London Days 3 & 4

Alright, so I haven't really said much about jet lag. I mentioned that I went to bed at about 8 on Thursday night, and I woke up at 8 again. Friday, I was feeling pretty worn out by the afternoon, mainly because I went on a walking tour, so I told myself I would take a two-hour nap at about 6:30, but I actually just ended up sleeping until 8 the next morning. So I figured I would be fine for the next day! Maybe not. Last night, I went on another walking tour and then fell asleep again at 6:00, only this time, I actually got up at 9:30 and saw night time! I didn't actually go out of the hostel because it was chilly outside, but I went out to the common room of the hostel until about midnight. Before I left though, these guys came in, and one guy came near my bed and said, "Oh no!" I thought I did something wrong, but then this other guy came up and said, "How the heck did you lose your brother? You are a RE-tard!" I was just cracking up in my bed silently. Then these other guys came in and started shouted at each other, then they got really quiet and all I heard was one guy whisper, "Everybody hates us!" That made me laugh because it reminded me of something my brother and I would do. So after that I got up, read for a while, and went back to bed around midnight. When I got to my room, it was really dark, but I could tell that there was someone leaning on the bed next to mine. As I slipped past him, I could smell a lot of alcohol on him, so he was really drunk and didn't even realize that I had passed him. I got in bed, and watched him just standing there for about 5 minutes, then he slowly made his way up to the top bunk and basically passed out with one foot hanging out of the curtain. I then heard him making noise, and I'm just praying that he doesn't throw up. He doesn't. So then this other guy walks in (the guy who lost his brother) and he goes to bed (which is right next to mine and just underneath the drunk guy) and starts snoring really loud about 5 minutes later. I just laid there for about a half hour, when I finally decided to get my earplugs. Just before I get them, the drunk guy wakes up moaning something. He becomes more coherent, and I think to myself, "How is the drunk guy going to react to a loud, snoring guy?" So the drunk guy wakes up and he says, "Oh heck no!" A few seconds pass, then he shouts, "Get the heck out!!" After about 5 more snores, he throws something onto the ground, which woke up the entire room... except the snoring guy! He then gets out of the bed and just stands next to the guy saying "Shh!" every 15 seconds. After about a minute, he went somewhere else, and I put my earplugs in and went to sleep. I almost burst out laughing every time the guy snored. It went from sounding like a pig squeal, to sounding like an idling car, to sounding like a chainsaw starting.

So aside from the hilarious night, yesterday, I went on a walking tour around old London, where I saw the Tower Bridge, London Tower, London Bridge, and Big Ben among other things. I also went to the National Gallery where I saw several painting that I somehow remembered from Dr. Brettell's class three years ago. Among those were Van Gogh's sunflowers, and several paintings by Monet and Manet. I also booked a bus ticket to Edinburgh, which was only 18 pounds or $36, which was way less expensive than the $130 I would have spent on the train ticket. The only thing is I have to be at the bus station by 8:30 tomorrow morning. Anyway, today I went to the British Museum, the Tate Modern Art Gallery, and I figured out where I have to meet for my bus tomorrow. The British Museum was very interesting, as it had several original works by Shakespeare, a Guttenberg Bible, some of the original Beatles' manuscripts, an original version of the Magna Carta from the 1200's and several original works by Galileo, Da Vinci, and Newton! It was very fascinating. The modern art was interesting in a different way... sometimes I have to wonder how they decide what constitutes great modern art. Do they have an expert who looks at blobs on a canvas and says YES? Or do they have someone say, "Oh Piccasso did it? Put it in there somewhere." I'm not sure, but either way, it was very strange, as modern art tends to be.

Right now, I'm going to figure out how to do some laundry and pack up my stuff for tomorrow.