Adventures in International Travel!

I am returned!

The trip was split down the center awesome and then grueling. I had no security fails, for once (i.e. leaving forgotten corkscrews or Swiss army knives and other sketchy paraphernalia in my carry-on bags), and then there was free WiFi in Logan, so I was able to amuse myself without spending money on perfume or something. Then, to top it off, the flight was extremely under-booked, so I and a number of other passengers had two seats to ourselves. Consider it the one positive thing to come out of terrorism scares. I could actually nap in a semi-horizontal position, and I had twice the number of blankets and pillows to cocoon myself in. It was practically luxurious.

The fog over London was quite dramatic, by the by--pea soup all the way up to 1000 meters. It looked as though we were descending into an alien world; specifically, one made of glowing marshmallows. Quite fun to watch.

Then, second half of the trip was just really, really cold. Firstly though, I knew it was going to be a problem that they didn't properly check my visa at Leeds Bradford in September! I go up to the customs desk and the guy is like, "So wait, you're a first time student at Leeds?" And I have to clarify that technically yes, but I've already been studying there since September, and this is a return trip to finish, and then he gets extremely confused because apparently I was supposed to get my first entry stamped as well as all my returns. So now, every time I re-enter the country I have to bring my visa letter from Leeds with me, because otherwise customs will be all, "Rar! Where is your first stamp??" And I will be all, "It's not my fault don't kick me out of your country!" So yeah, fail, Leeds Bradford Airport. Big fail.

But anyway, after that it was really cold. Not in the New England sense of below freezing, but just that I had to stay in the bus station for a couple of hours because despite visa difficulties I severely overestimated the time it would take me to get through customs, and then the bus I took from London to Leeds did not have adequate heating at all. So I basically was sitting in freezing weather for five or six hours. It wasn't even like there were any hitches in travel plans or anything, it was just really cold for an extended period of time. Oh well.

So now I am off to grab supplies from the convenience store, and then I'm going to settle in with a giant pot of tea and not move until my body temperature has officially returned to its correct degree. Woo travel adventures.