LONDON!

Well, we arrived!! It was quite a long journey to get here, but now we're sitting in the hostel, not really believing we're in London, England.

We arrived to the Cleveland airport at noon on Wednesday, boarded our flight to Chicago, and then 5 pm Chicago time we boarded our flight to London! The flight itself wasn't too bad, just long. After we landed, with nobody able to sleep, we fought our way through the crowds of Brits on their way to work on the tube, but somehow managed to get on the right train!

After an hour on the subway-like tube, we arrived at Kings-Cross station in central London, with our 60 pound bags, not really knowing where to go, having only my small page of directions I received with our hostel confirmation. After wandering around for awhile, jet lag completely setting in at this point, we finally came across the hostel, only to find out we now had to drag our huge bags down a tiny staircase to lock them up. The staff was really nice though, and the hostel was really welcoming, except for the fact we couldn't check in until 2.

For the next 4 hours, we wandered to coffee shops, restaurants, parks, and even the British Library to find a spot to sit and try to stay awake. Finally, 2 pm came and we got our room that was really cramped but nice! There are three sets of triple bunk beds and one chair the middle bed-users step on to get into bed!

We walked around the area the hostel is located in, and then just hung out at the hostel until 10pm on Thursday, by now having been up for more than 30 hours, we passed out!

We've already met some really awesome people here though. We met two Portuguese guys and watched a soccer...I mean football...match with them last night. Then, this morning we met three Australians, one girl who had been studying in France, and two guys who came to London to live and work for awhile. One in particular, Ian, is planning on meeting up with us later in the week...hanging out with Australians after being in London for less than 2 days...pretty cool.

Then, about an hour ago we met an older British man who wrote down some great markets in the area our flats are, and how to get there. Everyone here is so friendly, and I can't wait to actually feel like I live in London, and not just a tourist. When we move into our flats tomorrow, hopefully I will feel like our stay is more permanent and not so much like I'm in limbo.

Jet lag is pretty bad, and I kind of feel like my head is up in the clouds, but for some reason I can't sleep longer than three or four hours at at time without waking up. I think my body is just a little confused about what time it is still...I've never traveled this far from home!

So far though, I'm not homesick, and I actually don't feel like it's much different than being away at school. I love the people I'm traveling with, and i can't wait to get more settled in. It's still strange to me that I'm in LONDON of all places, but it's definitely awesome!