out-of-towner

well. i made it! across the states, the pond, the world! its such a surreal feeling. i made it!

the flight was... well. it was long. and strange trying to adapt to all of the amenities and quirks of flying a british airway versus an american domestic flight. good food, free booze, duty-free shopping. even little care packs stuffed with eye masks and comfy red booties so your feet can relax. a hundred movies to choose from, games, music, tv. it definitely helped to ease the anxiety of being trapped in an economy seat on a cramped airbus hurtling around the world over a vast expanse of watery blue depths. so like i said- piece of cake flight. :D

met up with my mom and sister and took a ridiculously expensive taxi ride from the airport to our lovely little b&b on belgrave road. mom made me look up all sorts of information on my laptop about how to avoid jetlag (the major finding of which suggested immediately adapting to the local time zone), and then we all promptly fell asleep. for 8 hours. :( but it was so worth it. i slept wonderfully! woke up starving, since my little jimmy dean airport breakfast biscuit was smaller than a hockey puck, so we roamed around the streets scouting food. ended up at sainsbury's market, where ready-packed sandwiches awaited us. mine? an "english-style fried-chicken tortilla wrap" which turned out to be quite yummy despite my initial misgivings. mom had egg and watercrest salad, and angela had some sandwich dominated by a mature cheese and pickle spread. oh, and bacon crisps. let me explain. bacon flavored corn chips. good in theory (accoring to my bacon obsessed sister, who has already purchased bacon-mushroom baco bits). bad bad bad bad in execution. they taste like a cross between a baco bit and a stale chicharon with an aftertaste of sweet corn puff cereal. cute package. bad buy. chocolate-carmel cookie-wafer things called "digestives" for dessert, and passionfruit fanta. (you'll love it christopher, i know it!)

but i think the coolest part thus far, i mean aside from the fact that WERE IN EFFING LONDON, was sitting on the front stoop of this quaint little neighborhood doctor's office and eating late-night dinner with my mom and sister. i pulled out my lonelyplanet edition of "live like a londoner", a study abroad travel guide for extended-stay study abroad students, and remembered too dreamily when this was all just big puffs of hopeful fantasy. i bought this book in good faith, before i even applied to the program, as an encouragement, with the desperate hope that the fact that because it was in perfect condition, brand new, and still 75% off it meant that I was destined to be here. i hoped that in purchasing the book that i was buying some concrete self-confidence. and looking around on that little london street, it hit me. no- not a double-decker bus (although we have seen them). but i realized. here i am. i made this happen. i wanted it and i worked for it and i succeeded. and am i scared to be here? hell yes im scared. but this is all for me now. this time. this experience.

i know i am successful.

but what's nicest is that even though i get to go and have this selfish, life-altering experience, i still get to share it with the people i love the most in my life. you can be here, reading and viewing and listening and sharing this with me. its nice to not feel so alone. its nice to feel your love here.

i love you,

family

friends

world.

goodnight.

FROM LONDON.