Post scriptum
And oh my god, the girls here are hot! ;)

Mind the gap - London #2
There's one thing you notice very fast when you're moving through London's subways: there's gaps, everywhere. At least that's the impression I got from all the warning "MIND THE GAP!" bloating out of the subway speakers at pretty much any downtown stop. It seems that whoever built those tunnels in the first place didn't plan to have them used by the subway cars. That, or the subway car manufacturer built or delivered the wrong model.

London's been a blast so far. And I've only been downtown for half a day!
Considering that I last saw London with the eyes of a 13-year-old, this is quite a dazzling experience, one I'll need some time to process I'm sure.

... random Mental Rambling: #@*&£%* those British keyboard layouts!!

In any case, I'm very much looking forward to handing in my application forms; according to my old fellow student from Bonn, who's been showing me around in London and at SOAS, my chances of being accepted are rather good, and to be honest, right now, I can't wait to come here and start studying.

London is different though, very different from other large European cities such as Berlin, Amsterdam or Paris. Looking outside the window this morning when I took the train to Waterloo was like watching some movie from the early 1910s, lots of industrial-style houses and rooftops, it's surreal.
Buildings in general here in London (maybe even in the whole UK, I don't know) are different; a lot of them seem to be stuck in the 1950s at best, the late 1890s at worst and there's a lot of industrial "flair" (if you want to call it that) to the whole city.

SOAS is sort of enthralling: The classes here are small (a group of 14 students is considered to be almost above the tolerable maximum!), the classrooms and computer labs are extraordinary, staff and help desk personell is very friendly and helpful, the SOAS library is about as big as the general university library in Bonn, but here it only covers the Asian and African parts. The internationality and multiculturalism is dazzling, and I honestly couldn't think of another place where you'd find a half Finnish, half Irish girl talking to a half Thai, half Canadian guy in Swaheli about Chinese politics. And those are not the exceptions, it seems they're the rule!

As you might have read between the lines, I'm totally amazed and mad for the city and SOAS already. I just hope it'll work out like I want it to...

Until later.

Ta-taa.

London
Last night, I arrived at London with only minimal delay and am now staying at Annie's place.
I'm going to check out SOAS today (and most probably tomorrow as well) and meet up with a couple of old friends, before I take my leave towards Stoke-on-Trent on Wednesday afternoon to meet up with 2 cuddly lemmings from hirr, whose hospitality I shall abuse until Friday evening. Friday night will see me returning to Germany, and hopefully I'll have a better idea of whether or not London and the SOAS is going to work out ... or if I even want it to work out.

Reporting back in a while, stay tuned.

Ta-taa.