Day 1

Flight from Abilene to Dallas

• Bumpy
• Lot's of altitude drops
• Could feel plane bouncing from air current to air current
• Bumpy
• White Knuckles
• Smoothest landing of any plane I've ever been on.

Dallas Airport

• Ate at Champs
• Watched College Football

Flight from Dallas to London

• Sat next to 20-something German from Hamburg who was in the states looking for an apartment in Arizona
  
• Flight was much smoother than Abilene to Dallas
• Was interesting making a 9 hour flight with the windows on your aisle closed the whole time. Beyond feeling takeoff and landing it was difficult to believe we weren't just sitting on the ground the whole time.
• Sitting on the row next to the bathroom is nice when you have to go, but smells pretty bad about halfway through the flight.
• Only slept about 2 hours during "Ocean's 13."
• After landing we were stuck about 10 feet from the gate because they couldn't get the gate to come meet the plane. This lasted about 35 minutes. After 9 hours in a plane, the 35 minutes felt like an eternity.

London Heathrow Airport

• Walked 2 miles (slight exaggeration) to customs/immigration.
• Must have arrived at the same time as an Asian study abroad as there were roughly 5,000 people being herded like cattle through a series of lines, all separated by metal pipe rails. Not quite as friendly as the ropes or seat-belt material that we use in the states to keep people in line.
• Guy checking my passport and "landing card" was quite rude and obviously in no hurry despite all of the people in line.
  
• "Why are you here"
• "Business"
• "What business"
• "Filming University Students"
• "That's not what I consider business"
• "um.... (didn't know what to say and was cut off before I could continue)"
  
• "I don't know where this address you wrote down is"
• "It's in Oxford."
  
• "This is not an address I recognize."
• "That's the address where I"ll be staying"
  
• He Slams passport on the desk "Fine go on through."
• Welcome to London

Bus Ride to Oxford

• Very nice, clean bus.
  
• Seatbelts were NOT an option. We were reminded several times by our driver.
• Driving on the wrong side of the road never seemed like it would be un-nerving...I was wrong.
• Every time we made a turn or went through an intersection, I was wondering why we were turning into oncoming traffic! But we weren't.

OXFORD
Shortly after arriving I filmed students studying in the commons room in house 9. We went to our hotel to check in (Best Western, lol!) and it wasn't ready so we went to lunch at a small Italian restaurant that was amazing. Most of the people got Calamari & Salad but I opted for Spaghetti Bolognese and wasn't disappointed. One interesting thing here is that water is NOT free. I believe a bottle of water that served 3 of us was about £2.50. On the way back to the house we stopped and looked at a house. Our guide (I forgot his name!) pointed out that it was the house where Tolkien lived while writing "The Lord of the Rings."

After we got back to the house I filmed some students studying and eating in the kitchen. After that we went in the back yard and sat down with the faculty that are living here in oxford (Ronnie & Janine Morgan, Kevin Cale, and Mel Jan Haley). The weather was gorgeous and so they were eating outside. While we were eating we looked up to see ACU Business Professor Mel Haley grabbing some apple's out of a tree that was hanging over the fence. Turns out it was Stephen Shoemaker's birthday so he was picking apples for his birthday apple pie.

It was time for a nap. I was pushing 48 hours without much sleep and it was starting to suck. I got back to the hotel with Ronnie Ruiz (the photographer) to find out our room still was not ready so we sat in the bar (and drank water!) and watched "Police Academy" while fighting to stay awake until our room was ready. We couldn't fall asleep because we had all of our equipment with us and we didn't want any of it walking off. We finally got our room and passed out until the student's evening Devotional.

The walk back to the house from our hotel after dark was amazing. The street lights were perfectly positioned to throw the most amazing and beautiful shadows. The tall (3-4 story) houses set behind large walls and bushes and trees were magnificent to see. I'm glad I forgot my still camera or I would never get anywhere without having to stop every 5 minutes to take photos.

When we arrived in the house for the 9:00 devo (called 9@9), we had to move it to the house next door due to visitors from the community coming as well as the addition of those of us coming to film and market the program. Students lead a devotional that was quite powerful and I filmed a majority of it. The footage I got was good, in spite of the darkness. We headed back to the hotel afterwards and passed out. On a funny note, in the hallway of the hotel, a group of Asian men had set up a card table and were playing some form of poker. If I would have been bolder, I would have set up a camera, but with my luck they would have been mafia and I wouldn't have survived to write this blog.