Wednesday - Sunday

Heya people! Yay, my first real update! I am so excited to write about my first few days here in England because a lot has happened. According to my host mum I cant say I wasn't busy this weekend :D.

So Wednesday I said goodbye to my parents (grandparents and friends as well) and with a group of 8 people (shout out to Aukje and Demi <3) we made our way to London Heathrow Airport! That sounds like it all went smooth when in reality, well.... it didn't haha. For some reason (it includes getting food :D) we were late... We only had like nine minutes left before the gate closed. Of course the gate had to be D26... which is more than a nine minute walk, so we ran! A lot went wrong while running; suitcases fell (including mine), people fell (including me), ID-cards were flying all over the place and even got lost (including only mine :/) and we even had to ignore this little girl that lost her mother to be on time for the plane! For the record, we were on time, the little girl found her mum and my ID-card is detected.

When we arrived at Heathrow airport, it was raining. I thought about taking the first flight back home but that wouldn't make any sense since it is rainy in The Netherlands too. Baggage claim did go fairly well. (If you consider going to the wrong belt all the way on the other side of where we had to be, fairly well. Totally my fault.. sorry guys!)

The bus journey to Winchester was quite fun. You could see that we were too tired (or just did not really care) to blend with other countries. There was a clear division: Dutchies at front, a few empty seats, some Korean girls, a few empty seats again, and at the back you had the Spanish people (sorry if you were Italian). It took us about an hour and a half to get to Winchester.

When we got off the bus, all I wanted to do was lay down on my bed for a while. But they crushed my dreams (quite literally since I did not get to sleep) because we had to meet up in the so-called Lounge. To be honest, I could have gone to sleep first since we spent the first hour doing nothing but listening to some music. After the hour we got a 'yaaay welcome at the welcome days' and we were divided into groups. It was based on the region you were going to live in. My group had the color yellow with ambassador Marco from Italy. After being divided, we went into the auditorium with all groups to get some information about the program that day and to see the ambassadors doing an embarrassing dance. Great fun, but not when you're tired... After that we got to eat. I had a veggie burger with some potatoes and veggies (and a fruity yoghurt to add some sugar :D). That was my favorite menu of the welcome days. 

Then I went to look for my suitcases to get them to my room. when I arrived at the building where my room would be, I nearly cried. Because of course my room had to be in the apartment at the top floor... It took me half an hour to get my suitcases upstairs. Not even joking. One more thing for that day, they had bed checks at 10 pm. I was not expecting that to be really serious, so I was at a friends around that time. Let's just say that the two nights after that one, I was in my room by ten.

For some reason, I don't really remember alot of what we did Thursday. I do know that I learned the embarrassing dance... And I met new people! (Shout out to Vivien, Raffaele and Carmen and others whom I don't remember meeting!) I Also remember going to town with some friends. Winchester has a Primark, though it was closed :(. I did not really like the food that day, except for the ice cream lollypops! I learned a new Italian word that evening while eating my ice cream. People that were there know, others don't and will never :D. 

That being said (very, very useful I know), I will continue with Friday!

Friday we went to London. We left really early and started off with a ferry tour at the Thames. We saw the ferry and we were like:'Oh damn, that's a 'ferry' nice boat.' It wasn't ours sadly haha. But we had lots of fun! took some pretty nice pictures of buildings and bridges and people their heads (accidently). After the ferry tour, we got free time. With our mixed group of Italians, Dutchies and a German (Vivien you loner) we went to this foodmarket right behind the London Eye. Vivien and I went for Crêpes (hers with lemon and sugar, mine with Nutella and strawberries). Oh Vivien, that reminds me, I still owe you money/food :D. Anyways, Italians being Italians, yelled at me for calling Nutella chocolate. No Meike: CHOCOLATE IS CHOCOLATE AND NUTELLA IS NUTELLA. never confusing those two ever again... (in front of Italians that is). We had like an hour of free time, so the only thing we did was eat.... But I've been in London before so it's okay! And at least my Crêpe with chocolate, sorry NUTELLA, and strawberries was delicious! Unfortunately, the way back to Winchester took us very, very long. We spent nearly two hours to only get out of London! The rest of the evening consisted of eating, packing and (surprisingly) sleeping!

The next morning, the bus left at 7:45 AM. After a four hour drive, we arrived at Huntingdon busstation. I knew my host dad was there because I saw the car he drove :D. (A very nice Audi by the way). There rest went quite fast. I got off the bus, gave Rob (host dad) a big hug, got my suitcase, put it into the car, got the other suitcases from other people, put them in the car and we drove off towards my International Exchange Coördinator (IEC) her house to drop off the luggage of the others. Okay I will be honest with you, from the 'got my suitcase' Rob actually did all the work... Thank you! <3

At my IEC's house (without my IEC though) I met my little monkey of a host sister. Karyssaaa <3. Also, I had my first fish&chips over there! Loved it hihi. By the way, I am really lucky that my host mum and IEC  (Emma) are good friends because Emma has got.... *insert drumrolls*.... A hot tub!!! Me = Happy. When we arrived 'home', I got a tour around the house and towards my shed --> My room. Its really cute :). Karyssa and me started unpacking which kind of ruined the surprise of the presents... But thanks so much for helping me out darling!  Later that day, I met the neighbors on both sides. It was great! Lovely people in Pidley :). After spending sometime at the neighbors, my host mum (Bessma) arrived! Lovely meeting you Bessma! (And I love your sunflower dress <3) The rest of the day consisted of going to a party (with food) where I met some other new people. Sorry, I forgot all your names...

And that leaves us to today! #Sunday. Today we went to a car show. It was my first car/air show ever haha. I quite liked it, especially because we went with Sally the Classic Mini (Rob's love). I saw a lot of nice cars, planes and there were all sorts of shops. I bought this really cute Volkswagen van moneybank. Which reminds me, Bessma, I still owe you some money haha. Sadly, It started raining, so I got really cold. Lucky for me, Bessma her brother was there, who brought his daughter of 5. She kept me warm! Thanks cutiepie! So when we got back home (it feels a bit weird saying that to be honest), I started writing my blog!

And that brings us to this moment! Rob just bought me chocolate. Thank you Rob! And now that I am finally done writing, I am going to watch Startrek. And share my chocolate

I will update next week!

Kisses and hugs, warm tea in big mugs! XXX

P.S. sorry if some bits are confusing. But that's just me basically :D