Today was perfect.

So today Michelle and I woke up late, got ready and trekked off to the British Museum. We spent a few hours marveling at mummies, friezes, and how the British got their hands on all of that stuff. Then we had a lovely jaunt to Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace. We walked around and passed Big Ben and then stopped for dinner outside. I had fish and chips which were absolutely perfect. Then we went to the London Eye and took about a zillion pictures. We are headed to Paris tomorrow!

Hello from London!

So I got all packed up and Barrett drove me to the airport yesterday (thank you and thanks for your car Jenna). Security and everything was pretty uneventful. I did enjoy waiting at the gate with two adorable toddlers who were yelling in adorable English accents. My flight was delayed an hour but that was chill., Once we got going I watched Silver Linings Playbook which was great, I had never seen it. (Also the second I turned it on David Tennant turned up in an ad and I felt beautifully at home.) I had a delicious curried chicken with rice dish for dinner which surprisingly tasted just like the curry I had with Jenna and her roommates a couple of weeks ago on Devon Street. The people next to me were normal, a young couple, it sounded like the man was from Ireland and the woman was American (living the dream she was) so they only kicked me out of my chair a couple times. Thanks to Ed Sheeran I slept for maybe a couple hours, but it wasn't super comfortable of course. I realized that there may be no better example of social pressure as in an overnight flight during which no one turns on their overhead light even though probably half of them wanted to use it. Then I watched an episode of Miranda (which, for any of you that haven't happened to live with Inhye for the last two years, is a British sitcom that is absolutely hilarious. I laughed inappropriately loud numerous times. Then I watched and episode of Big Bang Theory and chilled and then we were in London! Customs was quick, apparently I don't look too threatening.
As I was walking out Mirrors was playing which made me remember that on Monday I saw JT perform it live and today I heard it in Heathrow. Feeling pretty lucky.
 And then I found Michelle!!! It was basically straight out of the arrivals scene in Love Actually. Then we had a pretty long undergound ride and a short walk to the dorms we are staying in, but we couldn't check in yet, so we walked around and went into King's Cross and were too lazy to wait in the line for platform 9 3/4 and then ate full English Breakfasts with tea at a little street cafe outside (During which I heard Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran playing and freaked out a little). Then back to our quarters and it was nap time because neither of us got even close to enough sleep. Then I showered and now I'm here and I'm about to get ready to meet up with my friend Ari for dinner and adventures!

Later gators

Pre-Departure Thoughts

Twas the night before my travels...and now you've all decided that you're never going to read this again. Oh well.

So basically I'm leaving for London tomorrow. My flight is in the evening and then I will be arriving bright and early to meet my friend Michelle who is flying in from her study abroad program in Ireland.

At the moment I'm feeling pretty calm but all day I've had that awful stomach twisting, varying waves of anxiety and adrenaline that makes the time before all exciting things rather dreadful.
(Note- I feel very awkward writing to an unknown audience so I think I'm going to do very little re-reading of what I say. That way it will be my authentic feelings of that moment and not my self imposed censored version. Back to the story. And by story I mean my boring monologue)

So yeah. Feeling pretty good. I'm sort of purposely staying up late so that I'm really tired tomorrow so that I'm really tired when I'm on the plane so that I sleep the whole plane ride so I'm NOT tired when I get to London. Yeah zero percent chance it goes down like that but whatever. A girl can dream. Day dream believer.. It's late.

So Michelle and I are spending a few days in London, popping over to Paris for a bit, and then my program starts on August 1. Now the title of this blog is somewhat misleading because I most likely will never physically dig anything while abroad, but it's an archaeology program and my best friend's friend came up with this truly clever title so I thought it would just be a shame to waste it. The archaeology stuff we are doing is more like fancy metal detectors and that is literally the extent of my knowledge about it since I have zero experience in archaeology and we were told we will be taught everything there. I actually don't even know if I'm spelling archaeology correctly- oh look at that. I should really give myself more credit.

My suitcase is packed, I have my clothes laid out, just have to change my contacts and cut my toenails tomorrow, say some goodbyes and I will be pretty much set.

I'm really liking the song Pompeii by Bastille right now (thank you Barrett) mostly because it is the hypothetical love child of a hypothetical whirlwind night of romance between Ed Sheeran, Gotye, and the soundtrack of the Lion King.
You read that just now and thought what the heck is she talking about, but go listen. Seriously. I'm correct about it. (Although now that I'm thinking about it, I'm pretty sure that love child would have a ginger lion's mane and some angular face paint). But really, the song is great. Youtuuuube.

Also I'm wishing I never watched Flight. I thought my imagination was vivid enough to visualize horrible plane crashes but really it holds no comparison to CGI. It's not really the crash but the falling that freaks me out. Although the crash doesn't seem pleasant really either. Enough rambling. Stop. Telegram! stop. oh no, I'm so sorry if you're still reading this. It's late.

Off to London tomorrow! Tata for now.

...does anyone aside from Tigger actually say tata?

This blog. Really hitting the deep questions.