Scavenger Hunt

My main activities in London are as follows:

Hunting for food

Trying to remember where the Tescos are and which one is the nearest based on my location

Writing up a lot of lists mostly containing books

How many books? Around 24 (100 - 500 pages a pop)

And finally trying to not be passive about getting lost

If that makes any sense.

Getting lost is hands down my 24 activity. But I am trying to be more aggressive about it. Back in D.C or Boston when I got lost I would simply keep walking. Never stop, just keeping moving. Which works ok because in those cities I was able to look up and be like 'ok I see the Pru / Fenway Park / etc.' or 'ah ha I spot the Washington Monument / Capital Building / Smithsonian Castle.' Simply if I move towards that landmark than I should be able to regain knowledge of where I am. But I do not have that luxury in London. Yes, there are some landmarks but they are not ingrained in my head quite as well. When panic sets in that I missed the street I was supposed to turn down - out comes the map. Because if I get lost more than a couple street, it'll only be worse. For orientation to Uni of Westminster the staff devised a scavenger hunt for groups of 4 to 5. Essentially we all walked around the West end area and over to Trafalgar Square. And got lost along the way. And all the Londoners were more than happy to give directions. We were actually standing, map in hand, looking where we were going to go for our next assignment and a bus (tram? coach?) driver pulled up rolled down the window and offered to direct us. And then when we really did get lost, we missed West st. (side note - there is only one West street in London - and that surprises me), a very nice family took out their map to find West St. even though they had never heard of it. So spending a good two hours walking around, passing streets we were supposed to go down, thinking streets continued in an orderly manner, and even trying to find street signs absolutely made my day.

Classes start this Monday, so I plan to try figuring out how I'm going to take four Englishes and still be able to maintain a social life. Suggestions would be welcome. And side note. Yes, I'm an English major but remember I'm specifically studying Literature. Meaning - grammar and the like, well I never really appreciated and therefore rarely use. Cheers!