England

I arrived in Heathrow Airport on the 23rd early in the morning. Acting like a retarded zombie from the flight, I grabbed my bag and sluggishly made my way to the money exchanger where I turned what was left of my American dollars into pounds and Euros. Getting public transport from the airport to my cousin’s place was much easier than I had predicted. The trains, tubes and busses are labelled very well which makes it easy for dumb tourists like me to get around. I suspect one of the main reasons they've put in so much effort into making London so tourist friendly is because the Olympic Games are coming up super soon. In fact, the Olympic Games must have been inspired a lot of national pride because you can easily notice a lot of UK flags scattered throughout the city. Still, there are nowhere near as many flags as Texas. Oh, did I forget to mention that the Texas flag is the only flag in the states which can be elevated to the same height as the American flag? Facts are fun.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, my flight. So yeah, I ended up sitting next to a retired elderly couple which lived in Leeds on the flight. Apparently I must have made a good first impression because they gave me their address and phone number and told me I could crash at their place if I needed to. I'll probably take them up on it assuming I'm not too drunk when I need a place to stay.

Alright, so, I've already stayed at Alex and Vicky's place for 2 nights, Andrews for one night, and I'm currently crashing at Scott's (technically Cathy's) place in Oxford. It's really nice meeting up with my cousins again. Not much has changed. They're all just as I remember them. Whilst I love all my cousins, I've noticed there is a lot of hostility between themselves that is well hidden by transparent, polite greetings.

On my first night here, I got pissed (the good kind of pissed) with Vicky at the local pub. I really like her; she's friendly and very social.

The following day I got drunk (the bad kind of drunk) with Andrew at a club called Aquum. Girls are so much more stuck up in clubs here... I approached a few girls in the club expecting them to be totally amazed by my accent. Instead, I got a very polite 'fuck off vibe' from them. I miss American house parties :(

I've been surviving without internet for a day and a half now. In this time it's really made me speculate on how people used to socialise without the internet. How sad is that, eh?

Overall I enjoy London. The people here are very friendly and the weather is good (not what you'd expect, eh?). I'm particularly looking forward to travelling up north to visit Leeds. I've heard it's more of a young peoples place.

I've found myself sleeping about 10 hours per night and still feeling tired during the day. I'm not sure why though, I should have recovered from jet lag. I think my body must be slowly adjusting to a sugarless diet :p