Hey guys! Sorry it's taken me so long to get my first post up. I have so much to talk about since I left on the 13th. I suppose I'll start from the beginning and try to sum up all my experiences since then. But before I begin I'm going to throw out a little disclaimer....I don't have access to the internet very often, so I'm throwing this all out at once. It may not be pretty, but I'm trying to get as much down as I can.
Soooooo I left Monday the 13th for London. It was a really awesome day because one of my car's axels broke about an hour before I had to leave for the airport, and I still had a few errands to run. We managed to get to the airport with about 40 minutes to spare so I was able to take a break from stressing out and just hang with the fam.
While I was at the airport I ran into another girl who was heading to Uganda through HELP, and she happened to have the same flight as me to LA. That was awesome because we hung out during our layover in LA and I think that kinda helped me from kinda freaking out about traveling on my own (I had felt anxious about traveling on my own).
When I think back to feeling stressed about traveling on my own I kinda laugh about it cause I went through a weird experience when I had a transfer at the Mumbai airport…but I'll get to that later.
Anyways, the flight to London was long. Over the 10 hour flight, I probably slept a total of an hour spread across a 5 hour period of trying to sleep. For the remaining six hours of my flight I talked to the dude sitting next to me and tried watching a movie on a tv that kept turning off. It ruined my life.
When I finally landed in London (wooooo!) I had to go through customs. It was nuts. Every question they asked me felt like they were accusing me of some crime even though they were all simple questions like, 'Who are you staying with?' and 'Where are you stay?'. Every answer I gave felt like the wrong one and it all built up to the point that I was sorta freakin out like I wasn't going to get into the country. It was funny because my sister Neena told me that it was scary for her because she felt like every answer she gave was wrong but I thought she was exaggerating.
Neena…you were completely right.
When they finally let me through, I let out a I'veneverfreakingbeensoscaredofsomeone laugh as I walked away.
***Before I continue, you should probably know that I've never met any of my family on my mum's side besides her sister + kids and my Nani and Nana (grandparents). So it was a pretty big deal that I was going to be meeting a bunch of the fam in London.
So after I got through customs, I cruised for the exit and found my uncle holding up a sign with my name on it. I didn't know exactly how to react to him because he didn't seem super stoked to see me or anything, but I decided to go in for a hug none the less. It was awesome because he didn't hug me back or anything..it was kind of a bummer, but I didn't think twice about it. I guess it helped ease some of the awkwardness of not knowing quite what to say when he teased me about how I packed my house into my carry on. From that point on we were just sassy and frank with each other. It was cute.
When we got to the car I had my first "I'm definitely not in the states anymore" experience as I tried getting into what I knew to be the passenger seat. Rookie mistake. My uncle made fun of me for it as I went around to the left side of the car. It was so bizarre sitting where the driver SHOULD be as we drove down the LEFT side of the road.
Uncle driving on the wrong side of the road
The buildings and houses were all so much cooler than those back home, but I found myself distracted by the traffic. I felt like every lane merged into the other at random points and there were motorcycles/scooters zooming in-between all da cars. It made me nervous and I swear we almost got in like 10 crashes, but it was cool because people actually slowed and stopped before the light turned red, and there were a lot of sexy exotic cars + ones I've never heard of before.
When we pulled up to his house, Auntie Rama (his wife) was standing at the door to greet me. She's really a great woman and is a sister to my Nana. She took care of me like none other and made sure I was comfortable and was always willing to get or make me anything I wanted. That evening she fed me a delicious lamb currie dinner that I ate with my cousin Ashvin and Auntie Biane. Ashvin is Auntie Rama's son, and Auntie Biane is another one of my Nana's sisters. Later that night my cousin Aneela and Uncle Sham, who is Nana's brother, came over to visit as well. It was really cool because I felt as if I had known all of them for a while, and I immediately felt a love for them even though I had known some of them for only an hour.
The next day Me and Ashvin hit the town. We took a train to Victoria where we caught the tube to Westminster. I saw the Eye of London from a distance and turned around to Big Ben and Parliament smacking me in the face. For a brief second I thought of V for Vendetta and how it was blown up in the movie, and then moved on to getting pictures of myself with it in the background. I felt like such a tourist.
From there we headed over to Westminster Abbey. What an amazing building. The history of it all was mind blowing. It's basically graves on graves on graves of "royal" people. Some had awesome elaborate tombs while others we buried and noted on the ground you walked on. The quire and sacrarium were really cool too. I imagined all the past and future kings and queens of England walking through the quire and up to the coronation chair where they were then crowned as rulers of the preeple of England.. Ashvin made me walk down the quire as if I was about to become queen. I was stopped by a group of people standing in my way and I got really offended. But it was pretty significant to think that what I saw when I walked down the quire was what many of the kings and queens saw during their coronations well.
From there we hit up Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, Top Shop (I almost got the top of my ear pierced...too much money though), and Carnaby Street. Every where we visited was beautiful and surrounded by a ton of school groups from France, Germany, etc. It made me feel out of place. I only recognized a few people as Americans the entire trip, so at that point I really felt like a foreigner….Something that I'd never experienced before.
The next day me and Ashvin visited the Monument (where the Great Fire of London started) , the Tower of London followed by the Tower Bridge. The Tower of London was filled with a butt ton of history and it was cool to see the crowns of past rulers. I found myself disgusted at the amount of power and money royalty had just from being born. OH! and the diamond that rests as the centerpiece of Queen Elizabeth's crown was stolen from India. Not cool England. Not cool. But I'm trying not to bore you with all the junk I have to say so I'll just note that the rest of the day consisted of visiting St. Paul's Cathederal, and walking across Millennium Bridge.
For my last and final day in England, me and Ashvin visited Blenheim Palace. We had to drive into the country side out past Oxford. It was the best way to end the trip. The palace was amazing….20 time cooler than Buckingham Palace. It was just like the mansions in Pride and Prejudice, what with the long entrances and perfectly manicured massive lawns surrounded by forrest and shrubbery.
Currently the 11th Duke and Duchess of Marlborough live there, but as I walked through the palace I discovered that Winston Churchill was born and had lived there. That was neat. I walked through the room where he was born. They had his baby curls framed above the bed that he was born in. I never knew a boy child could have such long luscious locks.
After we cruised the palace, we hit up one of the garden paths. It took us to a waterfall that was pretty, but not mind blowing thanks to Utah's awesome outdoor features. But further down the path I found myself chasing a pheasant through a beautiful green pasture. It was so exciting.
--Because I am lazy, I'm going to finish my spout about England by saying that the next morning I woke up and headed for the airport where I ran into a huge line for boarding passes. I was tstressed out because I thought I was going to miss my flight. Fortunately I didn't but ended up sitting behind a family with a child who whined thee most annoying whine for nearly 9 hours. I got little to no sleep before arriving in Mumbai where I was to catch a connecting flight to Hyderabad. It was odd though being on a plane with that many Indians. At that point I really started feeling like the foreigner as they announced things first in Hindi, and then in English….with an Indian accent.
Thats all for London..
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