the beginning of it all

Whew! I finally figured out how to make a blog (after finally figuring out the internet)..talk about being behind on technology. Geeze. This blog is just for me to sort out my thoughts as I'm studying abroad in Swansea. I figure I'll start at the very beginning of this all...

Friday, January 11: I flew from Des Moines to Chicago in the early afternoon, and then made it to O'Hare just in time to board our flight to Heathrow. The plane from DSM to Chicago was ridiculously small. Like, grown men had to crouch to fit. It was very uncomfortable to say the least, but at least it was only about 1 hour! The plane to London, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. There was SO MUCH SPACE! And, to make it better, the plane was practically empty. There was no one sitting next to me, and if I would have wanted to I could have moved to a row with 3 seats to spread out and sleep. Having that much space was wonderful! The plane ride was about 8 hours, and I was only able to sleep for about 2 of them. It was all pretty exhausting. We arrived in London on Saturday at 6am. It didn't take long at all to get through customs or get our bags, which was a blessing! Also a huge blessing was having traveling partners! I flew with another girl from Iowa State, and when we landed in Heathrow we ended up meeting 2 other guys from ISU. We were able to get group discounts for tickets, so we saved about £30 the first morning! After getting our bags, we got a train to Paddington (in London) and from Paddington we had a short 3 hour trip to Swansea. We then got a taxi and go to the student village...we finally made it!

So now that we had finally made it to our apartments, we got to spend the rest of the day (and weekend) doing whatever. Saturday, after we'd put our bags in our rooms, our travel group met up and took the bus into city center, where all of the shops are. I was a bit worried about not being able to find a good clothing store, but that will definitely not be a problem here! There are so many stores, and though I haven't been into clothes stores, it seems like there are good sales going on. We then bought a few necessary items (towels, pillows, shampoo/conditioner, etc) and took a taxi back to our village. We still hadn't quite figured out the bus system. And let's be real, I still haven't really figured it out. :)

Sunday, Abby (the girl from ISU) and I met up to take the bus into Tesco's. Tesco's is basically like a WalMart. They have all the food you'd ever need, plus some clothes, home items, health/beauty stuff, a bakery, etc. I like Tesco's a ton so far; I don't like WalMart. So that's nice to have a good place to shop! After we got back and put our groceries away I really just relaxed the rest of the day. I hadn't slept much the night before (maybe like 6 hours), so I tried going to bed at a decent time but ended up still being awake at 1 or 2 am. I am still quite exhausted, and I don't think I'm used to the time difference yet.

So, for living here...here's the interesting stuff! I am living in an apartment with 8 other people. And guess what? 6 of them are boys! Holy cow. I lived in an all girls dorm my first year of college, and lived with my grandma last semester, so I was definitely not prepared to live with 6 boys! My roommates: 1 girl is from Iowa (turns out she went to Gilbert & we remember each other from high school..small world! crazy!), 1 girl is from North Carolina (I still haven't met her..), 3 guys are from the UK, 1 guy is from Athens, 1 guy is from Colorado, and 1 guy is from Oklahoma. If we ever Skype you might get to meet the guy from Oklahoma..he likes to say hello to people we skype. We all share 1 big kitchen, and there are 2 bathrooms. It's all going really well so far, probably better than I expected, so hopefully this semester will go just as well!

Today (Monday) we started orientation and took a little field trip, but that can all be talked about in another post. Overall things are going well. I'm overwhelmed and exhausted, but I suppose that is to be expected. Hopefully as the time goes on, the blog will become way more awesome. For now, just appreciate the small stuff :) I would still love prayers! And message me/email me whenever so I can hear about your life! If you're reading this from home I probably miss you...keep in touch!