"I'll Be Home For Christmas," Just Not The Way Originally Planned...

When I started this blog, I was sitting on a train, traveling south from Edinburgh to London. I had a flight out of London the following day, December 15th, in the early evening.

But this was not the original plan. Well, it was always the plan for me to fly home on December 15th. We purchased the ticket LAST December! What we DIDN'T plan was that the British Home Office (henceforth referred to as "HO") would hold my passport hostage, and that my trip home would require a train ride, navigating the London Underground with 80 lbs of baggage, imposing on a friend for an evening, an early morning visit to the American Embassy, and an extra plane ticket!

ORIGINALLY I was supposed to board an 1:30 pm flight from Edinburgh to London on Monday December 15th. No muss, no fuss. I would spend 3 hours in London Heathrow Airport, entertaining myself in a reasonable manner, until my 5:05 pm flight to Philadelphia and the warm embraces of my family.

Well, there have been some alterations to said plan. In late October I sent my passport off to the HO. I was having a new Visa put in, as mine expires on January 30th, and I'm going to be in the UK for another 3 years. I sent it in early because they (HO) were planning to institute a thing called "BioMetrics" on November 25th. BioMetrics would have required me to go to Glasgow to be fingerprinted and have my picture taken, and to pay 500 Pounds (about $850) for the privilege. I was told that if I could get my application in before Nov. 25th, I wouldn't have to do all that nonsense, could do it in St. Andrews, and would only have to pay 250 Pounds ($480). So I opted to send mine in early.

I thought nothing of it until it was the end of November. And my passport still had not arrived. And I was due to fly out December 15th.

So I contacted Student Support Services, the University of St. Andrews office I sent the application and passport through. And they have been

amazing!  One lady in particular, Wendy, has been my hero these last two weeks. She has been pestering the HO like a champion. Early last week she emailed me to tell me that she had a special case worker at the HO working on it. They were going to expedite the process, because it was their fault that the passport was not back to me. Apart from some extreme moments of stress early in the week, it seemed as though things were going to come together, and that I was going to have my passport in hand in time to board my Edinburgh flight on Monday morning.

That was, until Friday morning. I got a text message from Wendy, asking me to call her ASAP. When I called her around 8:30 she had already been on the phone with the American Embassy! To make a long story short, when she spoke with the HO before going home on Thursday evening they STILL hadn't found my Passport! They certainly HAD it--they took my money on November 3rd--but they couldn't locate it!

So Wendy made an appointment for me to get an Emergency Passport from the American Embassy. The one catch was that I had to go to London on Sunday, and be on the doorstep of the Embassy there when they opened on Monday morning! But everything fell into place! Fortunately, I have friends in London who I was able to contact, so they gave me a place to stay Sunday night! (Thank you Paula and Mark!) I booked a train ticket from Leuchars (the closest station to St. Andrews) to London Kings Cross for Sunday. All was going smoothly. I was going to get my Emergency Passport the morning of the day I was scheduled to fly out, and with only a small monetary penalty!

...Until British Air told me that I couldn't cancel the Edinburgh to London leg of my journey and just catch the London to Philly leg! If I wasn't physically on the Edinburgh flight, they would cancel my entire booking! It was going to cost me over $1000 to book a one-way ticket on the same flight I was originally supposed to take! But a round-trip cost less than HALF of that! So, I had to purchase another plane ticket! Luckily the original flight was the second half of my ticket TO Scotland in January...

To add to the craziness, my Sunday train from Leuchars to London Kings Cross was 2 hours and 15 minutes late! There was a landslide further up the line, between Aberdeen and Montrose! I had to take ANOTHER train to Edinburgh, a train ride that normally takes 53 minutes, which took an hour and 45, because it stopped at EVERY station on the way! But I managed to catch up with my ORIGINAL train and was able to sit in my assigned seat all the way to London! In London I lugged my baggage through the Underground, up and down stairs and on and off trains. I knew I couldn't take my luggage into the Embassy on Monday morning, so on my way to Paula and Mark's I dropped my suitcase off at a secure baggage drop in Victoria Station, and took my carry-on. I was supposed to go to a Carol Service with Paula and Mark, but since the train was so late, I missed it. Fortunately they had the presence of mind to hide the key so I could get into their flat, and crash until they got back!

I didn't sleep well, because I was worried about how things would go a the Embassy the next day. Monday morning saw me waking early in the morning, quickly getting ready, and heading to the Embassy before the sun had even risen! I dropped my carry-on off at Victoria Station on the way, as I wasn't allowed to bring electronics or my backpack into the Embassy. There was a backup on the Underground, and then I missed the street I was supposed to turn down and had to back-track. I also had to stop and have Passport photos taken, and then had to go through Security at the Embassy. I had originally planned to be at the Embassy by 8:30 for my 9:30 appointment. I arrived in the Passport Waiting Room at 9:15.

And I was out by 10:30. The easiest and smoothest part of my entire ordeal was the American Embassy! They were so nice! And helpful! And efficient! And so unlike your usual U.S. government agency! Maybe it was because they weren't actually in the U.S.! They are there to HELP me, the American Citizen in a foreign country!
Everything after the Embassy went smoothly. I got to Heathrow Airport 6 hours before my flight, and my flight was on time.

So here I am, sitting in my parents living room, sipping tea, admiring the Christmas tree, and eating cookies my mom and I baked the other day! Its good to be home for Christmas, especially when it took so much to get there! Its true, "there's no place like home fore the holidays, no matter how far away you roam..."

Oh, and this Christmas "HO HO HO" took on a whole new meaning...