For some magical reason, there were zero people in line at Regatta – and it was not just a weekend, it was May Day! I am just grateful for the opportunity 🙂
Regatta
Category: travel
A Very Brief Visit to Helsinki
No, I am not flying Business Class all the time; it’s just that I had a total of 14 upgrades because of my Finnair Platinum, and I can only use them on the Finnair flights, not on the partner’s flights. And also, there are fewer and fewer direct flights from Chicago, so I am flying on the partnering airlines most of the time. For this super-short visit, I used six of these forteen upgrades to fly Business Class on the way there, and Economy Premium on the way back. One benefit of Platinum at ORD was that I could go to the LOT Business Lounge (otherwise, the Quatar Airlines Lounge is absolutely horrible).
As usual, I started with sleeping for ten hours straight to compensate not just for the flight (I could sleep fine, since it was all horizontal), but for the previous weeks of anxiety.
And then, there were three days of biking :). It was rather intense, because I still didn’t bike much in Chicago this spring – it was too cold. It might be not much warmer in Helsinki, but I could not say no to Boris, so I just did.
Last Wednesday
Keeping going through the last week. I hosted two conference attendees, plus Anna for one of the nights. My first houseguest, B., was a conference speaker from Madagascar. She is an absolutely outstanding woman, and I want ot tell more about her in the near future. That was her first time coming to the US, and she had a 22-hour long journey with two connections. I told her I would meet her at ORD, because it is very difficult to navigate this airport even when you are an experienced traveler.
Her flight arrival time was 7:30 AM, and I took the L-train there, because everything runs relatively normally on a weekday morning, so it was a 4 AM wake-up, leaving the house at 5:30. The airport was as quiet as it could possibly be, and we saw each other right away. I took her to the office where we left her luggage, and then to the Architectural tour, because Wednesday was the only opportunity for her to see something!
One of the conference attendees took the same boat tour with us, and then we went to the Art Institute. I didn’t plan to be at work on that day, but one of the customers kept having issues, and I was the only person who could fix them. I asked Igor to take over my Chicago guide responsibilities, and rushed to the office to save the world. My second houseguest, L. was arriving at 4 PM, and we calculated that with the luggage and the passport control, she would be at my house by 6 PM, so I had plenty of time. But then I was stuck with saving the world, and her flight arrived earlier, and by some miracle, her luggage came out very fast as well.
With all that, she waited for us for twenty minutes! At least, the weather was warm on Wednesday, and she just sat on her luggage in the sun reading a book. Nobody wanted to go out for dinner, so I made a quick meal and went to bed.
The next day, the actual work had begun.
Flying Back
I flew back from LA to Chicago last Sunday, on the day of switching to daylight saving time. My original flight was about 11 AM, but then I switched to the first flight of the day so that I won’t spend the whole day on the flight (and I had a show at Theo that evening).
Although that meant I had to be up before 4 AM of DST, it was the right decision – I believe, that’s the only way for an American Airlines flight to be on time :). I was unsure whether the lounge will be open – in ORD, they open the AA lounge at 5-30AM, and even later, at 6 AM, in Helsinki. Maybe they stay open 24X7 at LAX, I don’t know, but at 5:05 AM they were open and breakfast was available – the first normal breakfast, with fruits, that week!
Then, same as on the inbound trip, there was no food on the plane, and by the time I was out of the aircraft, it was already six hours after this breakfast. I still wanted to get home ASAP, because I had chances to bike while the weather was nice, so I didn’t stop in any of the airport cafes, and preceded to the Uber pickup spot.
Judging by the driver’s name, there were high chances he was Muslim, so I said that I apologize of he is fasting, but would it be OK with him if I munch on a bisquit since they didn’t feed us during the flight. He said is was fine, and then he asked me whether I want a date, because it’s the best after you didn’t eat for a while. It was so unexpected tha I said “yes”, and he pulled out a napkin with several gigantic soft dates, and I took one. It tasted heavenly.He proceeded telling me how he was caught during the previous night “missing hour” with not being able to get in time to a cafe opened until 3 AM, because 3 AM happened right after 1 AM, and how he was well prepared on that day (“I also have oranges, if you’d like!”) He definitely made my day!
Pasadena
The weather was horrible most of the time, and also, I was busy with multiple work and non-work things and the only time I did some sightseeing was for a couple of hours on Saturday, when I met with my friend Tanya and she took me to see Pasadena Town Hall and American Pacific Museum.It was great to catch up with her, and also, that was the only day when the weather was nice!
Hotel Dena
I loved the hotel, all its retro decor, my room, and the gym. The only thing that I strongly disliked was food, breakfast specifically, but I already lamented about it.
Now, some nice pictures.
A Post Of Food Complaints
As it turned out, American Airlines does not serve food or even have food for purchase on the flight to LA. I was in the lounge before the flight, but it didn’t even occur to me to take an apple on board – I was absolutely sure I could purchase something during the flight. It turned out that the only thing I could purchase was alcohol, chips and almonds!
With the flight delay, and the time it takes to get from LAX to Pasadena, it was 8-30 PM local time when i got to the hotel, so it was already 10-30 PM CT, and I didn’t want to go to the restaurant, all I wanted was to go to bed.
I woke up at 3 AM (5 AM CT), and forced myself to sleep for a little bit more. I didn’t want to switch to PT time because it was for three days only, and Sunday is Daylight Saving Time switch, and my flight is very early, so it didn’t make much sense. However, breakfast at hotel started at 6-30AM, and I needed to survive until that. I grabbed some snacks in the 24 -hour self-service shop on the hotel;s first floor, and there was coffee in the room, but still…
On top of that, the hotel breakfast was mediocre at most. When I see “breakfast included” I assume there will be breakfast buffet, but instead, I was given vouchers for each of the days, and the only thing you could get on this voucher was your choice of eggs (sramble, fried, sunny side) with your choice of toast and coffee or tea. That’t it. I asked for cappuccino, and they said “it was not included.” I said that I could pay for it, they said:OK, and in ten minutes, they brought me regular coffee. 🤷🏻♀️
There is no food served at the Expo; the talks start at 10 AM local time, which meant noon for mw, and a lunch break (when you needed to go and find your lunch) was from 1-30 to 2-30 PM! The Starbucks in the building helped,but overall, I don’t know what to say! Let’s just say that the first day, and the whole stay was very food-challening!
If You Ever Lived In Chicago…
I met many new people at the conference, including two people who currently live in Chicago and one who lived in Chicago before. When I said that I live in Chicago, all of them immediately asked the follow-up question: Where in Chicago? To which I proudly replied: Rogers Park.
There is probably nothing to be especially proud of or make a big deal of, but I love how much Chicago neighborhoods define us! I love how many questions are answered by this one reply: I am from Rogers Park, that’s my neighborhood!
And while we are on the topic of Chicago, I shamelessly promoted the city to the international conference participants, so I hope more international speakers will come to us in the future!
And Flying Again!
This time, to Pasadena for a conference. The American Airlines lounge at Terminal 3 now feels like home – I’ve been there so many times, that I have “my” spot.
The flight was showing on time, and I could not believe it! Still, the boarding was announced, and I hurried to the gate.
Guess what? We all got in, and then the captain announced: in case you didn’t notice, it started to snow, so now we need to go through de-icing, and it’s a long line ahead of us, so will will be here for at least 30 minutes.
It ended up being an hour. Well, I should say – only an hour!
Air Travel Again
It’s not even funny, but Boris’ flight back was also screwed up. To be precise, his evening flight on Sunday was canceled, and he was put on a British Airways flight that departed almost four hours later. As a result, he missed his connection in London, and they couldn’t find his new ticket, so he missed the next flight as well and was at home after 10 PM on Monday.
With all that, I am not optimistic about my next week’s flight to LA because it’s also AA. My only consolation is that I fly in the day before the conference starts, and my flight back is super -early Sunday morning on the day of switching to the DST
Hettie's Reflections 