I'm here!!!

I'm sitting in London in the John Harvard Library (of course the first thing I did when I got to London was find a library) and thought that I would fill you all in on the goings on of my trip so far.

My flight over was interesting, to say the least. I was going to go into all the details of the armrest digging into my leg for 8 hours and the total d-bag jerkface that sat in front of me and prevented me from bending my knees the entire trip, but instead I'll tell you about the awesome girl I sat next to. Her name is Kristyn and she’s stopping in England on her way to Ireland for a wedding. She's one of the few people I've ever sat next to on a plane/bus/train that I have wanted to talk to, and we had a good time. I was really glad we became airplane friends because it made waiting in line at customs and finding which train to take into the city a heck of a lot easier and more fun.

View from the train on our way into London.

Also, there were so many babies on the flight and it was awesome. I even got to hold one while his mom was getting his stroller. His name was Jacob and he was super cute, but REALLY not into wearing a shirt. Stupid mom, making him wear a shirt.

I took the train into the city, and found my hostel no problem. I’m staying in a hostel near London Bridge in a room with 7 other girls, all of whom are here with work visas too. There’s also an older lady from Spain who is here looking for photography work. She’s really super nice, but having a hard time finding work because her English isn’t that great.

View from London Bridge.

You likely can't read this, but it's a plaque commemorating the building
where the Great Fire of London started in 1666. Also a hop skip and a jump from my hostel. 

Best part of the hostel is that it’s really close to a super nice library. I’m pretty sure that it’s an Opening The Book library, because it is completely awesome and set up just how I wish libraries in Canada were. There are no labels on most of the books, and the first 1/3 of the library is set up kind of like a coffee shop with tables and even a barstool height table or two where people with laptops can look out onto the street. I took pictures (see below). So great.

Stealth photo of the front of the library from the kids' section.
Note the tables and the empty space. The right hand wall is just books on
display like you'd find in a bookstore. Fantastic.

All in all, I’m not dead yet and I’m managing to feed myself. I’m not sure what to do until the BUNAC office
is open on Monday (the people on the UK end of the SWAP deal I’m doing), as I don’t really feel like being touristy yet, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out. Maybe I’ll go for another walk.

For now, all I REALLY want to do is nap.