So I have been in Britain for nearly a week now. I have been in London for all of it until today. Having no place to stay last night I bought a bus ticket to Edinburgh 4 hours before it was to leave at 11pm. That way I had somewhere to sleep and I could finally get out of London.

I don't like London. Not at all. (Except for the very efficient Tube). I'm also beginning to not like Britain. And I can't decide if that is because of the people I have met or if I am transferring my utter and complete frustration at myself and the situations I find myself in, onto Britain and it's people. For the most part though, I find that Londoners (at least) are quiet, like to stare, and generally keep to themselves. I feel like I am constantly being looked at with a watchful eye, especially on the underground as there is nothing else to do but read the free papers or look at your neighbors.

The things that have been my salvation while being on this already tumultuous journey have been the people that offer much needed, if short and only in passing, moments of sweetness, of humanity. The people that don't stare and look at a bedraggled girl as though she is the worst sort of person, the token American or tourist they hate, the sort of person they don't want clogging their beloved city and riding their public transport. These have been the people that have surprised me with their generosity or even friendly conversation. The man that sold me a phone card, the Polish waiter at a little Italian restaurant that sat down and talked with me when I was dining alone and terribly downtrodden, even the little crabby man at the post office who was willing to be so helpful and let me run down to the ATM when I didn't have enough to pay to send a package.

Thank goodness for them. Even the mad bus driver that tried to make a joke, although it was a very bad bad joke and made me think I had missed my bus to Edinburgh and had nowhere to stay and so was homeless in London, even he was at least joking with me. Or trying. It didn't go over so well since everything that could go wrong that day had gone wrong and my eyes just started leaking tears when he told me I couldn't get on the bus. I was shaking head to foot with absolute exhaustion and incredulousness thinking I had to sleep on the streets of London that night. But in the end I got on the bus. And now I am safely in Edinburgh.

Just thank goodness for those people giving some bits of goodness.