That’s right folks, despite not having given hourly updates on my trip to England, I am finally here; safe and sound. The trip was quite on the wire but everything just fit perfectly. The flight arrived a little bit late which meant we had to rush over to the correct bus stop within Heathrow but luckily this Taxi Assistant guy pointed us (me and my parents) in the right direction and off we went. With sandwiches bought in-between and eaten right at the bus stop, also with the anxiety feeling peaking a little over what’s normal. Still, there really was nothing to be anxious about. The bus came, we put our luggage in the trunk and off we were. It was quite tiring to take a 2.30h flight but ahead of that we still had a 2 hour bus trip to Leicester. (Buses are better in Portugal by the way!)
Then once we arrived in Leicester we had the taxi dance; pretty much hopping from taxi to taxi so that we could get to where we wanted. Leicester is quite huge so going from the city center to, say, my accommodation at Mary Gee houses really is madness; it’s about an 1 hour walk. Add the fact that we didn’t know the city and that the GPS in the iPhone simply sucks balls when you are on foot, and we had but no other choice than to be driven around by some funny Indian men (one of which didn’t even know where Ratcliffe Road was!).
By the end of the day I had one burst blister on my heel and we were all pretty tired. The hotel also felt kinda sleazy but the receptionists were all very friendly and we also got free breakfast which was pretty good.
On the next day, my parents had to leave, which translates as: “on the next day, it was weeping day”. We were at Morrison’s and they had to go to the city center, so that meant it was time to split. They were going to take a taxi and I was going to go back to my accommodation by foot. It was kinda sad but we all knew that this is for the best and that this will actually be great for me! I’ll be Tiago Espinha, MSc in one year from now which is really exciting! Master Tiago… yeah, I like the sound of that 
After that I’ve been having a blast. Hopping from event to event, meeting new people, English, French, Bulgarians, Swiss, etc and it’s been quite great. The fun’s about to end though (or to start, depending on your point of view) and my induction week starts on Monday, with departmental registration.
All in all I’m really looking forward for this experience and sometimes I come to myself and I can’t still believe I’m in the U-friggin-K! But it is true, I’m here, with the cloudy and freezing weather included.
That’s all for today, so cheers!
