good considering I had stayed up until 5:30am the previous morning. After I got off the plane, I walked to the UK border and got through without any problems. I did have to stand behind a large man wearing a turban who decided it would be a good time to relieve himself of some of the gas he had clearly been holding in throughout the flight. It was a pretty miserable half an hour to 40 minutes in line before I got to the border agent.

After being admitted into the UK, I went on to get my luggage at baggage claim and then headed to the underground tube station. I bought an oyster card and used that to get into the underground where I took the picadilly line all the way to the Kings Cross station. My luggage made it inconvenient for several people, but no one seemed too upset...next time I'll probably just stand with it off to the side so people don't have to maneuver around it. I was a little disoriented after getting off the tube, and I ended up walking about five minutes in the wrong direction which was a pain since I was carrying around all my luggage. I eventually realized it wasn't right, so I turned around and made it to NIDO student living. Had to sign a few forms, they didn't say anything about the security deposit though...but they gave me my room keys and everything I needed for my stay at NIDO. I'm on the 12th floor, out of 16 total, and I can see the Kings Cross train station really well from my room.

After I got up to my room, I went through the apartment and marked the condition of everything, the place seems pretty good. It's small and there's no room to move around in the bathroom, thankfully there's some storage space under the bed. So I unpacked all of my clothes and stuff, and realized that I didn't have any hangers. So i figured that I'd be able to get some at a store I'd read about called Tesco that was close to my place. I was wrong, but I bought some food there so it wasn't a waste of a trip. Back at my place, i looked up another store called Argos which was a bit farther away, but I wanted to see more of London so I was okay with the walk. I finally got there and when I walked in all I saw was a bunch of Ipads and a few places to check out. I went up to an IPad because I wasn't in the mood to ask anyone and look like a confused tourist, and I learned that at this store, you do all of your shopping on the Ipad and then you go to a clerk to pay, and they grab all of your items from storage behind the counter. Unfortunately, they were out of hangers...so I bought a shower mat instead.

After Argos, I went into a grocery store called sainsbury's where I bought a pellegrino lemonade (something familiar) and a croissant cheese twist that was delicious. I kept walking and took a few pictures of buildings that I don't know anything about...but they looked cool and I figured I'd be back around the area and can learn more about which things are what later.



There's a few of the pics and here's a few more of my place. I'll add some tomorrow of the view from my room, but it's too dark to get a good one right now.



I think that's about it for now, planning on exploring more tomorrow. I'll post again soon.