I've arrived!

..... in the United Kingdom, that is. It's currently three o'clock in the afternoon local time, and I'm tapping out this journal entry while staying with a distant relative in Brighton, England, on the southern shores of the British Isles. I flew into London Gatwick Airport (via a brief stop in Minneapolis) this morning, arrived in town via train a little over two hours ago, and tomorrow morning I'm scheduled to take another train back up through London and all the way out to Wales, and Aberystwyth. It's been somewhat of a journey just to get to this point, though, and I'll try to sum it up here as best I can.

After several days of packing, running last-minute errands, seeing family and friends, and generally tying up loose ends, I finally left Portland around midday on Thursday (hard to believe it was actually yesterday). My dad came by the house just before I left for the airport to wish me safe travels, and it really meant a lot to me to have him there. Just the day before he had undergone an operation for kidney stones, a problem that has plagued him in the past. Seeing him made me realize just how much he cares about my success in this new adventure in my life, and how excited he is for everything that is to come for me. And as I finally stepped into the car, my mom bid me an emotional farewell as well. Each of them will be heading out to visit me in the next couple of months, at different times. For my mom and her partner, their visit will come in the midst of a somewhat lengthy European tour next month, and they'll be taking me to Ireland with them for a long weekend as part of their trip. For my dad and stepmom, they're going to be spending about a week roughly in the same area I'll be in, touring the Welsh countryside and all. It will be interesting, playing host to my parents in a setting unfamiliar to all of us, but I'm definitely looking forward to it. A fraternity brother of mine, currently traveling around the world, might even join me at some point as well.

Nothing too noteworthy happened on the way to Minneapolis, aside from the fact that I saw Prof. Robert Trapp (Willamette rhetoric department) waiting in line to board first-class shortly before I got on the plane at PDX. When we arrived in the land of 10,000 lakes (or whatever it is they call it) we found ourselves in the midst of a brief storm, complete with a tornado warning siren in the terminal. The storm passed soon enough, though, and before long I was bound for London on another Northwest Airlines jet. It was a long flight over the Atlantic, but I had some reading to keep me company, as well as a fellow (male) passenger named Lindsay, an engineer from Kent, England who had been in the Minneapolis area on business. When I first introduced myself and explained why I was traveling to the UK, he asked me what I had done to deserve the semester abroad in Wales. "I was just a good student, I guess," I replied.

It was an overnight flight, and I had the chance to sleep a bit, which is something I've always had a hard time doing on a plane. I woke up just in time to see the first rays of dawn streaming through the windows of the 747, as we flew over northern Ireland on our way. Just a few short hours later, we were touching down at the Gatwick airport, and I made my way through customs, herded along with everyone else. One unfortunate thing that did happen in the midst of all this, however, is the airline misplaced one of my bags, and I was only able to pick up one of the two that I had checked in, way back in Portland. The lady I spoke to about the matter explained that it must have had to do with the short layover time in Minneapolis, and that they just didn't have time to transfer that other bag to the second plane. Fortunately for me under the circumstances, though, the bag that I was able to retrieve has most of my clothes and other important items, so I should be able to survive until the airline gets around to shipping my other bag to Aberystwyth.

From the airport terminal, I had to make my way to the train station, buy what they call a "Young Persons Rail Card" (basically a card that provides discount fares for college students on train tickets), and figure out which train to catch to Brighton. And from there, it was smooth sailing most of the way. The train definitely seems to be the best way to get around here; they're much like the old MAX trains I had become accustomed to this past summer, working in northeast Portland, only they move at probably four-times the normal speed (as well as make their way through much more interesting terrain). The rolling hills and valleys I saw along the way were only a preview of the scenery that awaits me in the days to come, I imagine, and I can't wait for what tomorrow might bring.

For now, though, it's off to have dinner with Megan (my mother's cousin's daughter -- I figure that makes us cousins, to some degree) and her husband Kelvin in a few hours, and see some of the town along the way. Jet-lagged and all, I'm probably going to crash for a little bit here, and since there isn't a whole lot more to report at this point anyway, I think I'll sign off for now. I hope this reaches all of you well, and I look forward to hearing from (hopefully some of) you soon and sharing with you many of the experiences that await.