View from the grime-covered window in my room. Location: Gloucester Place, LondonHere I am, in an entirely new continent..whee! On the flight over, I had the privilege of watching the dawn breaking, and watching the sunrise from a plane window is by far the most beautiful thing. I wish I had taken a picture to immortalise that image, but my camera was pretty hard to reach, plus, the batteries had run out. So if a picture paints a thousand words, I hope it works the same in reverse. Just imagine being up in the sky which is slowly turning from pitch black to blue, and cutting across this expanse is a line of orange sunlight, and beneath you is a bed of fluffy white clouds bathed in the orange glow of the rising sun. It is a stunning view.My first glimpse of London came as the plane was descending, and trees and fields/meadows greeted my sight, with the occasional road cutting through all these greenery. As the plane neared Heathrow Airport, Tudor-styled houses started to dot the English countryside, and that was England for me.I'd admit it felt disorientating initially. It probably was due to the 13-hour flight, the time difference, or the fact that my brain hasn't returned from its exotic vacation. It's always hard trying to look like you know what you're doing and where you're going when in fact you don't. BUT like Zhengqin said - "At least you can take comfort in the fact that everything is in English". Plus, bumping into Pamela and Chang Xian at the ticket counter of the Tube station didn't hurt as well. At least they had an inkling of where to go, while I was still waiting for my brain to arrive, and thankfully we were heading in the same direction so we set off together, 3 Singaporeans looking lost [well, maybe just me].London's Underground is very similar to Singapore's MRT station, albeit older and more creaky. What I loved most about the journey from Heathrow to Piccadilly Circus were the above ground stations. Some of these were simply a platform and a few benches, without any roof or shelter, and simply enveloped by the surrounding trees, and through the foliage peeps brick houses with crooked chimneys. It was all delightfully someplace-other-than-Singapore.
It may be summer now, but the weather's cold, and the wind is bitingly frigid. Well, at least my jacket didn't go to waste. Melisa's roommate, Cheyanne, and her flatmates are really friendly, and it was nice having people show you around an unfamiliar place [and going shopping..it is a challenge trying to scrounge up cheap stuff] on the first day. However lovely it may be, London is incredibly dirty. It may not look it, but after a day out walking about, my soles were black, and so was my nose 'crap'. Yet surreal it may be, being in London and all, it didn't really feel right to me. London to me will always be about crooked brick houses, a simple road winding through, and trees on all sides. Or maybe I watched too much Harry Potter. Central London was just too commercialised for my liking. The architecture is astounding, but it was too 'Orchard Roady'. But heck, I'm in London.