Monday 23 January -- On the edge of sunset

After something of a mad dash to the tube that included running down to Twinings, being late for my taxi, and struggling through King's Cross with four items of luggage, one of which doesn't like to balance nicely, I finally ended up lounging on an impressively long train ride to zone six. Fortunately, the fact that I'd bought a zone 1-2 daypass to get to Twinings didn't end up costing me more money; an airport employee saw my luggage and used his card to help me through the barrier. I found the trolleys (carts in american), which were free (shocking), and took a circuitous route to bypass the elevators. Once I reached icelandair's checkin, my bags turned out to be underweight enough for me to actually unload some stuff from my carryons into them, which was a pleasant surprise.
As always, my liquid baggie got tested during my journey through security, but that was it. I had to wait about half an hour for my flight to start boarding, so I felt that I had timed things rather well.

Mine!

The weather was about the same when I left as when I got to England.

Flying!

I was hoping to enjoy iceland, or at least the keflavik airport, a little more than last time, but my flight was actually on last call by the time I got there.
Eight hours is a long time to be in the air.
It was dark when we set out from iceland, but once we got above the cloudcover, we flew in the dark for about an hour before we hit sunset.
 

If you embiggen the picture (and the next one), you may be able to see that I was trying to take a picture of the icelandic coast.

Atlantic ocean and also Iceland.

It was really weird, and I couldn't sleep (although I blame the fact that WE'RE FLYING! more than the light, because I could have shut the window if I hadn't been so darn excited. I was feeling especially poetical as I watched us flying backwards through the day, from night to sunset to daylight before circling above seattle through sunset until it was night again, and dubbed it "flying on the edge of sunset".
It was also pretty, but not like sunsets are on the ground. I think because we were so high, the sunset just kind of lurked around the horizon instead of dominating the sky, but I could see all the colours concentrated in a deep pink band that sometimes fuzzed into a really pretty purple.
Customs and baggage claim was really smooth, rather smoother than getting into England (probably because I wasn't wearing fancy, foreign-looking clothes, my suitcases are as cheap as I could manage, and I'm returning to my own country instead of being a slightly disreputable-looking person trying to get into another country that has some impressive immigration issues of its own). Even though I started off on a bad foot with the passport inspector by texting in line (in my defense, I didn't see the sign and it's never been a concern before), she warmed up to me by the time I was done being inspected. All my luggage came through, and I kept all my forms in reasonably decent order, at least for my first time solo through american customs and with four bags.
It was incredibly good to actually see my family in person. I kind of did the whole England thing on my own, and it was good to be allowed to let someone else support me (emotionally, that is).

I'm back!

Most of you who read this know that I'm back in the states; actually, I think most of you have seen me. Well, I'm moved in to my new house (dubbed "The Manor" by its inhabitants), which I keep trying to call a flat for reasons that don't make any real sense, and am about to change the title of the blog to simply "Raeann's Adventures", as I might keep updating with tidbits about my life that strike me as adventurous and interesting but that happen here in Spokane.
But not before I fill in the London blanks!
Posts to follow in the approximate order of their dates.
Oh, and I'm posting this from BruceWayne (or just Bruce in company). It's a rather dashing-looking black Lenovo that can't hope to be as awesome as Max (aka the Mac), so I named it after Batman to increase its coolness factor. I'm thinking about getting a batman logo sticker/skin, either to make it look cooler or to replace the manufacturers's protective sticky thing that I've left on the cover to protect it while moving and haven't got around to removing.
In spite of my still-strong attachment to the Mac, Bruce is growing on me. For one, he has a name and gender. I still think of the Mac as an it, even though I named it Max in the last few months of ownership. I'm rather enamoured of the fingerprint logon for Bruce, and the fact that he does in fact have two-finger scrolling capability was ridiculously exciting. The keyboard is nice, even if the number pad does get in my way sometimes. The processor is way slower than the Mac, but I really only watch movies that I've seen a hundred times before and am just watching now to fill the silence, let's face it. Also, it can hook up to a TV if I have cables, something that the Mac would only have been able to do for several hundred dollars.
Is this my new favourite computer? Absolutely not. I miss the Mac, and the multitouch, and OSX, and the more sensitive scrolling, and the fast processor, and the way I had conformed it to my needs. But, in the absence of the Mac, BruceWayne will have to do. After all, he's secretly Batman.