Je suis arriveŽ!

En Francais, s'il vous plait! I know, I'm probably all screwed up. [Galic shrug] Eh...

Everything went so smoothly yesterday that I felt as if I must be dreaming. Bags packed, able to log onto computer in the house and print out boarding pass, drive to the airport very quick (Thanks, Gayle!) and check in was very easy.

I changed $100 into Euros. Woo!

Then I boarded the flight. I didn't even have to use the bathroom during the flight - a first for me - and got some nice shots over Greenland as we flew over. All in all, a nice flight, except for the continuous bing-ing when folks would call the attendant. I have no idea why that was so loud!

We arrived in London a little after 8:00 am local time, the land looked so green in the morning light.

Apparently they believe in the power of walking at Gatwick airport.

It felt like a 5 mile hike from the gate to the bus to take me to the other terminal. Then another hike to get my boarding pass, and yet another 15 minute hike to to the gate.

And they took away one of my carry on bags (I had to check it) so I lost my wheels. Dang.

And, of course, the luggage has been lost (just the carry on bag they made me check - it's supposed to show up tomorrow, but it's a one hour drive to the airport!) In the whole scheme of things that could have gone wrong, I think it went pretty darned well!

And it's my birthday.

Several folks have looked at my passport so far. No congrats yet. Dang. I told everyone at dinner after several glasses of wine. They started singing "Happy Birthday!" - but the conversation took a turn and we'd all had a TON of wine at that point.

Dinner - magnifique! My favorite part? The baked chevre & greens salad - yum!

Now I'm in my lovely attic room - quite romantic, really - I feel as if it could be anytime between the years 850 and 1600, except I have wifi, very cool!

The drive here was lovely! I hadn't expected the landscape to remind me so much of the area east of San Diego (a bit greener) and it was hotter than I'd expected. What did I expect? I'm at the Mediter-frickin'-anean Sea!

After we got here I went down for a swim just to cool off, then back to my room for a nice nap and down to dinner. This is living.

CLASS JITTERS
I have the same trepidation I always have the night before I'm starting a new class - in this case I'm playing it by ear more than usual because I want to see what everyone's strong points are.

I've asked everyone to think of something they'd really like to learn, and I'll see if I can wrap that into their lessons over the next week so they get a lot of class time devoted to something they WANT to do, and as much Annie-time as they can stomach.

BACK HOME
I've been emailing Gerry through the day - I have to email Gayle and the kids, too. But I'm so darned tired with the jet lag, wine & all the running up and down stairs that I'm not sure if I'll stay awake for my shower! I hope so - how embarrassing it would be to fall asleep under the running water!