Today was horrible! I could not sleep much on the plane and I was dead tired when it came time for dinner. I did not know they called dinner “tea�. That was the oddest thing in the world. I hated the fact the pilot told us that there were planes above and below us. We had to circle the air until there was space for us to taxi down. Even then, while on the runway it took ages until we could be let off the plane. We were just on the plane on the runway waiting to park. The pilot used some term that slipped my mind now about parking the plane.
Once we were off the plane, we had to go and pick up luggage. That was interesting because the luggage carts were called “trolleys� and I finally got what my old co-worker said about my rolling backpack. Those trolleys were quite interesting because we could not really control them. The best part of that day had to be the 20 of us each with a trolley or just rolling luggage had to go find the bus. We got to the point that the bus was supposed to be and it was not there and had left. So the 20 of us had to go back into the airport and head on to the other side. When we got outside though it was not as cold as we had expected.
Then the bus driver had to put our luggage into the storage area of the bus with all of our suitcases. He was not a young man, but I would guess that he is about 50 something. He saw all of us with our two suitcases or more in some cases and said something along the lines of “did you have to move your whole house over here for 3 months?� and that was funny. This one guy had more stuff than I did! He even wanted to bring an ironing board! Loading everyone’s suitcases took about 30 to 40 minutes. And once on the bus after a while, everyone went to sleep because it was just too difficult to sleep on the plane. That and the fact was it was going to take about two and a half hours to the campus where we would meet our host family. The views of the land that I saw while awake on the bus were amazing. The views from the plane were also spectacular. Seeing the homes and what they are made of makes me feel as though I am going back in time. The orientation was interesting because we found out that the next day we would get a tour of the town.
Another funny thing that had happen to me while I got the luggage into the car and headed off to my host family’s home was that I forgot that it was the opposite of American cars and drivers were on the passenger side. I thought that I would know better because I have been to Hong Kong and that is how it is there, but it must have slipped my mind because I was just too tired to remember. I had a talk with my host mom about what my parents did. I do not know what she thought about it, but I suppose she just wanted to get to know me better.
I went to see my room and thought it was not too small. The room that I stay at in Hong Kong is even smaller so I am glad in a way my room is somewhat bigger than that. Of course, if I had to compare it to my room at home it is quite small. The blanket and the pillow case as well as the room the colors were blue and yellow. I wondered if they had planned it being blue and yellow because they knew that most of the students they would take in would be from San Jose State and that our school colors were such. Everything is as I imagined it would be. The homes and the size of stuff such as the room I was staying in. I think it is because that Hong Kong prepared me for what to expect in England. Remembering to look right and then left instead of left then right. The only difference is that the shower or bathtub does not have a shower curtain and that is just odd to me. And that it is colder here and not as humid as well.
Meeting the rest of the family today was interesting. Of course, the 11-year-old son was taller than me (that I had expected) and the daughter is an oddball. She was in bed when I got to the house to meet her. I could not believe what my host mom had said about Tonya. Calling her a colored girl. I met my host dad and I did not know what to make of him.
