Day 1 - Halifax to London

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Day 1The big day 😊
When I woke up this morning I felt strangely apathetic about the whole idea of the trip, but as the hours ticked by the butterflies in my stomach grew decidedly more agitated. My family drove me out to the airport and sat with me for a few minutes before I made my way through security without hassle, and went upstairs to wait to board the flight. Now, I don't mind flying, but I was slightly annoyed at the fact that my nice direct flight had been cancelled and I had to fly all the way to Ottawa in order to catch a flight to London. Lame. In any case, the flight to Ottawa was uneventful, but I had a row to myself and watched Music & Lyrics on the seatback video screen to pass the time.

When I arrived in Ottawa I didn't have all that much time to kill, so I made a quick trip to the ladies' room, sat down at my gate and waited. I was starting to feel a little bit anxious, as the thought of going to a country where I knew no one and being totally alone for even a short while was kind of freaking me out. I had no second thoughts, and told myself to calm down and just enjoy every moment. That would eventually become a motto of sorts for me in the coming days - Live in the moment.

On the plane I had a lovely row-mate. I cannot remember his name for the life of me, but we got to talking about art and theatre, which was especially wonderful because the headphone jack in my seat wasn't working. He was really interesting and turns out we have a mutual acquaintance...how weird is that? We laughed over the flavourless chicken and melty ice cream, and tried to figure out why the sun seemed to rise and set on the same side of the plane. How strange it was to have the darkness last only a few hours. I rested my eyes but didn't get much sleep, which was due to the fact that a)I was nervous and b)I just couldn't get comfortable. I had some complimentary wine to try and knock myself out, but even that didn't work. Anticipation, I guess.

I couldn't tear my eyes off of the top of the cloud cover as the sun rose. The pinkish golden hue that was cast over the puffy blanket below us was absolutely stunning. I couldn't help but think that underneath that prettiness was a whole other dark, dreary story. I was looking forward to seeing that dreariness though, because it meant only one thing: London!

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