The first few days I spent here in London went quite smoothly when it came to making my way from one place to another. I thought I had conquered the underground system thinking it was like BART and would make it back and forth to class without a problem. By the third or fourth day I found out otherwise. I headed to Kensington High Street with my roommates to look for an adapter for my laptop computer. We went to Kensington High Street earlier that morning to look for something else, headed back to the Gloucester Road Tube Station for lunch to find out we had to head back to Kensington High Streeet to look for an adapter. After lunch I followed my friends back to Kensington High Street via the underground and then since they had more shopping to do headed back to my flat on Collingham Rd. on my own. I walked to the station, put in my card and asked a guy that looked as if he worked there how to find Gloucester Rd. He pointed me in the direction of Platform 1. What he failed to tell me is on Platform 1 runs both the District (green) line and the Circle (yellow) line. So, when the first train came up, I hopped on, convinced this was the way to Gloucester Road. Turns out I was on the District Line heading to Earls Court. I got there, completely lost, knowing it was one stop to Gloucester Road. It didn’t make sense. So, I asked directions and was told to get back on the train to Kensington High Street and get on Platform 1. I did as I was told, hopped back on the train to Kensington High Street and went back to Platform 1. I hopped on the train off of Platform 1 and ended up back at Earls Court. So, I was going in circles and I couldn’t get back to Gloucester Road. I asked directions again and did the circle again, from Earls Court to Kensington High Street back to Earls Court. I had forgotten my London map at the flat and had no understanding of the underground regardless of its similarity to BART. By then, I was quite frustrated. I finally found a nice lady who literally walked me onto the right train and told me when to get off. Somehow off of Platform 1 ran two trains, one that went on the District line towards Earls Court and the other on the Circle Line to Gloucester Road. Finally I made it back to Gloucester Road and coming out of the underground station bumped into some students that were on the London Program living in my building. I was told that although we were taken originally to Gloucester Street Station, in reality Earls Court was the closest station to Collingham Rd. When going to London be sure to always carry your tube map with you and look at the front of the train for its destination. Some platforms run two different lines when may go in opposite directions. The best way to avoid getting lost (which you most likely will a few times anyway) is look at what line (color on map) your stop is, which direction (north, south, east or west) and then look at the destination of the train when the train approaches (located at the front of the train). Good Luck and remember to have patience, it gets easier.
