London!

This is our third day in London and we will be moving into our dorms now. I am writing from the bus because we are dropping other people off through out the day and those of us who are last, or almost last, have to wait on the bus for the others to get checked in and such. I haven’t updated me blog yet because I haven’t completely had time, nor reliable internet access.

This is what’s gone down so far:
Kate and I had breakfast at Angelo’s on Tuesday morning. I left the lab late the previous night and had an enjoyable time watching movies with some new friends afterward saying goodbye. Needless to say I was already deathly tired when I arrived at the airport but I had hoped that I could sleep on the plane and it would ease my jet lag. I got to Detroit Metro at about 12 and by 12:30 I was waiting in the terminal until 2:15 before we boarded. The flight to Dulles was alright except that the turbulance lead to my spilling my drink in my lap. I had to sit with a wet bum for half an hour because the trip was so short that they never turned the fasten seat belt light off. So in Dulles I changed into my comfortable and thankfully dry clothes and bought a few snacks for the next leg of my trip.

On the Dulles to Heathrow flight I was hoping dinner would be served early so I could sleep the whole “night” but it wasn’t served for at least two hours. I dozed here and there but I didn’t completely fall asleep until after dinner. I deplaned at 6AM in Heathrow and went through immigration and customs without hassle other than I got in the wrong line at immigration because I was so tired and wasn’t paying attention. I had to wait in terminal 1 until Rachel came to get us, but the doors were always open and it was just about as cold in the terminal as it was outside and it being unusually cold this winter in London it was about -2C and just bitter. I couldn’t imagine waiting three hours in that cold so I got up after calling my mother and wandered around looking for a warm place to wait. Suddenly an alarm went off and everyone headed out of the terminal. Some kind of fire or bomb scare. I walked outside and waited with everyone else and was even colder. While I was waiting out side in the cold, feeling sorry for myself I chatted a bit with a couple from San Fransisco and then took a little video.

A girl standing next to me was watching me take the video and walked up to me afterward and was like “Hey are you in API?” and I replyed that I was. She is Mable, the girl I’d been e-mailing with before I left! We banded together and headed for terminal five. I had called Rachel and asked if I could meet there because the other group was meeting at 10:30 and the terminal 1 group was supposed to meet at 11:30. Now I didn’t want to wait an extra hour in the fridged terminal so I had the brilliant plan to take the interterminal trains to terminal five and meet the other group earlier with the hope that it would be warmer. It was a bit of an adventure manuevering out huge bags through out the airport, and Mable had even larger bags than I did but we made it, and it was warmer. While we were waiting for the others in terminal 5 to arrive we all got through the getting to know you basics. There was Clinton, from New York, John from Minnisota, Kelsey from New Jersey, Kaitlyn also from Jersey, Caitlin from Maryland, Mable of course from Jersey, Margaret from Ohio and Kelly from.

We got on the mini bus and drove then to our hotel. At this point we’re all exhausted. Mable and Caitlin and I were in room 510 at the Sydney Hotel on Belgrave St. Took a short nap and met the others downstairs to find food. We stopped at a little deli and I had a spinach ricotta roll and a diet coke. All the airline food and the light lunch gave me a stomach ache so I wasn’t feeling too well during our bus tour but I eventually perked up. After the bus tour we came back and we all went to this little Italian pizza place for dinner. We were completely asleep by 9pm in our hotel after dinner. It was such a long day it felt like two or three days all squished together - it WAS two days all squished together because I woke up Monday at 6AM and didn’t sleep until Tuesday at 9PM. Wait that’s not right, I missed two nights of sleep...wow the time change is just confusing. Anyway, it was exhausting.

The next morning we got up around 8 and went down for the complimentary breakfast. Bacon and scrambled eggs and toast for me though there were a few other choices. Then we were off on tour of London. We took a ferry down the Thames and then did a tour for quite a bit of the afternoon of the Tower of London. We ate tomato and lentil soup for lunch and saw the crown jewels and the torture chamber ad heard bloody and gruesome stories. On our way back from the tower of London we had a tube lesson and then some free time in which we went shopping on Victoria St. We bought a bottle of wine and then we went to dinner at Grumbles all together. That evening we stayed in, drank the wine and played a card game called taretts. A little API group bonding.

The next day was Friday and the art students had a separate orientation in the morning. The Westminster students myself included went to Westminster Abby in the afternoon. I got up very late like 9AM but it was a lovely day. That evening Rachel, our program director took us on a little walking tour of London and after she headed home the group all went out to a pub and had a merry old time. We managed to make our way back to the hotel using the night bus on our own and we moved out the next morning.
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Saturday we gathered our things and moved into the residence halls. We took the other students first and Caitlin and I were the last to be dropped off at Alexander Flemming Hall. The weather has been very gloomy and gray and I’m not in the best mood. I moved all my things in and the girls and I went to the mall to shop and find things for our rooms. I took a short nap this past afternoon before shopping and discovered some very unhappy things. The bedding packs API purchased for us are crap. The polyester duvet and cover feel like paper and the pillow is nearly flat. I will have to go and purchase some higher quality items because at the moment I am dreadfully uncomfortable. I would be able to deal with the duvet is the bed weren’t the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever touched. MoJo and Couzens are heavenly in comparison. I can feel every spring pressing into me as I try and sleep. My flatmates who’ve I’ve briefly met are being loud, celebrating I suppose the end of their exams. That doesn’t stop it from driving me crazy at 1AM, I figured since I can’t sleep because of the bed and the noise (the sounds of London outside my room are loud as well), I’d get up and vent my frustrations. Everytime a door opens or closes it echoes loudly throughout the whole place making it sound like people are slamming doors. I was crying for a little, wishing I were back home with my friends and family and my quiet basement room on Nixon.

I know that this is only a first night, disappointed sadness and it will pass but I’m terribly lonely at the moment, despite the wonderful new friends I’ve met and the wonderful time I expect to have, I’ve basically hit the first major hiccup... a lumpy bed and loud roomates. (I would go party with them except that I have to be up by six to get to the tube station to meet Rachel and the group and head out to Greenwich.) All the things that are different here are overwhelming. I’m worried about classes, food, getting around the city, making friends, the cloudy depressing weather and finding a more comfortable sleeping arrangement. I also miss my friends back home a lot. My new ones are great, but in a new life like this the old ones are that lovely soft comforter, rather than a thin papery duvet, that just wrap you in warmth, joy and confidence. Miss you all, I'm thinking of you here and I hope you're thinking of me as well.