Day 1 - 7 July 2011

So it really was 2 days of travelling but really only 12 hours of flying.

Let it begin! I was supposed to leave Knoxville at 2pm yesterday then there was a 2 hour delay so we didn't take off until 4pm. Thankfully I had a 5 hour layover in Newark so it didn't affect my connecting flight. Once I got to Newark I had 3 hours to eat and then get on my plane.

Over my 2 flights I got quite a bit of reading done. I read 16 out of 22 chapters of "Out of the Silent Planet" by C.S. Lewis. I plan on finishing it on my trip down to Cork on Saturday. Also, I only got 30 minutes of sleep because I don't sleep well on planes. Example: Again, when I was over Greenland we hit turbulence (Happened on the flight from LAX 2 years ago). I swear, that place has it out for me haha.

When I landed and got to the border and they almost didn't let me in. They asked why I was coming to the UK, I told them to visit friends and the guy said, "Really? That's it?" I wasn't going to lie to a direct question, but how did he know to ask that? So I said I was VOLUNTEERING with Baptist Youth...he mistook it for working (for which you need a Visa) I was so scared...thankfully Peter was there and he was able to explain to them what was going on and they let me in the UK and writing 6 months on my passport (while informing me that according to the letter of the law they should send me back to America which only freaked me out more). I KNOW it's because people were praying for me and I was very grateful.

So, Peter drove me up to the North Coast where He, Joanne and the girls were on holiday. We all went out for lunch and the play park. Then we went back to the house and that's when I discovered that somehow my keys to my luggage lock was mysteriously missing from my carry-on. Thankfully, I had bobby pins in the outside pocket of my suitcase so I sat hunched over my lock and got to work. 5 minutes and 2 very bent bobby pins later, I had picked the lock and had effectively broken into my luggage! (I should be a spy) Later, Peter took me to buy a UK SIM card for my spare phone and we picked up pizza back for dinner. Good stuff. Now I'm going to bed.