7/14 "We are the three best friends that anyone could have..."

I got up feeling like crap. Shocker! I woke up before my 8:00 alarm. I went into the bathroom and was dry heaving, probably from the mix of alcohol, the heat and the dirty funk of the 5 guys I was rooming with.

I took a shower and packed my stuff. Jeff was still in bed but was awake. I packed up my luggage and brought it downstairs. I grabbed a quick bowl of cereal. Jeff came down a few mins. later. Our van was supposed to pick us up at 8:50 but they were almost 10 mins. early. I put my dishes in the dishwasher and grabbed my stuff and took it to the van.

The van made a few more stops at other hostels to pick up more people. About an hour later we were at the airport. Jeff said bye and headed to check in. I tried to check in but I was over 3 hours early and there was no one at the desk yet. I sat and read for an hour and checked in 2 hours before the flight. I was nervous that they wouldn't accept my checked bag for being too heavy but thankfully I was just at the 20 kg limit.

I went through security quickly then walked around the shops. I finally boarded my flight, which was super short at only 50 mins., and landed at Heathrow. It took forever to walk out to baggage claim and then took forever to get the bags to the carousel. I told Justin I would meet him at around 2:30. By 2:30, I was standing on the curb of terminal 1. I noticed that only taxis and buses were driving by. And I realized there were 2 other levels of parking. It was about 2:40 and I had no Internet or international phone plan and had Justin and Frances' number saved in a Facebook message. I logged onto the airport's wifi network and bought an hour long plan for 3 pounds. I found Justin's number and tried to skype him but it didn't work. I logged onto Facebook, checked into the airport and told him where I was. I asked a security guard where I should go if someone was picking me up. He said I needed to go up one level, so I did. After waiting only a few minutes, Justin waved and ran across the street! Thank God he found me because Heathrow is a ridiculously large airport.

He grabbed my stuff and we headed to his sweet ride: a 2 seater BMW. Being the "stupid American," I forgot that the English drive on the "wrong" side so I attempted to get into the driver seat. Oops.

The ride to Colchester was about an hour and a half. Justin took me to his friend Danny's noodle bar for some dinner. I had an awesome noodle dish with beef and veggies. I also really lovvvvvvved the prawn crackers!!! They were super addictive with the spicy dipping sauce. We then headed to the house.

Justin and Frances just bought the house this past winter. It was built in the 1860's or 70's and has an awesome Victorian look to it. They are redoing pretty much the whole house and told me of all of their awesome plans.

I had so much laundry to do from the previous 2 weeks. I started it as soon as we got to the house. Justin and I then just chilled out in the living room area. A couple hours later, Frances got home from her evening dance class. We kept saying how it was so surreal that I was actually in their house and that we couldn't believe it had been a year since I had last seen them.

We stayed up chatting until almost midnight. I then had the best night's sleep in a week!