10 hours later...

I'm here! The 10-hour plane flight was not as bad as I had feared; it actually went by rather quickly with the help of Mad Men, The Town, and the Social Network. I sat next to a man who only spoke German. The first thing he did after he sat down was take his shoes off, and I enjoyed smelling his foot odor for the following 10+ hours. We got really close. (Literally, because our seats were touching). The British flight attendant came over the speaker at about 11:00 AM London time (don't ask me what time that is in CA / East Coast...you know I'm no good with numbers.) She said, in her cockney accent, that the people on the right side of the aircraft should look out their windows. Thanks to you, Daddio, I was on the right side of the plane, in a window-seat (Really, thank you. My german friend, I can only assume his name was Franz, was very jealous of my seat next to the window, which I inferred when he tried to use me as a wall to sleep against. Thankfully, I could cozy up to the actual wall that was next to me. But I digress...) I opened up the "airplane window treatment," you know the slidey thing that keeps sunlight out, and had an AMAZING view of London Tower, Big Ben, and basically every other landmark that makes the British skyline famous. It was incredible. Most notably, however, was the sunlight which lit up the entire city. No clouds! No rain! It was spectacular. All my fears left me in that one moment as I stared out the window at my new city. I felt a rush of excitement; my adventure was actually beginning.