"I did not fully understand the dread term 'terminal illness' until I saw Heathrow for myself."

~Dennis Potter

I made it! I am in London at my home stay house. Yesterday around noon, I was finishing up packing when got a phone call from British Airways. The told me my 9 PM flight had been delayed, because my plane had been struck by lightening! (Very encouraging!) So they put me on an earlier flight, which was wonderful because I got to meet my roomie, Kathryn, and sit next to her on the flight. Mum and Kristi drove me to the airport, and Alissa was a surprise guest! It was wonderful to have them see me off!

We boarded the plane, and it seemed fairly certain that Kathryn and I were going to get a row to ourselves. But then a truly Cruella de Vil type woman sat next to me, but she whined enough about her displeasure with the setting arrangement that the steward moved her so she could have three seats to her horrible self. After that, the flight went very smoothly, and we touched down at Heathrow a little after noon.

We made it through costums no problem, no one suspected us of being terrorists or anything unfortunate like that. We made it to the terminal and then had a lot of time to kill before the car we booked to pick us was supposed to arrive. Of course, because things had gone so smoothly up until that point, something had to go wrong. Our car never showed, so Kathryn and I searched all over the terminal for the man that was supposed to be holding a sign with our names on it. He was no where to be found, she we asked the inforation desk to page him. Finally, when he was about an hour late, we called the company, where the woman had mixed stories about what had happened. She sent back another car, which took another 15 mintues, and by that point it was nearly an hour and a half late. We were both super tired and grumpy, and swerving through traffic on the wrong side of the road and top speed wasn't very helpful!

But we finally made it here, and so far my host family seems nice. Orientation is tomorrow, and I am very excited about that! Hope for the best, and I will talk to you soon!!