The One with the Last Post

So I am now home safe and sound in England, and it has snowed more in the last six hours here than it did the whole semester in Boone. CRAZINESS!!!

We started out in Boone at the LLC at 8.00am on the 17th December. We left on a bus to Charlotte airport. We had to go back to pick up James and Evelien who we had left behind, but apart from that the first part of the journey went without a hitch. They told me at the airport that they would check my bags all the way to Heathrow, meaning I wouldn't have to collect them and recheck them at JFK. This made my day so much easier! A few of us went to get bagels and OJ for breakfast, then Marcella and I said goodbye to everyone and boarded our flight to JFK. This flight went fine, no problems.

We arrived at JFK, and went to Terminal 4 on the AirTrain where Marcella had to check in. She checked in on Air Lingus, then we went to have some food. We saw three creepy crawly bugs crawling along the wall which was kind of gross, but we were fine. We then took the AirTrain to Terminal 8 where I had to check in. I checked in, then by that time it was time for us to go our separate ways... We said goodbye on the AirTrain platform, then I went to find my gate and have some food before the flight. We boarded late because they hadn't finished cleaning the plane yet, which delayed us by about half an hour. I don't know if it's because it's near Christmas, but everyone was abusing the baggage policies, taking on three times their allowed amount of carry-on luggage. As a result, there was no room in the overhead bins for me to put my bag, so I had to put it under my seat which meant I couldn't stretch my legs out... Other than this, the flight was OK. I started watching District 9 and promptly fell asleep. I woke up and ate some crappy aeroplane food, then watched Band Slam. I then started watching Julie and Julia, and got about halfway through that before I fell asleep again... I watched an episode of Bones while I ate my croissant and drunk my OJ. By this time we were ready to land, , but we arrived about an hour later than planned because there wasn't a gate with a tunnel open for us to get into the airport. We had to go down the steps and into buses, which took us a very long way round and then dropped us off in an entrance where none of the escalators were working. The people with three carry-on cases were not happy about this. Serves them right for abusing baggage policies.

I got through customs fine, and picked up my luggage which came round the carousel extemely quickly. Then I walked down the pathway like you see in the movies where everyone's family is waiting for them, except my family actually WERE waiting for me. It was so nice to see them again and get big hugs :) I missed them a lot, maybe in the future they'll invent a Skype that gives you real hugs... hmm... But yes, I am back in Blighty and it is snowing and Christmassy and lovely, and we have a fire and the Christmas decorations are up and my room has been repainted and I have had three cups of tea. Everything is lovely :D

I guess seeing as my four month long journey to Appalachian State University and back is over, this will be my last blog post. It seems so sad to think that everything is over and while I'm really happy to be back home with my family, I will miss seeing everyone at Appalachian State every day... it seems so weird to think that I can't have storytime with Meagan or go down the corridor to see Liz, or hang out with my favourite internationals at Macados... I will miss everyone but I'll never forget the time we spent together and I have so many good memories that I will cherish forever :) Thanks to everyone who made my experience at App AMAZING!!!