Travels

After Annabelle sleeping through her alarm, by the time she arrived and the bags were checked in, we didn't have much time to spare. This meant it was pretty annoying when my hand luggage had to go through security FOUR times. The security guard finally said, "there's a liquid in there." I was certain there wasn't so he said he'd after empty my bag infront of quite a crowd of people. It turned out it was my present from Sophie that I'd moved from my suitcase to lower the weight. So the security guard had to open the present infront of everyone to reveal a photo frame filled with embarassing photos of me from my travels, along with some factor 50 sun cream to stop a repeat of Medj burns. It was lucky that he found it hilarious (as did everyone else that were around).

After battling through security at Manchester airport we had a 35 minute flight to London Heathrow and even though it was so short, they still managed to serve us bacon and egg sandwiches and our final English cup of tea! In the airport we amused ourselves with a game of 'Spot the Olympian' this guy was an American basket-baller.

'Spot the Olympian' at London Heathrow

Flight 2 had the wind on our side which cut off an hour. We were fed and watered every hour and just before landing in Chicago we were served Chicago Town pizza, as the Americans would say, it was GLORIOUS.

Chicago

My experience of Chicago so far is not so great, we queued for 2 hours to get through immigration, people were missing their flights waiting in the queue and they weren't doing anything about it, it was crazy. When we were finally through we had to go to the next terminal which required a train ride!! This part was pretty fun, but all in all, Chicago was an extremely stressful experience - lets hope it redeems itself on the way back! After a 3 hour wait in the airport drinking Starbucks, we boarded the teeny plane to McGhee-Tyson airport and were approached by a guy asking if we were going to the University in Tennessee after he'd heard us talking. When we landed we shared a taxi to the accommodation with Alberto from Spain; amigo numero uno! 

Lauren and Annabelle

On the mini plane to Knoxville

International House

Our first day was spent mostly in the International centre 'I-House' doing paperwork and getting details on how to register for classes and other important stuff. It's good being able to chat with people from all over the world and meeting the other English students. There are 2 from Keele University and 1 from Swansea.
After a swift turn around, Lauren's room-mates Shannon and Michaela drove us to 'TJ Maxx' to buy some bedding, then took us to a cook out where we got looooooads of freebies including our first Tennessee T-Shirt!

Apartment Door

After a busy day and a great night I came back to the apartment to find that Raven had moved in, as well as Sierra who was already here when I arrived (Chinese girl has not arrived yet). We went to the cafe downstairs and got a milkshake, she seems really lovely and I think we'll get on :)

Biggest shock: Fashion sense ... there is none, everybody wears big t-shirts and gym shorts everywhere for everything!
Funniest thing: being told everytime you speak "your accent is just so cute!"
Greatest mispronunciation: "It's the last stop on the bus route" route=rowt
Highlight so far: Cook out - Southern style nando's for free!