Arizona here I come...
Chris Rozendaal, who had nicely agreed to take me to Des Moines airport, picked me up at 4.45 AM. We picked Yared and Daniel, his friend, and off we go to the airport. The email that Candice Chisentagid sent us stated that our carrier would be continental airlines, departing to Houston at 7.30 AM.
As usual we proceed to the ticketing counter of Continental Airline, expecting nothing bad would happened, as Candice stated in her email that we only need to print our email and show our ID. But, shit happens sometimes and OUR NAMES WERE NOT LISTED ON THE PASSENGER LIST FOR THE FLIGHT!!!!
Yared was so pissed off that he could not think of any steps. I realized that I needed to do something and act and not panic. As the ticketing officer would not be able to help us, I instantly decided that I needed to get hold of IIE officers. Somehow I knew that they all must have gone to Tempe and stayed at the hotel. We did not have the number of the hotel, but instinctively I knew that if I called the operator, they could put me through. So I did. And I got connected to Candice. I had to wait until five calls because it was still 5.30 AM in Tempe and she must have been fast asleep. But I got connected. And it turned out that our flight was United Airlines, leaving to Denver at 9.30 AM. Lucky we were early, if not, we would just miss it! Bad....
So we waited for the flight. Got to the flight to Denver. And met Abi in Denver!!! Waow, I was so happy that we were in the same flight. When we finally landed in Phoenix, we found another Fulbrighter. His name was Muhammad and he was from Yaman. He's studying in an MBA program in Drake University in Des Moines and guess what??? He used to be Yiendra's roommate! What a small world....We also met Mira from Finland.
Phoenix international airport has four terminals. Abi and I tried to locate Jaha because he said he would arrived at 1 PM, just like us. Obviously he was in another terminal. So we called the hotel through the courtesy phone, and we waited for the hotel's van. When the van came, we hopped in, went to another terminal and Jaha was there!!! Oh, I was so glad to meet him! He looked like 'pangeran dangdut' with his long hair :))
When we arrived, we checked in and got our keys. We were also given a Fulbright T-shirt, pin, and folder containing the materials for the seminar. I also met Alphonce and Camilia who went to Florida during the orientation program. It was fun meeting them again...
Well, the three days have gone so fast. We did some seminars, visit the Cactus garden, and did volunteer work for American hearts association....
I love fulbrighters!
Pics of people are here. Pics of of no people but learning are here.
