Hello from Merthyr Tydfil!!!

Well we all made it to Wales without any international incidents. Everyone is very tired but doing well and glad to be here! We traveled for about 24 hours straight as both of our flights were delayed 2-3 hours. We finally arrived in London at 11:00 this morning (7:00 Orlando time) and me Tony and Garreth, two of the pastors from Christ Church in Merthyr Tydfil. Everyone's luggage came through YAY! We took a 4 1/2 hour bus ride from London to Wales. When we arrived in London we were pleased with the weather, around 70 degrees and sunshine!!! I was a little worried about all the warm clothes I had packed. As we drove further towards Wales however, it quickly became darker and colder and eventually started to rain steadily...ahhh there was the weather we had been warned about. We all tried to sleep on the bus since we didn't sleep much on the flight...hence a great opportunity for some pictures of sleeping passengers (see below). We arrived at Tony's house in Caerphilly which is about 25 minutes outside of Merthyr Tydfil and there we met our host families. Stephanie and I are staying with Andy, Linda, Beth, and Meg Johnston and they are pretty much the sweetest people ever and have the coolest accents! They live right in the heart of Merthyr in a 3 story house built in 1890, all with the original floors! Merthyr is a very destitute and poor place but the location is beautiful. It was a bit cloudy driving in this afternoon so hopefully we will be able to see it better and get some pictures tomorrow morning. We all had tea once we got to their house and shared a little about ourselves and the rest of the team. Then we got to see our room...which is amazing! We are on the 3rd story in a little alcove/attic type room that has a really cool window ledge with a neat view of the village. The town sits right in the middle of a valley and is so cute :) We had a really good dinner...nothing weird. Chicken, potatoes, salad (although they have salad cream not dressing), bread, and Welsh cakes and chocolate for dessert. Then we spent some time singing and dancing with the girls (who are so adorable and precious)...they asked me and Steph to sing...so she did Kelly Clarkson and I did Taylor the Latte Boy. Tomorrow we are sleeping :) and then hopefully going for a walk around the town, then we're going to a team meeting and a barbeque at Garreth Lloyd's house (senior pastor). We still can't believe we are here!! More pictures to come but these are just some fun ones from the past few days! We miss you all and can't wait to share more with you!