Rock Your Body

Have finally returned to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, though not fully back in Bert yet. That will come later in the week, so no pictures until then. The next few days will be a busy mesh of pumping out essays, applying for finaid, and trying to see London and Carol. In between, I will find time to gasp for breath and procrastinate, so entries should be trickling in. Oh, by the way, this entry is brought to you with help from Miss Claire and her wondrous internet. Hooray Claire's internet!

First today, some comments on London:

Wow. That's a lot of people.
Wow. Big Ben is pretty big.
Wow. Did I just spend ten dollars on subway tickets?

At least the subway ("Tube") here is a reliable method of transportation. Can't really say the same for the airport shuttle system.

Moi: Can I board now?
Ticket Man #1: Yeah, sure.
(I try to board and give Ticket Man #2 my ticket.)
Ticket Man #2: No, you can't get on this bus. Your ticket is for the next one, you have to wait.
(Mind you, this is the guy that just sold me the ticket 10 minutes ago, when I asked if I could get a ticket to the next available coach, which he told me, would leave in 10 minutes.)
Moi: What time's my ticket for then? When's the next coach?
TM #2: I don't know.
Moi: This is ridiculous.
TM #2: (Considers the comment for a second) Wait, did I sell you the ticket a few minutes ago?
Moi: Yeah.
TM #2: Uh...you can get on.

Yeah, I still don't get that one either. But the incompetent ticket men have nothing on Ryanair, an entire company of inaptitude. A few minutes into settling into my seat onboard the flight to Rome, the captain comes on the speaker. Apparently, as the plane was arriving into the airport, it hit a flock of seagulls and may have damaged the left wing. First of all, what kind of sturdy aircraft gets hurt by seagulls? Birds are made of feathers! Anyway, the problem could have been quickly alleviated by a brief inspection had the airport had engineers there. That's right. There were no engineers to be found either on our plane or anywhere in the airport in Venice. That's what happens when you buy cheap tickets. You don't have people around to insure your safety. But it was ok, the captain assured us, he was contacting Ryanair headquarters in Dublin for further instruction. Finally, after about a 90-minute wait, an engineer was found. He just dropped from the sky. Well, actually, he was borrowed from an unfortunate flight from Brussels en route to Rome that was diverted to land in Venice to check out the wing. That's right, two entire planes full of people were delayed so one man could pull dead birds out of the poorly-constructed left wing. During the whole ordeal, I was honestly giddy with glee because I knew I had a great story on my hand, one of a bird, a plane, and a special man.