Rollercoasters!

Hello!

A couple of days ago, a small group of folks from the house and myself set our alarms early and woke up ready for a day full of theme park adventures! We headed to an amusement park about 1 hours out of London, so we took a tube to Waterloo and then a train towards Reading. We hopped off at a small little stop, caught a bus, and finally found ourselves at Thorpe Park! We had student vouchers that got us in for around £20, which was awesome. There were a lot of big rides, so I was really excited about that. They were a bit bigger than the standard fare at Worlds of Fun, but the lines were all twice as long as well, so that's the trade off I guess.

We went on a couple large, but fairly average roller coasters, one of which corkscrewed ten times in a row! That was a bit extreme for poor Jessica's stomach, but I soldiered on! We also went on this ride called Stealth, which looked like it would be kind of boring from a distance, as it appeared to just go up and then back down again right away, but our residence director told us that we needed to wait for the front row seats on that one, so we stood in line twice as long in order to win the privilege. It was worth it. The ride accelerates from 0 to 80 mph in less than two seconds! I've never experienced something like that before. All of the photos that the ride took of us captured absolutely petrified expressions. It was a lot of fun, and we rode it more than once, but each time the terrifying acceleration brought forth real screams of fear, haha. We also went on a water ride, since the lines were not very long, but regretted it later when we schlepped around in 50 degree weather with wet pants and shoes.

All told, it was a fun day, but we were all very glad to finally get back to the house. I will post photos once other people put theirs up. I didn't bring a camera because I didn't want to have to take care of it all day.

I went to east London yesterday to meet up with the organizers of a symposium that I am volunteering at this weekend and next week. I got to see Queen Mary's campus, another of the University of London organizations, and I must say, it is much prettier than UCL! It had a huge rolling lawn, little duck ponds, etc. Still, the reputation of east London as being a less pleasant part of town certainly held true a bit, and I wouldn't necessarily want to stay on campus after dark!

I've been trying to work on homework for the past couple of days. I have an assignment due next week that I wanted to finish tomorrow, but I'm kind of stuck with a part of the programming, so I don't know what I'll do! Meanwhile, I'm trying to gear up for Rome, since I'll be volunteering right up until the day I leave. I have plane tickets, bus tickets to and from both airports, hostel tickets, and tickets to the Vatican and Colosseum, PLUS a map of Rome, so hopefully I will be okay! There are no public computers at the hostel. I won't be able to email or check touristy things on the internet while I'm there, and I'm trying to get it all done in advance.

I'm flying out of Luton this time, which will bring my tour of London's airports nearly to its conclusion! Despite the flight being much cheaper, I'm a little concerned that Luton is more hassle than the value is worth. I booked train tickets to the Luton Airpark Station, which appeared on the site as if it was close to the airport, but then I found out that it's actually two miles away, and a shuttle service only operates every hour, so that kind of screws over people who are arriving on the train service every ten minutes. I got a refund (phew) and started scheming, limited only by the fact that I am getting back late on Sunday night after the tubes close, and I didn't want to try to figure out night buses from an unfamiliar station. Fortunately, I eventually found a bus that comes right by my house, so hopefully THAT will drop me off right by the airport. If not, I might not make it to Rome! haha. Once I'm there, I think it will be a snap to find my hostel, because the bus drops me right by the main Roman Termini station, and my hostel is about three blocks away!

The next couple weeks are going to be pretty crazy. Symposium, then I immediately leave for Rome, then the day I get back I start work placement in the morning, then Will (as in Peter and Laura's son) stays with me the next night, then Kourtney shows up the next night and stays for a week, then I leave for Sweden, then I have a weekend off, and then I go to Madrid to see the Coldplay concert, and then a giant assignment is due, and two days later I have a test! Then the next week my work placement ends and my dissertation and job hunting begin in earnest. I am trying to get everything done ahead of time, but I am keeping myself very busy!

Well, I will try to post photos before I leave for Rome, otherwise, more updates in about two weeks!