Here and now

So, I'm in a new place which mean lots of new posts. I have a lot of backlog so I hope you don't mind if I alternate between what's going on here and now and what went on in France.
For those of you who don't know, I landed in London, England, this morning.

As of now, I've had 5 hours of sleep. 2 on the plane and 3 when I got here. I always feel like I'm somewhere very far away and I'm thinking through a hazy fog. I can never sleep on planes, or very, very little, but I suppose it's for the best because it makes the shift to whatever timezone you're in easier. In other words, if you're exhausted and you make yourself stay awake until it's time to go to bed in your current, physical, present location, when you wake up, you'll be in the correct time zone -- more or less.

It's actually a trick I learned from the director of the Hollins Abroad Paris program. That woman really knows her stuff. In Paris, they taught me to stay awake, but, because you are exhausted when you land, take a 2-3 hour nap (they suggest shorter, actually, but that is what works for me) in the afternoon so that you're up for dinner and don't feel like you're going to fall over.

My flight over here was nice. I've heard a lot of good things about Air New Zealand. Did they hold weight? Ehhh. They were definitely good -- 10 minute delay here or there -- and had nice service but honestly, Delta/Air France was just as nice (As was LAN air which I flew with to get to Peru) I think Air New Zealand had a better selection of movies and TV shows -- I even found new Bob's Burgers! -- but honestly, for international service, they were standard. Not that I'm complaining though. International flights are 10 times better than domestic ones. I did make a sort of friend on the flight though. I was seat with a girl who was going home to Germany, and she spoke decent English. She was very nice. I felt bad for not knowing any German though. But you can't learn all the languages. It was really difficult not to speak French to the people on the plane. I was so aware of my accent. Unlike French though, where they know you're making an effort when you're speaking in their tongue, such things do not exist for UK English, since I'm pretty sure trying to imitate the accent, like you do in French, would get people assuming that I was mocking them. If I could count the times I nearly said Merci though! I miss the French Language dearly.

The people here -- like Paris -- were very nice though.

But anyways -- enough with the airplane bits. I'm sure you'd rather here about what happened when I landed.

But first, some cloud shots, as requested by my mother.

 I always think it's pretty amazing that we can fly over the clouds like that. While I think planes are very out of date in someways (they fly so slow!) there are some things where you just sort of loose your breath for a moment and have to think, "we invented this??"

And then, I got my first glimpse of England.

It was actually a rather . . . almost spiritual moment, but I have to admit my first thoughts were something along the lines of . . . "it looks like a hobbit town!" but all in the best ways of course, it looked very magical. And then my second thoughts were somewhere along the lines of "I feel like I'm coming home . . ." Which is a fairly odd thing to think, but it was the first thing that popped into my mind. Looking down it seemed much wilder than Paris (I thought of the difference between the french and the english garden). It was very green and I thought instantly of Roanoke. And thus far, England has reminded more of Roanoke while Paris and LA seem quite similar to me even now.

The buildings seemed almost to form ancient letters to me.It was very fantastical seeing it come out of the fog.

There was a large part of me that was going OOOOO! Is it the THAMES??

When I actually landed, I was very tired, but I got through border control (they were very nice). picked up my baggage (that was a bit tricky as it was under the Auckland sign), and found the Taxi driver with my name on his card. For the record, he was much easier to find then the Paris Director, but then, there was a good deal less people and I knew what to look for this time.

He was a nice man, who, for some odd reason, reminded me of the butler (Martin) in the remake of Parent Trap that I'm so fond of. 

My driver was quiet and nice and I listened to some British radio on the way over. He did, however, have a VERY hard time finding the place. We must have circled for an hour. I felt so bad, and so did he. 

The chaos didn't stop there though. Once I had gotten to the gate I found it was locked. Lucky for me, that gate, and the ones after it (2 others) were opened by friendly strangers. But when I got to the sign in window it was closed. I nearly lost it there. I could feel the panic rising in my throat. I called the London Director, because I didn't feel like feeling sorry for myself, and while I was on the phone with him, the window began to open. I quickly told him all was well and signed myself in. Turned out the guy was just out for lunch. He was quite nice and actually helped me carry my bags to my room as well as retrieve the bedding that had not been put in the room. 

Once inside, I unpacked and looked around. The room itself was nicer than I expected in someways (lots of storage space) but not so nice in others. There were no towels, or hangers, the bedding is thin, and the bathroom is unstocked -- if you know what I mean. 

Nevertheless, I am in love with the huge desk and the . . . interesting view from my window. While it definitely seems the sort of thing to fix up, and in some ways I feel like maybe I should have picked a host family, in others I am confident that it will work well for me. I have my own bathroom, plenty of shelf space, and I can be completely alone if I so desire, because it's a space that's MINE. Additionally, there are a handful of us here so it's nice to know that there is company if I want it. 

And that's all for now -- 

More soon!

~ E