The plane ride was uncomfortable. That wasn't London's fault. The woman next to me was heavy and told me she was going to some third world country for a few months to help some people or kids or somebody. She wrote in multiple notepads, copying her To Do lists over, marking and adding some things. I wasn't annoyed.
It was cloudy when I arrived in Heathrow, which I expected. I checked WeatherBug the day before I left so I could make an informed decision on my dress packing. The taxi took us (three other random students were there, as well) to Seething Wells dorms in Surbiton. The name sounds disgusting and I still can't tell if I find the actual area quaint or tacky. I don't think I ever will.
Some girl greeted me and gave me a Nokia phone from 2001 and the keys to my room. It's a closet. The en suite is smaller than an airplane bathroom and smells like feet. I'm on the first floor and Indian boys play with their balls outside my window till 3AM. The cops won't come, the Department of Environmental Health won't come at 3AM when I'm crying on the phone because they told me I should have filed the complaint earlier in the day. Before 5PM, when employees go home. I guess I should have packed a fucking time machine, as well. Of course if I could have, I'm not so sure I would still be here.
I cried myself into a four hour long nap when I was shown my room. When I woke up, I remembered I was in a different country. I was in England, in London (kind of). So I tried to watch Netflix. But it wouldn't work.
They give us sandwiches for the first three days and they taste like shit and hurt my stomach. I ate like, 24 doughnuts the week before I came to London and I can see it now; my stomach sticks out a little more than it did two weeks ago and they keep feeding me carbs that don't even taste good.
There are 175 people doing summer school here, including the teachers. But I came alone, through a program separate from my school. I know no one here and everyone else already has their security blanket with them: their peers, their teachers, their unlocked iPhones. The pretty white girls stick with the pretty white girls, the girls (and two guys) from Singapore hang out with each other and the Chinese girls. The couple of black girls hang out with the unfortunate looking white girls. And the one girl I meet (also from North Carolina), came with her class and teacher and has found some British guy to hook up with. I hang out with my iPod and Nokia and feel like I'm in prison.
London sucks.
