Okay, so I am sure many of you guessed it already (or logged onto AIM where I proudly proclaimed it), but yes, I am in London! I have free internet here, so I will definitely be posting a few new blogs for our loyal readers.
First of all let me tell you about my trip here. On leg one of the journey I had a driver pick me up at the hotel in Ryazan and drive me to the airport in Moscow. It was a really interesting drive. The drive spoke English pretty well, so we chit-chatted a bit. He gave me a lot of the history of Ryazan (it used to be really important), and explained that while most of the country modernized after the fall of communism, Ryazan is exactly the same. This is pretty consistent with what Jeff and I have noticed, namely that it seem like the town is just about 15 years behind (for example credit cards are accepted in only a few isolated stores, restaurants, etc.). My driver, along with many we have talked to from Moscow, didn't think too much of the city as a result of the stagnation. The drive was pretty quick compared to what I thought it would be (only about 2.5 hours), but probably because we were going about 140 kilometers/hour (almost 90 mph) for most of it! I seriously felt like I was in a race car at times!
Leg two consisted of a flight from Moscow to London. It took about 4 hours and went pretty smoothly, minus the dude next to me who was yelling at the flight attendants before we were even off the ground (he felt his view of the TV was inadequate). The final leg of the journey was a drive from London to Guildford, where I am staying. I was picked up at the airport by the NICEST driver who drive me out here (about a 45 minute drive southwest of London). The driver had the nicest car and I seriously felt like a VIP.
So my plan is to take care of the visa, explore Guildford and hopefully spend some time in Central London! More posts to come . . .
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