Mr. Telephone Man...

So, I have a UK cell phone now. Oh, and I happened upon this lovely pay phone on my way back from town. Do we even have payphones in the US anymore? Eh... Whatever.

Longest Day Ever...with a side of Ketchup

So, I've made it to Jolly old England! Yes, how exciting, though yesterday had to be one of the longest days of my life. I boarded a plane at 9:15 on a flight that was supposed o leave at 9pm. This was only after I was metaphorically raped at the currency exchange counter where I was jarred by the reality that my money is worth only half as much in England. Translation: I'm broke. But hey, who's complaining. I boarded my flight with excitement. However, I was then forced to walk through the amazingness that is first class. Do you recall that scene in Jerry McGuire where Dorothy is sitting in coach while Jerry is in first class telling a rather intriguing tale of proposing to his fiance, Avery? Yes. Good. Well Dorothy tells her son that first class used to be a better meal, but now it's a better life. You with me? This is what I thought about as I walked through people who already had their blankets drawn over them. They had wine in their hands, their feet propped up, and individual movie screens adjusted. Grossly fabulous in comparison to steerage. I proceeded to my seat in the rear where I had neither a footrest, nor a glass of wine. I was scrunched into my seat with my homegirl seated in the middle and a friendly stranger seated by the window. The woman in front of me insisted, as soon as she was capable, of reclining her seat into my lap, forcing me to do the same to the gentleman behind me who never failed to pull on my seat whenever he, or his aisle-mates, needed to get up to go to the restroom (which happened nearly every hour on and 8 hour flight). And that was my flight. Though, it was a pleasure feeling like I was rapidly served two meals (dinner and Breakfast) in hopes, I'm sure, that it would encourage my adjustment to the new time zone. I also enjoyed the free movies. I watched The Butler and World War Z. I also embraced a bit of the child within and tried to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (I did enjoy the first one), but this go round was just too annoying so I only watched about 20 minutes of this one. Finally, we arrive. In total, there were four of the members of our Oxford Program on the flight, so we proceeded through probably the smoothest Border control process and customs. But then it got interesting again, in a way that truly made this the longest day ever. None of us had thought about the layout of Heathrow. None of us understood that once we got through border control, customs, and entered a space where we could meet with others that there were different terminals. After signing on for the wifi and chatting on group me, we discovered that this airport was similar, in some respects, to LaGuardia in New York. Different terminals for different airlines. So we waited, Courtney and I, while two other members of our group caught the bus to Oxford. Um...we waited for what felt like forever. Lethargy was settling in for me. I suddenly felt like I hadn't slept in days and I was fighting not to show my irritability. Finally, we were able to meet with two other girls. We finally got on our way to Oxford. It was three hours after out flight had landed. Okay, this really has turned into a load of complaints. There is goodness to be found in this world. The house is gorgeously quaint. I fully intend to explore today, because when we finally arrived last night, we just barely had time to calm down before the House meeting. After that, we continued to unpack for a while, and then went to dinner at an Italian restaurant, Cibo. The restaurant was pretty and the food quite tasty. After our food arrived, Courtney and Monique became obsessed with french fries they'd seen another table order. So, we called the waiter over and they ordered french fries. Then, the waiter asks if they want ketchup. His Italian accent was quite thick, so he asks again. This time, he's laughing. My friends say yes, they want the ketchup. The waiter is so amused and brings with the fries a saucer with a small bowl full of ketchup. His amusement made us laugh. Yes, we're Americans. Yes, we use condiments. Yes. We want a side of ketchup with our fries. :-) Thanks. And that was day one. I managed to get to bed around 11:45, which would have been almost 7pm in Atlanta. Hopefully, today I can continue to pull my body and mind around to Oxford time. But even as I finish this post, I'm getting tired again, as if I woke up too early. Sigh. Guess we'll see how much exploration happens today.