First Impressions

7AM, just off the plane.

Leading up to my flight to England, I experienced a wide range of thoughts and emotions. Sometimes I thought I wouldn't have enough room for all of my things, sometimes I thought I'd have more than enough room. Sometimes I felt overwhelmed, sometimes I felt remarkably calm. And I flip flopped between being anxious and not nervous at all. So I didn't know how I would feel the day of my flight: I could be cool a cucumber or a basket case. As I've said, this is my first time travelling out of the country, so this is all new to me.

Regardless of my various emotions, I was ready to leave; it was time. I felt like I was in a strange limbo. I had finished work the week before and my friends from home were all back at their own universities  All of my HPU friends were back at High Point and it was strange seeing all of their posts and pictures. Even though I knew I was going to have an amazing time in England, I was kind of jealous seeing all the fun they were having together, and being stuck at home just waiting to leave was tough. But finally it came time to leave and then it all started moving so fast.

I planned to spend the evening before my flight at home having a nice dinner with my family. I wanted to have the evening to make sure I had all of my ducks in a row. This didn't happen, however. My family got last minute tickets to a Washington Nationals game for free and we couldn't say no (well, we could have, but why would we?). Although it may have complicated things because I lost an evening of packing and preparation time, I could not have imagined a better way to spend my last night in America than in the Nation's Capital watching America's pastime--baseball. Watching the Nats is one of the things I really miss abut being home so I'm really glad that I got to go to one more game before I left.

My goodbyes began the night before when I had to say goodbye to my dad as he would be at work the next day. It felt strange saying goodbye to someone knowing I'd be in a foreign country thousands of miles away. However, my parents are visiting in October, so it is not goodbye for long. The rest of my goodbyes came the next day. At the airport, I think our parents had a much harder time saying goodbye than Libby and I did. We kept trying to head to security so we could, you know, get to our flight on time, and every few steps they would stop us and say something else. I've always thought goodbyes were kind of awkward and it turns out goodbyes before a four month trip to England are no exception. It's just, you hug goodbye and then what? Just turn around and walk away? Like I said, awkward.

But anyway, my airport and flight experience wasn't too stressful because Libby, Caitlin, Austin and I all flew out of Dulles together direct to Heathrow. And apparently people's first impression of me is that I'm a young, weak girl, so people were easy on me. I am pretty tiny and I guess I have young looking face, but I hope I don't look incapable or helpless. That was the vibe I was getting from the people I encountered.

The first encounter of this nature was at the British Airways check in counter. Everyone (including Libby, Caitlin and Austy) who was checking baggage was given a tag for their bag and then instructed to take them to the TSA bag drop. Me? Nope, no need to take them, apparently. The man just took them behind the counter and wished me a pleasant flight. Did he think I wasn't strong enough to carry my own bags?

Second encounter: at customs on the way into England each of us went though individually. The customs officer asked me why I was in England and when I told her I was as student she asked me where, I answered and then she smiled and said "Welcome to England." And I was done. I remember thinking about how remarkably easy it was.

Later, I learned that collectively the others were asked for proof of acceptance to a UK university, lectured about whether they planned to work and that they can't work without a visa and one was even questioned about how she planned to pay for things, what the credit limit on her credit card was and other questions about her finances. I have not clue why I didn't get asked anything more than where I was studying and why I didn't have to provide any sort of proof. Is it because I look harmless or helpless? I'm not really sure. And maybe it was nothing, but it was, I will admit, a little disconcerting. I think of myself as an intelligent and prepared individual so I hope that my sometimes silly and happy personality doesn't give others a first impression that is quite different from how I actually am.

Now that I think about it, both of these people were British, so could this have been a combination of what they first read into me by looking at me as well as preconceived notions of young Americans? I'm not entirely sure but it gave me a lot to think about.

I also noticed a few things when we landed in London that affected my first impression of England. Firstly, there were a lot of people in the terminal when we deplaned (many from our flight I'm sure because our plane was massive--two floors and by far the largest plane I've ever been on). As we were trying to go down a floor to take the shuttle train to Customs, everyone was shoving and barely anyone gave the cursory "sorry" or "excuse me" that you hear in America. From the get go, my first impression was not especially favorable, although it was 6AM and most had just gotten off a super long flight, so I can't rightly blame them.

It didn't get better though--a number of airport employees seemed quite impatient and the coach driver from Heathrow to Oxford was pretty rude. We approached him with our bags which he was putting under the coach, and after he took them he just stared at us. Blankly. After a moment or so he barked "Well?" Well what? After another beat, he impatiently asked "Where are you going?" Really, couldn't he have just asked that in the first place? We didn't know we were supposed to tell him at that given moment and I don't think we were being ignorant or slow in not realizing this.

So that was my initial first impression of the English, but I realize that judging a city or country based on the actions of people in an airport in the early morning is unfair so I haven't really held on to these impressions. Especially since when our coach pulled into the Oxford Brookes busstop, Dr Schweitzer and Peter, our OBU faculty liaison, were there waiting to greet us and lead us to our flat. Peter even rented a van to drive our suitcases (and us) so we didn't have to drag them down a crazy hill. This successfully cancelled out my less than pleasant encounter with the coach driver.

Our first day was probably the longest day of my life. Considering I was up for over 30 hrs straight in order to beat jet lag (I didn't get any sleep on the plane, not surprisingly) this isn't even an exaggeration  Although I was super tired, I remember being blown away by Oxford the first time we went into the city center. We just don't have cities like this in the United States. A number of these buildings were built before Columbus even discovered American, and many before the US even became a country. I was just struck by the beauty of the buildings. I'll write all about about Oxford in a later post.

So there you have it, my first impressions the first time I've travelling abroad. How accurate are they? Only time will tell--I'll let you know.

Cheers, Amy.