Great Expectations--Met and Missed

I’ve been a naughty girl! I haven’t updated for nearly a month! So here’s an update with lots of pictures!
The past month has been full of lots of work, pretty much. As a treat and an escape from the pressure of the long hours and emotional investment this place requires, I booked a flight to London to stay with a friend from OWU who has been inviting me to go stay with her since I’ve been in the UK. I booked the flight a bit last minute, searching every internet search engine I could to try to find the cheapest flight (cause I—like all volunteers—am poor). I found one that was almost reasonable from Dublin to London Stansted, so I booked it. I arrived and easily found the right train. The ride into the city was beautiful and made me think of all the stories I’ve read about England. Novels by all the greats—Dickens, Austen, Shakespeare, and more. I was giddy by the time I arrived and my friend picked me up. We took a walk to the Thames river, and sat near the Globe theatre to chat. We heated up frozen dinners and watched Sex and the City DVDs until we were exhausted, which didn’t take long.
The next day I met up with Rina, one of the other volunteers who happened to be in London at the same time, and ran around the city seeing all of the touristy sites. We saw St. Paul’s Cathedral (where Princess Diana got married to Prince Charles), the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Street, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. Being poor as we are, we couldn’t afford to enter these places (most of the admissions were around $20) so we took pictures and enjoyed the gorgeous weather by walking around. Rina went back to her place of lodging, and I went back to mine and made myself dinner. The evening involved more Sex and the City, as my friend needed to stay in to study for most of the night.
For my final day, I had a bit of a lie in and then got up, showered, packed, and met my friend up where she works part-time—Abercrombie and Fitch. A&F have just opened their only UK store in London among style icons like Prada and Ralph Lauren. The store is truly an American tourist destination. It is housed in a Georgian mansion. When you first walk in you are met by two topless male models who are paid to stand at the entrance. They do not greet you; other beautiful employees do that. Inside, the windows are blocked out so as to give the atmosphere of a night club at any time of day. But the first thing you notice (past the models) is the smell—heavy A&F perfume. Then your eyes adjust to the lack of light and you realize that there are clothes on shelves and racks. All of the sales employees are dressed head to toe in A&F clothing, including A&F flip-flops. Normal shoes are not allowed. Employees are provided with complimentary clothing, provided they are a size 2 or smaller, of course. I arrived at this place half an hour before my friend went off duty, so I awkwardly walked around pretending to shop, even though it was easily the most uncomfortable shopping experience of my life. I felt like a bit of a fraud, trying on clothes that I know I can’t afford. The prices are the same in the UK as in the US, just trade the dollar sign for a pound sign—which effectively doubles the price.
After this disorientating experience, I went with my friend for the most amazing Chinese food I have had in the UK, hands down. Stuffed from dim sum, we waddled back to her flat, collected my bag, and headed for the train station. We said farewell, and I headed for the airport.
This is where things get a bit hairy. I thought I had booked my flight for Thursday afternoon to arrive in Dublin in the early evening, and then arrive in Belfast by bus in the late evening. Remember how I was combing the internet looking for the cheapest flight? Well, evidently I must have gotten a couple screens confused, and I booked a flight for Wednesday afternoon instead. Oops! So I didn’t have a flight. If I wanted to book the flight that I thought I had already booked, I would have had to pay an extra 160 pounds ($320). I don’t make that much money in a month, so that was clearly not an option. Instead, I booked the 6.30am flight for much less. With no money left to take the train back into the city, I made camp to sleep in the airport for the night. While this was much inferior to the plans I had for the evening in Belfast, there wasn’t much I could do about it. I did observe an interesting culture in the airport. All of us sleeping for the night jockeyed for the best benches with the fewest armrests to afford the most comfortable sleeping surface. Of course, no surface in the airport is actually comfortable to sleep on, so I wandered in and out of consciousness with my pajama bottoms and a suitcase for a pillow. By 4.30am I was happy to collect my boarding ticket and proceed through three levels of security to test the volume of my liquids and gels (nothing over 100ml), the number of bags I was carrying on (only one), the contents of said bag, and the danger inherent in my shoes. And yes, these were done at three different stations. Fun. Then I settled in to wait for my flight and finish the 500 page novel I had brought with me, not expecting to finish while spending 16 hours in the London Stansted airport.
I made it to Dublin, and then to Belfast, and then to Ballycastle just in time to start work for the weekend. I think I’ve nearly caught up on sleep.
All in all, I would have to say I enjoyed my trip to London. I’m much poorer, but much wiser, I hope.

Photos: 1. Me and my gracious host by the Thames 2. The Millenium Bridge across the Thames 3. Me with the huge lions in Trafalgar Square 4. Rina in front of Piccadilly Street 5. Buckingham Palace (with no gurads in funny hats) 6. Big Ben with the London Eye in the background