The Frustrations of the Newly Transplanted

So, we were supposed to get our apartment keys today. That hasn't happened. I am hoping we'll get them tomorrow, although it is sounding unlikely. This is all due to the fact that there are three of us living in this apartment, all of us foreign transplants, and we all have to provide quite a bit of paperwork. Apparently we are missing some paperwork or something. They wont release the keys to us tomorrow unless this gets rectified. Add to this mess the fact that one of my roommates is currently in Greece, not all of us have internet access and the letting agent will only contact one of us with information and just trust us to make sure everyone knows and you'll understand my frustration. I am going to be optimistic though. Tomorrow morning Lucile and I are meeting with the inspection agency to do our preliminary walk through and are then going to meet with the letting agent. I am crossing my fingers that sometime this afternoon everything got sorted out so we can all move in tomorrow.

Other than that frustration it has been a lovely week. Lots of sight seeing and museums and some general exploring. The Tate Modern, city bus and ferry tours, the Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, Spitalfields, Oxford Street, the South Bank and more. Bus, tube and lots and lots of walking. I have gotten quite a lot of culture in a very short amount of time, hopefully it wont all go to my head. I feel like I may be reaching the point of saturation, but I know I wont have free time like this for quite a while, so I want to see as much as possible. Some things I am waiting on, like theatre tickets, until I get my student number, and subsequent discounts. I did walk by the national today to see what was coming up soon. So excited to be by such great theatre. Poked my nose into their book store. Oh I could have stayed there for hours!

There are many things that are going to take some getting used to. The traffic going the wrong way is the cliche example. Before I got here I figured I was smarter than that, you can't throw me by driving on the wrong side of the road. I'm here to tell you now, its weirder than you might think. You start to second guess yourself whenever you cross the street. Nothing major, just enough to ruffle your feathers a bit.

The light switches go the wrong way. You push them down to turn them on, instead of flicking them up. This may be only for the house I am staying in, I'm not sure. You have to turn on electrical plugs. This is actually kind of ingenious, but also weird for someone who isnt used to it. Instead of having a phone plan I bought a pay as you go one, which is not unusual to the US, just to me. The metro system is expensive, but great. I love riding double-decker buses. They announce every stop! None of this trying to peer through the window to see the non-existent street signs. (I do miss my trip-plotting phone though because I have no idea where the buses go). Getting used to the currency is difficult too. When fishing for change I have to read the back of each coin to see what I am pulling out, because I can find no logical thinking behind which coin is what denomination. That will come with time I know, just like all the rest. However for now all of these are reminders that I'm not in Kansas any more.