London

Seven hours, three thousand miles and one Ambien after leaving Philadelphia, I was greeted with London Heathrow and the Picadilly Line to Gloucester Road. I dropped some stuff off at Jonah's apartment and checked my email, and then went for a solo adventure around town. I walked from his place in South Kensington to the Thames, through Hyde Park and by Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. Exhausted, I took the tube back and slept for an hour on his couch.

Jonah and I went to the West End for the evening, where we lucked out with ten pound tickets for orchestra seating to Boeing, Boeing. It was a fairly stupid comedy about a Parisian man with three fiancees--all international flight attendants--who, unsurprisingly, come into conflict once in a while. The cast included the headmistress from the all-girls wizard school that participates in the tri-wizard tournament of HP4, who really stole the show.

By Thursday, Mallory had arrived, and she and I met up with Laurence and Chelsea (both from Stanford) at the Victoria & Albert Museum to see the new surrealist exhibit. We also had noodles together for lunch.

Mallory, incidentally, also brought with her the horrible weather, so we ended up doing a fair amount of walking in the rain. London is both big and small...small in that distances between tube stops that look really far on the map aren't all that far to walk, but big in that there are a lot of tube stops.

Other touristy attractions seen were the Tate Modern, the Cabinet War Rooms (a bit steep at 9 pounds, but interesting), and the British Museum. Plus lots of walking around: Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus and Leicester Square. I love the spellings of the areas...Gloucester and Leicester especially (pronounced Glouster and Lester).

We met up with Jenny and her roommate from Michigan on Thursday night for a few pints of cider, from which many pictures will emerge. Also, pubs in London are super lame in that they close at 1130pm. Go figure, I thought Europe was supposed to be a late place. Both nights in the hostel, I was the last person in the room (12 people, mind you) to go to bed at around 1am.

The crazy coincidence of today was running in to my tennis-lesson-mate from elementary school, Andrew, who is on the same program as Jonah. We got a pint of this strawberry smoothie beer (Fruli, it's good), just in time before I had to head to Gatwick.

So now I'm in florence, having just been ripped off by my cab driver and realizing the hostel is on the 4th floor without an elevator, but other than that things are looking good.

Also, sorry this was such an objective report, I'll try to be wittier in future posts.

Revving my engine...

Two quarters at Stanford complete, and Junior year now essentially over, I'm sitting at home in Villanova starting to prepare for my European adventure. I finally got some information from ALBA, my program in Barcelona, and can leave the United States knowing that I will actually have a place to live. Here is my itinerary:

Wednesday 28 March: Arrive London in the morning after a red-eye, and hang out with Jonah from Camp Harlam. We might catch a student rush fare for a West End show, and who knows, maybe we'll even see Equus. Mallory from Stanford gets to London Wednesday night, and we'll hang out for the next couple of days, along with a few British Harlamites.

Friday 30 March: Mal and I leave late at night and fly to Florence. I'll spend the weekend there hanging out with Mallory, who has been there since January and is staying until June.

Monday 2 April: Train to Bologna to reunite with my long lost wife, Jess. We'll consummate and enjoy a few days in Italy's college town, where Jess is spending the entire year.

Thursday 5 April: Flight to Barcelona. After 10 days of travelling, I'll finally head to Barcelona. I'm going to be staying in an apartment with David, a fellow Stanford tour guide, at Carrer de Mozart 20, Barcelona. Seems like a fairly central location, although I really have no idea about the layout of the city. We're also going to be sharing the flat with a guy from Dartmouth named Scott.

Orientation isn't until Monday the 9th, so I imagine we'll spend the weekend getting to know the city a little bit and having some fun. I'll also be having some dinners with the Caines, who are going to be in town visiting Jenny!

Week of 6 May-13 May: Mom, Dad, and Rachel all come to visit for a week. We'll spend three days in Barcelona and then an extended weekend in Prague. Should be awesome!

Friday 15 June: I unfortunately have to fly right back to the states at the end of the program, so not too much traveling in June. But I'll be back at Stanford in time to see my friends graduate!