Going home for Christmas is one of the hallowed rituals of Western culture. Last year I wasn't able to go due to work commitments, but this year I "crossed the pond" to spend a week with my family. In the process I learned the following:
1) Wheelchairs in the US are much bigger than wheelchairs in China and they have seat belts!
2) When you ride in a wheelchair going through customs is really fast.
3) Bulkhead seats really do provide more legroom.
4) Gate changes are the bane of the wheelchair traveler.
My Chinese teacher has a close friend who works for American Airlines, so on my way home she arranged for a bulkhead seat and wheelchairs at all my connections. It was great - the fastest I have ever moved through an airport. If only I could have controlled the weather too.
In Chicago, my flight was delayed for almost 4 hours with 3 gate changes. Flights were getting canceled left and right and a group of us became friends as we commiserated and shared stories about our holiday plans. There was a couple from Melbourne, Australia, a gentlemen from Moscow, me from Shanghai, a group from Southern California, a pregnant college student from Texas, some pharmaceutical reps who had been to Houston for a conference... all going home for the holidays. We bonded, shared snacks and made it as pleasant as possible. Overall, not a bad outcome.
Coming back to Shanghai I also dealt with weather in that my flight was canceled! Fog and thunderstorms resulted in moving back my departure one day. We got a 2am phone call Saturday morning announcing this so I had one extra day with my family which was unplanned but not unwelcome. The flights back went smoothly - I upgraded to business class, had two seats to myself and managed to sleep over 6 hours (a new record).
Question: Any travel horror stories or travel surprises/connections / interesting people you want to share?
Happy New Year! May 2009 be the best year yet.
G
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2 comments:
On my October flight from Frankfurt back to Chicago, there was a baby and a toddler sitting across the aisle two rows up. I swear that their screaming/crying fits were calculated for a near perfect tag team... Spend every last Euro I had on beer that flight!
Welcome back Greta! And happy American New Year (as Shanghai's is still a few months away, no?)!
I'll try to think of more flight memories...
On my way home from Toronto, the plane experienced horrible turbulence. A baby boy sitting behind me shrieked and howled and his mum wasn't able to help because she was throwing up herself. 场面很恐怖～
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