The past 2 weeks or so for me have been running perfectly fine. I know because I had no school and spent a lot of time on it...
I'm starting to think it has to do with
A) connection type
B) firewalls
C) downloads in background
D) computer
E) geographical location
Many of those factors could contribute to how well you load GTP. If users from oversea's are having problems with connections, it may be due to satellite connections. If you are running on satellite internet, or are in an isolated area, then many places may rely in geo-synchronous satellites to relay the information, or out orbit satellites. The geo-synchronous satellites may not be within optimal range, or are just comming in/going out of range (there are usually about 2-3 available within a given area of the earth) , and may cause simple conneciton issues. As for the outer-orbit satellites, (I know both have different purposes, but both have been used for internet) I can't really explain that one without further research, which at this point I'm not really inclined to do. I'll just leave with saying that under realtively similar circumstances, sometimes GTP is quick, and sometimes it's slow for me. Luckily, it's been rather quick for the past little while.