On my second day in this hostel, when I finally made it into the common lounge, one of the first things anyone said to me was "Watch out for the Italian girl. She's crazy." And they were right - she was actually crazy. Apparently she'd threatened someone with a knife two nights previously. But it gets better ... This girl (let's call her 'A') had met an English boy while he was on holiday in Italy. The story goes that he moved back to London and she, thinking that it was true love, followed him over. He, on the other hand, [View Full Entry]

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Today I visited the Tower of London. Unfortunately, although it was wonderful (and quite hot), I was still suffering from occasional overwhelming bouts of homesickness. Nevertheless, I managed to enjoy myself - I went on a guided tour (which was free) and the tour guide was a former soldier who knew everything about the gruesome bits of the Tower's history and was very entertaining. Then I wandered around for a bit before heading off over Tower Bridge towards London Bridge. Of course, being me, I got lost on the way to London Bridge, but I discovered a wonderful little old part [View Full Entry]

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At the moment I'm alternating between being desperate to come home and enjoying myself. I'm getting over London fairly quickly and am looking forward to leaving on Thursday or Friday. I've seen almost everything - I just have Covent Garden, Bloomsbury, London Bridge and Tower of London to go. I also have to have a meeting with the people who will set up my bank account for me. Thankfully I've got an address in Kent that I can have things sent to, because I might have left London before the bank account details are ready. I'm really looking forward to catching [View Full Entry]

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Wow! What a crazy few days I have had. I can't believe I only left home 5 days ago. It feels like forever. I am really missing you all, but now that I have net access I feel a little better. So here's a rundown on my first few days: Japan was an eye-opener and my sixteen hour stopover was an adventure in itself. I had a major crisis 6 hours into the flight when I realised that I didn't know any of the details of my hotel for the stopover. I had no idea where I was supposed to go [View Full Entry]

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I'm supposed to be using today to pack all of my things up so my parents can store them for me while I'm away. In four hours I've packed exactly one box of DVDs and CDs. It appears my talent for procrastinating, honed so well at uni, hasn't diminished one iota. I don't think it's really hit home yet that I'm leaving, or that I'm leaving for such a long time. Erin assures me it'll hit me once I'm on the plane. I hope I'll come to terms with it before that, because although denial is working really well for me [View Full Entry]

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