Once I actually got on the plane, I learned that I didn't have an exit row like I thought, but more of a partition wall between sections that allowed for plenty of leg space. The man next to me greeted me as I came up to him "You must be Michael." I thought that was weird, that he knew my name, but then he explained that his middle name is Michael and his last name started with B and that British Airways had given him my boarding pass instead of his own. He got all the way to security when they turned him around to get the right pass. But he was very nice about it and we talked about why we were traveling and all that.
I loved it when the plane took off. Shooting straight up into the air in a metal bird that somehow manages to stay up will always be a mystery to me. But I had lots of leg room, a nice traveling companion, minimal stress, and a person tv that pulled out of my arm rest on which I could choose from a whole variety of movies and tv shows, many of them new, like Avatar and Alice in Wonderland. I watched an Irish movie called Undine that Mary told me about because it seemed the lest likely for me to view on my own in the future. It turned out to be quite good, and in the middle of it they gave us our dinners. I chose the chicken and rice and my traveling companion choose lasagna.
Now I had already read the Brits have a different way of eating then we in the States have. Where we cut with knife and fork then switch the fork over to eat with, Brits leave the utensils in each hand a eat with the fork overturned. I watched my travel companion eat his lasagna in this manner, and thought that sense I'm going to be eating in Britain for three weeks, I need to practice the way they do. I don't know if any of you have ever tried to eat rice from an overturned fork with your non-dominant hand, but let me tell you, it's not easy. I ended up just doing in the American way and ate the way I was used to. I would later learn that the trick is to get a little piece of chicken on the end of the fork and use that to prop up the rice, but I think it will take a lot more practice to get that under control.
After dinner and a couple of selected tv shows (I would like to investigate Better Off Tedd, if anyone has any thoughts on that show) I tried to sleep. Tried is the most important word here. As I was right next to the engines on the wings, it seemed those engines were being extra loud just to make me angry. My traveling companion was by this time snoring in his own chair, I feat I don't know if I'll ever achieve, and I was completely awake, though completely in need of sleep. I listened to my iPod and must have fallen asleep a little because there are songs in albums I don’t remember listening too, but it was still very hard to sleep.
When we finally got to England, we had to circle for a while because there was so much air traffic around the city. So I spent my time looking at all the beautiful clouds above and below the plane. It amazes me what water vapor can do with itself. We finally landed and I finally got off the plane. Then I had to handle all the new lines and British people with all their forms and rules and standards and all the rest. But all that went surprisingly easy. I was able to go through immigrations without even giving them any proof that I was a student and got my visa and was on my way to baggage. Now I had to wait on that. And my now it was passed 11:00 London time so I was really worried that the API people would leave me. So I waited and waited and made up plans in my head about what I would do if my bags were lost. But after what seemed like hours my bag finally came down the conveyer belt and I was once again on my way.
I now see that my first blog entry ever has gone on a long time, so I’m going to stop here. Thanks for reading!
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