Episode 2: Stupid IBS and a Bird!

Day two started off far earlier than I could have imagined. I suppose jet lag is a real thing but my internal clock seems to have no real time zone. I went to bed at 9:30 last night because I was tired. This means it was only 1:30 in the afternoon at home. Then I woke up at 5:30 feeling not the least bit sleepy even though I'd woken up quite a bit during the night. As an added bonus (she said a little sarcastically) I didn't have to catch the bus to Kingston U until 8:25 at the earliest. What was a girl to do?

Well this girl messed around on her computer for about two and a half hours. I Skyped Mom and Dad, uploaded pictures, checked Facebook, etc. Then I read for a bit. Until at 8:15 I went to meet someone I knew in one of the nearby flats. She invited me to join her and her flatmates on the bus trip. We'd planned to take the earlier bus, but it left while they were still getting ready. They finished getting ready and the six of us left for the bus stop together.

When the bus arrives I internally squeal with joy like a fangirl meeting the object she's devoted hours of giggling to. Our bus is a real red double-decker bus. Yes that's right, I got to do the thing every tourist plans on while in London: I rode the top deck of a big red bus. And I sat backwards just because.

When we reached the school, Caitie and Jessie were thirsty so we all headed for the cafeteria. As a note, Wild Tango is a soda (which I said from the get-go) and apparently not a very appealing one. At Orientation I learned that it was pretty much just the Eurolearn students who were there for the summer. Seriously. Just us and a couple of grad students. After the Orientation slideshow, we headed out on a walking tour.

I will say this now and it will most likely be reiterated over the course of this blog; I am not a walker. I have never really had any endurance no matter how long I've tried to build it up. And since Londoners walk all the time, they walk fast. I was so winded and nauseous by the end of that walk, I was happy when we reached the pub for lunch.

But I feel sorry for Rebecca (our tour guide) as well. We were a bit of a straggly group. We all wanted to take pictures so we would lag behind and she'd have to wait for us to catch up. Sometimes when we stopped and she was explaining things we were still taking pictures. She was a pretty good sport about the whole thing. She even took pictures for us in front of the leaning telephone booths at the entrance to Old London Road.

By lunch, I knew all was not well. I felt hot and sick but gamely ordered lunch since I hadn't eaten since 6 this morning. If I didn't eat, soon my stomach would try to eat itself. I don't know if this is a pub thing or not, but the weirdest thing about lunch was that there were three non-alcoholic beverage choices: Pepsi, water, or juice. Not even a variety of juice or Diet Pepsi. Just those three. And the list of drink choices was about six or seven lines long.

At lunch my theory that I just look like someone who needs to be looked after was reinforced. I had taken my Pepsi and sat down alone. A guy from a nearby table asks if I want to join them and they all scoot to make room for me. There are five of them and they're a group from the University of South Carolina who are here with one of their professors (who is also sitting at the table).

Anyway, back to the theory. The guy who asked me over, Ben, notices I'm not really eating and I tell him I feel a little sick. He says I am probably dehydrated and need to drink a lot of water. I take out my water bottle and take a little sip, just to show I believe him. For the rest of the meal he kept nudging me to drink water and eat the bun off my burger (veggie burger and the bun was the only part I felt like eating when I felt sick). It wasn't in an annoying way. More of an "I'm looking out for you" kind of way. Maybe I just have a look?

After lunch I still felt sick so I told one of the leaders of the program I had to go back to the dorms instead of going on the scavenger hunt in London with everyone else (which really, really sucked.) Dr. Phillip Woods (one of the advisors for the program) took me to the bus and got me where I was going. He didn't leave until the stop right before mine and he was very nice to me. I felt like I was going to cry when we left the pub, but answering his questions kept me from doing that.

So I made it back safe and sound. I uploaded pictures taken during the morning and actually took a small cat nap. Then I thought I heard my flatmates return so I went to look in the kitchen. And in the kitchen was a pigeon! They'd forgotten to close the window when they left and he flew into through the small crack. I thought about scaring him out, but I didn't think that would work. So I waited until he went back out the window and then quickly ran in and shut it.

Still have not gone grocery shopping. It's a good thing I packed so many breakfast cookies. I have class until 4 tomorrow and once I return to the dorm, I really will go shopping. Hopefully I can find someone who'll want to come with me. Well, today's lesson is don't leave you're windows open or the pigeons will find you, do recon and plan their attack that more efficiently. Ciao.