The Trip and Day 1

It's Tuesday, September 16th, departure day. After a sleepless night of anxiety and excitement, I find myself in LAX, boarding a flight to England. As luck would have it, I'm sitting next to a mammoth man who takes up his seat and half of mine. Luckily, I have the aisle seat and am able to lean away from the juggernaut, though I think I may have permanent back problems from sitting in that awkward position for the nine-hour non-stop flight from LA to London Heathrow. Luckily, British Airways provides ample entertainment, including numerous movies on demand and free meals (that weren't as horrible as might be expected). Perhaps not surprisingly, I was completely unable to sleep at all on this lengthy flight (though the beast beside me had no trouble passing out and several times came precariously close to falling on top of me).

Finally, we reached Heathrow where I was to connect to another flight to Newcastle. My trip through customs was quick and without incident (I'm just glad I was appropriately over-prepared in the way of documents). I immediately found the haven for all American traveler-- Starbucks. After buying a caramel frappacino (indulgent, I know, but so delicious), I immediately tried to get some sort of internet access, and, sadly could not. Instead, I people-watched for about a half hour, and am happy to note that I spotted at least 10 Harry Potter look-alikes (it was amazing, they were everywhere, like an HP convention).

I don't want to bore you too much with the traveling, so suffice to say that after a short dometic flight, and hour bus ride, and some finagling at the accommodations office, I got into my dorm room approximately 17 hours after getting on that first flight at LAX. Needless to say, I was completely exhausted and after settling in, taking a shower to expunge the repugnant stench of the airplane that seemed glued to me, I promptly passed out for the next 15 hours.

On my first day here in Newcastle, I had a lot of tasks to take care of-- registering, getting my student ID, registering with a doctor (yay free healthcare!), getting my internet set up in my room, and snooping about the Toon (what the people up here call town). Embarrassingly, my first two meals here in Newcastle have been Burger King and Subway, but I promise that I'll branch out a bit (though I'm not having any blood sausage, thank you very much).

So, first impressions: I feel really comfortable here, not like an alien in some foreign nation, and it's probably because they speak my native language (so they SAY, but the guy who drove the bus from the airport for us newbies was DEFINITELY a geordie and I could hardly understand him, also, some bloke up in the student union-who was trying to tell me that the post office on campus closed at 2-bloody-PM because the term hasn't started yet-- also had a heavy accent, which was made worse because he was conferring with another bloke with an even thicker accent...actually, it's been a bit funny, and I enjoy hearing the accents). Embarrassingly, when I got off the plane and met the campus meet-and-greet (reps from the campus took us to our accommodations) the girl from the school asked me where I was from and when I said California, she said "I thought you were American." Do you think that was an insult? After like 17 hours of travel or whatever, I obviously didn't look good, and I was wearing skater shoes (embarrassing, I know, but I haven't got the boot thing together yet)-- P.S. all the British girls are SUPER cute with their little coats and boots and other awesomeness, why won't someone dress me for crying out loud. Fashion is so beyond me. In sum, I feel pretty good, though I have no idea where anything is (I couldn't find the Toon on the first day, even though it's a block away, and I really wish I knew how to read a map properly...or that they had given us a proper map instead of this crappy on in the tourist guide). I'm sure things will get better as I get to know the town better.

To see pictures a took my first day in Newcastle, check out http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/alliscott/NewcastleDay1?authkey=Hdh4bvJIS1Y#.