The Voyage

After approximately twenty solid hours of travel, I have made it to UWE. We left the house yesterday remarkably close to on time, and arrived at Dulles around three. After goodbyes, tearful (Nana, Tamsin) and not so much (Mum, Dad, me), I passed through security which was much simpler than I expected. I was through that and sitting at my gate by 4:30.

Our plane was an airbus, the “Queen of the Skies,” christened by the Queen in 2004. We started rolling about quarter to seven, so a few minutes late, but not bad, and then we were off! The sky, which had been cloudy, cleared up a little, and then we lifted through the remaining cloud layer and watched the sun set. When we reached cloudless skies, night had fallen and we were over Canada, which was quite pretty in the dark. I’ve always enjoyed the pictures of what the world looks like at night, and there’s nothing quite like seeing it yourself.

My seatmate was a very nice Nigerian woman who was visiting family in the states, on her way to London to see her son. I helped her operate her in-flight entertainment system, and she put up with my wiggling around and needing to get up every now and then. I tried very hard to sleep, but I only got about twenty minutes of semi-conscious dozing before a seatbelt light dinged and knocked me out of it. We experienced a lot of turbulence, pretty much every fifteen minutes or so the whole night.

Flying into dawn was really beautiful – I kept looking to see if we’d made it yet, and finally the sky was tinted orange at the horizon, and the sky turned that weird navy-green colour for a few minutes. Land crept into sight, so I took pictures of it, and as we flew in over England it was possible to see actual countryside. With hedgerows! It seems that anytime you need a bit of land divided, the thing to do is to plant some trees. The whole landscape is a lot like the patchwork of the American Midwest, but with these treelines down the middle keeping everything apart. Coming in over London I got some really nifty shots of the ground as we banked and circled in to the runway.

Once at Heathrow, everyone disembarked and marched through the unimpressive-looking terminal – it’s all currently under construction, so there’s not much to see. I followed some confusing signage to the immigration department, and there I stood for about forty-five minutes. Fortunately, there were friendly Americans in front of me – mountain bikers from Colorado on their way to Edinburgh for some trails – and we passed the time with conversation and with suggestions about what would make the wait better. Drinks, for example, or poker. The actual immigration bit was very simple. I handed over my passport, answered some pop quiz-like questions about my stay, and was waved on. Not worth the forty-five minute wait.

Baggage claim was very easy by the time I made it down to the retrieval station – everything was already off the conveyor belt and sitting. It didn’t look like my bags were even opened, as my zip ties were still intact. I stopped at the information desk for directions to bus station, and that was quite a hike with both suitcases. I had to go down a series of ramps and through some tunnels and around a couple of corners and then up a very crowded lift. Thank goodness for signage.

Automated ticket machines are my new favourite thing, as they made buying a ticket very easy. I waited an hour for a direct bus to Bristol, but there were entertaining babies to watch, and a pigeon. I saw that there were pigeon spikes on top of everything in the terminal there, including the large clock they had mounted on the wall.

The bus was a nice quiet break after Heathrow. Most of the dozen or so passengers were asleep in the first fifteen minutes, but I was busy trying to look at everything. The terrain was very flat around the city, but it got hillier as we headed west. The land along the M4 looks a lot like the drive out 64 west does, only flat, and with more animals visible from the road. In addition to the usual sheep, cows, and horses, I saw what appeared to be an alpaca farm.

I found it entertaining that every so often I’d be looking at a field, and right in the middle of it, there would be a person just sitting there. And once along the way a car had stopped on the opposite side of the road and its passengers were sitting on the embankment having a picnic. Not something you see back home!

The architecture here is notably different. I passed a neighbourhood that I swear looked exactly like Little Whinging. There’d be farm houses and manor-looking houses backed right up to brand new subdivisions, everything all jumbled together. The landscape closer to Bristol included a bright yellow castle-type building that I didn’t manage to take a picture of. The city itself looks like it will be fun to explore. The streets are narrow and the traffic is crazy, but there lots and lots of shops and some pretty parks, and an absolutely gorgeous bunch of churches.

At the bus station in Bristol, several taxis were queued up so I approached the nearest one and Sam the Taxi Driver helpfully jumped out to help me load my bags. He has been a taxi driver for ten years, I found out, and he used to live in Toronto doing electronics repairs for Sears, so that’s good to know. We pulled up to UWE and were given very concise directions by enthusiastic orientation leaders. A couple of fellows carried my bags up to my flat for me while I checked in, and then I was given a tour.

My room is on the third floor, which after living on the sixth is going to be a breeze. I have a lovely view of some trees and distant rolling farmland, as well as the courtyard here and the next building over. My bedding and kitchen materials are supposed to arrive later today, and in the meantime I am doing my best to get situated. I went down to the school store for a bit of lunch, and found that they offer jammy dodgers (which I will have to try) and also Jack Daniel’s. Also Jagermeister and several kinds of vodka. And that’s only the labels I bothered to read. Though I considered having groceries delivered (which I can do here!!), I think I’ll go out after I have a shower. Leaping in with both feet and whatnot.

I’ll post again soon! Pictures are being uploaded to facebook.