Denver International Airport

I am sitting in Denver International Airport. Nobody is singing Rocky Mountain High, but the signs say I'm here. It's a lovely airport - spacious, clean, and I just ate an incredible pretzel covered and filled with almonds.
BUT... I am disappointed that I can't find the murals and symbols from which a huge body of urban myth has developed. See http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Denver_Airport.html I checked the directory. There are no "satanic mural" or "mystical symbols" listed. I thought of asking the guard, but I don't want to end up stashed in one of the vast underground shelters..... I did have a slightly supernatural experience. After walking along a STRAIGHT line of tiles and endless moving walkways, I saw the SAME shop with spooky pink dolls suspended from the ceiling by their heads. WEIRD!!!! Had I somehow moved in a circle? Like a crop circle but in an airport? An airport circle? Who knows, but I know it took me a VERY long time to walk from Gate B88 to B 17.... I just checked the back of my neck - no obvious evidence of abduction.
I'm a bit bored!!!!!
I have an hour... I might explore.... If I am never seen again, you'll know.... you'll know....
HUGO!!!! I am not really exploring! I am going to sit at Gate B17!!
The truth is, I did see something interesting. A Tornado Shelter sign! At the entrance of the ladies' toilet. Makes sense, I guess. At least they didn't have to put toilets in the Tornado Shelter...

San Antonio

This morning (Was it this morning? What day is it??) I caught a plane from HK to San Francisco. My boarding pass bore a large 4, which meant I would be the fourth and final group to board. If we had hit an iceberg, I would have been stuck behind bars singing Irish songs while drowning. I didn't mind sitting in steerage, but I hated the way everyone was ordered to board.
The flight was fine - United - pretty good food. San Francisco Airport was okay - no free internet access anywhere, and an internet machine ate my $5. Grrr...
San Antonio is very pretty. There is a narrow river which winds through downtown, lined with restaurants, bars and pretty park areas. The Holiday Inn where I'm staying has a lovely room, but hardly any freebies in the bathroom! For the first time, I didn't bring my own shampoo and conditioner, and there was only a little mint shampoo, a bottle of lotion, a bar of face soap and a bar of body soap. No toothpaste! No bottled water! I made a dash to a nearby drugstore (hehe) and stocked up.
I also walked over to the large downtown mall, which was kind of empty, and I bought my ticket to see THE TWILIGHT MOVIE on Friday night! I also bought a couple of Cinnabon cinnamon rolls. AMAZING!!!!
The concierge told me it was okay to walk around, so I took the ten minute stroll over to the mall. On the way, I stopped to look quickly at my map (I know that's a dumb thing to do) right outside a tourism shop, and the guy asked me if I needed help. He said it was definitely not good to walk around around, but then he asked me a ton of questions about if I was married and where was my husband, so I started feeling more nervous about him than about the muggers!
It was all good. I asked the drugstore lady and she said it was very safe, but I'll avoid late night walks.
The conference starts tomorrow morning, so I'm going to go to sleep in a minute. I hate jet lag - I hope I can get in the swing straight away.
I got to talk to Alex tonight! YAY! I see him in 4 days!!!!!!!

Beijing and Xian

After the fact, once again. Last week, I went with four other teachers and the 42 kids in my two core classes to Beijing and Xian. Beijing was fun - we visiting the usual amazing places - Temple of Heaven, Forbidden Palace, Tiananmen Square.
Then we took the overnight train to Xian. Do not EVER take 42 kids on an overnight train in China, when some of the kids have a vomitting bug, and you do too. Our car had smoking, noisy locals, and it was really hard to sleep. The squat toilets were the absolute worst of the trip. I won't describe them, but they were BAD.
Xian was lovely, except for the vomitting bit. The terracotta warriors are breathtaking. It amazes me that such a vast secret could be just below the ground, and nobody knew anything about it until the seventies. The Muslim markets were fun, and we finished with the best dumplings in the world

BOSTON

I am cheating and writing this a few weeks after going there, but Boston was just beautiful. Nancy and I dashed off for the afternoon on our last night in Providence, at the assessment conference. We jumped on the hop-off hop-on bus and had a whirlwind tour of downtown - loads of historical sites.
My favourite was the Pilgrims' cemetery, right in the middle of huge buidings downtown. We got off the bus and walked across the Boston Common, to Beacon Hill - a divine old street of beautiful buildings - cobblestones, old lampposts, a chilly night, and Halloween in nearly every window.
Nancy and I had dinner at the original Cheers Bar - so fun!