"Thank You for Choosing Manchester Airport. We know you have a choice."

Hello London!!!! I got to the city all in on piece but if you haven't heard yet, my travels were absolute hell. Here is the dramatic timeline for you. I started at 4 am on Tuesday morning getting ready, left by 5 am, and was through security and on my first plane by 7 am. I arrived at North Carolina with no problems and had a great time hanging out at the airport. The trouble centered around my flight to Gatwick in London. My flight left at 6:15 pm Eastern time and was scheduled to be 7 and 1/2 hours long. In the last half hour of the flight the Captain gets on the speaker to make the announcement that due to snow the Gatwick airport was closed and that Heathrow was too busy to take any more incoming flights. We were going to land in Manchester.

Manchester is about 4 hours northwest of London. We landed at 7 am and were told that we would be waiting on the tarmac to take off at 11 am as Gatwick would open at noon. At this point it was 1 am MY time and I hadn't slept a wink the entire day and night. I was lucky enough to be sitting next to an older woman who was a pleasant conversationalist and I was able to find other IES London students on the plane. At 11 am the captain told us that we would not be flying to Gatwick but that they would bus us to the terminal, put us through customs, and then provide a coach bus to our original destination for whoever wanted it. The bus ride was 5 hours and then it was another half hour train ride followed by a taxi ride to the dorm. I had been hoping to arrive at IES by 8:00 am, I got there at 8 pm. I had been traveling for close to 34 hours. We all got a laugh out of the signs at Manchester that said, "Thank you for choosing Manchester Airport. We know you have a choice." Ha.

This is a picture of me and The Vest on the Tarmac during the awful wait. It's a bit off kilter because the lady wasn't well versed on digital cameras. Good enough for 12 hours on a plane is what I told her. The second picture is the desolate site that waited outside our plane for 4 hours. YUCK.





After a quick shower, speedy dinner, a rushed unpacking, a zippy call to my dad, and a hasty hello to my new roommate (who is very sweet and fun) I hit the pillow and was instantly asleep. I woke up this morning with a pounding headache and the awful sensation, that yes, I did indeed need more sleep.

Today was a whirlwind of orientation events. The walking tours of Chelsea (the burrow we live in) and Bloomsbury (where the school is located) where cold and wet but very fun. I love the buildings and architecture of the areas and got to know a couple of people in my group. The boring but very important part was talks on how not to die in London, literally and figuratively. Tomorrow is shaping up to be about as busy with more orientation information and skating at the National Gallery. I'll have to squeeze in getting groceries sometime in between...

I ended my night by strolling around Bloomsbury with three other students as we took in the band Vampire Weekend at the Somerset House and then found our way to a reasonable sushi place for dinner. We were proud to have found our way around the city alone and were all impressed with the speed and ease of the London transportation system. All in all, it was a great first day in London!

I miss you all and want to thank you for the well wishes and love!