Adventures

These are tales of what's happened to me the last two days. (They're kind of long, but they're entertaining. Well, at least to me.)

Tuesday was the first day it really rained. I mean, it poured!!!! All day since about 11 am. In between classes I went and found the institute, in the downpour. But that's not the interesting part. I stayed at school pretty late that day so it was 6:30 by the time I got on the tube. Rush hour. When I got to my stop I went out to the street and had to stand still and process for a few seconds. Traffic was not moving. I mean an absolute standstill. (An accident of some sort.) There was a siren from an ambulance going, but there was no where for traffic to move out of the way to. Naturally, there was no way buses were going to make it to the stop right outside the tube station. Now, picture me. I'm not such a big fan of the rain or the cold, but there I am, standing on a street corner in London in a deluge. I'm pretty sure I know the way home by walking (but not for certain) and the alternative being to stand there and wait for traffic to clear up. I was only going to get wetter and colder so I decided to walk. I start chuckling when I picture myself wandering with my umbrella in the dark holding my pants up (the weight of the water made the jeans pretty heavy, plus they're a little big). May I take this moment to give a shout out to Steve Jobs for inventing the iPod which made this walk not miserable. I, suprisingly, enjoyed walking home, or at least trying to find my way as I still wasn't sure how to get there. :) I did make it home and actually in the same amount of time as if I'd caught the bus (it's an hour commute to school one way). Once I got home I proceeded straight into the shower to warm up. Good adventure. :)

Wednesday's Art class was being held at the Tate Modern Gallery to see the futurism stuff. (If you're wondering what that means, I saw the exhibit and I still don't know. So don't worry.) We were to meet there at noon. I had looked up how to get there on the government's travel website and it said to get off the Northern line heading south at the Waterloo station then walk east. If only. I did indeed take the Northern line south to Waterloo station, but Waterloo station is HUGE!!! It's not a nice, small station that has one or two lines stopping there like most are around London. This is the staion that has the Eurostar (the one that goes under the Channel to Paris) and a whole bunch of other trains to all over the country. I had 15 min to get to the Tate when I walked out into the station, plenty of time (I thought). I randomly pick an exit out of the ten or so different exits and walked forward. (Note: your sense of direction gets completly thrown off when coming up from the tube. Lots of stairs and lifts and escalators in every direction.) I quickly discover that I have no idea where I am. But I keep walking because I have a vague memory of the Tate being along the Thames from when we were on the boat cruise. So my focus quickly becomes "find the Thames, find the Thames" because once I find the Thames I just need to walk east. I notice the wind getting colder and I start thinking that it's the wind coming off the water so I'm getting close. I then, very suddenly, walk right in to the London Eye. (This is the big ferris wheel that sits right on the Thames.) Having found the water I turned right (east) and started walking. And I kept walking. And I kept walking. And I kept walking. After about 15 min I still don't see any signs saying one way or another but I did see one that said The Queen's Walk, something I had no idea about but was very pleased to find myself on. :) But I do have a fantastic view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliment and the sun is out so it was quite plesant. But, as you know, Big Ben is a clock and I can now see how late I really am for class. Since I was late, I said screw it and kept walking. (Another shout out to the iPod.) I happened across a little book sale going on under Waterloo Bridge so I stopped and had a look around for a few minutes. But I thought that I should at least find the museum before I head back to school. So I kept walking. Then, quite abruptly, I am at the Tate Modern. I walked around for a minute (it's really beautiful with all the trees outside and the building itself. I will go back and get pictures to show everybody.) before I go inside. On my way in I run right into my teacher and class. We all then proceeded inside. We spent less than an hour at the gallery because it took everybody else an hour to get there as well and we all had a class after Art. The journey back to school was boring because I looked at a map and knew where I was.

Wow, long stories. But those are just two of the great adventures I've had over the last week. Tomorrow we go to Brighton, which is on the beach so I will post pictures next week. :) :) :)