Actually I wasn't even going to do it now, I was going to take a very much needed nap before having to venture across town to go to an audition but the fire drill (which we apparently failed and will have to do again) ruined that plan... I wasn't even wearing pants!
A lot has happened in the past 4 days since I left for London so I think it will be best to split it all up into two separate posts to get caught up.
Part 1:
Getting There
Flight 110 Direct from Newark to Chaos!
I had booked this plane trip literally months in advance. I followed all the guidelines in my trusty study abroad hand book to make sure I arrived a day earlier than my orientation started to give myself a little time but not too much, to arrive early in the day so I wouldn't be disoriented trying to travel to my destination in the dark, and even to have a decent sized layover between flights so as to be sure I didn't miss any connections. It's too bad basically none of that happened.
The original plan was to fly out of Denver at 10:00 a.m., arrive at Newark Liberty International Airport at 3:45-ish then fly out of there to London Heathrow airport at 6:25. That had me set to arrive in London at 6:45 the next morning. Then, my dear friend Sarah who is also studying abroad in London right now had graciously agreed to meet me at the airport and ride the tube with me to my dorm and hang out for a bit. It was going to be a perfect and low stress day of adjustment. If only...
I left my house a little after 7:00 that morning after tearful goodbyes with my parents and my pets. I have honestly never left them for anywhere close to this long! Then Mike drove me to the airport and tried to make me feel better in the car by repeatedly assuring me that it was all going to be fine. It didn't really work because I was still a weepy mess when we said goodbye outside of the security checkpoint an hour later.
From there I made a quick top at a Jamba Juice that was absolutely beckoning to me and found my gate. I waited there and texted back and forth with a few people until the plane left right on time at 10:00. Now you see, I don't deal with stress well and even though I was really more nervous than sad I just couldn't stop sniffling. It's just my body's natural (and obnoxious) response to 95% of all feelings. As the plane took off the wing dipped just enough to show me a beautiful view of the Denver skyline and our wonderful Rocky Mountains through the widow that I had traded my aisle seat for with a girl who apparently didn't take to flying well. That was the moment I realized that not only would I miss all the people there, I would also miss my beloved hometown tons!
That was a 3 and a half hour trip that went as smoothly as anyone could hope but I guess that is where my luck began to run out. When we got off in Newark I decided to find my next gate just to be on the safe side and then go get a snack. When I got to my gate it said it's next flight was for Amsterdam, wrong, don't want to go there. So I checked the departure boards and found the new gate and checked with the man at the desk there and even though he confirmed it I'm paranoid so I asked the airline representatives too. Yep, got the right gate. I then circled way back to the other end of the airport to get a soothing tea and maybe a snack for the plane from Starbucks. By the time I got back to my gate I just had a few minutes to text out my last goodbyes and board the plane.
I was more nervous this time because this was going to be a much longer flight, 6-7 hours, and we would have to fly over the ocean. But things seemed to be going well untill one of the flight attendants and the first officer started darting up and down the aisle looking worried. About 2 hours into our flight we got the announcement that one of the electrical heating elements in one of the emergency exits had broken and was now emitting the lovely scent of electrical smoke and leaving a scorch mark on the door. Thank you to the passenger who pointed that out. Since no one really knew what was wrong with it or if it would get worse somewhere over the ocean we had to turn back and land again in Newark. Then, shortly before we begin our landing descent, the pilot comes back on to tell us that our plane was carrying enough fuel to get us to London and we hadn't burned off or dumped much of it at all before we had to land again. Apparently planes aren't really supposed to land when they are weighed down with hundreds of gallons of highly explosive jet fuel that will put strain on the braking system and possibly cause the brakes to overheat and/or burn. So we had to have the full fire crew follow us down the runway just incase we turned into a firey death explosion. Comforting. I guess I wasn't the only one feeling a wee bit tense about the landing because whe we finally touched ground many of my fellow passengers even clapped.
So 4 hours from when we left we were right back where we started. We were told as we got off the plane that one gate over there was another plane that we would board as soon as it was checked and stocked. Well the plane was there but it turns out that there are rules about how long a flight crew can go with out rest so we were rescheduled yet agian this time not until 8:45 the next morning! Ugh, so while the crew went and napped in some special airport rest area we were given the option to stay and get a meal voucher or go to a hotel. By the time I got through the line it was already almost 1:00 in the morning and with a 30 minute shuttle ride to the hotel plus however long it took to check in only to have to leave by about 5:00 a.m. to get back in time to get through security and back to our gate. 3 hours just didn't seem worth it so that's how I ended up trying to sleep on the floor in an airport in between very sad and pathetic calls and texts to and from my mom. Floors are not comfy, airports are loud and every 15 minutes a voice tells you not to leave your bags alone, and airport gates are really cold. After tying to charge my phone and computer for a while at a charging station in another gate I finally stumbled back to the gate with my fellow flight 110 prisoners at about 2:00 a.m. and plopped down on the floor in between the last empty row of seats, there were bodies everywhere man! At some point in the night a nice airline lady covered me up with a blanket and left me a pillow, neither of which really helped anything but still... it was a nice gesture.
I got up around 6 the next morning and waited for the shops to open again so I could once again seek comfort in a venti Zen tea. By this time my cohort of Flight 110 passengers had some kind of unspoken bond, we recognized each other and smiled. Even though there were the usual few dramatic outbursts at the desk attendants no one was too angry, just tired and a little edgy. The flight crew was going to have to be extra nice to us.
After what felt like forever we finally boarded the flight that we all sincerely hoped and prayed would take us to London at 8:45 that morning. Luckily that flight was about a million times better than our last try though everyone on board was clearly nervous and completely tired. I have aisle seats for all of my flights on the trip and though I was originally a little dismayed to see that I would be spending the 6 hours trying too avoid too much contact with the largish Jewish man sitting next to me. As it turns out, the woman who was sitting in the widow seat found a seat open near a friend a few rows up and so she didn't join us on the second flight allowing Mr. Wiess (I heard a flight attendant say it when they brought his kosher meal, what?) to have the window seat and a lot more elbow room for both of us. He and I made small talk a bit he was a nice guy and he turned out to be one of the very few people not completely ticked off about the whole delay, very zen of him.
I barely needed any of the multitude of things I brought to keep me entertained (which is regretable because I really hated lugging that carry on around) because they have spiffy little TVs in the back of each seat and you can pick and choose from a whole bunch of TV shows and movies, I watched Kung Fu Panda 2 and a few tv episodes. The coolest thing abot the screens was that they also gave you all the stats about your flight like where you were and how long it would take to get there.
Once I finally got on the ground it was a relatively short wait in customs where the man was clearly exasperated with a girl who had none of her things together and didn't even ask to see any of my extra documentation which I had so readily prepared. Miraculously, my bag was just coming around the corner when I got to baggage reclaim, I was sure it would be lost with all the flight issues! After hefting that crazy heavy thing out of the way I made my way to a kiosk where I bought a ticket for the Heathrow express for 18 pounds that would take me to Paddington station. There were people there to help me know which train to get on which was a huge help and the ride was really easy,about 15 minutes tops. Then I caught a taxi at Paddigton station (which was actually really cool looking and I should have taken a picture). That was about the point where I started to get excited because I was in a little black taxi and it was raining outside and the driver was a friendly guy with a cockney accent. I felt so British! He dropped me off at Liberty Hall some where close to midnight.
I had finally made it.
Oh but the story doesn't stop there! Tune in next time for Part 2: Where am I? Where are you? And where are all the street signs???
I left my house a little after 7:00 that morning after tearful goodbyes with my parents and my pets. I have honestly never left them for anywhere close to this long! Then Mike drove me to the airport and tried to make me feel better in the car by repeatedly assuring me that it was all going to be fine. It didn't really work because I was still a weepy mess when we said goodbye outside of the security checkpoint an hour later.
 |
| There's cliff waiting to board the first plane and looking nonchalant as ever. |
That was a 3 and a half hour trip that went as smoothly as anyone could hope but I guess that is where my luck began to run out. When we got off in Newark I decided to find my next gate just to be on the safe side and then go get a snack. When I got to my gate it said it's next flight was for Amsterdam, wrong, don't want to go there. So I checked the departure boards and found the new gate and checked with the man at the desk there and even though he confirmed it I'm paranoid so I asked the airline representatives too. Yep, got the right gate. I then circled way back to the other end of the airport to get a soothing tea and maybe a snack for the plane from Starbucks. By the time I got back to my gate I just had a few minutes to text out my last goodbyes and board the plane.
I was more nervous this time because this was going to be a much longer flight, 6-7 hours, and we would have to fly over the ocean. But things seemed to be going well untill one of the flight attendants and the first officer started darting up and down the aisle looking worried. About 2 hours into our flight we got the announcement that one of the electrical heating elements in one of the emergency exits had broken and was now emitting the lovely scent of electrical smoke and leaving a scorch mark on the door. Thank you to the passenger who pointed that out. Since no one really knew what was wrong with it or if it would get worse somewhere over the ocean we had to turn back and land again in Newark. Then, shortly before we begin our landing descent, the pilot comes back on to tell us that our plane was carrying enough fuel to get us to London and we hadn't burned off or dumped much of it at all before we had to land again. Apparently planes aren't really supposed to land when they are weighed down with hundreds of gallons of highly explosive jet fuel that will put strain on the braking system and possibly cause the brakes to overheat and/or burn. So we had to have the full fire crew follow us down the runway just incase we turned into a firey death explosion. Comforting. I guess I wasn't the only one feeling a wee bit tense about the landing because whe we finally touched ground many of my fellow passengers even clapped.
So 4 hours from when we left we were right back where we started. We were told as we got off the plane that one gate over there was another plane that we would board as soon as it was checked and stocked. Well the plane was there but it turns out that there are rules about how long a flight crew can go with out rest so we were rescheduled yet agian this time not until 8:45 the next morning! Ugh, so while the crew went and napped in some special airport rest area we were given the option to stay and get a meal voucher or go to a hotel. By the time I got through the line it was already almost 1:00 in the morning and with a 30 minute shuttle ride to the hotel plus however long it took to check in only to have to leave by about 5:00 a.m. to get back in time to get through security and back to our gate. 3 hours just didn't seem worth it so that's how I ended up trying to sleep on the floor in an airport in between very sad and pathetic calls and texts to and from my mom. Floors are not comfy, airports are loud and every 15 minutes a voice tells you not to leave your bags alone, and airport gates are really cold. After tying to charge my phone and computer for a while at a charging station in another gate I finally stumbled back to the gate with my fellow flight 110 prisoners at about 2:00 a.m. and plopped down on the floor in between the last empty row of seats, there were bodies everywhere man! At some point in the night a nice airline lady covered me up with a blanket and left me a pillow, neither of which really helped anything but still... it was a nice gesture.
 |
| this is what Newark airport looks like in the wee hours of the morning. The blur is pretty acurate because that's about how well my eyes could see at that point. |
After what felt like forever we finally boarded the flight that we all sincerely hoped and prayed would take us to London at 8:45 that morning. Luckily that flight was about a million times better than our last try though everyone on board was clearly nervous and completely tired. I have aisle seats for all of my flights on the trip and though I was originally a little dismayed to see that I would be spending the 6 hours trying too avoid too much contact with the largish Jewish man sitting next to me. As it turns out, the woman who was sitting in the widow seat found a seat open near a friend a few rows up and so she didn't join us on the second flight allowing Mr. Wiess (I heard a flight attendant say it when they brought his kosher meal, what?) to have the window seat and a lot more elbow room for both of us. He and I made small talk a bit he was a nice guy and he turned out to be one of the very few people not completely ticked off about the whole delay, very zen of him.
I barely needed any of the multitude of things I brought to keep me entertained (which is regretable because I really hated lugging that carry on around) because they have spiffy little TVs in the back of each seat and you can pick and choose from a whole bunch of TV shows and movies, I watched Kung Fu Panda 2 and a few tv episodes. The coolest thing abot the screens was that they also gave you all the stats about your flight like where you were and how long it would take to get there.
 |
| It was about this point when I realized just how far away London really is. |
 |
| Taxi que! |
I had finally made it.
Oh but the story doesn't stop there! Tune in next time for Part 2: Where am I? Where are you? And where are all the street signs???
Oh Cailey, I'm so glad that even in London, you don't wear your pants:) We miss you!
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