T-plus 79 hours later...

yes everyone, i am in england, but it wasn't easy getting here.

as my parents and i entered the british airways terminal at 6:30am, we were greeted by a worker who informed us that my flight was delayed four hours due to mechanical problems. since my flight was supposed to be at 9:15am, it would now depart at 1:15pm, which meant i had about seven hours to burn. the situation was even more complicated by the fact that i was supposed to arrive in london at 9pm (where i was to be picked up by someone from ellel pierrepont), but now wouldn't get there until after 1am. fortunately, british airways offered free accomodations at the ramada hotel at JFK (i also got to have free breakfast buffet) where i took a two hour nap (since i pulled an all-nighter to compensate for jetlag). the rest of the time passed rather quickly with the help of the sports illustrated baseball preview issue.

i arrived at heathrow airport in record time at 12:30am and made an obligatory stop at immigration. the rep took my passport asked me how long my stay was for and what manner of business. when i told him five months for school, he asked for papers to show proof. unfortunately, i did not bring any papers other than my passport. the rep proceeded to spend the next several minutes rebuking me for not bringing any proof (said sternly with a british accent: "america is so strict... how do you think your people would react if i showed up in your country without any papers?" i just shrugged my shoulder, apologized, and explained, "the UK website said all i needed was my passport if my stay was less than six months." he raised his eyebrows, mumbled some more complaints, looked back and forth between me and my passport, and then reluctantly stamped it. all this took about 5-10 minutes.

i was greeted by a worker from ellel pierrepont who faithfully stayed at the airport to pick me up along with two other students, judy and victoria (one from florida and the other, canada). while driving to pierrepont, i found out that judy and victoria were both detained by immigration. judy was detained for two hours and victoria, EIGHT hours! strangely enough, both did carry papers and proof, yet they were still held at immigration. when i found this out, i was very thankful and praised God that i did not have to go through what they did (have any of you watched the terminal?).

in case you have wondering what my accomodations look like, here are some pics:





well, that was my first night in the UK. i will update and post up more pics later...