getting home...bits about paris to follow later

**Just a note. I had not realized that the default setting for commenting was for "registered users only" but this has been changed so that anyone can leave a comment, so if this was preventing you from leaving a comment before, well, it's not anymore.

This is in reverse order, but let me start with how I got back to Seattle from Paris. First I got onto a Eurostar train headed from Paris to London. This went well. I like Eurostar. On the train, I met a French lady who had spent two years in London and is currently working in Hong Kong. From London Waterloo to Heathrow also went fairly well. I went by way of the Underground despite the bombing because it looked pretty busy and normal. There wasn't as much security as one would expect, but according to someone I met at the airport there was a great deal of security on the Heathrow Express. The airport had guards carrying machine guns, and they just meandered about all night. It's also absurdly difficult to find a trash can in that airport. I mean, it's sort of difficult to find trash cans in London generally, but for some reason it was even worse then. There are all kinds of people staying the night at the airport and not enough benches for everyone, so people sprawled out along the sides of the halls. Some people even brought mats, pillows, and/or blankets. In the morning my flight to Toronto was delayed for an hour. At Toronto, customs went without at hitch. I must look really young and innocent and not at all the cheese smuggling sort because they usually ask me just one or two questions before letting me go. In the terminal, all seemed to be going well, but it would soon become clear that they had been going too well. I waited. And waited. But that was to be expected. And then we boarded the plane on time. Then we deboarded the plane. Then we waited again. Then we got onto another plane. And waited for an hour more for luggage to be transferred. We take off and arrive at Seattle three hours late, and just before we get ready to leave the plane, they annouced something along the lines of, "Oh, ha ha, you may find that your luggage has been delayed. Call the number and we'll send it to you eventually." Then outside the plane, there was someone saying, "Not a single piece of luggage was loaded onto the plane. If you really want, you can wait by caurosel 17, but I doubt anything will emerge," while handing out a form with the phone number. I kept on thinking, "But the chocolate!!" If I had attempted to smuggle cheese, which thankfully I didn't, it probably would have been, "Oh no! The cheese!" A whole plane without luggage. I don't think I like Air Canada much anymore. On the upside, I'm finally home! And typing on a nice American keyboard. *Sigh of relief/contentment.*