After finally being let out of the plane I started getting really nervous. What if they didn't let me in? What if I was completely wrong about everything and I got thrown out of the country forever. I had a lovely long walk to think about all of this before I finally got to immigration where I confused the hell out of the guy in charge of me. See the course I'm taking doesn't officially end until June 18th. However that's about two weeks after the semester ends. My Mom, in her wisdom, decided that there was no point to me spending two weeks twiddling my thumbs in London (which is probably what I would've done.) This confused the man in immigration to no end. He did not understand at all. And because he didn't understand he gave me the stink eye, which wasn't helping anything because I was a nervous wreck. I was terrified that he wasn't going to let me through. Finally he said rather curtly "have you paid for everything" and I said yes and he stamped my passport and everything was fine. But for a few minutes there, I wasn't sure I would get through.
After immigration everything went swimmingly. However I was left with five hours with nothing to do in Paddington station. And Paddington station is not heated. And if there are lockers, I couldn't find them which meant I was carrying/dragging around all of my luggage every time I wanted to go somewhere. And I was cold. So I wandered around Paddington station for a good hour before mooching around various locations trying to warm up. I desperately wanted to call people but a) didn't (and still don't) have a phone and b) would have felt really weird calling my great uncle at 9am. However I did realize that pigeons are actually the dominate species, at least in London and the female announcer at Paddington station sounds eerily similar to Freema Agyeman aka Martha. I also learned how to be a hobo.
The Paddington station has a Hilton Hotel attached to it which is very convenient since Paddington has trains going to Heathrow airport. Unlike the most of the rest of Paddington station however, the Hilton is heated. So at 10am I decided I'd had enough of the cold and was going to go sit in the warmth of the Hilton. The amazing thing is, is that I got away with it for two hours even though I spent most of that time either reading about the commercialization of American radio or half asleep. The key to my success I believe was my luggage. I didn't look like the hobo I was, I looked like someone waiting for someone at the Hilton, with my luggage. Either that or the staff at the Hilton are use to people being hobos in their lobby. It was during this time that I re-realized that Employment is almost exactly 45 minutes long and that I hadn't taken my meds. So I headed to Starbucks, got my second hot chocolate of the day (though I didn't finish either) and some shortbread cookies and remedied the problem. I left around 12:50, learned that you have to pay to use the restrooms and discovered the waiting room. There's a heated waiting room near the ladies' in Paddington station. I could have spent five lovely hours in a warm room instead of sitting around acting like a cold hobo for most of that time. Around 1:15 I left the wonderful waiting room, got myself a pair of wool gloves (it's cold dammit) and left for Harrow. Everything went swimmingly until I realized my internet wasn't working. I did however go to the British equivalent of Wal-Mart (Sainsbury if you're wondering) and got lots of crap I couldn't have packed but are absolutely necessary. But now my internet is working and tomorrow I'm going to head back to Harrow-on-the-Hill and get myself a phone and other pretty things that I need like a sheet and a duvet cover. Right now, I'm going to relax and then go to sleep. In a bed. It will be bliss.
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