Looks like we made it!!!!!

Hey peeps, I've made it safely to the motherland. Thanks for the prayers, words of encouragement, cards, money, etc. :) We arrived in the London Heathrow Airport at about 8 a.m. this morning (3 a.m. Holland time). We did all the usual stuff: customs, baggage. Then we rode a charter bus for 2 1/2 hours to Grantham. Our bus driver told us to take a little "kip" ... It's a nap. New British lingo for all of you Americans.

My room's nice, and I've got a swell roommate who's also from UE. The showers are hot, the food is okay, and it's not too terribly cold. I was upset about no elevator and having to carry my two 70-lb suitcases up a flight of creaky stairs. Oh well. I made it!

Lunch was not too grand. Dinner was good: fish and chips and chocolate cake! Oh, and I had an adaptor for my camera charger thing. I thought it was equivalent to an adaptor and converter. I was wrong. I plugged it in and it released some stinky black smoke with a little "poof" sound. Dad, if you're reading this, please send a UK converter and lots of AA batteries.

Oh, have you all seen the movie Love Actually? Well it starts off in the Heathrow Airport and people are waiting for family/friends to get off the planes and stuff. Well, we walked through that area today! Came out and there were hundreds of people standing around looking for people and holding up signs. Doerner (best friend) said she felt like Hugh Grant was going to start speaking over the load speaker at any time (you'd have to have seen the movie to understand).

Okay, cool, so we have another orientation meeting tonight. I think they're going to give us a tour of the castle/manor. It's really confusing. There are secret hallways and stuff. I got lost 3 times today already. I believe I'm suffering from a bit of jet lag. I'm trying not to take a nap today.. they say that'll make it worse. I can do it! It's already 6:45 p.m. here. I can last a few more hours.