London, Day Three

Oh my the jet lag.  Neither Jason nor myself got any sleep last night (I'm not exaggerating there...we literally got no sleep).  We finally gave up on sleeping around 5:30am and began getting ready for the day.  Being up and about so early was actually really nice...we got to enjoy a nice, leisurely breakfast together, which is something that pretty much never happens at home.

Took a cab to the conference center and once I saw how the lift into the building worked, I walked back to the hotel (I did that walk 3 times today...so something like 6 or 7 miles of walking....which totally justifies the Krispy Kreme donut I just ate).  While Jason was conferencing, I napped (just for a bit and I really did try to resist, but when I started reading what I was writing in my sleep-deprived state, I determined that napping would be the better use of my time), and then worked on my dissertation most of the afternoon.  I met up with Jason again at 4pm, and we walked/rolled back to the hotel.

Jason is definitely getting a chance to try out some '"advanced wheelchair skills" (as they called it in PT) while we're here...lots of wheelies and jumping of curbs to be had.  London is certainly less accessible than CA (makes me appreciate the fact that I don't really have to worry whether or not the restaurant/store/etc that we want to go to is w.c. friendly), but given that, as far as I'm aware, there aren't any regulations about accessibility, it's not too bad.  Jason thinks the people here are much nicer towards people in wheelchairs...although it might just be the accent.  Things sound so much nicer when said in a British accent :)  That's not entirely true though...people do seem to legitimately be better with disabilities here.  In the U.S., most people go out of their way to not draw attention to folks with disabilities, sometimes to the point of inadvertently ostracizing them even more.  I know it's not intentional, but in not acknowledging the disability, it's almost as if we render people with disabilities invisible.  Apologies if that doesn't make any sense...

Well, I'm off to bed (J is already asleep)...hopefully we'll actually get some sleep tonight!  More conferencing and dissertating tomorrow!