London, again

It's going to take me a while to fully compose my thoughts about India, and I'm feeling rather heartbroken at not being there anymore... so I'll entertain you with my (current) thoughts of London instead.

I hate it. I want to be back in India.

I didn't think I'd ever find myself saying that about London. Maybe it's the combination of my melancholy mood of the trip coming to a close, or the extreme climate change-- about 80 degrees in Kolkata, about 40 degrees here-- or maybe it's just the Northern Line (also called the Misery Line) on the tube at rush hour. You try walking around central London at rush hour and just see if you don't get pissed off. In India, the people crushing around me wasn't really a bother, but here for some reason I just want to start elbowing everyone in the ribs to make them get the hell out of my way.

Probably it's just my mood. And no, it's definitely not PMS.

The flight back was pretty uneventful, except for the three-year-old boy in the seat in front of me thrashing and screaming and kicking for the entire flight. Or the baby three rows ahead that Did. Not. Stop. Screaming. Somehow I managed to sleep a bit, but around 5pm London time to Naomi's amusement and pity I was falling face-first into my kosher vegetarian pizza at a nice restaurant in Golders Green. :-/ The plane was full of Brits who had been on a package tour to Bhutan, and I was lucky enough to be seated next to a delightful couple who told me all about it. If I could afford $200 per day, it would be great! Alas, Sikkim was a much better choice for my budget. It was a bit of a shock when I went to exchange the rest of my rupees for pounds and only got £5.80 for an amount that would have lasted me about two or three days in India.

Today Naomi and I took a train ride out to the university town of Cambridge and walked around. It's a nice little town and we explored some of the very pretty gothic architecture of St. John's College and Trinity College. A nice, calm way to pass the day, but I feel rather bored and slightly let down at not having life or limb threatened at any given moment.

It would seem that the major highlight of my time here in the UK before heading home is that I was able to properly wash (and dry)my clothes yesterday!!! My god. The things we take for granted.

I have another full day and a half before heading home-- time that I really resent British Airways for not letting me spend in India instead. Maybe I'll cave to Heather's peer pressure and go inside Westminster Abbey. ;)

The good news about coming home is that I will be able to go snowboarding as soon as I wish. YAY! The bad news is that I'm not sure I can afford it. haha.

And for the record, I was right about the rats-- well, they were actually mice and I only saw one-- in that hotel in Kolkata. Am I crazy for wanting to go back? Probably. Do I care? Not in the least.