Jet Lag Anyone??

After some truly thrilling travel, I have arrived in the UK. I'm currently at the Mannheims' battling with jet lag and hanging out.

I'm already falling in love with England and it's people all over again. People often claim that the British are not friendly or cordial like Americans (especially those from the south). It is true that Brits don't often smile at me on the street and say "hey! how are you?" whether I know them or not, however, after being here less than 24 hours I had personally witnessed the kindness of strangers (even in London of all places!).

There's not much to be told about the flight itself. I sat next to a scholarly old British man who had carried on his own house slippers and drank about 8 glasses of champagne. We did not converse much, but I considered us friends enough that when I saw him later on a bus I expressed great joy at the meeting. He was not so openly excitable at the reunion, but he did smile quite boldly in return to my very southern "heeeeey!!" and responded with a not unfriendly "hallo there." Besides making a friend ;) , the only things I did on the plane were to eat and sleep, and these were not terribly exciting so I will leave them completely to your imaginations.

I trudged off of my flight at 6am Gatwick London time (1am Marietta time), to stumble through customs and baggage claim. After gathering myself (and my 2 large suitcases, internal frame backpack, and guitar) I set off with some newly acquired pounds (and I'm not just referring to myself or the suitcases, I'm speaking of money) for the bus to Heathrow. Unfortunately my ticket was for a 9:10 bus, and it was only 7am. Thus, I asked the first driver who pulled up if he had room for me on his bus instead, only to be brusquely rejected. Defeated, I rolled my suitcases further from the curb and perched on top of one.

A few minutes went past when a small middle aged woman approached me with her bright red suitcase.

"Are you going to Heathrow as well?" she asked. I told her I was and we discovered that we both had tickets for the 9 o'clock. "Wont they allow us onto an earlier coach?" she inquired. No, I told her, I asked the last driver and he told me to wait. She was silent for a moment and then looked at me and said: "well... bugger," and smiled. I did all I could to smile back without exploding. 

When the next bus came by, she decided to take our cause into her own hands and left her suitcase with me to go speak with the driver, who agreed to let us onto the bus. We savoured our victory as we piled onto the bus with bags in tow. This is when I was reunited with my scholarly friend from the plane. I'm sure that if we hadn't all been dozing from the jet lag the three of us would have been a very merry crew indeed. ;)

Upon arriving at Heathrow we found that there was no bus to Cirencester until 10:45 (it turned out the woman was also going to Cirencester), so we had to wait at the central bus station. I recognized an essential need for coffee and made my way across the station for a mocha. By the time I had settled at a little table I had once again been joined by my coach buddy (I believe her name was Carol, but I'm afraid I can't actually remember... blame the jet lag, right?). We had a nice chat over some coffee and tea and were eventually joined by very nice Welsh man who introduced himself with a rather unfunny joke about what might have been in his suitcase (which he asked us to keep an eye on for him while he bought a coffee) if he were a terrorist. um... haha?

Anyway, we all chatted until our bus came. Then it was back on the coach for one more nap. When I got to Cirencester the Mannheim's were there to meet me and we headed home to Tetbury, stopping at Tesco along the way. I had a nice night with them and some of their friends from the States.

Now, I've had a night's sleep and the world is a lot less fuzzy than it was yesterday. I'm enjoying chilling with the Mannheim clan today and tomorrow I head to Oxford.I am pretty chuffed (as the Brits would say) to be starting the semester.