After an absolutely mad Saturday of thesis writing and furious packing, Sunday the 18th finally came. Last minute rush to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything (and of course I did forget some crucial items) and the fam, Autumn and I were on our way to San Francisco International for my 4:55 flight to London Heathrow. Along the way we stopped for brunch—and I realized how nice it was to have everyone come see me off. When I went to Japan my departure was the same day as my brother’s graduation—I had to say goodbye to my family early and had a friend drive me to the airport. Having someone (or in this case a rather large number of someones) come to help me with my baggage and wave goodbye to me was really nice. I’ll miss them a lot, but onwards and upwards to London!
The flight to London was absolutely abysmal. My adorable sandals broke while I was walking to the gate from the restrooms and so I had to wear my terribly stuffy camp shoes and tall socks—I was burning up! The one consolation was that I was surrounded by my Camp friends and had a wonderful seat buddy who was going on Safari with all of her best friends to celebrate their retirements. Back for a moment on traveling with my friends—this is another first for me. In my past summer experience with Camp I only flew with my director, it was nice to be able to talk to lots of different people and move together as a group. I felt safe and secure while we were together. I barely slept at all on the plane because I was so hot, but I did watch a few good movies: Invictus (I cried three times), Alice in Wonderland (Wonderfully unexpected), Date Night (Imagine…a romantic comedy meeting Rush Hour…I have mixed feelings, and How to Train your Dragon (what I saw of it seemed charming).
When we finally arrived at Heathrow I was struck by the size of the buildings! We had to take a train to get to our terminal (see my vlog here)!! Heathrow is a beautiful airport with lots of glass and natural light. While waiting for our next flight to Dusseldorf I got myself a “take-away” Starbuck’s fruit frappuccino—exactly the refreshing drink I needed after a rather uncomfortable 9 hour flight to London.
At the moment I am sitting in my plan bound for Dusseldorf. We are 30 minutes delayed, but I am happy to have a few moments to reflect and write a bit. I lucked out with this flight because no one is sitting next to me—even though it is only an hour and a half long flight I am going to try to get some sleep! I am looking forward to it J. More later! Cheers!
OK! We’re Back! I just got back from a long day of Orientation, but I’ll jump back for a moment to talk about what happened after we arrived in Dusseldorf! After the 30 minute delay we finally left for Dusseldorf and I slept the ENTIRE flight—I even missed the drinks! Bah! It was a really nice nap though and I got to stretch out because NO ONE was sitting next to me! Amazing! We were met in Dusseldorf by my supervisor Bobbi who swept us away in an amazingly comfortable red bus. 45 minutes later we arrived on base and I have been here ever since.
On Base we live in Cassels House, which is one part hotel and one part dormitory. I have my own room with a massive window! The one downside is that there is no air conditioning so the room is a bit stuffy during the day—but I probably won’t be around here on most days so it is no problem at all! The food so far is awesome and everyone is so nice! I slept really well and woke up in time to have a leisurely breakfast. One of the first things I noticed about English food is that potatoes are served with every meal, they eat baked beans for breakfast, and they use A TON of butter in everything! I’m still surviving on my veg diet—there are lots of veggies (Dad would appreciate the cabbage!).
Today we had the first day of orientation. After lunch we said goodbye to our friends going to the other garrisons and we returned to the Youth Centre for another orientation with the Youth Centre Support Staff (SASS) who were all university (i.e. post-secondary) and college (i.e. high school) students. It was a lot of fun! Today I also got to visit the American PX on base (like an American store) and the NAAFI (the British store). We were also invited to a BBQ with the Youth Centre staff and kids, but we’re all too tired to go (it is a very long walk to the Centre, it takes me about a half hour!).We just finished with dinner and we’re going to have a team meeting in about a half hour—I’ll try to edit my first vlog tonight before the meeting!
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