Welcome to London!

Arrived today in London at around 6:50am after a 12 hour transit. All I can say is, I'm glad I won't be making that flight again until May. To be fair, it wasn't all that bad. But considering it's Sunday and I haven't slept since Friday, everything feels a little fuzzy right now. And yet, that's the joy of traveling, is it not? Putting yourself out of your comfort zone and just merging into a whole other world.

A whole other world is definitely what I found myself in when I arrived this morning.

In Detroit, I met another Eckerd student who was on my flight, so we traveled together as far as baggage claim in Heathrow. At that point, she wanted to take a taxi all the way to the house, whereas I had agreed to meet 2 other students and take the train into the city.

Everything went surprisingly smoothly until I realized my rendezvous was no where to be found. Finally I asked some employees at a baggage window if the students' flight had come in on time, and they told me to walk out some doors to the right and ask at the information desk.

When I walked out those doors (which were one way, mind you -- no turning back!), I was NOT prepared for what I found. I almost froze, dumbfounded as I stared into the eyes of what seemed like hundreds people leaning over a cordoned off area waving signs with peoples names they were supposed to be picking up.

It was a little terrifying. Beyond this wall of grim-faced Londoners was a massive terminal. I turned right and started walking, when suddenly I heard my name being called from a voice I recognized. Miraculously, I found the two students was meeting (or rather, they found me).

From there, as planned, we found our way to the Heathrow Connect (cheaper than the Heathrow Express) and rode it straight through to Paddington Station. I took a short video when we first came out from underground, which can be seen here.

At Paddington we followed the signs to the taxi area, where we quickly hailed a cab and rode to the London House. It came out to about 12 pounds which we split between the 3 of us.

At the house, I was first assigned the top floor double room, but later swapped with someone else who didn't want to sleep in the top bunk of the triple room the next floor down. Long story short, I'm now rooming on the 3rd floor (considered the 4th floor in the US) with the 2 students who I traveled with from the airport.

After getting everything sorted out, we walked around the city for the afternoon, sightseeing and trying to take everything in. I didn't want to take too many photos but I'll definitely take more tomorrow. There are no words to describe this city, other than that it is *nothing* like home.

There is so much more I want to write, but I'm really exhausted right now and can't think and I need to try and figure out how to sleep with the so far almost constant roar of traffic and sirens blasting through our window that doesn't close all the way.

What an adventure! More updates to come.

Cheers!

Song of the Open Road

Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.
...
From this hour, freedom!
From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines,
Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute,
Listening to others, and considering well what they say,
Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,
Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the hold that would hold me.

I was looking up a quote today and I came across this passage the poem Song of the Open Road, by Walt Whitman (one of my favorite poets).  The entire piece is extremely long and rambles on in that great life-loving, celebratory way that Whitman seems to express in all his poetry.

Whatever it is, these lines spoke to me today. I guess it was partially the realization that this weekend I'm actually leaving for London. I'm about to embark on that life-changing, spirit-freeing, mind-opening rite-of-passage we like to call "travel."

My open road is not one in the literal sense. Rather, it is a path I'm taking in life, a personal journey to understand the world a little better and my own self as well.

London in a Fortnight

This morning I was struck by the realization that in exactly 14 days I will be leaving the States for my adventure abroad. I've wanted this for so long, but at times it just feels so overwhelming. I have chosen to embark on this journey, to begin a new chapter of my life and yet… This chapter seems to be one I am afraid to write.

But why?

I suppose it's for many reasons. It's always a little scary delving into the unknown. I'm afraid of all the things that could go wrong, but probably won't. Little stuff and big stuff. Just the whole idea of being so far away and isolated from the resources I know how to utilize at home is kind of an unsettling thought.

But at the same time, traveling to London is an exceedingly tame endeavor. Unlike many of my friends who have traveled all over the world to volunteer at orphanages in Africa, practice languages in Japan and South America, study marine science in the Honduras, and so on, visiting the UK for a few months seems like a walk in the park.

Yet in the story of my life, it is the biggest thing I have ever done. All conflicting thoughts and feelings aside, I know that in the end this will be an incredible character building experience, and hopefully one that will prepare me for the things I'd like to do in the future. On that drift, I am completely ecstatic about the trip.

I can't wait to see all the new sights, taste new foods, hear new sounds, experience life in a new way. I can't even fathom the reality of this opportunity. Fourteen days. How do I even prepare for this? What an adventure it will be!

Lundenwic to Lundenburg

I left off last time with the story of the "Warrior Babe" (as Mom described her when I told her the story!) Queen Boudicca. I must concur, it does seem to be a fitting name. But that was only in 60AD.

After that, more turmoil ensued, as tribes and empires and vikings battled it out on Great Britain's soils. Between about 70-120AD, Londinium was a fairly successful trade state, until it crashed and burned around the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.

Seems that a lot of emperors wanted to take control of the city, too. Although their names were quite entertaining to read (Carausius, Emporer Maximian, Constantius Chlorus, Diocletian, and Galerius to name a few), my textbook offers a tedious description of these emperors' tug-o-war battles over London.

Amongst the turmoil, in 313 AD arguably one of the most important events occured in Londinium: the establishment of Christianity. With this as the recognized religion of the city, politics slowly began to change. And as London continued to crumble off and on, in between bouts of successful commerce and trade the city began to evolve into the more medieval nature with which we tend to think of old England.

Between 400-886 AD, Londinium turned into Lundenwic ("wic" derived from Latin vicus meaning a village or quarter of a city). During this period, London was attacked by vikings, barbarians and warlords with awesome names (like Vortigern -- who could go wrong with a name like that??), and influenced by various popes and kings and whatnot.

There's an interesting tidbit in the textbook about the Knights Templar. Apparently (I either didn't know this or had forgotten) they were originally the "Knights of the Temple of Solomon of Jerusalem" and acted as a religious order formed for the protection of travelers on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Eventually the pope suppressed them in 1312, however and gave their house and services over to another travel agency group ("travel agency" in the historical sense, of course -- not Travelocity!).

On that note, this traveler is going to sign off for now. I'll enlighten you to more of ancient England next time. Can't believe I'll be leaving in just over 3 weeks!