London, England

Congratulations. You have made it to my final Europe trip Post. Hooray for our side. (If you are interested, a small portion of the 1,200--no kidding--pictures that I took in Europe can be seen on my Flickr page. The link is on the right-hand side).

So, after a grueling romp around three countries, I finally caught an early morning flight back to London. I arrived in the bone-chilling, rainy English capital at ten in the morning, and my flight back to Texas wasn't scheduled to leave until noon the next day, so I figured I would go into town and get some Tea and Crumpets while I was there.

I hopped a train into central London (on which I got asked for directions by an Italian man--since this was the fourth time being asked directions in a language I totally didn't understand, I just started yelling and flailed my arms and he ran away crying) along with my ridiculously large Backpack and my now infamous Rolly Suitcase. Luckily, everything was in English, so I found the Underground with relative ease and walked out right next to Big Ben. Aside from the biting Wind and Rain, the city was actually quite nice. I was by myself though, so it made it less Fun (mostly because I had to carry all my crap). Anyway, I breezed through Parliament, Westminister Abbey, the Tower of London and a fun Bagel Shop before catching the Train back to Gatwick.


I still had 14 hours to kill at the airport, so I found a Starbuck's with a few couch-like structures and tried to sleep. Unfortunately, I was soon joined by a red-headed Giant in tight jeans who liked to talk. For those of you who don't know, I hate talking to strangers. I know this is hard to understand as I could easily carry a five-day conversation with my Cats, but it is something I try to avoid. A lot.

Our (very painful) conversation went like this:

Red-Haired Giant In Tight Jeans: Hi.

Me: *silence--turned the page in my Book to imply that I was engrossed...although I wasn't*

RHGITJ: Ummm...Hi?

Me: What? Oh, hi.

RHGITJ: Where you headed?

Me (realizing not only was he American, but he was Texan, I thought about lying and saying Chicago): Ummmm, Dallas.

RHGITJ (with a LOT of enthusiasm): ME TOO! That's crazy! Are you from around there?

Me (thinking about seeing how he would react if I started speaking Spanish to him): No. Well, yes. Kind of.

RHGITJ: Cool! Me too. I'm from Fort Worth.

Me (ah, Fort Worth explains the tight jeans): Cool.

RHGITJ: So, what do you do?

Me (I thought our conversation was over with my last, ever so slightly abrupt response): Well, I'm an algebra teacher. I'm working on lesson plans now.

RHGITJ: Oh, awesome! I work with kids, too.

Me (thinking that I really should start working on my lesson plans): Mmm hmm.

RHGITJ: Yeah. I work with drug dogs in high schools. It's great. My dog is awesome. Her name is Molly. Two weeks ago we found a bunch of stuff, and people were flipping out all over the place. And then, last month...

Me (not lying at all): I have to go to the bathroom.