London Bridge is falling down. Ironically, most people don't know which bridge that is.

Alrite my first blog post.  For those of you who were anxiously waiting, wait no longer.  And for those of you just waiting, you also need not wait any longer.  First up, advice for flying internationally:

-Moist toilettes will be provided.

I had no idea I would be taking a mini shower in my seat.  They handed out these moist wipes, and I just held it like, what is this?  Fortunately, the guy sitting next to me had done this before, so he was kind enough to demonstrate how to wipe one's face and hands.  Remember, cleanliness is next to godliness.

-Bring your own food.

Ok, I don't know who they think they're kidding when they hand out "chicken and broccoli".  I know what chicken tastes like, and that piece of rubber they gave me covered in car oil, or as they called it, "gravy", was hardly qualified as edible.  I wonder if the FDA has even stepped inside of a plane because that was definitely not food.

-Be friendly with your airplane partner.

As I was boarding the plane, I looked down the rows to see who I would be sitting next to.  Not gonna lie, when I saw a bald guy who weighed about 220 lbs with a bearded skull tattoo on his right forearm and a beard that was easily 8 inches past his chin, I was pretty excited.  When I got next to him, I said "Looks like we're a couple for the next 9 hours."  He asked me, "Do you snore?"  So I said, "Guess we'll find out!"  Steven, as I would later discover to be his name, is a Brit who commutes to the states for work monthly.  When I asked him about his tattoo, he said, "Well I've got to have the tattoo so I can have the beard.  Otherwise I would just look silly with a tattoo and no beard."  Pretty sound logic.  My favorite part, though, is the fact that Steven is a card-carrying member of a beard club and has actually gone to Vegas to compete in beard competitions.  Apparently there's a show called "Whisker Wars" that documents these beard competitions.  I had no idea this society even existed.  Steven has inspired me to one day grow a beard worthy enough of its own business card.

-Upon arrival in London, do not go to sleep until nighttime.

This has got to be the hardest thing.  On Monday I had like 5 hours of sleep, Tuesday on the plane I got no hours of sleep, and now I have to stay awake until nighttime on Wednesday.  Yeah, not pleasant.  I was falling asleep wherever we went, including on the metro, or as the Londoners call it, the tube.  Apparently I was quite entertaining to watch.

Speaking of The Tube, it does not care for me.  Two instances have led me to this conclusion.  The first is when we were getting on the tube to go to our first meeting.  Everyone got on, and of course right as I'm getting on the doors decide to close with me in the door frame.  So I push the doors back open and step completely inside, and then I release the doors so they can close behind me.  When I did that, the conductor announces over the PA system, "If one of the trains is full, please procede to a following train that has more available room."  Thanks ya jerk.  However, my personal favorite was today when the doors shut on me right as I'm about to get on.  Now, that's a problem because everyone else in the program, including the teacher, was already on the train, and I'm standing on the outside.  I start yelling at everyone asking what our stop was, but no one knew.  So I'm thinking great, I'm gonna be left behind and I don't have a clue where I should get off.  Fortunately, this conductor was a little bit nicer, and he opened the doors to let me get on.

As far as sight-seeing goes, I've managed to hit up Tower Bridge, St. Paul's, Westminster, Big Ben, along with a few other places.  We also hit up the National Art Gallery for about 30 minutes.  That's about 20 minutes longer than I cared to be there.  Not a very good sign seeing as how I've got like 4 more art museums to go, including the Louvre.  We'll see how that goes. 

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, feel free to post them.  Not sure how you do that though.  Nor do I guarantee that I will answer them.  I'm just saying you're more than welcome to leave comments.  Eventually I will include pictures, but right now I'm experiencing technical difficulties, and I just don't feel like dealing with them.