I finally made it. My plane left Philly at 9:55 est yesterday and I arrived at Heathrow at 9:45am local time, which is about 4:45am est. I'm so tired right now. I don't know what time my body thinks it is, but I want to sleep.
Yesterday I was really nervous. The only other time I can remember being that nervous is when I moved into school freshman year. I guess this is a pretty similar situation, but I wasn't expecting to be so anxious about it.
I had a great flight; no one sat next to me and the seats were comfortable. I even slept a little bit on the plane. We flew into London from the west, so we flew right over the city and everything important. I saw the London Eye and all kinds of other cool things from the air. It really is a huge city. When we were coming close to landing, all you could see was buildings for miles and miles and miles. I didn't realize it was so big.
When I landed it took me a while to get to Terminal 3 to the QM shuttle from Terminal 1 where I landed, but I eventually found the QM people. I ended up talking to a girl named Marqueta from the Czech Republic. She was really interesting to talk to because she's my age and this is her first year of college. She spoke basically fluent English, probably because she spent a year of high school in Wisconsin as an exchange student.
Marqueta and I rode the QM shuttle together, which took us right through London. She had a map of London with her so we figured out where we were and saw all the sights. I saw Big Ben, the House of Parliament, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and the Tower Bridge. The House of Parliament was absolutely amazing, it's so big and beautiful. It looks like a church. That section of town was really nice, especially along the Thames. I want to go back.
In the park by the House of Parliament they had a lot of statues of people. The only people I recognized were Oliver Cromwell and Abraham Lincoln. I think it's interesting that there is a statue of Lincoln.
QM is in a very ethnically diverse area of London. The people look either Indian or a mix of white and Indian. QM is its own little village though, the campus isn't part of the surrounding neighborhood. The campus is really neat. Some of the buildings are brick, some are wood, some are this weird plastic looking thing (green, orange, different colors). It's all colorful and very enclosed; it reminds me of what I picture a colony looking like in the way that it's very self-contained but in the middle of this diverse neighborhood.
I like my flat a lot. It's only one flight of stairs up and I even have an elevator. I didn't realize what a flat was like until I moved into mine. I have a key to my room and to the flat. I share our kitchen with seven other people. My room is fairly big, I have no complaints about it. Except that I need either more hangers or more drawers. My dorm is on the border of campus and the river and my room faces campus, so it's nice to see the people outside.
When I moved in none of my flatmates were here, so I unpacked a little then decided to go outside for Chocomania. When I got to the tent they told me that in order to get a whole box of cookies, you had to be with three other people. I walked outside and started talking to these two boys, mostly because I felt like an idiot walking in there by myself and then leaving.
One of them was from Liverpool, I don't remember his name (I'm really bad with names). He was really friendly, but I had the toughest time understanding him. His accent was so strong, I had to concentrate really hard to make out what he was saying. Sometimes when he talked to the other kid, Ben, it sounded like he was speaking a different language because he talked so fast. Ben didn't talk as much, but he was nice. He was from Norfolk (I think). We walked around campus a bit and walked past two graveyards. Ben said that this is called Mile End campus because Jews aren't allowed to be buried downtown and this is a mile end from downtown, so that's while it's called Mile End and that's why there are huge graveyards. (It might be a mile from the city limits, but I'm not sure he talked really fast. Also, I thought we were technically in the city limits so I'm not sure what he was talking about exactly.)
We got passes to some Fresher's (Freshen's?) thing tonight, I don't even know what that means. I'm really tired, I was just trying to get out and meet some people. Anyway it's some one pound special that the on campus pub, Draper's, is sponsoring. I'm going to try to go to meet some people, but I don't know if I'll make it. I'm so tired.
After I left them I walked back to the Chocomania. I went in the other side of the tent and got some hot chocolate and chocolate covered bananas and walked back to my flat. Three other people from my flat were there. Two of them are from England and one goes to Boston College.
I love it so far. I had no reason to be as worried as I was yesterday. I have my stuffed animal, Penelope, my own pillow, and my terrible towel. Everything is good.
I'm going to try to take a nap. Hopefully I can find some food tonight too. I think this food thing is going to become an issue.
MB
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