International travel is a joy

Or, in which Sarah discovers she has a disturbingly deep-seated Type A personality.

 

This was my plan before I left:

 

1/7

9pm: Magically fall asleep on the transatlantic flight

 

1/8

• 9.30am (3:30 central): Grab bags
• 11am Hop a train from Heathrow to Cambridge
• 12.30pm: Walk from station to school, because it's only a mile
• 1pm: Get settled, eat lunch, buy stuff
• 6pm: Orientation dinner

So naïve. So precious.

 

What actually happened:

 

1/7

• 9pm (8 central): Pilot informs us we will arrive in London an hour earlier than expected. Who needs that full 6.5 hours of sleep when you have a train ride waiting for you to catch up?
• 9.45pm: Give up on anything close to 6 hours because they are serving a meal and as a college student, YOU DO NOT PASS UP A FREE HOT MEAL.
• 11.30pm: Abandon all ideas of sleep because a child has chosen to display what can only be described as a Herculean effort to produce as much noise as possible, for as long as possible, from human vocal cords.

1/8

• 7.30am (1:30 central): Wake up to breakfast being dropped in my lap. I ate that while we flew over Ireland, which was kind of cool. Motherland and all that.
• 8.45am: Disembark. Queue into UK border control.
• 9.15am: Baggage claim. Took forrrrreeeeevvvvverrrrr.
• 10.15am: Attempt an ATM. Debit card does not work. Console myself with going crazy on the free wifi as we wait for the last of us to arrive.
• 11.30am: Figure out our group is in separate terminals, and lose said wifi (=means of communication) as we trek toward the centrally-located bus station. As de facto ringleader of the expedition, I almost panic. But then we randomly run into Tom as we exit an elevator, and order is restored to the world.
• 12pm: Too overwhelmed to figure out the train system, we buy overpriced last minute tickets for buses which leave at 3. Bethany and I spend the time filming goofy facebook videos and embarrassing Tom in the process.
• 3pm. Bus trip. Since it's rush hour, it took 3 hours. I don't let myself fall asleep because I'm scared we will all miss our stop if everybody naps.
• 6pm. Finally arrive in Cambridge. This part has to be my favorite so far, because the three of us legged it from the bus station on the south side of the city center (over cobblestones) to school, on the north, with all of our baggage in tow. I had been studying maps of Cambridge before we got here, but there was one point where I had no idea where we were. I felt like Gandalf in Moria: "I have no memory of this place."
• 6.20pm. Finally arrive at school and find (to my horror) that they waited for us before they ate. British people are too polite; they make American me feel bad!!!

Things I am thankful for:

• Getting barely any sleep on the plane. I have no jet lag.
• The food on the plane was surprisingly satisfying. I still have leftover snacks.
• Taking the bus instead of the train. The train station is twice as far from school.
• Being almost-lost in Cambridge. We arbitrarily turned on "Emmanuel Street" because it was in the direction we needed. Later on, I realized that it was named for Emmanuel College, alma mater of my favorite Puritan, Thomas Watson. I WALKED BY HIS SCHOOL awegfovhfdag[rwgh9re0hghrepohagejrhataihjrea

So, besides the minor detail of being stranded in a foreign country with no money currently available, I am very much enjoying England. The terrain reminds me a lot of Wisconsin, except instead of fields and barns, they have fields and the occasional Georgian manor house. Also, it is extremely warm (55 degrees) for what I'm used to in January. They tell me this is unusually mild, but that is not stopping me from gleefully running around outside with no coat.

 

Off to go explore the city. Pictures forthcoming.