new york city/new jersey/pennsylvania

This time last year, Micah and I had just arrived in Dubai. It's really strange to think that it's been a year already. Sadly this year has not been nearly so interesting yet. As the title implies though, I have done a bit of traveling. I took a 5 day trip to the US to celebrate NYE, watch Bollywood, and visit Erica. Woooo!

On New Year's Eve I was supposed to fly direct from Halifax to Laguardia in NYC, but it turned into a huge ridiculous adventure and I almost didn't get there. It was due to a series of flukes that it all worked out - the whole day was insane. I got to the airport at 8am for an 11:30am flight, because that was the only time my sister had to drop me off at the airport before work. So when I got there, I looked at the departures screen and saw that the Continental flight to Newark had just canceled. That was originally the flight I was going to take, but I decided to go to Laguardia instead via United/Air Canada. Lucky. So I went to the bathroom for a few minutes to put my makeup on. When I came out, maybe 10-15 minutes later, I looked at the departures screen again and saw that MY flight had just canceled too. I almost cried right there, but then I figured I might as well attempt to be productive first and cry later.

So I went up to the Air Canada counter and asked what I should do about my canceled flight. Well, the Air Canada people didn't know what I was talking about - apparently I noticed the flight had canceled even before they did and was the first person to the counter to ask about it. So the very nice Air Canada woman told me to hold on, while she looked into it - turned out "weather" in the NYC area was to blame. Since I was the only one at the counter, she tried to find me a new route to NYC. Because it was New Year's Eve, everything was totally full. But she found me the last seat on a plane to Ottawa, and from there to Montreal, and then from there to Laguardia, which would in theory get me to NYC about 7 hours later than originally planned. But I had no other options, so I took it. Before she finished booking me, other people started to come up to the counter to ask about their flights, but everyone was turned away and given a number to call because they don't do re-bookings at the airport. So it is a MIRACLE that I got re-booked when I did.

So at this point, I phone Erica. She tells me it's clear and sunny in NYC. What?! Apparently the problem was actually strong winds, and the tiny planes that go back and forth from Halifax to NYC are too small to handle that wind. I found one more flight to NYC from Halifax that hadn't canceled, on American Airlines. Apparently there were a few seats left and they were letting canceled Air Canada passengers onto their plane. I went back to the Air Canada woman to look into it. She called and there was one seat left on the AA plane. I was debating whether or not to take it (what if it canceled too?) when the seat went to someone else and I lost my chance at it. So, no decision to make. I was going to Montreal to hope for the best. Everyone was telling me just to get out of Halifax and hope for the best in Montreal - Halifax was due for a huge blizzard in a few hours time and if I didn't get out of Halifax that afternoon, I wouldn't be going anywhere for days.

So, I got the plane to Ottawa, then transferred and went on to Montreal. When I got there, my plane to NYC hadn't been canceled! So it was extremely lucky. On the flight to Laguardia, I ended up sitting next to a woman who had come from Ottawa, because her direct flight from Ottawa had canceled too and she'd been rerouted the same way I was. We started talking, and it turned out that she was supposed to be meeting a friend at Laguardia, but that friend had been on my exact plane out of Halifax that had canceled, and she had gotten stuck there! She had actually gotten a seat on the AA plane that was supposed to go... but then at the last second, the people in charge at AA said that Air Canada had no right to transfer their passengers onto the AA flight, and they booted everyone off! So she didn't make it to NYC. I am SO unbelievably lucky that I went via Montreal and didn't try to take the AA flight! When we finally landed at Laguardia, the turbulence was insane. The plane was just being thrown all over the place. Although I am normally freaked out by such things, I was just so happy to be getting there that I didn't care at all. When we landed, everyone applauded.

So FINALLY I arrived. Erica picked me up, we met some of her friends at the Millennium Hilton (right next to the WTC site) and got ready to go out. I got to have a shower after my long day of being at airports, so I was pretty happy. We went to a rooftop NYE party at a different hotel. When midnight struck, Erica and I were lost somewhere in the crowd between the bar and the table where our friends were, because we took too long to order drinks and didn't make it back to the table until about 10 seconds too late. Oops, haha. (Group photo, and view from the roof.)

We ended up crashing at the Hilton afterwards. Pictures from the window, because the view from the room was crazy, but somewhat depressing.

Anyway, on New Year's Day, Erica and I drove to a movie theatre in New Jersey and watched two new Bollywood films back to back. Ghajini and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, which are both huge hits in India and we've been just dying to see them. They were both fantastic so it turned out to be the best double feature ever, haha. Ghajini has actually broken all records to become the highest grossing Hindi film of all time. I wish I could be in India while all the hype was going on about it. I feel like I'm missing out being here where nobody knows what it is. Arghhh.

After the movies, we drove back to Erica's house in Pennsylvania, and I hung out there for a few days before flying back to Halifax (totally hassle-free) on the Monday. And now, here I am, back home and back at work. Adventures are over. (In a way, that's good, I don't need another adventure like the flight cancellation saga... I will NEVER fly somewhere the same day I need to be there again.) Actually this blog entry was largely pointless and consisted mostly of my airplane issues, but it's been awhile. Will update again next time I travel. It won't be too long - I'm always going somewhere. :)