I MADE IT!!!

That's a picture of the British Airways plane I took out of Philly to get to Heathrow. So I’m officially abroad, unpacked, and typing this up before I go to bed. The internet isn’t working at the residence (of course not) so I’m typing this all out Tuesday night the 12th, but it will end up being posted later when I find out where I can freely blog. The trip was completely exhausting. I got to the Philly airport a little after 3pm. Said my goodbyes to mom and dad and off I went to check my bags. The time to check in bags, however, was 4:30pm. But luckily since I was there so early, by the time British Airways was ready to take our check ins there was a big mob of people waiting behind me. So I may have rather come at 3:30 but definitely no later. When I finally boarded the plane to Heathrow (which was on time), the captain told us there was a valve problem in one of the engines, and we sat waiting for an hour until we finally took off. I met several Temple Rome students, my little row was all students going the same way I was. I also met a few while waiting to check in my bags. One girl was a home stay that was living with a family 2 blocks away. But I haven't seen her since Heathrow. Anyway, when landing we were about 20 minutes late to begin with, so of course there was no open gate for us to go, so we sat for a half hour. Heathrow, to make a long story short, is one huge, slightly confusing airport. Definitely follow signs and chances are you will need to take a shuttle even if you’re staying in the same terminal. That flight took off about 45 minutes late as well because the airport was so busy. On that flight I met a very helpful Italian named Olivia (Hi Olivia!) who was kind enough to show me how to get the heck out of the airport and to my baggage.
The ride to the residence was about 30 minutes. My apartment is #86. The place is, of course, quite small. There’s only one bedroom with 2 beds and a third bed in the living room also acting as a couch. My roommates, Ashley and Kate, were a relief. Art nerds just like me! Ashley and I got ourselves terribly lost trying to find the school for dinner at 6. We didn’t make it there until 7:30. We took the bus home. Haha. I’ll add more later and hopefully post some pictures of the apartment and all that a bit later. Time for bed! I’m beat!