I know many of you are wondering to yourself 'Where is Tim and why hasn't he posted in a few days. I enjoy Tim's posts so much more than John's." Well, I'm in England (Plymouth to be precise) for a three day workshop on trends in U.S. and U.K. appraches to ecosystem valuation--I'm representing the U.S. perspective in case you were wondering. Anyway, I will have more on the workshop later, but for now I wanted to give you things I've learned about traveling to England. Please keep in mind, as if you needed reminding, I am a stupid American.
Thoughts (In chronological order):
- Getting up at 3:30AM to catch a flight sucks.
- Getting up at 3:30AM to catch a flight after staying up until 12:00AM the previous night sucks more.
- Getting up at 3:30AM to catch a flight after staying up until 12:00AM the previous night on the night when the the U.S. decides to still observe daylight savings time (or goes off daylight savings time, I can never keep that straight) sucks worse.
- Getting up at 3:30AM to catch a flight after staying up until 12:00AM the previous night on the night when the the U.S. decides to still observe daylight savings time (or goes off daylight savings time, I can never keep that straight) only to learn upon landing at Dulles airport that your flight to London has been cancelled...well you can fill the rest in.
- Twelve hours in an airport is boring.
- I can actually sleep on a plane.
- But I chose to first watch a movie (The Life of Pi), because 1) it was free and 2) I'm stupid.
- At Heathrow airport they make you walk approximately 5K (3.1 miles American--see how I slipped in the European metric there?) to get to customs. That's a long way after sleeping only 5 hours total in the previous 48.
- Paddington Station does look like the kind of place a cuddly bear in a blue raincoat would really want to hang out.
- People in Paddington Station seem as though they are all in a hurry.
- Everything around Paddington Station looks the same. It is hard to tell the houses from the hotels from the dentist office.
- Light switches--down is on, up is off? Can we get a little uniformity please?
- You have to turn on the outlets or your computer, cell phone and ipad won't charge. Just sayin'.
- You have to turn on the outlets?
- Again, Down is on, up is off.
- Even if a shower has a faucet on the wall, and even if you stand to the side, it doesn't mean that if you turn on the water you won't get an unexpected freezing shower from the other facucet on the ceiling.
- The open bus tour is a great way to see London if you only have a few hours.
- Correct that. The open bus is a great way to see London if you only have a few hours and it is above 0 degrees Celsius (That's 32F for you Americans). Otherwise, it's freaking cold up there.
- A lot of buildings in London are very old and remind me of that movie Mary Poppins or those books by that Charles Dickens guy.
- Fish and Chips is really just fried fish and French Fries. I think they named it something fancy to trick us stupid Americans.
- Riding trains is fun. Especially if you have a backwards seat.
- Sheep. A lot of them. Just an observation from the window of the train.
- Not sure why England has a reputation for dreary weather with sunsets like this...
