Day 1 – London 2008

We had a long flight to London from Atlanta but it was a good one. My favorite thing of the trip is the headrest monitors that everyone had and could view there was a channel that showed the progress of the plan. The people next me slept for most of the flight and I probably got a couple of hours myself. Other than that it went pretty smoothly. We arrived June 20, Friday around 8 in the morning GMT time. That’s about a five hour difference from home. We then had to enter the country (got a stamp on the passport) and then went on to baggage claim.  Once we gather our baggage they herded us toward the exit of the airport so that we could make sure that we got everyone before we loaded up the buses. We had three buses filled with study abroad students and teachers. I was on the last and sat towards the back of one where I could stretch out a bit b/c for some reason everyone was crowding the front. The bus ride gave us a bit of a brief tour and Dr. Ross at some points would tell us something. See how the roads opparate and how people drive was definitely an experience. I don’t think anyone who drives in GA has anything on the people here…its crazy. We all learned something though pedestrians do not have the right away. The only place they do is where there is like this lamp post with a golden globe light on the top of it and dashed lines if you walk they have to stop for you there. anywhere else you’re risking your life if its not your right away. We saw many of the major landmarks from the bus but they’re not really had to miss if your traveling along the Thames River. We’re staying at Astor College which is in fact a dorm. that’s what they call them over here. college in america is what they call university or uni for short. They gave us our room assignments (I’m in 611) and told us to take showers and get settled in. Once that was over we had a short orientation where they went over some information distributed our brit rail passes and told us about the photo scavenger hunt. We then broke up for a short walking tour of our neighborhood so that we could get a little bit familiar with the area. We ended up stopping at a few of the stores nearby like the computer place (which was good I had forgotten my cord so that I could have internet) and tesco which they gave us gift cards to so that we could purchase groceries for like breakfast or dinner while we’re here. They had also given us an itenerary of the first week so we knew how things were going to run. They told us to stay up until about 9 pm so that the adjustment to the time difference wouldn’t be so hard but honestly I don’t think I made it. The previous day I had gotten up really early to get ready for the day so I slept for a LONG time. All in all it was a good easy first day here. I like that they didn’t try to put to much stuff on us all at once.