Well, the final craziness of the London Study Abroad trip is now beginning to pass. Wednesday was a blur of last minute issues, packing (how did I manage to get an additional 20 pounds of stuff while I was there?) and figuring out what to do with my last evening in London. I finally opted for a quiet evening of reading. That turned out to be a good choice. I had to get up at 4:30 on Thursday morning, so I turned in fairly early - once I finally sat on my suitcase to get it closed. Yes, I really had to do that!
Thursday was a travel marathon. As I mentioned, I woke up at 4:30. That's when I planned to wake up, but I actually woke up at about 3:45. I left the dorm room to walk the four blocks to the other dorm (where the bus was going to pick everyone up) for the ride to the airport. The bus left the dorm at about 5:40 and arrived at Heathrow about 6:30. I was a little surprised at how quickly we were able to get there. The check in process was also amzingly smooth and relatively short. I was beginning tr get a little suspicious at the way things were working out so smoothly!
The first leg of our flight home took us from London to Dallas/Ft. Worth in Texas. The odd stop over location is the price we had to pay for a flight with a group booking as large as ours. Anyway, we cleared customs in Dallas instead of Atlanta, and I am sure that was a great thing. The lines at DFW were relatively short and fast. Then all that was left was to wait about an hour to get on the plane from Dallas to Atlanta.
Ah ha! My string of lucky travelling DID have a cost. I was stuck in a middle seat from Dallas to Atlanta. I get claustrophobic in middle seats on a plane. Further, I was sandwiched between a type-A personality business type who kept elbowing be in the ribs as he thrashed around in his seat and a high school girl returning from a summer in Guatamala who apparently thought that talking non-stop about her experiences and her future academic plans to an absolute stranger on a plane would be a great way to pass the time. All I wanted to do was sleep, but that didn't really happen.
Finally, we arrived at Atlanta. It was 6:30pm EST. That meant I had been awake 20 straight hours by the time we landed. Oh, there had been a few cat naps on the flights, but nothing very effective at all. The luggage took about 40 minutes to get from the plane to baggage claim carousel. That seemed excessive, especially as all I wanted to do was to sleep, and not listen to all of the passengers greet their friends and families across the waiting area at full voice. My positive karma returned briefly when my suitcase was one of the first to come off the carousel. I grabbed it, wished a safe journey home to all of those around me within earshot of a quiet voice, and made a bee-line dash to the exit.
I spent my three hour drive from Atlanta to Tifton trying not ot fall asleep behind the wheel. I was successful. I arrived home, exhausted, 26 hours after I had woken up in London. The trip was over.
My cats greeted me when I got to the door. They both purred loudly from the moment I walked in, through a quick round of cat treats, and while I got ready for bed. By the time I fell asleep, our routine had been reestablished. I truly felt HOME from the five weeks of the London Study Abroad program.
Friday was a day to unpack, get some work done with end of summer term grades, share a few stories with colleagues at work, and rest with a good book for much of the afternoon.
I still have a few pictures to download from the camera and to post here, but that will have to wait until later this weekend.
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