Finally Here!

Hello everyone!!

It's taken a little longer than I expected to update this and let everyone know I've arrived safely. Well, I have!

Hillary and I had a magnificent travel experience. We were supposed to fly out of Dayton into Charlotte, then onto the London Gatwick airport. However, our one flight was delayed which would make us miss our connecting flight, so they re-routed our whole trip and accidentally upgraded us to first class all the way to London!!! It was really fun. Now I'm convinced it's the only way to travel! We basically got a little tipsy on all the free alcohol they kept offering, were pampered by the hot towels and five star meals, and got a beautiful view of the full moon over the Atlantic ocean and above the clouds. We felt a little like kids in a candy store, and I'm pretty sure everyone could tell it was our first time in first class. We took pictures or pretty much everything, and took full advantage of the fully reclining mechanical chairs and sleep masks provided with us, along with falling asleep watching a classic movie on our own TVs...Pocahontas!=)

Once here, we had to catch the Heathrow Express train into Paddington Station, there we bought our Oyster Pass, which is our access to the underground transport system, and then we caught one of the bubbly cabs to our flat. Our flats are in central London, and are pretty nice. I'm rooming with really great girls (5 of us) and the only complaints I have are the tempermental toilet flushings and the ice cold shower water. Besides that, all is well.

Last night we went to a group dinner at a Lebanese restaurant called Aldar, and then unpacked and hit the pubs for the end of the Euro Cup tourney which was a real hoot. That was quite the breaking in for us in London pubs. Very fun...

Today we went on our first site study trip to the area of Westminster. We saw all kinds of things like Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, the London Eye, and so on and so forth. I don't really have time to go into detail and post pictures because the internet cafe is closing in 5 minutes.

Even after seeing the staple sites of London, it hasn't fully set in that I'm here. People are for the most part, hurried and impatient with our large group of Americans. I think we all used our 9 lives when attempting to cross the street. Cars come FAST from the right, and people don't stop. It's really intimidating! Someone actually got hit by a cyclist, who I think are worse than the cars! Anyways, I've got to wrap this up and get back to the flat for some homework! I love and miss you all. We'll talk soon. =)