Squatters Mansion

I landed in London late Sunday night and spent Monday mostly hanging out with Dan in Guildford. Dan is starting a law course in London on Monday, and had yet to find an apartment in London in which to live. So I was his personal assistant, to quote Dan, "I own you" and spent most of the afternoon helping him search for cheap yet not delapitated apartments.

This is a difficult thing to do, yet we earnestly pursued Dan's dream of London dwelling. In between internet cafes and coffee breaks I did managed to stumble across the Westminster Cathedral. It is situated next to "the nicest McDonalds ever" according to Dan, and is built in the Byzantine style. The cornerstone was laid in 1895 and the the entire insides of the church are tiled with Biblical mosaics. Granted, they are relatively new mosaics, but gorgeous nonetheless. Dan helped me find a phone and I now am also the proud owner of an Oyster card, which is what real London people use for city transportation! Look at me go!

At the end of the day, Dan and I had two places to check out. The first, was about a 12 minutes tube ride from his college. It was on a little street of all typical looking British brick flats. It was an upstairs apartment with three guys already living there. One guy, Aden, was moving out and needed someone to take over the lease.

how can I put this..the first place was..kinda gross! I mean, I understand that three guys live there, but I'm pretty sure they have never cleaned it. But, the room Dan was offered was large and furnished and once cleaned, would work out.

The second room was a 25 minute tube ride to class, more expensive, and I'm pretty sure knife fights happen on a regular basis around that neighborhood. The flat was pretty nice, very new, and the people living there are students, and very very quiet. The kind of quiet where sneezing gets you shushed.

In the end, Dan decided upon the first flat. The room was big, the guys are VERY chill..maybe almost too chill? And it's closer to school.

Plus he has a friend that looks exactly like Tim. I have named him British Tim....

And as of this weekend, Dan will reside in Squatters mansion, as I like to call it. I'm sure there will be stories coming out of that house....

Finally, an Update

So, I have finally made it to England, and made it to my dorm, which now has computer access. I managed to get my computer hooked up with minimal questions to the IT department (the ones I asked were met with "you are slow" looks) and very few curses...out loud at least.
So here I sit, listening to Jakob Dylan, mostly because he's great and I need music to calm me down. Today was international orientation day, which basically adds up to standing in queques for AGES and getting tons of papers thrown at you with minimal explanation.

Geez, I sound frusterated!

Since I missed a few days of travel and adventure I will post a few blurbs about the last few days of my life. And now that SexyRexy (my aptly named Toshiba laptop) is functioning, I will keep this baby updated as best I can!!