1st Day In England

Dear Grace,

So I'm finally coherent enough to update this blog, and I'm so excited about all of the things I've experienced in the last...well to be honest I don't know how many hours, but here are my adventures thus far. So I got through security and found my flights with no trouble, and saw my first glimpse of England through the airplane window at around 6:00 am (local British time). I still can't get over how enormous London is! It was still dark so all I could see were the city lights, but even then it looked like an ocean of lights. 600 square miles is definitely much bigger than I could ever have imagined.

So I found my luggage (with some confusion because someone took all of the bags off of the merry-go-round thingy) got through customs and sat down on a bench to wait.

It only felt like five minutes later that I heard a British lady ask, "Can that be Jo?" and I looked up to see none other than Judy and Colin! (the couple taking care of me until I can check into my flat tomorrow).

They are some of the kindest people I've ever met, and after helping me into the car they drove me to their beautiful home out in Essex.

(Tour of their lovely home)

I must be a lucky charm when it comes to traveling, because the weather was sunny and clear all day. Unfortunately I was so jet-lagged and sleep deprived that I slept through most of the day. Judy came to get me for dinner, where I discovered she had made me a traditional British meal of chicken, fried potatoes, vegetables, and a pudding! After that I crashed again for the rest of the day and woke up at like 8:00 pm. I found Judy downstairs and we watched - can you believe it? - the new episode of Sherlock  together!

Everything is so beautiful and picturesque here everywhere I've been so far. Even the view out of my window is so beautiful!

(Tour of my room)

So today I slept in, and when I finally got up (at last in sync with the time change), Colin and Judy's amazing daughter, Sarah, was already up and waiting for me. It kind of trips me out how much she looks like a couple of my cousins. She could easily pass for a sister in the Bullock family!

She took me on a tour of the town where we visited a beautiful 11th century cathedral and a lot of cute little shops, one of which she bought me lunch at :)

So I was super sad, because airport security confiscated the containers of peanut butter and nutella I was bringing over with me, especially since I meant to give the nutella to my roommate as a birthday present (her birthday was yesterday). However, Sarah took me to a 1 pound store (the British equivalent to the dollar store) where I found both peanut butter AND nutella! I was absolutely tickled!

After that we came home for a bit, and that's when Judy and Colin got back. They invited me to go with them to Colchester with them (which, by the way, is the oldest recorded town in England), and we ended up stopping to look at Colchester castle. Sadly it was closed, but that didn't take away from the beauty of the old town or the magnificence of the old castle!

 

 

I can't believe I'll be checking into my flat tomorrow! Time sure has flown since I got here. But then, maybe it just feels that way because it gets dark at 4:00! Well, I don't have much else to report today. Hopefully I can keep up on my adventures as diligently as I have been the last few days!