Hey all,
Sorry this has taken a while to get up. As you can probably imagine, it takes a little while to adjust and find a proper balance when going anywhere new--even if it was just from the suburbs to Champaign.
My flight was at around 5pm on Friday which left me the day to do some last minute errands: namely, getting another CD case to hold some DVDs, picking up a check from work to deposit, and last minute packing/redistribution. I got a little tripped up in this however. When I went to the ATM at Jewel, I decided I should print out a mini-statement from there to be able to provide the Immigration Officer with the most up-to-date financial information I could. Funny thing happened while I was there though. Just as I told the machine to print the statement, it released my card and the power went out--and not just at the machine, but the entire Jewel and the immediate area. While I fortunately had my card, my statement had been in the middle of printing. Worried that someone else could find a way to abuse that information once the power was restored, I decided to wander around so I could be there to snatch the printout. I walked around for about 20 minutes, and then decided I needed to leave since I had a flight to catch. I haven't experienced anything nasty with my card as of yet so fingers crossed that that turns out well.
I've never had to fly by myself before. The first time I had been on a plane at all was actually when LZHS band went to Disney my freshman year with the only other time being the trip to London my senior year with the band. My mom and my aunt dropped me off at the terminal and left. Facing complete isolation (I had to leave my cell phone in the States as it's better to just get a pay-as-you-go over here. By the way, don't call or text me until June 20th, or you might awkwardly end up talking to my mom instead.), I figured I would just suck it up and be the ignorant traveler that asks people for help. Luckily, I didn't really need to make too much of a fool of myself. I checked in my baggage almost immediately when I entered the airport and security was right next to it. Fortunately, I had printed out my boarding pass the day before which made everything even smoother. The security line was surprisingly quick for a Friday afternoon, and upon entering the airport, it only took about 15-20 to reach my terminal which was an absolute miracle. I now had two hours to kill and no cell phone or Internet: a scarier prospect to my generation than flying solo across the Atlantic, I'm sure. After an incredibly tedious wait, I finally boarded. I was quite pleased to discover that I would be spending the next eight hours sitting with a well-mannered college-aged guy instead of the shady, rude older man behind us who was still on his phone 20 minutes after electronics were supposed to be turned off. I finally saw The Social Network on the plane and was impressed with how the script interwove the different plot lines to create suspense out of something which could have been quite mundane. I also learned something during the flight: There is possibly nothing scarier than experiencing turbulence while flying over the ocean in the middle of the night in January. The pre-flight safety video has got to be one of the most useless precautions. If a plane crashed into the Atlantic, I'm pretty sure my floating seat cushion isn't going to save my life.
I finally arrived at Heathrow at around 6:15 am (London time) and followed the pack to collect my baggage and proceed through customs. Immigration probably could have gone better. I do sympathize for the workers there. They don't really get any lulls to chill out and socialize, they have to deal with people who might not speak English or be familiar with their customs, they're in an enclosed and dreary building on the 6 am shift. I get it. It's not the best job. But why make it worse with being unpleasant? Crack a smile. If your surroundings don't exude cheer, then it's going to be more pleasant to take of that yourself and be amiable. Instead, they were impatient, abrupt, and rude which I didn't warm to, snidely criticizing my choice of transportation to Swansea from Heathrow. On the advice of the Immigration Officer, I chose to ride the coach bus instead of grabbing a train from Paddington. After a brief spout of panic when the ticket machine rejected both of my cards (later to be fixed by a security guard who claimed he had a magic touch), I settled down to wait for my bus. Oddly enough, as I was waiting, I saw someone who looked uncannily similar to Natalie [omitting last name as a precaution], a girl I went to high school with. It was a few moments until she looked over at me that I realized it actually was her. The last thing I expected to happen 3,000 miles from home was to run into someone I hadn't seen in 3 years. It was bizarre. We chatted while I waited for my bus, and after about 15 minutes, my bus arrived, and I headed out. It was not a very pleasant bus ride. It took about four and a half hours. I can be somewhat prone to motion sickness so when I had to wear a seat belt and smell some other passenger's food for half the ride, I chose to try to sleep instead of taking pictures of the gorgeous countryside.
Once I arrived, I took a taxi from the bus terminal to the student village: the final leg of my journey. That was officially my first time taking a taxi for the record. I'm pretty sure I tipped him too much. I'll need to look up the protocol on that. I arrived at my flat at around 1:30 in the afternoon--over 12 hours since I had left Chicago. The part of this experience I had been the most stressed about, the traveling bit, had gone much smoother than I had expected. When people describe character traits about themselves, I'm always a little uncertain as to their accuracy. Sure, you might think of yourself as hard-working or creative or supportive, but how often do your actions necessarily reflect these traits? I like to think of myself as a fairly driven and independent person, and after successfully navigating international travel, I feel a little more self-assured in that assessment.
Alright, that's going to be about it for now. I don't have a whole lot going on in terms of class tomorrow so I'll do my best to get in another entry and catch up to the present. As a writer, I'm usually wordier than is convenient for conserving my time although once I start classes, I hope to find a more regular writing schedule. I hope you're all doing well, and the snow isn't getting the best of you. I'm changing the Christmas fish to Bears colors in reference to the big game this weekend. I can hardly imagine the tense atmosphere that must be going on back home. Best of luck to Chicago!
(Also, no promises but I will try to insert pictures into the text next time. Woo visual aids!)
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