Sleeping in Airports
It's Saturday afternoon and I've finally made it to Dhaka! It only took us from Monday until Saturday...
Monday departure from Lima. Tuesday AM arrival in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. 1 hour in the customs line in Ft. Lauderdale. After finishing with customs, 20 more minutes waiting for luggage. Got a Spirit Air employee to take us through security after calling the gate to hold our connecting flight to New York. Arrived at the gate to find that they closed boarding anyway and wouldn't let us on. Rebooked, 3 hour wait in Ft. Lauderdale.
Landed in New York City! Rushed to the Bangladesh consulate general, at East 43rd Street. Taxi dutifully took us to West 43rd Street. Stood in Times Square with all my bags, feeling annoyed. Hopped another taxi to the consulate. Met up with Karen, HODR volunteer who lives in New York, who had gotten money orders for us to pay for the visas (no cash accepted). Asked the man at the counter nicely to issue our visas then and there. Ding!
Found a hotel close to my friend Nick's place. Met up with Nick for dinner. Ate a burger with not-so-processed, not-so-questionable meat! Drank non-bottled water at the restaurant, which I didn't have to pay for and which didn't give me stomach fireworks! Threw toilet paper into the toilet! Understood what everyone around me was saying! Checked Nick's apartment for my Amazon.com package (Bangladesh guidebook, power adapters, Teach Yourself Bengali, etc.). Nothing. Boo.
Wednesday - Checked Nick's apartment again. Still nothing. Emailed Amazon. Picked up supplies and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups at a drugstore. (Did you know they have peanut butter Twix now too? Crazy.) Rushed down to Wall Street for lunch with my friend Nabo. Nabo speaks Bengali, so I asked her to teach me the word "thank you." Said I thought it was probably the most important word to learn first. She thought the most important word would be "water," so taught me that as well. Raced back to hotel to pick up bags. Checked Nick's apartment one last time, still no package. Three UPS trucks parked in front of his building, no drivers to be found. Bet that my package was sitting on one of them. Left for the airport.
Flew Finnair from New York City to Helsinki. Finnair flight attendants very tall, very blond. Landed in Helsinki at 7:00AM on Thursday. Looked very cold outside here. People in terminal drinking beer, at 7:00AM! Bent myself onto airport bench, slept. Woke up to board connecting flight to Delhi, only to find it was canceled. Rerouted to Mumbai instead. Felt alarmed, as Mumbai arrival time meant we would miss our flight from Delhi to Dhaka. Finnish Finnair staff a bit curt. No phones in terminal either. Grumpily took my free food vouchers and bought tiny, expensive packages of European snack food.
Flew from Helsinki to Mumbai. Arrived 7:00AM on Friday, with no India visa and no actual onward flight. Oy. Amazingly helpful and friendly Indian Finnair staff took us to transit lounge, sorted out tickets for us. Slept. Beginning to feel like my job is just to ride airplanes and sleep. Left Mumbai at 7:00PM.
Arrived in Delhi at 9:00PM on Friday. Security checkers wouldn't let us pass into actual terminal, since our flight was nine hours away. Just as well, went to a lounge instead, stuffed myself with finger sandwiches and curry vegetable puffs. Not so healthy at 4:00AM. Didn't care.
Saturday morning, Delhi-Dhaka flight scheduled for 7:00AM. Wait, no, 8:00AM. Wait, no, 9:00AM. Finally landed in Dhaka at 11:00AM on Saturday. No problems with immigration! All our bags arrived! Made it to the hotel without a hitch and met up with David, the ED.
It's green here! It's colorful! I'm back in Asia! I do miss Project Pisco though. Hopefully we start moving into the affected areas in the next couple days, and I'll have more interesting stuff to write.
Monday departure from Lima. Tuesday AM arrival in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. 1 hour in the customs line in Ft. Lauderdale. After finishing with customs, 20 more minutes waiting for luggage. Got a Spirit Air employee to take us through security after calling the gate to hold our connecting flight to New York. Arrived at the gate to find that they closed boarding anyway and wouldn't let us on. Rebooked, 3 hour wait in Ft. Lauderdale.
Landed in New York City! Rushed to the Bangladesh consulate general, at East 43rd Street. Taxi dutifully took us to West 43rd Street. Stood in Times Square with all my bags, feeling annoyed. Hopped another taxi to the consulate. Met up with Karen, HODR volunteer who lives in New York, who had gotten money orders for us to pay for the visas (no cash accepted). Asked the man at the counter nicely to issue our visas then and there. Ding!
Found a hotel close to my friend Nick's place. Met up with Nick for dinner. Ate a burger with not-so-processed, not-so-questionable meat! Drank non-bottled water at the restaurant, which I didn't have to pay for and which didn't give me stomach fireworks! Threw toilet paper into the toilet! Understood what everyone around me was saying! Checked Nick's apartment for my Amazon.com package (Bangladesh guidebook, power adapters, Teach Yourself Bengali, etc.). Nothing. Boo.
Wednesday - Checked Nick's apartment again. Still nothing. Emailed Amazon. Picked up supplies and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups at a drugstore. (Did you know they have peanut butter Twix now too? Crazy.) Rushed down to Wall Street for lunch with my friend Nabo. Nabo speaks Bengali, so I asked her to teach me the word "thank you." Said I thought it was probably the most important word to learn first. She thought the most important word would be "water," so taught me that as well. Raced back to hotel to pick up bags. Checked Nick's apartment one last time, still no package. Three UPS trucks parked in front of his building, no drivers to be found. Bet that my package was sitting on one of them. Left for the airport.
Flew Finnair from New York City to Helsinki. Finnair flight attendants very tall, very blond. Landed in Helsinki at 7:00AM on Thursday. Looked very cold outside here. People in terminal drinking beer, at 7:00AM! Bent myself onto airport bench, slept. Woke up to board connecting flight to Delhi, only to find it was canceled. Rerouted to Mumbai instead. Felt alarmed, as Mumbai arrival time meant we would miss our flight from Delhi to Dhaka. Finnish Finnair staff a bit curt. No phones in terminal either. Grumpily took my free food vouchers and bought tiny, expensive packages of European snack food.
Flew from Helsinki to Mumbai. Arrived 7:00AM on Friday, with no India visa and no actual onward flight. Oy. Amazingly helpful and friendly Indian Finnair staff took us to transit lounge, sorted out tickets for us. Slept. Beginning to feel like my job is just to ride airplanes and sleep. Left Mumbai at 7:00PM.
Arrived in Delhi at 9:00PM on Friday. Security checkers wouldn't let us pass into actual terminal, since our flight was nine hours away. Just as well, went to a lounge instead, stuffed myself with finger sandwiches and curry vegetable puffs. Not so healthy at 4:00AM. Didn't care.
Saturday morning, Delhi-Dhaka flight scheduled for 7:00AM. Wait, no, 8:00AM. Wait, no, 9:00AM. Finally landed in Dhaka at 11:00AM on Saturday. No problems with immigration! All our bags arrived! Made it to the hotel without a hitch and met up with David, the ED.
It's green here! It's colorful! I'm back in Asia! I do miss Project Pisco though. Hopefully we start moving into the affected areas in the next couple days, and I'll have more interesting stuff to write.
posted by Stefanie at 5:31 PM
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