Hello to anybody reading this!
Lia, Allie and I just woke up after a very pleasant slumber, full of some lovely REM sleep after being up for about 30 hours. I still can't believe we're here, it feels so unreal. But we're all so excited to start exploring London.
Going through security was relatively painless, but the TSA agent did find it necessary to search through Lia's bun in her hair. Our flight was very quick, but we didn't take off for an hour after the time because we would have landed too early. It was less than six hours because the winds were crazy fast. Then at the end, we were circling and it was nauseating and about five people started throwing up all at once. And then it smelled. But other than that it was quite smooth. I really liked flying Virgin Atlantic, it was very colorful and the food wasn't as bad as usual plane food tends to be. They gave us nice sleeping masks, and big blankets, and headphones, and socks and a little toothbrush and stuff. When we got to the airport, going through the UK border only took about a half an hour. But none of us had any problems getting through with our Visas, so that was great! Then, when we got to the baggage claim area, all our luggage was already pulled off the belt and waiting for us! Being as how we each had about 150 lbs of luggage, we reserved a car to take us into London. However, finding the driver was an adventure in and of its own. Allie and Erica waited with about 10 suitcases while Lia and I went to hunt down the car service taking us to our school, as we did not see one with a sign for us. We heard the airport page "Katherine Katie Shafer" and after much paging back and asking everyone under the sun if they were looking for us, Lia finally found him.
Going through security was relatively painless, but the TSA agent did find it necessary to search through Lia's bun in her hair. Our flight was very quick, but we didn't take off for an hour after the time because we would have landed too early. It was less than six hours because the winds were crazy fast. Then at the end, we were circling and it was nauseating and about five people started throwing up all at once. And then it smelled. But other than that it was quite smooth. I really liked flying Virgin Atlantic, it was very colorful and the food wasn't as bad as usual plane food tends to be. They gave us nice sleeping masks, and big blankets, and headphones, and socks and a little toothbrush and stuff. When we got to the airport, going through the UK border only took about a half an hour. But none of us had any problems getting through with our Visas, so that was great! Then, when we got to the baggage claim area, all our luggage was already pulled off the belt and waiting for us! Being as how we each had about 150 lbs of luggage, we reserved a car to take us into London. However, finding the driver was an adventure in and of its own. Allie and Erica waited with about 10 suitcases while Lia and I went to hunt down the car service taking us to our school, as we did not see one with a sign for us. We heard the airport page "Katherine Katie Shafer" and after much paging back and asking everyone under the sun if they were looking for us, Lia finally found him.
When we got to London, we picked up our keys and went to our 'flat.' Our flat is in a big old Victorian house, and there's three floors of students. Marist is on the second floor, and Lia and Allie and I are sharing a room. When you enter our room, there's a little vestibule kind of thing, with a closet and the door to the bathroom. Lia and I have bunk beds and I'm on top, and anytime one of us moves the entire unit moves with us. My bed isn't too bad, but I think I might go buy another pillow. The floors are quite squeaky and the building itself is semi creepy, especially at night. Literally outside of our bay window is the Netherlands Consulate, which we can see business people working, thus the curtains are closed. This floor has a common kitchen, living room/study room, and dining room. In the common study/living room thing, is a view of Hyde Park, which is like looking out onto Central Park. The neighborhood is very nice, very residential and above all, very safe. Will and Kate live up the road and, according to the RA, a few doors down is Dubai Royalty. So all in all, I'd say we're in a good area. The school itself is about a 10 minute walk, and it's kind of cool cause every building has a code you need to enter for it to open, so I feel like a spy or something. 
The showers deserve their own blog, because they are certainly interesting. There is very little water pressure, and it tends to go from drastically hot to drastically cold but whatever, we're in London. Afterwards, we all kinda plopped into bed and passed out no later than 8 PM, closing in on 34 hours, but we all woke up around 6:30 AM, hence the blogging since we don't have to be in our orientation stuff until 9:15.
Oh and also, this place is haunted:FACT. And yes mom, I just saw you roll your eyes while shouting "Katherine, it is not! Don't tell your little sister." I had to pee so badly in the middle of the night but kept hearing all these weird noises and I was too scared to get out of bed(which, please remember before you judge me family, is also a climb). But then, Allie got out of bed around 4 AM, so I felt safe enough to pee.Though the hallway of our floor has some serious Jack Nicholson in the Shining kinda stuff going on.
Oh and also, I do not currently have a phone. Verizon can be very ridiculous, and my blackberry does not work here. Thankfully, I have THE BEST MOM EVER and she is sending me one that will. However, to all 7 of my bbm contacts, I will not have a phone for probably two weeks.
Today we have Welcome programs allllll day, which none of us want to go to. But I think we are going to explore the neighborhood afterwards and take a trip down to Kensington Palace. Who knows. I'll try and get some pictures up soon, but I think I may have broken my camera or something again cause it was being funny yesterday on the plane. CHEERS!
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