Notice: New International law takes effect immediately. 5:00 AM has been declared illegal. All activities scheduled for that time will be rescheduled for noon or later. Violators will be shot.
We got up and made it to the bus stop for the 6:00 express bus which was listed on the time schedule we were given by the weather lady at the TI. She evidently is not infallible after all. It turns out that the 6:00 bus does not go until 6:15 and it is not an express but rather it stops every 38.4 seconds. It really wasn’t that bad and it turns out that our efforts to arrive early were rendered null and void by the fact that when we tried to check-in we were told by the Norwegian Air person to come back in 20 minutes. We were too early. I could hear my mother roll over in her grave and yell, “there is no such thing as too early.”
So we waited 20 minutes. Penny spent the waiting time fruitfully as she rescued a man from a major hassle. He dropped his just purchased ticket on the floor as he was passing in front of her and she grabbed it and ran after saying, “Sir! Sir!” He did not stop but a traveling companion did and called him by name. I wonder what the Norwegian word for “Sir” is.
On the way to the gate they route every one through the middle of the duty free shop. There was the typical booze, perfume and cigarettes. But the cigarette packages are different in Norway. They have in giant letters (the same size or bigger than the brand logo) the warning labels: Cigarette smoking will cause you to die young! Smoking is highly addictive and deadly! Smoking will give you cancer. You had to look hard to see the brand the warnings were just about all you could see. I think that is great.
The flight was fine. We were in row 2 with an empty seat between us. That was good thing because evidently the designer of the plane seating diagram had in mind people with detachable legs. The flight was fine but debarking was a horse of a different color. They opened the door and the stewardess began getting rained on. We were about half a mile from the terminal and it was raining. Welcome to England. (OK, maybe 30 meters. But the point is we got wet!)
Passport control wasn’t bad. I was glad we did not have a European Union (EU) passport. There were 2 queues, one for EU passports and one for the rest of the world. About 90% of the people were in the EU line with about half the agents and the other 10% (that is us) had the other half of the agents. Our line went quickly.
Then we walked to the exit wall and there were two doorways with signs over them. One said “arriving from EC countries” and the other said “nothing to declare.” Now I was sure I did not have an EU passport but I was less certain about the status of Norway (from where we were arriving). Well being the seasoned traveler I am I stopped and asked a man at the doors with a uniform. We said we were arriving from Bergen and were not sure which door. He first pointed me toward the EU door and then quickly said, “Oh no, Bergen is in Norway” (I knew that) and then said “It is this door.” And pointed to the “nothing to declare” door. We walked in that side and as we walked we could see into the other room (where the other EU line went) it was exactly like our room; large with some tables and with NO ONE there checking anything or asking anything. The people exited the room from both empty halls and into the same hall way and walked together into the next room. I laughed! The man was so serious about helping me know which door to go through.
We got our train tickets from the machine after being told by the man at the window to go use the machine. Then we had a bit of a disappointing lunch. I had a “classic burger” which turned out to be one of those grade school boiled beef patties. Penny ordered a chicken dish and was a bit disappointed that it was an Indian Curry dish.
We had to wait a bit for the train to be opened. It is cold (maybe lower 60s) and the wind is blowing and it is still raining. Our train platform was at the end of the covered section of the station. Penny decided that the opened toed shoes were not a great idea. It is much colder here than it has been in Scandinavia. I may not be dressed warmly enough.
We have to change trains in Peterborough and then it is off to Harlaxton.
We were met at the train station by Ralph who was very nice. We saw Gordon and Susanne and many of the other faculty. It will take some time to remember the names. But I am going to try.
Harlaxton of course has not changed in the big things but many things are much nicer now. Our flat is great. We have tons of room with lots of drawers and such. The bedroom and living room and kitchen are all one big room with a small bedroom with a single bed and a bath with a nice shower are of course separate rooms.
We got a tour of the building and remembered some of the stuff and it brought back memories. We are still trying to find our way around the 153 rooms of the house. After dinner the folks who flew in today from the states pretty much all crashed. A couple of couples, like us, have been in Europe traveling and so our clock is kind of adjusted. We decided to wash some clothes. But the free faculty laundry (one washer and one dryer) were already being used. So we decided to use the student pay laundry since there are no students yet. The problem is that we had to find the laundry. But then we had to find the change machine that we saw by the coke machine. It was tricky finding these things even though we had been by them a couple of times. When we did find the change machine we learned that that it only changes coins: a one pound coin gives you two 50 pence coins. One 50 pence gives you five 10p coins. This is OK for the washer which takes one 50p coin but the dryer takes a 20p coin and the change machine does not give those out. We had a couple but we needed more so I had to buy a coke for 70p. I put in two 50p coins and got a 20p and a 10p in change. Penny had to buy one also so we would have enough 20 p coins. But we have clean clothes.
It feels good to be here and have a room we can spread out a bit in. We start orientation in the morning and I am looking forward to that.
Ray
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