London/Portsmouth take 1!

I seriously want to be in a relationship with this city!

First off, sorry I took so freakin' long to post anything. But the titling of the blog is clearly the most important decision of my life, so until I had one, I couldn't post. Finally - I have one (at this point, it doesn't have to be good) so here we are! I don't promise that my blog will be fascinatingly interesting or exciting, but I will always be honest. So here goes!

I was so blessed with amazing weather for flying. It was perfectly clear, the plane left right on time, there were no nasty layovers. The 9 hour plane ride was as good as it could be- I think I got in some patchy, restless snoozes in my cramped little seat, but overall it went pretty quickly. They put us into orbit around Heathrow for half an hour due to high volume. But when we finally landed, everything continued to go smoothly. The lines for customs weren't long, my luggage came out right away, and we found our liaison right away. It was so easy.
Up until then. At this point, we took the tube from Heathrow to where we were staying (Central London at University College London). I was dragging about 60 pounds of luggage, excluding my carry-on. Dragging my two bags on the tube, with connections AND STAIRS, was brutal. A lovely gentleman helped me carry my bags up one flight. And I know that it was my own fault - they aren't kidding when they tell you to pack light! But I figured it was only 2 days of pain for 11 months of gain. By the time we reached UCL, I was completely pooped - I was closing in on my 24th hour of being awake. But we had to go right into orientation. We did a lot of 'what to expect' and 'who everyone is' etc. In all honesty, it wasn't that exciting. It was super nice to meet everyone - there were so many people from Germans, Equadorians, and Canadians.
That evening, after dinner, we had a quiz night which was lots of fun. I had the most vivacious girl from Equador in my group, a hilarious Italian and a lot of very smart Germans. Later that night, we went on a bus ghost tour of London. It was my first opportunity to really see the city - all of my previous venturing had been underground. And the city is beautiful. We saw the Tower of London, St.Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the Thames - all beautifully lit up. We saw the bank where they filmed Gringott's from HPotts! Unfortunately, we had to put up with the ghost part of the tour. So awful I won't bother going into details.

On Thursday morning, we went on a walking tour of London, and it was wonderful! Our tour guide was very informative, and we went to Westminster Abbey, St James Park, Buckingham Palaces, Clarence House and so many famous streets and alleyways. We saw the changing of the guard, which was so much fun. In front of the new guard, a marching band parades through the streets and it was super cool. We saw so much that I honestly can't remember at this point - but there are lots of pictures!
That afternoon, we all headed off to where we going (Portsmouth for me!). This meant dragging our bags onto the tube again... it was worse than yesterday. But again, I got what I signed up for. My bus wasn't until 5pm, and I was dropped off at Victoria Station around 2. So I dragged my bags across the street to a little Italian restaurant, sat outside and had wine and an overpriced salad that was not worth the money. I settled back in the at the bus station around 3:30 and sat at my gate until about 4:40. After dragging my bags to the washroom (which I had to pay to use), I tried to board what I thought was my bus. However, the lovely bus driver pointed out that I was at the wrong station and that my Greyhound left from Green Line Coach Station, and that I had 20 minutes to catch my bus. I wanted to cry (but that would have gotten me nowhere). SO - I dragged my bags for what felt like the billionth time down the street, across a square and down another road and made it to my bus without about 2 minutes to spare. Praise the Lord - seriously, I made it on time. I can't complain.

I snoozed on the bus, listened to my iPod, and tried to absorb what was flying past the windows. But 2 short hours later I arrived in Portsmouth and was picked up by the lovely Judy Walker, the lady whose home I am staying at. A delicious dinner, hot shower, and movie later, I was passed out in bed.

I had a really lovely weekend in Portsmouth. On Friday, I went walking around the town in the beautiful sun, and did some shopping. That evening, Andrew, Judy and Oscar (husband, wife and son of the family I'm staying with) took me down to the beach and it was wonderful. The beachwalk is lovely, the water was perfectly smooth, and the pebbles are tan/gold. It was really nice to get know all of them - they are all so hospitable. Saturday was a very lazy day - I went out for ten minutes, and spent the rest of the day resting. On Sunday, I went to church. There are elements that I like (everyone was incredibly welcoming, and they are all very supportive of each other) and elements I didn't like (I felt like I was watching a concert- like it was more about the worship team than the actual worship). I'll go back, but I'm going to keep looking around. The family had a nice fancy dinner on Sunday night, and then Daisy (the daughter, who is so much fun!) and I watched X-Factor and ate brownies. It was great. And the next day... first day of work!!