And the Adventure Begins!

Does it surprise anyone that when my plane landed in London early this morning, it was raining? It seems that English weather has a nasty propensity to precipitate, and I just happened to forget my umbrella in my room back in the States.

But oh well. Who wants to hear about that anyway? I'll back up to yesterday, when I was preparing to leave. I should warn you, this is probably going to be a long post. I packed as thoroughly as I could on Monday, but still found myself rushing every which way trying to get everything done and make sure I had everything I needed (and as you can tell, I still forgot something important). Among the chaos, Grandma showed up to say good-bye, during which both she and Mom let the cat out of the bag as the the real surprise: Michele and Avery drove down to see me off at the airport!

I lost it, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I was definitely tearing up in the terminal, especially after Dad started getting emotional, too. Before we knew it, everyone was equally weepy, even Mom. But come on--can you blame us? I'm going to be gone for five months, and Jenn is leaving soon after me! I had no idea how hard it would be to say goodbye, especially to Jenn. I'm thinking that we might have to get together in France or England sooner than we'd planned...

The flight was uneventful...no, wait, it was worse than uneventful. It was boring! I couldn't see a thing down on the ground, and everyone knows that's the best part. What's worse, I couldn't get comfortable. I doubt that I slept for even three hours last night. On the bright side, however, the plane that I was on was very technologically advanced, so it periodically showed the passengers the status of the flight, as well as offering us a wide range of games, movies, and music from the screen on the back of every seat. Modern technology has really taken us far. The airplane food was still disgusting, though; at least some things never change.

Though we were delayed half an hour before leaving the airport, the flight landed nearly an hour ahead of the original schedule. When I met the cabman who was to take me to my destination, I discovered that he was taking me to Kingston instead of my accomodations because "she [my landlady] wasn't there." So I spent two hours hanging out in the international students' office, learning a lot about the program and what to expect from orientation. When I was finally taken to my residence, the jet lag had started to catch up with me; it's wearing on me even now, to tell you the truth....zzz...zzz...zzz--oh, right...I met my landlady and the other study abroad student who's staying with her, both of whom I like very much. I've taken pictures and will post them along with this thread.

I've still got a lot to write about, but I'll get to it in my next post. Right now, I think I'm about to head to bed. It is nearly eight in Great Britain, which is rather earlier than my usual bedtime, but I need to catch up with this jet lag. Dodo and I are settling in for a good night's sleep. Sweet dreams!