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Arrived in the US
Mar. 26th, 2008 04:08 amSafe and sound.
I'm now up at almost 24h waking and traveling time, and writing this blog post as my last pre-sleep act.
A few snafus along the way - but NOTHING like the last trip I made:
1. My seat, as the only seat in the frigging aircraft, had a dysfunctional entertainment center. On the other hand, internet checkin worked a DREAM and getting through everything at Arlanda was SO comfortable. The lack of movies was fixed by getting temporarily moved back to a seat with a working system.
2. Even though I repeatedly stated that I needed business status for reimbursements, and checked business travel on my forms, I got my visa waiver marked WT for tourist. Many very helpful members of the Newark staff later - including two guts from Customs and Border Control who broke off their coffee break to escort me through the bowels of C&BC@Newark to find someone authorized to draw two big B-loops on top of the T of my WT classification - I got the right kind of squiggle in my passport.
3. They apparently were playing Musical Gates with the incoming smaller aircrafts in the ATC. We got moved back and forth between gates 70 and 103b four times. Two within the last 15 minutes before boarding.
Now I'm happy in Lancaster, the historical heart of Amish, and looking longingly at my guest bed. We had waffles (homemade, by me) with cloudberry jam (gift, from me) and then I played a lot of classical clarinet - duets and clarinet+piano - with Ron's son, who's in orchestras and marching bands on exclusive levels.
Great fun will be had
I'm now up at almost 24h waking and traveling time, and writing this blog post as my last pre-sleep act.
A few snafus along the way - but NOTHING like the last trip I made:
1. My seat, as the only seat in the frigging aircraft, had a dysfunctional entertainment center. On the other hand, internet checkin worked a DREAM and getting through everything at Arlanda was SO comfortable. The lack of movies was fixed by getting temporarily moved back to a seat with a working system.
2. Even though I repeatedly stated that I needed business status for reimbursements, and checked business travel on my forms, I got my visa waiver marked WT for tourist. Many very helpful members of the Newark staff later - including two guts from Customs and Border Control who broke off their coffee break to escort me through the bowels of C&BC@Newark to find someone authorized to draw two big B-loops on top of the T of my WT classification - I got the right kind of squiggle in my passport.
3. They apparently were playing Musical Gates with the incoming smaller aircrafts in the ATC. We got moved back and forth between gates 70 and 103b four times. Two within the last 15 minutes before boarding.
Now I'm happy in Lancaster, the historical heart of Amish, and looking longingly at my guest bed. We had waffles (homemade, by me) with cloudberry jam (gift, from me) and then I played a lot of classical clarinet - duets and clarinet+piano - with Ron's son, who's in orchestras and marching bands on exclusive levels.
Great fun will be had
