Homeward bound: the incredible journey

Thu Jul 30, 2009 13:31 EST (UTC -5)

Well, kiddies, it happened. My camera's new 1 GB memory card is not functioning. It's not even the camera's fault this time, as my other cards are just fine. That's good news, but I wish I could take 600 photos at a time rather than about 79. (What an odd number, I know. The 16 MB card that came with my camera holds 8 photos. My trusty 128 MB card supposedly holds 64, but I can squeeze out 71.) Fortunately, I lost only a few photos (from Sunday night's concert by the local band).

Anyway, when we last met, I was at the International Youth Congress of Esperanto (IJK) in Liberec, Czech Republic, and it is to that event which we now return.

Last Monday night's entertainment was a quiz show in the style of those hilarious British radio program(me)s. Think "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" (which originally was a British radio show) and that show on NPR where people have to guess the definitions of obscure words. Its name escapes me, but I know it's cheesy. If I do think of it before I post this, I'll probably forget to add it in here. Anyway, the Esperanto quiz show was just as funny, if not funnier. Maybe it helped that the host (sorry, presenter) was British.

Tuesday was the big excursion to Prague. Everyone has told me that Prague is a wonderful city, so I wanted to see exactly how wonderful it was. We started out by taking a tour of the city in an old trolley that I believe was built in 1928 or 1929.

Well, it wasn't really a tour because we didn't have a tour guide telling us what everything was. Actually, one of the IJK organizers was there and explained everything for us, so I guess it was a tour. When the ride ended, we explored the city on foot as a group. We saw some old churches and plazas and things. I kept wondering when we would stop for lunch; they gave us food but no time to eat it, so people were eating as we walked around. I did the same eventually.

One of the highlights of the morning was going to the presidential palace. The organizers of the IJK still remembered a remark that the Czech President had made a year and a half ago. He said, "Pan-Europeanism is artificial and dead, like Esperanto." So our group thought it would be nice to take a picture with one of the guards outside the presidential palace and maybe send it to the President.

That guard wasn't supposed to move or anything, but dang if he didn't look uncomfortable standing there.

Near the palace you can get a great view of the city. As the group moved on, I lingered a bit to check it out.

After that, we made our way to the Charles Bridge, which is apparently an old and famous pedestrian bridge in the city. As with many touristy places, it was filled with artists and musicians and beggars. They were also renovating a section of it. Despite all that, I liked it and wished I could stay longer. I admired the statues that lined the bridge and the view of the river.

My group was the sciencey group, so we saw some scientific sights. In particular, we saw a historic weather station (which I didn't take a picture of because it looked like a giant white box hanging out of a window, and besides, I was running out of pictures) and went to the house where Johannes "The Earth Revolves Around the Sun" Kepler once lived. We didn't go inside, but outside was a small courtyard with a small fountain dedicated to him.

Later, we moved on to what is probably one of the world's most famous clocks. It's that crazy clock thing with, like, 4 hands and 3 faces. You'd know it if you saw it, so look!

We (and a lot of other people) hung around until the top of the hour so we could see the famous show that the clock puts on every hour. It wasn't so spectacular, actually. A couple of windows open and you can see little apostles shuffling by. That's basically it.

After that, we finally had about an hour of free time. I spend time with my new Canadian friend, Gregory. We went to a cafe so he could get something to drink, and then we went to a souvenir shop so he could get some souvenirs. Then we strolled to the statue where we were supposed to meet with everybody. After that, we all went over to the bus and went back to Liberec.

Prague is indeed a nice city. I wish I could have spent a little more time there, particularly down by the river. There are some islands in the river that looked particularly interesting. Our unofficial tour guide said that the World Congress of Esperanto was held on one of the islands in 1996. It must have been pretty large because that's a big event. Anyway, in conclusion, everyone is right about Prague.

In the evening, there was supposed to be a concert by one Kim, an Esperantist and accordionist. When I heard that the concert was being moved to the roof of the building, I thought it was a joke. But I saw too many people going upstairs, so I decided to follow them. Sure enough, people were setting up equipment, and a lot of the audience was already there.

Even though Kim didn't have much accompaniment, he had everyone singing along in Esperanto.

A guitarist named JoMo joined him for the last number. I had actually had lunch with JoMo the day before, not knowing he would be part of the entertainment. It's funny how those things work out!

On Wednesday, Andy and I did not attend the next class on how to teach Esperanto. I went to a presentation about E@I, the organization behind many Esperanto projects on the Internet, including lernu.net. In the afternoon, I was just chillin' when it was pointed out to me that I should probably be at the TEJO meeting that was going on right then.

Apparently, Darcy Ross was supposed to represent USEJ (US Esperanto Youth Organization) at the meeting of TEJO (Worldwide Esperanto Youth Organization), but since she didn't go to the IJK, she gave her voting power to me and Andy. So I sat in on the meeting, but since I didn't know what anything was about, I didn't vote. Actually, I didn't even abstain; I abstained from abstaining. It took me a while to convince myself that I was supposed to be there.

Besides voting on officers and things like that, they decided to write a resolution or declaration along the theme of the congress (i.e., freedom). Apparently, this was a tradition that had not been followed very much in recent years, but they wanted to make a statement to the Czech President about the utility and utter non-deadness of Esperanto.

After that, I attended a presentation about the situation in Israel and Palestine, which I thought was pretty interesting. I think you can really only scratch the surface in an hour, but it was relatively informative.

The evening's entertainment was a performance by JoMo in the town square. It was kind of a long walk (about 30 minutes), but it was nice to get out and see the city. I had heard that he was known for singing in a lot of different languages, and I was vaguely aware that there was some Guinness world record involved. (I think they assumed that everyone already knew everything about him.)

With just a guitar, he performed a lot of rockin' numbers that got the crowd moving. Almost every song was in a different language. Besides the usual suspects such as French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese, he sang songs in Basque, Ukrainian, Serbo-Croatian, and Mohawk. He also sang a Greek song in Dutch. For the curious, his English-language song was "Kansas City," and I'd have to say that my favorite number was "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand." Oh, and Kim joined him for the later numbers. The finale was in Esperanto.

On Thursday morning, I attended a presentation called, "Wikipedia: What, Why, How." The "how" part was especially interesting because the lecturer got online and actually created an article for the people to see. I thought everyone at the presentation would already be basically familiar with Wikipedia, but it was nice to see how impressed some people were with how easy the site is to use.

In the afternoon, instead of lectures and things, we had a Cultural/Language Festival in the town square. People from a certain country or region could get together and set up a booth to show off their culture to the other Esperantists (and, with the help of a translator, to the townspeople). Seeing all these booths decked out with flags and maps and posters and food and alcoholic beverages made it easy to see how many countries were being represented at the IJK.

Not every country had a booth, though. As I was digging the different cultures, everyone kept asking me why there was no American booth. Several reasons: there were only a few Americans at the IJK, we were all too lazy, some of us didn't even show up to the festival, we didn't have anything from home to show off, everybody already knows all about our culture (or lack thereof), we can't fix our reputation in the world from behind a booth, etc. I joked that the American booth was the McDonald's in the town square. I just thought the Europeans would find it funny; I don't want to remind myself of how much everyone hates American culture.

The countries and regions represented were, in no particular order: Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Greece, France, Germany, China, Vietnam, Brazil, Catalonia, South Korea, Canada, Russia, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Ukraine, Pakistan, and Lithuania. So that was just a subset of the countries and regions represented at the IJK.

At the official beginning of the event, they wanted to have one person from each country greet the people of Liberec in their own country's language. Since this is much easier than manning a booth, more countries were represented. I had been asked to say hello from the good old U. S. of A., so I thought I might as well. We went up to the stage by country in alphabetical order, and I was second-to-last, in front of only Vietnam. It gave me a lot of time to figure out what to say.

Hello! Greetings from the United States of America to the people of Liberec. Esperanto, the international language, brings us together.

My delivery wasn't as exciting as some of the other people's, so when I was done, I tried waving or something to get the crowd roaring. The reception seemed to be about average.

As I was milling around later, the President of TEJO told me that my greeting was beautifully done (he understood English, apparently). I didn't know what to say, but only because I hadn't quite heard what he had said, and by the time I had figured it out, it was too late to respond. Awkward.

After some traditional songs and dances on the stage, Kim worked some of his accordion magic. But the weather deteriorated, and eventually it started raining. I made a break for the nearest building, which was city hall. I stood in front of the door with some other people as we watched everyone else take cover in booths or on the stage. As the rain got heavier, some people started running around and having a good time. After the rain subsided, we headed back for dinner.

Food interlude: I haven't really mentioned what I ate at the IJK. Since we were apparently at a university, we were provided with cafeteria food. For breakfast there was always bread with meat and cheese. Some days the cheese was pre-processed and spreadable, other days it was the meat. Lunch and dinner often involved chicken and rice. There was usually weird juice or hot tea to drink. It wasn't the greatest, but I was pretty fine with it. I had paid for it, anyway.

Friday was the last whole day. In the morning, I went on an excursion with a few other people to the local zoo, which was the first in Czechoslovakia. The only problem was that the zoo was closed because of the previous day's storm. So the local guy of the group decided to show us around town. Liberec, it turns out, is a very old city. Probably the most interesting thing for me was seeing the oldest surviving houses, which were built in the Tudor style in 1681. It was nice to get out and do some walking.

In the afternoon, I went to the TEJO meeting feeling a little more confident about what was going on. They discussed membership applications from new national Esperanto youth organizations in Mexico and Benin; we also voted unanimously to explore the possibility of having the IJK in Africa as early as 2012. An Italian guy melodramatically read a draft of the resolution about freedom. There were also some other elections, and finally, a group photo.

That evening was International Evening, a sort of cross-cultural talent show that was also the closing ceremony. There were songs, poetry, dancing, sexy dancing, acting, and more. Several participants were local kids whose parents had found out about the IJK and, I don't know, show off their kids. One guy read some of his poems and Czech as well as one in Esperanto; I think he had only been learning the language for a few days -- he seemed nervous reading it -- but the poem was good.

There was some funny stuff. There was a skit about Italians giving other people lessons on how to act Italian: talking loudly with hand gestures and the like. Among the "students" were Matthieu (who had hosted Andy and me when we were in France), Bara (a friend I had met online), and Guillerme (my roommate there at the IJK): an all-star cast! Some people who had come from the Summer Esperanto Study played their SES song, which pretty accurately described the SES experience.

For me, one of the most exciting parts of the evening was the official inauguration of the new Pasporta Servo web site, which was christened with the sending of a message to none other than the USA's Darcy Ross. And, after introducing the newly elected TEJO officers and some closing words, that was it. I think they didn't have time to present the resolution.

After all that, it was late, but I decided to chill out a little while longer. As usual, after the evening's program, participants could go to the bar, the disco, the movie theater, or the "owl room." The idea of the latter is that if you just want a quiet night, you can go there to enjoy some tea by candlelight. I hadn't been there yet, so I checked it out with Andy and Diana, one of the other Americans. But I was tired, so not long after my tea, I called it a night.

Saturday morning was the leaving day. Chuck Smith, founder of the Esperanto Wikipedia, had seen the notice I posted about Andy and me needing a place to stay in Berlin, and he had told me that he would be willing to put us up since he lives there now. Andy had told me that he was tired of traveling and was taking a flight from Prague to London, where he would stay with our friend George until I got there and we had to fly home. So, I would be going through the last leg of the trip by myself.

So, on Saturday morning, I said my goodbyes to the people who were remaining. I didn't see Andy, but I did see that the keys to his room weren't hanging up behind the front desk, so he must have still been snoozin'. After a while, a cab came to take Chuck, his girlfriend Judith, someone else, and me to the train station. At the station, I saw several people from the IJK; Alex, who Andy and I had met on the way to SES, sat near us on our train.

We weren't going right to Berlin; Chuck was meeting a friend in Dresden and had booked a hotel room there for a night. So after a couple of hours, we arrived in Dresden, Germany, and met up with Chuck's friend. Alex also stopped in Dresden, so there were five of us: Chuck, Judith, Chuck's friend, Alex, and me: a motley crue of Esperantists.

First, we wanted to drop our bags off at the hotel. I think it was supposedly a four-star hotel, and it really was classy. Somewhat less classy was the unfortunate realization that Chuck had accidentally booked the hotel room for 8/25 (August 25) instead of 7/25 (July 25). He did get that sorted out, and we were able to put our bags there before coming back in the evening.

We walked to a Czech restaurant to have a late lunch. I had some ham wrapped in potatoes covered in gravy... with a salad on the side, thankyouverymuch. I ate most of it except for the salad. I also had half a liter of beer, which I drank most of. Everything was pretty good.

After that, we walked around town. Alex went to check in to a hostel, and we started exploring the city without him. The town square was beautiful. I had read that most of the city was destroyed by the Allies, but in the city center there were a lot of old buildings that seemed to have survived.

It started raining, so we ran into a nearby Canadian steakhouse called Ontario. I had never seen a Canadian restaurant before, but it seemed like an ordinary steakhouse with vaguely Canadian decor. Chuck asked the waitress if they had poutine, and she had never heard of it. We had just eaten lunch, so I wasn't hungry, but the others got drinks. I didn't really feel like drinking anything.

After that, we walked around a bit more and checked out some touristy shops near the river Elbe. Alex met up with us, and after parting ways with Chuck's friend, we went back to the hotel. We amused ourselves by reading about all the ridiculous services that the hotel had to offer, and then we decided to take them up on one of their less ridiculous services by watching Get Smart on pay-per-view. I needed to rest; I wasn't feeling very good.

After a while, I had that feeling of blood rushing to my head, so I went to the bathroom and lost my lunch. I hadn't thrown up in a really long time, and I hoped it would just be an isolated incident. It wasn't. Something I had eaten (or drunk) must have really rubbed me the wrong way. Still, I felt a little better each time.

Meanwhile, the movie had ended and Alex had gone to his hostel, so it was just us three in a hotel room for two. Not only did I throw up in a four-star hotel, but it was also the first stop on my entire trip where I used my sleeping bag. Chuck and I thought this was really funny.

I woke up Sunday morning not feeling very hungry. I had some nibbles and made myself look presentable; then we took a taxi to the train station. (The taxis in Germany are overwhelmingly Mercedes-Benzes. Very nice!) On the train, Chuck and I passed the time by watching Bender's Big Score on his laptop. Finally, we were at Berlin's Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station), which is huge and modern. I was impressed.

It was a short bus trip and walk to Chuck and Judith's apartment. On the way, they stopped to show me something. There was a cobblestone line running diagonally across the street and the sidewalk. On the sidewalk, along the cobblestones, was a small plaque: the Berlin Wall had been here.

After relaxing in their apartment for a little while and having some food to eat, I felt up for a stroll around the neighborhood. They had told me that there were a lot of restaurants around them, and they weren't kidding. Cuban, Egyptian, and Singaporean were just a few of the restaurants I saw. Also nearby were a place where you could try 100 types of beer and another place where you could try 300 types of wine. They also took me to an anarchist art gallery (note to self: cool band name), which consisted mainly of some modern sculptures and a bar. It reminded me of Gainesville.

After another light meal, the subject of The Colbert Report came up. Chuck and Judith love the show, and I mentioned that I had missed the Iraq episodes because I was traveling and hadn't had time to watch them online. We found that the individual episodes had been taken down from the web site, and they didn't want to watch them clip after clip. Thus, the search began, and eventually they got some downloads going. I went to bed not long after that.

On Monday, I was feeling mostly better, so Chuck and Judith took me to the Singaporean restaurant nearby for lunch. The food was very good -- it tasted like Indian -- but I still didn't have much of an appetite. After the meal, Chuck showed me some of the city. We stopped at the Reichstag...

...and not far away was the Brandenburg Gate. It wasn't as imposing as I thought it would be, but it was still nice to look at.

Interestingly, I saw some people who seemed to be getting down from on top of the gate. They didn't look like they were supposed to be there.

The plaza in front of it is kind of touristy; you can have your passport stamped just like in the days of communism or have your picture taken with guys dressed as East German police. Awesome!

An old woman asked us if we spoke English. Chuck said "No" and kept walking. Before I knew what was going on, I said yes. Instead of telling me her spiel, she showed it to me in writing. I said "I'm sorry, I can't read," and walked away. Now that I think about it, she probably would have pickpocketed me if I had stopped to read the thing.

Several blocks away is Checkpoint Charlie, an important checkpoint from the days when Berlin was a divided city. There, you can find (a replica of) the famous "You Are Leaving the American Sector" sign. You can also have your picture taken with a guy who's dressed as an American soldier. Nearby, there's a snack bar called Snack Point Charlie. I thought it was interesting how Berlin seems to make light of its troubled past.

After stopping in a huge bookstore nearby, we went to the river to take a boat tour with some other Esperantists: an Israeli and three Ukrainians, all of whom I had met at the IJK. So the six of us were just chatting in Esperanto on the boat when Chuck decided to ask the people next to us what language they thought we were speaking. They had no idea. When he said it was Esperanto, they mentioned that they had just heard about it on TV!

One day while I was surfing the web in the lobby at the IJK, I saw a German TV crew doing interviews. Actually, "saw" is an understatement because they had their camera right next to my head. One of the organizers then asked for volunteers to sit in on an Esperanto class to be staged for the cameras. I had forgotten about it until Chuck showed me the video from German TV: the segment was in Esperanto with German subtitles, and the reporter even spoke some Esperanto before and after it. You can watch it here!

Anyway, we were all pleasantly surprised that we met people who had watched the segment. Going up and down the river was nice, especially because everything was explained in German and English. I saw some of the things that I had already seen by walking around, but it was nice to sit for an hour and have a drink. At one point, one of the Ukrainians saw a sign and misread the date on it as being in August instead of July. Chuck told her that that mistake had cost him money!

After the cruise, the six of us did some walking around. Chuck was the only real Berliner among us, so he led the way. He showed us a store with an odd specialty: all of its merchandise featured the red and green people from the East German pedestrian crossing lights. Apparently they've remained popular even though communism hasn't. I spotted the hatted proletarians at various points throughout the city.

After that, we stopped for ice cream. I didn't feel like having any, but I did feel like trying currywurst, so we got some of that next. Apparently it's a Berlin specialty. I forget the exact description, but it's like a sausage with Indian sauce on it. Chuck, who had some too, said it wasn't the best currywurst he had ever had, and I could see how it could be better, but I still liked it.

We made our way to a local cultural center, where an Esperanto club would be meeting. There were four other people there: three regulars and a guy whose interest had been piqued by a newspaper article about the IJK. Together, we watched a video of the opening of a small park named after L.L. Zamenhof, the initiator of Esperanto. The park was right in Berlin, and the video had been recorded the week before. There was some music, and some officials gave speeches to a small crowd.

After the video, Chuck discussed ideas for bringing together the rather disparate Esperanto clubs in Berlin. At least, I think so. My mind was elsewhere. I was thinking about how I would be going home soon and how happy I would be to be there. I was still enjoying my European vacation, but after two months, I was starting to miss home again. Y'understand.

The meeting went rather late. Chuck and I went home to watch the first Colbert Report episode from Iraq with Judith. Then, after Judith went to bed, Chuck and I stayed up way too late talking about all kinds of stuff. It was great.

Right after I woke up on Tuesday, I went with Chuck to the corner bakery to pick up some fresh croissants and bread. It was my last day in Berlin. I wished I could have stayed longer, but I felt I should move on and see Amsterdam. Chuck didn't resist very much because Amsterdam is his second-favorite city. But as long as I was with Chuck, there was still something I'd have to do.

Chuck likes games. He had asked if I had ever heard of a board game called Settlers of Catan. I had read about it in a recent issue of Wired magazine, and it was supposed to be, like, the greatest board game ever. So on Tuesday morning, Chuck and Judith invited over Tom, the Israeli Esperantist who had been with us the day before. That way, there would be four people for the game.

Learning the rules of a new game is always kind of tricky for me, and I tend to have no sense of strategy (just kidding, prospective future employers!!). Even though I did pretty badly in the game, it was still fun, and I think some of my friends would like it. It's a German-style board game, so it's different from American-style games. The differences are outside the scope of this blog post, but you can probably read about them on Wikipedia.

After a German lunch of potatoes, sausages, and cabbage (which I ate slowly), I got ready to leave. Chuck and Judith went with me to the bus stop, and away I went to the train station. They had made me feel at home and had taken very good care of me, but I had to keep moving. I was heading home.

About seven hours later, I had arrived in Amsterdam. It was late, and getting acquainted with the public transportation system was a confusing process, as it often has been. Once again, I was using the Pasporta Servo, so I followed the directions that my host had given me.

I got out of the metro station about ten minutes before midnight, making my way into my host's neighborhood. It was quiet, and not many people were around. I had almost gotten to his street when a couple of guys came up alongside me and started talking to me in English. I didn't listen to them; I told them I was late, that I was in a hurry, and that I didn't want to hear it.

I turned the corner onto my host's street and one of the guys stopped me. He started to put his hand into my pocket. He told me to give him 100 euros or he'd kill me. I shouted for help and received two swift hits to the side of my face. Then, I apparently found an opportunity to escape, because I did. I ran down the street to the next intersection, where I could catch my breath while being able to see all around me.

I saw people coming toward me from another direction, so I went back down the street to find my host's apartment. As I made my way there, the other guy was walking on the opposite side of the street, watching me. I found the building and buzzed my host, who let me in. I told him about what happened. I was shaking and on the verge of tears. He called the police.

Two officers came, and I told them about what happened -- fortunately, they spoke English. Once I gave descriptions of the perpetrators, they issued a bulletin. They learned why I was there and had some questions about Esperanto; one of the officers said he remembered reading about it in a book that had belonged to his grandfather. It was certainly an odd time for Esperanto Q&A, but I was grateful to them, so I answered their questions gladly.

The officers drove me and my host to the police station, where I filed a report (again, with an English-speaking official). Doing the police report took such a long time that I was calm by the end of it and my face didn't hurt anymore. The guy gave me a copy of the report (in Dutch) in a spiffy Amsterdam Police folder. My host and I were escorted back to the apartment in an unmarked car. After having a little food and drink, I went to sleep and had bad dreams.

I feel a little like it was my fault. I couldn't help that I was alone or wearing a huge backpack, but I did choose to get into the city at night, and maybe I could have stayed away from the two guys. Everyone -- the officers, the police report guy, the escort -- asked if it was my first time in the Netherlands. When I told them it was, they all wryly welcomed me. But I made it clear to my host that this wouldn't hurt my perception of the place. I know it's a civilized country, probably with a lower crime rate than the United States. I was just walking alone at night, and I looked like a tourist. It could have happened anywhere.

I am glad that it wasn't worse. I don't want to make light of the situation -- it really was traumatizing -- but I have to be glad that I didn't get badly hurt and nothing was stolen from me. I guess I knew what to do. If I had seen a weapon, I would have given them whatever they wanted, but I didn't, so I tried to scare them away. Fortunately, it worked. They must have just been some small-time crooks. I'm also glad that the police were helpful and that a lot of Dutch people are fluent in English.

Wednesday morning, right after I got out of bed, a couple of police officers stopped by and asked if I would ride around the neighborhood with some detectives that night so I could help find the perpetrators. I said it was okay, so they said they'd call that evening.

That day, my host had to check himself into the hospital for appendicitis, and his wife was going to work for the first time since the birth of their youngest child, so I was left alone in the apartment. I wanted to go out and see the city, so I got ready in no particular hurry. Finally, with the map that my host had given me, I headed out.

It was a beautiful afternoon for a walk; it mostly sunny with a cool breeze. I walked along the Amstel River and through what seemed to be a financial area. All the canals and bridges were beautiful to see.

I wasn't really hungry, but I felt like I should be, so I started looking for some place to eat. I turned the corner onto a street that had a lot of restaurants. In particular, there were a lot of Italian and Argentinean places, with some American, Chinese, and Indian restaurants as well. I decided to get some falafel. Andy had introduced falafel to me in Vienna, and I fell in love with the stuff.

I was looking for a little more, so I stopped at a place down the street that had Belgian-style fries. I knew this was something I had to try if I was in Amsterdam. I also knew that mayonnaise was a favorite topping, so I gave it a try. I had a seat in a nearby plaza and enjoyed it.

The plaza was called Dam. It was nice but kind of touristy.

The Anne Frank house was nearby, so I thought I'd have a look. There were a bunch of people in line to enter. I took some pictures of the building that they were going into. Later I found out that the actual house was the inconspicuous-looking building next door. Very clever.

I continued my walk through the city, stopping to rest in several lovely parks along the way. I was really amazed by the number of bicyclists going around. They didn't have to share the road; they had their own lanes everywhere. I think I had already known that, but it was still interesting to see for myself.

I made my way back to the apartment, and I wasn't feeling very good because I had eaten and walked a lot. I lay down for an hour and then just hung around, waiting for the police to call. They didn't, so I went to bed.

This morning, I got my stuff together and took the train to Brussels. From there, I took the Eurostar to London. The trip cost about as much as it did when we went from London to Paris. But it was pretty classy, and it cost about as much as a flight to London would. I wouldn't like to go on an international flight by myself.

Andy met me at the train station in London, and we went back to our friend George's dorm room in the West End (he's studying here for the summer). We're about to go to a show; his mom bought us tickets. Tomorrow: my triumphant return!