I have texted with a few of you, emailed with a few of you, and the rest of you aren’t sure whether or not I made it here.

I did, I’m here!

Feel free to read the highlights or the full landscape.

I’m in London April 2 through April 8. I landed here on Thursday morning at 6:50am, after about 40 minutes of sleep on the plane. I managed to stay up all day and thought that would help with jet-lag but I’m still sleeping in later than I’d like.

I’ve been staying in the neighborhood of Kensington, an upscale part of London that’s right next to museum row.

Everything I’d like to see is a tube or bus ride away.

My friend recommended this hostel. Believe it or not, I haven’t figured out how to break the conversation barrier with other travelers here. Probably something to do with my RBF.

But I am staying in a dorm with 9 other people (sharing one bathroom) and I have made friends in my room. Two sisters from Barcelona, who I will visit later in my trip, and an Australian originally from Hong Kong who left today, but will be back (an Asian with an Australian accent, always fun!)

Overall the hostel is great, I hear French, German, Spanish, Italian and languages I don’t know every day. There’s also a guy in my dorm from the Netherlands- they totally have people there! I’ve been speaking Spanish with my dorm mates from Barcelona, and they tell me my Spanish is good. I say “…no!” and wave my hand in front of my face like “stop.it.” but I secretly swell with pride.. even though I know it’s choppy like a 4 year-old’s self-imposed haircut.

-It seems there is 1/8th of the street people in London as I am used to seeing in the US. #iaintmad

-Brits are not the friendlist, it makes Seattle make a lot more sense, since it’s so European there

-So many people here are transplants/travelers, and they are warm and nice

-Public transportation here ROCKS

-They put license plates on the front and back of cars. Why don’t we do this in the US?

-Apparently Americans are sought after in bars (don’t worry, I’m not moonlighting the clubs- I just went out with friends last night for a few hours and watched my drink the WHOLE TIME)

I think everyone who found out I was American was disappointed because I didn’t want to dance with them. #aintnobodygottime for their sweaty butts

-The bars here waft of body odor

    -British audiences don’t laugh much at all, or there were a lot of people who don’t speak English and didn’t get the jokes

Today: Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and V&A museum (all free, hallelujah)

And for those of you who think I’m a baller for bringing a tiny backpack (which is pretty baller, I’ll admit), I will be buying the first wheely suitcase I see.

Why did I bring a backpack? So I could say I “backpacked through Europe.” What am I, camping, squatting in abandoned buildings, hiking through the Alps? No….. So I am actually going to be wheeling across Europe, with a backpack too. You choose the verbiage that feels most comfortable to you. But I still only brought two pair of shoes, two shirts and two pants: street cred still accepted.

I got to meet up with a friend from high school, Rachel Harper, in the hipster neighborhood where she lives calledShoreditch on Friday night.

It was great to hear about all of her adventures (1 year in Ukraine, 2 in Istanbul) who decided to move to Istanbul because she was eating a pomegranate in Ukraine and asked “where is this from?” and her house mother said “Istanbul, they have great pomegranates there” and Rachel said “I’m going to move to Istanbul so I can eat pomegranates.” Totally boss.

What’s next?

My friend Caroline from Scotland gets in town on April 8. We will have high tea (she’s from UK so she can help me figure out what that actually is) and then we will ride a train together to Glasgow, Scotland. After that, Dublin.

Lots of love,

-A serious selfie at the hostel (it’s cold, I bought a hat)

-Going out with dorm friends