Mom and Dad, you should be proud.

Especially now that you know I am still alive. And well. And unharmed. And happy. :) I'll get to this part later. Here is the last week of my incredible, incredible life.

Friday 29 October 2010

I had class creative writing class in the morning. We need a pretty cool exercise where we went outside near the intersection of Regent Street and Oxford Street and just wrote for 15 minutes about our observations. That's a very major intersection in London. One of my downtown classes is on Regent Street. Anyway, it's one of the biggest shopping districts in London and is alway extremely crowded. I'd never really just sat and observed what was going on. I noticed things that I hadn't really before. I sat at the nearest bus station. Here are my observations:

The air smelled like exhaust, coffee and McDonald's. The road was littered with old gum fused to the sidewalk from the cars running over it thousands of time. I heard two different languages that I didn't recognize in the 15 minutes I was observing. I was already aware of the multitude of languages spoken here, but still an observation. It was surprisingly loud with the car horns and squeaky breaks Two girls sat down next to me who couldn't have been more than 16. They were wearing matching dark-wash skinny jeans, boots and perfectly tailored jackets. They each held a shiny Gucci shopping bag in their hand. I wondered why they weren't at school. The girls were giggling and I could tell by their accents that they were British. 

Before we went outside, our teacher had us write our perceptions of Oxford Street before we went outside. I wrote things like fresh air, busy people, shopping bags, muffled sounds from talking and bright colors. Once I got outside, I didn't really experience many of those things. I was surprised by how awful the air actually was outside. It wasn't fresh and clean like the perception in my head, it was filled with remnants of dirty cars and greasy foods.  Overall, I enjoyed the exercise and I think it let me see London is a completely different light.

After class, I hurried back to my dorm to pick up my things for my weekend trip to Portugal and Spain. From my flat it was over an hour and a half to the airport. Convenience and London do not go together. Whatsoever. The flight was a bit delayed, but other than that the night went smoothly.

I met one of my best friend's from Butler at the Trindade metro stop in Porto. Kudos to Meredith for doing the research. All I did was show up. That's the way I like it. I'm kidding. Sort of.

Anyway, after I wait for 20 minutes for the next Metro from the airport I get on the "E" line to Trindade station. It was probably a 30-35 minute ride. Not too bad. Once I got off the train I wondered around the station for a couple minutes until I heard Meredith shout my name. I was never so happy to see a familiar face! I'd done been by myself all afternoon and evening and it was so relieving to find her. Once again, I traveled to a foreign country. Alone. And happily survived.