Planes, Trains and Automobiles -- my first two days.

Alright... so after a long journey and an overwhelming first couple of days I'm finally ready to sit down and start writing this thing.

I finally left on Friday at 6:45 PM from the Seattle airport. My mom brought me to the airport and, I must admit, as soon as I got on the other side of security and out of her line of vision I had a mild panic attack. I got over it quickly, though, and found my way to the flight terminal. After about an hour of waiting, we all boarded the plane. I was sitting between a very large British man and a very small British woman who both said they lived not far outside of London. They were both in the US for a week or two for work conferences and they both worked in IT. I talked to them both a bit and they assured me that the plane wouldn't go down and the man said he makes the trip to the US about eight times a year. When I mentioned, however, that I had to take the underground train once I got there they both laughed and said that "the Tube" is far more dangerous than the plane ride. I laughed, but I didn't really think it was very funny.

Once we took off I watched Harry Potter on the plane(each person has their own personal TV in the seat in front of them), and then I thought I'd try and take a nap around 11:00 PM. What I did NOT anticipate, is the sun peaking over the horizon at about midnight, and by 2:00 AM it was daylight out. The stewardess had come around to ask if we wanted drinks and hesitated a minute and then ordered an apple juice. The big man next to me started laughing when the stewardess walked away and said "You know you can drink alcohol when you're 18 in the UK, right?" I DID know that, but I had chickened out at the last second. He thought that was hilarious.

When we arrived at Heathrow airport it was 4:00 AM in my head, but noon on the ground. The tiny lady I was sitting by gave me a map for the underground and after I got my luggage and exchanged some dollars for pounds, I bought my Tube ticket and boarded.

When I first got on the Tube there were only about 5 people in my car. One girl who I started talking to was 22-years-old and from Los Angeles. She was just visiting London. I talked to her for a while, and the further we got in to town the more people were crowding in to the train. By the time I had to get off at King's Cross station, everyone was shoulder-to-shoulder and I had two giant suitcases and a backpack to try and get off. Eventually I managed, but not without difficulty. THEN, I discovered, to get off of the underground platform I had to carry my suitcases and backpack (probably a good 50 or 60 lbs) up a flight of stairs. Luckily, a nice English chap helped me up one stairwell while a Spaniard helped me up another. Eventually I got my above-ground train ticket, and boarded the train at 3:30 PM (or 7:30 AM in the US).

The train I was on went to Glasgow, Scotland, but stopped at Lancaster on the way. There was a Scottish lady sitting next to me with her daughter and I couldn't understand anything they were saying. At one point I asked them how long until we got to Lancaster and the lady answered but had to repeat herself slowly when she saw how confused I was. She also told me that I looked "knackered."

The English countryside is a lot like the Pacific Northwest. There are trees, cows and sheep galore. The weather, so far, is also very similar... It's like a typical day autumn day in Pacific County, except I'm on the west coast of the UK, not the US.

When I arrived in Lancaster, Fiona, Charlotte's mom, was there to pick me up. Charlotte is the girl who I am going to be caring for while in Lancaster... She goes to University (Uni) but had a pretty severe case of cerebral palsy but, luckily, it hasn't affected her brain. Fiona led me to her van and I went to the right side to get in the passenger's side before she reminded me that their steering wheels are on the other side. She then took me to the campus and to my room where I was relieved to put my suitcases down and I met the two other volunteers who will be helping Charlotte: Pilar (Pili) who is Colombian, and Annika who is German. Last, I met Charlotte, who was thrilled beyond belief that I was there.

We all had dinner, squash soup and bread, and I finally got to go to bed at 10 PM (2 PM in the US). Since then quite a lot has happened, there have been a lot of cultural and language differences between the UK and US, and I know a lot more about Pili and Annika, but I will write that all another time.