The adventure begins

7/27 Note: I'm "catching up" on some posts I've drafted, and pushing them live today. I'd have done this sooner, but I'm a bit crippled over here without my laptop. I was trying to be conservative with what I brought...if I were to do it again, I would have brought the laptop in a heartbeat and ditched the suitcase the size of Japan. Without further ado:

7/13
I arrived yesterday in London, after an 8+ hour plane flight on the cheapest carrier I could find: Air India. I sat next to an IT guy that was flying back home to Chenai, who looked at me with n ear-to-ear smile at takeoff, taking tremendous pride in the smoothness of the takeoff and landing, apparently something that Air India is known for. For all I could tell, they were no different than any other flight. Surprisingly, the time went rather quickly; one reason for this might have been the in-flight movie: "27 dresses," which I, though ashamed to admit it, really enjoyed.

The smooth flight was ironically juxtaposed to a two-hour spat with immigration officers at the Heathrow airport. Philosophers often debate over the morality of telling the truth, but if any of them were to witness my situation with immigration, the argument would be instantly settled: in some cases (this one in particular), the best thing to do is lie through your teeth. Hindsight, of course, is 20-20, and my honest answers included the fact that I didn't know how long I was staying in the country, I didn't know where I was staying that night, I don't have a return flight home, and that I don't have a job to go home to. I was flabbergasted when the agent determined that I needed to be taken aside for "further questioning."

After finding nothing but clothes, books, and running shoes in my pack, and tasting a bit of my personality (or perhaps despite that), England finally decided to let me in to her capital city, armed with nothing but 40 bucks in American dollars, and of course, my resourcefullness and inginuity. After a train ride into the city, I wandered around for a couple hours in Paddington, and knew I had wandered enough when I was asked for directions by some German teenagers and actually could give them specific steps to get where they wanted to go. I eventually booked my hostel in an Internet cafe, and trodded there to get some well-deserved sleep.