Travel article published in Galavanting magazine

I saw today that an article I wrote on traveling with laptops was finally published on goGalavanting.com:

Protecting your laptop while traveling

What happens in London II

I was surprised that being stuck on the tube made me feel as sick as it did, though since then I have had a couple experiences of too much exposure to the cold English air making me feel flu-ish. One day, coming home from King's Cross (maybe I ought to avoid that station?) I decided it would be much easier to take a bus, and there was one nearby that would take me right to the end of the street I live on. I found the nearest bus stop, but it happened to be closed that weekend, and for some reason, the bus would not stop even when I hailed it from the temporary stop further down the street. I decided to keep walking, thinking the next stop couldn't be too far, but I must have taken a wrong turn--oh, if I had an iPhone!--because I saw no more stops for the correct bus number. Before I knew it, I had walked nearly all the way from King's Cross to the Thames. I eventually gave up and got on a bus--any bus--that would take me nearer to home. But tired, in heels, in the cold, that excusion made me sick for a day. I used to wonder, reading a Brontë or an Austen novel, why such fuss was made about not being outside too much in case the heroine became ill. Now I wonder if there is something in the English air!

The weather isn't all bad here. No one believes that I don't mind the rain and cold, but I was used to rain living in Houston, and the cold is nothing compared to Ohio. It almost never snows in London, it's so mild--but, as it happens, I was lucky enough to experience one of the rare snows a couple weeks ago. Various reports claimed that it was the most snow London had seen for 20 years, or even for 40. It was a once a generation event, certainly. The first night we had a covering, all the twenty-something people in the neighborhood were out in the streets, making snowmen and throwing snowballs. The day following, Monday, saw a city that almost could not operate at all. Since snow is so rare, the city doesn't own many plows or salting equipment. None of the buses ran, few of the trains, and most of the workers couldn't make it in. I didn't even try.

The Dickensian view from my window:

I'll end with a couple fun things I've done recently. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine had a 'fancy dress' birthday party. All we did was go to a bar for drinks, but to liven it up, she asked that we all dress like characters in a film noir movie. It seems like this 'fancy dress party' thing is popular here--although I've heard that it is considered an American thing, I think that must be because Halloween is so much bigger in the States. I seem to have tried harder than anyone else to fit the part--I had new long black gloves that were my grandmother's that I'd been looking for an excuse to wear, and enough spare time that afternoon to wonder whether YouTube had tutorials for 1940s hairstyles (it did).



More recently, Ollie invited me to come to a night of theatrical performances at a bar in Camden (yes, everything here seems to happen in a bar). It was mostly Cambridge graduates now in London and included one act plays, musicians, a dance piece, and, what I particularly wanted to see, the puppet play "Trouble" that Ollie wrote, directed, and acted in. Everything (or mostly everything--but I'm trying not to be critical) was enjoyable, but Ollie's play was the highlight. I was impressed by the amount of talent, but more by the evidence of so many artists putting much, much time into preparation. The little room above the bar was absolutely packed, far above the expected turn-out of about ten. This is the type of thing I love about London. I'm sure a similar scene could have occured almost anywhere in the world, but this city seems to attract artists and creative thinkers. I feel at home.

What happens in London

I have been saving up things to write about for quite a while and not having time to do it that I thought I would put them all up together and be done with it, but my entry got longer and longer, so I think I will need to break it up. For your reading pleasure, therefore, a montage of experiences of London:

I will start with the place where Londoners seem to spend most of their time: in a pub. I think pubs fill some of the function that a Starbucks might have in the States--but also, where Americans prefer meeting friends for a meal, it seems that Brits are more likely to invite someone just to have a drink (or tea). In any case, the people on my Shakespeare course got the idea that it would be fun to meet at a Shakespeare-themed pub. We did find one, one night, by accident, but since them we've been stumbling across them all over London. There are "Shakespeare's Head"s near Regent Street and Holborn, "The Shakespeare"s in Barbican and Victoria--there are even a few named after characters, like "The Falstaff" and "Othello".

The other most common London experience would probably have to be transport problems. I feel, first, that I ought to preface my horror stories by saying that I am always impressed by how well the public transport here works. Millions of Londoners don't even need cars because the tube, bus, taxi, and trains are so good.

But, with the amount of people who use the tube, problems are bound to happen. One day last term, I was trying to get from where I live, near Elephant and Castle in south London, to King's Cross in north London. I was on my way to a graduate conference at the British Library and had meant to be early so that I could stop by the university to run a few errands. I got on the train as planned, and was happily reading a copy of the London Review of Books when, at the next station, and for an unknown reason, there were so many people wanting to board the train that I thought there was no possibility they would all fit. Fit they did, and though I felt very much like a sardine, I supposed that many of the other passengers would change trains at the next station, Bank, which is one of the busier stations. But just before the train arrived at Bank, it was forced to stop in the middle of the tunnel. The lights flickered as the conductor turned the engine on and off. Everyone tried not to look at one another, not to talk. The heat was immense, and no one could take off their winter coats in the cramped conditions. We were left to sweat for twenty minutes before the conductor finally explained that someone had torn down some of the large paper ads that lined the tracks, and the paper needed to be cleared before the train could move. We were promised a quick arrival.

By this time the heat was so much that people were having trouble breathing. A girl standing behind me suddenly decided that she needed to get to the vent for some air and somehow managed to push and climb to the end of the car. A man in the middle chose to vent his feelings by cursing and yelling, and a boy near me, who must have been claustrophobic, began really to be sick. His poor father was trying hard to help him to breathe normally, but it was lucky a woman near them was able to pull out a plastic bag.

After a while the train was turned on, it lurched forward, and stopped. It rolled back. This was repeated for several minutes. On top of everything, the train was broken. As I remember, we were stuck for nearly forty minutes before we could be pulled into Bank, and I think everyone who had been on it must have felt as queasy as I did for the rest of the day.

That's my only gothic tale of transport problems--I promise. I think that day was probably the start of when I began to try to take the bus everywhere. And I'll leave off there, with the promise of pairing my tube story with a bus story soon.

Trip to Oxford with some fellow Shakespeareans

On Saturday, some girls in my Shakespeare course convinced me to travel to Oxford with them for the day. Even though more than one of us was worried about finishing essays on time for this week, I think we enjoyed ourselves...

We ate lunch at a pie restaurant in a covered market in Oxford. I think it will be my goal for the rest of my time here to learn how to make these: in case you can't tell in the picture, that's mashed potatoes with a meat pie on top (mine was cider pork and apple, yum) and minted smashed peas on top of the pie, all drenched in gravy. True British fare. From left to right: Jen, Ashley, Amanda.

This is the largest room in Blackwell, supposed to be the largest bookstore anywhere. Three miles of bookshelves. Three miles! I bought a Shakespeare magazine.

Somewhere near the Bodleian library, Oxford University's famous and ancient copyright library.


A close-up of one of the heads.

The Divinity School, where our tour of the Bodleian started. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the rest, which was a shame.

The outside of the old part of the Bodleian.

St. Mary's church, just opposite the Bodleian.

Me outside the Eagle and Child pub, where the Inklings (including C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien) used to meet every Tuesday morning for over twenty years (from 1939-62) to drink beer and read and discuss the books each were currently writing. They referred to the pub as the Bird and Baby.

The 'Rabbit Room' inside where the Inklings would sit every week. You can see a picture of Lewis on the far right.

Me and Jen in the Rabbit Room with our mulled cider. Worth going back to Oxford for.

Y-M-C-A

In case anyone is curious about what living at a YMCA is like, I thought I'd post some pictures of the room I'm in.

Lo and behold: right across the street is The Shakespeare pub. I might have to check it out.

While I was unpacking, I found my Shakespeare posable figure in my purse and thought it would be fun to take a picture of Shakespeare at the YMCA.


And of course, I had to have a picture of Shakespeare outside of his namesake. My camera couldn't keep both in focus--I tried several times and attracted quite a few quizzical stares for holding a small plastic toy up in the air.

In London

What a trip. I feel as if my payment for having it relatively easy the first time is that this time, I am exhausted.

It started on the plane. No direct flight, less leg room, people talking all around me. Amazingly, I still was able to sleep for two hours, but that was offset by the fact that the plane landed at 8am. Those two hours had to last me a long time.

I left one bag at the airport (I simply cannot carry both of them at once) and rode the train into the city. What a dreary day it was, yesterday and today. True London weather: cloudy, raining on and off, chilly at street level and blazing on the Underground. Lucky I have a raincoat--I seem to have forgotten to pack an umbrella.

I returned to Heathrow today to collect my other bag. Those cheats charged me for two days because it was there for 30 hours. Oh well. It was almost as hard to get back to London with it as it was yesterday with my big wheeled suitcase. Both days I got to the Camden Town tube station and then took a cab the last few blocks. I don't think I could have made it further.

My back is so sore today, I think partly from hauling the luggage around, partly from wearing my backpack all day yesterday and today, and partly from the horrible bed I had to sleep on last night.

I'm staying in one of UCL's residence halls for a week because it's about the cheapest place to stay in London where you can have a private room. The room's OK (for a dorm) but the mattress lives up to the full potential of a cheap, ancient, college mattress. The springs stuck into my back no matter what position I took. When I first fell asleep, I was too tired to notice, but when I woke at 2am, it was hard not to. I finally got back to sleep by lying on top of the comforter so I had extra padding and using my coat as a blanket.

I bought a blanket and two pillows today.

I haven't spoken to any letting agents yet about finding a flat, it being a weekend, but I went today to Walworth, where several flats are that I want to look at. The streets themselves (where the flats are) are enchanting (I don't know what they're like inside), but the main road nearby is less so, and it's a bit of a hike from the tube.

I wasn't enjoying London much these past few days and feeling a bit lonely, but I think most of that was from the exhaustion. I've taken a Tylenol and switched from a backpack to a computer bag and so I feel better and also happier now. Tonight I'm sitting in an internet cafe. My plan to nurse a cup of tea in a pub with free wi-fi was dashed when the pub turned out to be the tiniest pub I've ever seen, and packed full. So I came to Bloomsbury, where I still feel the most comfortable, since I lived here before. I saw quite a few interesting characters on the tube tonight: a girl wearing a pink bathrobe, for instance, and another pair wearing what looked like bad reproductions of early twentieth century dress. I wonder what kind of party they were going to?

10 things to do before I leave the country

1. Retrieve all post-its from various hiding places in and around my desk and place in a plastic bag for safe transportation abroad.
2. Go through college notes. Try to determine which I might need in London. Scan as many as possible to PDFs and store on my laptop.
3. Indulge myself by reading as many novels as possible while I still have an excuse not to read academic material.
4. Sort through my bookshelf and decide which of my hundreds of tomes I simply cannot live without. Attempt to determine whether it’s most cost efficient to put in checked luggage, stuff into my carry-on, or buy an extra copy in London.
5. Ditto for kitchen utensils. Find out if potential flatmates own a set of dishes. Can plates fit nicely in suitcases?
6. Move credit cards from wallet to passport holder and back again. Try to use up American change. Weigh merits of large purse as one of two carry-on bags vs. small purse inside second carry-on bag.
7. Try to anticipate which items of clothing are better purchased in London and which I should find (for cheaper) in the States: specifically, brown skirt, brown heels, scarves.
8. Purchase large supply of Blistex, which I know I cannot live without. England might be the perfect place to live if they sold Blistex. Also purchase Muppets DVDs for moments when I need some American-style humor.
9. Practice methods of folding clothes so as to maximize suitcase space. Discover a method of fitting the most towels possible into spacesaver bags.
10. Find a flatmate. Try not to worry about the fact that I have no flatmate yet.

Travel web sites universally unhelpful for long-term travelers

Is it just me, or are travel advice web sites almost universally unhelpful?

I'm not talking about finding the right hotel or car rental agency (both of which are questions I am mostly uninterested in). My questions are more along the lines of: what (and how) should I pack? how can I protect my belongings? and what are the mistakes most people make that I should be aware of?

I encountered this problem before, the first time I moved to London. I spent four months there in fall 2006. While I was probably more prepared than many travellers, there were still many things I wished I had known.

For example, I only found out recently that wheeled luggage are really about the worst thing you can take if you have to carry them around yourself anywhere but the airport. Not only can they hold much less (both in terms of space and also weight restrictions if you're checking them), but the handle on one of mine broke on my way to the airport while still in the US, and so I spent almost a week (before I was able to move into my flat) lugging around a piece of luggage that I couldn't wheel properly. From now on it's soft-sided rectangular bags sans wheels for me.

I did, thankfully, pack most of the right clothes. A friend told me about the immensely helpful web site journeywoman.com before I left, which instructed me about the type of clothes and shoes mostly worn in Europe. Who knew that bright colors and sneakers will peg you as someone who ought to be pickpocketed? (It seems that a lot of the rest of the world has the mistaken assumption that all Americans carry wads of cash in their pockets. Sometimes I wish for a sign I could wear reading "poor student.")

This time around, however, I'm encountering other problems and questions that I'm having a hard time finding answers for. For example, the last time I lived in London, my laptop had an awful time. While no one has been able to explain to me exactly what happened, as near as I can tell it was this:

The higher voltage in Europe led to a build-up of static in my laptop's motherboard. This both decreased the life of the battery and made the computer switch off and refuse to restart. I had to take out the battery, disconnect the AC adapter, and hold down the power button until the static had flushed itself out of the computer. Then (sometimes) it would turn back on.

In the beginning, this process took 30 seconds. In the end, it might take upwards of 5 or 10 minutes. And once I returned to the US, the computer was never the same. This spring it began exhibiting the same symptoms and eventually died completely.

This left me with an interesting dilemma. By that time, I knew that I would be returning to London in the fall for an extended stay. I had the opportunity to buy a computer that would hold up better on British power. I decided to research what type of computer would work better abroad.

I was unable, through many Google searches, to find anyone who had encountered a similar problem. But I did find that other users with a similar computer to mine had trouble with AC adapters catching on fire and their computers shocking them when they touched them. Apparently this had something to do with the material used in the laptop's casing. I decided that this was about the closest I would get to a similar problem, and started looking for a computer with a non-shock casing.

This wasn't my only problem. When my computer wouldn't start while I was in London, I had to call the US service desk, be put on hold, and then try to explain to them what I was seeing. I couldn't send it in for repairs--they couldn't send or receive computers outside of the US--and their only repair center was in Kentucky. Naturally, I wasn't looking forward to this expensive and hassling experience again.

In the end, I bought a Macbook, which doesn't shock me and which is the same computer both in the US and the UK, which I hope means that it will work. Plus, I can bring it for repairs to any Apple store, which are located almost anywhere I might want to go. But now as my departure draws nearer, I'm beginning to worry. Supposedly, since the AC Adapter works from 100-240 volts, it should work with just a plug converter. But is that enough? Is there something else I should do to protect it? I can't find a web site that will tell me.

I've been searching travel web sites, looking for one that is even partially useful. Besides Journey Woman, onebag.com has some useful tips for packing and some really very random information that I might not use but I'm glad I know. (Did you know that you can use your watch as a compass? Or that you've been tying your shoelaces the wrong way your entire life?) And according to kropla.com, I really do only need a plug converter (not that this confirmation puts my mind at ease).

I searched for travel sites, and I found flight and hotel information, and I searched for business travel tips, and found information on packing light. Why isn't there information for someone who frequently moves back and forth between countries and wants answers to her silly questions, such as what do I do if I need a guarantor for renting a flat and I don't know anyone in the country I'm moving to? and what should I do first, open a bank account or find a place to live?

I can't be alone. Today, in an age where we can't live without our electronic "accessories" and hopping countries--and continents--by plane is easier than ever, you'd think that travel web sites would have caught up. In the lack thereof, I suppose it's a good thing I have some time to spend searching the internet before I leave.