If the city never sleeps, then that makes two.

My travel into London began with no sleep and ended with no sleep. I woke up in Charlotte at 3:00 a.m. and could not go back to sleep. I ended up on the couch and watched reruns of Friends and Boy Meets World. Nothing seemed to calm me down. I spent the rest of the day packing last-minute items and denying the fact that I was leaving for the airport in the late afternoon. I counted (and dreaded) the hours until my 6:25 p.m. flight.


Before I knew it, I was sitting in the front seat clutching my tissues while pulling into the Charlotte airport. I was a complete nervous wreck and I couldn't stop the tears at that point. I have always been scared of flying even though I've flown quite a bit before. Saying goodbye to my parents was really the toughest part. It made everything seem real. I was going to be getting on a plane to London and living there without my family for four weeks. I mustered up every ounce of courage in my body as I forced myself to walk to the gate. Talking with classmates who were on my flight really helped me, though. I was the only one who had a fear of flying so everyone was really comforting.


I finally stopped crying when we all boarded the plane. Yes, I was still nervous but everyone's excitement was starting to rub off on me. Thirty minutes passed and we still had not taken off yet. The pilot eventually came over the intercom and told us they were "finishing paperwork" and we would be in the air shortly. All right. Fair enough. Fifteen more minutes passed when we heard the pilot's voice once again. "Folks, we're going to have to deplane you all. There's a bit of a mechanical problem on the right wing that needs to be fixed." What. What. What.

This didn't ease my mind about flying, but the hours and hours of waiting sure did. I was certainly ready to get back on the plane around 10:00 p.m. My lack of sleep the night before was slowly starting to make me miserable. A few of us got some food at Chili's in the airport but all I wanted to do was get on the plane and go to sleep. The delay surely dialed down the excitement a bit.

The crew fixed the right "phalange" (and put many extra on board. Friends reference. Of course. What else did you expect from me?) and completed all of their "paperwork" and we were finally in the air for an eight hour flight. I was hoping for a smooth flight but that's not what I got. What I got was a lot of turbulence and very little sleep. I really did try to sleep through the flight but I wasn't successful. I woke up every 20 minutes and I was feeling more and more homesick the further we crossed over the Atlantic.  

After a flight like that, I had never been happier to touch down on land. We were greeted by our professor and hopped on a bus to the college. It took about an hour from Gatwick to Regent's College and that hour was surreal. It felt so bizarre to be riding on the left side of the road alongside red double decker buses. It looked just like the movies and those few London episodes of Friends. After student introductions, I was lulled to sleep for 30 minutes when we reached the freeway.


I woke up to find us at our destination - Reid Hall.  I towed in my two suitcases and was greeted by my roommate. She had arrived a few hours earlier than everyone. She took one of my bags and showed me to the staircase when I heard the dreaded words, "There's no elevator...and we're on the top floor." Lovely. Just one more damper on my challenging trip. I was grateful that she helped me lug my bags up the stairs.

Our dorm room looked pretty decent. Not going to lie, I was a bit disappointed at first. It could have been the lack of sleep affecting my mood. After I put on my sheets from home and added some pictures to my desk, it felt a little more like home. But I couldn't help that stabbing feeling of truth in my heart that it wasn't home...it wasn't home at all. I forced back my tears and met the rest of the class downstairs for our first class adventure. 

As a class, we trekked to the Underground. I was terrified of London's subway system at first. Everything around me was so fast paced. I remember thinking to myself, "Huh, this must be what a city is really like!" It couldn't have been more different from Charlotte. I felt extremely claustrophobic crammed into little trains with way too many people. But the less I thought about being under the city, the better I felt. When we stepped off the Underground and rode up the escalators, Big Ben was staring me right in the eye. I turned around and saw the London Eye right behind me. Even though I was completely miserable and homesick, I couldn't help but feel in awe of the scene in front of me. It took me a moment to catch my breath. The intricate details of everything was so incredible. There is no word that can describe it. It didn't feel real. All of the pictures I had been staring at since I was a child had suddenly come to life.



Our professor surprised us with tickets to ride the London Eye. I was wary of that at first. I had enough of being in the air for one day, do I really want to get on this thing that's in the air for 30+ minutes? No. But the magnificent scene in front of me seemed to convince me otherwise. If it was all this beautiful from the ground, imagine how amazing it would be from the Eye? I was right. It was the perfect way to see London for the first time. I'm absolutely content with my decision to hop on with everyone else, even if I did safely sit on the bench the whole time.

The group split up after the Eye. We walked the streets until we ended up at pub near Trafalgar Square. I should have been excited but I was so sleep deprived and sick that excited was the last emotion I was feeling.The lack of sleep was making me more emotional and more homesick.  I have scoliosis so my back was absolutely killing me from the past events. I had not had anything to eat on the day of my arrival and couldn't even think about eating at that pub. While everyone else dined on fish & chips and cidre, I sat at the table completely zoned out, sick, light-headed and worried about everyone's first impression of the sickly version of myself.

I was so happy to get into bed that night around 11:30 pm. Shortly after I received my initiation of dorm life. There was so much commotion and noise heard through the walls. A girl on the hall ended up getting sick all over the bathroom floor. The commotion increased when the rest of our neighbors discovered that. Shrieks and screams and yelling sent me over the edge. I hit my breaking point. I cried myself to sleep after texting my mom that I wanted to go home. What mistake had I made? What had I done? I was in a completely different country...alone. I finished searching flights to Charlotte and ended up only getting about 4 hours of sleep.

I never knew that a lack of sleep and a backache could make me want to leave London. After successfully worrying both of my parents, my arrival day finally came to an end. Everything felt backwards and far away, but unbeknownst to me my misery wouldn't last for long.

Location:London