The England Journal-Day 2-The Forced March

          After coming back from England, it took me a while to be able to talk about our first day in London. I really enjoyed our flight there in spite of the lack of sleep, but every time I thought about the four of us tramping up and down the streets of London I would shudder. Nothing bad happened to us, not really anyway. But, as you will see, the term "bad" can be relative.

Journal Entry 2
December 14, 2011-3:20 AM-London Time

          Pearl and I can't sleep. We tried but it just hasn't worked. Dr. M and Nicole seem to be managing quite well falling asleep and, more importantly, staying asleep. I switched seats with Pearl not long ago, as soon as the seat belt light went off. I figured that if I wasn't getting much sleep in the window seat she might have better luck. But we both seem wide awake after we took turns going to the bathroom. Pearl is busy journaling to my left :)
          Not long after we took off, the pilot said that we have a strong tail wind, so we will land about an hour early. That leaves about another 3 hours to "sleep." 
          We are flying above the clouds right now and the moon is reflecting off of them making the mist appear milky white. The blanket of white beneath us contrasts with the clear night blackness. We can see the Big Dipper to the north. Pearl even said she saw a shooting star :)
          Earlier in our flight, I could not get over how vast the city lights extended. It looked as if I could merely step outside the plane and dip into a glittering pond. The cities are a work of art when viewed from above in the night sky. A web of shining lights lacing and interweaving against a velvet black. I wonder what it would be like to paint a picture or even design a dress using this night view as an inspiration. 
          I must say, though, that I was rather unimpressed the view of New York City. It looked like an enormous parking lot from 39,000 feet in the air. 
          I am going to try reading now...

Journal Entry 3
5:20 AM-London Time

          Well, they turned the cabin lights back on. Pearl and I still didn't get any sleep. I read a little from a Victoria Holt novel, but I was in an awkward sitting position so I only got through a few pages even though the story was good. Pearl and I turned out the lights a little after my attempt at reading and did some star gazing. She has seen 5 shooting stars, so she she let me lean over her so I could see one too. I finally did :)
         We tried sleeping again but we failed completely, so we finally ended up talking and trading stories at around 4:45. Pearl told stories from her time being a camp counselor at a special needs camp over the fall and it was good to hear since I haven't seen her since July. 
         The flight attendants are passing out danishes now. 

          After this, my journal entries get a little disjointed. We rushed around so much that it was hard recording what happened the day that it happened. My next journal entry is on the 15th and I talked about how we survived getting to where we needed to go. I'll save the actual journal entry for the next post, but I will got ahead and mention a few tidbits now.
          For future reference, in case you are traveling in a foreign country, TAKE A TAXI FROM THE AIRPORT TO YOUR HOTEL!!! This was probably one of the biggest life lessons I learned during the first day in London. A taxi is worth every penny if it means avoiding rush hour in the Tube while you are dragging 50 lbs of luggage behind you (poor Nicole was the one with the 50 lbs, she said that at one point she considered just kicking her suit case into the street and laughing hysterically as it got ran over).
          The second life lesson I learned was that, in foreign countries, pedestrians to not have the right of way. Thankfully I nor any of my companions got ran over in the midst of learning this fact, but I did once have a double decker bus come whizzing by less than 3 ft away from my shoulder.
          All in all, the first official day of our trip became something we will definitely remember for the rest of our lives. Even though I was numb at the end of the day from going almost 48 hours without sleep and forcing myself to keep walking even though all I wanted to do was cuddle up in some abandoned corner and cry, I was very proud of us that we had made it (and we even survived in the process). Thankfully we were able to laugh about it (a little) by the 4th or 5th day into our trip.