Landed in Liverpool

Landed in Liverpool-- it sounds so simple, but I couldn't be more exhausted.  It was early Sunday morning when we headed for Indy.  We got there in plenty of time and had an easy flight into Philly.  Once in Philly, we had a 5 hour layover.  That in itself was bad, but carrying around an extra 30 lbs in bags on my back almost did me in.

I survived the lengthily layover and then boarded my next flight to Manchester.  This was a 7 hour flight.  The airline tried to make it sound good by saying that they were serving us two meals.  What they fed me could hardly constitute as a meal.  The pasta was alright, I ate my salad in two bites, the roll was so hard I could have broken a window, but the dessert was actually good.  All I did the rest of the flight was watch movies.  And to my surprise, they had some pretty descent ones.  I watched Frozen and Catching Fire.  That was great, except for the part where I didn't sleep.

I am coming up on 34 hours with no sleep.  That made today, the day with all of our orientation meetings, horrible.  I was fighting to stay awake, as were my fellow classmates.  At least we finally arrived at University.  We arrived at our dorm to find that there wasn't a lift (elevator,) so I had to juggle my 50 lb suitcase, my 20 lb backpack, and my 10 lb purse.  To any onlooker, the sight of 11 American girls, exhausted from the lack of sleep, lugging their large suitcases up a spiral staircase, and being led by an English man had to be quite amusing.

The accommodations are not quite what I hoped for, but it is a dorm and my feet will only have to hang off the end of the bed for 8 weeks.

The bathroom situation is a little bit interesting too.  We only have two toilets and two showers for the whole flat (floor). We will see how that works out later.   

Oh well, at least I am here and safe, tired, but safe.  And I will never forget the first thing I saw and heard when coming off the plane and officially in England.  A security officer was pushing an old man in a wheelchair.  He got to buzz past our customs line because he was from England.  As he passed us in line he exclaimed "Take me to my master!"  And he was off.  Ta and Cheers!