Travels (13 September)

I plan on flying British Airways for all of my future plane flights. Not only do they serve dinner, but they serve salmon for dinner, and yes, I would like a glass of wine with that, thank you. There is also an extremely regimented time schedule. The first hour and half is drinks and dinner. And no, I cannot recline my chair because it’s dinner time. Obviously. My steward is from Scotland and the nicest steward you’ve ever met. And his name is Scotty which is about the greatest thing I’ve ever heard. He is very mild mannered, but when returning from First Class makes a big deal about whisking the curtain shut with just enough force to probably break one of the airplane windows. I watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (I forgot how much I LOVE that movie), slept for most of the flight, listened to a little too much John Mayer and woke to Scotty giving me a cheese croissant and orange juice for breakfast. Did I mention how fond I’m becoming of British Airways?

Upon arrival at Heathrow, I was dumped from the plane straight into a traffic jam of people trying to get from Terminal 4 to Terminal 5. I waited in a queue for about 15 minutes, all the while fumbling with my too heavy and too awkward carry-ons but feeling reassured by the man in the CU jacket I kept passing. We were informed that the bus ride to Terminal 5 would take approximately 18 minutes. It took 6… I struggled through customs with my carry-on and luckily didn’t have to reclaim my luggage because I might have just quit and moved into the line permanently. I got through with a faintly readable stamp in my passport, a terrible picture of myself that is now somewhere in the UK records, and sore shoulders only to discover that Heathrow is not just an airport but also a mall. And not just a regular old, large square tiled floors and florescent lights kind of mall, but the multi leveled, un-navigable, more perfume in the air than you would ever want kind of mall. I waited for two hours to see what my gate was (because they can only tell you about 6 flights at a time) and tried not to fall asleep in the seating area only to wake to a published gate and 20 minutes to board. And you don’t board by row here, oh no, you all just board. “Flight BA1448 to Edinburrrrrrra is na boarrrrdin.” And everyone get up and gets in line, excuse me, queue. It’s quite stressful really. I fell asleep as soon as I got on the plane, so really didn’t mind/notice that we were delayed an hour on the runway. But we made good time and arrived only ten minutes late. I’m not entirely sure how that works, but that’s fine. Coming in to Edinburgh, all you could see were clouds. Suddenly we dipped down beneath them and everything is green and cathedrals and houses sit diagonally on street corners.

My first bag was one of the firsts off the carousel. My second was one of the last. I was pretty convinced it was lost. I got a taxi and asked him to take me to Pollock Halls. He couldn’t understand a word I was saying, but we somehow got here. I missed his name, but my cab driver was a middle aged Scotsman who has lived here his entire life, and he told me he wasn’t about to tell me how long that was. He pointed out a park called the Meadows that students study in and various other places to stay.

I learned a few things very quickly as soon as I got to Pollock Halls.

1. My suitcases simply do not get along with cobblestones.

2. People are very helpful when your luggage keeps falling over and you’re lost and about to cry.

3. If it weren’t for the lift and my very nice warden, only the contents of my purse would be currently residing in my bedroom.

My bedroom has light pink walls (Chelsea, I thought you’d appreciate that), maroon carpet and hotel curtains (you know what I’m talking about). I’ve gotten all settled into my room but have to get used to pull lights instead of light switched. Oh, and I’ve already blown up my clock. I guess it needs different voltage or something… weird…

So I am now afraid to plug anything into the wall unless it was made here, I spend 15 seconds in the dark looking for the light every time I come into my room and I have an itch to decorate and explore. I’ll let you know what I find. (Below is the view from my bedroom window).