Travel Adventures

I'm only about 22 hours into my 45-ish hours of travel, and I already have some stories to tell. I started out at the train station in Kalamazoo, where I managed not to cry after saying goodbye to Jeff. I took the train to Chicago, then walked to the CTA Blue Line (subway) station and took that to the airport. When I got to the airport, I ended up going to Terminal 3, rather than 5, because of confusion over which airline I was on. My itinerary said American Airlines, but I didn't notice that it said "Operated by Etihad" under it, so it took me a while to figure out where I was supposed to be. A nice ticket agent named Jaqoob checked me in, checked my bag, and gave me my boarding pass. He told me that since I switch to Air India in Abu Dhabi, I would need to go pick my bag up there, and then re-check it with Air India. Okay.

The plane was very nice, which was fun. I had a spiced lamb curry for dinner number 1 and pasta for dinner number 2. They offered sandwiches in between, but I wasn't hungry then. I got a glass of red wine with my lamb curry, and I was surprised when the beverage guy filled the cup--the same kind they use for juices, and a slightly larger size than I've seen on other airlines--all the way to the top. So after some wine and some  sleep aids, I was able to sleep for a decent while. I had the window seat, and the people near me were respectful, so it was a good (but LONG--14 hrs) flight.

So when I got in to Abu Dhabi, my first priority was figuring out where I was supposed to be and finding my bag. People in airport uniform were stationed in various places in the hallways to ask where we were going and tell us which way to go. I kept saying, "I'm going to New Delhi, but not on Etihad. I'm taking Air India. And will my bag go through, or where do I get it?" and the uniformed people would say, "This way, please, Terminal 1."

I wandered around Terminal 1 for a while trying to figure out who could tell me about my bag, and I found the Flight Transfers counter. This is the exciting part of my story. Two different people told me to talk to someone else, and then I handed a ticket agent my passport and baggage claim ticket and waited for him to get off the phone and pay attention to me. Meanwhile, a disgruntled French man walked up to the counter next to me and tried to talk to another agent at the counter. But the agent didn't speak French. I offered to translate. After about 5 minutes, I had translated their whole conversation: French guy lost his bag on the plane, agent said they probably wouldn't find it, but he would ask, French guy should come back in two hours. Simple enough. Agent and French guy thanked me and looked relieved. The agent who had my passport smiled at me, told me not to worry about a thing, my bag is checked through to my final destination and whoever told me otherwise was lying (sorry Jaqoob). He printed my boarding passes, told me where to go, and said he hoped I had a great flight.

Maybe that wasn't actually that exciting to anyone else. I get really nervous speaking French with French people, though, since my French is all Senegal-ified. I was happy with myself for speaking up and saying I could translate for them and resolving what had been a somewhat tense situation.

Now I have to kill another 3.5 hours before my flight. Flying to New Delhi should take about 3.5 hours, then I have an 8-hour layover in New Delhi before my 1.5 hour flight to Ranchi, where I will meet someone from the organization and drive 2.5 hours to my new home.

So much more to go! But at least it's going much faster than I expected.