I AM IN LONDON: The Edge of Night and Day

Over the last few days I have been on quite the adventure - slow and dull at times, but exciting also.

SPECIAL NOTE: In my rush to get this update to you all, I have not edited the following post. 

September 12, 2011:

• Made it to the airport 2 hours early have a filling meal at Smokey Bones. I had a delicious burger and it filled me for the entier flight to Boston and several hours later.

• Saying good bye to mom and dad was really hard - not helped by how much I dislike planes. I had a few panic attacks as I waited, only calmed by some hot tea and pretending I was at Stagecoach. 

• The plane was small and had propellors. It was terrifying. It was fast. 

• We landed in Boston, and I had to take a bus to the correct terminal. I called my parents after getting my boarding pass for Iceland. After going through security again, I found a restroom, found a sandwich shop, found a table and then ate. It was a three hour wait, where I read and ... read. 

• Boarded the plane, relaxed into my travel pillow and actually slept for the first few hours of the flight. It was in the last hour I could not fall back to sleep, and watched as the sun rose with a brillant red horizon. We landed, coming lower and lower over the ocean and buzzed over the flat land before the airport. There were very few houses scattered about the shoreline but many mountains in the distance. I am fairly certain I saw the volcanoes, but cannot say for sure because I am not well studied in the geography of Iceland.

September 13, 2011

• 9.5 Hours In Iceland: I got off the plane. I had tea and a scone - that my Mommy packed me. I found a comfy chair. I found a second comfy chair. I pulled them together. I slept. I slept on those two chairs, with my travel pillow for 6 hours. Then - I read. And - Ate a sandwich.

• Boarded the plane - 45 mins late - and got on my last flight for London. It was a very short flight compare to my day in Iceland, but beautiful. This time I was able to watch the sun set. The whole sky was a giant rainbow. Red on the horizon, then orange, then yellow, green, blue and a dark navy into the night with the small bright dots of the stars. As we flew on towards London, I began to notice something I'd never paid attention to before. A line across the sky - the edge of night and day. It was incredible to watch our plane fly into the night. Incredible. 

• Once in London, it was dark and we were welcomed by the bright orange lights of the city. After circling for about 20 minutes we finally landed, and I was picked up by a Kingston Uni official and brought home to Philippa's. 

• She had made the most delicious dinner - a real chef - and we caught up before I fell into bed. It was really wonderful to see her again, and as even John commented on, "It's like you never even left!" It does feel that way a bit, but I have changed much over the small bit of time that I had been gone. I am stronger, more confident, more sure of what I am after. Walking down these streets feels like being back in my second home again; They may not have changed in their paths but I have changed my own. 

My stamp from Iceland and a postcard to prove I spent
real-life time in their wonderfully designed airport. 

September 14, 2011

• Stacey and I meant to wake up early and get right to campus for enrollment, but we didn't. Around 11am we left the flat for Kingston and successfully made it without getting lost! I was quite excited about this, even remembering the back way to save us time. 

• At enrollment, we signed up for the health clinic, grabbed information on phones and waited. We waited for our orange designated color to be called, we waited to stand in the enrollment que, we waited in the enrollment que, we waited to have our credit checked and we wait to have our photos taken and printed onto our brand new id cards. It was probably between 3 and 4 hours of waiting, but not stressful because we had nothing else planned for our day but lunch.
• At enrollment, we managed to meet some new / cool people. Anna from Poland and Mike from Niagara Falls - small and big world at the same time. We went to the King's Tun pub and had some enlightening / wordily conversation that I had missed from both not being a student and not being in such a diverse place as London. 

• I had a Chicken Caesar Salad.

• We then got a few items from Boots - shampoo, toothpastes, etc - and Asda - bread, peanut butter and crackers. On the walk home we grabbed a newspaper to look for flats, but everything posted was for the central London area. I would love to say yes to that but that would be a long commute every morning, not to mention expensive monthly payments. I then spent the next several hours looking online for places with very little success. Philippa again treated and Stacey and I to dinner - a pasta dish with homemade sauce, delicious. She and John then provided us with good information on looking for a flat. We concluded we must get another paper and look around as we walk Kingston tomorrow - writing down all the let signs we see. 

Now I am getting ready for bed after another exhausting day. I believe I skipped right over jet lag, and went straight to - Can my bedtime be at 9pm? (That would be 4pm USA time). 

Sorry I delayed my post a bit,

xx, Kristin