You know that feeling when you can not decided which emotion you are dealing with?

In my case it was excitement and nerves. I could not for the life of me decide which emotion stirred in my stomach. As I got on the tram to go to my gate I realized it was excitement. Even though the sight of my mom crying and my little brother waving goodbye made the butterflies flutter just a tad. Once on the plane I was a lot more at ease…that is until we landed at Heathrow Airport. Then the anxiety began…

On the plane I met this nice guy from Oregon. His name was Josh. Luckily for me, Josh hooked me up with an Oyster Card, the tube lines pre-paid card. He also helped me to get to where I was going, well at least to Baker Street where I had to chance lines. All was going well too, until my suitcase decided to break making it impossible to roll through the tube stations. Might I just say that at 5’3″ and carrying a suitcase, a carry on that weighed as much as my suitcase, and a 20lb backpack was very difficult. Especially with a broken suitcase. Even with that bump in the road I still managed to make it to the residence halls. I must say, the amount of accomplishment I felt is unexplainable! I officially made it through my first tube ride through London, during Saturday morning traffic.

Lets fast forward to the International Student Welcome Programme. Yes, I did just spell programme like that. That would be the correct way of spelling it in England, and according to my tutors (English word for professors) I better start spelling the English way or I will fail my courses. So, “programme”it is.

ANYWAYS! I hated walking into this International Student “shin dig” by myself, mainly because I figured everyone would be far from American. However I was well surprised to see that there were quite a few Americans (who are AWESOME too!) In this picture we have girls from France, Wisconsin, Georgia, and other areas in the world that I can not remember. We stuck together for the whole weekend, since we all did not know anyone else. We had fun getting almost lost trying to find Buckingham Palace…which we found, apparently, since this is where we took the picture.