Party!!!

It's off to New Orleans I go for the weekend, with the wonderful Dave, who made this is birthday present to me in November, so he gets to take leave of his Island Prison briefly to lovingly show me around his old haunts. Naturally, I'll be drinking grenades out of novelty cups.

Woot!

Titlis ho!

Yeah, I wasn't going to make the requisite Mt. Titlis joke, but I'm only human, and an immature human at that, so deal with it.

I went to the Alps today! It's weird to type that. Got on the wrong train at first but transferred quickly so no real delay and headed to Engelberg, largely on the advice of a travel magazine we picked up for free in Basel, a town we'd only discovered because there were no hostels in Bern, so we booked the first night in Basel and the second night in Zurich.

Of course, once we got to Zurich, instead of seeing this famed and fabulous city, we immediately booked it into the mountains, though before heading to Zurich to drop off our stuff at the hostel, we did manage to see the Rathaus in Basel and cross the river on a ferry. The ride from Luzerne up to Engelberg and back was amazing: a three car red train through the Alps, punctuated by alpine streams, cows with big traditional bells around their necks, and all the other Heidi stuff. I kept feeling like none of it was real due to the sheer magnitude of the scenes, all with mountains jutting up sheer around it. We walked around, saw the base of Titlis, though no time to take the cable car to the top, and then on the way back, got a thunder and lightning show at dark as the train regularly whistled through the towns. Surreal.

Dijon tomorrow, and we've booked our hostel in London on the 14th, so the only question is what to do between Dijon and London. These are the difficult sorts of decisions that consume us in life... that and "how am I going to pass my 5/6th term classes while being a week late getting back?"

Grrrr American Airlines!

They officially now have NO IDEA where my baggage is. Not sure if it's in Trinidad; not sure if it's in Grenada. No clue. So it's been transferred to "Central Baggage", where all their "unclaimed bags" (it's frigging claimed!) go, and as he explained, usually because the bags don't have any information on them.

My bag has a luggage tag with my name and location, not to mention "GRENADA" and "SGU" written all over the fabric of the bag in Sharpie marker. It contents include a giant animatronic robot parrot and a pathology book. Losing this bag is like losing Bozo the clown at a board meeting.

They also seem to be confused as to whether this bag has actually arrived at my apartment yet, since they did put it on a Liat flight, or at least they thought they did, as of the 15th. They don't know Liat very well. So it's lost. And probably lost without an AA luggage tag, since if they did put it with Liat, Liat probably removed the tag, stuck on their own, and then threw it in the ocean.

So no extra sheets, no parrot, no frigging TEXTBOOKS, no nothing. Thanks American Airlines. You've yet again done a stellar job.

AA Strikes Again!

That's American Airlines, not Alcoholics Anonymous... not until 4th term, at least.

I thought Liat was going to get the distinct pleasure of losing my luggage this time, but American Airlines once again stole the honor by leaving my bag in Miami due to a tight turnover caused by their first leg being late. They're at 5/5! They are the contenders!

On the plus side, since I'm trying to look for silver linings this year and stop being *quite* as whiny all the damn time (which will last around five minutes), it does mean that I'm getting to sit in Royal Castle in the Trinidad airport with some chicken and wi fi surfing rather than trying to drag my bag through the unairconditioned part of the airport and then wrassling it past Grenadian customs and into a taxi with my unreasonable amount of carry-on (since I anticipated this problem and packed everything I couldn't reasonably never see again into it). Instead, AA is helpfully shipping it to the airport later when they get around to it. Ahhhh, competence.

And Liat-willing, I'll be tucking into my apartment tonight and end the airport run for a while, which is always fantastic, and I haven't gotten any grief so far at the Trinidad airport (not that I did last time), and this particularly corner of it is air conditioned, so all is well. All is well. All is well.

Goodbye, cold weather

What an unpleasant adaptation I am going to have to make.

I'm a cold weather creature, which means that while it takes me a year in the Caribbean to begin even PRETENDING to be able to tolerate mildly hot weather for short periods of time, I can be shoveling off the dog run with wet hair in running shorts and a robe (seexxxxy) in 35 degree weather within three weeks.

But, I'd better get used to it, because I'm heading back to Grenada at 5:30 in the morning, and taking off for Boston to deal with the lovely people at American Airlines. In the last six months, they've screwed up 4 of the 4 flights I've taken with them. Let's see if they can make it 6.

Ahhhh, I've had a good vacation. Saw family, had good times, saw snow, spent the last two days in New York and Montreal and in the latter, ate at a place so French it had "Chez" in the name. I know, right? Pictures will be coming as soon as I've arrived in Grenada (AA and Liat willing, of course), settled in, attended my first day of classes, and registered. Er, yeah.

Safe travels and arrivals to all! May the pothounds you inevitably encounter be rabies-free.

Snow!!!!!!

No, not in Grenada, though that would be something.

I'm home! To a place I hadn't been before. But it still feels like home. I flew from Grenada to Trinidad (Liat) to JFK (Caribbean Airlines) to Boston (American Eagle).

Unfortunately, I spoke too soon and marveled that I'd made it to Boston with no delays or mishaps on behalf of the airlines, just in time for American (why are you after me AGAIN, American?) to lose my bag, and better, claim they never had it since apparently claiming it and dragging it through customs in both Trinidad and New York was just a figment of my imagination. Though I got my passport stamped by both, and the homeland security guy in NYC said "welcome home" while doing it, which was nice. He also didn't strip search me, which was even nicer.

Miraculously, they found my bag in New York (no doubt with their ticket agent), after having a couple new pieces chewed out of a particularly apathetic baggage claim girl, and shipped it to me in Vermont, where I am now. Phew. Traveling sucks. Though the journey was surprisingly good. Liat managed to screw about half the people in the airport by claiming their original flight time was at 6 am, canceling that flight and merging it with mine (at 7:20), which was fine for me, but not fine for their original connections. D'oh. Sorry guys. Enjoy Trinidad. Nice people.

Caribbean Airlines is awesome. Not to be confused with CaribStar, Caribbean Airlines is the official airline of Trinidad, has excellent service, allegedly has a 90% on time rate (my flight was on-time/early), tell you everything that's going on right down to geography and temperature, got my luggage through and in a crowning moment, when I dozed for about ten minutes, I started awake to realize a blanket had been placed over me. Dayam. Caribbean Airlines... so attentive, we'll freaking tuck you in. Unfortunately, they fly like four places. From Trinidad. I'm thinking it's worth the swim. They're looking for investors though, so if you have a boatload of money, please invest in them to reward them for not sucking? I want these guys to take over the airlines for the *world*.

So no problems with them, and had a pretty good treat considering the horror stories I've heard about Liat and my own joyous experiences with Air Jamaica (they lose your luggage for five days, but at least they don't claim not to have it) and American Airlines, who is rapidly going from my favorite airline to my least favorite airline because they're not even screwing up in ways that are easy to predict. Liat will screw with your flight times (so you schedule long layovers) and AJ will lose your luggage (so you pack all your essentials in your carryon). That's what they do. AA is dabbling in everything.

Anyway, arrived in Boston to be met by my mom, who was carrying seventeen different layers of clothes, since the warmest things I could get together were jeans, vented running shoes, and a hoodie. I was a little concerned about trying to run that ensemble through the New York layover, but it turned out not to be bad at all. I forgot that the monorail between terminals had indoor stations so spent the majority of my time browsing shops in my shiny new "Trinidad and Tobago" t-shirt, since I'd sweated through the old one in, you guessed it, Trinidad and Tobago. Nothing like trying to dress appropriately for a 60 degree temperature change.

But when I got to Vermont, there was already two feet of snow on the ground and it started snowing almost instantly when I got here. WINTER!!! I have to put on hat, gloves, jacket, long pants, and scarf just to walk the dog (my baby!), and I love all of it. Everything looks Christmasy, everyone is nice and they're playing real holiday music. Ahhhhhh... Not to mention I can watch Comedy Central again.

Air Jamaica Update

Ah, the incompetence abounds...

In AJ news, I called yesterday, as I was told to do, to be told that the luggage from the 7th (they didn't specify MY luggage, but "the luggage from the 7th", which fills me full of confidence) would be coming in TODAY on a charter flight at 9:40.

Since it's currently 9:50, I called, as told, to be told that flight wouldn't be in until after 1 in the morning because the flight was delayed... ya know, just like the flight on the 7th was delayed, except in that case, it was still early enough to have a shot at getting to my apartment, but I'm sure the people on that flight, and their RAs/apartment managers will be THRILLED by the prospect of not getting in until after 1. Any guesses on whether THEIR baggage will make it? Especially if, as promised (which means nothing), the plane is full of the luggage of people from the 7th, since they reassured me yesterday that lots of people on that flight lost their luggage. They also specified that my luggage wasn't getting in yesterday (like they said it would be) because that was when last SATURDAY'S luggage was coming in.

One might have the novel idea that the people who flew that Saturday should have had their luggage on Saturday and the people who flew on Tuesday (the 7th) should have had their luggage on Tuesday rather than playing this "Where are the cookies? I put them in the goldfish bowl. Where are the goldfish? I put them in the clothes hamper. Where are the dirty clothes?" game that ensures that probably around 50 percent of their passengers are chronically pissed off and calling them daily while getting progressively angrier, but what do I know?

On the plus side, the people are getting a bit nicer, though they've stopped putting me through to Air Jamaica, so I think I'm talking to the people at the airport.

On the minus side, we are now at 4 days without luggage, without an answer from DELTA AIRLINES, without compensation, and without someone willing to physically track down my luggage to make sure where it is and if it's coming at the times they keep telling me.

And yes, that's AIR JAMAICA and DELTA AIRLINES. Your source for delayed flights and lost luggage. But their seats are bigger than American Airlines, who, by the way, also sucks, with delayed flights and horrendous baggage restrictions. In case it seems like I'm just needlessly bitching about any kind of air travel, American Airlines, Air Jamaica, and Liat have *pretty much* cornered the Grenada market with a few exceptions that fly in sporadically, thus, since they have little competition and a high market, both among students and locals, none of the three put ANY effort whatsoever into customer service and have differing and equally deserved horrible reputations. I have not flown Liat, but consider my first term roommate's story was far worse than any of mine despite only involving a flight to Trinidad (90 miles), I'm not encouraged to do so in the future. So far, the best airline I've found that actually goes to Grenada is Conviasa, which is the official airline of Venezuela, and has excellent service and staff, so I'm beginning to wonder if it might be worth going through Caracas just for the privilege of getting to my destination on time, well served, and with my luggage. It's not a lot to ask, right?

In SGU news there is no news, oh, other than the fact that their registration prohibition also means I can't get the books that have already been paid for out of my loan check, which by the way, has been dispersed to them, thus they are charging me for classes I'm not supposed to attend with bought books I'm not allowed to have. On the plus side of that, I can access the parasitology and genetics lectures online, which means I actually can prestudy for those classes despite the best intentions of the university to keep me from viewing ANYTHING that could potentially help me in my new courseload until I pass my biochem exam.

In Ishie news, I've reached that point where I'm almost getting amused by the multifaceted and stunning incompetence I've seen at all levels when trying to engage in beginning my second term, which is keeping me in better spirits. I have long ago learned to embrace my cynicism, since it amuses me, and apparently when I came back here, over the summer I'd become just too much of a gosh-darned optimist, but fortunately reality has bitch-slapped me back into remembering that being negative is a lot more satisfying, thus allowing me to laugh at the stupidity of others rather than having anger explosions in response to it. This also helps me in my quest to be the bastard female offspring of House and Dr. Cox.

I've also finished transcribing all biochem notes and small group cases into flash card format thus can now spend my time, instead of bent over my desk, sprawled out on my intensely comfortable though not wildly aesthetically pleasant sofa getting my biochem on, so that helps the mood.

It also helps to have the support of friends and family, with people both here and abroad not only offering help (thanks mom and dad!) but a virtual or actual shoulder to cry on/ear to bitch into, which is helping keep me sane, as is my sweet-ass apartment (pictures pending). Today, I discovered that I was not actually out of propane for my stove/oven, but simply didn't know how to turn on the tank, and despite it being a weekend, I was able to get someone to help me (security) in under five minutes, service that perhaps should be emulated by certain airlines and medical schools.

Oh, though to give SGU credit, when I went up to the clinical skills office the other day to check on a selective, the secretary who... well, let's just say has quite the reputation over here, was extraordinarily nice to me, joking around and everything. A certain cranky biochem professor also apparently invited a student over to his table, laughed, and was social and pleasant, so maybe there's hope for the human race after all and... no! DOWN, inner optimist! DOWN!

Ta.

So what now? Part deux?

Good question... I've been generally being something of a lazy bum, but I'm entitled, right? I am so *not* looking forward to spending the summer doing biochem again.

Still taking little side trips, and reading a lot, at present it's Invitation to a Beheading, because I dearly love Nabokov, being an uber-dork. No cable here yet, but with any luck, Comcast will actually keep its promise this time and install everything tomorrow. One can only hope. Apparently, they promised my mom that two months ago. But... there's that whole out in the sticks problem.

But more about SGU.

You get acceptance and secure your loans. Getting there. I haven't tried to get there in August yet, but I understand it's more of a headache due to Carnival, which is on some weird "never on the same date in the same place" schedule that I don't fully understand. I used to think it was analagous to Mardi Gras, but apparently, I'm a moron. So Carnival in Grenada, for better or for worse, is in August.

So far I've flown American Airlines and I've sent my parents via Air Jamaica, so I'll tell you the experiences...

American Airlines... flying *to* Grenada, some people can sneak through over luggage allowance, but I wouldn't count on it. American Airlines officials will likely tell you that you can take two bags of up to 100 lbs or 140 lbs or whatnot, the problem being, they do not consider that they switch to American EAGLE, generally in San Juan, where you get on a commuter plane, and the luggage allowance is 70 lbs. I wasn't even close to it on the way here (thank you, mom and dad!) but on the way back from Grenada, they were so strict about there being a 70 lb cut off (and weren't letting students even PAY to bring extra stuff) that the counters were lined with the things students had to leave behind. To be thrown away. I'm not kidding. So pack accordingly.

Air Jamaica is accurately notorious for losing luggage, though you tend to get it within 3 days. It might be best to bring essentials in your carryon luggage to get you through that time, as they have that tendency to leave luggage behind due to overfull flights.

The good news is that though your luggage may show up 3 days later having seen more action than you have, you get 140 lovely pounds of it. Now, my parents flew AJ as mentioned, and *none* of the bags got lost. It could be coincidence, but I wrapped the bags in flourescent orange duct tape I got at Walmart, so it couldn't hurt; might help. Label EVERYTHING WELL.

I don't know much about Liat other than that on the way back from Grenada, they were better than American Airlines since THEIR planes left on time, but I'm told that's a rarity. I don't know their luggage requirements and I've never flown them, but I've heard some horror stories. Also, if Liat causes you to miss connecting flights, don't expect them to pony up for meal vouchers or hotels. They don't consider it to be their problem.

What do you need to bring? Hmm... There's a good list at ValueMD, but let me give you my impressions.

First off, your dorm room comes with toilet paper and a shower curtain. That's *it*. You want pillows? Bring em or buy em. Blankets? Same story. Cookware? Makes me laugh. If you can take friends or family to help cart your stuff with you in exchange for those lovely free SGU sponsored tours, that works *splendidly*, particularly if you are like me and are a diver/guitar player that needs your own stuff.

I don't know the quality of pillows and blankets on the island since I brought my own and then snapped the ones my roommate left (hopefully, for me), but I saw someone with a pillow she'd gotten at Spiceland Mall and it looked decent.

BRING COOKWARE if you can. Dishes and such aren't that big of a problem, but unless you hunt around downtown St. George's, the cooking pan selection at Spiceland Mall *sucks*. You can get a thin saucepot that isn't big enough for ramen noodles (honestly, it isn't. I bought it, and they wouldn't fit), or a giant, REALLY expensive pot that's actually the bottom of a pressure cooker. Frying pans tend to be overpriced and thin. Oh, and bring (in your checked luggage), good knives and good scissors. Again, hard to find, and expensive when you do.

Your room... I was in SD1, and there are pictures of it somewhere on the blog in January, which I'd link up if I weren't fighting a dialup connection. There are two twin beds, on wheels, two giant wooden lockers to keep your stuff in, a bathroom with a shower (no baths!!!! For months!!!), a two burner stove (no ovens), fridge/freezer, and a microwave. I believe that's the standard for all of the superdorms except in the triples where you have three people to a suite, each of whom has their own bedroom, which is pretty damn cool, and the kitchen is larger.

There are washer/dryers on each floor, and if you're lucky, a couple of them will work. I found the late night to be the best time to do laundry, but your results may vary. I also found it really difficult to find dryer sheets on the island, so you might want to bring some, but regular laundry soap is abundant.

You'll need a laptop; bring the receipt (or type one up yourself), as you will likely be charged an import tax on it that's 50-100 dollars. If you don't screw with customs, that will pretty much be the only thing they charge you for, so don't try cute things like putting it with other people, because as a student, they'll be looking for a laptop. Keep the receipt, as you only have to pay it once so long as you have that to show.

Once I paid the laptop tax, I didn't get charged on any of my other electronics or scuba gear. If have stuff shipped to you though, the charges on those items (I've heard up to 50% value!) can be astronomical, particularly on electronics, DVDs, and that sort of thing.

Uhhh... and that's all for now folks.

Dear American Airlines...

Please let me see my family again.

I swear, these people aren't going to let me to see my father unless I leave two million under the phone booth at the corner of Lincoln and Maine.

Except there aren't any phone booths anymore, so I suppose I have to leave it under the hobo with a cell phone at the corner of Lincoln and Maine. Where are Lincoln and Maine? Besides "dead" and "New England".

I'm a little loopy from sleep deprivation (who me?). I didn't sleep the night before the flight figuring I'd grab a nappy nap from Grenada to San Juan, go out an enjoy the old town for the 6 hour layover I had (past tense), and then sleep the rest of the way to Miami, then Raleigh. No problem, right?

First, the flight was overbooked. This is particularly funny since the flight consisted either entirely or nearly entirely of students and faculty, so when they were like "Hey, we'll pay for your accommodations in paradise!", you could TASTE the bitterness of the "screw you" vibe that arose from all of us.

But that turned out to be moot, because though I got to the airport at five in the morning with my flight out at 7:20, around the latter time they announced "whoops, broken plane".

Fine. I have a six and a half hour layover and you can get planes from Trinidad, Barbados, or San Juan. Whatevs.

"Whoops. Flight canceled." Apparently, they didn't have a battery and either Liat wouldn't jump them or they couldn't find jumper cables big enough.

Now... as you can probably tell from the above, I don't know much about airplane mechanics, but shouldn't spare airplane batteries be the sort of thing you keep around airports? And if not, isn't San Juan only 2 hours away and you can send a replacement?

No... so we hung out at the airport... in the cafeteria, using our GENEROUS 18 EC voucher to buy rehydrated eggs, and inexplicably, chicken wings for breakfast, as I watched Fight Club, Jesse tried to sleep on the floor and a number of students played cards or chain smoked outside.

Translation? We're all tired and wanna go home. Fix the plane or get us a boat.

Also, to "gold card members". Fortunately this didn't happen to me or I'd be in a Grenadian prison right now, but when you have a huge line of students who've been bumped, instead of going to your own agent, jumping in front of all of them and responding to a protest by wagging your gold card DIRECTLY in their faces runs you the serious risk of spitting up pieces of said gold card after it is shoved forcibly into your nether regions by an angry mob. You may be a gold card member, but we're brass knuckles members. BACK OF THE LINE! When they have a separate ticket agent for the illuminati, I have no issue with you, but don't butt in front of everyone because you assume some uber status and if you do, do so by pulling aside someone who works there *quietly*.

And the idiot turned out to be in line for the wrong airline since she was trying to rebook to Barbados. That's Liat, stupid. And they don't have gold cards, so I'm going to wait anxiously as you try to butt in front of a bunch of angry Trinis because you're an entitlement bitch. Enjoy that.

They called us all down around 11, at which point, having already been called down with high hopes only to receive a breakfast vouchers, there were whispering threats of violence among the disenfranchised students (myself included) about what was going to happen if we all got called back for a lunch voucher.

Fortunately, this was not to be... but everyone missed their flights... even I did... 6.5 hour layover... couldn't make it.

They said I might have a chance of getting to Charlotte if I could do a fast turn around in Miami, but would book me for the night in Hartford, Connecticut, which is like Raleigh, North Carolina except for the part where it's a thousand miles north and in another state.

This flight to Charlotte *might* have worked if the now fixed plane... (chewing gum and duct tape?) left at 2, like the said it would. It left at three. This caused a whole lot of students to miss their NEWLY ARRANGED flights which meant they got to start over in San Juan after having to uncheck all our bags and drag them through customs.

I would have missed my flight even to Connecticut except THAT flight was ALSO late... by two hours, meaning I didn't get in until midnight, didn't get to the hotel until midnight-thirty and was due back at the airport at 5:30 am.

Oh that was a restful night's sleep guys; thank you. And sleep on the plane to Connecticut? Oh no... completely parched only to have the call light go unattended for so long that I finally just walked back and got a class of water myself... asked for a pillow only to be informed there are no pillows on their flights (terror risk? the airline pillows and Spiceland Mall?) and she said she'd find me a blanket and disappeared forever, which is a difficult task when you're in a micro metal aluminum dildo of death at 40 thousand feet, but what do I know?

So I suppose I could have eaten, which American Airlines would have been MORE than happy to provide me for a fee. No meals or snacks on the four hour flight, but they were generous enough to offer sandwiches for five bucks or M&Ms for 3 (!!!!!).

TEMPTING as that offer was (not), I refrained because at that stage, I'd have rather given money to "Mothers Against Feeding Orphans" than them.

This morning, upon blearily checking into the airport, the woman informed me that I would have to pay a 25$ overlimit requirement on my 69 lb luggage, and I laughed in her face. Since my bags had been checked through to Raleigh YESTERDAY with no extra fees and no requirements other than the customs transfer to Puerto Rico, I'm not particularly inclined to give you bastards MORE money for being incompetent.

Moral of the story? Ishie did NOT pay that $25 dollars. Damn right. Oh, and it's pronounced "Gre-nay-da", lady. I was not in Spain.

For clarity, I usually fly airlines like Southwest that are so ghetto they keep their planes up on blocks, and I have NEVER had this degree of difficulty with anything. They WILL get you there. They may get you there with the wing on fire, but you'll frigging get there.

American? Well, you'll get to spend four hours in a lovely hotel.

Now, let's see if I can FINALLY make it to Raleigh without involving stops in Europe.