Disconnected from the World

I arrived in London yesterday! I'm here and it still hasn't sunk in that I will be here for 5 months. I still have moments where I see something that is "British" and smile because I remember where I am.

Waiting to board the plane to London!

I arrived at Heathrow Airport yesterday morning. I traveled with some girls from CMU and Grand Valley on my plane. It was nice traveling with people as excited as you are! Going through customs was not even as bad as I thought it would be! I just had to give them my visa, passport, told them why I was there and how long I would be there for. I was so nervous, but the guy was really funny and made me feel more comfortable. After we got our luggage we found people wearing "Kingston University" shirts that were there to pick us up. They called the taxi company to take us to the school. While we waited for the taxi's one of the KU workers told me how she was at Heathrow the night before and saw a photographer who she thought was taking a picture of her.... it ended up that Harry Styles (from One Direction) was right next to her! I thought it was crazy that I could see celebrities at the airport or just walking around London!

Once we got to the school I got to call home. It was weird thinking I had been awake for a few hours but my family was just then waking up (I think I woke my mom up with the phone call..... oops!). Then began the long process of enrollment. The actual process wasn't long but waiting in the lines were. After enrollment we got our Kingston Uni ID cards. Getting a picture taken after a long place ride is not exactly what I wanted, but it's so cool to see "London" on the card.

The next part was nerve-wrecking... going to your house to meet your host family. I took a taxi to my house. It is the most adorable thing I have seen, but I feel like all the houses here are adorable! When I knocked on the door Peter (my host-dad) answered. He showed me around the house and helped me bring my bags to my room. I unpacked my things and then waited for Georgina (my host-mum) and Sam (another international student) to get home. Since I had not been grocery shopping yet Georgina made us dinner.

My room in my english house

After dinner, I decided to get ready for bed. That is when the homesickness hit. I did not expect it to hit me so soon! I wanted to skype my family, but the converter for my plug was not working and my laptop was going to die. On top of that I did not buy a phone to use here yet. I had never felt so disconnected from the world before.

This morning I woke up, though, feeling much better. I found another plug and my converter worked there so I got to charge my laptop! I also had a orientation at school today. This orientation was mostly to explain different classes offered at school and then we took a tour of the Uni and around Kingston. It is so cute! There are so many little shops, markets and pubs there. We went back to Uni after the tour and had lunch. Then we were done for the day!

I made some friends from Australia, New York, Ohio and even more from Michigan! We all wanted to get new phones so we went back to the stores in Kingston and bought phones (FINALLY!!!) and I got some more pounds. We walked back to Uni to figure out what to do next. They had extra food there so some of us decided to eat dinner before we did anything else. We didn't want to go back to our houses quit yet so we went to a pub for a little bit. It was nice to sit around and talk to the other students to see the differences in the culture (mostly the difference between the USA and Australia, but also a few differences between the states, as well!).

Then comes the bus ride home. This part was all new to met because I don't use a bus at CMU. Thankfully, I found out my friend Rachel lives a street next to me so we rode the bus home together. It's nice to know I have someone so close to me!

With Rachel, Sarah, Marli and Maddy in Kingston

When I got home I got to skype my parents and one of my brothers. I thought I would just start crying when I "saw" them since I was so homesick yesterday, but it wasn't bad at all! I was excited to tell them everything that had happened so far. Making friends today, being able to use my laptop and buying a phone really helped cure my home sickness. Now I can talk to my friends here easier, and talk to my family and friends back home.

All I keep thinking is coming to London was the best decision I have made so far.