Saturday

Becky, you are too funny.

Well, one night at the hostel and I've already had a semi-date. While I was cooking my dinner (ramen!), a South African guy came in to cook his own instant noodle meal, and we got to talking. After dinner, we went to an "off-license" liquor store (no idea what that means, but it's perfectly legal), and we each grabbed a Smirnoff Ice, then went back to the hostel bar to hang out. While we were talking, a guy from Vancouver, BC started talking to us. Youth hostels are great, aren't they? I decided to be lame, though, and go to bed around 10:30. The Canadian guy invited us out with some other people, but I figured I should save my monies. Lame lame lame. Anyway, don't get any ideas, cuz I wasn't even remotely attracted to them. Well, the Canadian guy was kinda cute, but he smoked three cigarettes in the hour that we were sitting there.

I'm in a four-bed, all female dorm. Two of the girls left this morning (must remember to wear earplugs tonight), and the remaining girl is really nice. She's from Australia (everyone here is from Australia) and her name is Pip. I had to have her repeat it three times before I would believe that's what she was saying.

I'm using the internet connection at the hostel (1.50GBP per hour; :-p) and it SUCKS! Super slow. But the good thing is, I can use my own computer! So, pictures below! Yay! Though I haven't taken many. I'm still having an awful time finding free wifi in the city. I went to three places yesterday that were listed on the map John sent me: the first wasn't free, the second was free but they based how much time you got on how much you spent at the cafe (I spent just under 5GBP, so I only got 45 min!), and the third has no wifi whatsoever. Grr. And at the place where I "earned" 45 min, I was very disappointed to discover that my 17.99GBP (about $36) power adaptor didn't accept grounded US plugs. My laptop has a grounded plug. GRRR! Luckily, I was able to return the adaptor at full price, and I bought one from the youth hostel for under 5GBP that works fine. It doesn't convert power from 240V to 120V, but my laptop can supposedly handle up to 240V. Cross your fingers and pray that I don't fry it! But that's another day without free internet. Alas.

I shall try one more place down the street from here, called the "Goodness Cafe." As in, "Oh my goodness, I finally found free wifi!" I hope.

Hm, what else to say? Did I already talk about letting agents? They suck. A lot of the advertised apartments here are handled by letting agents, which are sort of like real-estate agents, but for apartments. You have to pay them a fee, and they allow you access to their advertised apartments, but they don't guarantee that they'll find you a place. I went to one the other morning, one with a lot of cheap apartment ads, and the woman told me I wouldn't find anything in my price range. Even though there were a handful of their ads that were within my price range. She said I can pay the agency fee, and then she can set me up with an apartment out of my price range. Gee, thanks. So I think I'll try to deal privately for now, though it limits my options. :-p

Saying "no" to scurvy, one mandarin at a time.



Barack Obama on the tube!
The British are obsessed with him,
God bless them. I think they wish he was
their prime minister. This picture shows
him in front of 10 Downing Street.


This is the bottom of my suitcase.
Once upon a time, it had two wheels.
Now it has but one.