Indian food doesn't make my stomach hurt!

I now have internet access from home and school. It's not lightning fast (apparently wireless internet is a new thing to the Brits), but it will certainly suffice enough for me to make more regular posts, possibly chat w/ people on AOL/Skype/Gmail and respond to e-mails. Because of that, we're going to back up a little bit, and write about my journey to London. It was a Comedy of small errors, but I'm here safely now and that's all that matters. I'll try and update with some more current stuff later on today.

Well, I’m here. The adventure started off, well, as an adventure. My flight to Charlotte went off without a hitch. In the Charlotte airport, I noticed the other person from KU, Nick, was looking at the departure board. We sat and chatted for a while until we realized we were at the WRONG gate. When we finally realized where we were, our flight to London was almost completely boarded. Oops. Thank goodness we noticed.

Once we arrived in London, the plan was to take the train from the airport to the check-in location. But in attempting to get my train ticket, I accidentally booked a bus ticket….an error I noticed only AFTER the clerk rang the ticket. Needless to say, my first transaction in London had to be voided and re-rung. We then got on the train, and only after we sat down and were comfortable in the blue seats did the “conductor” come around and tell us we had to move because we were in the first-class section. Normally, moving seats to the proper section wouldn’t be an issue. BUT, when you have two, 50-pound suitcases, and two carry on bags that don’t fit through the aisles, changing sections isn’t nearly as simple as getting up and moving to another seat. On that note, I would like to take a minute to thank the inventor of the wheeled suitcase. God love him. There is NO WAY I could have gotten all my stuff from the airport to my flat without the lovely wheels. I would also like to give a standing ovation to the person at Samsonite who decided to put FOUR wheels on the suitcases so that they may be turned and twisted with very little work at all. That saved me a twisted elbow or wrist or two. (Oh…I forgot to mention that “we” is Nick, myself, and my roommate Jen who was also on the Charlotte flight.)

Other than those things, the only noteworthy item was the side dish we had at lunch. Let me start by saying that many items on a British pub menu are described as “mushy,” and mushy peas accompanied both Jen and my meals. But not only were they mushy peas, they were mushy peas with a “hint of mint.” Gagging a bit? So did we.

I haven’t slept more than 6 hours in the past 48, so my bed is calling my name. Tomorrow is orientation and I have a feeling there may also be some sleeping through that.