Welcome!

I arrived in London, England, on January 7th, 2009. I still can't believe it! I have never been out of the country before, and before leaving was very excited, but a little nervous too. What would England be like? How would the people react to me being there? What kind of an experience was I really about to embark on? All these unanswered questions, and the only way to find the answers? Close my eyes and jump. So I did. I've been here so far for about half a week and already it feels like a lifetime! It almost feels like a dream world. I'm seeing things I've only ever seen in pictures, and part of me doesn't know if it's actually real! But as I spent more time here and get the chance to interact with the people here, I am beginning to see a very real world. One that is very different from my own, and yet has similarities that offers comfort to me being so far from home. But despite the fear of stepping out of my comfort zone, the little experience I've had just in the past few days has been life changing.

My first exposure to this new place came right when I stepped out of the plane. After arriving in the largest airport I've ever seen, I stood in the largest baggage claim I ever could have imagined. How was anyone going to find their suitcase?? Somehow I managed it and headed out. I didn't have anyone to meet me so I found the Heathrow Express and took the train to London Paddington Station. Believe it or not, this was my very first train ride! I was too nervous to really realize the enormity of the situation as I traveled by myself in a place I'd never been before and by a means I'd never done before. I wasn't sure I was on the right train, and I was pretty sure I was in the first class cabin and wasn't suppossed to be there. Well, after getting on, someone came through the cabin and said they were having a security check so everyone needed to get off the triain for a moment. That wasn't frightening... While on the platform I looked farther down the train and saw cabins that didn't look quite as nice, so I made my way down there and found the correct cabin I had paid for. When we got back in I stowed my luggage and found a seat. The entire ride I just looked out the window and tried to take in everything I was seeing. And seeing it from a train! It seemed like a great way to travel. After about a 20 minute ride I made it to the station. I've also never been in a train station... Thankfully the people who created the station had people like me in mind, so there was this neat little line painted on the floor that you could follow to the taxi station. So I was able to just look down and follow that. I got a taxi, and was grateful I didn't have to whistle to get one like in all the movies. I would have been too shy and never gotten one! But here, someone else does it for me. I smiled when I got into the taxi. Again, taxi: new experience. But the taxi driver was really friendly and said, "Where to, love?" I've heard of this word "love" and how they use it here. It's true! And it made me really happy. It's such a great word to say to someone. And it was also very British. This was a real British person I was talking to, in a taxi, in the middle of London! On this taxi drive, as I strained my nack to look at everything out the windows, it started to hit me: I was here. I was actually in London, one of the greatest citys in the world. I just started involuntarily smiling while in the taxi! Everything looked incredible! The buildings were so different. And the roads! Oh the driving and the roads! I thought I might die. I realized I would never drive here, because I would go down the street so wrong.

Everything was so much closer. That's one of the things that has really hit me the past few days. In America, everything is so spread out and open. Space is something that is expexted. Now so here. The roads are so close together, and the shops are tiny little holes in the wall! If there are four people in the store you're all squeezed together! And yet, you just get used to bumping into people. It isn't uncomfortable anymore, and is just part of life. British people I have discovered do not talk to strangers. At all. On the Tube, don't look at other people. You sit, you wait while looking down, and then you exit. I have found this out because my head is always up and looking around. I'm obviously the foreigner here.

There are many stigmas I have heard of British people in the States. One of them is their standoffish nature towards strangers. While during traveling times I have discovered this to be true, I've also found them to be very friendly and just as interested in you as you are of them. Today I went into a pub for the very first time. I love pubs. I think I want to open one in the states. Anyway, everyone who worked there was so friendly. One of them came over and talked to us about why we were here and was one of the nicest people I've ever met. At first we actually didn't understand what he was saying: mix an accent with slang and we just heard gibberish. But he slowed it down so we could understand. I am definietly going back to that pub.

I had another incredible experience today. Only things like this could happen in cities like this: full of so many diverse people. I saw a demonstration. Hundreds of people walked to two different embassies. And they walked right in front of our apartment! A couple of us who were around went out to the street to watch. I've never seen anything like this in my life! There were so many people with signs and banners, and everyone chanting. It was an amazing sight and something I will never forget. It brought to my attention events that are happening in other parts of the world right now, and even though these people are not there, they feel just as part of it. And they do what they can to make their voice heard and try and make a difference in other people's lives. It was incredible.

I've only been here a few days, and already I've seen some of the great sites of London, such as Big Ben, the London Eye, and the Tower of London. These are awe inspiring sights that I have numerous pictures of, and name the different movies I've seen them in. But some of the greatest things for me so far have been the little out of the way activites I've been able to do. Like walking down Portabello Street on a Saturday morning, finding a random museum on a side street in the middle of London, and playing soccer with friends in Hyde Park. These are things that this Study Abroad program I am on has offered me. England is not about famous sites: it's about a people and a culture. The great sites are amazing to see, but the people are what shows me the strength and tradition behind those great sites. They were built from a people, and those who can accomplish great things like that hold the greatest interest for me, and teach me more than a placard in a museum ever could. Being here, and knowing I'm going to be here for so long, is changing my life very quickly. I can't wait.