A Real London City Experience (7-7)

Hopefully by now you've all figured out that I've been having internet issues but have found a lovely little cafe down the street from the not-so-lovely dorms with free wi-fi. I went to have breakfast and update there this morning and will probably do the same tomorrow and the next day as they are also free days.
Anyway, I'm having a real London experience now! Silly Southern Californians, assuming we bring our weather with us wherever we go... Well!? It worked when I was in Dublin! AND the last time I was in London! Why shouldn't it now? :P Today was the first of our 3-day string of free days. I can't really afford to go off and do anything exciting like visit another country or another part of this one, so I'm stuck at these horrible dorms, *but I'm refusing to get up for breakfast here. It's mediocre and it ends at 9. I'd like to sleep in, and Camden Coffee House down the road is awesome. The toastie and hot chocolate I had this morning were good and they have free wi-fi so I was finally able to update after 3 or 4 days. I had 37 facebook updates (though most of them were those dumb ones like "your friends have taken these movie quizzes. Why don't you?"). Today, I walked to Camden Coffee House, uploaded the 4 blog posts I'd written but been unable to post and a ton of pictures as well, though I had a lot to update so I didn't bother with captions or anything. Then I came back to the dorm to put my laptop away and get my backpack together. I was planning on going to Leicester Square for the Half-blood Prince premiere, but Lindsay, the only person who had shown any interest, decided to get away from here and move into a hotel. Apparently that takes all day. Maybe she just didn't want to go that much anyway. I asked Alli and Paul if they were interested in going. They had plans to go see Big Ben and stuff. They hadn't gone on the Eye, I guess. I asked Elise, but she didn't want to. I didn't think anyone else was even around, so I headed out on my own, took the Northern Line down to Leicester Square, walked out of the tube station and down the street a little, and came upon the Odeon theatre, where all the big premieres are held. It was at least three hours before the web page I'd looked at said the stars were supposed to arrive, so I sat down in the Burger King on the corner for lunch. I didn't want to go too far. In fact, I probably should have taken it to go and gone off into the crowd with it to get a better spot. Of course there were already crowds when I got there. It had been off and on rain and sunshine, like most days here, but it wasn't too bad. Big crowds and umbrellas don't mix too well, so I was hoping it would stay light when it did rain... So much for that. I was standing around for about two hours. At first I tried to get in with the crowds that could actually see the actors come through, but even though I thought I'd come early enough I couldn't really squeeze through enough people to find a spot where I'd be able to see anything. I moved around to different sections of the crowd. At one point it seemed like there was hope, as they were closing off the section where they'd been letting people through to the street, and people who had been held back would be able to move up into that section. OMG! Of course I was right next to a crazed bunch of screaming teenage girls, and once the policeman even started to look like he was going to let them through they were pushing through like psychopaths. I swear, I never thought I'd feel claustrophobic outside, but there was litterally no room to move! So I just pushed my way back out and went over to where the big screen was. That actually wasn't bad. I stood right by the gate for a long time next to a bunch of 16 year old girls who are a disgrace to females everywhere. They all wore low-cut tops and had written across their necklines "I'd be easy for Ron Weasley." It disgusts me. Crazy fangirls. I got them to let me take a picture, so I have the ridiculousness recorded for posterity. Anyway, I was standing out in the off-and-on rain and the stars finally started showing up. There was Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliff, Tom Felton... and then it started pouring. Actually, it was more of a deluge. I seriously don't think I've ever experienced such intense rain before. My shoes, pants, backpack, everything was soaked through. As if the crowd wasn't bad enough, the crowd with umbrellas was simply unbearable. I couldn't see the screen even though I was right in front of it. I couldn't see to take pictures. I was dreadfully afraid my camera was going to be ruined, and I didn't want to come home with pruny feet. I'm sorry, but I'm not that kind of fanatic, and I'm a wimpy Southern Californian. I can't survive in the rain. Well, not that kind of rain. I ended up going back to the dorm, taking a quick hot shower and changing my pants and sweater as well as taking everything out of my backpack to dry, throwing out some things that weren't salvageable or important. Then I ended up going out to get a sandwich for dinner, wearing my flipflops because my Skechers are soaked through, and it was fine. Sure there were puddles, but it hardly even sprinkled on my way out the gate. I'm really feeling yucky, and I'm kind of bummed I didn't get to see Alan Rickman or JK Rowling or anybody cool, but whatever. At least I haven't caught pneumonia. This trip to London is turning out to be such a drag. After the first time I'd been to London, I was in love with it. I seriously thought "I could live here some day," but from my experience this time, I know I probably wouldn't survive. It's like that excerpt about "Dickens' London" we have to read for the class: massive overcrowding, rain overflowing the filthy gutters. I'm thinking about going down to the laundry room and throwing my stuff in the dryer because I doubt it will get dry by simply hanging over night. Well, maybe the backpack and the sweatshirt, but not the shoes. I'll go back to Camden Coffee House tomorrow morning and post this. I hope all is well with everyone. Thank goodness I'm getting out of this godforsaken city in 4 or 5 days.