Last Day in London 5/27/09

So we finally got a taste of real London weather: miserable, windy, wet, and cold. We woke up around 9, had awesome omelets courtesy of Sam, and then headed out to watch the changing of the guard. It was pretty interesting, but would have been a lot nicer if it wasn't raining. Anyway, it was one of the last things we wanted to do in London before we had to go to the airport.

We walked from Buckingham Palace to the Science Museum, but there was a fat line all the way around the corner. It didn't seem reasonable to spend half an hour waiting in line for something on our last day in the UK, so we kept walking.

We ran into the Imperial College, a science and engineering school in central London. It was pretty cool inside. They have a pretty good mechanical engineering department:



And it was pretty funny because the engineering students looked just like engineering students in the U.S. You know what that means if you're an engineer. I guess engineering is the same everywhere.

I'm really considering going to school in Europe in the future now. I'm stuck at Stanford for my M.S. degree (5 quarters), but I really want to come to Europe to work on my Ph.D or M.D. It's funny. I graduated from Berkeley and I'm still on the fence, career-wise: Engineer or Doctor?

After we toured the Imperial College, we passed by the backside of the Science Museum and surprise surprise, no line! We walked right in, and saw the main entrance where people were still piling in. Hah. I guess we got lucky. Anyway, I wasn't that impressed with this museum. It was free, but not hands-on enough. There was one floor of exhibits where the kids could actually touch things (expectedly, it was also the most crowded), but the other floors were full of exhibits behind bars/glass cages. The Exploratorium is soooooooo much better.

It was getting close to the time we had to leave for Luton Airport, so we stopped at a small cafe for a quick pastrami sandwich, and then to Sister Ching's place to pick up our bags. We left them there because her place is close to the train station, and we didn't wanna carry our 25 pound packs all day.

I had my first (and last) slipup at the Tube station! I lost my pass after getting off the metro, and was kinda mad at myself because I didn't want to buy a new one for 7.20 pounds, but this nice old lady tapped me on the back and told me she saw me drop it before the escalators. I ran back, and it was still there! Felt touched by an angel.

I'm on the rail right now to Luton Airport, and nodding off. We're taking Easyjet, a discount airline, to Paris CDG Airport. I'm gonna miss my London friends, but I'm really excited for Paris.

This is a reminder for myself: Sam likes spicy food, and he misses cheetos from the states. They don't have them in London. Stefan really likes college t-shirts. So...get a fat thing of flaming hot cheetos and Cal/Stanford t-shirts to send to them!

Little bit more of London 5/26/09

So I woke up at 10 today. That was the best night of sleep and the latest I've slept in in months. The best thing is that I'm fully adjusted to London time now! No jet lag. I guess the secret is to immediately follow the eating schedule of the place you're at, and don't take naps. Just push through until local bedtime.

Interesting thing happened on the metro this morning. We were informed that the Jubilee Line (a line of the metro) was closed due to a passenger incident. "Interesting," I thought. "Maybe someone yakked on the train." We've already run into some dumb drunk Londoners - Last night a group of them saw Sam, David, and me (three Chinese guys) on the metro and started yelling "Konichiwa," trying to get a reaction. I was getting pretty pissed, but we reached our stop and got off the train. Anyway, back to the "Passenger Incident."

Later on the train for another metro line, the intercom came on and said, "The Jubilee line is closed due to a passenger under the train." Uh...Seriously? I guess they don't sugarcoat these things in the UK.

We got off the metro and walked to our first experience of real London food: Fish and Chips! This is one of the only things Londoners know how to cook. Everything else is pretty terrible, aside from meat pies. The fish and chips were bomb. Huge portions, good fries, malt vinegar, and lemon. I probably won't enjoy the ones at Pier 39 anymore.



After the deliciousness we went to the British Museum. This is kind of sad, but I've always wanted to go here after seeing The Mummy. I still can't believe this place is free - I might come back and live at the museum. They have the Rosetta Stone (SO COOL! That's a picture of it up top), parts of the Parthenon, the whole Neriad Temple, Assyrian Lion Hunt Friezes, Mummies, and a whole lot more. I took a bunch of pictures here*. The funny thing is that we saw a bunch of sculptures and friezes from Greece that were missing their heads. Under the pieces, the caption said "The heads of these statues are in Greece." So Greece just has a bunch of statue heads in some room? We spent about 3 hours here and didn't see everything.

Next, we had our second "British Experience": Tea! I got a real cup of Earl Grey, which was pretty darn good. David got a small machiato, and it was pretty small. The smaller the coffee serving here, the stronger it is, though.

We people-watched with our tea and coffee for a while, and then met up with Stefan who got off of work at 5. We kept strolling around London, and walked through Regent's Park, where Queen Mary's Garden is located. There was a huge rose garden here, and a lot of them had really interesting names. I can't remember them now (should have jotted them down but I didn't have my handy dandy notebook).



At 7, we started to head to Ace's House for the prayer meeting. Ace is the director of IBM's Europe division, but you wouldn't know it unless someone told you. Totally down-to-earth, unassuming guy. Anyway, it was really good to be with the brothers and sisters again, and to get a sense of what's going on in Europe. I realized I forgot my bible at the Geh's house (where we had small group the night before), so after the meeting we went to go get it. They realized that we hadn't eaten dinner, and Lucy made us some awesome curry and chow fun. See what I mean? It's pretty cool to have family everywhere.

That's one thing that's really impressed me, only two days since we've been out of the States. I came across this verse while reading my bible on the plane to London: 1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. I never really doubted my salvation, but it's nice to have this little faith-building experience. Like I said before, I didn't "know" these people two days ago, but when we met, there was an immediate connection and it was so easy to talk to them. Like we've known each other forever. Anyway, that's my two cents.

I'm beat. This walking 10 miles a day thing is pretty cool, but I sure am ready for bed by the end of the day. I'm getting some pretty gnarly blisters, too. I should have brought better shoes.

Night!


*Pictures from London are on my facebook page.

First day in London 5/25/09

We arrived in London at 9 AM. Interesting thing, though. The flight was supposed to last 8 hours, but I guess we were with the wind so the flight only lasted 7 hours. I thought I'd get 7 hours of solid sleep, but some parents behind be couldn't get their little girl to shuttup so I slept in short intervals and watched Monsters, Inc. and played memory in between periods of interrupted sleep. Fun stuff.

From London Heathrow Airport, we took the Tube (what Londoners call the metro) to London Bridge. The ticket salesman for the Tube was so polite it was almost funny. "May I have an all day ticket for the Tube?" "You may... Here's your change. Have a nice day now!" I've heard the service here is either extremely good or extremely bad. I guess I got extremely good service.

Our introduction to Central London: We got off at the London Bridge stop on the Tube, and when we got out, people were dressed up as ghouls. We kept walking, and found their source: The Tower Experience. One of the major sites in the area is a haunted house themed around the London Tower. To draw people in, they fake decapitate people in front of the entrance. I have a video if anyone's interested. Midgets are featured.

Stefan picked us up, and we went to his and Sam's flat to rest before heading out to lunch. London food is bad, but because of the influx of immigrants, there's pretty good cultural food. We got Thai food for lunch, and it was GOOD (spicy!).

Afterward, we went sightseeing along the Thames. Little fact: It's pronounced the TIMS. We saw the London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Shakespeare Globe, London Eye, and the Parliament Building and Big Ben in Westminster. The thing that surprised me the most was the relative size scaling of these sights. The London Eye is HUGE, but photographs small. The Shakespeare Globe is small, but looks big in pictures. I just gotta say. Being slightly jetlagged and having only 3 hours of sleep, this is the most tired I've ever been in my whole life. I swear, I was about to fall asleep while WALKING several times during the walk along the Thames.

After the sightseeing, we went to a smallgroup meeting in London, and learned two new hymns. Being with Christians here has been really sweet. Everyone treats you like family, even though you're "complete strangers." It's an awesome experience.

Anyway, I'm beat, but I still can't believe I'm in London right now. The funny thing is that I'm 4000 miles away from "home," but I don't feel like I'm that far away. I think it has to do with the fact that the city feels like Berkeley, and I'm with people from church=Family.


Last little fact before I crash: People here don't know how to tan. It was a sunny day here, and people were laying out in the sun, getting burnt. Not hot.