ENGLAND!

Hello from across the Atlantic Ocean!

I left from SFO with about 80 lbs of baggage in tow from SFO yesterday afternoon and landed at approximately 3am PST Thursday morning. I did not sleep a wink. The plus side: I wasn't ever bored. I read my way cover to cover through two magazines, watched a movie, and got started on A Year That Counted by Judy Lin. The down side: a family on its way to Nigeria, with a layover in London with three children under the age of ten. No bueno - to say the least.

The food was edible. My bags made it to the final destination and I saw the sun rise. Even amongst the London pollution and the thick clouds. It was a glorious sight to see after the miles upon miles of Atlantic Ocean. Needless to say, it hasn't hit me yet that I'm in London for the next 3.5 months.

Heathrow is one of the most ginormous airports I've ever seen. You have to take a shuttle from where you land to where you gather your bags and before that you go through the border and there is a mild interegation. I feared for my life of being deported when he asked for my letter from LMU verifying my purpose in their country. My body ached from sitting in the same two square foot space for nine hours and the glare of the lights didn't camoflauge the dark circles. I made the mistake of not grabbing a luggae trolley post arrival carousel thinking that I wouln't be able to go far with it anyway. SO WRONG. I lugged 80 lbs out of the terminal and onto the departure deck and for 56 degrees F, I was STEAMING hot. Not a cute sight to see. Literally sweating bullets.

After getting poor directions from a bad cabbie and having my B of A card rejected at the ATM (thank you Jim for the cash!) I finally made it to the Heathrow Express (a whopping $31) that took me to Central London in about 20 minutes. On board I sat next to a nice lady from Portugal who was visiting her daughter at a university in Central London. She was....Svelte. Stylish. Classy. I had never felt so out of place and stereotypically "American." Nonetheless she gave me my options for travel from Paddington Station:

i) Tube: find the tube station; get on either Circle or District Line, get off at Earl's Court and connect to the Picadilly Line, get off at Glouchester, and then walk the semi odd uneven blocks to where I had to go to get my room key, and then semi odd more blocks to get to my flat.

ii) Taxi: plan and simple

Assessing my baggage and my current state of mind, she recommended, from a mother's point of view that I should take a taxi and just swallow the harshness of the cost. I was about to protest but when blisters started forming on my hands from walking a mere 100 feet, I knew I couldn't argue.

12 pounds and a taxi cab ride later...I arrive to Mason Place where I'll be staying for the next 3.5 months. Again, 80 lbs of luggage (and I was considered a "light" packer of them all). Like most of Europe, this building had no elevators. I lived on the 5th floor. More sweat. More blisters. No bueno. It's currently 4 am in the States, 12pm local time.

More updates on the flat later...
in the mean time, check out Picasa for Bon Voyage pictures (a la Derrick, mom and I) and here's what I've realized so far:

- drinking before noon is not a faux pas here; they'll even drink it outside, in public.
- its not as cold...yet
- everyone knows you're from the States -instantly
- Europeans are thin because of all the darn stairs they climb each day
- I need towels...and shower shoes...and food...