Here

I made it! I am currently sitting in a little flat in Newcastle, England and looking out the window to an extremely drizzly day. It looks a lot like Ireland here to be honest, but the people that live in Newcastle (Jordies, as I have learned they are called) have accents that I've definitely never heard before. Some strange English-Scottish hybrid.

My plane ride(s) were semi grueling. My quick Minneapolis-Chicago was smooth, but my hopes were soon plummeting on the Chicago-London leg despite having 2 seats to myself when I realized the screaming baby one row up was indeed not going to shut up. The whole flight. Sometimes I feel like there should be cheaper seats if you're within ten rows of an infant, or all-infant flights, or whatever. Maybe that's mean, but I definitely mean it when I have to arrive in England after ten hours in travel with bloodshot eyes, disorientation from no sleep, and a frightening, intimidating immigration officer to deal with.

And frightening and intimidating she was. I suppose I DID maybe seem kind of suspicious with my only carry on and one way flight, but the UK has already issued me my work visa and I had all my travel documents with me, so there wasn't really anything she could do about her inkling that I was going to wreak havoc somewhere on her people. Pshhh. I rudely snatch my passport back after she just about stabs it with her little stamp and beckons me into England.

I rented a room at the Yotel (a hotel inside the airport) for 4 hours since I had a while between my arrival and my last flight, so at least I got a chance to shower and lay down for a bit. As tired as I was I was to nervous to fall asleep for fear that I wouldn't wake up in time to catch the 2 trains I needed to take to terminal 5.

My last flight was definitely the funniest. I guess no tourists or Americans or for that matter non locals at all travel from London to Newcastle, because everyone at the gate seemed to be blabbering away in their Jordie accent and staring and pointing at me. One of the male flight attendants came up to me in the flight and said "Are you from the UK?" I was hesitant to speak because it takes away any question surrounding what nationality I may be, but I had to respond so I merely said "no". I think even from such a small word people can detect American accents. He gave me sort of a cock eyed look and said "Aye, alright then".

Everything went very smoothly, surprisingly, but I cant believe how long it took me to be sitting here in this little living room on the other side of the world drinking instant coffee and eating my favorite UK cereal, Jordans Country Crisp. A thoughtful Northern Irish host went grocery shopping before I arrived and stocked his cupboards with (him rolling eyes, snorting in disgust) vegetarian friendly foods. Lovely :) He works until 6 pm, so I'm going to enjoy this bowl of cereal and perhaps go for a wee dander and explore.

Ta for now,
Karen