Fire Alarms and Lost Buses

Hello again! It's been a little while since I posted last, but unfortunately I got a bit of a cold after the last adventures I had and had some catching up to do with my classes.

Nothing much has happened in the last week and a half or so because classes are pretty intense right now. We're halfway through the semester already, which is totally crazy, and now we have what is called "Reading Week". It's a week we get during week 6 of each of our semesters to catch up on work, but of course our professors take the advantage to give us even more to do :)

That said, I thought I'd elaborate on a few funny things that keep happening to me in my day-to-day life here in London.

First, Fire Alarms. I realize these aren't a "London" thing, but honestly, they go off ALL THE TIME. They're extra sensitive to the point that your toaster will set it off even if you put it on the lowest setting, keep the window open, and practically fan the toast SMELL out of the window while it's crisping.

I have now evacuated every King's College building I've ever set foot in. They go off multiple times a week at all times of the day or night and it's required to evacuate. In one week alone, I evacuated my apartment three times, the library once (at 11:30pm), and the building where my classes were twice. But I suppose I can't count the classroom evacuation twice because one of the times I was in the cafe and got stuck behind the fire doors. I'll still count it, though.

The other funny part, is that they have gone off so many times falsely in our building that we were told not to evacuate unless they last more than 30 seconds. So, sometimes you're in bed, the shower, etc and you hear it so you start to get up, get one shoe on, and it stops. The current record for this is 10 times in one night - at midnight.

Second point of interest, the city buses. They are by far the quickest way to get places in a lot of situations as well as your only option if you want to travel anywhere after 11pm as the tube stops running after 11. Fun fact - they're called Night Buses. Like in Harry Potter. I know, right?

They're not purple and it's Night vs Knight, but still. 

Now, coming from Chicago, I didn't have a high bar for the buses here in London. And honestly, they are awesome in comparison because they have letters that correspond to where you get on and off and the bus drivers are actually helpful. That said, there are a few quirky things about the buses that one must learn before deciding to ride.

1. Don't get on a Hydrogen bus - odds are, if you're going more than 6 blocks, it will probably break down. I know they're trying to be environmental and I totally love that, but they don't work! You can tell it's about to break down too because the bus makes an unexpected turn onto a side street. The bus driver then insists that it will be back up and running if he can just kick it back into gear. I'm not sure if that's a technical term, but it involves a lot of key turning and the bus making that "errr errr err" sound. After a while, the bus driver will give up and tell you where the next stop is.

2. The routes are crazy. As I've mentioned before, Citymapper is the best app in the world and can get you anywhere at anytime. So, picture this, you get on a bus heading towards your destination and you sit down so that you can see both the sign that displays what stop is next and you have your phone out with Citymapper open so that you can follow the blue dot on the red line to make sure you know where to get off.

Then, this happens: 

Your first sign of trouble, the display switches to an asterisk instead of the next stop. 

Then, you look down at Citymapper and see this: 

Confirmed, you've been rerouted. 

There is never any notice given for a reroute and for some reason, no one else on the bus ever looks concerned, upset, or bothered in the least. I've also learned to accept this and somehow, it always gets back on track at some point and I make it to my destination. I still have absolutely no idea why this happens though, and I have set it as a goal to figure out the mystery of the reroutes. 

These odd things about London are part of the charm, even though it doesn't feel like it when the fire alarm is going off at 1am because someone wanted a toasted PB&J. 

Cheers!