Travel Chaos or The Long Road Home

After a grueling 22h of delays and cancellations, I'm pleased to announce that I have made it safely to Toronto and am currently at Krystal's house.  It was a bit dicey for awhile and I wasn't always sure I was going to make it... near the end I was feeling a bit light-headed from the lack of sleep (and a developing cold).  The only thing that made the 12h wait at the airport bearable was the company of several friends - its interesting how travel adversity brings people close together.  Though the airport was jammed full of people (some sleeping on the floor for up to 3 days!), everyone was nice and helpful to each other.  It was also funny just how many young, Canadian teachers waiting for flights...

I think the most annoying part of the whole experience was the lack of information provided by the airport.  There was no poor weather yesterday, so it left many of us wondering what the delay could be.  Have you noticed how much easier it seems to bear bad news when you know the reason for it?  A simple "due to the adverse weather conditions yesterday, many of the planes are out of place.  We are now waiting for the plane to arrive" or "due to transport issues, the pilots and many of the ground crew staff were unable to make it to work in a timely manner" could of alleviated a lot of stress.  When we boarded our plane, the captain was really nice and explained the reason for the delay... one funny moment came when, after waiting an extra 30-ish minutes for the short-staffed baggage handlers to load the plane, the captain came on again and said, "Sorry folks, but I have some more bad news - since we've been sitting here too long we now have to arrange for our wings to be de-iced."

Ah well... I'm just grateful I made it.  I heard from several friends that their airlines were canceling all flights - some were told not to expect any flights until the 24th!  Crazy that a bit of snow could cause all of this travel. 

The important thing is that I'm in Canada and ready to spend a great Christmas holiday with my friends and family :).

The sleigh will soon be in the sky... hopefully

Its been awhile since my last posting, so  figured I better do a quick one before I leave for Canada. 

As you may know (apparently it made the news over there), the city of London just got dumped on again.  We were doing so well with our weather these last two weeks too - sure it was cold, but no precipitation whatsoever!  Then, the day before I leave, it decides to snow... and not just any snow either.  You know how we all  giggle about Britain's inability to cope with foul weather?  This time they actually had an excuse for the travel disruption - the snow really was heavy.  Luckily it only lasted 5 hours or so and the airports are starting to clear the backlog of flights.  So, hopefully I'll be able to make it home relatively on time.  I'll keep you posted - wish me luck!

Another Winter Wonderland

... And the countdown to Christmas has begun!  December has come and with it, snow.  This passed week London has experienced heavy snowfalls causing transportation snarls (traffic was trapped on one of the highways for 6h and commuters on an overground train overnight), cold related injuries and, more important to me, school closures.  I've been lucky in that today was the first snow day I've had - some of my friends have had all week off.  I've used today to go and buy a pair of winter boots (I figured after 14 months, it was time to invest in a pair :). Hopefully, I'll be able to get to work tomorrow.

Speaking of work, good news on the employment front - I got the Reception job I talked about in my last post!  Its a January - July full-time position and I will be team teaching with another teacher (there's two classes).  This is good for me as it will give me more insight on medium-long term planning (which I haven't had a lot of practice with).  I've already told several of my classes and I've had a few sad students... the hard part of being a supply teacher.  The class I'll be taking will be made up of the January intake so I'll have a new start with new pupils :).

Only two more weeks until I head home for Christmas - I'm getting excited :).  If anyone has any ideas for Christmas gifts, please tell me... I'm having trouble thinking of things for many of you.