Audios USA, Hola London

So I had an exciting last few days in the USA. On New Year's Eve I rang in 2010 by having my roommates and friends come hang out at my house. We played many games and watched a movie, along with eating a lot of food! It was good to see everyone one last time before I left. I got to see Kaylee, Abby, Megan, and Meghan in Cedar Falls on the Monday before I left, and on Tuesday Whit and I met for lunch and Abby came over during the afternoon. We had a blast reminiscing and catching up.

I also had good time spent with family at basketball games, family suppers, playing board games and just watching TV. My brother, sister and I spent quite a few hours watching That 70's Show the last few weeks. Christmas was good and relaxing. I have eaten way too much food in the last few days...getting my "last suppers" before I flew out. My Mom made her famous chicken penne pasta on Tuesday and invited the family over for one last goodbye.

One Wednesday (Jan. 6th) morning I got up and finished packing what was left to go in my suitcases and made sure that I had copies of everything in my luggage. At 11:00 am my Mom, Dad, and I took off for the Cedar Rapids airport. We stopped on the way at one of our favorite resturants in Waterloo...LJ's for a quick lunch and then got to Cedar Rapids about 2:30.

When we got to the airport I quick went to the bathroom and then Anna and I went to check our bags in. I quick packed away my present from Auntie Sue (Plane ride essentials and the movie Vicky Christina Barcelona, which was partially filmed in Oviedo) and went to check my bags. When we got up there we were told our flight from Chicago to London was canceled and we would be leaving at 3:30. That didn't give us much time to get through security. Abby and Kaylee also met me at the airport and arrived just in time! With some quick last minute goodbye's we made it through security and then within 10 minutes were on our first plane to Dallas, TX.

In Dallas we got to our terminal and had to check in at the gate so they could give us our seat assignments. We started watching the movie my Aunt got us...and then realized that our plan was delayed an extra hour. This meant we were leaving Dallas at 8:45 now. After another hour we finally boarded and found our seats were in the last row of the airplane, which we were fine with. We sat right next to eachother and it was only a 2 person row so we couldn't complain. The airplane had 8 seats accross which was the biggest plane that I had ever flown on.

On the plane we had about a 9 hour flight. We had a chicken rice dinner and a roll for breakfast. I slept most of the way and watched a few episodes of the Office and Disney Channel (to put me to sleep). When we got to Heathrow we got on the Heathrow express to Paddington Station and finally found our hotel. It is nice...but has very small hallways and stairs. The rooms are pretty big and Anna and I both have our own beds. The staff is also very helpful. So far we have had to ask them for the password to the internet, a converter, and how to shut the shower off. I couldn't figure it out...and I really felt like I needed a shower. I skyped my parents to tell them that I made it and we were all checked into our hotel. Anna and I are just resting right now after lugging 2 huge suitcases I'm quite tired...but according to Uncle Sam...I am not allowed to sleep for quite a while longer! So I think i'm going to clean up my suitcases and head out to walk around the city. It looks like Hyde Park and then to eat!