The Life of Diana

Boy do I have a story for YOU!!! Yesterday (Friday) was quite adventurous / insane / tiring / awesome / crappy / (insert basically any adjective you can think of). So some of you know that I am going to Russia at the end of this month (and those that didn't know... well now you do hehe). Well Thursday night Kit (the guy who lives in my house that is also going on the Oxbridge Russia trip) and I found out that the Russian Consulate in London was closed next monday - wednesday for a Russian holiday called Women's day (although I personally think that on Women's day they should give visa's to women for free... but since when does anyone care what I think haha??)... so basically in order to get the visa in time and not have to pay a fortune for it, we came to the conclusion that we had to go to London Friday morning. But not just Friday morning... Friday morning at 4 AM!!!! So at 10 pm there I am trying to figure out what to do about health insurance in Russia... which I don't have and I have to prove it to the consulate in order to get a visa. I find a website to buy health insurance (BLESS THE INTERNET!!!!) BUT minor problem... I have no printer!!! Sooooo I could walk to lab... but at 10 pm, a 45 minute walk in the freezing cold is not a thrilling prospect. Now a normal person would just pay 4 p and print it out on the college printers... but Churchill never gave me a login since they somehow didn't know I was a student at the beginning of the year. So I am freaking out, and what does one do when they freak out... they go to the MCR!!! Someone there must be able to help!! Lo and behold... Yuri saves the day and lets me print from his account WOOO HOOO!!! So I get back to my room... and head to bed at about 1 am-ish... wake up at 3... catch a taxi at 3.40... and get to the train station at 10 till 4... and it isn't open!! So we are standing outside waiting for it to unlock, and all I can think about it... WOW it is freezing, and it has only been 10 minutes, how am I going to handle this for 3 hours in London???? So we finally get in, finally figure out how to use the crazy ticket machines since no actual person is on duty to sell tickets... and as it turns out, they consider all trains that get into London before 10 am to be peak hour trains... even if its 4 am and NOBODY in their right mind is taking the train then. So our student discount doesn't apply and we pay 30 quid return to get to London!!! And you know what? They didn't even check my ticket on the way there or back!! So we get into Seven Sisters... because the 4.30 train doesn't go to kings cross, and we make our way to the underground... where we find out 2 lines are "under construction"... but no need to fear, there is still one other option... but as soon as we get to the correct place they announce that a train is stuck and so that line is going to be delayed for an unknown amount of time. What are we going to do? hmmm walk? London can't be that big, right? but it is freezing... hmmmm .... well after about 10 minutes they had the problem fixed and trains starting running again THANK G-D!!! So we get to the Russian Consulate at about 6.45 and there are already 2 people queuing to get in. So there we stood FREEZING until 9 am. But it is good that we heeded everyone's advice and got there that early, because the line piled up FAST. It began snowing... soon I lost all feeling in my extremeties... eventually I was shivering involuntarily... it was NOT fun. However, I started talking with the other people in the line and met a lady getting her son a visa (he studies Russian at Oxford and needs to go to brush up on his Russian for some important examination), and I met two other students going on the Oxbridge trip to Russia!! What's the chances of that?? One girl (I missed her name I think) is actually American and from Wellsley, but studying for now in Oxford. And the other guy (Tristan) was a graduate from Oxford, now studying to become an investment banker in London, and training for the London Marathon... really nice and interesting person. So eventually we get inside, and I try to pick up a pen to sign something, but my hands are shaking too badly from freezing... but the good news? They let me pay the normal fee (30 quid) and I still can come get it on March 16, sweeet!! Also, when I go to pick it up, I don't have to stand in the crazy line, and I can come at 4 pm so I can take the cheap train. But now I am already in London, have an unlimited Underground pass, and even though I am exhausted... I have to get my money's worth!!! Kit's plan was to meet up with his parents (who were coming in from Edinburgh still), so we head to a cafe to get something to eat. I got a mexican tuna melt which was sooo yummy!! Who would have known that tuna salad with bell peppers, sweet onions, and corn would be so yummy in a tuna melt? So Kit's parents' flight got delayed... so he joined me to the Natural History Museum of London... but let me tell you that it can not hold a candle to the one in NY hehe. Although, I did learn that the birth control pill's main ingredient comes from yams hahahaha... there was an exhibit about fruits and veggies that are most crucial... so of course they picked yams (the pill is crucial here hahahaha), grapes (come on, people can't survive without wine), potatoes (do people need anything else for sustenance?? Not according to the English hehe), and tea (otherwise people might actually have to work!!)... so funny hehehe. Then Kit found out his parents' flight got delayed again!!! That's the price of taking EasyJet I guess hehe. So we headed over to Westminster Abbey and took the 2 pm tour. It was really cool... we got to see where lots of people were buried / memorialized including Darwin, Newton, Shakespeare, Chaucer, and a bunch of kings and queens... there is like 3,500 people buried there or something... kinda freaky if you stop to think about the fact that basically wherever you stand, someone is buried underneath you. It was quite pretty and royal though... I could totally picture the huge ceremony when a queen / king is crowned there. Then we walked around for a bit before I headed back to Cambridge and Kit headed off to meet up with his parents. I got back to my room finally at about 7.30ish and then was reminded by Shoop that tonight was the exchange formal hall and people from Darwin and somewhere else was coming over to play beer pong... so I quickly rushed over to try and make sure everyone was having a good time at Churchill... the pictures and story for that night I will post in just a bit...

Hugs,
Diana :)