Just touched down in London town

So I am sitting in the London Heathrow Airport and taking this all in. I HAVE BEGUN MY JOURNEY. I am now in a place that does not accept American dollars. I am in another continent. It's all pretty surreal.

New York was unbelievable. I got to see some amazing things and spend time with some quality people. There is no doubt in my mind that I will end up there. There's something about the streets and the trees and the bright lights that already has me aching to go back. It snowed and it was absolutely breathtaking. The way the powder gets swallowed by the streets, the ice that sticks to your hair, the trees and the snow that wraps around what's left of fall. It's all picturesque.

I went to the Met, Central Park, Times Square, and their adjacent areas. I love the energy. I love the noise. I love the lights. I freaking LOVE NEW YORK.

Sadly, my NY mini-trip had to conclude and I found myself back at the airport before I could wrap my arms around the city I had already come to adore. It had snowed all morning (yesterday, I guess? It's hard to keep track of times and days when it's 11:40 am London time but I was jut in NY where it's 6:40 am and then in LA it's 3:20 am...all confused and turned around here.) I presumed there would be delays of sorts because of the snow, but security was a breeze at JFK and I was on the plane roughly 45 minutes before we were scheduled to leave. It all feels so long ago, but all of this happened not even 12 hours ago if I am calculating correctly.

So it was too good to be true. Once we all boarded, the pilot, in his thick British accent, informed us that we would be going through a quick washing process to ensure snow had not built up in the engine or in the wings. We went through the process, and were ready to take off...or so we thought.

We started the take off process but something seemed off when the pilot kept making circles around the runway and never going airborne. I had started to fall asleep at this point, as it had been roughly 2 hours from the time of the initial snow wash to this point. I woke up about 30 minutes later and we had still not left the ground.

As it turns out, the pilot did a run through of the plane after it had been washed off and was unhappy with the condition of the plane. Let me also add that the washing station was on the complete opposite end of where the plane was. We encircled JFK yet again and the pilot announced there was a long line of planes who needed to be snowed down, but we were going to go through the process once more. This again took maybe an hour and fifteen minutes by the time it was all said and done. 

I watched Vicky Christina Barcelona & episodes of Friends and The Big Bang Theory to pass the time. I napped a bit but kept jolting up at the slightest turbulence. I arrived in London and of course missed my connecting flight because of the lateness of my initial flight, so now I am sitting here waiting for my flight to Madrid. I got a waiver for 5 British Pounds as an apology for the delay and am sitting in a coffee & sandwich shop taking this all in.

love from LONDON TOWN,

LP