'Welcome to the land of the free'. 'No. I've just left there'.

I have officially arrived in one piece and there were no disasters of any kind!! I'm starting to settle into my new accommodation and I'm slowly starting to locate things around campus. It's day 2 and I'm tired if I'm honest. 

So here's an update on what has happened so far. 

I woke up at 4am to leave for the airport. I think I slept for about half an hour that night, so I was shattered when Mum woke me up. I collected my suitcase (which was 6kg over the limit), my new Cambridge satchel and my laptop case and left for Heathrow Airport. 

Security was tight. I was thoroughly questioned and felt rather nervous. It doesn't seem like a very good time to be a young woman, travelling alone after recent events in Peru. I gave my suitcase in and paid £39 for the extra weight. 

I said goodbye to Mum and Dad and that was emotional. It was a long time until Christmas and I had never been this far away from home for this amount of time before. However, I knew they were incredibly proud and would always be there if I ever did get into any trouble.

I went through security and was taken in for further searches. I was extremely tired and feeling really on edge the whole time - it was a really frustrating process.

However, I got through to departures and had a two hour wait. I spent most of the time drifting in and out of sleep, feeling scared that I would be so tired that I would forget my laptop case or my satchel. I nearly forgot my debit card in WHSmiths and was chased by the man after me.

The gate was announced and I left to get on the flight. I was originally told I was flying with British Airways, but instead my flight was changed to American Airlines. It was a very pleasant journey. At first I thought economy looked ridiculously cramped - something similar to cattle herding. However, it was quite pleasant and I was one away from the window.

I looked outside and knew it would be a long time until I saw sunny England again.

I would say for the nine hours on the plane, I slept for about seven of them and ate for the other two. The food was pleasant, nice microwaved pasta, loads of crackers, lots of tea, some sort of pizza pie, biscuits, kitkats etc. I was given a pillow and a blanket - it felt like bliss.

There was even an opera section on the TV set, so I spent a lot of the journey listening to Joyce DiDonato's new album. The woman next to me was very nice and was telling me how she was visiting her sister and nephew in Sacramento. 

Before I had left, my Nan gave me some advice. 

 'Be confident. Even if you don't know where you are or what you're meant to be doing, pretend that you do'.

 And actually. I didn't feel nervous at all... 

Well, apart from one thing. 

Luggage. I was terrified that I wouldn't find my luggage. My entire life was in that suitcase and if it was to be taken by someone else, my life would be over. It took ages for it to come out on the conveyor belt before it even came through and so I could feel myself panicking, praying that it would arrive. 

However, it did arrive and I had to ask someone to get it off the conveyor belt for me. This happened throughout the day...

I'm not the sort of person people look at and think 'yeah, she's a girl who works out'.

The 28kg was impossible for me to lift, especially since the handle on my luggage was broken during the flight. I was really beginning to regret everything I had taken. However, I now realise that there were a number of things that I should have brought with me.  

I rang the coach pool to get the coach that I had pre-booked. I followed the directions and turned up at the rank. As I arrived, I met two guys who were sharing my coach: a German named Philipp and a Fin called Antton. We started talking and it turned out that we were all exchange students at UNT and that we were all going to be living in the Santa Fe Square halls. I was so happy that I had met some people before I had arrived. 

First impressions: it was hot. It wasn't hot in the sense that the sun was burning me. It was hot in the sense that it was smothering me. 

I couldn't get over how big the roads were. They were the size of runways. It was incredible, I had never seen anything like it before. 

I kept seeing advertisements for fast food restaurants and health insurance - the later is never seen in the U.K.

It took half an hour to get to campus from Dallas Fort Worth airport and we finally arrived at our accommodation. We signed in and got our room keys. By this point, Anton was merrily carrying my suitcase to my room - win! I unlocked the door and was really surprised by the room. It was huge. It had a small kitchen area and an en-suite bathroom - it was rather impressive.  

I didn't really get a chance to unpack as we were going to a communal barbecue and a speech twenty minutes after we arrived. The barbecue was interesting - there was no vegetarian option for a start, which I found hilarious. 

ONLY MEAT IN TEXAS. 

We went on to the Coliseum to see the speech and it was huge. I  found it astonishing that college's in America have professional sized arenas for their own students. I didn't have my camera at the time, but this was it. Huge.  

  

The speech was good, it was mostly directed at freshmen to make friends and do stuff at college. However, I could feel myself getting tired and I just wanted to go back and tell my parents that I had got there safely. We went back to the accommodation and I messaged my parents to say I was there okay. 

With Anton, Philipp and Charles, a Nigerian exchange, we went with the Santa Fe mentor Claire to Walmart to pick up some essentials. I couldn't get over the size. I thought supermarkets in Europe were huge, but this place had its own aquarium, McDonalds and home improvements section. The only downside was that their kettles were $32 and up, so in the end I had to buy a saucepan, just to make tea. 

Afterwards we went back and I unpacked and settled in for the night. I somehow managed to hold out until half ten and finally, but I finally went to bed.

The next morning I woke up at eight and Skyped my parents. However, I was still tired and went back to sleep shortly afterwards and slept in until 11. I got dressed and decided to look around the campus. However, as I went downstairs, my roommate Annie had arrived, so I decided to wait and look for lunch with her.

We were looking for one of the food courts and we ended up getting completely lost. What should have been an easy trip, ended up being a complete nightmare. It was overwhelmingly hot and I was starting to feel really sick from the sun - I needed water ASAP.

We eventually came across some RAs from another hall and they were happy enough to show us where Subway was. We chatted and they were very helpful in explaining where things were and what we should aim to do whilst we were here.

I was never so happy to see water in my life. It was so cold, refreshing and wonderful. We sat down and ate our Subways and they started telling us about the obscene amount of food that you could buy in America. For example: fast food restaurants will not charge you in Texas if you are over 300lb.
I don't know what kind of business plan is that... I suppose you should aim for something in life?

If you were really hungry, you could visit the Texas State Fair and help yourself to a lump of butter on a stick. Yes. A lump of butter.
I definitely noticed that on the way home from Walmart last night. We must have gone past every fast food restaurant in existence twice before we arrived back in Denton.
Walmart was 7 minutes away from campus.

Later on, I was shown around campus by one of the Vocal/Music Education majors. I was so glad that I finally knew the locations of the buildings! I couldn't get over the size of the music buildings and the quantity of them as well! I'm so happy that I am in a place that has such an emphasis on music.

I have two auditions tomorrow- one for the opera and one for a choir (not impressed that the later is at 9am in the morning), so I did a bit of practice in the afternoon.

The music labyrinth 

When I was in subway with the RAs, I was told about that I should go and see the One O'Clock Lab Band during my time at UNT. Apparently it is the best university jazz band in the entire country and that they have won the national competitions several years in row. It means that they no longer enter them because they actually beat everyone and so they enter international competitions instead. I'm aware that I am in an incredible jazz environment - a lot of friends from home should really consider this as a jazz opportunity. 

The North Music Practice Block 

As for now, I know where the food court is, so I'm going to get some dinner. I should be able to update in the next fortnight or so. Hopefully I'll be able to shed some light on my course!!

See y'all later. 

x