Finally the details

My vacation in T&T
19 Dec: The Plane
Seated next to a guy who talked the entire 5hrs of the flight. Told me his whole life story including his age(mid 40s)...currently single(divorced)....dates Black, Indian, White, anyone(he's Indian)....his fav foods...his job and current salary...# siblings...that he owns a house....etc, etc, etc. I could hardly get a word in edgewise which is really saying something b/c I can be quite chatty.
I tried to read my book, even made a half-hearted attempt at using my headphones but he just kept on talking and I guess I'm just too polite to be openly rude. He also gave me a gift-a silver chain. you might be wondering why I would accept such a gift from a stranger...well it's beautiful and he got all offended when I tried to refuse it. So I accepted it. Didn't know what else to do.
I told my Mum about it and she said that maybe the universe wanted to give me a gift and they used him as a medium.
He seemed like a perfectly nice guy if a bit chatty, just not for me. He had rings on every finger of each hand, a couple fingers even had 2 rings and he also had a couple bracelets on each hand as well. My kind of guy will not feel the need to wear that much jewelry at once. And he also wore his shades...on the plane for the entire flight. Odd, no?
They served the most disgusting meal I've ever had on a plane - turkey/cheese/unidentifiable chewy thing in an overheated bun which was too hard in some places and very soggy in others. Too gross for me to eat it all.

20 Dec/21 Dec: Food Poisoning
Ate Chinese food which was one of the things on my list of foods that I wanted to eat while I was home. Well, I got a horrible case of food poisoning within 20min of eating it. I threw up for a long time. Was in and out of the loo all night and most of the next day. The horror, the horror! 4 other family members also ate the same food I ate but no one else was sick. mu Mum said that maybe they were used to the bacteria.

I spent the next few days doing some shopping and seeing various uncles/aunts. Christmas was a really good day but we did miss my older sis who couldn't make it home this year. Got great presents, really nice pieces of jewelry as well as cool accessories for my iPod. Also got the Love Actually soundtrack. I love that movie and the soundtrack is great.

I spent most of my my time sitting in front of the fan. I was so hot. When I wasn't in front of the fan I was covered in a sheen of sweat, literally. It was not pretty. My body is just not used to the heat anymore.

My Mum sewed a couple outfits for me and I also bought a few long skirts. I can never find anything dressy that fits right normally so I was really glad to find the skirts. One of the outfits my Mum made is a really cool 2-piece top/skirt in a silvery purple Chinese silk (so beautiful)- I'm planning to wear that to our Holiday party at work which is in 2 weeks. All I need now are shoes.

Went to church with the family New Year's Day. Spent the rest of the day at the beach. My sisters ate bake and shark while I had kingfish and fries. No shark for me. Bake and shark is standard beach food in Trinidad.

3 Jan: time to fly back
Woke up at 5am to get ready to go to the airport. While checking in my bags, my Mum asked where my jacket was and I told her it was in one of the bags I was checking in. She suggested that I take it out and keep it in my hand luggage. Being the good daughter that I am, I did as she suggested. Boy am I glad that I did. Here's why.
Normally it takes 2-3 hrs from the time I get off the plane in Newark to get through immigration and customs b/c there are usu 100s of people in line ahead of me and we all have to be fingerprinted/photographed/etc. So instead of booking my connecting flight at 330pm, I booked the next available one at 9pm. I figured it'd only be about 3-4hrs wait and that way I wouldn't miss my connecting flight. The best laid plans of mice and men, isn't that what they say? Well my flight from Trinidad got in at 1:30pm and i was actually done with immigration and customs by 2:30pm. I think our flight was one of the first international ones to arrive so for once the line only had 3 people ahead of me. My luggage came out in no time as well. So I rechecked my bags (you have to pick up your luggage from international flights, go through customs with them, and then re-check them to your final destination) and decided to go to my gate and hang out there until my flight. I was so sick of Newark airport by 7pm. So tired of the waiting. At 8:30, I still can't see my flight on any of the screens, so I go up to one of the gate security guys and he looks at my ticket and tells me that it has wrong gate on it. He then tells me that I need 114B. So I ask if that's in Terminal B and he says yes. So he puts me on this shuttle bus (along with a few other people) which is supposed to take me from where I am (terminal A) to the right place. When the bus drops us off is, it's at Terminal C and that time is 8:45pm. So I stop one of the workers there and ask if I am in the right place for gate 114B-terminal B. They tell me no and that I have to take the air shuttle back to terminal B. I ask them if they are sure, tell them my destination and that the shuttle bus just brought me there. They insist that I need to take the air shuttle. I take the stupid air shuttle to terminal B and look around only to find out that there is no gate 114 in terminal B, it stops at gate 68. So I ask someone again, where I should be and they laugh and tell me that I need terminal C. I race back to terminal C and have to trek to the back of the damn terminal to find stupid gate 114B. It's now 9pm and my flight has just left...without me...after I waited 7 bloody hrs. I was so pissed off - partly at the incompetent workers who could have told me that 114B doesn't exist in terminal B and not sent me on a wild goose chase. I was also pissed at myself for not checking with someone earlier about my gate/flight since it was not on the departure boards at all in terminal A - should have been my first clue really that something was wrong. At first I thought it wasn't there b/c it was so early. Then I couldn't find an agent to ask. The service desk there for continental had a really long line and I figured I was in the right place so didn't bother to recheck to make sure I was in the right place. So I blame myself as well.
It took some more running around freaking terminal C before I could get to a service desk that was open. After waiting 45min I finally speak to a service rep who gives me a voucher to stay in hotel for the night. The next flight was leaving 8:30am Thurs. She was really nice and also gave me directions to the service office where I was able to toiletries. Totally needed b/c I'd forgotten to pack my toothbrush (even after my Mum reminded me about it) and when I got to the hotel at midnight, the gift shop was already closed. Another good thing was that she also gave me vouchers for dinner and breakfast. i had 1 clean shirt and basic underwear in my hand luggage. I couldn't sleep - probably due to all the stress/feeling like I'd miss flight in the morning. I woke up at 5am, showered, dressed, took the airport shuttle. It took an hr to get through security. Why don't people know the basic protocol for passing through security? Take off your shoes...put phones in bag, not in pocket...yes, your jacket/vest/belt need to be taken off...yes, you have to take your laptop out of the case...yes you need to have your ID out with your boarding pass. These are not difficult rules to remember, especially since there are video screens up saying all this in addition to the TSA security guards who also keep repeating this info for the idiots that don't seem to grasp these rules.

So I called my boss at work to let them know I was still in Newark but would be in to work around 11pm. My flight was supposed to get in at 10am. E came to pick me up at the airport; luckily my luggage was waiting for me (it had arrived on the flight I missed). I decided to just go into work instead of going home. I had quite a bit of corrections to do on the reports I did before I left for my vacay last year. My old project ended and I’ve been transferred to another project. I know most of the people on this project and my new supervisor is ok so far. I had to move my lab stuff to their lab. I also have to move my writing area stuff downstairs as it’d be closer to my new lab. It’s kind of a pain b/c I’ve been in the same writing area for 4 ½ yrs and have accumulated a fair amt of crap. So I’ll have to do some shredding of old project paperwork. I’m ready for a change.