The Journey Home: 10 Years of Good Travel Karma Comes To A Screeching Halt

I don't even know where to begin with this post. Yesterday was pretty much travel hell. I'm serious. And let's think about this: I'm pretty much a "go-with-the-flow" kind of girl, and I can handle quite a bit without the drama. I understand that the airline industry is huge, and delays and lost baggage are just part of the deal. But yesterday, more went wrong than right, and I'd rather not step foot in an airport till I have to leave for Hawaii on the 2nd. Let me break down the day by numbers to try and give you an understanding of what it was like...

5 

am, the time I woke up in Rome

6

am, the time I boarded my shuttle to the airport

7 

am, the time the security gate opened at FCO

820 

am, the time my flight SHOULD have departed

930 

am, the time my flight actually departed
4 

the length of my flight from Rome to London, in hours

12:15

pm, the time my flight from London should have departed

12:25 

pm, the time my flight landed in London

1:15

pm, the time my flight from London to Dallas had been pushed back to (phew!)

2:30 

pm, the ACTUAL time that fight left London

9

the length of my flight from London to Dallas in hours

6:05 

pm, the time my flight from Dallas to Portland took off

6:15 

pm, the time my flight landed in Dallas

1

the number of bags BA lost. 

1 

the number of bags I packed for the WHOLE SUMMER

8:00 

pm, the time of my new flight to Portland

4 

the length of my flight to Portland, in hours

10:30 

pm, the time I landed in Portland

30 

the number of hours I had been awake, minus 2 hours that I slept on the fight from Dallas to Portland

17 

the number of hours spent in flight

2 

the number of hours I spent just sitting on a plane, waiting for a leak in the landing gear to be fixed, or for a gate to open

150

the amount of money that I talked American Airlines into reimbursing me for so I can buy some necessitites, like underwear

36

the number of hours it could take for my bag to clear customs in Dallas, if not more

This morning, as I was speaking to a woman over the phone about my lost luggage and being compensated, I had to prove to her that Portland was not my home. Her argument: since my final destination with American Airlines is Portland, than that must be my home. I explained that no, Houston is my home, and I do not have a single change of clothes here in Portland. She then started to interrogate me on how I could pack for a month of travel in one carry on. So I, not so calmly, explained to her that she could check the billing address of the card that I used to purchase the tickets and see that it is in Houston, and that yes, I was living out of a carry-on sized luggage for nearly a month. I am a teacher, and I have the summers off. I had an opportunity to go to Europe, Portland, Hawaii and Portland again, and I am doing so. Just because I have not booked my flight home does NOT mean that this is home. She then had to run that story by her supervisor, which could still be denied. Really, AA? Up until this fiasco, I had to problems with your airline. But if you really try to state that Portland is my home just because I have no flight THROUGH YOU to Houston, then you have just lost a customer.
Hmpf!

But here I am in Portland, and I'm so happy to be HERE! (I won't use the word home, lest AA is reading...) I'm staying with my dad in Vancouver, and he is giving me use of the Volvo, a bed, and a key to the house! Sweet! I have a lot of catching up to do over the next few days, and I can't wait to see friends and family. I'm getting pretty amped for Hawaii, but my trip to Europe was the absolute best!!!!!!!! Here are some photos. As always, I wish I had taken more.

A Brief Glimpse of Rome

Due to some unforseeable travel roadblocks, I had to cancel my Rome trip last minute and replace it with a trip to Ireland. Unfortunately, it would have cost me way too much money to change my flight home from originating in Rome. This meant that I arrived in Rome at 8 pm
and fly out at 8 am. I had to make my way to my hotel that I booked last minute with an embarrasingly little amount of Italian language skills I had to search for about an hour for an ATM for some cash for my cab.

Now I'm pretty confident while in new places, and I have felt nothing but safe in Europe during my travels, but the only time that I have felt uncomfortable was while trying to catch a cab at the airport in Rome. There were men offering to get me rides to my hotel, and it was so creepy! I've enough common sense to know that that is a bad idea. I made it to my hotel, checked in and was starving. I'm staying at a best western that is right on the coast. The sun was just finishing setting as I walked to dinner around 9:30. I even walked on the beach for a bit. I can't remember the last time I felt sand between my toes! I wish I had more time here so that I could enjoy the beach! I decided to eat at a little seafood restaurant that had a large family celebrating a birthday. I had some mellon and pruciutto, a creamy scampi spaghetti, and red wine. I figured that if this was going to be my only interaction with italy, I would make it count!! The Mellon was so sweet, the shrimp was the freshest I've ever had, and the wine was perfect. And then this grandma came out if the kitchen in an apron that Nan might own and I knew that this was a quality meal!

Now I'm off to bed before my marathon of travel tomorrow!

Ciao!

Thoughts on Dublin

After a couple of relaxing and wonderful days in Dublin, I've gathered a few thoughts on this place. First, the people are quite friendly, the accents are AWESOME, and having a whole population love a singular beer is pretty neat. But the differences between Dublin and London are striking. London was very put together, and everyone always looked great. It was quite proper, the people were very polite, and it had this sense about it... a formality I guess. But Dublin is quite the opposite. The people are more casual and laid back, and there isn't the same formality about things. Yes, the people are equally as polite and friendly, but it was not what I expected at all. What I loved about Dublin was that it was actually quite a small city, and a very walkable one at that. Our sightseeing day was done completely by foot, and we saw many of the main attractions. The highlight? Guinness factory tour. The history, the passion, and the beer were amazing. I even poured the "perfect pint" and drank it all too. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a beer person, and finishing a whole pint of that rich, dark beer was pretty awesome.

Another thing I've learned while on this trip: I can't read an itinerary to save my life. First I went to the wrong airport in Houston, then yesterday I thought I was flying to Rome, when really I don't fly out till today. I made it all the way to the airport before I realized this mistake. Boy was Jeff surprised when I returned to the Hostel! We made the best of the situation by gettng drunk off Guiness, watching the world cup, and listening to some true Irish music at a great little pub!

I'm off to Rome, where I'll be fore just over 12 hours. I'm not sure if I'll make it to the city, since I'm staying by the airport for convenience. If I do, I'll make the most of it and see as much as I can, and drink as much wine and eat as much pasta as my budget allows.

Ciao!

Dublin, And Our Irish Luck

As far as I've been able to determine, I'm pretty darn Irish. Evidence: mom's maiden name is Murray, I have a reddish tint to my hair, plus a couple of very red strands right up front,y family can hold their booze, and I can be pretty loud at times. So maybe it was this bit of Irish luck that allowed us to make our flight from London to Ireland.

Part I: getting to the airport. Easier said than done at 3:15 in the morning. There is no regular tube or bus service that early, and the shuttle to the airport was pretty far away. We could either walk over a mile through the city at 3 am, or catch anshuttle right from our hostel. Even though it wasthe more expensive of the two options, the shuttle won. So we woke up, jeff sprinted to the ATM to get cash, and then we waited. And waited. We waited to the point if worrying that we would miss our flight. Finally the shuttle arrived, and we got to the airport with what we thought was plenty of time to get to the plane.

Part II: Boarding Passes. Question to all of my friends who had flown ryanair while studying abroad. Why didn't you tell me about the boarding passes?!?! I thought that I would be able to print my boarding pass at the airport, like I do with every other airline. Wrong. We get to the ticket counter and plead with the nice lady to print our passes. No go. It would cost £40 to print each paper. Because they print it on pure gold. WTF. Oh but there is a kiosk with printers and computers over there. After frantically throwing pounds at the machine, we were able to print our passes and check in. Then we get to security. Our gate is due to close in 15 minutes. I make it pass the security officer but jeff
doesn't. She stops him and then calls me back. Turns out not all of out boarding passes printed. We would need to go see a ryanair agent and have them print us new boarding passes. She said she would expedite us to the front of the line when we got back. We race to the
only free agent and he prints us new passe (that wasn't that hard, was it ryanair?) we are then ushered to the front of the security line. We ate behind two sweet, but painfully slow old men, but I make it through with no problems. Wish I could say the
same for Jeff...

Part III: airport security. 10 minutes till the gate closes. "sir, we need to take each item
in your bag out. Our machine detects some sort of liquid. I run ahead to the gate while jeff watches the security agent take each piece of clothing out of his bag. The culprit? Condensation in his water bottle. And they threw away his hair stuff, which caused to problems in Orlando and NYC. By now the gates should have closed. We should have stayed in London. We should not had made it to Ireland. But the plane was late. We made it, against all odds. We were exhausted and a bit delerious when we arrived in Dublin, but we arrived.

I'm sorry, you can't come in...

Last day in London was filled with museums and libraries and a trip to the US embassy. We started out at the London library, which was definately a highlight of the trip. Of course I would geek out over an exhibit on maps, the magna carta, guttenberg bible and other OLD books. I was in heaven!! After the library, we went to the British museum. We went with the intent of seeing the Rosetta stone, as there is just too much to see at this gigantic library. On the way to the stone, we were distracted my cleopatra's mummy, Hewlett from the bronze age, and lots of clocks. There is also this room in the British museum, and it is a great room. I was just in awe at the size. I also realized that I can only really handle one muse per day - any more and I gloss over and tune out.

After the museum, jeff and I headed to the US embassy, hoping for a tour and joking that they might serve ribs to US citizens. As we rounded the corner of the park, there was no mistaking our embassy. Unnecessarily huge, a gigantic gold eagle on top, all 50 state flags, and men with automatic weapons. We walked up tonthe visitor entrance where the british security guard told us that we could not, in fact, come in to visit. Pardon? We can't come in? What if we're in distress? Not without an appointment. Lesson learned: south korea's embassy is wide open, while to enter our own we needed an apointment.

We headed back to our hostel to get to bed early since we had to catch a shuttle at 3:15 am, but were distracted by the film Hostel II being shown. Ironic or just creepy?

I'll update on our crazy travel story to London tomorrow.

Love to all, and remember that if you want to visit your own embassy, you better make an appointment.

Day 2:So jeff finally showed up to the hostel after a long day of travel and very little sleep. We decided to go for a walk and get a feel for the city. We walked along the Thames and saw the globe theater, parliament and big Ben, westminister abbey and a couple parks. It started raining and it was just like being at home!!

We headed to bed early and the next day walked, walked and walked. Rick Steeves guided us on a tour of 'the city', the historic heart of London. We saw:trafalger square which is in front of the British museum, st. Mary-le-strand which is a beautiful cathedral, the BBC world headquarters, another christopher wren church, the royal courts of justice, twinnings tea, the temple bar monument, prince henry's room, temple church, the inns of court, fleet street,st. Pauls cathedral, st. Bride's church, st. Mary-le-bow, bank junction AND theonument. I'd describe the importance of each of these places, but I'm really bad at typing on my phone, and Dublin is calling. Just know that we took tea and went to a service at st. Pauls. Both were amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and we saw the changing
of the guard just by chance at buckingham palace. So
much in one day!!

Day 4: tired. Our feet and legs hurt and this caused us to take it easy. We had planned a day
of museums, but after the "art" at the Tate modern, we headed to a quaint park, dozed and decided to take tea again. If there is one habit that I'll take away from London, it's the practice of lounging in parks and drinking tea in the afternoon. I'm not sure if people actually work in London, but the parks are just filled with people sitting, reading or napping. For dinner we enjoyed a great meal of fish and chips and called
it an early night.





Day 3: city walk. National gallery the square. Had tea. Fish and chips and a coke. Partial service at st. Pauls

Day 4: slept in, Tate, church service at westminister. Park. Tea and bread and butter pudding.

Day 1 - Houston to New York to London

So I guess this is really day one AND two of my travels, but who wants to count the time spent in the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport and in a dark hotel room as day 1? I will say this: I've already used up my one travel mishap. I am only going to allow myself one for the whole week and when I accidently went to IAH instead of HOU, that was it. Luckily I was incredibly early and Caroline came back to take me to the correct airport! Once there, the security lune was infinately shorter than on Monday, and the rest of my travels went smoothly. I spent my time in Dallas reading the travel blog of two coworkers. It was entertaining and insightful: just what I needed to pass the time. I landed in NYC at laguardia and took a taxi over to JFK. I spent the night in a hotel near by and was up bright and early for my 8:20 flight!

The flight to London is so short! Only a little over 5 hours! It was all smooth until we landed and the walkway malfunctioned and we had to exit the plane by external stairs. I then managed to make my eaynto my hostel via the underground, and arrived around 10:30 London time. I checked in and found my bunk and got situated. The hostel is nice and everything is clean. There was a man who was in the room who just couldn't handle the noises that 15 people naturally make while trying to sleep. Everytime someone rolled over or shifted something or came into the room, he would complain, threaten to piss on their things, noisily storm out of the room, and return 10 minutes later. His racket was much more disturbing than anything else in the room. This morning he showed equal disregard for others and left his dirty dishes all over the common area.

Right now it's about 9:30 and I'm waiting for Jeff to get here. His plane was delayed a but last night due to rain in NYC but he should be here soon. I took a walk to the ATM this morning and it's going to be a great day! The weather should be lovely!

Please excuse any typos, as I'm writing these from my phone. Free wifi is an awesome thing!!

Ready, Set, GO!

My, it's been quite a year! Just the other night while I met some of the 2010 corps members, I couldn't help but think about much has happened since I was in their shoes. It wasn't that long ago (really, a year us a short amount if time), and it feels like yesterday. I remember meeting Caroline as we caught the same ride from the airport to the JW Marriot, and meeting Michelle, who just happened to be my roommate for induction. The next three days were a blur of information and people, but those beds were so comfy!!!!!

And here I am, with a year under my belt, twenty-some friends richer, and with a few more grey hairs. I've learned a lot this year about myself, teaching, the world around me, and of course Houston! It's been exhausting but well worth the time and effort. It's hard to look back though, when I have so much to look forward to.

Starting with the immediate, I'm about my whirlwind if a summer living out of a carry on. I have 30 lbs of necessities in my posession. This needs to get me through a week in London and Dublin, a week in Portland, a week in Hawaii, and about another week in Portland. I shipped a small box of dresses home for Hawaii, but that's it.

I still can't believe all the places I'll be this summer. I can't wait to explore London and Dublin with Jeff, spend some quality time at home(camping? Lake Billy Chinook??), gonto Hawaii with Allison and catch up on the last year, and then spend some mire time at home with friends at Billy and Lucia's wedding!!!! It's just all surreal. If I wasn't already, I'll be an expert flyer.

The history geek that I am is getting excited fir Europe. Thanks to Jenny Brunsell, I have a loaned copy if Rick Steeve's guide to London with me. Molly, I'll do my best to follow his advice, but I've been a bit spontaneous lately. :)

If you need to get a hold of me, please shoot me an email (dredman05@gmail.com) or a facebook message. I did not bring my camera cable with me, so photos will have to wait til Portland. Unless they come from the phone of course!

Love you all. Thanks for hanging in there this past year, through my rants and raves. I'm sure I more often then not dis not make any logical sense. I wonder if my students feel the same way...

Almost There

I'm packing for Europe right now. Actually, that's false. I'm packing for a week in London and Ireland, 10 days in Portland, a week in Hawaii, and another week or so in Portland. In one carry on.

AM I CRAZY? Probably. I think I'll ship a box of shorts to mom tomorrow morning before my flight so that I don't have to pack those for Europe. And the dress for Billy and Lucia's wedding. Everything else will have to go in the pretty, blue suitcase.

Here's hoping I make it.

Year 1

Is in the books. I don't really know what to say. I can't even begin to write actual paragraphs, or sentences that describe this past year, these past 10 months, the long days, and the eternal minutes. So I have words. Thank God for words.

frightening

tiring

exciting

big

loooooooooong

(that's what she said)

rude

sweet

delicious

horrible

memorable

work

fun

leisure

stress

massages

sleep

lack of sleep

tired feet

bad outfits

big purchases

move

stay

sit down

quit talking

thank you.

Someday I'll sit down and try to piece it all together, but I've never been good about that. So now I'll just look forward. I leave on the 13th for Europe. I'll be spending a few days in London Town, then a couple more in Rome. I'm excited to eat, drink, and be merry. I'll be with my most wonderful roommate and constant companion, Jessica for the entire trip, and will be joined by Jeff while in London. THEN, I'll fly from Rome to Portland, which is going to be the longest flight ever. I'll spend about a week in the city of roses, Rip City, and Stumptown, then it's off to Maui with ALLISON!  Oh geeze. After a week of laying in the sun, snorkeling, surfing (??) and sipping Mai Tais, I head back to the 503, and hang out there until I decide when I'm coming back to Houston. I should get on that plane ticket, right?? I'm excited and nervous and have no idea how to pack for such a summer. I'll be living out of my carry on. And I'm reading all of the travel blogs and Rick Steve books that I can find. So be watching out for maybe a reflective post, and DEFINITELY pictures from my travels.