Getting here and the first week

Ok so, if you are reading this you are aware that this trip has been a plan of mine for quite some time and it has now come to fruition. As of seven-forty Monday morning, the 28th London time to present, my place of residence has been in Nido student housing in Islington, London. I can't express in a blog how awesome it is to finally be here! Perhaps it is just that the grass is greener on the other side, or I haven't explored my home in D.C. enough, or maybe it might be that I have been attending a college in the middle of great smoky mountains of North Carolina, I have no idea! But, all that aside, I love it here!

In order to get here I packed a huge suitcase to its brim. I tried to keep that case to just clothes and I got it to be pretty heavy, about 68 pounds if memory serves. I also packed another smaller suitcase just for magic and to lighten the load of the larger one, unfortunately not by much though. Finally, I packed my backpack with my computer and external. So altogether 3 bags, not too horrible right? I was advised to take two huge suitcases by one of my slightly older families and i am very glad I didn't I told this person he was crazy and that I would probably be lugging this thing halfway across London and I was NOT going to be carrying for bags. (I was a little stubborn, but I was also right.)

I woke up at 8:30 on sunday the 27th of September pretty much packed and ready to go, still had to pack my computer and such, but no big deal. I had one last breakfast with my parents and we left for the airport about 10:15. I checked in and went through security with very little time elapsed. However, quick interlude, as I was going through security I must confess to some nervousness about my magic bag and it being searched. I tried very hard to make sure that absolutely nothing in that bag could be considered a weapon, but there are some strange things in there that they may have been suspicious of. Regardless I sent the bag through along with my backpack. Now I had taken my computer out, but I forgot about my external. They stopped me and said, "Sir, do you have another computer in your bag?" and like a complete dolt, I said, "Nope." and they told me they would have to search it. I said ok and then I realized what they were talking about and informed them it was my external. They said that was fine but they still needed to check it. I had no problem with that and told them that I had thought the other bag would need to be searched because of all the magic props in there. They laughed and asked if I could do any magic and I said yes and they asked to see a trick. I laughed and said, "Sure!" I vanished a handkerchief for them and they all gave me this dumbfounded look. Awesome moment. Also, behind the security lines, I could see my parents cracking up at this and shaking their heads. Talk about a relaxed and comfortable time through security!

Anyway, I said goodbye to my parents one more time and boarded the plane at around 11:45 AM. This was about a 3 hour flight to Houston which was ok. I started watching Arrested Development, which by the way is hilarious, with the guy next to me and we had a blast the whole flight. Then I had a short layover at the airport and the monster flight arrived which I boarded at about 3:45 pm Houston time, I think... This flight was 10 hours... I felt a repeat of that sentence was necessary. I watched two movies, Terminator Salvation and Star Trek. I also viewed a little bit more of Arrested Development. Thank God I had a whole row to myself. I couldn't sleep but at least I was comfortable. I tried really hard to sleep so that I could stay awake all day in London and beat the jet lag that I was sure to endure otherwise. Unfortunately though, I wasn't all that tired until I actually got to London, this was horrible! I get off the plane, get through customs, get my bag, and prepare to wait for the orientation bus or whatever. I was sooooooo tired!!

I looked everywhere for these guys, I asked information, they paged them, no one showed up. Eventually, I just gave up and took the Tube. This was ok. I lugged my bags downstairs met a nice woman named Samara. She helped me figure out where I needed to go. Actually, it was fairly easy, but she just sort of reassured me. A couple of stops after we got on though, my eyes started failing me. I was really not ok with being awake at that moment. Samara kept telling me just stay awake, whatever you do, do not go to sleep. I said that is the plan but I don't know if I can do it. She just laughed and said she knew how I felt. about a quarter of the way to King's Cross Station, the carriage filled with people. Loads of people just going to work. An ungodly amount of people just squeezing into the train. One woman got in between myself and Samara so it became quite difficult to talk to her. We asked her to move but she kind of just sneered at us and went on reading the paper. Very kind. Anyway, so Samara gave me her card and got off a couple stops before mine. I said goodbye and told her I'd call and see whatever parts of London she was willing to show me. Nice lady.

Then we finally get to King's Cross. Took about an hour from Heathrow. I get off and look for the exit to Pentonville Road. Not really very hard to find. I get up there and I start looking for which way to go. I have absolutely no clue. So... like any responsible, stubborn, American, Chafetz family male, I just start heading in a direction that I think is correct instead of asking for directions. Normally, I would have paid for this dearly, but I got lucky because I knew what the buildings of Nido looked like and I spotted them up the road in the exact direction I was heading! This was wonderful because I was still unbelievably tired, wearing my P-Coat because I didn't want to pack it, and lugging three bags, my backpack and the big and small suitcases which were attached to each other. I was sweating like a dog and my arm was getting tired. I finally got to Nido and pretty much shouted for joy outside the building. I lugged my bags, pretty much for the last time, up the massive stairs into the building and said to the front desk lady that I was ready to check in. She said I could stick my bags in the back but I couldn't check in until 2:00 and that I had to fill out some forms. I was ok with this because at least I would get to sit down and not worry about two of those bags. So I signed some forms ditched my bags for a bit, met some new people and ate a massive amount of McDonald's food.

I waited the few hours and finally checked in and went to my room. I unpacked everything and since it was packed so neatly it was really no problem. I got everything done and almost went to sleep. Instead, my higher will power kicked in and I went with some other people out to explore a bit. this helped to wake me up a bit and this is pretty much what I did for the rest of the day until I eventually went to a pub with about 20 people. Also, if I may say so, pubs are big here. I mean I knew that, but bigger than I even imagined. The Brits love their Pubs and so do I. Can't say I drank or drink much but I certainly enjoyed meeting like 50 new people. The good news though, was that when 9:20 came along. I said goodnight to everyone in the pub and bolted back to Nido. I got back about 9:30 brushed my teeth, took off my clothes, passed out before my head even hit the pillow. That was the greatest night's sleep that I have ever had in my entire life!!

The next day I had an audition at 2:30 to get into the higher level theatre classes and after that at about 4 o'clock I had orientation meetings. I had breakfast at a nice little cafe down the street from where I live with my roommate Max, pretty cool guy. Then, I put on my black suit, borrowed a tie from Max (because I don't know where mine are), and headed off to practice my monologue and do this audition. I did it for the head of the theatre department here and discussed what my options were. She liked my audition, lucky for me and told me that would be happy to put me in any class I wanted, and that if I did well this semester, I would be able to take part in the major production next semester. That sounded great to me and I readily accepted.

Then I had orientation which was important but still boring, and we all went out again for dinner. We explored more of London and saw a bunch of really cool restaurants and then eventually we all came back and went to sleep. I honestly can't remember much else from that night, I was still a little tired and Jet lagged from the first day.

On wednesday though, we had an early orientation and then another one at like 2 and then at like 4 I think we were free. On this day, we went to Westminster. Really really cool place. The first thing we saw when we got out of the underground was Big Ben! Then we walked around and saw Parliament and the Thames, the London Eye, a bunch of Museums. We walked really far around and through the Thames a bunch of times. Really awesome time and then we took the underground to some other place I can't remember the name of and watched the Manchester United game at a pub which after a time we also left. Then we came home and slept again. Awesome day, loads of fun!

Yesterday, I went to an orientation wherein I learned quite a lot about traveling even farther than England, for some brief stints and after my father reads all this and we perhaps have a slight chat... the Chafetz family might possibly, hopefully, god willing have a really amazingly unique christmas. Anyway, that is something I don't want to Jynx, so I'll save the juicy details for a later blog. So needless to say that was quite informative and I will definitely be looking into that further. After that though, I met even more new people and we hung out for that afternoon on our guided tour of westminster where we saw, the buckingham palace and the royal guards and many other awesome things. The tour eventually went from a bus tour to a boat tour and our tour guide, Andrew ended his narrations of England and turned it over to the competent boat crew. They were hilarious! Informing us of what all the buildings were and telling us their stories and experiences that occurred while on the boat giving this particular tour. Then we got off the boat and headed for King's Cross to get some food. We ate at some chinese restaurant near Nido and then went to a karaoke Bar. We drank a little and sang a little and I discovered that I should and will never sing in public again, especially while feeling under the weather and slightly tipsy. Billie Jean by Michael Jackson was a readlly bad choice.

On a side note, involving that bar, I met someone very unexpectedly there. I was standing next to the bar watching some other nutter who couldn't sing try and sing some elvis or something and this short curly haired blond curl came out of the crowd and glanced at me. As we saw each other we locked eyes and immediate recognition occurred. We both shouted, "HEY DID YOU GO TO CHURCHILL!" and then of course subsequently, "YES! HOLY SHIT!" it turned out we knew each other from way back but couldn't remember how. She told me that Avenue Q would be playing tonight and that we should go see it and then hang out when we were sober so that we could figure out how the hell we knew each other! So we are probably gonna do that tonight. I cannot wait to see that show, it is supposed to be hilarious. So that is really all I got for this Blog today, I am going to go and read for a bit and buy those tickets!