First Impressions

So the trip to the airport went with out a hitch. We got there in plenty of time, I recognized Heather O’Brien by her backpack, which when it is your carry-on is packed so full it is more than likely bigger than the person that’s wearing it and is therefore their most distinguishing feature. Lauren came a little bit after us which I was surprised at because she always struck as someone who is very punctual. (Lauren, feel free to comment) So we bid good-bye to our parents and put all our things through the metal detector. Before the lady at the drug store had told me horror stories of X-ray machines destroying film and possibly even memory cards in digital cameras. However, I believe this old wife’s tale is false; anyway, nothing happened to my cameras. Heather had two extra tickets for the Maple Leaf Lounge which is this really swanky waiting area. When we entered the receptionist seemed really snotty and looked down her nose at our tickets when we showed them to her. When we entered the room we could see why. It was very elegant; mostly populated by older business men who probably make more money in a day than I do all summer. We took advantage of the free food and sat and relaxed for a little while. I was kind of nervous about the flight because I’ve never flown before. Wally, being a penguin, had never flown before either. The fact that everything had gone perfectly up to this point actually made me more nervous; something had to go wrong eventually! But we boarded the plane without any trouble. I dozed, didn’t bother watching the movies because I didn’t have a really good view. Then the sky started to lighten and I pulled up my curtain (?) to see the plane fly over Ireland and rows upon rows of puffy white clouds. After that the view got more and more spectacular as we watched the sun rise and then started to descend through the clouds. I have that image permanently blazed upon my memory. Didn’t take any pictures, they wouldn’t do it justice anyway. You’ll just have to imagine it.
We arrived in the airport, met with the others and were off to our bus. The hour and a half bus ride gave us our first whirl-wind view of England. It was all very fascinating but I still found it hard to stay awake. The first thing I noticed about England is how green it was. It’s really a faded green; it’s sort of a different shade then we have in North America, but it surprised me because it is January. I knew there wouldn’t be snow, but I was expecting it to be brown like it is at home. It is actually quite pretty here.
Wow this is getting to be a long blog. I’ll just end with saying I’m glad our first day is over. We were all exhausted yet trying to make conversation with a bunch of people we had never met before and eat this delicious meal they had prepared for us when none of us were hungry, we just wanted to sleep! We did go on a tour of Charlbury. I don’t know if it was just the jet-lag but I was incredibly dazzled by this small town. I felt like I was wandering through the pages of a pop-up book; to an outsider I would just look like another illustration. I remember running my finger’s down the stone walls just to make sure they were real.
For our first dinner Angela and I went to eat at Sarah’s host family’s house because Angela is going to be taking Sarah in the last week of the program. Her host family has three adorable children. Beanie (5) and Marcus (3) took us all around the house searching for the purple fuzzy monsters that were living in the wardrobe. It was a good first night experience. But that night I had dreams about ominous purple monsters that were shaped like tentacles that took over my house and chased us into the woods…. I don’t know if the innocent kids spawned that dream possibly.