Day 1
by Lainey Nichols '09

Editor's Note: Lainey wrote: "It has really been a task to pull this off with no computer to myself over here, but here is the first day's blog ... sorry it is coming in chunks! I have been dictating to a teammate whose typing skills are far superior to mine — unfortunately, we are working from a futuristic, stainless steel keyboard in the wildest hotel ever. I could not make this up if I tried. Ha Ha. Please keep standing by ... I have pages of entries handwritten from the bus...you should receive sometime soon.

I would like to preface this first entry with an apology — I'm afraid between leaving the country for the first time and interacting with my goofy family of teammates, my focus has not been the completion of this task! I feel as if I am suffering from William Miller from Almost Famous syndrome — a boy is asked to write an article on a rock band and ends up being completely immersed in the rock scene going on around him — Europe is definitely my rock band, and I have never felt so excited, distracted, and utterly naive.

Before leaving, we had four training sessions in 90 degree heat — we arrived in England and stepped into weather comparable to Connecticut in the height of fall. It was quite a severe change, and one that elicited many quips from the pilots and the people at customs alike with regards to our attire — "summah was yestahday, loves!" many joked as we made our way through Gatwick Airport.

Even before stepping foot onto European soil though, the team suffered from tremendous bouts of delirium immediately followed by mental "check-outs" when we stared at absolutely nothing. It was hilarious watching others when you weren't in the middle of one yourself. Ha Ha!

And God bless the Childresses (Tom '64, Catawba's senior vice president responsible for development and athletics, and his wife, Judy '65) who had to sit behind teammate Alyssa Shoenburg and me. They were our unfortunate audience. We interviewed everyone in the quad-seat area with an outrageous British accent and far more ridiculous shades. If our "guest" on our show failed to answer in an interesting manner, we proceeded to call them "stupid muppets" and transition immediately into our next interview.

Despite our intermittent (but complete) mental lapses brought about by the time change and weird energy, we were by far the loudest group in the airport.

We arrived at the hotel in London in the morning and deviated from the itinerary to hit some shops a short way from the hotel.