…taking off from runway five. Well more like gate C104.
This post is a little late because I wasn’t even sure I
wanted to do a blog while I was abroad.
But then I got here and a million and a half things happened that I will never
remember unless they are published somewhere! So here it goes…
I packed the day/night before I left. Won’t ever be doing
that again. It was super stressful and nothing was fitting how I wanted it to!
This led to the four bags from hell. Let’s just say the airport was a real
treat.
After some near tears moments when I left mother and father,
my flight left from St. Louis at 1:01 on Thursday afternoon. I arrived in London 12.5 hours later at 7:30
am, 1:30 am Rochester time. I didn’t nap
at all on either of my flights. I was
just too excited to get to London. Or it
may have been the video screen with 169 movies on it. Either way, no sleep for
Ellie.
Heathrow, you failed me.
I was expecting the airport to be really nice as well as easy to get
from point A to point B. Step off the
plane, cue 5 or 6 super long hallways with nothing in them that lead seemingly
to nowhere and me by my lonesome following the pack along those moving
walkways. 10 years later, the pack found
customs. Well the wrong line, further prolonging the whole experience. Thanks for the great signage, Heathrow. Anyways, the last time I went through
customs, it was positively painless.
Less than a 5 minute wait and a passport stamp later, I was in
Rome. This time, no such luck. 45 minutes, one rude customs agent, 17
winding turns, and a practical panic attack at the thought of lost luggage, I
finally made it to baggage.
My luggage was in fact not lost, just very very tardy. First, and pretty much only, success
story of the trip.
My Regent’s College Guide gave us all of these options for getting
to the college. I chose the cheapest
one, with the idea that I would much rather spend the money on something else,
like stalking my future husband Prince Harry’s hangouts. The bus was supposed to leave from every
terminal, so I thought okay no big deal I will buy a ticket and hop on a bus
and see the sights of London! There were
so many things wrong with this thought. It
was a big deal, there was no hopping onto the bus, more like stomping, and
sights? Yeah right. The bus only left
from terminal 3, I was in terminal 4. More elevators, moving walkways, and one
very nice British boy that sweetly said to the profusely sweating, bag cursing
girl “sorry, could you use any help?” I
of course said “no thanks, I’m fine,” clearly, I was not in fact, fine. Stupid pride! After some more sweating and struggling and
kicking of the bags, I finally made it to the bus terminal. I attempted to be independent and buy my
ticket from a kiosk, but London really wasn’t wanting me to succeed. Finally got a ticket for 9:30, after me
looking confused for like ten minutes I strode up to what I hoped was the right
bus and as the driver was putting my bags under the bus he said “Don’t travel
light, now do you?” Even a British
accent couldn’t get me off my sweat induced warpath, so I rudely replied “Not
for four months.” Maybe the customs
agent and I had a role reversal.
The bus was super nice and I was so pleased that it had only
cost me 6 pounds! The view wasn’t what I was expecting, random areas of housing
and then super modern gigantic office buildings. No Big Ben. One very expensive, very sketchy
cab ride later, I was at Regent’s!
Also not what I expected.
The campus is gorgeous, and literally right in the middle of a
park. More importantly though, was the
amount of people. I’m not sure what I
was thinking, but I thought there would be like 20 study abroad kids from about
3 schools. No no, there are more like
120 students from 30 schools. After I
got all checked in and got my room assignment, I went to the 217. That’s right, I cannot get away from this
number. But I kinda love it, it’s like having a little piece of home all the
way in London!
