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Friday: My flight from TIA to ATL was fairly turbulent and I had to sit next to three people who WOULD NOT STOP COUGHING. Let alone even have the courtesy to cover their mouths. How rude and disgusting. I am glad I haven't become sick yet *knocks on wood*. After 1.5-2 hour flight, I arrived at ATL airport. It was big, lonely and fun to people watch. It had tons of military people walking around since there is a base nearby. As you can probably guess, that made my day. Haha. My flight left at 10:50 pm and I happened to be sitting next to a military guy who was on his way to a base in England. We talked about tv and the military for most part. And while he seemed to be okay with conking out in the oddest position, I could not for the life of me fall asleep. I slept in 10-25 minute intervals.
Saturday: Once landed in London, I got off the plane and headed to immigration (border control). Let me tell you, I practically shat my pants. The guy freaked me out saying I needed a student visa and well...USF told me I did not need one. So here I am thinking I came all this way and would not be able to enter the country. I practically went through showing him every paper I had in my possession all while sweating bullets. Finally the guy consented to allowing me in. I did have a stroke of luck when it came to baggage claim. Just as I walked up, my bag came round. I then headed off through customs and picked up a taxi.
Their taxis are so cool! I should've taken a picture as it is hard to describe, but I'll just say they are neat little cars. My hotel was nice and close by to the airport. Though I will point this out: in England, the customer service sucks! The people are very nice for the most part however any one in a customer service position seems to lack any emotion nor compassion. I guess it is just their way but it is something strange I will need to get used to. Two other people from my school also happened to be staying there, Sofia and Joe, and it was nice to hang out with them some. Sofia and I even met our two Welsh professors for drinks down at the hotel bar.
Sunday: I woke up on Sunday morning with very little sleep and a massive headache. I couldn't even get up to pack. So with 15 minutes left till I had to meet our two professors downstairs, I managed to throw myself together and head out. We met the rest of the students at the airport and had some good times exploring while flights trickled in. Finally we were able to get on our way around 10:30 am ish. We made a quick pit stop at a rest area and continued on to the university. I was volunteered to read the 11 pages out loud of the case study we were supposed to have read for our classes in Wales. And since the majority in our van hadn't read them, including myself, it was a major help. I even got a drink out of it later on at the Pick and Shovel. Once arriving at the University, we were taken to our rooms and allowed 20 min to get settled before we were wisked away to a small grocery to pick up meager rations for our next 2 meals. Then...they left us alone . We unpacked and explored the gym on campus. Then headed down to the pub. That was an extremely long walk!! Down steep hills, flights of stairs and down long streets. I thought it would never end. The pub was cool, not what I had expected. But we did go around 4 so I am assuming that is for the light crowd. Me and two girls decided to call it quits and headed back to the dorms. We scoped out the building we are to be meeting at tomorrow and made the ridiculously hard walk back up the hill to our rooms. It feels like you a climbing a damn mountain! All of us were out of breath.
After all that, I spent some time mingling with my roommates. It is freezing in my room and I am not sure if my radiator works or even how to turn it on. I wish I brought my slippers and my rain coat. And I wish I had some hot chocolate right about now. My fingers are practically numb. I think it is mostly cause I have the room on the outside of the building. Everyone else's is fairly comfortable. So my goal tomorrow is to put my Welsh professor to work and see if he can get this radiator (or at least I think that is what it is) up and running.
Tomorrow, or actually now today we head out to take photos with the university president and then we are off to a coal mine and some classes in the evening. I'll try to keep up with posting photos.
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