Day 1 in London –
 
Despite my best efforts to guarantee a “good night’s sleep” on my way out to London, it didn’t happen.  I woke up an hour earlier every day of the past week, enduring 4am El rides to the office, got up at 2:45 on the morning the day of my flight, paid for the upgrade to Economy Plus, had the window row to myself, and took my half dose of NyQuil, there still wasn’t much sleeping during the flight.  Part of the reason was an on time departure and early arrival.  The 7 hours in the air went surprisingly quickly, but I couldn’t tell you between how many hours I slept.  It’s somewhere between 1 and 6. 
 
Regardless, I was feeling pretty good when we exited the plane and made our way to getting our visas approvals.  Despite my worries about the misspelled name on my visa, along with other pertinent information missing, I received approval for the next 6 months and proceeded to pick up my bags.  We were advised by fellow associates to pay the extra couple of quid for the Heathrow Express (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathrow_Express) to the Paddington station.  After hundreds of bumpy rides on the El, I was shocked when I looked out the window and realized that the train had already taken off.  Once we surfaced to find natural light, the London area revealed a beautiful Sunday morning.
 
The Paddington station (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Paddington_station) lived up to everything I’ve seen through movies and pictures, a towering semi-indoor facility with a high arcing half cylindrical rooftop about 50 feet in the air protecting the trains from the elements.  It lends the feeling of being outdoors and indoors at the same time, with the light pushing through the translucent rooftop windows.  Had there not been some weekend construction on the tube, I would’ve been able to find my way to the Liverpool Street station.  However, that was not an option, so I found my way to the taxi station.
 
On the 20 minute cab ride from the Paddington Station to Folgate Street, I made my first “dumb American” move.  The cabs have a similar plastic divider between the driver and the passenger to what you find in American cabs.  The ride was quiet for the first 5 minutes, but then a speaker came on with a man’s voice.  I assumed the cabbie had just turned on a talk radio station, but when I saw his eyes roll through the rear view mirror.  It was at that point that I realized that the voice over the speakers was his, trying to make conversation.  Fortunately I was able to recover and get to know the cabbie to a point that made me even more optimistic of the quality of people in London.
 
We made our way to 28 Folgate Street, which is a residential feeling street, not far from the center of one of the 3 financial capitals of the world.  The cab driver was nice enough to stick around for the 5 or 10 minutes it took for the housing people to show up.  The refreshing thing was that he was doing it out of the warmth of his personality, since tipping isn’t customary in the UK, or much of Europe.  The Sterling folks showed up and let me into my place.  Since I had already been provided a virtual tour of the place, not too much of it was all that surprising.  The nice features that I didn’t previously know was the pullout sofa bed, perfect for visitors, and the fact that my patio really looked over the Spitalsfield Market (http://www.oldspitalfieldsmarket.com/HTML/). 
 
I made my way through the market, and desperate for caffeine, grabbed a coffee.  Then, yes, I’m this pathetic, my first meal in London was from Subway.  I was feeling a little woozy from the Nyquil and lack of sleep, and just wanted to have a standard sammich.  By the time I made my way home, I had to squeeze in a 20 minute nap.  From there, I decided the best way to get to know the neighborhood would be through a long jog.  So I made my way from the neighborhood, down Bishopsgate Road  to London Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge).  Crossing over London Bridge and looking east and west down the River Thames (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Thames) might have been the moment that my assignment ventured from being surreal to being real.
 
From there, I cut over to the east, passing the More London development (http://www.morelondon.co.uk/availability.html), which involved passing the office I’ll be working out of for the next 6 months, and ending at Tower Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_bridge).  Tower Bridge, to me is one of the 2-3 defining structures of London.  Crossing over it gave me the chills.  There’s nothing that compares to seeing something first hand, that you’ve witnessed in pictures and movies for years.  I made my way past the Gherkin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_St_Mary_Axe) back to my place.  By that point, I was needing another power nap, then headed out for dinner.
 
That brings me to this point, which I’ll end this as I’m going to head out for some dinner and a pint at The Water Poet (http://fancyapint.com/pubs/pub1564.html).  Tomorrow’s tasks include figuring out how to get a pay-as-you-go cell phone, how to work the crazy coffee makers here, how to get the toilet to flush on the first try, and getting the right converter for my laptop so I can get my pictures loaded.
 
Phil