The tale of the never-ending flight

First, my apologies that I can't post pictures or videos for the next few days. I only have access to library computers, so until I can set up the internet in my room, my apologies.

First things first. I was supposed to land at Manchester airport yesterday at 8:45 am local time. After the train rides, etc. to Lancaster, I figured I would be walking into my new home no later than noon.

Instead, at noon, I was sitting on a runway in London.

Turns out that the UK doesn't exactly know how to handle snow. There are only about 3 inches or so on the ground, but that was enough to close the Manchester airport for most of yesterday.

In fact, it was only open from 12-2, and my plane was the last one allowed in before it once again closed down.

The moral of my story is that my 7 hour flight here turned into a 12 hour nightmare with lots of time spent sitting on runways and circling closed airports. I also barely got any sleep as the person next to me felt it was his duty to teach me everything he thought I would need to know about England during the course of our flight. I appreciate the knowledge, but would have appreciated the sleep even more.

To top it off, our luggage was delayed, trains were running late, and taxis were sparce by the time we actually made it to Lancaster. I do have so beautiful pictures of some of the train stations we encountered (as well as pictures of the other weary Lancaster students I met during my journey) and will post those as soon as I can.

At Mizzou, my study abroad advisor always talked about the rollercoaster of emotions that happens when you study abroad. I can attest to the low points he talked about from my experience yesterday. All I can say now is that I'm so happy to be on the ground, done with travel for qutie awhile, and bit better rested. This whole orientation thing is reminding me why I'm so excited to be here, the party at the Grisdale bar tonight will surely remind me why I'm so excited to be in the UK.

Emails, comments, facebook messages, smoke signals, or loud yelling in my general direction are all appreciated, as I miss you all and feel infinitely better when I hear from you.

Hopefully pictures and more in my next post.

Love.