Have My Chucks & My Pony, Will Travel

September 17, 2008

I ran away from home. Not really, I decided to move to London and go back to school. I was stirring for quite some time. I felt a strong pull towards another place and there was simply no way of fighting it. I had to go. I do not want to look back at my life and have regrets if I can help it. In the past few years I set goals and met them. I felt like this was a goal I had to push towards or I would regret it for sure.

Five days prior to leaving I spent in the dark. Hurricane Ike made his way through Texas. So many people were without electric and water. My mother and I kept our spirits up by telling stories and my mother played her guitar. The fifth day without lights and water I was packing my last bag and heading to the airport.

My mom was so happy for me and my travels to the UK, but all I could do was worry about leaving her there without electric and water. Days later, I was happy to hear from her via email. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Luckily a week prior to my trip my friends threw me a going away party. I was happy to see everyone one last time before leaving! One of my friends gave me a little take-along friend to share all my experiences with...A tiny pony. So if you see photographs throughout this blog with a pony in the mix, no worries, he is my mini village traveler!

Of course there has to be a bit more excitement to add to the mix. Before leaving the country I contacted my campus halls, where I would be living. They were pretty vague on the time table to move into housing. Come to find out it would be over a week after I arrived. I already bought my ticket so I had a little problem...

So, what does a person do for over a week when they are in another country with no place to live?

Luckily my friend, Amelia, and I knew people from our prior visit to UK. We met Neil and Justin through friends in Houston. That was such a life saver!! Neil and his fiance, Roma, agreed to put us up for almost a week!

The first four days of our trip we stayed in Ashford Kent with Chris.

I met Chris over a year prior and he agreed to pick me and my friend up at the airport and give us a place to stay for the first few days of my arrival.