Some Thoughts. Some Tea. Some London. - Lexie Barton

Seeing as I haven't done a single blog entry since I've been here and I've been here about three weeks, there is so much I could blog about.

I'll start by saying that last night, I had my first nightmare about leaving London. In my dream I had the terrifying realization that I was at home and that time moved so fast that I missed the entire second part of this semester. The only thing I could remember was my last statistics test (I'm still a bit hazy on whether me leaving London is what made it a nightmare or whether it was Dr. Mee's test) and the only thing I could say was "it went so fast, it went so fast." SO, seeing as I'm already having nightmares about leaving, I can safely say that I'm having fun.

The first thing I noticed about central London was that it was the most headphone-wearing place I'd been yet. It was also the first time I thought "ahhhh, I'm home." The whole city seems to move to this  inaudible beat. Bobbing and weaving. Walking down Oxford Street (which I quickly realized was not the London I was looking to know) I felt like there was some DNA encoded speed limit that everyone but me knew. I'm in the MPH know now, but the first few days I definitely had some awkward street encounters. They mostly consisted of me making a fool of myself and bumping into like every single person within a 5 foot circle of me and stepping in front of countless black cabs, but I even thrived off of the awkwardness. The other thing I have decided is a London encoded talent is the ability to jay walk flawlessly. They seem to exactly how much time its going to take the red bus to hit the crosswalk and they know exactly how to cross and when to cross, AND they arrive on the other side of the street looking like a magazine ad. Actually, for that matter, they seem to know exactly how much time its going to take the black cab six blocks away to reach the crosswalk and they know exactly how many people can cross the walk before the light actually turns green. I, however, did not have that skill until recently and for AT LEAST the first two weeks would attempt to jay walk, almost die, narrowly make it to the curb, and arrive out of breath and looking highly unkempt from my brush with death. I would usually laugh, because lets face it, I'm the fool that almost just got herself killed by stepping out into a busy London street, but it was definitely one of the learning curves I've encountered in this city.

For conventionality's sake I'll go through one of the typical steps. My favorite place in London Town so far... Camden. Hands. Down. Not only because there was an epic Ed Sheeran sighting, but also because its bloody awesome. I mean, the food? Wow. The people? Even better. The atmosphere...... The best.  I also love it because its so uniquely British. I actually felt like I was around British people. Saying British things. Eating British food, which by the way, is every type of food you could imagine.

So, for now friends, I'm signing off. Cheers.