so about last night....

when i said i'd finish recapping my shitty weekend?

well, i decided im not going to. i didnt have any fun living it, and i know you wont have any fun reading about it (don't worry, i know which painful experiences will be fun to read about, and i WILL relate those.) but theres nothing fun or interesting about walking around a wet city by yourself, surrounded by drunk assholes.

if you are interested in that, you should head up to rochester, new york, i am sure they will accomodate you.

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right now i am sitting in one of london's many internet cafes. much quicker than going home, and much cheaper than some wi-fi rates at coffee bars, internet cafes are the easiest way to stay connected, and where the majority of these posts will occur.

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so.

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penny, nickle, dime, quarter.

if you're REALLY adventurous, you can even request a silver dollar from the bank. but you run the risk of mcdonalds employees telling you its not real money.

(grandmothers and uncles are also good sources of silver dollars.)

in london... its not that simple.

paper money has gone the way of paper book keeping, it seems.

coinage consists of one pence, two pence, five pence, ten pence, twenty pence, fifty pence, one pound and two pound coins.

and you bet your ass every single one is commonly used, and all look similar, except for the two pound which has a gold ring around a silver center and i like to pretend is space money.

as for the rest, i spent the first week only using paper money to avoid the embarassment of not knowing how to count change.

at last count (which i take at long intervals before i go to sleep), i have over twenty pounds in spare change.

fucking coins, man... go figure... seriously go figure and let me know how to count them better.

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i went to my first movie in the UK last night; borat. it was hilarious! go see it right now, and then vote to let the south leave the union if they want to so badly.

english people dont laugh a lot, ive found, i was by far laughing the hardest in the theatre, which dissapointed me. while it was funny (i actually prefer Da Ali G show Borat sketches as a whole over it), it was nowhere near the funniest movie ever or even the funniest movie of the year (that award so far goes to World Trade Center... i just couldn't get that benny hill theme music out of my head!)

send hate mail to:

karl.arthur
c/o rain
london

perfect end to a trainwreck of a weekend

so, needless to say, this is the first chance ive had to post all weekend... which i guess wasnt until it was over (its monday morning here.)

i got in to london at 7 am on thursday. the flight was uneventful, save for the overly cocknied accents of the flight crew and my seat being changed 4 times, twice whlie on the plane (luckily it was to front seats with extra legroom.) i have reason to believe that virgin airlines hires people with nearly unintelligible english accents to "wow" the american passengers.

speaking of virgin, they fucking own london. its insane. virgin records, trains, airlines, tv, food, everything. virgin is god in london.

once i was reunited with my luggage, i tried my best to take a taxi from heathrow straight to my apartment, about an hour's drive in the early morning flood of traffic, but the taxi driver did his best to not take me all the way. he wanted to save me a few pounds and just drop me at a tube (read: subway) station, which i tried to politely decline. he insisted though (british people have trouble with subtlety) and i had to lug 140 pounds of luggage through the damp, humid london underground.

needless to say, not a fun way to start your time anywhere.

i walk up to my apartment, and discovered it was under construction, which was nice of my roommate not to point out in the ad, since it would have worried me. this way i get to deal with the shock immediately, and also have no where else to go, so i'm forced to accept it. it seems the landlord was building a second bathroom, and my unspoken last 2 roommates were two rastafarian builders who came and went as they pleased.

brilliant.

after waiting for the landlord's mother to clear out my room (it still had the last tenants possessions inside), my roommates laura and dan took me to downtown streatham (the area of london, for now, that i reside, south of the thames) to get supplies. i picked up the nicest pillows and sheets possible (i spend half my life sleeping, might as well make it a nice half) and came home and slept for 10 hrs.

opening my eyes, i discovered darkness, and my computer revealed it was only 1 am.

staring at the ceiling i counted the seconds until friday morning.

not a great first night, but it could have been worse. my true indoctrination to london had not yet happened, however and the tiny minutae of british life was still a mystery, one that wouldnt begin to unravel until friday night.

to be continued, probably later today, but maybe tomorrow.

my apartment doesnt have the internet, either, yet another great reveal not in the ad!

"dont worry, it gets better."

karl.arthur

it still smells like america

Sweaty.
Busy.
Noisy.

It seems like i'm still in america. Then I remember... i am still in america.

First post on the new blog is coming out of terminal 8 in logan international airport in boston. after the long trip through security (i just know everyone checked my new Nikes when i had to take them off), i'm sitting in a leather chair, surrounding by 8 other leather chairs in an octogonal pattern.

just like everywhere else in my life, the seats are empty... but hopefully that will change soon.

you gotta love airlines, they are so smart! they have it so you can access wireless internet while you wait for your plane! just like any airport, however, logan tries to charge you for it, and won't allow you to access any page but theirs until you buy "access time."

instead of buying access time, i decided to log in to their non-password protected free employee wireless network.

you gotta love that.

well, i'm cutting this short, no use posting about london from boston. but expect this blog to be just as riveting as 'night time in tokyo.' i didn't have a regular posting schedule last year, but this year i fully intend to keep a 3 posts a week schedule, days to be decided.

and this blog will also feature something tokyo couldn't possibly conceive: trips to amsterdam.

the cameras in the sky are whirring their little motors in my direction like bored heads on an esculator, so that means its time to go.

see you tomorrow,

or today? damn greenich mean time confused me.

lets just say i'll talk to you later,

karl arthur.