Well don’t you?

Anyway, when traveling overseas I have learned to ignore my first impressions all together and make them a few days down the road.

Why you ask?

Two words: Jet Lag!

When I got off the plane it was 7am and I was unable to sleep on the plane due to overwhelming turbulence.  Needless to say I was absolutely exhausted.  The world can look like a pretty bad place when everybody is up and at it and you can’t get your head to stay above your shoulders for more than a few fleeting moments at a time.

Due to this, my first impression of London was something along the line of, “This place sucks, I want to go home now.”  I couldn’t believe I decided to move here for a whole year.

Many of hours of sleep later the world looked tolerable again.  This is when I started to compile my real list of first impressions and observations, here’s a short sample:

1. There are no garbage cans anywhere!  I think the rationale behind the lack of waste receptacles is that they are a wonderful place for a terrorist to plant a bomb, and I think several cities in the US are starting to remove their cans as well.  I think its a dumb reason, there is a lot of litter now; and besides, there are plenty of other places that bombs can be planted that are just as good as a trash can.  Removing the trash cans gives the terrorists a small moral victory, and I’m not a fan of them having anything to hang their hats on.

2. London is foggy in the mornings.  I now understand the jazz standard “A Foggy Day in London Town.”  So far the fog seems to dissipate by 10 AM, sometimes earlier.

3. Burger King sells BBQ Ribs!  Now I may be raving for nothing.  I don’t go to Burger King in the US very often so it is possible they stuck this on the menu recently.  That being said, I watch a lot of TV and probably would’ve seen a commercial for it at some point.  Nevertheless, the ribs are actually pretty good.  There isn’t as much sauce as I would have liked, but a solid option for a snack (they come in packs of 4 ribs).

Anyway that’s all for now.  I’ll post more updates, observations, and musings when they come to mind.   Make sure to check out the patented “Tea Tracker v1.0″ on this blog to see which teas I’ve been drinking recently!