1/11/12 Day 1

I woke up this morning without being phased that I would be on a plane soon heading to a completely different side of the world. It did not phase me until the clock started ticking closer to the time I had to be at the airport and all that I had to do was slowly but surely getting completed. Of course the email I received said I must be at the airport at 3:30pm and my father and I would leave around 3:15ish - 3:20ish pm. The airport is 20 minutes away. But we first had to go to radio shack to pick up a sim card for the camera. This basically meant I went into full anxiety mode. For those of you who don't know (all of you if any reading this blog) I have travelers anxiety. Within the 20 minutes of my father driving us to the airport I do not think I blinked more then 3 times....Yea it was bad but could you blame me? It was my first time traveling alone to a different continent. I finally arrived at JFK airport. Let me tell you, in all my years of traveling on a plane I never had a security check with a long line and go faster than 5 minutes! It was insane! I finally found my terminal and was FINALLY able to calm my anxiety down. It wasnt until 2 hours later the plane was starting to let us board. It wasnt until 5 minutes after I got onto the plane I started to freak out. My luggage was sticking out of the overhead bin and the flight attendant said "thats not going to fit" that made me nervous of having to possible check my bag. it really would have been nice if he would have tried to help instead of saying "it wont fit". I tried my best to fit it in but I was not able to close it after all the adjustments. The woman next to me told me that I should leave it and have the flight attendant do it. I gave in and just sat down and two minutes later the flight attendant shoved my bag in their. THANK GOD! Now the other problem I had was hoping I could open it later (thankfully with a little extra pull it came out in one piece). Now I was able to just sit back and relax for the next 6 hours because that's all I really was able to do. Turns out I passed as we took off but I did not mind. What I did mind was that it took me 4 hours how to figure out how to watch TV/movies on the plane. It made me sad but I survived and was able to watch and episode of the Big Bang Theory and the movie Friends with Benefits. Soon enough the plane landed and it was time to start my journey in London. Got off the plane went to immigration and to be honest it went a lot faster then I thought it would go (it only took about an hour). Then it was time to head on to the flatts. Let me tell you how I excited I was to find out we did NOT have any bunk beds (Possible pictures to be posted at a possible later date). After arriving at the flatts we had a meeting about the flatts and what the do's and dont's are and then we went to get our oyster cards (for the tube). Then we went back to the flatts only to wait about 25 minutes to go back to head to the Westminister College. On the way to walking to the tube we passed by a school. Some of the students were outside and well they figured out we were NOT from there. They started yelling "Bon jour" and none of responded and just kept walking by. Then one of the students yelled out "Immigrants" and I burst out laughing! It was so funny! But after that little bit of fun we hoped onto the tube (reminded me of the subway except a lot quieter) and got out to walk for two minutes until we reached the university. We walked up 6 set of flights and met one of our professors. By the time he was talking I could not believe how much I was sweating and how bad my legs had hurt. The professor we met was Mr. Sly Lindon. He's seems genuinely nice and I bet he will be teaching a very interesting class. After that meeting we were taken to go check out a market on one of the streets. There was mostly produce, shoes, bags, clothing and jewelry. It reminded me a lot of the city with all the markets they have. Then we took a bus to which we were going to go to Warwick Ave and walk back to the Flatt's. Yes, I know the first thing that came to my mind was Duffy as well.It was a great song and all and still is! We ended up getting split since there was so many of us. My group ending up missing the stop and were dropped off at the next one. After that we ended up going on a walking adventure. If I was not so exhausted and having to keep my legs from trying to buckle underneath me I probably would have taken in more of the beauty of London. It was a very long day and very tiring with a lot of walking! I'm pretty sure I lost some weight today for sure! After we got back from that long walk I ended up jetting to my room. I just had to sit down because my legs were in so much pain. After a few minutes I realized I needed to get some stuff for the room (soap and air freshener). I asked two of my flatt mates (Dougie and Adam) to come and we walked up the street and got to explore some of the stores. I think I was a little more excited then most people would be about seeing a hot dog in a glass jar. It amused me and it could be the jet lag talking or just some insane randomness. I then found out that there is a store Testco has gelt and that made me quite happy. After that we were all exhausted and went back to the flatt and watched tv for a little bit. We came upon some very interesting channels and after a few minutes of browsing and watching we ended up going our own ways. Now I am sitting in my room typing this up praying that the heat will go on soon! I will leave this at here so I can go start to unpack a little!