Day One: Airplanes, Buses, and HARLAXTON!!!

I have finally arrived safely in Harlaxton!!!! Hopefully you have heard by now, but if you haven't, here is your official notification.  I am a little jet-lagged but I shall try my best to fill you in about my journey that has taken place in the last 24 hours!

I arrived at the airport on Thursday at 3pm with my parents in tow.  We checked in with Dr. Kirk, who is the study abroad director from Evansville.  Once checked in, I had a tearful goodbye from my parents- it's not as long as you think it will be!- and I proceeded through security.  Honestly, I have never stood in line for SO long! However, I made some friends from Tennessee who happened to be going to Harlaxton as well, so it worked out quite nicely.

Once on the airplane, I was able to sit by Ms. Hilary Deuser, and we kept ourselves quite entertained with the movie selection list.  I was so excited to watch The Lorax and once I was half way through, the flight attendants had to shut off the entertainment due to "technical difficulties".  We still were able to entertain ourselves because we had remotes that turned on our overhead lights and tried to create a display....clearly, we were slap happy at this point!  

I slept a total of 3 hours (broken up of course!) on the plane and felt quite well rested when we landed at 7:30am London time (which is 1:30am Chicago time!!).  I made it through the UK border- that was nerve-wracking!- and I FINALLY was able to say I was in ENGLAND!!!! I was so excited- the emotions finally hit me.  We got through to our "meeting point" and we were able to meet the Harlaxton pick-up staff.  We were assigned different colored tags for the floors we lived on so the porter could bring up our bags (thank GOODNESS or I would have been lagging up those stairs!).

We had roughly a 2 hour drive from the airport to Harlaxton Manor.  I slept most of the way and when I woke up, we were arriving in Grantham, located in the area of Lincolnshire, England.  We went down MANY narrow streets until we turned onto the infamous mile long drive way of the Manor.  I was able to take a video of this which I will try to include in a later blog post once I can figure it out.  The view was absolutely BREATHTAKING.  Never have I EVER seen something as beautiful and magnificent as this school. 

We were greeted by the dean of students and other Harlaxton faculty as we were ushered into a lecture room- the Ridgway room- for a short welcoming speech.  We were able to find out where we were living- and I learned quickly that I was living on the fifth floor of the manor looking towards the back yard.  I room with three other girls- Bailey who is a UE nursing student with me, Erin from Texas who happens to be a nursing major, and Heather who also is from UE.  I think we will have a wonderful time rooming together- we are already collaborating on different shenangians!

I spent the afternoon at the manor exploring and taking TONS of pictures- which I promise I will post as soon as I can get my computer to an outlet!  I also got my suitcases unpacked and everything ready to go.  The students have orientation meetings tonight as well as a welcoming party at The Bistro, which is a small pub in the bottom of the manor (don't mind if I join!).  Everything has seemed like a fairy tale!

I promise I will post some pictures soon- and more updates as the weekend goes on!

Cheerio-
Taylor