Day 54. From the past

Needed a couple of days off - this is a story from our first trip to India. Since no one has read it yet, I thought you'd enjoy it.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

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....