London!!! Day 1

After waiting so long to be able to finally leave for London, my visa finally came in on Friday, so I made flight reservations for Sunday.  I thought I had it all planned out (silly me!).  My flight would arrive in London at 6 AM, but I couldn't check in at the apartments until 9, so I figured I had time to eat a leisurely breakfast at Heathrow Central Terminal before catching the Heathrow Express into Paddington Station and catching a taxi to get me to my apartments.

The reality was somewhat different, and the entire trip was a frantic blur to get everywhere on time.  The plane from DWF to Houston was the worst plane experience of my life.  Granted, it was cloudy and windy the whole way there, but I would guess that the plane didn't stay calm for more than 20 seconds at a time, and the rest of the time was spent winding, twisting, bumping, speeding up, slowing down and all other possible un-fun contortions.  I was holding onto the armrests in a death-grip.  We arrived in Houston 45 minutes late and I had to run to change terminals and find my gate for London.  The flight was already boarding as I reached the gate.

My aisle mates for the flight to London were a shockingly gorgeous, exceedingly polite, 20-something man with movie star good looks (married, unfortunately), and a sullen, flatulent teenage girl who kept trying to sit cross-legged in the seat, which would turn off the sound to my armrest headphones every time she tried, and who wiggled so much, and was up and down so much that she kept bumping my tray table and knocking my book, iPod, and drinks to the floor.  I was grateful to finally get off that plane.

The line for border inspection at Heathrow is nuts!  With all the international planes that land there, the line is massive and, given the ensuing crowds and my diminutive height, it is really difficult to see the small and badly labeled line marked "Students."  I chose a line and started up a conversation with a man from India who has travelled to 50 countries in pursuit of his bucket list and has decided that 10 days is really long enough to stay in any one place before he gets tired of it.  His funny stories of all of his adventures and misadventures had me in stitches!

 So... after a 45 minute wait in what I though was the correct line, I finally reached the front and was promptly informed that I was in the wrong one and would have to start all the way over.  :(  The "Student" line was about 45 minutes, too.  By that time, my flight's luggage had already come, gone, been moved to another carousel, and then thrown on the floor.  After a panicked 10 minutes spent desperately searching for mine, I eventually found it propped up behind a pillar on the floor.

I made the train to Paddington Station and followed the pigeons and the cute little black line on the floor to the taxi line which stretched on for about a block.  My turn finally came, and I hauled my massive mountain of luggage and bags into a black cab with a cavernous interior and and a driver on the "wrong" side, and we wound our way through central London to my apartments.  On the way, we passed Hyde Park, the Houses of Parliament, London Bridge, and the Tower of London/Tower Bridge! Yay, I'm in London!

Now I'm all settled in my TINY room (See pictures, soon to come.  My bathroom is hilariously small!), I've walked around the area that I'm familiar with and bought a few groceries.  I'm about to go have coffee with the roommates.  I guess that's all the news I have for now.  I have so much to see and I'm SO excited!  I finally made it!

Updated (P.M.):  I just met 6 of my 7 roommates.  We're a pretty multicultural crowd, all women, from Malta, England, Canada/Ireland, China, Texas, New Mexico and California.  We each have separate rooms and bathrooms on either side of a long hallway with a massive shared kitchen at the far end.

I've also discovered that there is a pretty substantial list of unexpected items I need to buy, because the apartments don't supply them: towels (I had to use a t-shirt today), plates, glasses, coffee cups, pots and pans, a cheap bedside table, a tolerable duvet cover (again, see pictures), and hangers (they supply four).

 I'm going shopping tomorrow and then maybe to a free concert tomorrow night.