The Red Coats Are Coming!

After taking a 49 minute flight from St. Louis to Chicago I sat on the floor at O'Hare International Airport for about four and a half hours. If you've never had to sit in an airport for four and a half hours before I'm letting you know now... it's not fun. Patience has never been my forte and that was shown today while sitting in line for four hours to check in with the sassy ladies on Virgin Atlantic. I don't know what kind of training or education you go through to become a flight checker-iner; but the Virgin Atlantic clerks are not your average comfortably lump American Airlines checker-iner. The Virgin Atlantic staff wears lipstick red skirt suits with black stockings, high heels and full length red wool coats. If I was ever to quit theatre and join the world of commercial airline travel I would refuse to work for anyone other than Virgin Atlantic. Not only do the ladies strut their stuff, but the men do too. In case you were wondering they wear red vests that have purple silk backs and long black wool coats. So basically they are stylin'. 

So I sat there for four hours and contemplated the meaning of life and how large O'Hare airport is and after four hours I boarded a plane holding 300 people and then sat there on the plane for almost 2 hours before we took off. Now I understand that it takes a while to board 300 people, but when take-off time comes and goes and no one is boarding any longer and we are just sitting there for over an hour before anything is announced... well that's just ridiculous. Finally, finally we took off and were served a delectable meal of who knows what. On the bright side the grey stuff I consumed did not make me sick. :-) Now for most passengers dinner was followed by being lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of the plane, but in my section we had not one, but two infants who are apparently going through the stage of teething  and therefore cried the ENTIRE flight. I was able to get a little shut eye, but once we got out over the Atlantic ocean we hit some pretty rough turbulents that didn't let up until we hit the coast of Ireland. 

After arriving in Heathrow and disembarking we were all dragged through immigration where we had to answer a bunch of questions about why we were here and how long we would be here and what we were studying, etc. I must have said the right thing, because I now have a stamp in my passport and I was waved through to baggage claim. Finally we had to go through customs which was totally anticlimactic; and what'dya know but customs ends in a spirits store before emptying out into the arrival area. Typical! We all got checked in again and then put on coaches, not busses, and bounced off towards Grantham. Due to everyone's lack of sleep most of us slept for a majority of the ride to Grantham, but every now and then I did open my eyes and let me tell you that all I saw was grey (or 'gray' if you prefer it that way). I also opened my eyes at one point to see everything around me covered in white powdery stuff, my heart skipped a beat thinking that perhaps Harlaxton would be blanketed in snow, but alas it is not. We finally pulled into Grantham and as we were approaching we could see the manor off in the distance. Although everything is pretty dead and grey here it looked stunning with the fog hanging over the moor and the manor. As I was sitting at the front of the bus and our bus was the first to arrive I was the first student to step through the doors of Harlaxton for the Spring semester of 2009. Woo!!! The entry way is phenomenal. After our orientation tonight I'll try to take some more pictures to show you, but pictures cannot in any way due this building justice. It is an architects dream as well as most princes and princesses. My room is on the fifth floor and it looks out the front of Harlaxton over the front circle and down the mile long road between the manor and the front gate house. I took some pictures tonight of the sunsetting and whoever said that England is old and dreary needs to seriously have their head examined. We've already discovered some secret passage ways and heard about ghosts haunting the manor, but I'll have to figure that out for myself in due time. Tonight we all have orientation, but after that I think we'll probably go to the Bistro to relax and for those who care to, throw back a few pints and then perhaps go exploring. Let me make it quite clear that I have been up for over 24 hours straight... approaching 31 and I'm so excited to be here you couldn't force me to go to sleep. 

I hope all is well. 

-H