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Published: March 22nd 2017
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The last time I had been in a plane was in Richmond airport back in 2012 with my parents and sister; we were coming back from Orlando, Florida after spending a week in Disney World. And now, here I am, sitting aboard a British Airways double decker plane, casually sipping on Heineken and Red Wine, sitting beside some of the best friends a person could ask for, and geeking out to J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beast movie as I head to England. The trip started off on a positive before we even landed, in fact, before we left Heathrow Airport I knew luck was on my side. More on that later, but I must first mention about how efficient and frankly easy the check in process was for getting into England. I had very little memory of my previous travel abroad to Canada, so I considered this my first true travel abroad experience. To that point, I had read up on some daunting stories about travel abroad check-ins becoming extremely rigid in the past few years. While that may be true, for my case, it was the exact opposite. I feel as though having the backing of an American passport also made
the process more seamless.
Okay so back to the luck at the Airport! Once we landed and got out of the check-in service, we had a wait time to commute from Heathrow to Oxford. While the airport was relatively unadventurous; Sam, Andrew (my friends), and I decided it would be good idea to explore the airport. And low and behold, we find a little casino room filled with slots ranging form 10 pence to 1 pound. We decided to put our just exchanged 50 pence coins into the machines. Sam went first and not surprisingly did not win. After seeing him loose I was ready to move one, but Same decided to put in 50pence more, but he only had 20pence piece, so I decided to cover him the rest of the way if I was allowed to keep the winnings. "Sure," he said. I push the spin, button and all of sudden the machine starts going crazy, with flashing lights, when three cherry figures saying "jackpot" fall in a row. Yes, I had just hit the jackpot for 25 pounds as my first spending in England. This was the start of a great trip!
We take a
Heathrow express bus to Oxford where we had a beautiful view of the countryside. Its still relatively early in the day, so we meet a IRC resident who is studying at Mansfield College in Oxford University to give us a brief tour. There we see a bunch of cool historical buildings that I had never heard of before. We later went into this beautiful, but well-hidden venue called the Turf Tavern. The first sign that you see, written on chalkboard, is "this is the place where Bill Clinton didn't inhale." I guess it was in reference to something he did as Rhode Scholar. Either way, this place had charm and a history. The food was delicious. I asked for a English hotdog and got a foot long sausage instead. My first English lunch was not to shabby.
Afterwards we toured Mansfield College. I enjoyed the college however, I feel as though the atmosphere would not fit my personality. It was a beautiful school nonetheless. It was getting late and the jetlag was starting to take a toll on my body. We ended the night at the Eagle and Child Pub, but not before myself and a few of my
friends went to the Lamb and Flag. We went to the L&F early, thinking that we would meet the rest of through group there. We each order a pint of ale or cider to enjoy with our dinner. We then later find out after sitting there for 30 minutes that this a Pub that sales ONLY Alcohol! I was mystified. The night ended with us downing our pints, running across the Eagle and Child Pub and enjoying so good classic English food. I slept very well the first night.
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