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Published: September 9th 2008
I AM IN LONDON!!! I cannot believe that it is actually true, all of us keep saying that it feels like a vacation and that we're going to leave the beautiful city of London, but amazingly it is true and I'm here until December!! I thought that doing a blog would be a fun way to communicate with some awesome Americans😊
Saturday was one of the craziest days ever, starting with Hurricane Hannah trying to mess up our flight. Everyone was nervous that our flight would be delayed or even worse canceled due to the torrential downpour and gusty winds occurring! We thought we weren't delayed but we ended up waiting an hour extra just sitting on the runway in the plane. Then because of all the delayed traffic from America coming into London, we were delayed a little when landing. Overall, it was a good flight though! I got to sit next to my friend Emily, and my friend Sarah was right behind me. The only thing that was unfortunate was that I couldn't sleep, so I knew that was going to bit me in the butt on Sunday but oh well! The seat wasn't comfortable and it's hard to sleep on a plane, so what you can do? I decided that watching McDreamy in Made of Honor was a good alternative to sleeping😊
We arrived in Heathrow and everyone was excited! There are 10 Graduate students in my program (myself included) and 11 undergrad students doing their semester abroad also. We went through immigration pretty well, the line was somewhat long but we booked it off the plane so we beat the huge rush. Picking up the baggage was good except that since I choose duffel bag style luggage I compromised on the easy mobility of it. I have never been so uncomfortable in my life, having a backpack on my back, a small carry on bag on my shoulder and then crouching down to wheel two massive duffel bags . . . YIKES! After having everyone get through immigration and such, we met our program director, Anthony (pronounced Antony) who is awesome! Then we got to go to our flats in a double-decker coach bus! I of course chose the front seat on the top, so when the driver made turns it looked and felt like we were going to hit everything, but then the bus turned at the last possible second.
We moved into our flat and it is AMAZING😊 We pretty much lucked out and have one of the best setups, because there are 3 floors and 2 bathrooms between 2 people! I'm living with my friends Emily and Sarah and it's pretty cool having a flat, since I've never lived in an apartment before. So after moving all our stuff in, we spent some time settling in with unpacking and rearranging the room and stuff. The jet lag was hitting like crazy and it was good to just hang out a little in the flat. Everyone said don't fall asleep, it's best to just wait it out, so that you are on the same time. I never realized how hard it actually is, especially after not sleeping on the plane. It was the longest wait ever because we had a walking tour from our director at 4 and time seemed to stand still without sleeping. Sarah, Em and I went out for lunch and we got yummy falafels and chicken sandwiches. Our biggest mistake was that we went out without a single map on any of us, yea really smart move there. We were so lost and just kept wandering around and around. I didn't help much since I was kind of a walking zombie from the jet lag and was kind of closing my eyes while crossing the street. BUT in retrospect I did give one suggestion/comment that actually was correct about the direction but they didn't believe me since I was asleep. HAHA😊
The walking tour was really cool because we got to know our neighborhood and Islington better, although most everyone's eyes were kind of glazed over by the end from fatigue. We were all excited for dinner that night because we were being taken out by Anthony to a fun restaurant in our neighborhood. It was an amazing dinner! I had salmon with guacamole and vegetables and then creme brulee, AMAZING! Also, they had THE coolest toilets I've ever seen in my entire life. After dinner we went back to flat and got some sleep so we could beat the jet lag. Luckily my family caught me before I fell asleep and we got to skype, it was a great ending to a loooooooooong day!😊
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Kelly
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Finally, this website worked, yippie! I gave it to my mom, so she will be reading about your travels in London!!!!