There and Back Again: March 13th, 2014 (In Which I Go 33 Hours Without Sleep)

Italics indicate later notes/thoughts.

March 13th, 2014
8:30 pm
London, England

To say the past two days have been surreal is an understatement. I haven't slept in over thirty-two hours, flown thousands of miles over the Atlantic, discovered a hundred new ways to be uncomfortable in your plane seat, and looked up through this fog of exhaustion to see Big Ben staring me in the face.
Let's start from the beginning…
Monday, the 10th, late: finally finish packing
Tuesday, the 11th, 6 am-4:30 pm: go to school and say my goodbyes. Make a few frantic, last minute changes in student council.
5 pm: Off to Cookeville for some American food… Cracker Barrel.
8:30 pm: Pop and Penny pick me up for Knoxville- more goodbyes.
Wednesday, the 12th (DEPARTURE DATE!), 8 am EST: Give up trying to sleep and repack my backpack.
10:30 am: Visit Grandmom
12, noon: Arrive at airport- a few frantic goodbyes, some last minute tubes of toothpaste, and one checked bag later, I'm coming out of security… To wait.
12:30-2:19 pm: Wait. Wait. Wait.
2:19 pm: Board flight to Charlotte. Window seat! And turbulence.
3:00-4:45 pm: Wait for second group to arrive from Knoxville. Spend eight dollars on a bottle of water and some fruit- learn never to buy airport food again.
5:30 pm: Whole group in Charlotte. Waiting, waiting, waiting…
6:30 pm: Board plane to LONDON! No window seat. Boo.
7:15 pm: OFF WE GO!
7:20 pm until… forever: Wait to land. Watch movies, eat a nuked dinner, listen to music.
Midnight: Try to sleep.
12:15 am: Reposition self and try again.
12:17 am: And again.
12:19-1:30 am: Keep trying.
1:30 am: Give up on sleep and watch more movies.
2 am: Lights blaze to life, along with the announcement that we will be landing in ninety minutes. Eat muffin and drink the worst cup of coffee I've ever had... Seriously.
6:30 am, London Time: TOUCHDOWN! In complete fog, may I add. We thought we had made a very sudden, very vertical descent through the clouds… Or simply crashed.
7-8 am: Walk a lot. Make it through border security. Hear British accents. Miraculously, we're waved through customs.
8-9:30 am: Meet Tommaso, our quad-lingual tour guide. Wait around in the airport for a while, then board a bus headed to our hotel, where we check in our luggage.
10 am: Hit the metro, and… London begins!

I can't quite break the these past thirty-six hours up into 'day' and 'night', and I often forget I'm in London until the Cockney guy next to me says something aloud.
Wow. I'm in London, guys.
I'll admit, my first impression wasn't the greatest. The metro took us through a little ghetto to get to our destination, and we then walked thirty minutes to see something worthwhile… the clock tower. It was that clock looming up before me that convinced me I was in London. It rang, too, and from that moment on, it was cemented in my brain: I am in one of the greatest cities on earth.
Having food in me also helped. Remember that at this point, I am jet-lagged, unwashed, and wearing 75% of the outfit I was wearing yesterday… Not to mention dehydrated and sore from a too-heavy backpack I had forgotten to unload.
Food helps, though. Food always helps. After browsing a street off of (park something… name forgotten), I gave up (too expensive!), bought a water bottle from a place called Eat, then went to a circle of food trucks in the park. Despite interesting choices ranging from ox-cheek to gutted rabbit, I settled on a jerk chicken truck- smell is everything, and jerk chicken smells good. Anyways. The guy was extremely friendly… Asked me how my day was, where I was from (after I told him I'd flown in at six… Don't fret, Mom), how the weather was in America (I mentioned we lived close to Florida… He didn't seem super familiar with the US… I think he was from the Caribbean). Before you rip me apart for telling him we live anywhere near the Sunshine State, I should note the location he picked first was Washington. I'm not even sure he meant Washington D.C.
"I've always wanted to visit America," He said earnestly as he scraped my chicken around on the grill. "I've heard the portions are huge!"
To be honest, I think he just appreciated my love of spice. I was all too willing to let him paint my chicken with chili oil. I also wasn't picking about toppings when he put the salad together. So, let this serve as a lesson… Eat as your cook eats. And have plenty of water on hand.
More tomorrow- wake up call at 7 am tomorrow.

Abigail

First entry was a little rough, a little dull… Just like the first day. More to follow.