Getting There . . .

Hey everyone!



I have made it safe and sound to London! Exciting! There were a few bumps along the way. My flight from Salt Lake to Chicago was delayed for almost 4 hours. (Could have been worse if we had already been on the plane since it was tiny and not equipped with movies) Still, so boring sitting in the airport by yourself, in case your wondering, and then I wasn't sitting by anyone on that flight. No one can say that I don't have the ability to not talk for more than a 6 hour period anymore.



Because of that delay I almost missed my flight from Chicago to London. As a matter of fact, I was the last person to board the plane before they closed the door. Take off was at 9:05pm and I got on at like 9:02 pm. I was so lucky that they didn't close the door. This guy told me that they may not have my luggage until the day after I arrived because of the short amount of time in between flights but luckily that wasn't the case and they arrived with me. I sat by a lady named Yetna (and I'm positive I am not spelling that right since she is from Nicaragua and they have triangles and things like that in their names). She was really nice. She was on her way home to visit family.



When I got here, I had an interesting time getting (finding is more like it) to the YMCA. I didn't know any of the trains and I had to take 4 different ones. The instructions made it seem like it would be a lot simpler than it was, but most everyone I've met or asked for help are really nice. They even offer to help you put your bags on the train since on some trains you have like a 9 inch gap between the train and the platform and on some of them you have to step up that same amount to get in or out. And hauling all that luggage around sure makes you tired. Reminds me of when we went to Greece. There were a couple of really nice guys that helped me though. In fact, I didn't have to buy one of the tickets because one of them let me use the last of his day pass since he didn't need it.



They don't have obvious street names or signs so I asked this lady on the street for directions and she tried to help me but between her accent and the mumbling, I had no idea what she was saying so I just pretended I knew what she was saying and said thank you. LOL! She really was trying to help but it just seemed like hand gestures to me. Which, when I asked another guy for help, her gestures actually ended up making a lot of sense because they both told me exactly the same thing. Only difference was I could understand what he was saying!



I haven't met my roommate yet. I'm sure she's still at training. The room is pretty small and narrow and long, kinda rectangle shaped. Not much of a view but at leastThe doorways are much tinier than in the USA. My bed squeaks so hopefully I won't wiggle a lot in my sleep. Don't normally but I have my moments . . .



I'm thinking of everyone and miss you all!



Erica