London - first days

All right?

Here are some of my observations having moved to the Motherland:

Jet lag is real. Jet lag is horrible. Over the course of 60 hours with only 3 hours of sleep, my body went through the following stages:
- low energy
  - manageable lack of mental control
    - droopy eyes and loss of fine motor skills
        - no energy and the mind decides that sidewalks/tile floors are adequate resting places
          - zombie
            - crazy
              - angry
                - pleasantly content and not a care in the world
The recovery time took about 4 days and I presented a wild first impression for my bunk-mates.

It has been a week and I still have yet to see anything that remotely resembles a pick-up truck. Speaking of vehicles, look right. Then look right again. Drivers here are ruthless.

I always thought I was good with directions until now. Turns out that it wasn't my intellect, it was the mountains. Now I am at the mercy of the Tube.

Because of the Harry Potter movies, I thought I was pretty decent at understanding the British accent. I was naive. This was learned early on as I must have looked like Elle Woods stepping into her first class at Harvard to my taxi driver. He dropped me off here, to my new home:

Sunrise from the hall window

Church/School

Across the street neighbors

Kate Middleton and I are basically BFFs already. On day 2 in London, some friends and I were walking through Hyde Park (shown below) and we happened across Kate and Prince George taking a jaunt through the park which is essentially their backyard. It doesn't get much better than that!

 

"Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains?" -Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

In Hyde Park we tried to find the dreamy, yet horrific, Robo-Darcy in The Serpentine, but we found out that he only swam those waters for one day last summer.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/video/2013/jul/08/mr-darcy-statue-london-serpentine-video


Down the street from us are the Royal Prince Albert Memorial and Royal Prince Albert Hall

Albert, looking majestic

Blurry friends at Big Ben