Hot damn, we made it! Gwen, Sam, my 51 pound suitcase and I, had one LONG day/turned night/turned day again of traveling. Our nerves and excitement resurfaced (as we were nodding off during our 3 hour layover in LA last night) when we caught the sound of a British accent. We immediately started straining our ears to hear more and tried to contain ourselves from immediately speaking in our own version of the funny accent.
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| our matching boots got us some pretty funny looks |
On the flight, I watched The Hangover 2 which is called "The Very Bad Trip 2" in the UK (I couldn't help but laugh at that one). After many failed attempts I finally fell asleep and woke up to see that we were finally flying over something besides the ocean. As we flew further from fields and closer to civilization I spotted a castle! Definitely don't see many of those around Idaho... We made our way through customs and found our driver who then took us through town to our 'flat'.
Seeing the driver sitting in what would be our passenger seat, and driving in the left lane was pretty hard to get used to! Also, the road signs tell how many yards you are from your destination instead of using miles like we do... kind of different. After a few close calls and fast paced traffic, we arrived at our new home Bloomfield Court. We are located on Holloway Road which is pretty hoppin'.
All four of us girls from the U of I are living in the same wing and across the hallway from each other which is going to be perfect! We each have our own room with a desk,
our own bathroom (shower included)
and a full sized bed.
Not bad eh?
When you step out of the rooms you end up in a big hallway, much like a hotel. We share a kitchen with everyone in our little hall (some guy is sitting in there right now so... sorry no picture). On the main floor there is a common area with lots of chairs and a TV, there is also a laundry room downstairs and a courtyard beyond that.
Right outside there is a tiny convenient store with every day supplies, snacks, drinky drinks and a bunch of other random things. For dinner we all went to this really cute (and purple) pub called 'The Quays' and were treated with a complimentary buffet hosted by AIU. The food will be interesting here... on the menu I saw a list of featured sandwiches, one being a 'bacon sandwich'. Yep, just bacon and bread. Can't say I won't be ordering that gem.
So far, everyone we've met who is living here seems really nice and all from a variety of different US states. Lots of interior design, fashion and marketing majors. I can't wait to see what our classes are like (one of them is full with only 8 students). Our weekend will be filled with check-ins, orientation, walking tours and lots of exploring! Hope this has given you a pretty good idea of where we're at, CHEERS!
