The First Night Out

The station from which many adventures will begin.

There must come a time in everyone's life when they recognize they are not good with directions. That time was last night - Sarah's friend, you are not good with directions. I hope that you now recognize this. Sarah and I, of course, are impeccably good with directions.

To kick off my story I will illustrate just how good at directions we both are. We began the night by planning an epic trip to the Gloucester Arms pub right off Gloucester Road (my first pub)! Gloucester Road is about halfway between the two of us so we planned our tube trips accordingly. Let it be known that I had to exit at one station in order to get on a whole other line that took me to the Gloucester Road station. Be impressed, I pulled it off without a hitch. And when I got to Gloucester Road I actually walked around the block and figured out where things were before Sarah even got there. As I said, be impressed...

So when Sarah arrived we jetted off "left" from the station which, as it turns out, was not the "left" direction that we were supposed to be jetting off in. We were actually supposed to go more of "straight" down Gloucester Road (I will never understand why road names always seem to be absent from directions...) So after about 45 minutes of trekking around South Kensington, Sarah Googles it on her phone and we are put back on track. We wind up at Gloucester Arms at 11:13 p.m. which is a great success because the tube closes at midnight and other means of transportation are beyond me. So we catch up, have a pint (my first pint), and head on back to Gloucester road to catch our trains home. All in all, successful.

There you are, you tricky devil.

First pint!

Upon exiting Elephant & Castle in my neck of the woods I stride out confidently in the direction of my dorm only to realize (twenty minutes later) that it is not actually in the direction of my dorm. So I head back to the station, much to the delight of innumerable groups of guys that I had passed going in the opposite direction. I make it back to Elephant & Castle only to realize that it is not my beloved Elephant & Castle! Where is the tacky elephant and castle sculpture on the roof? Where is the kebob stand? And all the buses? So I worked my way around the traffic circle, walking up a few blocks and back a few blocks down each road that I came across, and finally found my Elephant & Castle (the "good" Elephant & Castle) on the opposite side. From there I could direct myself home which I did.

When I got home I realized that sometime during the night my keycard must have been misplaced as it was not on my keychain and therefore not able to let me in my building. Fortunately there were people standing outside my building. Upon entering my building I also realized that the elevator was broken and six people were stuck in it. Tres amusing. Since I had such huge blisters on my feet from all that extra walking I decided to take a seat and I ended up meeting some people in my building. Sonny, the security guard; Bill, the conspiracy-theorist from America (who, if he reads this, will probably object); the guys whose window is caddy-corner to mine (We waved to each other earlier today); Philip and person with Philip and Sophie. After about 45 minutes they unlocked the elevator and everything was fine and dandy and now I have people who can let me in the building and/or escort me around the seedier parts of town. A successful night!

This is not a very good picture by me but here is Bill helping out the poor souls in the elevator.