Just Checking in

Well...here I am!
I'm sitting in a internet cafe in the basement of a buger king, on Picadilly Circus Square, London.
It's quite amazing that I'm still alive, actually.
Well, not exactly, but almost.
You see, I had a number of problems getting here, and I'm not quite sure I'll be able to get on my plane to italy friday, but I'm gonna give it the old college try, and we'll see what happens. Other than worries about my travels, the actually traveling has gone quite well.
I got cheated out of six hours of my life while I was on the airplane, and that caused me to miss the New Year. I'll be loosing a couple more hours before I end up back home, but they promised me that they would return every single stolen hour when I land in Washington DC, on Feb. 3'rd. Of course, no one can give me back New Year's Eve, but I can't figure out if that leave me ahead or behind...since I also had no dehydration induced headache to start the year off...only a baggage lost-induced one...but that was solved in a matter of hours.
The sights in London are amazing. I went to DC, and saw the white house and the capitol, and I was impressed. But they don't even deserve to be compared to Buckingham Palace and Parliament. Oh well...at least they're better than the war cabinet building and 10 downing street.
Have you any idea how expensive london is? I'm not complaining, just noticing. Everything looks like it costs the same, if you substitue the $ for the £. But, of course, pounds are worth almost twice as much as dollars, so you are really paying twice as much for stuff. But that's not the worst. I guess museums and hospitals can be subsidized by the government here, but subsidizing churches would contradict the separation of church and state. So, it ends up that seeing westminsters abbey costs 7£ for a student. Churches should be free, always. More on this later.
I've run out of time!
talk in the comments...I shall return!