An American in Britain: Part 1 - The Arrival

When Larry decided to make the trip to Britain to meet all of his UK Geek Squad colleagues, he could have never guessed how much it would affect his future.

Until May of last year, I had never been out of the United States of America. Well, there are two exceptions to that, but it wasn't my choice.When I was younger, my father was stationed in West Berlin, back before the wall came down. I still remember little things about Germany. The tiny supermarket that was across the street. The flat we stayed in, with the building number 119. Learning how to count to ten in German, and say 'I love you'. My father was also stationed in Texas for a while and while I lived there we drove down to Mexico, and stayed there for a few hours. But that is the extent of my worldly travels.  I remember a lot less about Mexico. I only remember getting a sombrero. A red one.

So, needless to say, I was a little unprepared for my first trip, by myself, to England. I guess unprepared isn't really the word. I was prepared. I had planned the flights pretty far in advance, booked a place to stay near everything, renewed my passport, had an adequate amount of clothes to last for the two weeks I planned on
staying. I had even checked to make sure that my devices were dual-voltage, and purchased appropriate adapter plugs. I had friends, although I hadn't met them yet. And I had one friend that promised to help me and show me around quite a bit. I guess I just wasn't mentally prepared.

Arriving at Heathrow airport

The flight was okay. I flew across the Atlantic ocean. An eight hour long, overnight flight. It was boring. I wasn't able to sleep for some reason. I passed the time by playing  my PS Vita and watching the finale to Code Geass on my laptop. I love that show, but I digress.

I arrive having had no sleep on the plane, grab my bags, get through immigration and customs, no problem. I was already an hour late, and Charlotte had been waiting for me. With no way to contact her, I just pushed through. I walked through a door, and saw a bunch of people. One was familiar. A face that I had seen several times, but never in person. See, at this point Charlotte and I had been talking for several months over the internet, having met through mutual work acquaintances - we worked for the US and UK branch of the same company and used Skype calls and Google Hangouts to spend time together.

I smiled at her, and stopped to meet her. We exchanged greetings, a small hug. Her voice was familiar. A nice little grounding moment. I remember thinking 'okay, not everything is going to be foreign'.

The first differences I notice between Britain and the States

We begin to walk to exit the airport. She tells me about how the taxicab is waiting and how she's not really sure where he is any longer. We laugh a bit and eventually make it to the taxi cab. This is the first "Oh shit, I'm in another country" moment I have. I look at the taxi, at what I thought to be the driver seat. "Oh My God. There's no one there, where is....oh." He's on the other side. The driver side is on the right hand side in the United Kingdom. This is something my brain still hasn't quite gotten used to yet.

At this point, it all starts to sink in. We get in, and we ride off into the distance, driving on the left hand side of the road. The GPS is speaking in a British accent, and keeps talking about Roundabouts. Exhaustion starts to kick in. There's so much new information, and I haven't even gotten anywhere yet. My phone doesn't work, obviously. I knew that it wouldn't, but for some reason, the idea that it actually didn't was distressing. Charlotte must have seen the worried look on my face, and tried to comfort me. It was almost an hour ride. I spoke to her for a while, but I was so tired, and there was still a lot of the day to go through. I did a lot of staring off into the distance.

Acclimatising to the surroundings

We eventually arrived at Stratford. This was near my hotel, and near a mutual friend of ours that offered his assistance. I dropped off my bags at the place he worked, because I couldn't check into my hotel yet. He took a break to spend some time with us. We travelled a short distance to Westfield Stratford.

At this point, I must have been completely silent. There were so many people around, many more than I'm used to. But the real disorienting part was the fact that the majority of them spoke with British accents. I know, I know, I was in England, I should have expected that, and I did. This goes back to the mental preparedness. I just couldn't have realized that it would have been like that. No mater how much you sit and think about it, nothing can really compare to the immersion factor.

I was taken to Starbucks, where I stared at the menu for a long time. I asked Charlotte to order me something, and she did. I stared at all the baked goods. This is when I realized that in some places if you purchase food to-go (or take away in England) the price is different. This was all completely new to me. We sat down, I sipped my coffee, and Charlotte offered me half of a cookie she purchased. At this point, everything really had sunk in. I was proud of my first travel plans alone, I was nervous about meeting all the friends I had made over the internet, and I was a little scared - could I really do this? I stared off into the distance while Charlotte and our friend talked about their jobs. I couldn't really join in that conversation.

For some reason that I can't really explain, this was a defining moment in my trip. I was at peace. A strange, exhausted, barely coherent peace. At that moment, I knew this trip was a good idea. I knew it would be a life changing experience for me, but I could have never guessed how much it would affect my future.

To be continued...