Landed

The day started with a quick airborne jaunt to LAX where we were greeted with a nearly 3 hour layover. However, it wasn't half as bad as I expected. Why? Well I beat Mr. Apple 6 times consecutively in Reversi, I heard native German speakers rambling off oodles of Deutsch, and also waiting to board our flight was a soccer team from London waiting to return from their "tourney" in LA. Accents + Eurohair = Attractive.

I have a talent. It's called sleeping on airplanes. It is a much coveted talent and had D&C been written within the last 20 years, I'm almost positive "airplane sleeping" would be listed among the talents in Section 46. The 9 hour flight to Heathrow felt like one nap after the other interrupted only by meals and the occasional potty break. We landed shortly before noon and caught the Tube to a stop near the London Center. I lugged my red bag a few blocks (with the embarrassing yellow HEAVY tag proclaiming to everyone on the streets that I over pack) before we finally rounded a corner and saw 27 Palace Court. Home. I looked out the window. We were greeted with blue skies.

Soon after checking in, claiming my bunk and dressing my mattress with fitted sheets and a duvet I met some girls downstairs and we headed out the door to get our Oyster Cards. I felt like a real Londoner, long term travel arrangements and all. The walk in Kensington Gardens was beautiful with lupine dusting the vast green with vibrant purple. We watched the squirrels chase the pigeons (and vice versa), and little boys chasing dogs. I kept expecting Peter Pan himself to fly over the trees and sweep us away to Neverland. Am I really living here for two months?

After a brief meeting and a long prayer we had dinner and then headed to our rooms to finish unpacking and getting settled before our longer meeting at 6:30. The meeting was met with droopy eyes and glazed stares. It was apparent that we had all spent the day traveling. We were instructed to stay up and keep moving so we hit the streets again and pounded the pavement for a few hours before I wound up here in cyberspace sending off emails and recording my journeyings.