Post #2, Day #1

So, it's 4 AM which means my jetlag is vicious and also means earlier I chose to take a nap (for FOUR FUCKING HOURS) instead of going to buy toilet paper. It turned out fine though, for those concerned, because no toilet paper was necessary until much later after I had bought it!

After waking up to see that the sun was setting, I quickly ran outside to embark on a little journey around my neighborhood. I walked around the area near South Kensington station near me and then headed up the road to check out the shopping at Harrod's and Harvey Nichols department stores since the whole city is having its annual post-christmas sale period right now (while there I came to fully realize just how many south asians, middle easterners, and chinese people there are here in London - it almost makes it seem like there are no brits here!). After the fact, I just sort of wandered around aimlessly despite the fact I hadn't eaten in half a day and I was tired and it was freezing out and I was afraid of getting lost. The architecture here is stunning and every neighborhood has something fascinating to it - whether it be the tiny vintage car shop tucked away in an alley near my building or gorgeous and myriad parks and gardens that the confusingly curved roads suddenly open up on to. I also realized it's going to take a long time to get my bearings and sense of direction here - though I always feel I have a good sense of direction, the streets here turn me around incomparably fast.

Despite the aimless wandering, I did manage to get some things done. My coworker came out for a brief bit to show me around the neighborhood and point out good restaurants, where to get groceries and housewares, and what landmarks are important (he couldn't stay out because his wife was a tad under the weather). I then went to eat a hamburger at this joint near my place called "Gourmet Burger Kitchen" and it was really pretty good for what I was expecting. But also pricey! The burger was like 9 or 10 pounds or something crazy like that. I'm going to go broke living here.

I also managed to get my Oyster card so I can ride around on the Tube tomorrow and to buy some toilet paper, paper towels, and fruit and water to keep me from starving to death. I wanted to buy some crackers or cereal or something, but the crackers didn't look appealing and one of the cereals was called "Wheatibix" which is a horrific cereal name and just made me want to forget I was ever looking for cereal to begin with. (please be aware that I only wrote that sentence now so that I can have a laugh about it one year from now over a delicious bowl of Wheatibix).

Upon coming home, I continued to discover that television here is terrible at best. BBC2 (which is channel 2 mind you) has been showing the World Darts Championship ALL DAY. essentially around 13-14 hours of darts coverage straight, including repeatedly aired reruns. There is another show called Quiz Call that is just people calling in to guess at this question this unattractive-but-provocatively-dressed woman is wearing in order to win money. One sample question: "I'm thinking of movies starting with letter M. name some!" The quality of the show was cable-access-ish. Also, I have lame american channels like a british version of E! that shows heavily re-edited and re-narrated versions of american E! shows like Life In The Fab Lane (sad that I reduced to watching that today)... and then there was a channel that almost literally played episodes of Frasier non-stop today. For almost as long as the darts tournament. Why not Seinfeld or something funny or even sort of funny? Why Frasier? Because of Kelsey Grammar's strangely affected English?

Now I think I'll finally go to sleep. Tomorrow: more exploring, this time a little farther west and north, and then hopefully I can meet up with some people that I know for a meal and even find a pub that shows American sports so I can see the NFL playoff games, even if just for a little bit.