13 May '05 - + 16 - 15 Friday the 13th
Today is supposed to be a day of bad luck, but things have gone pretty
well for me so far. The biggest event of the day shouldn't
ever
have been necessary: I got all my luggage.
My American Airlines flight
from JFK to London-Heathrow left about 45 minutes late on
Wednesday. I didn't think it'd be a problem. After
all,
that still left me over an hour to change planes.
I forgot to take into
account
Heathrow.
That airport is huge and insane (and and I saw
that they're adding another large terminal to increase the
insanity). I had to walk about a mile in one terminal, take a
bus
to another terminal go through a security checkpoint, walk another
half-mile, and then go through
another security
checkpoint to get
to my departure gate. I barely managed to get to my plane in
time. Unfortunately, my suitcase didn't make it.
I typically don't
check a bag for this exact reason, but I decided to risk checked
bagged
based on the needs of 6-12 months of life in another
country.
Additionally, I'm going to do some software development work here, and
we're using Vonage to have a U.S.-based phone number that reaches us
in
Germany, so I relented this time to have room for some technical books
and some electronics.
I thought I had balanced my packing well so that
it wouldn't matter if the suitcase were lost (and in general, it
worked
- even the Vonage adapter could be lost for a while because we don't
have our DSL set up yet), but I somehow managed to pack only one pair
of underwear in my carry-on luggage. So, I was very happy
when my
suitcase arrived this afternoon, full of clothing, hangers, books, and
electronics.
Not an unlucky day at all.
In other news, I plan to start
German-as-a-foreign-language classes next week. There's a
cultural center
across the street from Jenny's work that has inexpensive intensive
language courses, so I'm going to sign up to start Tuesday (Monday is
Pentecost - a big holiday here). If I stick out the classes,
I'll
have 3 hours of German a day, 5 days a week, for four months.
I
expect to know German pretty well by the time this trip is
over.
Also, I got lucky in timing, because the courses start every 10 or 20
weeks, but I have to wait only a long weekend.
two comments, already:
Glad to hear your luggage arrived. I think we can tell you’re suffering from some jetlag (”...That airport is huge and insane (AND AND I saw…” and ”...but I decided to risk checkED baggED based…”
.
Sounds like a great way to learn German. It would be wonderful to have the time to do something like that. I’m sure you’ll pick up a lot just from being immersed in it. I know when I spent time in France, I didn’t realize it, but when I came back my friends and teachers all said my French was much better.
Rob - 13 May '05 - 12:12
It’s so nice to have Lance here! :)
Jenny (email) - 14 May '05 - 02:06
