yeah this is hilarious. i've actually been on-line every day of this trip so far. ok, so i forgot where i left of yesterday. i was thinking i might finish the story. i have been wandering around London for coming up on 3 days now. The funny thing is, what feels the most disconcerting is not the fact that i'm surrounded by foreigners (literally- i think for every londoner here, there are at least 6 visitors- and even the people who live here don't seem to actually be FROM here, or even from England), the different feel of London compared to North american cities, the fact that practically every building you see is archaic-looking... nor is it the bizarre layout of the city or the fact that 90% of the streets are 1-way, none of them intersect at right angles, and none of them run in a cardinal direction. none of these things are what's throwing me off... no, the single most disconcerting thing is-

*drum roll, please...*

...not having my phone.

it has just been really, really weird not having my phone. this morning i was afraid i wouldn't even wake up on time to check out of the hostel because my phone doesn't work at all here. so i have no alarm clock. (this is a FYI for future travelers to Europe- if your watch doesn't have an alarm, make sure you bring some form of travel alarm clock. my iPod has one, apparently, but the battery died on that after the 7-hour plane ride here, and i was unable to recharge it because my adapter wouldn't fit under the shelf where the outlet was in my room. i used the outlet in the bathroom to charge my camera battery, but there was no way i was gonna leave the iPod out in a public place like that. on a related sidenote, the universal power adapter worked quite well- i was impressed, considering the 6-10 bucks i spent on it.)

anyways so back to the phone thing... yeah. it's just felt really strange being out of touch. i hadn't realized how attached i am to the thing. it's like another limb or something, and now that it's gone, i'm having those phantom limb twinges or something. i keep wanting to take it out of my pocket and play w/ it. i miss being able to take pictures of weird happenings and pix-msg them to my brother. or when i'm bored waiting in line or something, being able to randomly txt-msg my friend Brad or someone.

it's kinda cool, though, too. it's like, right now, nobody can call me. i am just totally out of touch. no one can deliver bad news, or tell me to go do something, either. i am just floating about, completely on my own. like yesterday wandering about. wherever my feet felt like taking me. it was especially nice yesterday because the weather was actually NICE for ONCE! it was sunny. today the BBC said it was gonna be sunny, or mixed at least, but it's icky- rainy and gray. and bizarrely cold, for may. i guess this is normal though.

well i'm about to drift off on some existential tangent, and the British Museum is opening in 25 minutes (which i reckon to be about the time it will take me to walk there from where i am...) so i'll sign off for now.
stay tuned.