Friday 30 March 2007

In Michigan

I arrived in Michigan Wednesday afternoon, after more than 24 hours of travelling. Highlights of the journey:

1) I was riding the train on Tuesday night from Exeter to London, so I could make it to Heathrow airport on time Tuesday morning. At about 10 pm in the small rural train station of Yeoville, over 100 teenagers, maybe 150 boarded the train (it was a small, 3 car train) and occupied every seat and standing space. They were all very, very drunk, most with large bottles of liquor, alcopops, 2 or 3 litre bottles of cider, or 24-pack boxes of beer. They mostly looked 14 to 16 years old, and did what drunk teenagers usually do: laugh, shout, sing very loudly, fight, spill their drinks, pee on the seats, etc. After about 15 minutes, they all got off, 2 stops down the line. It was an... interesting event in a mostly sleepy train journey. I have to wonder who bought them hundreds of pounds of alcohol though.

2) At Heathrow, I boarded the plane at about 9:15 am. About 30 minutes after we were supposed to take off, the pilot announced the plane had broken a part, and they would have to fix it. Another 30 minutes passed, and the pilot said it could not be fixed, so instead they were going to make the flight anyway, but they would have to do it at a lower altitude. Because all of the low altitude spots on the normal flight path were taken, instead we would be flying over Iceland and Greenland. At low altitude. While missing some semi-essential part. I never felt at risk or like we were in danger, but it was a pretty comical situation. Unfortunately I could not see out the window to see Iceland or Greenland, which would have been pretty cool.

Anyway, this is what it might have looked like if I had been by a window. It's also what Michigan feels like for about 6 months of the year.


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