Day 19...

...of the 31-Day Blog Challenge - your favorite place to travel.

Oh my gosh, my computer is being so annoying right now. It's like both the mouse AND the touchpad mouse thingey in the laptop are activated, so if my hand brushes the touchpad by accident, all kinds of crap happens. I just somehow erased this whole post and had to start over again. Grrrrrr. Yes, I am a technophobe. I have no idea how to fix this.

Kay. So, what I'll say AGAIN is that I was thinking about this just the other day, because my friend, Pats's, parents are going to London this month, and Pats asked me to write her mom an e-mail of must-sees and any other good advice for the London tourist. I could remember several things that we did, but I wanted to pull out my scrapbooks and look through, just in case I missed anything. And the memories came flooding back. London is a blast. You can see a post I did about London here, but I also scanned a few more pictures for you for this post.

Me and two other girls from our group, Jenny, and Adrienne, in front of the Tate Gallery:

The Tate was my fave in London. It has a really good pre-Raphaelite collection.

Me, Tracy, and Kim in a phone booth:

Me and Wendy at the Open Air Theater in Regent's Park:

We saw A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Me and Lish at Trafalgar Square:

Me at Westminster Abbey, where Princess Diana's funeral was (just a day or so after my arrival there), and also where Prince William just got married. I wondered how he felt about that - getting married in the same church his mom's funeral was:

That stupid guy would NOT get out of the picture. He would act like he was moving, and then he would jump in at the last second. What a weirdo. There are a LOT of weird, scary guys in London.

Here's a snippet of my letter to Pats's mom:

1) Watch out for pick-pocketers. They're pretty bad in London. Always keep your purse at the front of you, with your hand over the opening. My dear friend got mugged by gypsies the very last night she was there. You're often all squished up in the tube trains, in the lifts (elevators), etc. Just always hold your purse that way.

2) Pedestrians don't have the right of way. I mean, they probably officially do, by law, but not in reality. These guys will RUN YOU OVER if you're not careful. I learned to be aggressive. And to avoid eye contact. If I was walking across a crosswalk, I would just strike out into it. If I looked at the drivers that were coming, it's like an invitation for them to try to hit you. It's so weird.

3) Tips are already included in restaurants. I didn't find this out until I was there for like two months. Sheesh.

4) Exchange your American dollars right at the airport when you touch down. And then use ATM machines (they're all over the place in London) and a credit card to get cash, cash, cash to buy things.

5) The exchange rate is horrible. It's like $2 = one pound. So it's like you have half your money. For example, at the time I went to London, a CD cost like $13 in America. In England, a CD cost like 13 pounds. Which is like $26. So be careful about that.

6) Men there are very, very sexually, verbally aggressive. It's...uncomfortable. Don't be friendly to them. Don't ever make eye contact, or you may get followed/chased home by a nasty pervert. Trust me on that one. I was so grateful to get home to American men who keep those thoughts inside their heads.

7) Pats asked me to recommend places to eat. It's so hard to remember. I ate a lot at kebab stands. London feels like Iran, I swear. Sometimes I was completely surrounded by Arabs and was like, "What country am I IN??" But they have fantastic food. Kebabs are awesome. Crepe stands are also everywhere, and they are wonderful, too. There were some good Italian places - a calzone place somewhere by Portobello road, but I can't remember the name of it. I remember eating at a place called Wagamammas - it's like very, very yummy Ramen noodles. There was a line clear out the door. I don't know. Food there is not the best, but the chocolate is to die for. My favorite cookies to snack on that you can buy anywhere are called Hobnobs. Oh yum. I lived off those. I know there are fish-and-chips stands all over, but I hate fish, so I didn't really pay attention. Don't get hot dogs at any stands. They're gross, like weird cooked sausage on a bun.

8) While I'm on the subject of food, be prepared - there is NO ranch dressing anywhere in all of England. That was hard for me. I put ranch on everything. Cookies are all hard and crunchy. No chewy cookies anywhere. Ice cream is really, really strange-tasting. The only good ice cream I had there was at Hagen Dazs shops all over. Their jam and jelly is weird. They have vending machines all over with "sandwiches," which are pieces of old, hard, thin bread with just butter in it. No meat. No vegetables. No cheese. Just butter. Gross!

9) There's no such thing as customer service. Waitresses all act so angry that they have to serve you. Women who work at clothing stores are the same way. Very rude.

10) British people think that all Americans are loud, stupid, and rich.

11) Invest in very, very good walking shoes. I wanted to look "cool" while I was walking everywhere, so I wore shoes that matched my outfits perfectly, and my feet really paid the price.

12) British people are very, very softspoken. They find loudness annoying. They're also polite. If they bump into you, they will ALWAYS say sorry. It's nice.

13) You walk everywhere. And everything is very up-and-down. Billions of stairs. You will probably lose a ton of weight. I know I did. (I should go over there again to lose more, haha!)

Just think. In eight months, I'll be able to write one of these types of letters about China. :) Oh, P.S., the departure date just changed AGAIN. July 8th. I'm sure it will change again tomorrow. This is getting really old. When Ben told me tonight that the date was moved up again, I could feel my blood pressure rising. Time's a-wastin'. I need to get my butt in gear and get more preparations made.