… But what an eventful week it was! For those of you that don’t know, last week I have flown back from Israel, and this week I’m flying to a conference in Portugal.
Some people (ahem, ahem) have commented on the lack of personal perspective in this blog, and it being just a dry collection of facts. Hopefully this post will be an improvement in that regard.
I know I haven’t posted in a while. This is a result of a combination of two seemingly contradicting things: there ws nothing to write about, and I was too busy. Well, now, from my first class seat on NW272 SFO-MEM, I can tell you all the news.
So, I’ll spill it out: I have a new girlfriend. She’s jewish and she lives in Sacramento (about 150km from my home). I met her online on OKCupid (aka the best free dating site, period). Interstingly enough she has messaged me first. After we had an amazing weekend together, I can say this will probably last for long.
We have many things in common personalit-wise, such as our both being the worrying type and both geeks…
BREAKING NEWS: I was just notified by a flight attendant that I have left my passport in SFO. This is very bad since my next flight is international. I will check with the staff at Memphis about how to get it back.
Until we land, I’ll tell you about our planned German family reuinion. It seems that 4 out of my 5 immediate family members will be at Saabrücken with me the coming weekend touring around and playing boardgames.
I’m now really worried about the passport issue and hope I could board the SFO-AMS flight without it and also pass the passport control at AMS, since my I-94 has already been affixed to my boarding pass.
May 13th, 2008 at 04:36
Posted by
epsalon |
Frequent Flyer, Personal, USA, Travel |
one comment
My 11B seat in the KLM 747 was comfortable, but the flight was delayed for about an hour while they tried to fix the broken entertainment system. The entertainment system on the KLM 747 economy cabin consists basically of TVs around the cabin that play some bad movies — not a big loss. In fact, it’s easier to concentrate without those stupid TVs.
However, KLM thought this was a serious discomfort and offered all passengers compensation vouchers for 2000 miles and a 50 EUR discount on a future KL/AF/NW flight of 150 EUR or more. I already cashed in the miles voucher, and will try to sell the discount voucher on eBay.
In between the flight I had a long layover (about 11 hours). I started my layover by visiting the KLM lounge and checking my e-mails and stuff. Then, I left my bag behind and took the train to Amsterdam, where I started to walk aimlessly among the canals. At that point I decided I have to actually go somewhere, and looked up the address of the ILLC using an open wifi hotspot, and using Google Maps mobile, I got directions on how to get there.
After about half an hour of walking I arrived, uninvited, at the ILLC. I walked among the corridors looking for recognizable names, and found a former colleague and co-author of mine, Khalil Sima’an, who was meeting with an Israeli student of his. After they concluded their meeting, they came over to talk to me. We talked about my whereabouts and my current academic direction, and concluded when they both had to leave. I finished my visit by walking towards the general direction of the train station, and then back to the airport.
In the airport, I rested at the lounge and went (too early, as usual) to the gate. After a small delay, the plane was boarded and took off. However, as the plane was almost full and lots of people were religious jews, it took forever for the cabin crew to hand out all the special (mostly Kosher) meals. The problem was, that they would not start beverage service, or even give water until this was over, which means I was basically dehydrated for more than two hours. I have written a complaint to KLM.
In the flight itself, I was seated next to two young women who were flying alone. One was connecting from New York to visit family for passover, while the other was a dutch citizen coming to visit her long-distance Israeli boyfriend. The nice conversations and sleep compensated for the lack on an entertainment system on this flight (which is standard for KLM 737s).
Now I’m in my brother’s house in Hertzeliya, and will come home for the “Seder” tomorrow afternoon.
For my detailed travel plans and locations, see my travel calendar.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:40
Posted by
epsalon |
Frequent Flyer, Family, USA |
2 comments
I’m flying transatlantic again, this time direct from San Francisco to Amsterdam and then to Tel Aviv (after a 12 hour layover). I’m sorry about the lack of updates, there was quite a lot going on, but I just didn’t have the stamina to post.
So, today I’m flying to Israel to visit family and friends. I’m bringing two suitcases, one huge and one small. The huge suitcase is full of boardgames, while the other includes some clothes. I’m also carrying a backpack full of electronic equipment (laptop, hard drive, two phones, three iPods, etc.).
On the Internet, I was assigned a really bad seat on the back of the plane, but I could change it to an aisle seat somewhere in the middle of the plane. However, at the airport I asked the check-in agent for a better seat (given my Platinum status) and was reassigned to seat 11B. Though not as good as my favorite 11E seat, it’s not that bad. It’s a center seat in the smaller front cabin.
April 16th, 2008 at 22:29
Posted by
epsalon |
Frequent Flyer, Family, USA, Travel |
2 comments
A few days ago I have landed back in the US after a 10-day visit to Israel. It was really strange to be flying “back” but away from my friends and family and the home I’ve lived in since I was a child. Because both places are “home” to me, but it doesn’t feel like I’m going “back”, no matter what the immigration officer said.
When I arrived in Israel two weeks ago, I immediately felt at home, even though I haven’t been there for half a year. My house, my room, all stayed the same as if I have never left. I was surprised how quickly I have adjusted to the 10-hour jet lag and to being at home. The first weekend was spent mostly playing my suitcase-full of board games. The weekdays were mostly spent at the Technion, meeting old friends and research colleagues, though I didn’t do any new research. In the second Friday, we hosted a mini boardgame party in our house, and the next day I went to my brother’s house in the center.
In between all that, I managed to review 12 papers, do some family tech support, and realize that my backup HD is officially dead (I’ve placed an order for a new one).
Some information about my flights: On the EWR-TLV (Newark - Tel Aviv) leg, I was in a fully booked brand new 777-200, with personal touch-screens and on-demand video, much better than the channel-based entertainment personal system on the 767. Therefore, I was surprised to see that channel-based system on the 777-200 on the way back. Luckily, I had an encapsulated entertainment system called “a book”, that’s even allowed during takeoff and landing. The next leg (EWR-SFO) was on a brand new 737-800. The plane was so new that they didn’t install the entertainment system yet — not even audio or public TVs. On the plus side, the plane was almost empty and I took over a whole row in the back of the plane, and lied does while using my paper-based entertainment system.
Now I’m back at Stanford, trying to do some new research.
March 14th, 2008 at 00:23
Posted by
epsalon |
Frequent Flyer, Family, USA, Travel |
4 comments
Sometimes things are unintentionally funny. A recent discussion of a mistake fare on FlyerTalk is a good example. KLM have botched entering the fare from Helsinki to Singapore (and other Asian destinations), leading to the unbelievably low fare above. Regrettably, it’s a V class fare, so gets only 25% miles on Flying Blue.
However, some Americans on the forum were really excited about this fare (since it give 100% miles in some frequent flyer programs). This led to discussions about the cheapest way to go to HEL. It’s even funnier since this fare requires a connection in Amsterdam. So now you know it: The best way from HEL to SIN is via Amsterdam, but you must first find a way to go to HEL.
January 14th, 2008 at 03:42
Posted by
epsalon |
Funny Stuff, Frequent Flyer |
2 comments
