I'm Here!

Late last night/earlier this morning I got on my flight to London. It wasn't too crowded or uncomfortable, but I still had trouble staying asleep. I watched movies, ate the provided meal (it was actually pretty good!), had someone accidentally spill red wine on my leg, and shifted around in my seat about a million times. Overall, a pretty uneventful and standard flight experience. Once the plane landed though, things got rough.

My flight had been delayed by an hour when I left from Houston, but as we approached Heathrow airport, we had to fly around in circles (there's a technical airline term for it, but I don't remember what it is) until the runway was clear. When we finally landed I only had an hour to get through customs, get my luggage, and ride to another terminal to meet up with my group to take a shuttle to our house. I wasn't too nervous but I was absolutely drenched in sweat trying to push and pull at least 100 pounds of stuff around, all while trying to figure out where I was supposed to go and how long it would take me to get there. I finally met up with my group with about 4 minutes to spare. But then we couldn't find the shuttle. And the shuttle person was late. And he was almost impossible to understand, and not because of his accent which was totally bizarre, but because he kept getting so flustered with everything and couldn't calm down. He was nice though, and we were all in a good mood and laughed things off (like the fact that his car stalled and he used a lot of British swears)!

It still doesn't even really feel like I'm in London. I didn't see any famous landmarks on my way to the place I am staying, and I haven't heard anyone with a British accent yet! Everyone is French or Polish or Indian. But I am still so excited and not even jet-lagged, just ready to start exploring! Tomorrow early in the morning we're going to Italy. The next time I post there should be lots of pictures of beautiful Italian and French things, so hooray for that! Have a great two weeks!