The good news is that I'm in London; the bad news is my luggage isn't, and that's not all that has happened in the last I don't know how many hours.

The bus taking the students and me to JFK broke down about two hours out, between Exits 17 and 16 (so close to the outlet stores at Woodbury Commons!). While slow Joe, our driver who could barely get on and off the bus, was out talking on his cell phone to the bus garage about the overheated engine, I decided to take matters into my own hands and called Chris at the bus office (the bus company just happened to be the one I primarily used at The Hyde and I just happened to remember their phone number). Chris jumped into action and arranged for a bus company out of Stewart Newburgh to pick us up and take us the rest of the way. It was probably 100 degrees on the bus while we waited for the transfer, but it wasn't really safe to all be standing outside--okay it wasn't really safe to be on the bus by the side of the busy road either but we had no choice. We were rescued by the new bus and new driver, Tim, who arrived with long grey hair flowing, a leather vest with fringes, and I dare say the glow of a savior about him. He said he would get us to the airport in time for our flight if at all possible as long as we didn't comment on his driving. The transfer of luggage went as quickly as possible and we were on our way an hour after we broke down. Tim gave it his best shot (there were a couple of curves where I thought we might tip over!) but alas the delay caused us to hit rush hour. We arrived at the airport forty minutes before our flight, but fifteen minutes too late to check in.

American Airlines could have said too bad, but instead they put all forty-two of us on standby for two flights three and four hours later. So twenty-five people got on the 8:20 flight and fourteen more got on the 9:30 flight. (American bumped other passengers up to business class so that they could accommodate us in economy class, so I hope those people were happy!) Anyway, if you were doing your math you will have noticed that only thirty-nine people got on those two flights, leaving me and two students to wait it out for the last flight of the day at 11:30. It was touch and go whether or not we would make that last flight--I was given a seat assignment that they had already assigned to someone else so even after I got on the plane I thought I might have to get off, but in the end all three of us got a seat. The flight was uneventful (the best kind in my opinion) and we arrived at Heathrow five hours later than we would have if we had been on the original flight.

So now I'm in London. The studio flat that Gord and I have for one more week is extremely small. You open the bathroom door and the sink is right there so that you have to squeeze past it to get to the toilet on the left or the shower on the right. Gord described it as about twice the size of an airplane bathroom and that's about right. I banged my elbow in the shower and have hit my head twice on the tv that hangs from the wall above where my carry-on luggage is sitting on the floor. And probably the worst thing is the bed, as evidenced by my backache this morning. I am so glad we will be moving out next week into our spacious, two-bedroom flat.

I just heard that my luggage arrived and will be delivered this afternoon to the dorms. Now I can get settled and can enjoy exploring the city. Cheerio.

Off I go across the pond. More later....