Good Life

Woke up in London yesterday

Found myself in a city near Piccadilly

Don’t really know how I got here

I got some pictures on my phone

                           

One Republic “Good Life”

If I’ve learned anything from my YAV year, it’s resiliency. I had many hard challenges, many nights calling my parents crying because “I can’t do this.” My Community was there for me and helped me bounce back and tackle those challenges in a new light. As I type this I’m experiencing a different kind of resiliency that comes with traveling solo. 

I’ve gotten 2 hours of sleep in the past 24 hours. My legs have been hurting from either moving too much (walking around London or a museum) or not enough (flying for 7 hours). Sometimes it has felt like my legs were going to buckle under me, but I kept moving. I’m also chafing, which is not a pleasant feeling. I’ve been wearing the same clothes for the past 36 hours and probably don’t smell the greatest. I’ve been carrying a ~20 lb backpack around a major city. Just Sarah things.

I flew from Tampa to Detroit last night. I came off that plane and immediately got on the one to go to London. It was at 10:30 at night. I’m ready to sleep. And what happens? They turn on all the lights in the cabin. And pass out dinner. At 11 pm. What?! So woke up and ate “dinner” and tried to wind back down. I thought my years of band would help with sleeping upright, until I remembered that I would curl up under the seat and never sleep “properly.” So I got about 2 hours of sleep. When I finally got the best sleeping position, guess what? The lights came back on again and it was time for breakfast. 4 hours after dinner. Come on. 

I landed and took the Underground to the Natural History Museum (see pictures attached in Facebook post). I was tired, but I knew if I kept my brain active, I would be fine. Being a rainy day, SO MANY PEOPLE WERE THERE. It was ridiculous. I wandered for 2.5 hours until my legs and stomach couldn’t take it anymore (thankfully I stored my pack for the day. Extra weight wouldn’t have helped). I decided to go get food and maybe see the sights next to the Thames. Big Ben and Westminister Cathedral are both under construction. I’m pretty sure I could the pub that I went to last time I was in London (which was 7 years ago). I left and picked up my stuff to head back to the airport.

I passed on the first two trains that came by because they were FILLED with people. I couldn’t afford to wait forever though, so I squished in the next train. I spent the next 45 minutes standing, squished in a corner, my feet perpendicular to each other, and really close to people. I thought it was packed at our stop? It got so much worse than a can of sardines. Got to the airport and couldn’t find my terminal. I finally found it. Here’s the worst thing that’s happened to me: my flight to Edinburgh...was yesterday. I somehow mixed up the dates and it was £235 to get on tonight’s flight (which btw I was still getting emails about. Grrr...)

I did what I’ve done many times and many more in the future: I called my dad. I wasn’t full on panicking like I once would have. I just needed assurance that things would be ok. I immediately called the hostel and they will have a bed for me. I’m currently in the train station about to take a ~10 hour journey to get from London to Edinburgh. The things I do to stick with my structure/schedule. 

Hopefully, the worst has been done and it will be smoother sailing from here on out. But if there’s another incident, I know I have the resiliency and intuition to move forward. 

P.S. I did panic when I got to the train station because my tickets were on my phone and my phone was at 5%. I couldn’t print them off; the train line wasn’t a print option. Thankfully I met this wonderful Indian women who let me borrow her power pack for me to charge sufficiently to get on the train.