Day 1

Sunday, May 13 -

After a "short" (according to the pilot) eight hour flight I landed in London! I didn't get very much sleep on the plane, maybe an hour or two, and it wasn't very comfortable, but I was so excited to be in London, so I was feeling really weird when I finally arrived. I got through the airport and border security with no problem, but when I went out to the arrival area to meet the shuttle driver who was supposed to be taking me form the airport to my flat, he was no where to be found.

Imagine me, standing alone in an airport I've never been to, in a foreign country I've never been to, and with no phone. I was trying so hard not to stress out.

There were two other students from the Mizzou group who were supposed to be on the shuttle with me, but their flight landed a few minutes earlier than mine. I did a couple laps around the arrival area to make sure I wasn't just not seeing him, but no luck. Then I thought maybe he took the other two students already and forgot to wait for me. There was one last shuttle for the student with the last flight, so I thought worst case scenario I'd just wait for that one. And so I stood there.

I went to ask the airport information desk if there was any other arrival area that this shuttle driver could possibly be. She said there were four terminals, so it could be any of them. I didn't know what terminal the last student was landing in, and there was only a 25% chance it was the one I was in. I began to mentally prepare myself to haul my luggage to the Tube and figure out how to take that to my flat.

Eventually I decided I would most likely end up totally lost or dead if I ventured into the Tube. I had the phone number of the shuttle place, but no phone, so I ended up using a pay phone for the first time in my life. The shuttle company said they were still looking for a student (me) and I told them where I was and went back to waiting.

After waiting in the airport for over two hours, the shuttle finally made it to me. The driver ended up sending in one of the other students to get me (apparently my bright orange shirt that said Mizzou was too inconspicuous). We got into the shuttle and headed to our flat!