Here and exhausted!

I'm in London! Couldn't believe I was driving in LA for the last time in 4 months. Saw a bunch of people from LMU at the airport. Said goodbye to my family. And then I started to get nervous going through security and walking down to the terminals. I have never flown alone so it felt weird going on such a long flight without someone I knew sitting right next to me.

The flight was fairly painless. Though I never sleep well on planes so I only dozed off once for 10 minutes during the 10 hour flight. It was a packed flight so it felt pretty cramped. I wasn't able to talk to the 2 women sitting next to me because they couldn't really speak English. But they slept most of the way.

And then I arrived at Heathrow! Weather was like LA cold at first, though a bit foggy (as the sun went down though it definitely got colder, couldn't feel my fingers or face). Also couldn't believe I was in London til I got to the immigration check and had to go to the booths labeled "All Others" instead of "UK Nationals." My friend Brian said he would wait for me til 12:30 so that we could take the tube together but I was done at 12:30 and couldn't get to his terminal anyway. Blah blah blah. I ended up taking a taxi because I didn't want to deal with my 3 suitcases. And it was a good thing I did because I had to go to one place first to pick up my keys and then to my residence several blocks down. And THEN I'm on the top floor, so I had to climb about 10 flights of stairs. Major pain since I had to make 3 trips. But I'll be climbing those stairs everyday so I guess I'll get used to it.

Everything is pretty different here. The townhouses all look so old. There are no street signs, just signs on the side of buildings at the corners. Traffic runs in the opposite direction so I have to be especially careful crossing the street. Cars are smaller and somehow seem to drive differently. Oh and I saw a bunch of little schoolgirls who looked like they jumped right out of the pages of Madeline!

Finally here's my room! I ended up with a single somehow. There are rooms with 3 girls or 3 guys in it on my floor. I was a little bummed at first about not having a roomie but I'm definitely seeing the bright side now..I can just leave my stuff wherever I want and can have time for myself really easily. I have a great view too. Apparently Kensington, the neighborhood I am in, is really upscale. I can see into some really nice flats. The guy who led our short walking tour today said they go for about 10 million pounds (!!!!). Anyway, I'll post a pic of my view later.




This post is pretty dry because I'm exhausted! I want to go to sleep because I haven't slept in 24 hours but I don't want to mess my system up, it's only 7 pm here. I'll probably end up going out with the other LMU people to get a quick bite to eat, maybe at a pub, which seems fitting on my first night in London : )