I'm here, don't lose faith in my blog yet!

Ello from England! Sorry readers (all 3 of you) I have not meant to neglect you, but it has been a busy 2 days. I am finally here on the base and it has been so great finally putting images to what I have been thinking about for so long. But first, about my trip over its too good not to write about:

It was a fairly uneventful flight. My plane out of SeaTac was delayed about 30 min, just long enough for me to see Obama sworn in, but not long enough for me to see his speech (I later read the captions of his entire speech in the London-Heathrow airport). This delay made my already short layover in Chicago,very short. I sprinted about 30 terminals away. Luckily I used some very intense speed walking techniques to get there, and I had 5 min to spare! whew. The long flight over the Atlantic was as expected: less than mediocre food, stiff seats, bad/old movies, and of course stale air. I awoke at 2:00 am to a present from a fellow passenger- one of the most pungent farts I have ever smelled! It woke me up for Christ's sake! Later we hit some turbulence (it is a trans-Atlantic flight right!) and a lady 2 rows ahead of me starts shouting "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" over and over, about 10-15 times in all. Followed by something unintelligible in her native tongue and then "You promise me now! You promise me!" with conviction. It was great entertainment for me and my fellow passengers. Every time we hit turbulence, we took our headphones off so we could hear her out-loud prayers.

Anyways, I am here safe and sound. I waited in Heathrow for about 6 hours for my fellow student teacher, Colin. That was awful. There is nothing like following a 11.5 hour flight with a 6 hour stay in an airport. As a side note, there were no garbage's in Heathrow...not even in the bathrooms! What do people do with their crap here?

We took the 2.5 hour bus to a stop by the base. Colin's cooperating teacher picked us up and took us around the bases. There are three in all Lakenheath, Mildenhall, and Feltwell. We got a beer, some pizza, and a great tour. We finally got to our lodging. It is way better that I was expecting. My room is like 2 dorm-rooms together. A single bed. 2 dressers. Computer desk. Microwave. Mini fridge. all that junk. Also there was a neon colored comforter and sheets in one of the drawers! We have good toilets and showers on our floor. Right below us is a gym-type 2 room workout facility. The weights are closed down, but all the cardio equip. is still usable. I ran 3.5 miles this morning!

Today (day 2) we slept in as long as we could (I woke up at 4 am, and forced myself to sleep for 4 more hours). Then made the long journey over to the middle school (about a 1 min walk). My base, Feltwell, is very remote. There is one shopette (convenience store) and that's about it. So I will need consistent access to the other bases for almost everything from laundry to groceries to movies to shopping of any sort to beer to Internet (maybe, i am trying to find out a way to get Internet at my place). (I just realized that I was using a lot of parentheses) (I will try to stop) (sorry).

So today at the middle school I met a lot of people. It will take me weeks to get all the names down. but my cooperating teacher, Mr. John Mitchell is very nice, and extremely accommodating and generous. He has offered Colin and I one of his cars that he doesn't use. If we can get the insurance situation figured out, it will be an huge resource! The facilities at the middle school are incredible. It is new, and cost about 5 million to build. All the teachers have smart-boards and great equipment. the gym is nice, but the acoustics are horrible- when I yell at my kids, they wouldn't be able to hear me. (Just joking, I'm not a yell-er). Other than that, I got my school ID badge today, will get my military base badge tomorrow, and this weekend Colin and I are attending a retirement party for 3 or 4 teachers from the school.

Please be patient readers. I have not abandoned you, my blogs just may be inconsistent for a bit until I can find some Internet. I hope you all are well. Miss you already!

Hal