And so it begins...

I made it. Finally. After a year of planning, more hours of working than I can count, and several teary goodbyes, I’m here. In London, England for the next three months of my life. I left my comfortable, somewhat predictable, cozy life behind as soon as I walked towards airport security and away from the tear-filled eyes of my parents. Now that I think about it, that whole situation was kind of ironic… I was leaving one form, my form, of security and entering another one. As I walked away with tears in my own eyes I realized that I was on my own. But I also realized that I could do this. And I did.

While I waited for the flight to take us from Indianapolis to Toronto, I caught up with some friends and met some new ones. That flight was relatively uneventful, besides the flight attendant who absolutely hated her job and had a serious issue with luggage under the seats. Once we got to Toronto, everyone in our group got out their laptops because there was FREE wireless internet… and we had two hours until our flight to London left, so there’s no better way to waste time than to spend it on Facebook!

The flight to London was lovely (I’m trying to use “British words”). I really have no idea how many hours of sleep I got because one, Ironman was the movie on the flight, and two, frigid does not even begin to describe the temperature on that plane. When we arrived in London, we went through customs (which is always a good time) and then headed to baggage claim. I’ve never been happier to see my two giant, red suitcases (which both weighed in at 49.5lbs – the limit is 50 lbs.) than I was at that moment!

We rode buses from Heathrow International Airport to our flats (apartments), which are located in Clifton Gardens. Our bus driver had an intense Scottish accent and drove slightly crazy. He almost hit street signs, other vehicles, and people, but hey, we made it safely to our flats and that’s all that matters. In my flat, it’s me and two other girls staying in one bedroom, two other girls staying in a second bedroom, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a living/common room area. It’s actually very cute and quite London-ish. The location is lovely too and we’re close to the Hilton Hotel and fun little shops.

Besides that we didn’t do too much today. We had a few meetings today - one with the man in charge of our classes at the City of Westminster College and one with the landlord in charge of our flats. They both had charming British accents, which I could listen to all day long! I ventured to the grocery store here with a some other gals, but unfortunately, couldn’t find peanut butter or cottage cheese. So I bought Diet Coke and chocolate instead. :)

Tomorrow will most likely be a much more exciting because we get our college ID’s and buy our tube (subway) passes . And I also won’t have an extreme case of jet lag to deal with.

Until next time,
Rachel