I just woke up, and I felt the burning desire to write to you guys since I haven't done it in so long, but I'm still too tired to come up with some kind of title, so I just...did. Yeah.
Anyway, let me get you up to speed.
Back to July 2nd, which wasn't really a spectacular day. I think the most exciting thing I did was get all of Sydney's pictures from the travel portion (since I didn't take any myself). Somehow, she took 2,500 (!) pictures over the course of 4 weeks. I don't understand how. But now my job is to sift through each and every one of them and delete the ones with are lackluster. Joy.
July 3rd was the first day on the rails. Sydney and I went out to Birmingham and then Aster for.....confidential reasons. I say that because if I detail exactly what our purpose was she'll probably get mad at me. Again. But it was our first experience on the British Rail System, and our 15-day passes are definitely going to come in a lot of handy. Even if we don't get around to using all 15 days, I'm pretty sure we'll more than make up the cost of them in 10. But the trains are all really nice...think first class on a mid-size airplane and you've probably got it.
July 4th was my first day traveling by myself. I went to Heathrow to pick up Emily (yes, she's here). I got there are around 9:30, two hours before her flight was even supposed to land, and when I got there the arrivals board said her flight would be delayed until 11:50. So I sit down right next to the big door where all the flights come out and start writing my book. I finish Chapter 107 around 11:50, and decide I should keep a sharp eye out for Emily, since she'll probably be through customs and all that around 12:10. Well I wait......and I wait. By 1:30 I'm having the information desk call to look for her, and she's not anywhere to be found, so I cave and pay to get on the internet in the terminal, only to find that what we called Terminal 3 Arrivals during our planning on where to meet up is actually Terminal 3 Check-In. So I'm in the wrong place. I head to the actual meeting place and find her right away. Turns out she got through customs in 2 minutes and walked right past me without me seeing her, and then we spent 2 hours waiting for each other in different places.
But we hopped on the trains after that and made our way back to Oxford. Then we took a stroll around town, got some dinner, and came back to set my room up for two people (there are actually two single beds stacked one on top of the other in each room, so we pulled them apart and now there are 2 beds. Of course, one doesn't have sheets (and apparently we're not allowed to have visitors so it never will), but I'm sleeping on that one so all is good).
Yesterday, the 5th, me, Emily and Sydney all went into London and saw a few of the sights. Paddington station lets off right by Hyde Park, so we went there first, and, bolstered by the quickness of our walk to get to the park, decided we didn't actually need Underground Passes. Mistake. As soon as we decided to move on from the park, and it took us 40 minutes just to reach the other side of the park, we knew the Underground was a must. So Sydney and I (Emily already has a week pass) coughed up 5 pounds for a day pass (Not a bad deal imo) and we started using the Tube. Our first stop was the National Gallery Art Museum, and from there we went and found some dinner. Next stop was the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge, and then we hurried back to the underground to get back to Paddington. The last train from Paddington to Oxford left around 21:20.
We got there too late. So we had to run to catch a train that would take us halfway to Oxford, stopping at every stop along the way (so it took an hour and a half), then caught a bus to take us the rest of the way. We didn't get to Oxford until 0:12, but at least it was an adventure. I'm certainly starting to feel like I could get dropped anywhere with a public transportation system and find my way back home. Haha. MARTA doesn't seem so scary anymore. At least during the day.
And then today is the 6th. I have class shortly, and nothing exciting has happened thus far, so I'll cut this gripping narrative off right...
...now.
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