The Long Road to England

Hoorah! I made it all the way here in one piece with all my luggage, it's a miracle. I've settled into my room at Worcester and got a chance to see just a tad of Oxford. For reference, you can click on all the small versions of pictures in the blog to access the full version in my Photobucket album.

My trip started out at about 8:30am ('Nooga and ATL time) Saturday morning, when I woke up and got ready to head to the airport. Me and Nick grabbed some lunch at Le Madeline then my parents took me to Hartsfield. I'm sure you all know what it's like to check in your luggage and go through security, so that's not at all interesting. The plane I flew on was very nice though. Boeing 777, flying British Airways. I've also decided that if I ever fly BA again, I'm flying first class so that I can have a reclining cot with a privacy screen between me and the person next to me. The little cots face opposite directions so your head is never in someone else's feet. It's totally cushy and very roomy. Plus in the middle of the plane the cots face each other so you create a mini living room, but enough talking about how comfortable everyone -else- had it.

I was in a regular 3 seat arrangement, window side thankfully. I sat next to a super spoiled 12 year old and a lady that was traveling with her that wasn't her mother. My guess was an au pair, but could have been an aunt or something. She certainly acted like an au pair. The girl would move around, pull books out of her bag, put them back, do her make-up, and play on her cell phone. She also stayed up all night watching movies with her overhead light on. So on top of the fact that I was in a corner trying to get as comfortable as I can flying coach, I was also sitting next to the ONLY person that had their light on all night. The entire plane was dark, everyone trying to sleep, and this girl is having a party next to me. Needless to say, I did not sleep a wink. Not one tiny bit. I closed my eyes, and tried to make myself get some rest, but it did not work because 5 minutes later she'd move around and I was staring out my window again. I did manage to pass about 5 hours of the trip watching The Pacifier and Be Cool, which were both very funny. My fingers are crossed that Master and Commander will be shown on the way back, they were showing previews for it. That'll make all 9 hours fly by.

The airplane food was airplane, nothing spectacular or good, I'm thinking I'll call BA and say I want a Kosher meal in hopes that it'll be fresher and better on the way back. There were copious amounts of good coffee consumed, and I did get a personal bottle of red wine at dinner. It wasn't a full one, nor a mini one either, more like a third of a real bottle and that lasted me well after dinner. The moment the pilot said we're entering Irish airspace, I looked out the window. And what did I find? Clouds!!! That made me a bit peeved, and almost the entire way to Gatwick it was cloudy over land, so I didn't really get to see anything except a far and blurry view of Brighton until we almost landed. You can see that picture in my Photobucket album but I could only tell it was Brighton because of the blurry pier in the middle that I matched to the picture in my guidebook. When we finally got below the clouds this is what I saw:



It was absolutely breathtaking and I took several more pictures as mementos. One is currently my desktop background. It's all exactly as I've read about: bright green fields separated with rows of trees and dotted with villages and various estates. Thatch roofs and tiny clusters of life around what looked like very old churches. I was glued to the window until the last moment. Upon landing, I actually went through customs and baggage claim very quickly and was able to grab a cup of super good coffee before hopping on a charter bus to Oxford. The drive there was quite an experience, but mainly because of the novelty of it all. In essence things are the same, but at the same time different. The cars obviously come from the other direction and the drivers are on the other side. But what I immediately noticed that the trees are different and the wildflowers in the medians are ones I've never seen before. The fences on the side of the motorway were pretty wood farm fences and not the chain link or barb kind I'm used to. No trees on the sides of the road instead short bushes and I could see far into the hilly country on either side. I took a picture of pretty blue flowers covering a sloped field, with a group of cows nested in the middle.



I got in around 11am local time (which is 5 hours ahead of EST) and got settled in quite quickly. Managed to lose my keys on the way to my room as I was dragging my suitcases across the ENTIRE campus, but found those again quite quickly. Tommy came to visit for a few hours, after which I headed to dinner and orientation.


Next Entry: Worcester, my room, and classes