The Trip There

Hello again. This is currently day three of my time in Exeter and quite a lot has happened. After leaving Springfield on Friday evening, I arrived in London Heathrow after a 6 hour 50 minute plane ride. Overall, I have to say that the tripe over was pretty decent. The seats, despite being in coach, all had a screen on a back that provided movies, tv shows, and a cool gps function that allowed me to see the plane's progress. Nevertheless, my legs were pretty cramped by the time the plan landed, so I was very happy to get up and stretch my legs. After a quick trip through customs, I took a quick shuttle ride over to London Paddington.
In contrast to the confined seemingly never-ending corridors of London Heathrow, Paddington Train Station was open air and had the pigeons to prove it. The glass roof gave the place a bright atmosphere despite the cloudy skies. After buying my ticket, I set about getting lunch. In retrospect, I should have searched the station for something authentically British, but I was so hungry that I ended up choosing... Burger King, which was the first food stand I saw. Interestingly enough, chicken tenders at UK Burger Kings taste more like the chicken tenders at US McDonald's then US BK chicken tenders. Eventually, it was time for my train to leave from platform 9 (despite my best efforts I failed to find platform 9 3/4 which I'm sure was next to it somewhere). Needless to say the train ride from Paddington to Exeter was breathtaking. The rolling green hills were quite a different site then the trees and cities that I'm used to from riding Amtrak (although in the later's defense the seats on this train weren't nearly as comfortable nor was there free wi-fi). Upon arriving in Exeter, I was greeted by quite the sight...

I know that it's fairly difficult to tell from the picture, but if you look just beyond the tree in the center, you can see the rainbow that stood before me as I steeped off of the platform. Taking this to be a good omen I headed off to the B&B where I had made reservations. Despite getting lost numerous times, and having to lug my suitcase up a fairly steep hill I made it to the bed and breakfast in one piece (just a heads up to anyone going over to England, small towns such as Exeter don't appear to have street signs posted at each street corner like here in America, rather they are posted on the sides of buildings, if at all). The B&B was English in every sense of the word. Friendly staff, fried eggs for breakfast, and rooms named after famous literary characters (I stayed in the Dorian Grey room, it was absolutely Wilde). In contrast to the warm and friendly atmosphere indoors, the outside of the structure resembled a gothic castle...

Complete with a old church and graveyard in the backyard...

After recharging at the B&B for the night of January 12, I set out to Exeter on the 13th. My navigational skills appear to be improving, I only got lost once. After arriving, I've had the good fortune to  met people from Australia, England, New Zealand, Canada, and Mexico, all of whom seem very cool. In addition, I've successfully made it through orientation, and have actually gotten all my classes sorted out in one day. Tomorrow, I don't have any class so I'm hoping to further explore the town and get some more pictures (J.K Rowling who attended Exeter apparently based Diagon Alley off of one of the streets in the town, so I'll do my best to find said area). Thanks for reading, more coming soon.