Finally Here!!!

So, Day One in London! I finally made it here. It seems like a lot has happened since I arrived here just this morning. The flight was okay. It was delayed a little because of the snow in Chicago but we ended up getting into London almost on time. I slept on the flight as much as I could, but that still wasn’t long, so tonight will be my first night in a bed in what seems like a lot longer than just one night.

I am living in central London, which is very exciting! The buildings our beautiful all over the small part of England I’ve seen, but besides that a lot of England seems to be Americanized. The group of people on this trip is much larger than I expected. There are about 90 people from colleges all over Missouri! So we, and all our luggage, finally got the flats we were staying in. The worst part of the day was having to drag all our luggage to our rooms. I was hungry and sleep deprived but somehow managed to drag all my luggage up 4 steep and narrow flights of stairs. There is no lift in our flats, but I didn't expect one. I am in a room smaller than my single dorm room with 2 other girls, with another triple next door. The six of us share the common area, which is actually a nice size, bathroom and mini-kitchen. It is close quarters, but I don’t plan on being in the flat that much, and all my roommates are really nice, so I am not too worried.

So, after we got to London and put our stuff in our rooms, we walked over to Imperial College, our host, and ate our only free meal—Fish ‘n Chips! It was actually not that bad. I ate about half of the fish because I got sick of it after awhile and the chips part was just fries so that’s always good. We got a safety lecture about certain culture things in London and met the International Enrichment (the agency sponsoring the trip) staff. We walked home and ran into protesters opposing the war in Gaza, so it was a very well-rounded day. 

We were told that it was a particularly cool day in London, which didn’t bother me much because it felt just as cold as Chicago when I left. However, it is noticeable when we moved throughout Imperial College that for some odd reason the rooms indoor were cool as well. We kept our heavy coats on the entire time we were inside and out. Now back at my flat, I see that my mom was once again right because I am freezing and wearing long underwear under flannel pajamas. I’m sure I’ll pile on more layers once I go to bed, which will hopefully be pretty soon because I am exhausted.

I also experimented blindly with Skype and think I’m pretty confident about how to work it now. I have learned a lot for only being in London less than 12 hours. Tomorrow we are going on a bus tour in the morning and then we’re exploring London for ourselves after that. Hopefully by tomorrow night I will have more groceries and a cell phone.