It's now 7:36am EST (or much later GST) and we've finally set down our bags in London Heathrow. It's a gorgeous day outside. Very sunny and really just incredible. We're sitting in a little cafe that claims to serve 'the finest Italian coffee'. Perched on puffy stools at a bar with little lamps overlooking an immense airplane vista. A storey above the tarmac, we're able to see countless planes landing, taking off, and pulling up to gates. It's actually quite amazing.
None of us were able to get very much sleep during the flight. It was quite loud and cramped but I think that we all managed to catch at least an hour. Jackie fell asleep during the end of Harry Potter 7.5 and dreamt that Harry Potter was about to kill her. She awoke with a start to see the flight attendant peering down at her with orange juice in hand. This was just one of many of Jackie's frightening moments as people popped up near her unexpectedly.
Esther also had a hilarious moment. She has a cylindrical pillow wrapped in a long pillow case that looks uncannily like a baby. The flight attendant walked by and knocked into her, smacking the 'baby'. The best part was as he leaned down to apologize for hitting her infant. We all laughed at that for a while.
As the plane descended, we were able to get our first few glimpses of London. It's absolutely beautiful. Stretches of green expanses, all sorts of bodies of water, and a lovely world-class airport. You could spend a years salary in between two blinks with all of these posh stores and boutiques.
One more note: Everybody around here has accents! Nobody else in my quad is phased by this but honestly I'm amazed that I've travelled so far away from my home that now I am the foreigner! Again, nobody seems to pay any mind to this but I think that it's nothing short of novel.
I'm hoping to submit these past few blog posts soon. Heathrow has no free WiFi (a shock to me!) and so I've got a little backlog building up. I may only get these up by the time we find internet in Zambia. At this point, we're just spending time in the airport waiting for all the other groups to begin arriving. We don't have a gate to go to yet but I'm hoping that we start to find our fellow expats soon!
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