Arrive in England and meet the host family!

I am in the London airport and very tired. I took some anti-anxiety medication for the plane and it didn’t put me to sleep but it did make my eyes heavy for the whole flight which was kind of annoying. I only slept for about an hour total. I watched Rumor Has It, as well as parts of Kingdom of Heaven, Cheaper by the Dozen, and Bourne Supremacy on the flight. I met Dr Hunter and Mike Edwards at the meeting place at about 7:15 am (my plane landed at around 6:30 am). Mike and I were the first to arrive this morning. Dr. Hunter has been in Germany for about 2 weeks teaching so he was waiting for our plane (and everyone else’s). It took about 4 hours after I got there for everyone to arrive. I had to get a coffee drink to help me stay awake and it still didn’t work well. I medicated myself heavily on the way here in an attempt to sleep through the long flight and I ended up passing out on the floor of the airport after I get here. Go figure. at least I wasn't alone I was passed out along with some other people while we waited for the whole group so I was not the only person who looked like a homeless person sleeping on the floor in a heap. We left for Bristol around noon by bus. It was a two hour bus ride which I slept all the way through. Again, why could I have slept more on the plane??? Grrrr! We did stop half way for a bite to eat. I had Burger King. It was a little reassuring to see that England had a Burger King. For those of you who do not know we that well I am a very picky eater and I am thoroughly worried about how I can survive for a month overseas.

I am rooming with Amy and Ashley in Bristol. We met our host mom at the Downs around 3:00 pm. We were an hour early which was nice. Our host mom is Daphne Addis (pictured second from left). Her husband is Jerry (pictured second from right) and her 29 year old son who lives here is Robert (far right). I forgot the other brother's name. Maybe it will come to me later. Everyone is really nice, not that I expected them to walk up and say, "Why hello there Anne. Can I show you to your crawl space you will be staying in. Oh and don't worry we will push your food under the door at 7pm and nightly beatings are at 8pm sharp." I know I have a strange sense of humor.

Ashley wanted the single room so Amy and I are rooming together. We have our own beds and I really neat window that opens out to the back yard and you can sit on the ledge and look out onto the yards (our room is on the 4th floor - see picture of Amy in the window to the right). Amy and I decided to explore a little despite how tired we were. Ashley opted not to go which was weird because it was technically her idea. Anyways…we got back around 7:00 pm (we had left around 5:00 pm). Amy and I took a quick hour long nap before supper. Dinner was surprisingly good. Once again this makes me sound snotty but like I said I am genuinely concerned about eating the food here. Chicken w/gravy, garlic potatoes, and veggies were served and clementines were given as a desert. It was at dinner that I found out that Audrey from France was also living with the Addis’s as an exchange student. Only she has been there since September and will be leaving this July sometime. She seems nice, not that we talked much, but that's probably more due to my zombie like state then either of our conversation skills.

Ashley fried her hair straighter so I am scared to plug in my stuff (especially my laptop). We thought about going out but decided that we wanted to sleep more so we were in bed by like 10:00 or 10:30 pm and I slept past 11:00 am. I really needed the catch-up.