“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”
-Dr. Seuss
As the title states, the journey has begun.
I left all that I have ever know yesterday morning. I said see you later to my Daddy at home, which was terribly hard. I get my soft heart from him and yes we but heads a lot but I wouldn't trade him for the world. Mom and Whit drove me to Louisville (Mitchell had surgery) and I hated saying see you later to them. You see, you can't really say goodbye. Goodbyes are meant for when you know you won't see someone again and I will be back home in four short months.
The plane ride from Louisville to Washington D.C. was uneventful. The lady sitting next to me did not utter a word so I was able to get in a good nap. In Washington D.C. was where we ran into the first trouble and adventure of this trip. We all ate our last "American" meal, at Wendys, but we really wanted a juicy burger! Our plane started boarding at the original time and we started taxing out on the run way when we suddenly stopped. I had begun watching Pitch Perfect and got about 20 minutes into the movie when I noticed 3 fire trucks pulling along side of the airplane. Firemen got out and walked to the plane and then the pilot came on the intercom stating that there was a problem with the fire detection system on the right engine. At first it sounded like he was saying there was a fire, hence the firemen and fire trucks, and I panicked a little. I just knew it was a bad omen but thank god that we had not already taken off. We were towed back to the terminal and were told that they were not sure what they were going to do with all of us passengers. Thankfully when we exited the plane and entered the terminal again we had another plane waiting to take us to London.
Once again we boarded the new plane and the whole ordeal had set us back about 4 hours off of our original plan. We knew that we had to make it to Heathrow at 9:30 and had to make it through immigration and get our bags before the 10:30 deadline. Luck was on our side and the Harlaxton individuals picking us up at the airport waited for all 19 of us on the flight. Let's just say that plane ride, and ordeal before we even took off was quite stressful but we were all prepared to make our own way to Harlaxton if needed.
We took buses from Heathrow to Harlaxton. I once again passed out on the bus and missed a lot of the "country side" but I did open my eyes a few times and noticed how flat the land in England is. Much different from the hills that I am used to.
The drive up to the manor house was unreal. I got my first glance at my new home and that is when everything started to become real. I had this gut feeling that I was going to be stuck in the carriage house instead of the manor (since I applied so late and was the last on the last coach to arrive) but luckily my feeling was wrong. I live in room 511 with three other roommates ((one from Kansas, Michigan and Indiana - I'd say we are pretty diverse).
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