25 January 2024:
The arrival into Dallas airport wasn't too bad. The thing that struck me the most was how massive the airport was though. It probably took me about a 15-minute walk to get from the gate I arrived at to the Gate of my next plane. Once I found my gate I grabbed some food from McDonald's because, unfortunately, it was one of my own, the options that weren't a bar, and sat down to call my parents and let them know I had arrived safely.
I kind of zoned out for most of the two hours between flights, and then it was time to board. The way that the airport security checked our identities for international travel was interesting because they basically scanned our faces to match our photos in the system from our passports.
While waiting in line to board, as I was in the last group, I turned around and saw a familiar face. Her name is Emma, and she works in the disability and accessibility Center which shares a space with the academic resource center of which I work on campus. Funnily enough, the seats were actually right next to each other with her sitting in front of me. We chatted for a bit and eventually boarded our flight comma where we found that the plane was actually mostly empty.
It was about a single person to a row comma meaning even though I had been assigned an aisle seat, I was able to move over to a window seat which was much nicer and provided a lot more room.
Overall, the eight-and-a-half-hour flight wasn't bad, though it did drone on a bit overnight. I was unfortunately not able to sleep at all on the plane despite trying for three hours, so I spent most of the flight doodling in my sketchbook and listening to the Good Omens audiobook, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett staring the full cast of the TV show.
The landing was a bit rough due to turbulence, but we made it, and I was able to go through customs and pick up our bags. Going through customs was definitely the most terrifying part of the trip, in all honesty, just because of how kind of stuck up the officer was.
The person who dealt with Emma as she went through was completely fine, but the person who ushered me through was very interrogative and strict about making sure that I was here for the right reasons and was using the right vocabulary to state my intentions for entering this country.
However, it wasn't long until I was through, and I mean I found our bags and met up with a couple of other girls who were also in our program, Acacia and Anna. Together the four of us made our way to the front of the airport and found a place to hang out for the next six hours.
Our plane arrived at about 4:30 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time, and we would not take a bus to the house until noon. The weight wasn't too bad though, mostly because I was delirious from lack of sleep, having only slept about three hours in the last 36. I just sat there and watched Nausica of the Valley of the Wind on Netflix because, in the UK, there are Studio Ghibli movies on Netflix.
Eventually, Scott, who was the head of the program, found us and picked us up, and we made our way to the bus which would take us from Dublin to Belfast, about a two-hour ride. I was able to doze off on the bus for a little while, but it was very fit, and I woke up every couple minutes.
Once we reached the end of the line in Belfast, we were picked up in a couple of vans driven by the staff of the program and shuttled to the house. We were able to tour the house and select our rooms, before congregating to meet everyone and do proper introductions.
Unfortunately for us, as tired as we all were, we were warned against sleeping right away because they wanted us to be able to sleep that night. At this point it was about two to three pm, so we had the rest of the day ahead of us.
To really memorize each other's names, Billy, one of our leaders and the teacher of our peace and reconciliation course, suggested a fun little game where we take a tennis ball and pass it to each other saying our name and then the name of the person we were passing it to. The catch was that we had to say the right name, and we had to be able to catch the ball, of which we were all struggling in our delirious and sleep-deprived states.
Our initial time to get through the activity was a minute and 40 seconds, but Billy was not satisfied and wanted us to go faster, stating that previous groups were able to complete the activity much faster. Not being ones to back down from a challenge, we continued to throw that down ball back and forth between each other until we were able to get through the activity in 10 seconds.
We were nearly hysterical as we finished, and we were able to take a break for a cup of tea and a late lunch of chicken sandwiches. After lunch, we toured around the grounds and were given a general lesson on what to expect from the program.
We were able to take some time to ourselves and unpack our things, eventually being called to dinner which was a delicious chicken and vegetable soup with warm French bread.
After dinner, we had another short info session about various rules and regulations About the House and the program comma before being released at 8:30 to go to bed. I was in bed by 8:50, and it had not been more than 10 minutes before I was out like a light, mid-Duolingo lesson.
Overall, I’d say that it wasn’t a bad start to my time here in the UK.
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