Saying goodbye to everyone was hard, but that was eclipsed by my excitement to begin my life in Europe! My mom dropped me off at Newark, leaving our house at around 1:30 pm. (I did tear up a little saying goodbye to the dogs) I met my friend Cary at the airport to begin our long trek to our new home. We took a red eye from Newark to London Heathrow. Not too bad. We arrived at Heathrow at around 6 am local time then took a shuttle bus (only 20 pounds) to London Gatwick. Actually, it wasn't nearly as bad as we thought. And, the views of the British countryside covered in fresh snow were breathtaking. We were immediately enamored with London and the idea of the United Kingdom, referencing Jane Austin, Shakespeare, and Harry Potter (another classic) in almost every statement. However, the beautiful snow soon turned into a nightmare. All flights out of London Gatwick were canceled and Cary and I were thrown into a whirlwind of lines, non-working cell phones, an awful currency exchange, and trollies that made us want to look for Platform 9 and 3/4. Who knew that snowfall in London is the apocalypse and completely catastrophic as the entire city comes to a stand still. After hours and hours in the airport and about a billion dollars worth of long distance phone calls, we finally booked a sketchy hotel in Crawley, took a taxi, and arrived in a little inn connected to a pub. I felt like Carrie Bradshaw dropped in Ohio during a blizzard as I attempted to get all my luggage up the unshoveled path. However, we were too excited to see a bed with sheets after over 24 hours of traveling and passed out before our heads hit our pillows or our cell phones made it into the charger adapters. Now, we're waiting for our 7 am flight out of Gatwick before heading to straight to the campus in Luxembourg for orientation. Sigh. Welcome to Europe!
At least it's been entertaining.
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