Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Why British Airlines Rocks (And I'm about to pass out)

Well, I'm in London. I haven't slept in longer than I can remember so please excuse any typos here...I'm writing this on borrowed internet time.

British Airways was training security personal. Training them to take everything out of my overstuffed bookbag. That's been the only bad part of the trip, everything else has been decently smooth. My plan to meet up with the two other students flying through London were messed up because I had to go through immigration in London to check and recheck my bags so this has been stressful and keeping me from sleeping in the really nice 'quite room'. A very nice woman at KLM check-in desk checked my bag at 9 am local time...even though I wasn't supposed to be allowed to check in until 3 PM local time. I just hope my bag makes it!!!

Top 5 reasons why British Airways rules:

5) The food. The food was awesome. They served me a hot dinner complete with chicken, mashed potatoes, and carrots. On top of that was a really good bread roll with butter, a very fresh salad, a decent piece of cheese cake, AND a candy bar. Wow. After all that it was tea time. Tea time...was awesome. A few hours later I was eating the breakfast croissant they served with strawberry jam. Then it was Tea time again! Did I mention the tea was served in little actual tea cups? I stole those for the trip. Love the british....that takes me to number 4. I started this trip at 138.8 pounds, I don't think I've lost that yet.

4) The British accents. Enough said.

3) Really nice seats with all sorts of headrest options. Nice pillow and blanket. Air Conditioning...which I will miss terribly. And free headphones....on to reason number 2.

2) Personal touch screen TV in seat. Not just that, it had a decent music selection, 70 movies to choose from (I watched There Will Be Blood....I give it a 7/10) and an Indiana Jones style trip tracker with a countdown to arrival. It also told me all kinds of cool stats (I was at 35050 ft going 568 mph)! Best of all, a little movie detailing how immigration would work in the terminal I was to arrive in.

1) The person I was seated next to. A hardcore creationist who couldn't understand why I would ever want to go to Kenya. We chatted for 15 minutes, then she popped two Valium and slipped into a little medical coma for the rest of the trip. Does this count for British Airways? Why not?

Hi Mom!

7 comments:

Krissy said...

Wishing you a safe arrival in Kenya!

Kristen (work with Mom)

Anonymous said...

Creationists always brighten my day.

-K

Meaghan said...

Glad to hear that the trip has so far been mostly uneventful. Hope it keeps going smoothly! I look forward to reading about your experiences!
Meaghan

Anonymous said...

Say no to the tse tse!!

But if you don't, at least get pictures to commemorate the experience.

Anonymous said...

A couple updates...

1) The bidding on the eBay item ended at $189.37.

2) Hold Steady in DC August 14th?

Hope you're having fun,
Mark

Anonymous said...

just took this from cage potato...if you get a chance to read this figured you might enjoy it...

Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin

Forrest, as usual, comes out to “Shipping Up to Boston” by the Dropkick Murphys, and the white people in attendance are psyched. Rampage walks out and gets in the face of Wilmer Valderamma, who maybe pisses his pants. War Fes? Griffin smiles in the cage, while Rampage looks deathly serious. David Spade and Mandy Moore are in the audience. Not together, of course. Yves Lavigne is reffing this one. Big responsibility for the Frenchman.

Round 1: Both guys exchange punches. Forrest slips in a leg kick. Forrest throws a head kick off Rampage’s glove. Forrest gets another leg kick, and a body kick, wisely keeping his distance. Rampage whiffs a haymaker. Rampage nails him with a left hook, then a knee. Griffin throws some kicks. He lands two leg kicks. Big punches from Rampage, then a leg kick. Griffin fires back with some punches of his own. Griffin punches out of a brief clinch. Griffin lands a nice left hook, then a leg kick. Rampsge punches Forrest to the ground. Rampage pushes Forrest against the cage on the ground. Rampage in Forrest’s closed guard, landing some punches as Griffin gets to his feet. Punches landed by both men in an exchange. Great first round. Hard to call; Forrest got rocked and knocked to the ground, but he controlled the majority of the round.

Round 2: Griffin fires off two leg kicks that clearly hurt Rampage. Forrest scores two big knees in a clinch and takes Rampage down! Forrest in Rampage’s half-guard. Forrest trying to work some short elbows from the top. Forrest passes to side control, and briefly goes for an Americana. More short elbows. Rampage is lost on his back. Another Americana attempt, then Forrest passes to full mount, dropping punches and elbows. Total domination by Forrest, who’s a relentless blanket of doom on Rampage. The horn sounds. 10-8 round? Rampage lookin’ rough in his corner, getting his bum knee iced.

Round 3: Inside leg kick from Forrest, who then misses a head kick. Rampage gets him with a hard punch and Forrest backs up. Rampage misses some punches, then lands some nasty ones. Forrest misses a leg kick, then gets one on Rampage’s thigh. Rampage catches Forrest with a right. Rampage looking a little better now, finding his rhythm with the punches. Both men clash with punches. Forrest’s leg kicks are looking a little weaker. Good 1-2 combo from Rampage, and a solid body shot. Injside leg kick from Forrest. Rampage tags him with a left hook. Forrest pushes forward with punches, and Rampages blasts right back. Much closer round, that possibly belonged to Rampage.

Round 4: Rampage scores a hard punch combo, and another in a clinch. Forrest goes for a takedown but falls onto his back. Forrest is cut. Forrest going for a triangle; it’s sunk in, but Rampage slams out of it, Arona style! Rampage back on top on the ground. Big cut over Forrest’s eye. Rampage gets an elbow in, but not much else. Forrest gets to his feet but gets caught with a big punch on the way up. Forrest throwing some kicks that miss. Rampage gets in two more big punches. And two more as the bell rings.
Stitch rubs a glob of goo in Forrest’s gaping cut.

Round 5: Leg kick from Forrest, and another. Rampage scores with a punch. Two more leg kicks from Forrest. And another big one. Rampage with a big right hand, and Forrest answers with his own. Forrest brushes Rampage back with a head kick. He’s clearly the aggressor in this round. More leg kicks from Forrest, but Rampage scores a head/body punch combo. Big right hand from Forrest. Rampage gets in his own. Rampage’s leg is clearly bothering him, but his punches still look dangerous. Knee from Forrest in the clinch, and an uppercut from Rampage. And they slug it out in the closing seconds to the bell. Amazing fight.
The official decision, people. 48-46, 48-46, 49-46 all to Forrest Griffin. OPIE IS THE NEW LIGHT-HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION! Forrest Jardine’d Rampage to death!
Forrest says that he was never “hurt-hurt,” but every punch Rampage threw “hurt.”
Rampage said “he jacked my leg up. I tried to pretend, I ain’t that good at acting.” He says his leg got a chance to recover when he was on the ground all through the 2nd. Afterparty at Prive! Rampage vows to never take that much time off from the cage ever again, and limps off.

Anonymous said...

eric, i miss you and steph.

hope you and neha are having fun.

best wishes.

just a small repeat: say no to tse tse.

the end.

ellen.

p.s. if this (below) were an option in your poll, i would've opted for it... "eric will not get bitten out of sheer luck. he will know just exactly how dangerous and stupid his decisions are, and he will make them anyway."