London Calling

I have successfully made it to London, and I am currently sitting in the Heathrow Terminal waiting until they announce my gate so that I can go to it. I am typing on a strangely compressed/shrunken keyboard, so forgive me if my typing is rather erratic.

My flight got into London at 9am, and my flight to Abuja doesn't leave until 10:15pm, so I left the airport and went to a nearby hotel to sleep in a real bed and take a shower. It was massively overpriced and probably the worst customer service I have ever experienced, but it was totally worth it to get lay down and sleep (not surrounded by a hundred other passengers) and clean up.

So I am back at Heathrow now, just waiting for my flight. There was some mild drama at Dulles. I found out then that I needed to bring my vaccination card and my letter of invitation to enter Nigeria, neither of which I have with me because I didn't know I needed the former, and the Nigerian Embassy took the latter from me when they processed my visa. So, after some frantic calling to my mom, who called KJ (the AU Abroad coordinator in Nigeria), we determined that I will probably be able to talk my way in and they sent me scanned copies of both documents that I printed at the hotel. I don't think it will be a problem, but I'll let you know if Nigeria decides not to let me in. They have only had about 3 exchange students come into Nigeria in the last 8 months, so they may not really know how to process me, and that is where my wit and charm comes in! We hope.

There's a shuttle that takes you from the various airport hotels to Heathrow's Terminal 5, and it was just me and two other guys on it on the way over here. Turns out of them is on my flight to Abuja (and was on my flight from Dulles like 12 hours ago, too!), and the other is French, but he lived in Lagos from the time he was 11-18 years old! Such a small world, and so many Nigeria connections!

When I land in Abuja, I will be there until Sunday, when I will fly to Yola. KJ is meeting me in Abuja, and I'm pretty sure she has some great stuff planned for our time there! I'm not sure what my internet access will be in Abuja, but I should be able to check e mail and blog in Yola at least every couple of days.

Have to go because my internet time is about to expire. I'm getting super excited, and I'll keep you all posted!