Day 1 - Stepping Into the Unknown

I arrived in London on Friday morning, a mixture of anxiety and excitement running through my veins, not knowing what to expect. I went to London about five years ago, but it was a short visit, not nearly long enough to experience all that this amazing city has to offer, and completely different from my current trip to London.
I embarked on this journey older, maybe a little wiser, and completely unaware of what was to come in the four weeks I would be living in London. Going into the trip, I didn't know anyone and was going completely on my own. A very scary thought for someone who hasn't been away from home for more than a week. When the plane dropped its' altitude to prepare for landing, the city came into view from the clouds and I looked down at the city I have loved for five years and my nerves calmed, replaced by giddy anticipation. True, I still had no idea what was to come but somehow it didn't matter anymore because I was in London, completely by the hand of God, and I was meant to be here, to have this experience.
Once I was able to meet people from the program who where here for the same reasons as I was, it became real. The first person I met was Allison, my flight buddy, who is in the business program. Together we navigated the airport and found our way to the guy in the dark sunglasses holding up a sign that read "British Studies Program". We loaded up onto a bus, or coach as we were corrected, and headed towards the dorms. Once there, I met people from my group and we went on a little walking tour of the streets around our dorm. We ended up having wonderful gourmet pizza at a little shop on the south bank of the Thames River.
That night a bought of homesickness hit me pretty hard. I missed my family and my cat, Mia. I missed my bed and my favorite pillow. I missed my bathroom complete with shower curtain and a sink with warm and cold water from the same faucet. I missed everything about home and my comfort zone. But I took a deep breath, told myself I could do this, and tried to fall asleep. The next morning I woke up feeling better and refreshed (I had been on three planes with maybe 4 hours of sleep the day before). I was able to get a key card to the computer lab to make contact with my family, making it a little easier to be so far away from them. Things quickly took a turn for the worse. We had our first London Alive tours that afternoon, but it started raining and it turned cold. Of course I was in the group that walked for 4 hours in the cold and rain. Fortunately I had an umbrella but it didn't do much for the frizz or keeping me warm. And if you know me, you know I don't like being out in the rain...ever! So it was very miserable and hard to enjoy the tour. So day three was not so great but I came to the realization that even at home I don't have good days all the time so why should Europe be any different?
So the first few days had rough spots here and there but I managed to get through them. There will be other days like where I'll wish I had stayed home, but I know I will make it through and learn something in the end.
Until next time.