I made it! I am in London and am totally in awe of this amazing city.
The plane rides went off without a hitch. My friend who I was traveling with, Emily, and I took the 15 minute plane ride to Vancouver from Victoria. That gave us plenty of time to walk through the airport to our next gate. At the gate we met five other Lattitude students, some who I knew, others I didn't but all from Victoria. While waiting to board the guy in front of us turned around and said he was also a Lattitude volunteer, from England, who had just been at Camp Thunderbird on the Island for four months. He assured us we would enjoy the UK.
The second, nine hour flight went very well. I got no sleep but I rested enough that I managed to last all of Tuesday in London. Emily and I devised interesting ways to keep the light out while we rested.
Going through customs took a long time but luckily I was not one of the volunteers who was asked a ton of questions. I was so happy when my back pack came off the baggage carousel, I have a history of having my luggage lost. In total there were eleven of us picked up at the airport, all girls. We took a shuttle to the Generator Hostel in Tavistock Street (you can look it up if you want). Upon arrival we were given our room numbers, a key and a map of the surrounding area.
As it turns out, I packed very lightly compared to many of my fellow volunteers. One girl brought two giant suitcases, she couldn't carry the both. A lot of people had to pay a fortune for overweight bags. It's kind of crazy and I don't know how they are going to get on and off the trains.
But I digress. Once we had put our bags in our room (along with six other girls), Emily and I grabbed a bagged lunch, ate quickly, and navigated our way to the British Museum. We spent the afternoon in there, just "browsing", we were too tired to really take a lot in, I just kind of walked around and soaked in the size of the building and the number of artifacts. It felt almost disrespectful to walk so quickly through the rooms, not looking carefully at much. I need to go back of course.
The dinner that night consisted of chips, exorbant amounts of pasta, and some sort of fried/breaded cheese. It was weird. The food so far has been odd, cheap and devoid of most nutrition. Today I ate some sort of sandwich that had both meat and eggs. This morning's breakfast was fairly standard European: ham, cheese, yoghurt, cereal. After dinner, Emily, Nicole (from Toronto), Meghan (from Saltspring), Charlie (from Victoria, and Oak Bay High) and I ventured onto the Tube and went to Piccadilly Circus.
We ended up in this upscale bar that we were way too underdressed for. We had a drink (just one Dad I promise) and then went exploring through the city some more.
The next day was incredibly busy and non-stop activities. First we took the Tube again to Westminister for a walking tour. I was incredibly grateful for my new hiking shoes, some of the other girls walked all day in flats and ended up with giant blisters. By the end of the day my feet were sore with tiredness, but otherwise unharmed.
But back to the walking tour. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and quite theatrical. We started at the Parliament Buildings and Big Ben. We saw the statues of Oliver Cromwell and Charles I staring at each other from opposite sides of the the street. The tour took us around Westminister Abbey as the guide talked about the history of it. We went down Queen Anne's Gate and the guide showed us how the word "Shelter" had been painted on the brick to denote an air raid shelter that would have been below the pavement. Then it was through St. James's Park and a far away look at Buckingham Palace (the Queen was not in). The Park itself is quite lovely, I liked seeing the different bird species that we don't have at home. A large section of the park was blocked off because of the Paralympics. We walked down Queen Anne's Gate and the guide showed us the faded words painted on the brick which once indicated a bomb shelter had been there during the Second World War.
The tour officially ended at Trafalgar Square, where we had gone the night before. Again, there was Paralympic stuff going on so we didn't go right into the Square. I can't wait to come back to London and explore the National Gallery.
After the tour we took the Tube to one of the University Buildings for the real orientation stuff. Sitting and listening to the safety presentation made me remember how tired I was and I came very close to falling asleep in my chair. After, we were split into groups depending what region our placements our in and we all filled out forms to have bank accounts set up. We played some games to get to know each other, then we talked about our placements: what we were worried about, what we were looking forward too, etc. I know now that there are two Ecudorian boys going to my placement with me. Neither of them seem particularly friendly so far but that might just be the language barrier.
At 5:30 we walked back to the hostel and went for dinner. It was pizza and fries, I need some real food again soon. After dinner half of the group went out for a ghost bus tour. I stayed in the hostel and attempted to use the internet which was somewhat frustrating.
At 8:30 I went on the ghost bus tour with the second group. It was an old style double-decker bus which reminded of the Night Bus from Harry Potter. One thing I should mention about London traffic: the way the Night Bus drives is not much of an exaggeration - the traffic is crazy and pedestrians seem to have few rights when it comes to crossing. But the tour: it was a freaky tour guide talking about the the supposedly haunted places in London - the murders, the beheadings, etc. We went past the Tower and over the Thames and it was amazing.
Some of the others went out again that night after the tour but I was so tired of walking that I just stayed in my room in the hostel and caught up with email and tried to write this blog post.
I apologize if the tenses changed at all during this post. When I finished writing it was Friday evening and I was already at Gilwell Park. I have so much more to write about! It might take a few weeks to relate all that has happened so far.
Lots of love to everyone back in Victoria, I hope you're not missing me too much :)
Me with the blanket over my head.
Going through customs took a long time but luckily I was not one of the volunteers who was asked a ton of questions. I was so happy when my back pack came off the baggage carousel, I have a history of having my luggage lost. In total there were eleven of us picked up at the airport, all girls. We took a shuttle to the Generator Hostel in Tavistock Street (you can look it up if you want). Upon arrival we were given our room numbers, a key and a map of the surrounding area.
As it turns out, I packed very lightly compared to many of my fellow volunteers. One girl brought two giant suitcases, she couldn't carry the both. A lot of people had to pay a fortune for overweight bags. It's kind of crazy and I don't know how they are going to get on and off the trains.
But I digress. Once we had put our bags in our room (along with six other girls), Emily and I grabbed a bagged lunch, ate quickly, and navigated our way to the British Museum. We spent the afternoon in there, just "browsing", we were too tired to really take a lot in, I just kind of walked around and soaked in the size of the building and the number of artifacts. It felt almost disrespectful to walk so quickly through the rooms, not looking carefully at much. I need to go back of course.
The dinner that night consisted of chips, exorbant amounts of pasta, and some sort of fried/breaded cheese. It was weird. The food so far has been odd, cheap and devoid of most nutrition. Today I ate some sort of sandwich that had both meat and eggs. This morning's breakfast was fairly standard European: ham, cheese, yoghurt, cereal. After dinner, Emily, Nicole (from Toronto), Meghan (from Saltspring), Charlie (from Victoria, and Oak Bay High) and I ventured onto the Tube and went to Piccadilly Circus.
We ended up in this upscale bar that we were way too underdressed for. We had a drink (just one Dad I promise) and then went exploring through the city some more.
The next day was incredibly busy and non-stop activities. First we took the Tube again to Westminister for a walking tour. I was incredibly grateful for my new hiking shoes, some of the other girls walked all day in flats and ended up with giant blisters. By the end of the day my feet were sore with tiredness, but otherwise unharmed.
But back to the walking tour. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and quite theatrical. We started at the Parliament Buildings and Big Ben. We saw the statues of Oliver Cromwell and Charles I staring at each other from opposite sides of the the street. The tour took us around Westminister Abbey as the guide talked about the history of it. We went down Queen Anne's Gate and the guide showed us how the word "Shelter" had been painted on the brick to denote an air raid shelter that would have been below the pavement. Then it was through St. James's Park and a far away look at Buckingham Palace (the Queen was not in). The Park itself is quite lovely, I liked seeing the different bird species that we don't have at home. A large section of the park was blocked off because of the Paralympics. We walked down Queen Anne's Gate and the guide showed us the faded words painted on the brick which once indicated a bomb shelter had been there during the Second World War.
The tour officially ended at Trafalgar Square, where we had gone the night before. Again, there was Paralympic stuff going on so we didn't go right into the Square. I can't wait to come back to London and explore the National Gallery.
After the tour we took the Tube to one of the University Buildings for the real orientation stuff. Sitting and listening to the safety presentation made me remember how tired I was and I came very close to falling asleep in my chair. After, we were split into groups depending what region our placements our in and we all filled out forms to have bank accounts set up. We played some games to get to know each other, then we talked about our placements: what we were worried about, what we were looking forward too, etc. I know now that there are two Ecudorian boys going to my placement with me. Neither of them seem particularly friendly so far but that might just be the language barrier.
At 5:30 we walked back to the hostel and went for dinner. It was pizza and fries, I need some real food again soon. After dinner half of the group went out for a ghost bus tour. I stayed in the hostel and attempted to use the internet which was somewhat frustrating.
At 8:30 I went on the ghost bus tour with the second group. It was an old style double-decker bus which reminded of the Night Bus from Harry Potter. One thing I should mention about London traffic: the way the Night Bus drives is not much of an exaggeration - the traffic is crazy and pedestrians seem to have few rights when it comes to crossing. But the tour: it was a freaky tour guide talking about the the supposedly haunted places in London - the murders, the beheadings, etc. We went past the Tower and over the Thames and it was amazing.
Some of the others went out again that night after the tour but I was so tired of walking that I just stayed in my room in the hostel and caught up with email and tried to write this blog post.
I apologize if the tenses changed at all during this post. When I finished writing it was Friday evening and I was already at Gilwell Park. I have so much more to write about! It might take a few weeks to relate all that has happened so far.
Lots of love to everyone back in Victoria, I hope you're not missing me too much :)
We will always miss you but am thrilled to read about your adventures. I look forward to reading about the Gilwell experience. Maybe you will pick up some Spanish working with the boys from Ecuador.
ReplyDeleteMissing you way too much! I'm so glad you're out there having an awesome adventure! And don't worry, I'll send you a care pacage full of brocoli!
ReplyDelete