Our Journey Home

It's been quite a few weeks since Trevor and I have been in England so let us catch you up. While our flight left Sunday the 25th of August in the evening, we did not arrive until late Monday night. We were driven to the airport by Mary and Dave, then with all of our luggage in hand proceeded through security. Turns out when you pack everything you own to transport to another Country they are inclined to go through your luggage pretty thoroughly...especially since the bulk of what Trevor packed was electronics. That and neither of us had specific bags with our own things in them due to the weight restrictions...things were shoved where they fit, and every bag we had was exactly 50 pounds. 

We were hoping to catch a flight straight to the local airport, however because the trip was last minute and money is tight this did not happen, although we were lucky enough to get an insanely good deal of $290 per person.  The first flight we had to catch was to Chicago...thankfully with all this waiting a couple wise people told us to pack food...we did not really think they would let us through with it, but they did even with the food that was opened. I tend to get flight sick and never much enjoy what they serve on the plane so it was especially helpful to me. When we arrived in Chicago, we had to go through security again...same spiel...they totally emptied out our bags and it took us forever to put them back together and then we found our gate to London. Unfortunately, our flight to London was delayed an hour because the flight previous to ours had their plane struck by lightning, so they are obviously required by law to do an evaluation on the plan to make sure its ready to fly. But, not really what you want to hear when you are making an 8 hour journey over the Atlantic Ocean.

The plane ride to London was exhausting, there was no sleep, we had movies and games in front of our seats on our own tv, but that can only keep you busy for so long.  Despite this our flight did make it to it's destination only to find more waiting. We had to wait for an hour in a enormous line for the Border Agency to check us in. They looked at our Visas, and scanned our thumb and index finger on a little digital machine to make sure the visas were indeed ours. This was cool but a little frightening. The whole time we were waiting there Trevor was repeating to himself “please, I don't want to take the London underground”. The London Underground is pretty much a very cramped subway, you have to roll over peoples toes with our luggage. Instead we were able to take a quicker rail for a higher cost of course, but it was not cramped. At the second rail station we found out we would not be able to take a direct rail to Worcester as we had planned as it was Sunday, so the rails are slower, and if we wanted to get home within the day the next rail was leaving in 5 minutes....so all the luggage dragged as fast as we could to catch that rail, then a 10 minute run to catch the bus, and another 10 minute run to catch another rail. We would have been very lost and in trouble if we hadn't met two very nice people along the way. One was a middle aged lady who actually helped carry our luggage and made sure the bus would not leave without us, and she knew the lady that managed the rail and was able to make sure they waited for us. The other was a young guy who happened to also study at Trevor's University whom also helped us carry our luggage and make sure we got off at the right stop. Finally we had arrived to Foregate Rail Station, only a few blocks from our home.

The first thing we did when we arrived to the final rail station was to call Trevor's work colleagues, they came to pick us up and take us to our house since they also picked up the keys for us. Not that we had that much luggage, but they could not fit it all and the 4 of us in their English sized car. So, Trevor and his professor walked home while I rode with the luggage and the driver...absolutely horrifying. It was so very hard for me to get into what is supposed to be the drivers seat and the twists and turns of the street, the small width of the street, seriously scary...I will not drive here. By the time the car arrived to the house Trevor and his professor were already there...its much easier to be a pedestrian than a driver. This was so surreal...we had seen so many pictures of the property but it was so much different when we actually got here. The home is actually organized really oddly. Doors close off every room, there is a switch for every plug in, the rooms are smaller but there seems to be more of them. It's hard to explain, we will have to post pictures later on. When we got here our fridge and cupboards were filled with food and we had all of our necessities taken care of...this was so nice. The first thing I did was crash on the bed and sleep for many hours. Trevor stayed up cleaning and re-arranging the house.

   

Anyhow, for your enjoyment here are some pictures from the journey.

Last minute packing...making sure we have everything before we load it up in the car.

In the car cuddling the blanket...early mornings make me cold.  At least I was not hungry as we had a good breakfast of donuts that Auntie Virgina brought us over and demanded we needed.  We <3 her.

Mother in-law Mary already playing on her phone...it looks like she is bored.

All of our luggage out and ready to go.  I even stuffed my sweatshirt pocket with my things.

Mmm...beef jerky.  The food that kept us sane on our journey.  Don't ever go to the airport with food...I know for a fact you can get through security even with an open package of food like this.

The view over London.

Touching ground in London.

The insanely long line for immigration.

Taking our luggage off the spinning thing and trying to compact it so we can get to our train quickly.

Nice and compact...but it didn't work and the brown bags wheel died in the journey.

If we would have just looked 2 feet away we would of noticed they had trolley's.   

You can not tell me you are not thinking about Harry Potter right now.

My first train...notice the words "mind the gap" at the bottom.  lol

Trevor looking exhausted...this was our last train we had to take and we are only minutes from home.

I was so excited about the train it gave me a good adrenaline rush to get the luggage home.

Unfortunately I gave up on taking pictures at this point...I got too tired.  After this picture I slept for a very long time.


Monday I had to wake up and go to my induction at school a 4 hour train ride there and back, Trevor's professor gave him the week off so he went with me to help me navigate the rails which I still don't get by the way. That went well, my professor was really nice and really excited about having me on campus.  We got home at 9 pm and then I had to wake up and do it all over again Tuesday for my first day of class. There are only 13 other students in my program so its nice and small like I am used to, everyone is really nice and they were all very fascinated by my stories about deer, and bears being in my backyard back in Wisconsin. It was funny hearing my professor teach a class and use the phrase, “like a rabbit in the headlights”, blokes and lasses, etc. I had to do everything I could to hold back laughter. One of my professors, whom I am very glad is not teaching any of my classes, I could not understand a word he was saying. Then I had to do the train ride back, the rail system is so confusing and they use military time (which of course they don't call it that here), and their train schedules are impossible to read...I usually just ask the people at the information desk, then follow the towns I know back. Hopefully this is something I learn so I don't get so worked up.

We then followed all this craziness up with some more exhaustion by going to town and purchasing things that we needed for the house.  There was no rest for us the first week we arrived.  Stay tuned for more updates on how we are settling in.