I'm sorry? What did you say?

[Scene: We've just arrived in London, we dropped our luggage off at our apartment because we had at least 2 hours to kill until it would be ready. We're exhausted, hungry, my throat hurts so bad that I *know* I should see a Dr. and we are totally out of our element.]

At the airport, everything is sponsored by HSBC (which here in the UK they call "heych S B C", not sure how H is supposed to make a heych sound, but whatevs). I mean everything. The gate walkways, the transportation, the luggage trucks. Seriously, pretty much everywhere you look there is something with HSBC's logo on it. That being the case, they have "Welcome to London" brochures everywhere so we grabbed a couple. Inside has listings of restaurants, shops, transportation info, maps. Not great ones, but there were some handy ones mapping out the tube and whatnot.

One of the first things on our to-do list, in fact the ONLY thing that had to be done before Monday, was to find a bank. Check! One of the maps in the booklet showed where the local branches are so we whipped out our map, picked the dot closest to us (the map didn't show our exact area, but it did start about 3 blocks from our apartment) and started walking. That was certainly an interesting walk. The weather was nice, the air was clear but in our state of mind, we didn't really notice. Our main goal was to find the place without getting lost or hit by a car and it took every ounce of concentration we had to do that. We found the branch, quite easily, it was up this really quaint little street which I went back and photographed a week later.

Inside the bank, we couldn't figure out who to talk to. They all looked busy. And it's not like an American bank. There were no tellers or windows, just some cash machines and and few desks with people at them. So we stood there looking bewildered. I guess that worked because about a minute later a banker lady walked up to us and says "Right then." What? Right then? What the heck does that mean? We were expecting a "How may I help you?" or "Is there anything I can help you with?". Foreign Language 1 - American English 0. Moving on. We explained our situation and she sat us down to talk about options. She thought it was quite amusing that we'd been in the country for 2 hours and were trying to set up our bank account. Since we don't have a permanent address or even proof of address, because Zurich is paying for our temp housing, we can't have a real bank account. We have Passport accounts which are for people who just got here. In 6 months, after we're settled and have proof of permanent address, we can upgrade to a regular account. Whatever. We just need someplace to stash our monies.

We must have been quite the sight because she seemed very amused with us. The whole time we were setting up the account, she just looked very excited. She was also surprised that we were walking around with a backpack with all of our legal documentation, last 3 months of bank statements and pay stubs and Brent's work info. Who carries that stuff around with them? Foreigners trying to get settled in a new country ASAP. That's who. She was very polite though. Famished, we ask the nice lady if there are any places to eat nearby because we didn't see too many options on our walk. She points us in the direction of St. Paul's square promising that we would find several places to eat and it was "just 'round the corner and up the square". Ok? We spot it on the map, it really is close.

There were lots of places to eat. She wasn't lying! And it was across the street from a beautiful giant cathedral, St. Paul's. We would find out later this is the scene for the whole "Feed the birds. Tuppence a bag." thing in Mary Poppins. I knew it looked familiar.

After surveying a few of the food choices we decided on Apostrophe, a french cafe/bakery thing. They had some yummy looking sandwiches and they didn't look too expensive. We decided to get our sandwiches and a glass of fresh, apple/pear juice and a cup of hot chocolate. We order everything and then get to the "large hot chocolate please" part and the french lady says something about "you want regular or milk?", we asked what the difference was and her response was something along the lines of "regular, just chocolate, milk, half milk". Ok? Um? Regular?

We sit at a table at the window and realize how picturesque everything is. A front row view of a famous 200+ year old cathedral, double decker buses and black cabs driving by. Gorgeous. Can you believe we just moved here? Wow. At one point, a marching band from what we figured was a local catholic school showed up and marched around in the square for a bit. Do we live in a movie?

They bring us our food and the sandwiches were delicious and the juice was fantastic and the hot chocolate? Well, it was just that. Hot, pure melted chocolate. Oops! It was so thick. We tried watering it down to thin it out but had no luck. We were so tired and not in the mood for plain, melted chocolate (never thought I'd ever say that!) so we chalked it up to our first mess up. Oh well. It only cost £2.50 or something. Foreign Languages - 2, American English - 0.

Feeling a little warmer, a little rested, and full, we head out of the cafe much better. We walk home past a London Welcome Centre and pick up brochures for various things. We still have yet to read most of them but we're gathering ideas for visitors! You should come out here, we'll have fun!

We got back to the apartment a little after noon and we still had 20 minutes until it would be ready so we just crashed on the couch in the lobby. When our place was all cleaned and prepped, we hauled our luggage up to the 6th floor, (don't worry there is a lift) which is actually the 7th floor. Here the first floor is called the ground floor and the 2nd is the 1st, etc. It kind of makes sense, doesn't it?

Brent collapsed on the couch and dozed off for a bit while I figured out what suitcases needed to go where and unloaded some of the toiletries so when we were *really* tired later, they would be available. I woke Brent up and he got a landline set up for us and figured out how to get our US calling card set up for UK calling and then we called our moms to let them know we were safe and sound.

After that, things kind of get hazy. I think we did a little more unpacking and looked through maps and read through our bank paperwork, etc. Around 4 we took a nap until 6. We grabbed some Dominos Pizza for dinner. They have a shopfront on the corner of our building so it was REALLY convenient. Ironic that we had American food for dinner our first night in London? Maybe. Delicious and easy? Definitely.

We watched tv and figured out the quirks in our new little apartment for a few hours and then off to bed with us! It had been one VERY long day. Some of it was frustrating and some of it was amazing and most of it was a blur.