17-18 December

It’s go time! After waking up a little too late at 10:30 (I went to bed at 3 a.m…), I started frantically finishing some final packing. Sachi and my dad went to get pre-departure haircuts and since I’ve been meaning to get one too, I went as soon as they came back. Before I left for my trim, I called my bank and credit card company to inform them that the upcoming foreign charges and transactions would be legitimate and my own. If anyone is planning on going abroad, I strongly recommend you do the same before you leave. Banks may put a hold on your ATM card if they suddenly see withdrawals from foreign countries when the rest of yours have been from say Chapel Hill. Don’t let this happen to you, especially if you don’t have much of the local currency! The cut I got lets my hair fall just above my shoulders and is a bit of change from what I’ve since January when I got a similar cut in India. Short hair is infinitely better than long hair while traveling: shorter drying time, less shampoo required, and a shorter brushing time. It’s a little inconvenient on windy days when you’ve forgotten your hair-tie or it doesn’t quite hold all the hair. But enough of that…We planned on leaving for the airport at 4:15 and to meet this deadline I resolved to finish packing by 2. Final weight of my big bag: 46 pounds out of an allotted 50. Final weight of my duffel bag after my parents threw in some birthday presents (which were totally uncalled for since our little two-week European extravaganza is surely present enough for the three of us) and some Indian food: 28.6 pounds. 28.6 pounds is a lot heavier than many might think, especially when one shoulder or arm is bearing all the weight. I’m writing this on Saket’s laptop in Amsterdam on 20 Dec at 3:14 p.m. local time and my shoulder still hurts a bit! It’s just that I’m weak; Saket said it was unusually heavy too. So there. Anyway, back to the 17^th. After making some final packing arrangements, eating some delicious homemade Indian food for lunch, and saying goodbye to the house and neighborhood, we were on our way at 4:15. I expected a Christmas rush as this was the last weekend before Christmas Eve, but to my surprise the airport was hardly busy and even the line for security was all but empty. Sachi and I said farewell to my parents and we were off. For reading material, I bought The Rule of Four by a couple of Princeton graduates. This book is apparently an international bestseller, but after only reading a few pages I started to wonder why this book did so well. It could be that after a semester of Shakespeare in the fall and reading Jane Austen in the spring could spoil one on fine language, but I found The Rule of Four almost painfully amateur. As a burgeoning writer myself, I look for examples of what not to do in order to improve my writing. One thing I’ve noticed about less than stellar writing is the tendency to over-describe a scene: “‘You’re going to do fine,’ he said confidently, keeping his eyes turned from mine as he absently toed the floor. I lifted my head slowly to look at him as I wondered at this sudden change in attitude.” I made this up, but it’s an example of what I found in RoF. The writers are young, fresh from college, and clearly excited about the material on which they’re writing, which I always respect from an author. I cannot claim to write better than they do, but I can see places where they can improve which increases my hopes that I may be able to publish before I leave college. Anyway, I hardly touched this book before we boarded and haven’t opened it since because I tried (in vain) to sleep on the transatlantic flight and then mistakenly left the book in my backpack at King’s. The flight to Gatwick was uneventful but unfortunately I couldn’t sleep a wink. We reached London at 7:25 a.m. local time and after customs we proceeded immediately to the Gatwick Express train bound for Victoria station. From there we hailed a cab for King’s College Hall and although our cabbie didn’t seem too confident about knowing where it was at first, we got there all right for 15.4 pounds. The porter at the desk wasn’t much help in directions to Luton (a small airport north of London where smaller carriers ferry passengers to and around the Continent) but let me lock up my luggage in a room, which was really nice. He called down a senior student curiously named Bambi who turned out to be an amazingly friendly and helpful guy. In just 10 minutes he acted as though he’s known me for a while and even kidded me about not bringing a UNC jersey to cheer them on in March. The poor guy has to be at the dorm for most of the holidays (he only gets four days off out of just over three weeks!) which is bad for him but good for me since he can help me get oriented in the hall and the city. The hall looks more impressive in the brochure than in person, but I cannot really comment since I saw so little of it (my room won’t be ready until the 1^st, so I couldn’t see it). Unfortunately, I’ll have to take the bus everyday to get to the Strand campus and I hate relying on the bus for transportation; it’s far too constrictive time wise for my taste. After talking with Bambi for about 30 minutes, we found the nearby bus station and soon left for Luton. By the time we reached Saket in Amsterdam, Sachi and I had been traveling nearly continuously for nearly 25 hours. From our home to our hotel in Amsterdam, the modes of transportation we used ran as such: caràplaneàsubway trainàcabàbusàover ground trainàplaneàtrainàtram. Sachi and I both slept soundly on the plane from Luton to Amsterdam which was an enormous relief to me since it was my one hour of sleep after 24 hours waking time. Our meeting with Saket was nothing short of joyous as we haven’t seen him for over four months. In nearly 21 years, the three of us have never been separated for so long. After Saket and Sachi checked the map and consulted the guidebook, we found a tram and made it safely to our hotel. As it was still not too late at night, we refreshed ourselves a little and headed back out for some night-sightseeing and dinner. We found a falafel place a few blocks from the hotel and got some take-away. The owners had this adorable cat there just chilling on the barstools. That, and the fact that the man cutting the vegetables wasn’t wearing gloves probably broke several food safety codes didn’t seem to matter here while in America that establishment would probably have scored a 50. We ate in the room and then we watched “Klovikka,” the movie Saket made with his corridor mates in Sweden while on vacation in Norway. Klovikka is the name of the house in which they stayed. It’s campy, funny, and extremely well-made for an amateur film. The DVD itself is quite remarkable and quite honestly it’s menu system (especially for the chapters) is better than most professional DVDs I’ve seen. Sachi and I enjoyed finally getting to see the movie and I don’t think Saket will ever tire of watching it. Mom and Dad called around 9 p.m. our time but unfortunately ate up the remaining money in Saket’s phone in about two minutes. Oh well. At least we touched base for a bit. Movie over, we got ready for bed and finally received some much welcome sleep. Cheers!