January 2, 2014: Day 2 Without Internet (And In London)

            Today, a couple of other girls and I set out after a morning of meetings and our lunch break to purchase some cheap phones. I ended up going with a cheap plastic Nokia 105 that has a 10 pound a month pay-as-you-go plan, which I figure is as cheap as it gets. The only problem is that I’m not sure how to get the case off of the back to get the SIM card in there, so if I don’t figure it out by tomorrow, I think that I’ll walk back to the store before lunch to figure it out.

            Still haven’t been able to find any Internet yet, so I hope that my parents aren’t worrying about me too terribly much. It’s really hard not being able to communicate with my family and friends at all. But at the same time, if I was able to, I would have called home to ask daddy if I was making the right choice for phones or which plan I should go with and all that jazz. It’s almost as if London is forcing me to be an independent adult who makes her own independent adult decisions. A bit of a harsh push into reality, but I feel like it’s one that I desperately need. 

            While we were walking around London, I saw a place that my good friend Sarah Roman had told me about called Ben’s Cookies. She fell in love with them when she went abroad a year ago and wrote me a lengthy wall post before I came over here about how I had to go there and buy an 8-cookie tin. My friends and I decided to stop and check it out. I purchased a four-cookie tin (Sorry, Sarah! It’s only my second day in Europe and I don’t want to spend 12 pounds on sweets just yet), but I’ve yet to eat any of them. However, one girl that I was with purchased a cookie and ate it right away and told us that it was the best thing ever and it’s well worth the hype. I can’t wait until I finally cave and dig in! I feel like it’ll be tonight haha.

            I found out this morning that there are only 3 people from my program going to York. I guess that it’s a blessing and a curse. While it would be nice to know more than two people when I go over there in a couple of days, it’ll be nice to be forced to make British friends and to interact with non-Butler people. Besides. The two Butler-York people I met were quality, so it’s fine. And I’ll know Katie Kowicki as well, so it’s not like I’ll have NO friends!

            Can’t wait to get some wifi access. I might pop into McDonalds tomorrow to see if I can connect to some of theirs.

January 2, 2014: Evening

            Tonight, IFSA-Butler took us to Wimbleton (yes, like the golf place) to see a pantomime theater production of Aladdin. Our bus got there a couple of hours early, so a couple of friends and I went to our first (well, my first…I can’t speak for the others) British pub. Since I don’t want to spend too much money, I just got garlic bread for dinner. After that, we went to the theater. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before! Not only was the entire thing laced with British humor (including a few jokes that shocked the overly politically correct American in me…you can’t make some of those jokes in a production meant for children in the States!), but the songs were all popular radio tunes. You’ve got to love a show that ends with the company singing “Live While We’re Young” by One Direction!

            On the way home, we drove through London at night and saw a few iconic spots from the comfort of our bus windows. I must admit, my brother and older cousins all rubbed off on me a bit, because when we passed up Big Ben, I muttered, “Look. A clock. Because we don’t have THOSE in America.” (Parks and Rec, anyone???) The London Eye looked pretty when it was lit up all blue, but I’d never pay 17 pounds to ride it. Heck, I probably wouldn’t go up on that thing even if they paid ME that kind of money! In the words of the Internet, “2 spoopy no thank you.”

            I never knew how much I depended on the Internet until the past two days. It’s weird to think that I’ve only been without it for so short of a time. I really think that I only miss being able to communicate with my family and friends back home. Don’t get me wrong, I miss the Youtube and stuff, but I think I’d be a lot better if I could say “hi” to mom, dad, Joe, and all of the other people that I enjoy associating with. I mean, it’s a lot better now that I have a roommate and stuff, but it’s still strange. Like, what if my goldfish are dead? What if something happened to one of my friends? What if a family member is sick?

            I would have never survived on the island on Lost.