Every story has a beginning.

I have arrived in England at long last! Since I can remember, I've been interested in travel. Once I learned about study abroad opportunities in high school, I knew I'd be doing that sometime in college. I had to! But at the same time, it was always more of a wish-list-type item more than a definite reality for me. Yet here I am.

We arrived to snow. I'd never seen snow in person before, so you can imagine my delight. It's absolutely beautiful. Everything shimmers when covered in snow, and I love the sound and feeling of walking on it. I made my first snowball! I was hit with my first snowball as well...thank you Tom. It was fantastic.

I really like the house I'm living in, even though it's at least a good 20-minute walk to get into town. My body needs the exercise; that's made painfully obvious by the pitiful aching in my legs. No cars to rely upon in Luton! My beloved truck is alllll the way back in Florida, so I will simply have to use my legs. I enjoy the walk to town. It's pretty easy and provides an ample opportunity to observe everything.

Man, I am totally jumping around as far as chronology, but it's difficult to write about everything that's happened since landing on Monday. Hopefully I'll get better at this blogging thing as the semester progresses.

Tom met us at the airport. He couldn't find me, so he had the information desk page me over the intercom. Kinda felt like a VIP, not gonna lie. He brought a cream egg for both me and Sara as welcome gifts. Isn't that sweet? Ohhhh punny.

I went to the induction session today, which is basically an orientation. We had a tour and met the other international students studying at Bedfordshire this semester. Three of them are from Poland, two from schools in Holland (though one is actually from China), and then us four Americans. After the session concluded, several of us went across the street to a pub and got to know one another a little better. In particular, the other girls (one from Poland and the other from Holland) seemed especially nice, though everyone there made good company. Sara and I were invited to hang out tomorrow night, which would be cool. Hopefully that works out well.

Speaking of tomorrow, I have to go back to campus to have my classes signed by the "course manager" (I'm guessing that's like the equivalent to the department head?) so that I can officially register on Friday. I tried to get this done today, but no one was in their offices.

Oh! And I bought some groceries today. Did you know there are different types of Toblerone? Because I soooo did not. The more you know! ;)