The trip...June 9th and 10th. The flight and more...

I knew this day would not go off without a hitch. The plane ride was great! Even though the flight was 9.5 hours without any sleep. I took off at 730 pm and by 1130 pm PDT, everyone in my section had fallen asleep (this was business class and everyone stretched out). I can never get comfortable on plane flights and as a result, I can never sleep on a plane for more than 20 minutes. I entertained myself by reading Harry Potter 6 (HP6), watching MASH on my DVD player, and listening to my IPod. Take off was especially smooth...I didn't feel any shimmies or shakes. It was the best take off I ever experienced. The flight was very comfortable.

The problem I encountered was UK Immigration. I was questioned for 20 minutes about my reasons for going over to Dublin (Ireland) just for the night and then returning to England and staying for 3 weeks. I answered all sorts of questions: about my class, specific activities, what I'll do on a daily basis, textbook title, class location, the SJSU travel abroad program, and so forth. I came over for a 3 week summer school class through SJSU. The class focused on intercultural communication; we were to observe people in a different culture and during class discussions, we will talk about those differences and talk about the textbook. When she (the agent) asked me my purpose in England, I told her I was a tourist even though I'm only here for 3 weeks. Additional questions included how much was the fees I paid for this class and who paid my airfare to England and Ireland. She scribbled many notes. I showed her the only email I had from Dr. Jaehne (Dennis) which advised us to say we were "tourists" and not "students" in order to prevent confusion. I had to wait another 10 minutes while she consulted with her supervisor about my situation.

I eventually got the necessary stamps I needed, however, she informed me that the email encouraged fraud (saying we were tourists and not students). She also told me if there were others with the same email I had, they could be questioned and denied entry and sent back to the States. I'm not sure if I did the right thing; I might have said something out of turn. The agent told me, for her purposes, I did the right thing. I hope I didn't get anyone in trouble. But I did as Dennis advised in the email.

I was getting nervous because I only had a two hour layover at Heathrow before I took off for Dublin. The agent used up about 30 minutes of my time. I landed in terminal 3 and had to take the shuttle over to terminal 1 to catch BMI. I think I had 15 minutes to spare before I boarded. I got to the hotel about 2 hours later. The stay was adequate; it was a place to sleep, but I had to sleep on top of my bed and with the window open because the room was really hot. At least I made it over here ok!