New Year Eve, Sleeping on slabs, and the green-eyed monster

Well, it's New Years Eve in India. The street outside my room is more active tonight than it was at this time last night. In the distance you can hear the sound of fireworks going off to celebrate the day. Most of the party have headed for bed, the end to another busy day. I took a late evening nap, sleeping through the 9pm dinner and waking a little after 11pm to an empty stomach. Good thing I stashed some peanut butter and crackers in my luggage or I would have to raid the refrigerator.

Since it was so close to New Years I figured I would blog until the hand struck midnight. Right now it is 11:47. If I type long enough I can count down here.

Since I mentioned sleeping let me tell you our general experience of the beds in the Jesuit Residence. Without any disrespect, this bunch of Americans - with the exception of Dr. Thorn - were really surprised at the firmness of the mattresses. The word from really doesn't even pay them justice. I guess I would compare mine to sleeping on my front door step. Very hard. Ashley's I am told has a number of uneven areas which makes her mattress feel more like a group of boulders instead of one full slab. I am not complaining - actually my back has never felt better. I only wish I had brought my pillow, as a little softer one would be more of what I am used to sleeping on. My son let me bring one of his stuffed animals with to remind me of him. I have been thinking of using it as a replacement pillow - but I am not sure how he would feel about me returning it to him a little flatter than how it was sent.

11:53pm - just a bit longer and we can all shout "Happy New Year" together.

So now the last part - the green-eyed monster. When my niece was little and got jealous my brother-in-law always accused her of turning into a green-eyed monster. Today I turned into a bit of one. The students from St. Xavier's invited the students from Marquette to go on a bike ride with them to a mall and arcade. I would have loved to go with them - it sounded like a lot of fun. Unfortunately it would have looked more like I was the mom chaperoning the group. Sometimes I have to remember I am almost 30 years older than most of these students. I was a little less green when I found out it wasn't bicycles but motor scooters that they were referring to. While I think driving a motor scooter in this traffic would be very interesting, I don't think it would be a pretty site to see me hanging on the back of one. Especially since I out-weigh most of the students here by at least 100 pounds! The idea and the picture in my minds eye of that just makes me laugh.

11:58pm - almost there

So as I count down the final minutes of 2008 I guess I am sad to see this year end. It has been a very good year to me, a chance to work in areas that I have always dreamed of, my children being healthy and doing well in school, and of course my return to India to see our trip from last year taking off with a program I helped to build.

So good-bye 2008. Thank you for all your wonderful memories. 2009 it is time for you to show your stuff.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Its always something...

Well today started out wonderfully. We stayed overnight in Chicago so we wouldn't miss anymore planes. The bed was fantastic, a great buffet breakfast and a shuttle ride that took us to the terminal. Kelly's bags finally materialized and we headed to the KLM counter. We received our boarding passes for the first 2 legs of the trip, but were told that we would need to pickup the Dehli-Ahmadebad pass in India. That should have been a red flag - but it wasn't and we happily headed to our first flight.

Pauline had done well. She had booked Kelly and I in business class for the Chicago-Amsterdam leg. These seats were like sitting in your favorite recliner - including a massage option. We dined and watched movies on demand. I chose "Baby Mama" and I noticed Kelly's screen had "Dark Knight". I managed to take a little snooze as well - but was planning on waiting for the second leg - which would be a 10 hour flight to get most of my sleep. Second big mistake.

We left the first plane with 50 minutes to make it to our next flight. The gate - of course - was on the other end of the concourse. A foot race ensued. We made it in plenty of time - I could tell because the boarding line was about a block long and the plane status already said 'boarding'. It took about 1/2 hour for us to make it through and find our seats. These weren't as nice as the last. They were in coach. Kellie lucked out with an aisle seat. I got the window. Most people like the window - but it traps you in. The woman in the middle seat reminded me of Jim's Aunt Nellie and neither her daughter or she wanted to move to allow me in. I explained to them that I would not be able to manage to climb over them without someone getting hurt. I waited while they moved to allow me in. The seat was cramped but if I didn't drink anything I should be able to make it 10 hours - especially since I planned on sleeping the most of the way.

Unfortunately for me the 3 year old in the seat behind me had different plans. He and his sister took turns crying or kicking the back of the seats in some sort of melody they were working out. I truly felt like Elaine from "Seinfeld". Needless to say I didn't get much sleep. Thank goodness for Jimmy loading up the iPod with lots of movies, music and books on tape. I listened to "Marley and Me" and silently wept at the sad parts.

We landed in New Dehli at 3am. The fog around the terminal was so thick that flights were being cancelled due to low visibility. We had to go through customs, grab our bags and take a bus to the domestic side. The fog just added to the scariness of the adventure. I told Kellie that we could be taken anywhere - truthfully - since neither of us speak the language or know what is proper procedure the 50 Rupees that I paid to take the 'free shuttle' to the domestic side may have just been a rip off - I did get a receipt though.

When we made it to the Domestic side we found out that we were at the wrong terminal. We were at 1B and needed to be at 1A. Two baggage handlers helped walk us back through the foggy streets to the other terminal. We passed 3 heavily armed guards and heard gunshots in the distance - at least I think it was distance - but it was definitely gunshots.

We waited for the Air India ticket counter to open and walked up with our passports expecting to receive boarding passes and head to Ahmadebad and our friends waiting for us at St. Xaviers College. However, the red flag that should have flown high before came back to haunt us. There were no reservations, we weren't in the system and the flight was full. We were stranded until the next day when another flight would head out - but we would have to pay the $8000 rupees per ticket to make it on board.

Thanks to "The Amazing Race" I knew there had to be other airlines heading to our destination. I checked and found seats on a 9pm flight. These would be $8000 Rupees for both tickets - a bargain! We purchased the tickets - but had to walk back to terminal 1B in order to board our flight. The luggage handler walked us back through the fog (it really was thick!) and we began the marathon waiting session - 15 hours in a terminal! Unbelievable.

Thankfully I had taken the opportunity to talk to the terminal manager. He allowed me to use his Internet connection to contact the head of the workshop. In exchange I fixed his printer which wouldn't connect and kept giving him error messages. Later in the day the members at St. Xaviers had found us an earlier flight with a different airline. This was good because shortly after I walked back to the Kingfisher airline to cancel our tickets the flight was cancelled due to low occupancy.

We waited 2 hours for a refund and almost missed the flight on Indigo Airlines - but all worked out and we arrived! We are both really tired and need showers.

Other than that it was a quiet day!

The beauty of schedules

I like to think I live my life in a free wheeling way.  Just flying by with whatever comes my way.

However, this last couple of days has been more than even I was ready to attempt.  I had been scheduled to head to Ahmadabad, India with a group of faculty and students from Marquette University.  I arrived at the airport in plenty of time, checked in my bags and sat with the group.  We had begun to discuss the curriculum that we were going to deliver to the students at St. Xavier's College.  A school we had adopted a year earlier on a prior trip.  We were all extremely excited to head out - even though it was the day after Christmas.  

However, the weather had another idea.  One of the students was flying in from her break with her family and had yet to arrive.

Then it happened.  The text messaging.  Fingers were flying and keys were clicking away.  The plane that Kelly was arriving on had been delayed six times and was now headed back to the gate.  She wouldn't be able to make the flight the rest of us were booked on.

She would be heading out the next day.  Since the other two faculty members were more important to the opening of the program I offered to stay behind and fly on with Kelly on the 27th.  

I headed back home and spent another night with my family.  

So today we started off again.  This time a little less rushed.  I arrived at the airport at 3:30 and sent a text message to Kelly.  Once again the weather was playing havoc with her trip.  She had managed to have her flight switched to a different airline so that she would not miss her connection.  I waited patiently at the KLM ticket counter for her to arrive at 5pm, assuring Pauline that she would make it on time.

Just a quick note on Pauline.  This individual was the most competent person I have ever had the pleasure to deal with.  You will, no doubt agree with me by the time I finish today's post.

5:15 came and Kelly sent a text that she was at the airport - but still on the plane.  By 5:30 she had de-planed and headed to baggage claim.  Still plenty of time to make the 7:35 flight.

5:45 came another text - her luggage still hadn't arrived.  By 6:15 we were sure that this was just not going to happen.  2 hours and 3 ticket agents later we were finally headed to our destination for the night.

Unfortunately that wasn't Amsterdam as we had hoped.  Instead it was a local hotel.  Pauline had done her best to get us on the flight - but when 6:40 came it was apparent that we weren't going to make it to the gate.  Kelly's luggage never made it to Chicago.  We are hoping that it will show up in the morning. 

In the meantime Pauline had made us reservations at the Hilton Garden.  Made a search of the airport for Kelly's luggage, and managed to once again change over our reservations to head out on the 28th instead.

We will hopefully arrive in India by Tuesday. 

The team will need to adjust itself to our new arrival time.

So much for schedules....