7,826 miles later...

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Okay, so this blog thing is a bit more confusing than I thought. Bare with me. So, on Thursday I walked through security around 2 p.m., waved goodbye to my parents and turned and looked.....and there wasn't anything there? So I broke the first, and almost only, rule that my parents gave me and I asked a stranger where I should go. haha. He was very helpful and turns out i needed to take this little shuttle thing to where the gates were. I waited around for awhile then finally boarded and flew to Boston. It was pretty amazing flying into Boston because the lights were on in the city, but the sun was still setting so the sky was red and the sunset looked like it was eye level. I think that's my fist time watching the sunset from tens of thousands of feet up. At Boston Jordan had to get his boarding pass for Heathrow so I decided to go up and ask if the boarding pass they gave me in Pittsburgh was all I needed..soo, luckily I did that because it was not all I needed and the Boston airport is HUGE!! We had about a 2 hour layover in Boston, but for some reason we were still rushed and barely had time to scarf down a sandwich before boarding. Turns out they fed us on the plane anyways, but oh well. The flight to England wasn't as bad as I remember it being and we arrived 20 minutes early due to tail winds. At Heathrow we had about a 4 1/2 hour layover so Jordan and I decided to go to the approximate area where we needed to be and hit up the pub. I bought my first legal beer (it wasn't as glamorous as everyone said it would be..but I did get carded!) and ate some peanut butter crackers. It was a bit hectic because they weren't telling us which gate we had to be at until about 15 minutes before we were supposed to board. By this point Jordan and I were so ridiculously exhausted that we had to take turns walking around to stay awake. The time difference really killed us there because it was 7 am in Heathrow, but our bodies were telling us 2 am. It didn't help that boarding the plane was pushed back. As soon as I sat down on the plane I was out like a light, since I hadn't slept at all on the way to Boston or London. Whenever I woke up I was a bit confused because I did not ever feel the plane take off I was sleeping so hard. So I couldn't really tell if we were still on the ground or not because I was still groggy..it wasn't the ground it was the clouds hahah. I asked the lady next to me how long we'd been flying and she said "about an hour, two more to go....you've been really sleeping though." I tried to fall back asleep, but then i felt a tap on my shoulder and the lady beside me was waking me up because they were serving us food. Then, we flew over the (what I'm assuming was..) the Alps and it was IN-CREDIBLE!! I think that is when it really hit me that I was almost in Malta. I couldn't stop grinning and my face was pretty close to the window because I was looking out and we hit some unexpected turbulence and I bashed my head off of the window (no blood)..by this point the lady next to me was probably getting pretty freaked out by me haha. Oh well..I'll never see her again.. So, then I finally saw Malta out the window..no, literally..you can see the entire country from the plane haha. The airport was a bit confusing because we didn't know how to get out of the area where we were because there was 3 different exits, but luckily there was a sign that said "If you are not sure" use this exit haha so that's the one we took. Our taxi driver was waiting for us with a sign with our names on it. There were two other names on the list but only one showed up..we left without the other one I guess? I'm glad that wasn't me! We got into our rooms easy enough, but I'm not in my room for the semester yet so I haven't unpacked anything. That night we went down to the pool area because there was a big tent set up and a bunch of people playing beer pong and having a good time. There is a bar/place to get food right by the pool area, which is pretty nice and makes for a good party spot. A lot of the people here are still here finishing up the first semester and only a few second semester people had arrived at this point, so I felt a bit overwhelmed and a little out of place since everyone already had their "cliques" and what not. Which is totally understandable. Then on Saturday I walked around with Yvette, the girl we met at the airport, from Queens and an Italian boy (we both forgot his name haha) and we found the bank and the supermarket and got some lunch because I don't think any of us had eaten that day. I got some water at the supermarket because you can't drink the tap water and I had been sooo thirsty!! Then there was a big party down by the pool that I went to, it started at 2 in the afternoon! It was pretty fun, there were more people who were just getting there than the night before, so more people to talk to. Then, at night a bunch of people took like 10 person taxis to a bar in Valletta. It was pretty fun, I didn't get home until after 3. They are crazy here! everyone stays out clubbing and what not until like 4 or 6 in the morning! When I got home last night, I had a new roommate, Jess, who had just gotten there moments before I got home, I had no idea she was coming, but she seems pretty cool. So, today I'm going to walk around and try to find some places..possibly a more direct path to the super market since we got a bit lost. I'll take some more pictures and upload them eventually!

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Comments

[Nancy Matthews]

What an adventure
Hello Jordan, I hope you don't mind that your dad gave me your link but I thought that I could forward it to Meg and also just drop you a line or two sometimes. I think that it is so neat that you have this opportunity at your fingertips it sounds like quite an adventure so far. I am so sure that you will have make many friends cause you just have a great personality and are not shy. Well what a long flight and a little complicated too but hey you did it !!!!!!! Well be good and most of all have the time of your life (within limits) and I shall keep up on your blog.