Misadventures in South Carolina

Okay, so there was at least one thing with my brother's visit that i was going to have to relate (with apologies, again, for the delay). With my brother being here for our birthday on the 25th April (we have the same birthday, albeit three years apart), i decided to take the day off work and we went for a ride up the road to Myrtle Beach - about 90 mins away, as my brother had a thing for wanting to play miniature golf and apparently Myrtle Beach has about 50 of the damn courses. All was going well, we went for a walk on the beach, had something to eat, played a round of golf (my brother lost :-) ) and then headed back, as we were going out for dinner and drinks that evening. Suffice to say, we ended up taking a wrong turn in Georgetown and on highway 17A instead of highway 17 - but all was not lost as we were still going in the right direction. And then we got a flat tyre. Now, not one to stress, i knew i had a spare in the back, and also a jack but had overlooked that fact that we didn't have a tyre wrench. Having turned down help from a truck that had stopped to ask if we were okay (on account of the rather redneck-y appearance of the inhabitants), we had no other choice but to flag someone down.

Fortunately, we were lucky - the gentleman in question was very helpful - given we were stuck in the middle of nowhere (a few minutes before i had commented on how i would like the peace of living out there, but not the 'being so far from everything'). Anyways, we hoisted the car, loosened the nuts and...the wheel wouldn't come off. So, i used the man's phone (mine had no battery!) to call my insurance recovery who said they would help, and then we decided to move the car off the road more (as my sister-in-law Wendy had suggested a while back). Whereupon the wheel loosened. Thus, not wanting to wait 45 mins for recovery, we swapped the wheel (the spare had low air) and headed back up the road to put some air in, then back to Georgetown - where they were unable to repair and couldn't replace the tire. Thus, we drove back the 60 miles to Charleston on the spare (at no more than 50 mph). In the end we were only two hours late and had managed to rebook the restaurant and let everyone know the time change (by quick calls and text messages!). The most amusing thing of the whole event was that my brother was convinced we were about to be set upon by banjo twanging South Carolinians a la 'Deliverance'. Suffice to say, i told him that SC folk don't usually play the bango...

....and Delayed.

Just when we all though things couldn't get any worse, we had to be re-routed through Chicago O'Hare. Anyways, after having gotten up on Monday at 5.45am Germany Time in order to have breakfast and make the shuttle to the airport, we got on to our first flight with no major hiccups. Well, actually with one. For some reason, both Ashley and Arelis were able to get boarding passes for the second flight from Chicago to Charleston whereas i wasn't which meant extra hassle when we got to Chicago and we had a particularly close connection. As it happened, it turned out not to be a problem. We got to Chicago some 10-15 mins late, and made it through Borders and Customs with no real problem. Collecting our bags, we went off for Ashley to check her bags on to the next flight and me to sort out boarding passes (Arelis ended up going through extra customs checks), we found our flight was delayed a couple of hours. Joy. I sorted out my bags and pass, and off we went to the gate (where we caught up with Arelis). Suffice to say, Ashley and I wandered off to get some food and have a large glass of wine!

ANyway, the time for boarding came. We got on the plane, it got de-iced, then had to be jump started, then had to be de-iced again (cause it took too long to jump start and the deicer had worn off). We pulled back from the gate and sat there for about 10 minutes, only to be told there was a problem with the plane and we had to go back to the gate. At this point, a woman on board demanded to be left off and wanted her luggage back so we all got off the plane for 45 mins, then got back on (at which point the snow and wind had gotten worse) and, you guessed it, the flight was cancelled again. Severely pissed off at this point, the three of us managed to get seats on the later flights (an hour after) and, fortunately, the snow had eased off some. Even so, we finally took off an hour later (9.00pm CHicago Time) and got back to Charleston at 12.05am early Tuesday Morning. I can't remember that flight much cause i passed out. Anyways, we FINALLY made it back after some 49 hours of travel. I don't think i've ever had anything like that happen to me and, y'know, i could do without it again any time soon!!

Delayed....

After having a good, but intense week at the Gordon Conference in Tuscany, I was somewhat looking forward to getting back to Charleston - not least because i had some good feedback that stimulated new ideas about my work. Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men....and all that, came to naught with the cancellation of my first flight out of Pisa. Having arrived at the airport at 6.30am (or therabouts) and checked in, we hopped on to the bus out to the plane and boarded. We were sitting on the plane for about 30 minute when the captain came on the tannoy and announced that the visibility outside was too bad for us to take off and we were going to wait to see if it got any better. Sure enough, 5 minutes later, things had not improved and so the flight was cancelled. Of course, the amusing thing in all this was that the Captain told us that Pisa does not have an electronic system for measuring visibility but rather 'a man who stands and looks out of the window'. At this point, we weren't sure if he was being serious or not.

Anyway, after getting back to the terminal, collecting bags and waiting in a queue for two hours (after one hour of which, the mist had all but vanished i should point out), we were told that we could not get back to Charleston today. Instead, we were going to be on the evening flight to Munich (as per our original flight plan) and then get re-routed on a flight the next morning. At least one thing was that they were going to put us up in a hotel. Thus, after a day of sitting around in Pisa airport (very boring, believe me) and getting to Munich, we had to wait around for about 45 mins as they sorted out our tickets and hotel, and we FINALLY made it to the hotel at about 9.45pm. Suffice to say we're all pretty tired (we being me, Ashley and another friend Arelis, who has had quite the journey from hell already) and ready for bed. Alas, it's an early start tomorrow though to get the next flights. And with any luck we'll get back to Charleston tomorrow.

Food, glorious food......

Of course, no trip to Italy wouldn't be complete without lots and lots of eating, and it's perhaps no real surprise that i've been happily embracing the tradition. Okay, so i havenb't been quite as bad as when Robert De Niro ate his way through the country in order to pile on the weight for the filming of 'Raging Bull' but there has been a lot of food availabler (in terms of variety) and so i've been quite happily trying it out. One of the more unusual things i have heard whilst being here is that the Italians don't really do breakfast and so they put out what they think other people want to have for breakfast. Given that the conference i was attending was very multinational, this led to their being a lot of stuff. The mainstay was a lot of breakfast cereal - surprisingly this was quite high sugar, so i guess they think we all have a sweet tooth. THere was, naturally, lots of coffee (good stuff) and then the usual fruit juice, yoghurt and fruit. On top of all that, though, there was a large amount of very sugary and sweet pastries, lots of prosciutto (cold cured ham), cheese and scrambled eggs. In short, almost anything and everything you could consider earting for breakfast. Except grits. Thank God.

For lunch and dinner, naturally, the Italians are little more at home, and there was also lots of good stuff to be had. To list it all here would be rather long winded and, quite frankly, would make me hungry. And probably you as well. Suffice to say, it was largely all pretty good - despite not being 'really italian' as our italian friends at the conference would have it. I guess this is mainly as it's made on a larger scale. However, none of us were complaining as it was pretty damn good. Suffice to say, i suspect i shall be hitting the gym when i get back. And certainly not eating pasta again for quite some time!!!

Viva Italia

So, after some 24 hours or so of travelling from Charleston and the usual joy of having one day bleed into another that accompanies overnight flights across the Atlantic, we finally arrived in Il Ciocco, the hotel here in Barga where the conference is to be held. Suffice to say, the scenery is fantastic - the hotel itself is situated some way up a hillside affording stunning views of Barga and the surrounding hills and mountains. Yes, mountains as we are close to the Apuan Alps. It's quite a new experience for me to look around and see snow capped mountains in the distance but i'm certainly enjoying it. To get to Barga from Pisa we took the train - a little over an hour's journey through some similarly wonderful scenery. You can certainly tell that it's a different region of the world.

Since arriving, its pretty much been a combination of science at the conference mingled with trying to sleep off the jet lag as well. I'm still kind of groggy and not 100% sure whether i'm coming or going quite yet. Hopefully it'll be the end of it today. The conference itself has been good so far - the chance to meet and chat with some of the bigger names in this specific field. But when you've got that scenery outside, it's quite distracting to say the least. Anyhow, having now digested breakfast, i guess it's time for me to head downstairs to the morning lectures. Fun, fun, fun. Hopefully there'll be some of the Italian coffee to keep us from nodding off to easily....

Flights of Fancy

With my trip to Tuscany less than a week away, i was somewhat dismayed to receive a phone call from United Airlines asking me to call them back with an appropriate reservation number. Why they couldn't email me to ask, i guess, is besides the point. Having never flown with United before, i wasn't sure what to expect, but never-the-less gave them a call back to see what the score was. The message had mentioned something about a 'schedule change' which in the past has meant an alteration of 15 minutes or so here or there and nothing much to worry about. I hoped it was to be the same here. I should be so lucky. My flights to Pisa go from Charleston to Dulles (Washington DC) to Munich to Pisa - quite a long route admittedly but the most convenient and cheapest (leaving at 2pm on Sat 16th or therabouts). Well, I was informed that my first flight had changed, i was now on the 7.15pm flight to Dulles. "Oh, and by the way, you're not going to make your connections to Munich and Pisa." (This was how it was phrased - i kid you not). Rather perturbed by this, i asked what could be done and was given two options - one to route through Chicago (not an option - Chicago O'Hare is renowned to be a nightmare) and the other to get an earlier United flight to Dulles at 10.22am.

Okay, so now colour me stupid here but given that i'd made the reservations and the connections as they stood, you'd think that i'd actually WANT to catch those flights. So why go through all this hassle to call me and have me get back in touch to faff around with flights when they coulda just put me on that flight to begin with. Not only that but two friends i am flying with - who would also be in that situation - were not contacted at all. So if it hadn't been for me hearing, they would've shown up at the airport none-the-wiser (as, indeed, would I) and had no option but to wait around for the later flight. So, after some much running around and multiple calls to my friends and back to United (I was unable to change there seats, so they had to sort it themselves), we FINALLY all got the mess sorted out. I can only hope now that the flights by United work a lot better than the ticketing!! Watch this space!

Visa Vexation

With my trip to Italy for a conference rapidly approaching, naturally my thoughts turn to making sure all the paper work i have is in order, so that i can get back into the country hassle free on my return. In doing all this, it brought to mind, once again, all the accompanying annoyances of being a non-American living in America on visa can be. Apart from all the initial woes that i have bitched about at length in previous posts, there is also the occasional xenophobia from some of the less enlightened locals, and at MUSC, there is the joy of dealing with the International Office. Now, given that there is a lot of paperwork that must go with dealing with internationals, i can understand that the job must be pretty laborious at times, yet i have never met people who REALLY don't seem to like the people who they are serving and helping. It's like getting blood from a stone at times.

THe other day, i called them up further to an email i had sent to them two weeks prior (one which, incidentally, had only just managed to make its way from one office to the other, all of a few metres a way). My reason was that i had to get my visa form signed to show that i am in good standing at MUSC and can re-enter the country. Now, my visa was an initial 3 years and was later extended to 5 years - or at least the paperwork was. When i asked about sending my passport off to get the visa in there amended appropriately i was told that it wasn't there job and that i would have to sort that myself. OF course, i could get around that by not leaving the country after the visa in my passport expires (June 2008). This was, again, reiterated when i went to get my form signed. When i pointed out that i would like to have it sorted anyway, i was given the kind of reply of 'why do you WANT to leave the country anyway?' and some kind of disbelief of the fact that i do actually like travelling in places outside the US. For me to get the visa sorted, i have to leave the country, go to a US embassy and then have an interview etc all over again. Until recently, it seemed possible that i might be able to do this in Canada or Mexico. Now it appears i may have to go back to England to sort it out. Anyway, my overriding impression of all this is that given the amount of crap and hassle that I, as an international, have had to put up with (and bear in mind this is just a first level visa), is it any wonder that people try and enter the country illegally instead of going through the so-called 'normal' channels?

Fun With Flights

With having two visits to the UK in the next few months (one at the end of April for my friend Phil's wedding, one in August/September for my cousin's and brother's wedding - not to each other i add), i've spent an awful lot of time recently browsing the numerous travel websites out there in search of a reasonably priced flight back over the Atlantic and have come to one conclusion. These days, there just aren't any. Actually, that's not strictly true, if you hunt around a lot, then you can get good deals but, to be frank, i haven't got the time or the energy to do just that. Okay, well maybe i have the time on occasion but it's such a grinding task that leaves you with your head tangled in knots over airport changes, times, different time zones, connections and any number of other things. Of course, the fact that i've now joined a specific Air Miles program doesn't really help matters much, despite the fact that it doesn't really limit my choice of airlines (there is some Skyteam alliance thing whereby a number of airlines all give air miles to the other's members as well as their own).

Anyway, after spending much time going cross-eyed and banging my head against a brick wall, i finally managed to sort out flights for my trip back home in August (the flights for April were booked sometime ago and were a bit less of a headache). Some reasonably extensive searching and cross-referencing allowed me to book flights separately from Charleston to Boston and then to London Heathrow (instead of my usual Manchester) via Paris Charles De Gaulle (which should no doubt be an experience). Okay, so there's an extra change in there but it gives me a couple of extra segments for the air miles (they're important) but also a few extra miles as well. Plus, it was $200 cheaper than the best alternative i could find through the various travel websites. I guess it just goes to show that shopping around doesn't hurt. Now all i have to do is survive my brief stay (a couple of hours) in France. Shouldn't be TOO difficult for an Englishman!