Sleep Deprivation and other tales

 I did not sleep on the plane and dragging my bag through the air port to the bus station was exhausting. I got outside and it was so cold that I could see my breath. That was a weird transition from eighty degrees at home. The bus was like a charter bus except you had to wear seat belts, and it was like pulling teeth to get any slack on them. I finally got some sleep on the bus, despite the constricting seat belt.

When I woke up it was green everywhere. The fields were lined with bushes and trees that made them look like pieces to a patch work quilt blanketing the country side.

Oh, and the hills!

The picture is blurry, but it is still beautiful. I will get a picture that does them justice before I leave.

Thankfully, after the sleepless plane ride, the people in Bath knew that we would be exhausted and let us hang out in our house after we arrived in Bath. My roommates and I had a meal of pasta which took longer to cook than any pasta should and sat down to watch Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on VHS. Apparently previous students of the program just went out and bought Video tape from thrift shops for 50p (about 50 cents).

We could barely stay up long enough to watch the whole movie. Everyone was nodding off during it and it was only 8:30 when it finally finished. The people from the program told us not to go to bed until ten so we had another hour and a half to trudge through. I slept like a rock, thankful to be stretched on a bed rather than squeezed in a chair, but I woke up at seven in the morning. I had to leave before nine and shower, but I still didn't want to wake up that early.

I did not pick this comforter our. It was already there or I wouldn't have chosen pink floral, but it is about an inch thick which is very useful because it is always pretty cold.

There are two but the other one is missing strings. The director of the program said that they would restring it for me since it is technically their guitar. It also has everyone who has played it sign it. I think it would be cool to leave my mark at the house.

I can't believe this is only the end of the second day. It feels like I have been here a week and known my housemates for longer.

Troubles of Packing and other tales

I have had more trouble than I like with my packing. I found that my back pack had one pound more than allowed and had to do some rearranging. Then, I realized I had forgotten to pack some things in my suitcase, so I had to make room. My winter coat didn’t make the final cut, so either my sister will be really sweet when she comes to visit me and bring me my coat or I will go buy one. All of this has made me come to the conclusion that I dislike weight limits, and I have a feeling I will dislike them more on the return trip.

On a less obnoxious note I purchased Spotify Premium so I can listen to music on the flight, though there might be wifi. That is a detail I have not checked. Either way I will have music whenever I want for half the normal price because I am a college student. Woot! Woot!

I also perused my book shelf for something to read and found three books that seemed to be sufficient reading material. Ironically they all seemed to have travel themes, Treasure Island, The True confessions of Charlotte Doyle, and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm leaning towards the last one because my sister has always wanted me to read it, and the first page made me laugh three time. I think that's a good indicator on how much I will enjoy the book.

I had my oh crap I'm traveling across the ocean to a foreign country moment the other day. I have everything I need except for my bus ticket,which has turned out to be more problematic than necessary to attain. The website keeps giving me an error message, and the most annoying thing is that I know exactly what I have done wrong but I don't know how to fix it. I'm going to try again tomorrow and see what happens.

I've finally started the daunting task of packing and I am slightly put off by my choice of writing as a hobby. As I have realized from carting notebooks and books around my whole life, paper weighs quite a bit. I am taking at least ten notebooks with me to England because they are all stories that I will want to poke at in my free time. I am just fine with carting around the extra weight of my lovely notebooks, but the airline has a 50 pound weight limit for my suitcase. I'm hoping it won't be an issues, but I won't know until I stuff everything in my suitcase and weigh it.

In ten days I will be boarding a plane for the first time. This will be the biggest adventure of my life so far.

I just bought my plane ticket! It was a little more stressful than it should have been, but when you are spending so much money on one thing it's to be expected. I purchased an ISIC card as well which will give me discounts to museums and historical sights among other things.

I'm expecting the before travel parts of my trip will be the most stressful. Getting on the plane will be stressful because I have never gone through that process before. Then after I arrive in London I have to get transportation to Bath which I expect will be a stressful experience as well. See, it isn't the actual travel that I worried about. It's the before and after. The traveling part is just sitting and being bored of staying in one place is not stressful.

I will be arriving around 8 am so I will have time to play with to get everything arrange. Research will have to be done on where to purchase tickets so I am not a bumbling around like a fool.

I got Chinese the other day and finished my meal off with a fortune cookie. I've always found the fortunes to be fun, but this one just seemed awesomely fitting.

England might not be the exact place the fortune cookie would like me to go, but I think it's east enough.

I will be buying my tickets soon. I'm just waiting for the prices to go down a bit. I should have it purchased by the end of next week.

I will not be shadowing in a classroom while I am in England. The cost of the the visa outweighed the experience I would gain from only three or four visits in the class. I will be able to go into a classroom once hopefully twice while I am there.

I am over the stressful parts now. There isn't much left to do, but wait and pack when the time comes.

I just received an email for the Gilman Scholarship. I did not receive it, so I will have to look around and see if I can find other scholarships to help with the costs. I have the summer to start looking. Hopefully it won't be too late to apply for scholarships.

Now all I have to do is buy my ticket and figure out my class room shadowing. I just received an email about it and I have to decide if I just want to go in one time or regularly. If  I do it regularly I have to get a visa which is around $500. I will most likely be shadowing regularly because I think it would be a good opportunity for me.

I was accepted to the college in Bath a few days ago. When I sent off my application I still had the inkling feeling that I might not be accepted which was a dumb thought, but I'm sure I am not the only person who has sent off their application with that inkling poking at their brain. My worries are gone now though I still have work to do. Housing survey, proof of insurance, and a some such information still needs to be sent off to the college. This is the easy stuff though, just fill in the blank, with no weight behind except the possibility of getting a bad roommate, but that is doubtful.

I'm still waiting on a response for my Gilman scholarship. Fingers crossed.

I did some travel research for class last week which I was grateful for.  I had  only focused on how I was going to make my way across the ocean and hadn't thought about how I would get to college once I was on English soil. When I hit things like this I wonder what things I am ignorant about that I don't know I am ignorant about. That is what my study abroad class is for, so hopefully I have learned everything that I need.

Also looking at train routes, stops, and line transfers was slightly overwhelming. I am so used to having one vehicle that I am in control of to get from point A to point B. Having to get off and on in different places and find where I need to go is going to be an interesting experience that I expect will have me at an above normal stress level, but  challenges build character.