Hello and Welcome!

Hello family, friends, and co-workers! Welcome to my blog!

The site is still not complete but I felt that since I have been here for a full week I should impart some knowledge I've gained already here in London, some interesting cultural differences, and a description of what all has happened. Readers, be warned, this initial blog is quite long and I will try to start posting more often so that you don't have a book to read :).

The journey abroad was rough and challenging but alas I made it. Travel usually isn't difficult for me, however, since I was moving out of my old place before I left, it had lasting effects. The day of my travels started early at 5am when I started the final move of everything. Now at this point I was moving everything fine and I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This took an abrupt turn of events when after rushing and moving everything that my back gave out. I didn't think a 21 year old healthy back could give out but if you push it hard enough, it will. Luckily before this event happened I picked my girlfriend Teracia up and she was helping with the move. I have to say collapsing and not being able to move isn't so good on the ego. However, my darling showed excellent prioritizing skills, moving skills, and just great strength.

At this point walking was very hard for me, I had seriously injured my back and despite my dad's warnings and advice I decided to move on with the trip instead of see a doctor. So I climbed into my car and began my journey to Lansing to see my grandmother.

My grandmother has not been doing very well, so please keep her in your prayers. It was my wish to visit her before I started my great journey, and I made sure that no matter what it would happen.

After visiting my grandmother in the hospital and saying goodbye to my grandfather and Aunt Marge who were there, my dad and I took off to Jackson. The current plan was for me to drive my car down to Jackson with Teracia, and have her brother Trevor follow us in her car. Once we arrived in Jackson I stored my car and we all piled into Teracia's car and headed to the airport.

Trevor is such a kind soul and I am very glad to know him. Teracia and I have been trying to cope with being apart for five months and it was wisely advised by her parents that she shouldn't be alone after seeing me off at the airport. So my thanks go out to him for spending the day with us, and helping her.

At the airport we spent some time eating and getting checked in and then the heartfelt goodbye. Despite the pain of my back, despite the notion of knowing no one in another country... this was the hardest part of the day.

I walked forward through the security gate and began my travels alone.

My flight plans were to travel from the Detroit airport to Newark, have a bit of a delay, and then take a night flight to London. The wait and travel to Newark were not that bad, and I actually slept for an hour on this flight. Once I arrived in Newark, I exited and grabbed a coke for the now two hour delay.

Unfortunately for international flights you have to check back in and go through security again. I found this out and went to security but found that by trusty, and tasty, beverage could not come with me. Well I was planning on drinking this over the course of an hour or so and enjoy the extremely pricey coke.

So what should I do? Well what I did do was not chug the rest of the coke down, nor did I throw it away. I sat down near the security staff for the next forty minutes, and drank my coke while chatting with them. I found it quite refreshing and I think they did as well that someone could carry on a conversation.

Most of our conversation dealt with how they cope with people always complaining about their inconvenience when they don't realize it is for their own safety. Then once my coke was finished and I was very satisfied I stepped through the checkpoint with smiles and set forth to the airplane.

After waiting another hour, having a couple beers, and admiring the biggest plane I've ever seen. I entered the plane which had luxurious first class seats, amazing business class seats, and pretty decent economy class seats. On the back of every seat there was a television which had a program called v:cast. It allowed people to select multiple movies, TV shows, CDs, and even tourist information.

The flight was very long and I watched a couple movies, one being Speed Racer (mainly because I love the Matrix and I had to at least watch the movie). I have to say despite all the criticism it gets for being a terrible movie, I was highly entertained. The only thing that I was not able to do on this flight was sleep. I tired multiple times but only managed to achieve about 20 minutes of actual sleep.

I did find one interesting thing out, and that is on international flights with Virgin Atlantic, drinks are free. So I had me a few beers while I waited for the sun to come up, and when it did I was utterly amazed.

Writers and poets, much greater then I, have tried throughout time to describe beauty in words. However, no matter how eloquent the word, or how clever the phrase, nothing does justice to great site of the sun rising over the ocean and Great Britain.

I took a number of pictures with my camera and I have to say I now have a great admiration to the art of photography. Before I foolishly thought that doing adjusting the lenses and managing the lighting could be learned and mastered relatively easily. However taking pictures of a sunset with low light, from inside an airplane, is very hard thing to do. I need to go into the Manual Exposure settings and set the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO manually. The results were decent but I know that a master photographer could do a lot better.

Once landed, I set off to the airport and listened to the multiple languages around me. It is amazing how many ways there is to communicate to one another in different accents, tones, and languages.

I met with the Kingston official and set off to my accommodation where my land lady, Jennifer, greeted me and showed me where my room is. The house that I am staying at is unlike any British home that I have every imagined. It is massive, has large bathrooms, bedrooms, and astonishing carpets. Given I am lucky enough to be in a richer place in Kingston. One interesting thing is all of the high class cars that I see every single day. They include Bentleys, Porsches, Aston Martins, and mainly BMWs.

Once I settled into my new place I met my house-mate Nicole who is an exchange student from New Jersey. We hang out a bit with a lot of the study abroad students and are getting along just fine.

Among those study abroad students are a number of students from my school Grand Valley. I feel after this experience I will have a number of friends that carry over to the states and a lot that I keep in touch with.

In the week we have gone on two main trips, one to Brighton which is on the coast of England and one to central London. Central London was utterly amazing and we saw so much beauty in architecture. It amazes me how you don't appreciate something as much if you have lived with your entire life. Most people past by Big Ben and other items without giving them another look.

Central London was absolutely amazing, there was a tour and a person talking and giving a bit of a history lesson with all of the objects, but I didn't like the system of "look at this now... okay now this..." etc. So I mainly just went with the tour and did my own sightseeing along the way.

Brighton was gorgeous. The winds there are similar to Grand Rapids since it is right on the sea, however the cold is a bit different. It is much colder in the states but here it just cuts through whatever warmth you have. We took a tour of the Royal Pavilion and cameras were not allowed.

The Royal Pavilion was breathtaking. So far it is the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. I have not done much traveling yet so it will have to hold against some competition but I wish I could describe it. It was a mixture of Indian, Chinese, and Neo-classical architecture with a Victorian twist. Well that is what the tour guide said at least, I'm not that much into architecture, I don't know the different styles and aspects but one thing is for certain... I don't think there is anywhere in the world like the Royal Pavilion.

It was built by George IV, who was a slightly heavier man and enjoyed his dinner parties. Apparently he was one of the worst kings of England and did hardly any work. The Royal Pavilion is a testament to this because he built it so that he could get away from his duties as the king.

Back in its time, it would host large dinner parties that would last for hours with roughly a 120 menu items to choose from. The dining room for this place was... unforgettable. Every person took a breath when walking in to see the astonishing chandler as the centre piece. The wallpaper and carpet were beautiful and I could not begin to describe how much I wanted to take a picture. Some museums and places around the world do not let pictures be taken. Some say it is to preserve the paintings and atmosphere, but I think it is because there is no way for you to see what I have seen unless you go there.

Now throughout this week there were a lot of fun things like going to the different pubs with the study abroad students and staff; experiencing the differences between American service and British service and just exploring British culture. However, this week was also extremely hard on me to keep an optimistic outlook on my future journeys.

While coming back from the tour of central London a few friends of mine were on the train joking around and such when we realized a stop had come. The trains here in England are pretty quick and if you aren't ready to step off you better start running towards the door. I did so and being one of the last ones off I barely made it through the doors. They actually clipped my shoulder and it was a near miss. However the result of this unforeseen event was that my bag was left in the train.

London does have a reputation for being high on theft. So I was particularly worried since my passport and my new camera were in "rucksack." I found this is the word that British use to describe a backpack, because after saying "backpack" about ten times and explaining it, they finally said "Do you mean a rucksack?"

Well I bid my friends a goodbye and I began the frantic calls to the transportation authority trying to get some idea of how to get by bag back. Unfortunately this was a Friday night and all of the places close around 5pm. So without any hope I began to search the next train that pulled up thinking that it had come back. Unfortunately the bag was not on there so I took the train to the next station and got off to check another train. My foolish self thought the next train would be in fifteen minutes; however it was another hour before the train came. Searched that train and still no luck, but I decided to take it all the way to the Waterloo station is which the main station here in London.

After talking with about ten people about the situation, going to the different offices and departments that are in the train station, and finding them all closed, I finally gave up and headed back home. It is amazing how much fast food is a comfort food for when you are abroad and things are messing up because there was a Burger King at the station and I had one of the best burgers ever. At least it seemed that way to my stressed out self.

The blistering wind and cold air for roughly 3 hours outside made me have one of the worst colds in my life. I spent three sleepless nights battling it until just now.

However my luck tends to swing from worse to great because during the Brighton trip I won around $70 at a casino by just inserting about $1. So things were looking quite splendid until the following night came and my luck again took a turn for the worse.

To captivate how I was feeling, just understand that at this point I am without a passport and the camera (which I bought specifically for this trip). Things aren't looking very good but I'm being optimistic.

I was coming home from the bus after the Brighton trip and not feeling very well. I was looking down and just trying to make it home when I thought I had accidentally bumped into someone. I had apologized and kept on walking. When I got home I went to sleep and woke up the next morning ready to go to the next activity of a Sunday brunch. However when I put on my coat and put my hand in my pocket I did not find my wallet there where I had left it... I searched everywhere, through all my pants, my room and everything. It was then that I remembered bumping into that stranger and then I realized what happened.

I was pick-pocketed and I no longer have any form of identification, or my main credit card. I was lucky enough to think ahead and take out all of my cards that I had in my wallet except for what was needed. So I only had to cancel one card and go through the process of getting more identification.

So now I was on the low end of my luck expecting some good luck. I was trying to keep my hopes up because I couldn't find out if someone returned my bag until Monday. So Monday morning roles around and I call the office as soon as it opens at 7:30am, they say that they haven't done a collection from upstairs and to call back a little bit after noon.

The next few hours I spent waiting and waiting... and then when I called a bit after noon they said. "Mr. Shaver? We have some great news for you!" It turns out that some lovely soul returned my bag with everything in it. Wow, what an amazing thing. I am truly blessed.

So now I am with a passport, camera, and everything, ready to set forth and start more adventures!

More is to come, and I apologize for the long read but I hope you enjoyed it!