destination: london!

i'm back from a three-days of pure awesome that was london. i was pretty skeptical about going for many reasons, two reasons which did turn out to be legit:

1) i didn't want to sleep in the frankfurt-hahn airport on wednesday night.
2) the british pound is expensive.
3) we were couchsurfing for the first time. 

i left my humble abode on wednesday night and flew from prague to frankfurt. upon arriving in frankfurt at 11pm, i had 7 hours until my flight to london (6am). there were a lot of people sleeping at the airport since people who fly ryanair (read; cheap european airline that tries to sell you raffle tickets and charges you 5euro for water) have to give up some luxuries like decent flight hours... i slept maybe an hour or so but then just played "snake xenzia" on my cell phone until my flight.

i met up with greg around 9am on thursday and we really hit the ground running. with my expert map-reading skills, we saw westminster abbey, big ben, houses of parliament, and walked to trafalgar square. we ate lunch (THAI FOOD!!) then went into the national gallery. even though london is ridiculously expensive, especially compared to prague, a lot of the cultural activities like museums are free. we went on a free guided tour and heard about four painting in-depth.. after all this, we finally headed to our couchsurfing host bron's place.

this was my first time couchsurfing and i was a little skeptical, mostly because the concept of sleeping at a stranger's house seems a little sketch. it was actually a good experience though - a really good one. bron had an election party since thursday was the british election and it involved lots of wine, risotto, and listening to british commentators make fun of all the candidates. unfortunately i can't tell you too much more about this party because i fell asleep..... BUT it was still neat. bron went away on a sailing trip over the weekend and she let us (me and greg) stay at her flat while she was gone. again, that's crazy to me - letting strangers live in your house when you aren't even there - but maybe it's just a different way of thinking. well, i will also be couchsurfing for three days when i go to aix-en-provence at the end of may, so we'll see!

greg and i did a lot of other touristy stuff on friday and saturday (towers of london, walking along the river, taking pictures in the red telephone booths, tate modern, buckingham palace, british museum, and so on) and i also got to see two familiar faces - we hung out with shana, one of my friends from high school in korea (she goes to university college london), and then we saw sue-jung (a friend from wes who is abroad at UCL for the semester... and shana and sue also know each other now, small world!) on saturday for lunch. it's always good to see friends while you're abroad, so that was wonderful :) pictures forthcoming (i'm currently at the TOL office with nothing to do).

three things i will say about london. first, one of the reasons why i loved london so much is because the city is incredibly multicultural. being in prague has almost been like a living in a bubble for me, where i am clearly outside this bubble because i stick out like a sore thumb (i am often mistaken for an asian tourist). in london, i fit right in - everyone does. i loved being in an atmosphere with lots and lots of different people (the british accents don't hurt, either). we must have looked pretty legit because someone asked me for directions when we were about to get on the tube. speaking of the tube. second, i love the british lingo. like that's rubbish. and names for stuff like piccadilly circus!!! that's just cool. third, scones are delicious.

i think rome may have been my favorite city but london is the only place where i could see myself living - whether for studying abroad or in the future. i have been thinking about the future (which usually leaves me feeling sad and/or depressed) and i think i am seriously going to consider/look at working abroad after graduating. we'll see.

i have so much more to say about london and how great it was... but i am getting pretty sad thinking about the next few days. not only is the weather supposed to be gross and wet like it has been for the last week - this is my last full week in prague. i bought my ticket for paris before i left and i am leaving on may 19, 6am. the past three months have gone by SO quickly.

we'll end on a positive note: my thesis got approved, so looks like i will be writing one with professor gottschalk as my advisor - in his words, hurrah! also, i will be in DC in less than one month!