In God's hands

What a whirlwind of the past two (technically three) days. It feels like just yesterday I was getting my acceptance letter for the study abroad program and now here I am, in London once again! Even though I'm way past the "shock and awe" factor of the first time ever being in Europe kinda deal, its so exciting to watch and share in this experience for the many others on the trip. Even though I'm still not quite sure how functional I am because of Jet Lag, this post will just cover the highlights rather then full detail. But no worries, there will be plenty much more exciting things for me to write and for you to read later!
    Tuesday: Orientation day: aka longest day ever! We literally covered everything that should be covered in four days all in one. Minus all the reminders of packing musts, final rick steve videos, and a scavenger hunt that only Mendy (our head of the study abroad programs) could think of around Edmond, the day went by pretty fast. It still hadn't hit me yet that I was getting on a plane the next day for something I apparently had been preparing for over the past couple of months. It was surreal in my mind. There was no way on God's green earth I was going to get to go back to Europe for two months....and the more I thought about it that day, the more it turned into butterflies in my stomach.
   Wednesday: Departure day: I didn't have a mother there with tears swelling off in her eyes as she hugged her baby goodbye, a father keeping his sunglasses on doing everything in his power to hold it all in, or my siblings there to annoy me one last time. No, none of that but thats okay. At that time, I was still trying to get use to the idea that for some kids this was the "big" trip of their lives away from there parents. I know my family was the same way the first time I left the country, and even still my parents are concerned so much, they splurge and get the international plan on my phone so I can still call and text them whenever. My family is everything to me, and I will take this sentence to thank them for everything and to say I love them very much.
Next we boarded the bus, and we were off like a gun. Stopping once to eat our last "american" meal at Braums (how classic!), we eventually made it to the airport, gate, and then the plane. This plane was HUGE. And I mean two stories high huge. And I was stuck in the middle of the middle row next to a man I would later find out enjoyed drinking wine like it was a sport. On the bright side, he hardly ever stayed in his seat. The flight was long, and trying to sleep was proving to be difficult even with the two sleeping pills I took, and my ipod on almost full blast to help drown out the sound of loud women, babies, and snoring. I eventually got some sleep and eventually we landed....
   Thursday: London: Welcome to the land of Big Ben, awesome accents, and crazy people. Staring out the window on our bus on the way to the hotel was like staring at a friend passing by. I wasn't frantically taking pictures of funny signs, cars, or double decker buses but instead enjoying the view of everyone else doing that, and of course the city itself. I was still jet-lagged once we got on the bus. I even thought someone was texting and driving till I realized the driver seat was on the right side and it was just the passenger texting. We dropped our stuff off once we made it to the hotel, and immediately immersed ourself into the culture by going straight to the most tourist-y part of London!! (Please note my sarcasm). Westminster/Big Ben. We had three hours just to run around the city because we had no tours booked that day. Our mission was to stay awake and find food, kinda like the London Hunger Games except we didn't need to kill anyone...(okay bad reference, I'm tired...moving on!). After splitting up into groups, my previous visit to the city came in handy in discovering where westminster, the prime ministers house, and tralfagar square was without needing the map. Looking around was memorizing of course, seeing the changes from my last visit such as the cleanings or restorations on buildings. Also, it was the little details that stuck out this time too. The gold plates on top of Big Ben's sky high tower, the carvings of great detail on practically every part of the churches, and even the parks, which I never noticed before, became something I noticed more and more because of how popular they were for the locals. My group, tired from walking/trekking the many streets, eventually took notice to a park where we took time to relax and people watch. And I must correct anyone saying the airport has the best people watching because fact: London park's have the best people watching. I can't even explain some of the sites we saw...but one word can sum it up...Scary.

Minus the jet-lag, we made it through and now we are back at our hostel, safe and sound. There is no AC here, but tons of different people that maybe I might get to meet! How exciting would that be? I know that getting out of my comfort zone more and more is always a must in Europe, so why now give it 100 percent? Anyways, this post ended up being long anyways. I apologize for the false notion it would be short...tomorrow will be alot different. Less sight seeing, and the first day of journaling for real! The time has finally come!
Well signing off from London. Cheerio loves!