After a long couple of days, we have arrived in London. We left Lipscomb yesterday, 13 May, and went to Atlanta by bus. Our driver’s name was Tex. Upon our arrival at the Atlanta airport, we checked our luggage, and waited for the long ‘layover’ to pass. Dave, Emily and I ate together in the gate; they had Chinese, and I had an ‘All-American Hot-Dog,’ a fitting final meal I suppose.
We finally boarded British Air Flight 2226 and departed a few moments late, due to ‘traffic’ on the runway. The flight was incredible; from the first British accented ‘Hello’ I knew it would be great. For supper I had Fried Chicken with green beans and rice. Water (I declined the wine) was my drink , and chocolate—cheesecake was dessert. After meals were served, tea was served—Talk about high tea! It was the best tea I have had (and at 37,000 feet too). After a while (about two hours into the flight), we hit ‘severe turbulence.’ This was not all too bad, except for the fact that I had to go to the loo. After over a half an hour of bouncing around, I decided to forget the seat-belt light, and get to the lavatory. The flight attendant told me the sign was still on and all I could say was ‘I’m sorry.’ Soon afterwards, the ride became smooth again and I managed to get a short nap in. Then when I woke, we were still four hours from England so I grabbed my iPod and listened to American Idiot & Phantom which killed nearly three hours in the darkness.
We landed in London at 8:10-ish local time, and I felt great from the moment we touched down. I told Andrew (the head of the attendants) that I enjoyed the flight; he said ‘Thank you.’ (Our Captain’s name was Steven. And we had had a great breakfast—ham & cheese, yogurt, orange juice, and tea.)
Customs was a good experience, the young lady had a short conversation with me about our trip, and bid me a happy stay in the UK. I had told Dr. Camp that I had an ominous feeling about my luggage in Atlanta, but when we got to baggage claim, it was there. We wheeled our luggage out and met Joanne, a loverly girl—great laugh, great accent. We got on another bus and headed into London from Gatwick. Joanne is our program director and so she gave us our paper work and Oyster Pass for London Transport. The bus dropped us off at Kensington House, where Caleb, Dave, and I were pleasantly surprised by how good the room is. It is vast; a kitchenette on the right, table, beds on the left. We quickly unpacked; my suit was a wrinkled mess, come to find out. The room also has a great view of Cromwell Road from the third floor.
At 12:00 we had a (short) walking tour of Kensington—it went east down Cromwell to Glouchester, where we turned South, went in the Tubestop, and then went back up Cromwell to Earl’s Court. Our guide is an ‘RA’ named Maya, she is an American. After the tours conclusion, we went back to Earl’s Court and ate lunch at Dino’s, a pizzeria. Everyone else shared Pizza; I had a bacon and egg sandwich—superb. Lunch took longer than expected, and we cut our 14:00 meeting with Francis close. (Francis is the director of Kensington House).
After we got the house rules out of the way, we played Trivial Pursuit in the Lounge, waiting for Dr. Camp who we missed anyway. So we went off exploring. We went down (or up) Gloucester to Hyde Park. Hyde Park was a lovely first day sight. It is like walking into a forest in the middle of London. We saw Albert’s Memorial and the Royal Albert Hall across the street. We walked down to Knightsbridge and peeked into H&M. Then we tried out the tube (minus David & Emily because Emily did not have her pass). We were going to go to High Kensington, but a delay on the Circle Line caused us to abandon our quest after an attempted exchange from the Picadily Line at Glouchester Station. So after learning of the delay, we went up, out of the Tube and looked in the posh grocery store [called Waitrose]. We came back to Kensington House and decided to go to a pub. So we found the Devonshire Arms, or ‘The Dev,’ and sat down. Others had burgers; Emily had a sausage burger. I went for the £2.50 Wedges w/ chili & mayo. The 'chili & mayo' must have been the dip, but they were good nonetheless. Some of the best potatoes I’ve had from a restaurant. On our way back, we got groceries from Sainsbury’s. Now we are going to try and sleep. – 21:39
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