Day 1- The Journey across the Pond
Monday May 19th was a
very hectic day. I woke up around 9am when it finally hit me that I was leaving
my Margera family for 7 weeks to go work/study in London. Deco (Bam's friend) had already left
for Las Vegas for a trip around 6am so I had already said goodbye to him the
night before, and I said goodbye to Phil who left for whatever around 11am. He
told me “Have fun and know that we are all so proud of you”. I loved that. I
feel like all I long for in life is for people to be proud of me and I think
this is the biggest and best moment for that. I’m broadening my horizons and
globalizing myself without the pressure from people to do so. My Margera family is quite proud of me for this. Obviously I couldn’t have done
this without them, mentally. When I arrived at LAX at 1:20pm (an
hour later than expected because of a delay) I was so sad to say goodbye to Bam who drove me over and brought me to security. He was keeping it
together pretty well but I cried while hugging him and then hid my face as I
silently cried in the Priority security. I mention that it was Priority because poor Lorne paid an extra $800 for me to fly business class because of my
complaining. Lorne now aptly refers to me as “Princess” –I have no
complaints.
Because of this extra money spent I
got to ride the elevator with Khloe Kardashian up to the British Airways club
and get free food, free internet, and most importantly, free outlets. The food
at the club was really fancy and was not labeled so I wish I could tell you
what I ate but…my pallet is not fancy enough for me to actually know. Although
since the club was pretty far away from my gate I decided to leave early and go
to my gate. My flight was scheduled to leave at 5:30pm and I got there around
3:45pm. I must have read my ticket at least four times and even with that many
reminders of my gate number I still got it wrong. I parked my butt and bags at
gate 153 where there was no one and figured “Oh it’s because I’m early”. Even
though the flight was delayed and people would probably be there anyways. After
setting up all my entertainment devices on the table next to me I received a
phone call from Lorne. He was wondering if I made it to my gate alright,
and according to my short term memory loss, I was definitely at the right gate.
He then asked me to go up to the podium and make sure (Lorne knows me quite
well) and I told him that there was no one at the desk, and then I started to
realize that I was definitely at the gate. How you ask? Well I looked outside
the giant window and didn't see a plane there. “That’s because it’s delayed” I
thought to myself. Then I also didn't see pavement there, but instead a giant
dirt ditch where many craned and workers were. “You know what Lorne, I think I’m
at the wrong gate”, to which is aptly replied “Jesus Christ Christina call me
when you get to the right gate”. Fortunately I wasn't that far off, at gate 156
there were many people there waiting for the double decker plane and I called Lorne to let him know that I eventually wised up…eventually. Hopefully this
won’t be a problem in London.
The flight was amazing. Got to sit next to Keira Knightly (who is part of the program as well as I) Truly, I flew business
class of British Airways, received a spa bag upon entry which contained a tooth
brush, tooth paste, facial wipes, hand cream, Chap Stick, face cream, and an
emery board. I had the option of champagne (which I awkwardly declined out of
fear [I’m 19]) right when I sat down on my recliner seat/bed and got to play
games, watch almost all the Oscar nominated movies, and watch all the TV shows
I promised my friends I’d eventually get to. Best flight ever. I’m not one to
sleep on planes but after a nice Nyquil I slept for 4 hours! Because of the
time difference (8 hours!) this day 1 sneakily became day 2.
Day 2 Excited and Exhausted
My 10 ½ flight cut short by 4
hours, I was so excited when I woke up that I mouth screamed (no sound, just
the facial expression). I landed at 11:51am at Heathrow Airport terminal 5 and
went through immigration easily (Priority line, remember?). Got my stamp, got
my checked luggage, and went to the tube. An hour and 20 minutes – a.k.a. 30
stops – later I reached Finsbury Park. After reading the arrival packet
information so many times that it could be considered memorized, I made a left
for Seven Sisters Road, crossed the street, and was told that Pure Highbury (the
student living complex) would be right in front of me. Instead, facing me was a
very dirty store with bars on its windows that said “Finsbury Eye Centre”.
After circling the area and passing at least 4 women in black burkas I found
the very large colorful building that surely only a blind person could miss (was
that why they sent me to the eye centre?). Upon entry I was immediately given a
big packet of information, a key card with a very sweaty picture of me on it,
and lugged my luggage up to the fourth floor and began to unpack. Maybe a
minute or so later I get a knock on my door from one of the drama advisers. “Hi
Christina! We just wanted to let you know that we have a walking tour of the
neighborhood in a minute and we’ll be meeting in the lobby!” Oh boy. I had just
walked in the door and was completely exhausted, as well as a sweaty mess. But
hey, you’re only in London once…so I went. I unpacked everything in a hasty 20
seconds and pressed the button for the elevator or “Lift” as they call it here.
The buttons on the elevator were: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, M, 0. I figured M meant “Main”
so I hit M. Nope, it meant Mezzanine. Figuring this was the basement since
there was a gym there I headed up to 1. Nope, that was an apartment floor. I
then figured the lobby was on floor 0 and went down a floor, M, up the same
staircase, 1, and then back down again, very confused. I then just got on the
elevator and pressed 0, no idea where it was physically in the building but,
hey, the elevator knew where to go. I got to 0 and lo and behold, the lobby! You'd think since this isn't my first time in London I could figure this crap out. Oh well. Everyone from the program was there except for Tom Hardy who apparently was stick with the stomach flu. Although that put a damper on some moods it was still fun to walk around basically arm in arm with Hiddles and Keira.
The walk around the neighborhood was tiring but
tremendously important. I found out that there’s a beautiful park in my area, a
few nice pubs, a shopping center, and most important, a bank that takes Bank of
America cards without charge! Hiddles, Keira, and I got dinner at Tesco – a
small supermarket – and ate it separately in our respective rooms. Turns out
sushi in London is very cheap and I’m a sushi-holic. Because of the crazy jet
lag I fell asleep almost instantly after dinner, so from 6-9pm I slept and then
according to my internal clock that’s all I really needed because I then stayed
up till 2am watching Modern Family on Netflix. I did eventually fall asleep but
it definitely didn’t help me when I had to get up at 6:30am for a shower! Fun stuff! I'll check in later!
Love this picture still.
