Archive for the ‘observation’ Category

South American Saga

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

I am home. My budget was blown, my luggage (and my business casual wardrobe) was lost, and my trip was an utter fail. But with all that went wrong I still feel lucky. News comes in from Chile, people are still waiting to get out of Santiago, and many are trying to get in to reunite with families. I understand that my problems are nothing comparatively. It’s difficult to find a balance between properly respecting the tragedy and telling the crazy tale of the-mba-trip-that-never-was.


Like many others, my plane to Santiago u-turned very close to our final destination, stranding me in an airport for hours with a dozen+ mbas and thousands of frantic worried travelers. The language barrier was a nightmare. My flight schedule was Atlanta to Lima to Santiago. In my time zone: 5pm Friday to 3am Saturday. At 1:30, an 8.8 earthquake rocked Chile, killing hundreds, displacing over a million, and shifting the earth’s axis. A few hours after leaving Peru, I was back in the airport looking for information, a suitcase, and a way outta there. This was the beginning of a horrible relationship with the airlines. I wandered the airport for about 12 hours until we were given a hotel room to wait in until decisions could be made. Basically, the Santiago airport was closed into the foreseeable future, the mbas were stranded and completely confused, and the locals and our families in the US were desperate. Meanwhile, joe worked at home to find me a flight.


I was told my luggage was never in the system and no one would be able to find it. I left the Lima airport in miserable shape (prior to my trip, I had slept 4 out of 48 hours thanks to finals week) and desperate for a bed and a shower. Many, many calls later (and Joe’s trip to the Knoxville airport) things begin to work out. From the hotel, at 6pm Saturday, I found out i would be flying Lima to Atlanta Monday at 1am. I spent the evening with 3 other mbas (Mark, Brian, Sally Rose) in Miraflores in Lima. I managed to buy some clothes and get a shower and a short nap. The hotel provided a dinner buffet of Peruvian fare accompanied by traditional music and dance. Then an hour by the rooftop pool with an excellent view of the city and some time to calmly reflect on what was going on around me. And then I slept for 11 hours in what felt like the softest bed imaginable. I am so thankful for this 16 hours in between the days of airport madness. Because everything was so stressful, it was difficult to get in the moment and enjoy the city. But I am happy that I had this experience and that I took a risk and left the airport. And really thankful that I was able to get back in and on a plane the next day.


Sunday, I left the hotel at 10am in order to get back to the airport and to the luggage office that closed at noon. A nice cab ride over along the coast made me optimistic. Sadly, I spent hours talking to everyone in the airport remotely associated with luggage. The airport baggage office pointed to the airlines. LAN and Delta each blamed each other and bounced me back and forth. Finally, I was told to wait until 10pm when the Delta office opened. With 9 hours until i would be able to get any help and 12 hours until my flight, I hit the lounge for a Pisco Sour. Then dinner at McDonalds (couldn’t resist). About this time, I started to get a little stir crazy. I was in a huge space surrounded by a ton of people, all speaking a different language and felt utterly alone. So back to the lounge, another Pisco Sour. I met some Canadian girls from my future flight and we wasted time until Delta opened – they with stories of a 6 month trek through south america and me with my shitty airport fiasco.


The place I had been pointed at to get a boarding pass and find my bag – the office i had waited for? Still no clue what that door went to because it never opened. So I went down to Delta’s check in counter to find a huge queue snaking through the airport. I got in hoping they would be able to print my weird-ordered-from-some-lady-at-knox-airport-not-sure-this-is-gonna-work boarding pass. Luckily, the line went quickly. They started printing my ticket and looking for my luggage. No they didn’t have my bag, LAN must have it, maybe it never left Atlanta, no LAN has it, oh they don’t have it, oh here in the computer its in Fort Lauderdale and when I land I should fill out a claim in Atlanta. At this point: please just give me a ticket. I got a seat request that could be turned into a boarding pass at the gate. I quickly stifled the panic – nothing had worked so far, how could I possibly think there would be a seat on this airplane? Less than two hours until takeoff and I still had no boarding pass?! Then I get through security and find myself at the gate. with pat, senor-mba-airport-horror-story, and what does he have? the same kinda seat request – I felt doomed.


Both of us found our way onto the plane: sore, tired, and stinking, yet victorious. And after an uneventful ride back, I landed in Atlanta at 8am Monday. And there was Joe – my hero. He rented a car and drove to Atlanta to pick me up and take me home. Atlanta airport claimed my luggage was sitting in Lima still and I should fill out a claim ticket at the Knoxville airport so that i don’t have to drive back to Atlanta when my bags find their way. Taxi to the hotel where my car was parked and then finally, really, I felt like I was headed home. Drove to Knox airport where Joe had parked and spent more time looking for that damn suitcase. LAN wouldn’t fill out a claim because Delta checked the bag originally; Delta wouldn’t because LAN had accepted me as a passenger and that meant accepting my bag. The best guess is that the suitcase is sitting in some dungeon in Lima waiting with thousands of other bags to get sent to Santiago where they will be sorted at some point. Some point far away, after the Santiago airport opens, after everyone’s bags makes it there, and probably long after my strange baggage claim from Knoxville Delta working through Miami LAN is misplaced or misunderstood. That lost luggage is probably a lost cause.


Now, I am at home with the best husband, back in touch with friends and family through the miracle of cell phones and internet, a dog who wont leave my side, a bed shaped like me with my favorite blanket, water that won’t make me sick, and almost two weeks of freedom until school demands me back. Lucky indeed.


Days later, we are still celebrating my safe return. And laughing about this last little bit of the trip:
we are broke-ass-broke and drinking from a $200 bottle of scotch. Blue label is described at bottom of blends section:
johnnie walker
And here’s the story on that one:
When it became clear that i was stuck in the airport and needed to run all over the place with an extremely heavy shoulder carry-on bag, I went on a hunt for the cheapest carry-on sized bag with wheels. The lowest I could find was $300. But then at the duty free store I found a rollie that was free with the purchase of $220 worth of Johnnie Walker products. So of course I chose the option where I saved $80 and got $220 of free whiskey. Since I had to shop according to customs limitations on bringing back booze: one bottle. I wound up with a bottle of blue label to bring home and a bottle of red label to leave with the 3 mbas staying in Lima.
Just so you know it tastes like silk in a woodfire.


total time from knoxville to knoxville = 72 hours
time of it in a car/bus = 10 hours
time of it in an airplane = 18 hours
time of it in an airport = 29 hours
time of it exploring actual foreign city = 15 hours

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Fall Break

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

I had a great extended weekend and it came at a critical point – I needed some time off.

Highlights included:

Shopping at Sanctuary Vintage – this great store is closing and everything was 75% off. In addition to some cute slips and several dresses, I bought an Alfred Werber gown that is now the most lovely thing in my closet. Joe picked up some suits including a daring blue western-y leisure suit and some wild plaid.

A yummy crepe and chocolate croissant from The French Market with Sonja. Later, we went to see Where the Wild Things Are which was beautiful and sad and dangerous and sweet.

I got to do a bit of cooking as well over the long weekend which was awesome. I love making food and it has been sad that I haven’t felt the motivation or had the time since I started the MBA. It was so nice to be slicing and grilling and spicing and taste-testing again. Dishes included:
red curry soup with noodles and shrimp served with salmon cakes and remoulade.
jonah crab claws with melted butter and lemon and sea salt – simple but effective.
chocolate gelato with fresh raspberries – this wasn’t really cooking, of course, but had to be mentioned.
tuna steaks grilled inside potato slices with olive oil, fresh dill, lemon, garlic, pepper and pink australian salt served with caramelized onions and walnuts and curried deviled eggs – the spicy tumeric-y mustard of the eggs was so good with the other dishes.

A pile of spooky movies – this is a household tradition when the Halloween season rolls around. There won’t be a party this year because I will be at a conference in California the last weekend of the month so we are just going to celebrate right up until I leave.

A very nice date with Joe to Sobu: wine and sake and asparagus rolled in new york strip and diced saucy tuna over seaweed salad and coconut-crab maki and eel-california maki and creme brulee and raspberry cheesecake – shared and delighted in. Some much needed sweetheart time

zzzzzzzz = the best part of the break was momentarily dispelling the sleep-deprivation.

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