Susan -- on travelling

This is from travelling. More on my other travels and travails tomorrow. Too tired to function right now.


September 22 9:35
Seattle airport...

As those who know me know, this is the furthest out of country that I've ever gone... until now! So you can just imagine how anxious I am as I sit in the *looks around* Mountain Room Bar shh, I know I'm a minor here) and eat my dinner. The moment I get on that plane I'll be headed to New York, then to England. This still seems absolutely wild to me.

My send off was very sweet, my day's been go go go with it. First to grab some more inclusive health insurance, a web cam, an adaptor, cash in cash for cash. That kinda thing. Then the parents were off for a dr's appointment, and my lover grabbed my bags and me. We grabbed a bite, and made our way to Main street bus terminal. There we left eachother with rushed kisses and hugs, and back to my parents I went. Mom and dad had already picked up my ticket and gotten everything in order, as I was, classically, running late... he. We waited in line and I was introduced to my very southern grey hound bus driver. Might I just say that this guy was fantastic. Not the comfiest bus, but a super driver. Well, I got a bit concerned at the boarder as we had all these damned forigners ;) with possible restrictions on their entrance to the country, so we ended up running about fourty five minutes late. Erk. Well we got to the station, and I was not privy to the beautiful Washington country side as I was busy sleeping. So we got to the station and I found my charter bus to the airport after much confusion by everyone involved. Greyhound had no idea where Grey Line picked up airport passengers, this was somewhat concerning.

But hey, instead of finding the charter bus, the bus found me! Yay! I met Doug, and Doug being the nicest driver ever (that's two) grabbed my bags and hurried me into the shuttle bus for the charter bus. Very nice. Then onto the big bus. At this point I'm getting concerned again. Am I going to have enough time to do everything I need to do? I did. Hell, I had over an hour to grab dinner. Sweet.

Going through customs wasn't bad, though, two things: no one told me I'd have to remove my shoes. That was unexpected. THe other thing... no one told me to take my laptop out of my bag when it went through the x-ray thinger... boy did I look like a travel newb. Way to get dirty looks from hot russian customs guy. I felt the shame.

So, now I'm chilling, haveing chicken strips and fries, and looking forward to a flight into somewhere I've never been before. You know Seattle's nice and all but it's feeling like such a stopping point that I just want to get the hell out!

Oh, and as a side note, the waitresses in this bar are super bitter and overworked... or something. Funny too... they insult the customers (loudly) to the other customers hey, this means I don't have to leave a tip right?

September 23 7:06 am Vancouver time
Flying out of JFK, on plane 10:06 am

Well the flight into JFK was not cool. I would even go so far as to say very not cool. Let's see, I boarded and noted right away that this was a super little plane, not really built for comfort. First class looked econ. Well I got to my seat, one of the first to do so, and was soon joined by my two seat mates. The plane was full, so we were a little like sardines. This wasn't so bad at first because I was super excited so really, not a crisis. Not a crisis until my ass fell asleep, I lost my blanket which was doubling as a pillow, and then not one but two babies started to cry. Groovy. This was not cool. Soon the numbing spread to my legs. I decided to suck it up, cope, and sleep through it. I managed to mostly do this but the occasional wake ups were a real bitch. ostThe fellow beside me was quite smelly. I lost my blanky pillow when I went through my first nap. It was tragic.

I was thrilled as hell to get off the plane. Movement once more! I stretched my legs and grabbed my stuff and then got off after the heard of people who were standing all cricked up for way longer than they needed to. After the landing we had, I guess they were happy to be on the ground. I was! But that was over, and all was well. JFK was very helpful. When I got off I realised that I didn't know what to do about my luggage, was I to pick it up and bring it somewhere else, or would it find it's own way to England. It would find it's own way. I then got the information as to what gate I'd be going to. Very good.

After getting a dry coissant and a bottle of water I went back to my gate and started to people watch. It was far more lively then my last gate. There was a young woman curled up in a chair looking very excited and saying "did you get it? did you get it?" her boyfriend was stomping on the floor, and there were other people getting into it. "It" was a cockroach. As well, there was a hispanic gentleman passed out on the floor. This eventually brought the cops on the whim of a concerned citizen. The gentleman in question was aparently drunk, and after two translators and much deliberation they were forced to cart him away in a wheel chair to sober up. I called grandma, as she was the only person I knew who would be awake--took me forever to find the change so I could do it.

Then it was on to the next flight. I went on to it groaning hoping it would be more comfy than my last. I was blessed... well of course I was, this was a bit of a longer flight (is). As a bonus, it's no where near filled up. So, the guy who was sitting next to me found somewhere else to habitate, and I have two seats to myself, a free headset, and food, and really. I'm doing quite well. I've saved all the little parts of my meal for later, because I know I'll be hungry, and I'm really quite thrilled. I could handle this plane for a while actually.

I'm a little bit nervous about the trip from Heathrow to Leicaster. I don't know if thte dorm will be open, or what the bus will cost or... it's all very unnerving but I'm sure I'll manage just fine. The inflight movie, which I have playing in my ears right now is called "The visitor." I'm listening to it so that I can preserve my iPod's battery for the upcoming bus. After this will be Narnia. I think that's quite apropriate. I'm going to power this down and save my batteries for later
I only have like an hour of battery left. I suppose I could read my book now, ignor the movie and listen to the on flight radio. Yeah I'll do that.