Saying goodbye (and then hello)

Hello from London!

So, I've been here about two days now, and I'm well into room hunting. I had a 'viewing' today and the room/ensuite was nice but I'm not sure if the arrangement is exactly what I want (living with family - not students-, no access to kitchen facilites but a small fridge and microwave in room, not permitted access to living room and such) so I'm going to keep looking and I have two viewings set up for tomorrow, one which I'm really excited about (Mum, Aunty Gypsy - it's the one you guys picked out for me, it's still available so I'm seeing it tomorrow - fingers crossed!).

I'm not feeling homesick yet at all, despite being on my own and half way across the world. I know it'll set in eventually but hopefully I will be able to deal with it as best I can. Saying goodbye to my friends and family on Wednesday was hard, but knowing they all love me and support me helps me while I'm here. It's like, even if I'm not home, I know it's still there and so are the people who love me. Below are some photos of us all at the airport:

My mum and I, and my bags which basically contain my life for the next 6 months.

L-R: My step-mum Cherly, my dad Ron, me, Caroline, my mum Colleen, and Henry.

It took me about 10 minutues to say goodbye to everyone, because I gave everyone multiple hugs, stopped to take the photo... then giaave everyone another round of hugs. I was so glad to have those people there to see me off :)

The flight/s were good. Food was suprisingly good for vegan aeroplane food, and I managed to sleep for a fair bit on the 13 hour haul from KL to Heathrow.didn't get jetlag too badly, but I was pretty exhausted by 8pm on the day I got here so I had an early one. Thank god for my eye mask! It lets my body thing it's dark while my room mates can go about their business with the light on. Also, my laptop is still set to Perth time, which sometimes confuses me because I think, 'oh, it's late arvo? ok' and then I walk around for a bit before it clicks that it's not afternoon AT ALL.

The past few days I've done a bit of site-seeing ('scuse the dark photos):

 

Today I went to the National Gallery. I only walked through a few rooms, so I'll be going back but I saw The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci (!!!). You had to pay to get up close but I stood 20metres back and was still able to get a decent look. I feel very proud of myself for seeing an iconic piece of art on my second day here. It reminded me why I'm here, and that I've got so much more amazing art (both traditonal and contemporary) and culture ahead of me.

I think I need to buy some good, proper English clothing. Walking around in the cold has been wearing me out a bit and I find my feet and hands are taking the brunt of it. I found some generic brand Berocca in Boots and I'm trying to have one of those a day just to keep my immune system strong (B and C vitamins, bring it on!). Other than the coldness of it, the weather here over the past few days has been good - clear skies, no rain, so I'm thankful for that. I was thinking of heading up to Scotland sometime between now and when uni starts but apparently they've been having terrible storms up there over the past few weeks so maybe I'll give Scotland a miss for now.

I've some good and suprising vegan stuffs around. In Camden Town Markets today for example I came across Cookies and Skream food stall which sells only vegan and gluten frees sweets, so I helped myself to a giant PB choc chip cookie (seriously, it was like twice the size of Subway cookies - I was well impressed). I will definitely be heading back to Camden Town in the future, if not for the delicious vegan food but also for the awesome market stalls. [In fact I've already had a quick look at rooms for rent in Camden 'cause I liked it so much, but the area as a whole is a bit out of my budget, which isn't suprising - I think it's a pretty trendy area.] One thing I haven't been able to locate, food-wise, is tofu! Maybe I'm looking in the wrong section of the supermarket, I don't know...

Hoping all is well over in Perth-town :)

- Cathryn.