Touched Down in Londontown

Hello Blog readers!

I am officially in London, and it was quite the adventure getting here.  The flight to JFK was smooth, but my layover wasn't really long enough to best accommodate the time needed before an international flight.  On my flight to JFK, I met this girl who just graduated from UCLA who was doing an internship program in Israel for 5 months.  We, and this was a poor decision of mine, met up with this other guy going to study in Israel, and the three of us leisurely made our way over to our terminal -- this journey included going the wrong direction on the Air Train.  I was trying to adopt the mentality of 'Go with it.'  Thus, when I finally arrived at the terminal (I had to re-check in and go through security again), the guy checking me in said "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" -- As in, I should have been through this ages ago.  Woops. Then I start to freak out and started asking if I can cut people in line at security.  Nobody let me.  Then I get through security, don't put my shoes back on, and run through the airport without my shoes.  I arrive at the gate, and I fear the worst - that they've closed the gates, and I'm kind of making a scene of myself at this point.  Then the woman tells me they haven't even started boarding yet, and people kind of stare.  Oh well.  Made the flight!  The flight, however, was pretty uncomfortable, but that's okay - it got me here.

Once I made it through Customs, a driver picked me up and took me to a very nice hotel.  (Well done, Arcadia).  Between my arrival at the hotel, around 1pm, and the time in which I needed to be in the lobby to start my Orientation at 4pm, I basically just had difficulty with everything.  -- I call this part of the adjustment process.  I couldn't figure out how to turn the light on in the bathroom, making me decide not to take a shower.  I now know that you need to use the room key, but the light only stays on for about 1 min. HMMM.  I finally got the internet to work, but had to pay 10 pounds.  I couldn't figure out for about 900 years how to get my adaptors to work.  I crashed my suitcases into all the mirrors in the tiny elevators.  Good times.  I was also exhausted by this point so I took a little nap.  Then I went downstairs and met up with a small group of students and our coordinator.  We had a little Orientation and then went out to dinner.  It was lovely!  More to come on the group tomorrow, after our Scavenger Hunt in London!  

List of 'it's a small world incidences" - (all references for my family)
- the girl I met on the plane going to Israel is from Redding, CA
- my program coordinator, who now lives in London, went to UCSD, lived in Newport Beach throughout his undergrad., and is originally from Costa Mesa
- two students from this Orientation group are from the LA/Riverside areas
- another guy in my Orientation group, who is from Minnesota, asked me about the Queen Mary in Long Beach, which I went to about 3 weeks ago, and visited the Submarine Scorpion and was wearing a hat from it -- I took my brother to this place at the beginning of summer

Such a small world!