The First Few Days

Now that my flight is worked out, and I am for sure landing in London, I can start to work on what I am actually going to do. I am due to show up at a language course in Verona, Italy on the 22nd of November, and there are a few things that I would quite like to do before I arrive there.

I will start from when I land. I get into Heathrow at around half past noon London time on the 8th. I think that from the airport I am going to catch the tube into town and check into a hostel straight away. Depending on how I feel, I might go exploring a little bit that night, but me thinks I will be kinda messed up from the whole traveling eight thousand kilometers through seven time zones. Depending on what I find to do, I am going to take the Eurostar in the early evening of the 9th to Paris. That might be kinda unrealistic given London probably could absorb me for another day at least, however sometime in the next few days I do need to get to Paris.

After one or maybe two nights in Paris, staying at a hostel my sister used but cannot currently recall the name of, I am going to catch the train north to Rouen. My sister spent the past year there on an exchange, and I am going to meet some of her friends and host families. She wants me to stay there for a while, and I may just do that, as long as her, and now my hosts are ok with me spending some time with them.

Where next? Paris again. This time I will really do some exploring. Sometime before the 22nd, probably the 17th or 18th, I am going to take the night train from Paris to Verona where the next, somewhat more scheduled portion of my trip begins. Language school.

As I don't speak Italian, and I am going to be spending a considerable amount of time there, I think it may be a wise idea to have at least an Idea of what is going on around me. I have in the past studied French, Spanish, and German. French I don't remember much of, but I can get something of a gist of what is being discussed some of the time, not necessarily what direction the discussion is going but a general idea some of the time. The language I have been most fluent in was Spanish, however that was several years ago. I think that with some practice I could get it back. German is the most recently studied, last year in Uni, and I think it might be a bit better than my French in that I can actually get some words out myself.

I am thinking that Italian, while it won't come easy, will come with less difficulty than say, Japanese or something really different. Anyways...After that comes Christmas. I have some plans for that, but I am going to wait for them to firm up a little bit before I share all.

To any of you who have been to London, Paris, etc, or live there for that matter, any suggestions of things to see, pubs to visit, or just cool things to take pictures of would be appreciated. Thats all for now.