Gloucester, London

Hello friends, I finally made it to London. Right now I am sitting in my eight person hostel with the rest of my group. It's about 9 pm now, and we are just sitting trying to figure out something to do. Here's a recap of what has happened so far:

Caught flight to Dallas, then Dallas -> London. On the flight, the lady sitting next to me had no headphones so she made me share mine with her. It was uncomfortable. Also there were about 3 babies having a yelling contest with each other. Once I landed, I ran into a fellow BME student, Michael, and we went through customs. He had no problem getting through. But for some reason the lady I had decided to ask me every question imaginable for liek 20 minutes. It was a bad situation and went something like this:

Lady: What are you here for?

Me: Just traveling. (We aren't supposed to say studying abroad because then we would need a letter from the Cambridge university saying we had permission, and it would have been a big mess. So I tried to avoid saying this)

Lady: How long will you be here?

Me: About a month.

Lady: Where are you staying?

Me: Um, I am not sure. (this is where it got bad) I am traveling with a friend (her name is Kacie) and she has booked the hostel where we are staying.

now a series of questions that I had to answer:

Lady: What is her name, how do you spell it, how old is she, is she in college as well, what does she study, where is she from, how can you reach her, what is her phone number?

Me: (answered all the questions)

Lady: Ok, lets try to call her and see if we can find out where you are staying.

Me: Um, ok.

Lady: (Proceeds to call Kacie, Kacie answers. Lady comes running back) Oh! Kacie is in the "queue" (English for "line") Excuse me, is there a Kacie here?? Kacie! (But we can't find her, so the lady comes back and asks me more questions) So what are you studying, what are you plans when you graduate, what do your parents do, when were they born, how many siblings do you have, how old are they, what do they do.

Me: (I answer all these questions)

Lady: (Calls Kacie again, this time, Kacie says that we were traveling in a group of 9. Lady comes back to me) So, how many people did you say you were traveling with?

Me: Just one. (I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible)

Lady: But Kacie just said there were 9 of you. Why did you say one? How long are you staying in the hostel?

Me: Well.. I only really know her (lie). We are staying in the hostel for about a month (lie).

Lady: She said you are only staying in the hostel for one night.

Me: (Oh crap I'm going to get detained) I'm sorry, that's what I meant.

Lady: (Looks at me.. then stamps my passport and lets me go through)

Then the rest of the group made it through customs and we went to the baggage claim. BUT then a girl from our group, Jennifer, lost her luggage. Thankfully she kept her luggage checkin receipt. At the baggage claim service, Jennifer found out that what had actually happened was the lady checking her accidentally checked her bag under the person before her. A fellow by the name of Kabad. Jennifer was like, my last name is not Kabad... it's Voss. Pretty funny stuff. So we waited for them to find her luggage, almost an hour, until Jennifer decided to look at some extra luggage sitting there and some how found hers.

Michelle, Kacie, Jennifer

MyselfThen we went to buy train tickets and made our way to Victoria.

Kacie and Travis asking for directions

These are the guys: Michael, Ani, and Travis

These are the girls: Kacie, Laura, Jennifer, and Michelle (picture of natalie will come later)

OH MY GOD IT'S SO COLD OUTSIDE. I'm mad at everyone who told me that this summer is supposed to be a record breaking hot summer, supposedly in the 100's fahrenheit. It's actually about low 40's with wind and rain. I forgot my jacket.

Walking to the hostel

This is the Astor Kensington Hostel

From Victoria, we caught a subway to Gloucester, London. From there, we walked around the streets for some time with our luggage before finding our hostel. Michelle has the heaviest luggage ever. I had to carry it up stairs. Next I would say is Jennifers, followed by Ani, then Laura, then Kacie. Good job Ani. Almost died because I didn't realize that cars come from the opposite direction in London. Oops. We are staying at the Astor Kensington Hostel. It's next to this pizza place, we may eat there for dinner. We had to split into a group of 7 and one of 2. 7 of us are in one room that fits 8 people. The other person should come later. I am in the 7 person room. Its pretty small and sketchy and the roof leaks. I put a plant to collect the leaking water. The water isn't warm and the girls are freaking out because they cannot wash their faces. Also we have to take cold showers.

This is our room:

Michael, Laura, Jennifer

Michelle and Kacie

Room again: Natalie and Michelle


This is the plant that stopped the leaking:

At around 3 we walked to this chicken resturant called Nando's. They have pretty good chicken, and some of the spicest wings I have ever tried. One of the guys Michael ordered the spicy, then he started crying. I tried too, it was pretty painful.

This is Michael choking, and Travis:

This is me:

We walked back to our hostel and sat around. Then our other roommate came in later today and it was pretty awkward. But now, he is our new friend. His name is Shreenivasan, he gave us these sweets called jaggery.

This is him:

This is Ani eating the jaggery:

He is telling us cool stories about where he is from. Nice guy actually. Apparently he is from the UK and always stays in the hostel, in this room everytime he passes through for business. We decided to go to the local market for some frozen pizzas and water with Shreenivasan. The hostel has a kitchen, so we can cook them. And now it is dinner time, 10:15 pm. Nice. Tomorrow, we will move into our hotel. The girls will be so happy.

Side notes:

1.This is only about half the entire group, they have arrived or will arrive at various times.
2. All the credit goes to Kacie for booking the hostel, and basically finding out where we needed to go.

That is all. Goodbye