I’ve made it! After enduring a winter storm that caused every flight to London to be cancelled, luckily except mine, I can finally say that I’ve made it!
The journey to London would have been a lot smoother if the weather in the U.S. did not decide to act up on the one day that I needed it to behave. But besides that, the 7.5 hour flight was not as bad as one would expect. I was provided both dinner and breakfast since it was an overnight flight. The food was not the best so I definitely relied on my own snacks. I was pretty comfortable the entire trip and I was even able to catch up on some of my Netflix shows that I downloaded earlier in the day.
Once I arrived at Heathrow Airport, I went through immigration pretty quickly, picked up my suitcase and was out the door; that’s when I ran out of good luck. If you are traveling to London and you know that you will need access to your phone right away, I would highly recommend that you do not rely solely on the idea of connecting to the airport’s wifi … because that is what I did and it did not work out as planned. My uncle who resides in London was to pick me up at the airport. The plan was to call him via WhatsApp once I landed, but of course I could not connect to the wifi. I attempted to use one of the pay phones but they only took my money and did not connect the call. Luckily after walking around for about 45 minutes I found him and it one of the happiest moments of my day. But learn from my mistakes and do not rely on wifi.
After leaving the airport (that I now despise), I was finally able to get to see some of my new home for the next 3 months and all I can say is WOW. I’m still in shock that I am really here. Over a year of planning and I am finally here in Kensington with my own personal tour guide (my uncle). The best part is that where I will be staying is located in one of the safest and “posh-est” neighborhoods. As a result, many of the nearby stores will not necessarily accommodate my college student’s budget but that will force me branch out and visit other boroughs. I am so excited to see what the experience will have in store for me!
