We had one week at home finishing up classes before I attempted another international flight. I had a total of 19,000 words to write (more than my dissertation will be) before the term officially finishes on January 14. 3,000 of which was due that Friday. It felt like a pretty pointless week as far as classes go, we all just wanted to be home writing our papers. To make matters worse, we woke up Thursday to discover both our bikes stolen :( :( Quite a disheartening discovery to say the least. We began our journey home, having basically completed about 9,500 words. We left for London a day early in order to spend some time in the city and see Rachel and spend some time with her. Our train had some slight delays due to weather, and when we met up with Rachel we discovered the subway systems were also having their share of delays, due to a combination of weather, strikes, and technical malfunctions. Needless to say, it took a bit longer than expected to get to our hotel. After much searching and some wandering around West End, we finally got some cheap tickets to see Les Miserables! The seats weren't great but the music was incredible! On the subway that night on the way back to our hotel, we heard that Heathrow airport was cancelling many of its flights due to ice and snow...it was looking grim. However when we looked online the next day it didn't say our flight was cancelled, and we didn't have anywhere else to go, so despite the warnings on the subway that day that Heathrow was officially closed, we pressed on. We arrived and stealthily walked past some security guards trying to discourage us from entering. All the airline desks were closed and we quickly realized we would be spending an indeterminate amount of time in Terminal 1 . There wasn't a whole lot to do, so we settled in a cafe and watched some shows, got a mini deck of cards and played a few games, and camped out, hoping for better news in the morning. Morning came, and it turned out we had been camping right in front of the United desk and were therefore first in line when they opened. The airport opened at 6:00 AM, after the "big storm" of a few inches of snow, and United decided they would be able to run a few flights. Unfortunately, there were many people who had been stranded at the airport far longer than us and had priority over us in getting a flight home. However, thanks to Jon's Premier status with United, we got bumped to the top of the list and got out on the first flight home! We got past security, but were still on stand-by for all our flights. Luckily we squeaked by on a flight to Washington D.C., and also managed to get on a flight to Portland, which we were all very happy about. The only hitch came during our flight to Portland. A problem was discovered with the hydraulics system and we had to reroute to Denver and get another plane to Portland, but we finally arrived about 24 hours later than we planned to two weary but relieved young people and 4 very happy parents.
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