Well, in light of all the earthquakes, tsunamis, and radiation in Asia…I decided to skip the Tour de Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam) and hit up Europe for 2 weeks and head home. I’m not gonna lie, my heart was torn because I didn’t want to give up my volcano climbing and scuba diving, but out of respect for my parents, my boyfriend, and my future I didn’t want to risk any exposure to radiation from everything going on in Japan right now. (Drama queen right? haha.) But in all seriousness, the way it all worked out was totally God. All I keep thinking is that God won’t give us more than we can handle, and evidently 2 months of traveling might have been flirting with my breaking point. So He worked it out nicely, and here I am…freezing my butt of in a London hostel in March. So much for skipping winter and arriving back home all skinny and tan. Well, maybe I’ll still have the skinny part down because I’m rationing myself to one (paid) meal a day. At least they serve a healthy breakfast at this hostel…can’t beat a bowl of free Rice Krispies. Breakfast of Champs! But really, London is the 5th most expensive city in the world to live in (or so I’ve heard and read), and that ain’t no joke! It’s ridiculous. It’s a good thing I came here when I did because if I would have come post-Asia traveling, I would have been BROKE.

So yeah, here I am…London, England…by myself. That’s crazy right? I love this feeling of renewed independence and freedom, but at the same time it kinda sucks. When I got off the airplane at Heathrow Airport, I guess I was subconsciously expecting Hugh Grant to be narrating my arrival like in Love Actually (haha!). But, on the contrary, it was rather anticlimactic to see everyone waiting on people and I had nobody…zero…zilch…zip. Just me and Skeeter, doin’ our own thing. Oh, and after my first look at the map of the London Tube Line, I was like…you have GOT to be kidding me! I already had no idea where my hostel was located, and now I only had a blurry printed-off GoogleMap, a confusing map of 13 underground tube lines, and my half-way reliable internal GPS system. Good. Luck. Christin. Oh, and did I mention that I had a 25 pound backpack, a 15 pound smaller bag, and I was rolling a 50 pound suitcase while I was figuring this all out at 7am upon my arrival. Welcome to London! Yeah, and you would think that everyone would be soooo helpful seeing as how I speak the same language as them (ENGLISH!), but no. My first impression of England was most certainly less than stellar…I miss Thailand! At least the people there were willing to help, albeit while trying to screw you out of a few baht, but at least they stumbled through all 4 English phrases they knew to get you where you’re going. These English folk, not so much. I am no longer in the “Land of Smiles” that’s for sure! Ok, rant finished. Perhaps I was spoiled meeting so many cool people from England in Thailand, I guess I just thought they were all cool. Here’s to hoping some English person, somewhere, will redeem this unfortunately negative view that I’ve already developed toward this glorious country. Tomorrow is a brand new day…going to Stonehenge, Bath, Cotswolds, and Stratford on Avon. It’s gonna be unreal.

I’m out. //Cwalk.

P.S. Pray that none of my luggage gets swiped; this is my first hostel experience, and I’m guarding my stuff with my life. Seriously…