April 16th Wednesday

It had felt like a long night which I knew would lead into a long day. Karuna had been coughing all night which meant that I didn’t sleep much. I couldn’t blame her though since I’d done the same thing to her two months ago. Despite it feeling like a long night I got up at 7:00am. Today we were going to England!

I ate some cereal and yogurt for breakfast and got ready for the day and trip. I packed a few snacks in my bag like chips and drinks. I left around 8:10am. I was hefting Karuna’s big orange shoulder bag down the street. Actually, it was a handbag as it had no shoulder strap. I did not realize this as I was packing or I would have asked for another one. I’d over packed and part of the bulk was a bottle of red French wine that I’d gotten for Leslie for her birthday. More of the bulk was the class reading I’d optimistically thrown in my bag. I wanted to turn around to switch to a rolling suitcase but I didn’t have the time. I lugged my bag into the metro wondering how I let Karuna talk me out of my convenient bags.

I took the metro up to the bus station and arrived a bit before 9:00am. I met Casey and Glynnis there. Glynnis had her impressive gigantic backpack on. She wouldn’t be coming back to Paris so she had to take everything with her. We checked in and found out the area where our bus was parked. The man at the window laughed because Glynnis was the smallest with the biggest bag. I had my duffel bag and Casey had a backpack.

After checking in, we went up and found our bus. Casey and Glynnis needed breakfast so they went back to the McDonalds that they’d seen on our way up. They got some breakfast there as well as some food from the Paul bakery. I had them get me an orange juice. We waited in the food court area while they ate and then went and got on the bus a bit before 10. The bus turned out to be fairly empty.

Casey, Glynnis and I were all able to take up two seats each in the back together. We started out on what would be the longest bus ride of my life. It was a seven hour trip from Paris to London. We left at 10:00am.

As we rode we all dozed. It had been an early morning for all of us. I listened to my music. It was fun watching the countryside. Around noon, I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that I’d pack.

Around 1:00pm we came up to the French customs stop. They had everyone get out of the bus and bring our bags into a small building. We had to walk through a metal detector and put our bags through x-ray. Outside I watched them use dogs to sniff the cars coming through. I think someone went through the bus to make sure we brought everything. It was boring waiting for the line. We were thankful it wasn’t a full bus and that we got to stand up for a while.

We got back in the bus and drove until the British passport control. They were fairly nice there. They just asked us the typical questions. I didn’t get nearly as much grief as I had at the Scottish passport control. Once we passed the desks, they had a dog sniff us to see if we were carrying anything. It was actually a cute dog and not like the typical large scary looking drug dogs. I felt like batting at it when it went to sniff my crotch but I stood still. Either it’s a perk of the job for the dog or they’re expecting me to get creative with hiding drugs.

We piled back on the bus and continued our journey. It was a short drive to the tunnel. We had to stop and wait in line. I was thinking we’d just drive through it like any other tunnel. I didn’t understand why we were waiting in the bus. They kept talking about loading times. Then, when we were allowed to move on, I saw what the reason was. We wouldn’t be driving through the tunnel. There was a large train that all the cars drove onto and it ferried us across.

Our bus drove into it and I was amazed it fit. The interior looked like Star Trek. There were long lights on the side. Once we got on, the bus opened the doors and stopped. Casey and Glynnis were really nervous about driving underwater. To cope, they brought out some… ah… liquid refreshment that would help the time pass. I was excited about the ride. The bus had to turn off so there was no air flow. It got very hot in there. The ride went pretty quick. We were only in the tunnel for about 20 minutes.

We turned our watches back an hour. It was now 3:00pm England time. We drove and continued our way toward London. The shops immediately started looking more English than French. We arrived at the bus stop around 4:00pm. Our next bus heading to Bristol wasn’t leaving until 6:00pm. That suited us just fine and we went in search of food.

We tried to keep in mind where the bus station was and walked around until we found a mall. It had a food court inside. I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven. The food court looked very American. There was a McDonalds, a KFC and a Subway among other things. I’d been craving a subway sandwich so I went there. I got a Spicy Italian. Sadly, they didn’t have oil and vinegar and there were limited cheese selections. At least it still tasted amazing.

We all settled down with our food. We also had to take turns guarding it while the others went to the bathroom. It cost money to go but we were desperate. It was a rather big ordeal. We had to go downstairs to withdraw money from the ATM and then buy the food in order to get change. Finally we got to eat our food. While we ate, I looked over and saw an older woman sitting at a table. Her head was slowly drooping down until her nose was touching the newspaper she had been reading. She was falling asleep. I felt sorry for her.

After dinner we decided to go to the nearby Garfunkel’s sit down restaurant for dessert. I got a chocolate milkshake while the other two got big hot fudge sundaes. It was quite yummy.

It was time to head back to the bus station. We found where ours would be leaving from and sat down. We tried calling Emily. We were having trouble getting a hold of her. I asked a nice woman sitting near us if she knew the country code or area code. She helped me figure it out and I was able to get Emily on the phone. We told her what time our bus would be arriving in Bath.

We got to board on the bus headed to Bath. It took 2 hours and 50 minutes. There was one stop before ours. There was a toilet in the back of the bus so I decided to go before we arrived. I went in and the bus must have run into a really bumpy road. I usually squat when I pee in public restrooms. I was being bounced all over the small compartment. Even buttoning my pants took a while. I was slammed against the door more than once.

I finally escaped and sat down. It wasn’t long before we arrived in Bath. Emily, Leslie, and Devon (fellow TAM students) were waiting to pick us up. It was so good to see them! We walked with them to Devon’s house. He was living there with Keith, Meredith, and Patrick who are also in the program. Glynnis is Devon’s sister so she’d be staying with them.

Casey was staying with Emily and I was staying with Leslie. We walked to Leslie’s place. She told me that she had something to tell me to prepare me before we arrived at her apartment and saw her books. She told me that she was going to have a baby. I kind of paused because I didn’t know what to say. I think I said “Oh yeah?” She told me a little more. I said “Well I don’t know how to react because I don’t know how this news was received.” If it was a big problem I didn’t want to yell “Congratulations!” She told me about how it had been a shock to find out. It was a result of a Valentine trip back to the states to see her boyfriend. She had had a difficult choice but she and her boyfriend had decided to keep the baby. I said, “Well I’m sorry for the stress and worry it’s caused you. I’m sure it was scary. But I think you guys made a good choice and I know you’ll be great parents.” She seemed happy to hear that. I think it helps having someone think about how the news affected her first. She seemed to have become pretty excited since she accepted the news.

We continued walking uphill toward Leslie’s place. She had a room in a larger apartment. The apartment was nice. Her room was quite tiny. There was room for her bed and the extra twin mattress on the floor. That was it. It was like a fun little sleepover though. We settled down and went to bed close to 12 or 1.