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April 28/29

This was, by far, the longest day we had. Actually, it encompassed the 29th as well, but given the time differences and all, I have no idea how to delineate them. The majority of the school was closed at 5 pm on Saturday (the 27th). This left pretty much no one on campus save the 26 members of the choir, and a few other workers. Give that our bus wasn't due to arrive till 2 am, we had to occupy ourselves. I hung out with Josh, Lisa and Anna. We watched Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail to get ourselves acclimated to English culture ahead of time. At 2 am on Sunday, the bus arrived and we were off for a 3 hour ride to Sacramento Airport. I felt very lucky to be the focus of official attention, first going through the metal detector (stupid shoes with high metal content), then for a special secondary search just before boarding. This, of course, didn't help me all given that I wasn't looking forward to flying for the first time. So, after only a few short hours of fun filled security advisories over the intercom, we finally boarded. Our first leg of the trip was on an American Airlines Boeing Super 80, a jet widely renowned for being skinny, short on leg room, and providing excellent visibility out the windows, whether you wanted to see out or not. For a tall person with a fear of heights, this wasn't the best combo. Plus our destination was Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas. However, my friends managed to keep me from panicking too much until I got used to flying and calmed down. Then we arrived in Texas. Me, Aiko and Josh in Dallas. Dr. McCollum takes a nap. Leah and Emily eating. Matt eating, and Paul...um...zoning. After a fun little three hour layover...we got into a nice, nice, Boeing 777 luxury jet for a lovely 8 hour flight. In addition to being much wider, and more stable looking, it was equipped with personal television screens, a modicum of leg room, and pretty cushy seats. Unfortunately, not matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get to sleep. It's a moving vehicle thing. Fortunately they had some good movies, and piped a nice graphical representation of our flight plan back to us. It was nifty. Coming into Gatwick/London airport wasn't. The 20 mph cross winds didn't help landing in the slightest and managed to bring over half the choir to within inches of becoming airsick. After that, and the longest taxi in recorded history, we were let out. After just under 17 hours of travel, with almost no sleep, we were in England...at 8 in the morning their time. (Translation: we weren't allowed to sleep yet) After getting checked in, we headed off on a 3 hour bus ride to Bournemouth. An interesting note about the airport...it was really quiet. A few hundred people, and we felt like we were being too loud when we whispered. I can easily understand why foreigners view Americans as loud. But moving on... After a 3 hour bus ride through absolutely gorgeous English countryside, we arrived at Moorlands College. Moorland College is a highly prestigious bible school just outside of Bournemouth. The students were very friendly and happy to have us. We spent the rest of the day settling into our residences, ate, got an orientation from our COI representatives (which we were so tired we all kept nodding off...we all felt really bad about it, but what can you do?), and performed a short concert for the students in the evening. Owing to a few factors, we didn't stay in the dorms with the students, but were given a house that was on the premises. The house and "workshop." Derrick and Matt settle in. A further view of the "workshop." Also featuring Andy on the verge of crashing. Well, actually, the girls got the house. It makes sense because there were 18 of them vs. the 8 of us guys. We got the 'workshop.' Basically, it was a concrete slab with four walls. The students put down some rugs and got us some cots, and we called the place home. Actually, it retained heat well and was quiet, so we didn't mind. We were usually too tired to care much anyway. Finally, at around 11 pm, after a rousing game of foozball with Laura and Emma (two of the students) I got to bed.