June 5, 2010

June 5, 2010

We woke up around 5:15 am to get to the train station and head to London. Apparently, my dad didn't know that you could reserve seats on the train and so although we had tickets, we were known as "jumpers" and could only sit in seats that did not have a ticket on them which was rare and scattered. hahaha It would have been weird to start the family trip off without chaos so I ALMOST enjoyed having to move everytime we stopped at a new station and someone needed their reserved seat.  We found out that it would have only cost a total of $20 to get those, but hey- at least we saved $20 during those FIVE HOURS. ;) Between my dad running aimlessly around, my mom yelling at my dad, my sister's stomach rumbling, my brother pretending to be Robert Pattinson- I'd day we are off to a pretty good start! haha However, I did end up sitting by the coolest person from London!  His name was Gary and he used to be a professional wrestler, but now is the ring announcer for wrestlers and was headed back to London with his production crew!  We talked for a good 3 hours and covered almost every topic from the war in Iraq, music, religion, and anything else.  I felt like I had known him my whole life and am so glad I decided to not listen to music on that long ride! It is incredible the people you meet when you just strike up a casual conversation... If I am going to be over here for so long, I want to get the real feel of what the people are like- not just the outside touristy view.  I won't be able to experience that raw culture shock just yet, but I am seeing the many many differences between Europe and my own American ways of life.  We may speak the same language, but other than that we are not exactly twins!  These people across the pond are absolutely beautiful and I am a better person after sharing conversations with all of them.  I am giving the cliff notes version of what I think of Europe because well, my fingers are tired.
Ok, so after arriving in London and going to St. Pancras - I got to hangout with my future room mate for next year- Lierin!  It was the craziest thing because she was passing through and so were we at the same exact time so why not meet up for a quick chat and pictures for our dorm of us in LONDON!?  hahah I absolutely loved seeing her and we got our dorm assignments today so it is just getting better and better.  
While in London at the train station waiting for our next departure, my mom got yelled at for sitting at a table that belonged to a food place she was not eating at, Dannah stepped in the biggest gum ball I have ever seen, Dustin had a girl take a picture with her phone of him like he was a celeb (Edward Cullen) , and Dannah ate a good dozen bags of salt&vinegar chips that miraculously keep coming back to me even though I hate them.  Those are only a few of the funny little things that go on with my family and they probably aren't even funny unless you know us.  There truly is never a dull moment- It's great.  We are arriving in Paris so I should probably end this post with the French word for goodbye, but sadly, I have no idea how to spell it.