First, let's all let out a collective sigh of relief that I'm finally posting again. Next, I'd like to point out that something that's special or exciting is so, in part because it doesn't happen every day.
Much like my blog.
If my blog became part of your morning routine, it'd be just that--routine. I want these few minutes we share in cyberspace together to be meaningful and insightful. But above all, I'd like you to feel like reading this blog was better than actually doing what you know you should've been doing instead of reading this blog. Especially those of you reading this on company time. You know who you are.
Wow, all that pretension has left me physically and emotionally drained. While I recharge the proverbial batteries, enjoy this intermission brought to you by laughing baby
Now that that's over we can all get on with our lives.
I wanted to do something a little different with this post. I've sort of settled in to a routine here, especially now that classes have started. There's really not too much to report on that wouldn't create mass amounts of Déjà vu for any of you who have spent any amount of time (probably company time) reading one of my earlier posts. But, now that I've been here for an entire month (Today is my one month anniversary with England and we're already living together. Moving kind of fast, right?) I've had some time to sort of adjust to the people, the city and the accent; enough at least to comment on some things I find interesting/cool/neat-o/any other annoying adjective you can think of. Without further adieu, this is my list of Questions, Comments, Concerns and Amusing Anecdotes:
Yes, they really do drive on the wrong side of the road. This could have the potential to be dangerous crossing busy streets in the center city. Luckily, painted on the road at nearly every crosswalk are the words "LOOK LEFT" or "LOOK RIGHT." Yes, in all caps. Screaming at you from the pavement
Groceries don't last nearly as long as they do in the States and for that, I'm thankful. The food is severely lacking in the preservatives that allow your bread to sit in the cupboard for 2 weeks while you're vacationing in Bali, come home and make lunch for the kiddos for the next 5 days. As a result, I feel healthier. I have to go to the grocery store more often, but it's a small price to pay. Which leads me to my next point:
The groceries are by and large cheaper here than in the States. Even considering the conversion rate (it's bad... take my word for it), I can buy the same amount of groceries for probably 30-40% less than back home
Brighton is a really trendy, fashion-forward city. Sometimes I feel like I don't fit in because I'm not nearly as fashionable as the rest of the city
In every class I've been in, I've been nervous to talk in front of everyone for the first time. Right when I open my mouth I can feel dozens of pairs of eyeballs burning a hole through my face because of my accent. Once we all get over the initial shock of me being an American, it's smooth sailing
Europe is much more in-tune with America than America is with Europe
The Brits love Obama
A city the size of Brighton in America wouldn't have nearly the amount or quality of public transport
The English love a good rally/demonstration/protest
Students seem to have much more of a voice in the UK's University system than students would in the US
England is very dog-friendly: dogs on public transportation, dogs in stores, dogs in university lecture halls
Media in general is far less censored. Imagine my surprise opening up a newspaper and seeing a topless woman. I had to check the front to make sure it wasn't a Playboy.... nope, it's a newspaper all right. Come to find out, Page 3 is an "institution in Britain" as one of my British classmates informed me
I know more Brits that have been to America than Americans that have been to the UK. And trust me, I know far more Americans than I do Brits
I sometimes find myself thinking with a British accent. I wouldn't dare try to put one on, though. It sounds pretentious trying to fake an accent. Like they don't know that you're trying to put one on, anyways.
I feel out of touch with news in the US. I don't see much TV and honestly don't check internet-based news resources that often.
I'm really running out of things to say here. If there's something you were hoping I'd mention that I failed to, then feel free to keep it to yourself because this is NOT a democracy.
Just kidding, let me know what you want to hear about I'll do my best to make your dreams become reality.
I know I haven't updated in a week or so but I hope you can find it in your heart of hearts to forgive me. The last few days, in stark contrast to the few days before them, have been rather busy! School officially started on Monday and I can already tell I will come to dread Mondays. Not only does Monday signify the end of the weekend, I am in class for almost 6 hours. That's a lot of sitting and listening.
The class structure in England I'm already finding to be different than in the US. At home, for the most part every class meets for 75 minutes twice a week with little exception (unless it's a lab or night class). Here, my shortest class meets an hour and a half once a week, and my longest class meets for 3 hours straight once a week. Generally the classes will have required seminars that are pretty similar to what the name suggests. A tutor (UK phrasing for professor) will lead a seminar or tutor group which is a sort of follow up to the lectures. So in the lecture is when the lecture happens (thank you, Captain Obvious) and the seminar is where the lecture is discussed. I don't know how I'm going to like it, but we'll see. The jury's still out on that one.
Finding classes proved to be quite challenging as well. Before coming here, I had a list of 10 courses pre-approved by departments at UNCC that I'd then get to chose from once I arrived in Brighton. Only 2 of the 10 classes are classes I'm actually taking right now. For whatever reason be it scheduling conflict, a full roster or the class simply not being offered, I was only to actually enroll in 2. NCAA and other institutional requirements necessitate my taking a minimum of 4 classes to maintain full-time status. So, as much as I'd like to be here taking 2 classes, it's just not possible. That meant I had to get in touch with faculty back home in order to re-pre-approve (yes, I just made that up and no, I'm not proud of it) classes. As I mentioned in my very first post, the faculty at UNCC have been incredibly supportive, understanding and accommodating without exception. It has been much less of a challenge for me to coordinate with professors from home than for some of my contemporaries in Brighton. And for that I'm very thankful.
So with that all settled, I'm sure you're about to fall out of your chair waiting for me to tell you what classes I'm taking. After checking with my legal team we decided I can't be liable for any injuries resulting from the suspense-evoking nature of my writing, so I'm just going to go ahead and tell you.
War, Conflict and Modernity is my first and last class of every week. The lecture is Monday mornings and the seminar takes place mid-morning on Fridays. Once the professor walked into the class with his dog, I knew it was going to be a good class. The material is right up my alley as well. It's a blend of political philosophy and history with a shot of terrorism/war studies just to keep you on your toes. If there's a class I wouldn't mind waking up early for, it's this one.
Also on Mondays is Theorizing the Social World. This is a social theory class (no kidding!) that I haven't formed an opinion about. The professor is brilliant. She's scottish and has a wonderful sense of humor so if nothing else, she'll keep me laughing.
Tuesdays are dedicated to the world of Social Psychology. This might be the opposite of my social theory class. The professor is a hair more vanilla and the material a smidge more interesting.
Wednesdays are my free days, though I'd trade Wednesdays for Fridays any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Global Social Policy is my 3 hour class on Thursday mornings and I can see myself enjoying this one as well.
Once it's all said and done, I'm about as happy with my classes as could be reasonably expected. It definitely could be worse. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Outside of the real reason I'm here (it is called STUDY abroad, afterall), we took a trip to Hastings last Saturday. Stops included Beachy Head and Battle Abbey, the site of the last successful invasion of England circa 1066. Quite an interesting feeling visiting a site that has history dating back hundreds of years before the United States was a twinkle in the eye of the world.
Beachy Head near Eastbourne. That's the English Channel, so on the other side of that water is France
The sort of rounded cliffs in the distance are called the Seven Sisters.
Beachy Head is the 3rd most popular suicide spot in the world. Pleasant, huh?
Zoe and Mary
All of this land is protected and can't be developed
The Long Man of Wilmington
The field in the middle is where the battle of Hastings took place in 1066. The building in the background is the Battle Abbey built by William the Conqueror 4 years later as a sort of repentance for the blood shed during the invasion.
And the obligatory blog-ending YouTube video (not a music video this time):
The past few days have been pretty relaxed. I know, I know. You're thinking that it seems like the past 12 days have been pretty relaxed. Well, for the most part, you'd be right. And just typing that it is kind of hard for me to believe that I've been here for 12 days already.
Monday marked the first day of classes. Well, the first day of one class. Every other class starts next Monday (Oct. 4th), but for some reason I had a class begin a week before the rest. It wasn't a big deal. The class is called Race and Racism. The University is spread across five campuses stretching from Brighton to Eastbourne. The journey to Eastbourne can take up to an hour if you're not careful. I live in the Paddock Field Halls of Residence on the Falmer campus. My class was at the Grand Parade campus (check out this website for an idea of what that journey could be like). It took probably 25 minutes from bedroom door to classroom door, so not too bad.
There are probably 25 of us including the tutor (professor) in a room not built to hold more than 10 or 15. It was pretty cramped, but we managed. It seems like it will be a good class and it was one I had pre-approved by UNCC that will transfer back in as hours applicable to my major which is incredibly helpful.
After class I did some walking around downtown by myself. Okay, maybe not the greatest idea I've ever had, especially in a new place (I was lost for about 30 seconds), but don't you think it's true that you don't really know your way around somewhere until you get lost and have to find your way out? Brighton is a safe enough town, anyways, that I never felt like I wasn't supposed to be somewhere and there were always scores of people around.
The point is, though, that I managed to find my way back to where I needed to be... my bed, where I had the best nap I've had since I've been on this island.
After waking from my slumber, stretching my limbs and managing to force myself back into the real world, it was time to head out for the night. I think there wound up being 20 of us or so (all USAC students) that went out Monday night. We hit the usual spots (sort of sad we have 'usual spots' already, no?) and it was a great time, as always. Needless to say, I wasn't looking forward to the 8:30a.m. alarm that came Tuesday morning.
Kind of a pain, really, that you can never seem to slow down time just enough to get as much sleep as you need. Alright, let's be honest here, you probably don't need it, so we'll say as much sleep as you want.
Anyways, up and at 'em it was, ready to take on Brighton's medieval neighbor, the town of Lewes (pronounced Lewis). For a little background info, click here.
Front row: Alysa, Greg, Brogan. Back Row: Camille, Steven, yours truly, Andrew, and Luis all made the trip to Lewes. We also played dress-up, as you can tell. I'm not smiling (shocking, right?) because I was supposed to be the King's (Andrew) bodyguard.
If you actually took the time to read through the Wikipedia article I linked to above (in which case, I'm impressed), then you'll know that one of Lewes' big draws is it's Castle. It was one of our few stops in the small town, as well. Pictures can probably show you what it was like better than I can describe it, so here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip!
The view of Lewes from a little higher up on the castle.
The spiral staircase of doom. They were so tiny and steep!
That was pretty much our trip to Lewes. We ate lunch in Lewes at a tiny restaurant, and I use that term loosely. There was one incredibly charming older Englishman responsible for the cooking, bar tending and waiting. For being a one man show, he did remarkably well. The menu was mostly traditional English fare and was delicious.
I think the same is true back home, but I'm finding here that the smaller, locally owned restaurants have much more character and often better food, than some of the larger franchised restaurants. All I'm saying is that here I'd never turn down a place called the Hobgoblin (that's the actual name of a pub in Brighton) for a TGIFriday.
We were all pretty tired after the trip to Lewes, so once we got back it was off to Nap City, population: me.
Tuesday was one of the girl's 21st birthdays, so we all went out for that. Wednesday and today have proven themselves to be rather uneventful. We stayed in last night after going to the grocery store. A bunch of us were huddled around Brogan's laptop watching a few episodes of House; he has 5 seasons on his computer. Riveting stuff, I tell you.
I don't want to make this too long, so after I finish this post up, I'm going to start another one showing pictures that I've taken of Brighton and some of my friends here. I have been waiting for the right cord for my camera to come in and it finally did a day or so ago.
And yes, I realize that most of my blog's titles have had at least something to do with the content of said blog. And I always wrap up the blog with a YouTube video of the blog's
What a whirlwind the last week has been! Everything has been going 100 miles an hour (that's 160km/h here in Europe) but I don't think I would have changed a thing. Monday was my first official day in Brighton and was mainly a day we used to get acquainted with the town. And when I say we, I mean the wonderful people that I've met here. Let me introduce you to them!
From left to right: Stephanie, Sabrina, Stephanie, Luis and Brandy with Kaitlin next to me in the back.
We learned to navigate the bus system which, for the most part, is fantastic! With where the University is in relation to the city (sort of on the outskirts), we have to take the bus any time we want to get into town. This was definitely a valuable skill to master. There was really no agenda for Monday which was sort of nice because it gave all of us a chance not only to get to know the city we'd be spending the next three months in, but to get to know each other as well. As expected there are plenty of pubs and clubs. The nightlife here is incredible--more about that later. We walked along the beautiful coastline and as you can tell from the picture above, there's no actual sand on the beach but it was still almost majestic as the sun was setting.
Brighton Pier
Monday was rather uneventful, especially considering we were all still very jet lagged. Other than running some inconsequential errands (grocery store, picking up some linens, etc.) the first day in Brighton I think sort of help us get our legs back under us for Tuesday, our first day of orientation at the University of Brighton.
The University of Brighton has an International Students Office as well as an American Office, the latter of which deals exclusively with students on exchange programs with USAC: The University Studies Abroad Consortium. The program coordinators in the American Office are Zoe Lamb and Mary Jones. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful these two are.
Zoe Lamb and Mary Jones
From the second they walked into the room, I knew it was going to be a good semester. They were both so much fun, full of excitement and you could tell they really enjoy working with students. Our orientation was pretty standard as far as orientations go. There was some general housekeeping and information on what we'd be doing in the next couple days, and an overview of the field trips we'd be taking. It was also the first time I met the rest of the USAC students. There are almost 30 of us in total, and with the way we're spread out in the residence halls, our different arrival times, etc. it was rather hard to try to meet everyone on the first day. We went to a few introductory meetings; one with the president of the Student's Union, another with a staff member in the library to get us acquainted with the University's library system, then met Mary and Zoe again for lunch. Can you guess what we had for lunch? Click here to find out. It was like being in America all over again.
Tuesday was also the first big night out in Brighton. I met a lot more of the guys on the program (I think there are 9 or 10 of us) and 6 of us went out on the first pub crawl of the semester. We left our flats shortly before 5:00 and by 5:30 we were at our first pub, sitting outside of the mall in Brighton enjoying a pint and the weather, which to this point had been incredible. We made it to 3 or 4 other pubs before some of the girls decided they wanted to join us as we made our way to one of Brighton's many nightclubs. The first nightclub was more of a Salsa club. Not exactly the experience this rowdy group of 20-somethings was looking for, so we kept on moving. Last top of the night was a place called Yates. It was a bar/nightclub that played popular music like most clubs do back home. It was mostly pop and hip-hop so this was much more appealing to us. I've been known to bust a move or two from time to time, and tonight was no exception. I'd say Tuesday was an overwhelming success. I can already see myself being friends with a lot of these people for a long time to come. I can't say I am shocked, really, to be saying that. I am a little surprised that I can say it this early, though. I guess the fact that we're all new to this place means we instantly have something in common that is much more pleasant a challenge to face when you have people right there beside you. At this point, I don't know that I'd rather have anyone beside me than some of the people I'm here with now.
Wednesday's event started off at a local pub and included a free drink for the Int'l students (you could tell we were Int'l because we wore those stylish wristbands they give you at Chuck E. Cheese when you're 6). After the pub, the party moved to a nightclub called Oceana. Oceana is Brighton's largest nightclub and usually charges a cover to get in, but Wednesday would be cover-free for all international students. We skipped the pub, but made it to Oceana and had a blast. There are two different stories to the club, and the downstairs is where we stayed.
Oceana's downstairs.
The pictures don't really do it justice. It's much larger than it appears. All around the dance floor are large private seating areas with wrap-around white leather couches, there are illuminated stand alone bars that change colors with the rest of the night club. The music was more a mix between pop/hip hop with some electronic/house music mixed in. Very cool atmosphere and very cheap drinks. None of us wanted to stay out too late, though. Thursday was our biggest day to date: the day trip into London!
We met Mary and Zoe at the train station on the edge of campus. The train would carry us from campus to Brighton Station, where we'd hop on another train to London's Victoria Station. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Mary and Zoe on the train into London. I do like them both an awful lot, so it really was a pleasure. I think we laughed almost the whole way there. It is a pretty short trip from Brighton to London. All-in-all, about an hour, I think. We re-grouped in Victoria Station and made a quick pit stop. On a side note, they charge 30 pence to use the loo in Victoria Station. The bathrooms are quite clean, and rather nice as far as public restrooms go. I think the idea is to keep some undesirables from over-nighting, but I really don't know. Just thought that was sort of interesting. London is already so bloody expensive.
We knew there was a threat of rain, so most of us were prepared and sure enough, the first thing that greets us in London is a lovely rain storm.
Buckingham Palace was first on the itinerary and is just a short walk from Victoria Station. I'm glad we were with people familiar with the city, though. I don't know that I would have figured it out if left to my own devices. Buckingham Palace was really impressive. We missed the changing of the guard, which apparently takes place every other day. And without further adieu:
In front of the Queen's residence, otherwise known as Buckingham Palace. From left to right: Brogan, Greg, Lars, Christian, Steven, Luis, yours truly.
Andrew, myself, Christian, Luis, Steven and Greg in front of the passing Royal Guards on a sunny London morning. :)
This trip to London was very much a surface-level introduction to the city, so I don't have much to report. We saw all of the major tourist attractions: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, number 10 Downing Street, Leicester Square (also where we had lunch), Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus and even took a few trips on the Tube. It is a gorgeous city, but with what little we got to see (all of which can be found on the face of any postcard) I probably wouldn't have much of interest to say.
I will admit that the rain kind of put a damper on the day, and it was such an easy trip that I can only imagine we will all be back at some point in the semester. Hopefully the weather will cooperate next time. Most of the guys headed back with Mary and Zoe around 4 p.m. with the girls hanging back to do some shopping and explore a little more. We probably would have stayed if we weren't so miserable and soaked from the rain that plagued our trip. The train trip back was just as much fun as the trip to London and my stomach was hurting from laughing so much by the time we got back to Brighton.
After giving ourselves a chance to dry off and get warm, the guys went outside to play a little footy (British slang for football/soccer). I've never played a game of organized soccer in my life, so naturally I am terrible at it, but I never let that keep me from having a good time. Most of the girls were back by the time we were finished playing, so we all freshened up for yet another night out on the town. Stops tonight would include The Honey Club (the salsa night club I mentioned before) and club we'd never been to called Revolution. The Honey Club was the location of the Int'l students party tonight. International students could choose three songs from a play list and be the guest DJ for their chosen songs. I don't know if anyone actually took advantage of that, but it was a neat idea. The music selection tonight was definitely less salsa and more electronic/house music for which we were all thankful. Revolution is a much more swanky, hip nightclub with a bar upstairs and a large dance floor downstairs. Once the dust settled and peace fell back over the land, it was another incredible night out with incredible people.
Friday and Saturday were both pretty relaxed. Friday was my day to register for classes, and also brought the first bump in the road. Apparently one of the classes I wanted to take starts a full week before every other class. This means I start classes on Monday (tomorrow) while everyone else gets to wait a whole week longer. It's not really a big deal because in a week everybody will be in classes anyway, but it would've been nice to be able to start with everyone else. Oh well. So yeah, that's the first bump in the road which as you can tell isn't much of a bump at all. More like a stick laying there that you barely have to dodge, not because you think it'll damage your car, but just because you don't really want to run over it. And if that's the biggest problem I've had so far, I'd say I'm doing pretty well for myself.
Saturday I went to a bar with some of the others to watch Manchester City defeat Chelsea. This was a pretty big upset and it was neat to watch my first football match in an English pub. Speaking of football, we're thinking of going to see England vs. France in a little over a month. There are student packages available that include transportation and tickets to the game. How great would that be? The game is being played at London's Wembley Stadium.
I already know, without having read over the post that I've missed a few things. It's plenty long already, though. Expect a follow-up shortly with some of the things I know I missed and some observations I've made regarding the differences between England and the US.
We arrived at Charlotte Douglas Int'l Airport shortly before 2p.m. for my USAir flight scheduled for a 4:10p.m. departure. It was pretty uneventful aside from the expectedly emotional goodbyes. We boarded on time and pushed back on time. A long taxi and line for takeoff meant we were airborne about 20 minutes later than anticipated. I'd have a window seat for this flight. The late departure meant I'd have an especially tight connection at Boston's Logan Airport.
I sat next to a pleasantly enlightened Portugese woman who was flying from her home in Georgia back to Portugal for a vacation with friends. We talked the entire duration of the flight. Travel is sort of interesting in that way. We were two perfect strangers randomly assigned to seats next to eachother--well, maybe not so randomly in today's digital age where seats can be pre-selected--yet we never exchanged names, and I might not remember her face if I saw her today. But, for that short time we were both completely removed from our everyday lives and shared something in common that allowed us to interact in a way that probably would not have happened otherwise.
I now realize that airlines build extra time into their arrival/travel time estimates. We left Charlotte nearly 20 minutes behind schedule and arrived in Boston only 10 minutes behind. With that short of a flight, I don't know that it would've been possible to make up 10 minutes in flying time.
The agent at the check-in kiosk in CLT printed off my boarding pass for the Virgin Atlantic flight that would carry me from Boston to London's Heathrow airport. As I deplaned and checked my ticket, the departure gate read "8A."
Easy enough, right? Wouldn't that usually mean "Concourse A, gate 8?" That's what I thought, at least.
I've never been to the Boston Airport outside of one trip during my freshman year, and it was with a large group, so I wasn't necessarily paying attention to the airport's layout; more or less I was just following the group.
The terminal we arrived to was absolutely deserted. We were the only people that I saw in the terminal. No gate agents at any other gates, no passengers waiting to board, not even a magazine shop open for passengers. I was able to find the sign to terminal A and was on my way, right? Wrong.
The concourses in Boston's airport are separate buildings and lettered A-E. I think we arrived in B, so A was the next building over. A 5 minute walk and I arrive at the security checkpoint with about 50 minutes before the plane departs and 20 minutes before scheduled boarding. The TSA agent checking boarding passes looked at me rather surprised that I would be taking a USAir flight out of that terminal. I soon explained to him that the boarding pass was issued at a USAir kiosk in CLT, it was actually a Virgin Atlantic flight. He smiled a bit then let me know that I was in the wrong place. Virgin Atlantic and all other international flights operate out of terminal E. Fantastic. Terminal E is about as far away from Terminal A as anything else in the airport. Check out this terminal map
I quickly thanked him and bolted outside to try to find the 11, 33, or 55, any of which he told me would get me to terminal E. Forty-three minutes before departure I board the 33 bus which makes stops at Terminals B and C before stopping at E. Great.
We finally arrived at Terminal E about 10 minutes later and I run inside and the security lanes look woefully backed up. At this point, I'm sure I'm going to miss the flight. Waiting in the security line, I called my mom to let her know that this was going to be tight. We had the conversation in the car on the way to the Charlotte airport that if anything were to go wrong, I was determined not to get upset or let it bother me... that wouldn't do anybody any good. I think I did reasonably well in sticking to that goal, though I'm sure mom could sense some uneasiness in my voice (she is a mom, afterall).
Much to my surprise, TSA was moving passengers rather quickly through security and I was through the checkpoint and pulled up to the gate (which was gate A8, by the way) just in time to hear the gate agent call me to the desk for an "urgent announcement." I had no idea what to expect, but she just wanted a copy of my baggage receipt from Charlotte and she printed me a new boarding pass. At this point I'm feeling like a superhero. That had to be record time to getting Terminal B to A then all the way to E and through security, all before boarding had even started. Somebody should check into that.
I was looking forward to the long flight to catch some sleep.
Ha... sleep... yeah, right. Not on this flight.
The Boeing 747-400 config. that would carry us from Boston to London had enough room for 355 passengers and 17 Virgin Atlantic crew members.
It took a little over an hour for everyone to board and for taxiing to begin, which put us a little behind schedule, but the flight was only to be 5 hours and 38 minutes.
Ha... 5 hours and 38 minutes... yeah, right.
Just before push back, I sent my last "I love you's" to my mom, dad, and sister and in enough time to get replies back from all of them.
Takeoff was pretty impressive. This plane was huge and it was airborn in a seemingly shorter distance than some of the smaller aircraft I've flown in.
Time for dinner.
After the captain takes off the seatbelt sign, the crew began the evening meal service. The crew, by the way, was absolutely wonderful. The friendliest flight crew and friendliest airline I've flown with. Definitely recommend Virgin Atlantic. It was just an overally very pleasant experience.
Dinner was better than expected. I had some sort of beef in a Sonoma sauce with mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots. They also served a nice roll, small side salad and banana pudding for dessert.
My seatmate on this flight wasn't nearly as interesting as the one on my first flight. In fact, I don't think we spoke the entire flight.
Just after I finished eating the captain comes over the PA system "We're being diverted to St. John's Nova Scotia as a passenger has fallen unwell. Hopefully we won't be on the ground more than an hour and a half. Crew, please prepare the cabin for landing."
Oh, awesome. I've never been to Nova Scotia before.
After the 30 minute re-route to St. John's, we were finally on the ground. I'm not sure really what happened (I was in row 63 out of 65 on the lower deck). I couldn't really see into the front of the aircraft. I know medics were let on board, we were not allowed to get up from our seats, and after 15 or 20 minutes the passenger was cleared to fly. But now we have to wait nearly and hour and a half more while they re-fuel the plane and paperwork is compiled that will allow us to take off again. Oh, and I couldn't manage to get to sleep through any of this.
Finally, about 2 hours later we're airborne again and due to arrive at Heathrow around 9:15--nearly 2 and a half hours later than planned.
The rest of the flight was cramped, long and boring despite the personal seat-back entertainment systems playing many newly released films and TV shows.
We arrived in London on a windy, chilly Sunday morning and since every gate in the concourse was occupied, we were taken off the planes by coaches and driven to an entrance to collect our bags and pass through customs. Being in row 63-65 and with nearly 350 other passengers in front of you, I was on the very last coach and got to the terminal almost an entire hour after we landed.
I made it through passport control, got my visa and claimed my bag all without incident. I wandered around the airport for a while trying to find the National Express bus station that was located in Terminal 3 that would get me from London to Brighton in just around 2 and a half hours. I find the station, queue, and learn that the next bus departs for Brighton at 12.15 p.m. Not too bad, just over an hour away from the current time. I will admit that sitting the bus station is when I started to get sort of lonely. I had no one to talk to, and this was my first few moments landside in a foreign country. Luckily the bus station was open-air so there were plenty of birds flying around and walking on the ground beneath the benches to keep me company. Something like this:
I boarded the bus, put on my iPod and let the sweet sounds of Motown greats take me to Brighton. The two and a half hour drive passed pretty quickly when compared to the long flight I had earlier. I was just tired, awake for almost 24 hours in a row at this point, ready to get to the University and go to sleep.
I had no clue what bus station in Brighton I should be let off at, so the stop that saw the most people off seemed like a good guess. I hopped in a cab with a delightful British man who was a Brighton native and ensured me that I'd love it. Turns out he has two kids who are at the University of Brighton. He gave me some inside information on the best pubs and where to stay away from. A short drive and nearly 20 pounds later we arrived at the University, I walk into the reception hall and then move into my room, ready to sleep the day away.
If I've taught you anything with this post, it's that you should know that it's not going to happen as you plan it! Needless to say, I never got to sleep. More about that later :)
We're getting ready to go out with some other international students to a club called Oceana. We won't be staying out too late, as we've got to catch and early train to London tomorrow.
I'm past the age of waking up at 5am, running downstairs then back up again to wake my parents and tell them just how many presents Santa left us. But right now, I sort of feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. The only difference is this Christmas comes in September, Santa's sleigh is replaced by a 7-hour trans-Atlantic flight and the present is a 3 month journey that I will likely never forget. In less than 36 hours I'll be in Brighton, England to begin my study abroad program at the University of Brighton.
And much like Christmas morning, I sometimes thought this day would never come. Amid months and months of problem solving, planning and budgeting, I complained to my mom that I never really had time to sit back and enjoy the fact that I was going. I naively hoped that once I decided to study abroad I would simply pack my bags, board the plane and be on my way. Of course, it was not to be. Sometimes it was frustrating, sometimes it was discouraging and sometimes even downright nerve-wracking. But, I can honestly say having put my plans into action, sought answers to my questions and calmed my nerves with a shot or two of whiskey (just kidding, mom), it was all worth it. And I haven't even boarded the plane.
Fortunately for me, I'm not the only one who has been involved in this process. There are several people without whom I probably wouldn't have gotten this far. I'd like to thank my parents, my sister, my family, my friends, teammates, coaches and professors for all of their support and encouragement.
A special thank you is due to Mark Verburg, Dr. Gordon Hull and Dr. Dan Boisvert. I would like to thank the three of you for being so incredibly understanding, patient, accommodating and enthusiastic about my plans. I can't say thank you enough and I hope you know how much your support means to me.
And at the risk of turning this into an Oscar's acceptance speech, I'm going to zip up my suitcases, print off my boarding passes, bid farewell and look forward to the next 3 months of this journey!
Be sure to check back frequently for updates and pictures of my travels!
Cynic: a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
