I'm Here!

I have arrived safely in Bath, UK! Here are some highlights of the last 48ish hours...slightly modified but mostly courtesy of my classmate and travelling companion, Nathan :)

Saturday:
~ Nick ever-so-graciously drove to Kalamazoo, picked up Nathan, and then drove us to Michigan City where we caught the commuter train to downtown Chicago. We walked around downtown Chicago until we found and boarded the Blue Line to O'Hare. This short adventure would not have been complete without multiple large staircases (not escalators, not elevators...stairs) which we somehow managed to maneuver up and down with our 50lb suitcases + Nathan's 36lb case. And two carry-ons each. Nathan quite appropriately described the scene we created as "a hot mess."
~ Met Dean Mathison at the airport...he flew over with us to help us find our way to Bath and make sure everything was settled for us.
~ Our friends Pam & Hala are on rotation in Angers, France while we are in Bath. They were supposed to join us for the first leg of the trip (to London) but had issues with flights and baggage between Detroit and Chicago and ended up missing our flight. We were very sad not to be able to visit with them, but luckily they caught the next flight and were able to bump into us briefly at Heathrow Sunday morning.
~ The plane ride was long. 8ish hours? I watched Where the Wild Things Are. Cute movie, fantastic soundtrack. Food was mediocre. Oatmeal cookie after dinner was delicious.

Sunday:
~ Arrived at Heathrow around 7am (GMT) and waited a bit for Pam & Hala to come through so we could give them their train tickets from Paris to Angers.
~ Picked up a rental car (Mercedes...the dean was both pumped and confused why he didn't get a less expensive model). It was very dreary and rainy and I was in the backseat. Admittedly, I slept the majority of the way, but Nathan says the countryside between London & Bath is very pretty. Apparently we also drove past Windsor Castle. I will have to stay awake pay more attention on the next trip :)
~ We arrived in Bath around 11am. It is pretty much exactly what an old English town should look like...very quaint and pretty, with a lot of old stone houses built into hills. I will have to post pictures over the next few days.
~ The dean gave us a walking tour of the town...lots of little shops, cafes, etc. Very confusing layout with streets running in every direction...guaranteed to take me days (if not weeks) to get my bearings!
~ Checked into the Bath Hilton for the night as our dorm rooms were not available until Monday afternoon. Pretty typical hotel room, but an absolutely amazing re-introduction to European handheld shower heads and violent water pressure!

Monday:
~ Buffet breakfast at the Hilton complete with a reminder of how much European meat scares me.
~ Dean drove us to the University to meet with the people responsible for the program here. We got our "timetables" and will be spending much of our time in various community pharmacies around the Bath area, along with one week at the Bristol Royal Infirmary for Medicines Information. A little disappointed that we won't get to be in the hospitals at all, but this isn't a complete surprise and will by no means ruin the experience. All the folks here seem quite nice and the atmosphere is terrifically relaxed.
~ Checked into our dorm rooms which are NOTHING like the pictures online. They are clean enough, but very small and clearly lived-in. I share a bathroom with 3 others who live in the same "block"...a girl from Canada (who I met briefly) and folks from France & China. Should be...interesting. The location is decent, about halfway between the University (which sits on top of a very steep hill at the edge of Bath) and the downtown area. I plan to attempt to walk up the hill once while I am here...but probably only once!
~ Nathan & I did a bit of walking around town this afternoon, then came back to our rooms to get settled a bit. As I made the insane decision to take up "blogging", my suitcase remains unpacked and we are heading out in about 15 minutes to meet up with the British exchange students from last semester, Tanvi & Umi. I guess unpacking can wait?

We do not start working until next Monday (1st March) and thus have the next 6 days to get acclimated to Bath. I will post pictures soon...until then, stay clean. You know I will be ;)