On my way back

First off, I hope you all like the new look of the blog. I figured we needed to get rid of the pink for a little while.

So as it is with all vacations, it was too short, and now I am sitting in an airport, waiting for my flight and wishing I had another two weeks to see everyone. I am so sorry to the people I missed seeing on this visit, it was so very VERY busy, I am surprised I got any sleep at all! To the people I did get to visit with, it was so wonderful to see you again and thank you for taking some time out of these last two weeks to spend time with me. I feel very loved.

So what did I do at home. Well there was Festival of Trees, the Vermonster, spending time with Erik, Christmas lights, a Christmas tree, dinner with Mom, Dad, Scott and Jenny. There was a fun pub quiz, a fantastic concert, and pretty much more fun than I can possibly detail here. Like I said, I would love to have two more weeks, but to be honest, all I have been doing is eating and visiting and visiting and eating so I need to get back before I put all 10lbs I have lost back on.

I know what the next question is, why are you going back so early. Well it wasn't really my choice, as the tickets were exorbitantly more expensive the closer you got to Christmas. I suppose that is the basic tenants of supply and demand, but honestly, it stinks! But besides the cost of the tickets, I have to get back so I can finish my academic term. I still have two 4000 word essays to pound out before the beginning of January. While I wish I could do them at home, some of the books and materials I need are housed in the University library (which will closed for at least part of the break). Plus there is a limit to how long you should stay anywhere. Even at home, house guests are like dead fish, after a few days they begin to stink.

So here I am in New York City. Outside the sun is setting and the sky is the most brilliant gradient of mustard yellow, to pumpkin, to brick red. For a city that is known for its buildings, mother nature still has power here! I am sitting at a gate (not mine) stealing free wireless from the Delta First class lounge next door and charging my computer. I am hoping to get some journal articles read on the flight over the ocean, as long as I am not too distracted by the little TV in the headrest.

I arrive tomorrow at 7:30am (BST) in London. After I get there and get through immigration control, I have train tickets to Edinburgh. I won't get there until 6:30pm (BST) tomorrow night, which is 10:30am tomorrow on the west coast. Joy! When I get home, I have to stay up a few hours and then I plan to collapse in bed until I have to be up to meet my Professor on Friday! Woohoo!

Well I best be off. I think I ought to do another walk around before heading over to my gate.

I miss you all already!

Writing from the plane

Note: Delayed in posting because well, no internet while flying.

While I am writing this I have just roughly passed the country of Greenland and am inching towards the east coast. I am so excited to be on my way back home. All I want to do is crawl into my own bed with my puppy and sleep for a long long time! Today has been an interesting day, mechanical problems seem to be following me. It started with the hostel where apparently all the plugs have been taken out of every room to keep women from drying or straightening their hair. When I tried to ask, they said, if I wanted to dry my hair, next time I should consider the Girl Guide house. Nice.

Then as I was leaving this morning, I pulled out my Ipod to play. It decided that it didn’t want to wake up and so to punish me, it froze completely. I still can’t get it to work. I also can’t get wifi anywhere because of course, that costs money, so I can’t check the apple forums for trouble shooting.

The London underground was 10 minutes behind today because it decided to break down. Then when I got to the Heathrow express train, the doors wouldn’t open and we had to get a new train. I had hoped it was over, that it was just the sign that I was going to have an uneventful flight until I got on the plane.

We went out like we normally did, and sat and waited and waited and waited to take off. All the planes in front of us took off. All the planes behind us took off. All the planes behind them took off. And yet, we were still there, sitting on the runway. It turns out that when they tried to start the engines, the left one had a problem with its fuel relay and wasn’t going. Well of course they weren’t going to let us fly over the ocean with a faulty engine so they took us back to the gate.

At this point might I add we were a hour delayed. They came over the intercom and said they were just going to have us sit and wait while they had an engineer troubleshoot the problem. I guessed it would mean that we would get a new plane.... No no no. An hour more passed with us sitting there, and then an hour and a half. They announced we were all fixed and heading out. We taxied out for a second time and waited. We waited at the back of a long line of planes. It apparently didn’t matter we were late already, we had to wait our turn. By the time we got out, we were three hours delayed. Woohoo.

Here's to hoping my bad luck is done with for today!