Day One: Boston and that Long haul flight to London
Well let me set the scene for you, a clear 57 degree January evening (global warming is killing all of us) around 4:15pm my parents and I made our way to Logan Airport. I thought to myself I have everything together, there is no possible way I forgot something. 445pm, Revere MA (I see you John Driscoll) on Route 1A toward the airport, it hits me, I don't have my International Student ID card or my Insurance. As my friends and I got an awesome deal on a flight $310 one way on Virgin Atlantic, I thought we needed this special ID card to get our boarding pass for the flight. I launched into immediate anxiety, the worst, my dad made a U-Turn and we began the journey back toward Hamilton. I called my friend Brianna from home because I wasn't actually sure if we needed the card. We didn't, Crisis Averted, back to the airport. Phew. (I realized this story could have carried on for hours, so I wrapped it up real quick)
After checking in and saying bye to my parents, I walked into the security area, and they sent me through the new security system, you know the one where you put your hands on your head for 10 seconds while they scan your entire body. I mean I don't really get to personal with it, I would rather not have someone running their hands down my body instead.
Next, the long flight, wasn't too bad, smooth I slept a little. The flight attendants on Virgin Atlantic known as "the ladies in Red" constantly turned all the lights on in the cabin for our 10pm dinner tea around 11:30 and then breakfast at 1:30 AM all on Eastern Standard Time. It felt so weird to eat like that but eh we had to eat something to adjust, and quite frankly I got maybe 35 minutes of sleep.
Oh here comes my favorite part! Immigration. I loved it so much cause I went through the coolest thing in the world. Let me just say as much as I am proud to be an American, I am also quite proud to be an Irish citizen as well. With my passport I got to use the EU channel where I went through a line with maybe 5 people while all of my friends headed off to the "All other countries channel" which had maybe 50-100 people in it. But the coolest thing one was the new E-Passport system that they recently started. You walk into this booth and put your passport face down, the scanner reads your passport while you stare at a mirror for about 20 seconds and it scans your face, after about 45 seconds, the gates open and "welcome to the UK" you're in! So then I waited while everyone else nearly got deported because the immigration agents were so mean to them about Visa information.
Day Two: 17 Bedford Place, Flat C
So our flat is in a pretty awesome area, we are maybe 5 mins from the British Museum, and are basically in the center of London. The flat is a little old and run down but I think its still nice. We have hot water, a tv, heat, a bed, pillows, sheets, a shower, I mean really what else do you need. So its fine, we went down to Whitrose (a supermarket) to do some food shopping and had a couple meetings for the program where we learned about living and navigating London. Then I caved into jetlag at 10:30pm.
Day Three: "Woke up in London yesterday..."
I mean that title explains it all, we're here, we're in LONDON. The best city ever. I mean I love it anyway. We had registration with Birkbeck college, they checked our passports basically and we had the rest of the day free until about 6:00 when we had the "Student Induction" where we learned about the college, its library, and our course modules. But between 10:30AM and 6:00 Danielle Rellas and I basically roamed around London, got our cell phones set up and walked down to Soho, British Museum area. Then we went to Sainsbury (another supermarket) for more shopping for necessities and other things. Pretty basic day to get organized.
UP NEXT: Day Four The interview for Philcox Law Solicitors-MY NEW JOB!
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