London!

Yesterday morning we got up early and got on a train for Naples and then took a smaller train to Pompeii or Pompei as they spell it in Italy. As we were walking to the ruins we passed a small restaurant. The big Italian man called out, " Pizza, Spaghetti, Lasagna!" TR told the man he didn't speak Italian and kept walking. Ajay and I cracked up. Evidently TR was so focused on Pompeii he zoned out.
I attempted a J Crew look...didn't work.
I have watched documentaries on Pompeii and read about it quite a bit, but I had no idea how massive the ruins are. There is a complete town. We walked for over 3 hours all over the place. The stadium there is complete and to add to the short film series, here is one of Ajay and
TR reenacting a scene from Gladiator:

We then caught the trains back to Rome. TR and I budgeted the last two days down to the last .10 euro. It was very interesting. I had a cold slice of pizza for dinner and then went right to sleep. We woke up at 3:45 AM this morning and caught a cab to the airport. The cab driver tried to scam us saying the cab ride cost double what the law said. I went head on with him and argued over and over again. He started to negotiate and I stayed firm. Due to how early it was I think TR and Ajay thought our time could be better spent actually getting on the flight so we gave him 55 euro and got on the plane. The next catch was that your bag has to be under 16 kilograms. Ajay and my bags were over. For each kilogram over you have to pay 8 euro. Now our flight from Rome to London cost $20 with $28 in taxes coming out to $48 US dollars. An amazing deal. I knew there was going to be a catch. The lady only charged my for 4 of the 6 kilograms I was over and Ajay 1 kilogram for the 2 or 3 he was over. Oh well...we still saved money.

The flight was quick because we all slept the entire time. Evidently the airline also makes money off selling you stuff the entire flight, even water. These tricks didn't work on us due to how tired we were.

The next adventure was going through immigration in London. TR and Ajay went through quick and I took forever. The officer didn't understand why I was working for a member of parliament. He asked what I was studying and I told him I'm in grad school for Public Affairs and Law. He then asked what I wanted to do with that "work in a warehouse or something?" I was completely confused and told him I wanted to get a job in government service. I thought he would show some empathy since, he is in fact in government service. He went on to ask what I wanted to do with my life. At this point I got very confused. I told him I didn't know, but I am looking forward to interning for a member of parliament for free this summer. Evidently I was supposed to give him a straight answer such as work in a warehouse, be a bus driver, or a professional bowler or something he could grasp. He went upstairs and made some phone calls. He came back and told me to warn the others that this type of thing won't work in the future.

Why can't a student for another country work for almost free in another country for 3 months? Anyway, I understand he meant well, but the questions were off topic and didn't make sense. If you ever want to come here to do this program you better know exactly what your hopes and dreams for the future are.

We then took a bus to the city and dropped our bags off at the hostel. Anna gave me this really cool Moleskine notebook for London. It has all the metro stops, maps, and plenty of places to write different stuff etc. I have to admit at first I was skeptical because I am not very good at journaling, sketching, or doing that stuff...I hope this blog isn't showing my weaknesses in those areas too much. Today I have used it almost every second and we have been very precise and accurate in our touring. I have been able to write down notes and things to remember. Anna was right and we are very thankful for this small fountain of knowledge. Thank you so much Anna! I should mention that TR got his hands on it and enjoyed reading the inscription Anna wrote aloud. The guys enjoyed it immensely. I highly suggest getting a moleskine notebook for any city you might be heading to.

We went on the underground to Piccadilly Circus and looked at the theater tickets. We took a picture of the huge banner of Equis, the play where Harry Potter is as we kept saying today, "Buck Naked." The final show is tonight.

We went on to a discount theater ticket place and after hearing all the prices for different shows bought three tickets for The Lion King tonight! We are very excited. In our long hikes we have relied on Disney movies greatly for singing material. We got tickets for 30 pounds. Not bad for a Saturday night in London!

After that we walked down through Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall. We saw 10 Downing Street, Big Ben, Parliament, and toured Westminster Abby. It was excellent. At Trafalgar Square we saw the fountain of the mermaid kids with water shooting out of their mouths so we couldn't resist, but take video and dub in some throw up sounds in the background. Enjoy:


I am now back in the hostel about to shower and get ready for my first big night on the town in London. We are going to meet a friend of TR's for food and drinks, see The Lion King, and then hit up the Texas Embassy which is a Bar next to Trafalgar Square and see if we can meet any Texans there.

I move into my group flat tomorrow at 2 PM. I can't wait! Thanks for the comments! Keep them coming! Just so you know the videos take some time to upload so I am having to put them up a day or two after the rest of the posts go up. Scroll down the other posts and more might be there.