(My last on-the-ground view of the United States, pulling away from the terminal in Orlando.)
So, my flight experience wasn't TOO bad getting to London. When we landed in Iceland, we found out straight away our flight had been delayed for 20 minutes. We were waiting for passengers from other incoming flights that had been delayed. This turned into us getting off the ground an hour late, and therefore not landing at Heathrow until almost 1PM. But that's okay.
Then we had to walk what felt like MILES from our gate to customs. But I still can't complain, because the border agent I worked with was awesome, and double checked that I knew that I had to go to my local Post Office to get my Biometric Residence Permit. (My entry visa is only good for 30 days.)
When I FINALLY got through the airport and into a taxi, I made my way to New Malden, where I stayed with a phenomenal family, courtesy of Airbnb (which is an AMAZING site/app to look for a place to stay when you're traveling). The next morning, my hostess even drove me to my new flat building. (It was only 1.2 miles away, and would have cost me like 10 pounds to take a taxi.) When I arrived, one of my flatmates was also right there, waiting to get into the building as well.
After bringing all of our belongings up the stairs to our new home, we spent a lot of time unpacking our things. An hour or two later, our next flatmate arrived. We found out or last flatmate would't be in until Saturday or Sunday.
A few hours later, Cindy and I decided to take our first trip to Tesco, the local 'big' grocery store, similar to a Walmart in the States. Needless to say, it was an experience! We traveled up and down every aisle, looking for things we needed for ourselves, and for our whole flat. Even after being through the entire store, we're still not sure we understand how everything is organized in the aisles! :)
Last night we had our first meal in our flat...peanut butter and Nutella toast, with apple juice and a banana. :) We haven't purchased any meat yet, as we wanted to make sure whatever we bought everyone would eat, and we didn't want to overfill our little fridge/freezer until everyone was here.
Anyway, here are some photos of my new room in my flat! (Sorry the pictures are a little shakey, as I took panoramas.) :)
As you can see, we have tiny little bathrooms, but that's okay, because we don't have to share them with anyone else! The only thing that's been hard to deal with (if you can even call it that) is the bathroom lights don't have a switch, they are sensor controlled. I've jumped a few times when the light turned on when I walked by the bathroom door, and the light shut off twice while I was in the shower, and I had to stick my hand back out the door to turn it back on. :)
There is only one major complaint we have about our flat: the kitchen door HAS to stay shut at all times. If it's open for more than a minute, an alarm sounds off in the kitchen. But we'll all get used to it.
I think today we will be heading to our local train station...and perhaps even heading in to Kingston to have a look around our campuses, and to see what there is to do, and what there are for dining options and shops.
I'll catch you all later!
Ashley
