I arrived from Spain on July 27 after skipping one night of sleep all together and getting 3 hours of that luxury the night before. The fact that I havn't blogged for a while is an indication of nothing else but me truly enjoying my time in Spain and now in Moscow. Oh! Time to bounce! I will get back to glogging tomorrow.
Cheers from Moscow,
Natalie
Monday, July 28, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Enjoying my vacation!
Things truly turned around for me when I finally met with Olya in our crappy hotel! :) Olya looks phenomenal and she surrounded me with love and care (and you all know how much I need that), so I instantly felt better about the entire flight expirience. Upon arrival, I took a 2.5-hour nap, which was magical! I woke up at around 4:30pm, all energized. We spent several hours on the beach (thank you Olya for your swimming suit!) and came back to the hotel at 8pm to find out that my red friend was located and is on its way to meet me at the hotel!!! We waited for the suitcase to show up till 10pm, but then it was time to bounce in the direction of some food... So... To Olya's huge disappointment all pices of her clothes fit me beautifully! Her jeans and a cute white top looked like they could easily belong to me ;) (see photos) Shose were a bit of a problem since I only had flip-flops that I acuired for $4 many years ago in Vegas and that are only used for flying these days and Ol'ka's shose were several sizes too big, so I wasn't able to walk too far, but since we had an escort, there was no need for walking. ;)
At 10:30, we were picked up by two brothers of our age, whoc drove us to a nearby twon 30 mins away for dinner. They are super nice and intelligent and truly wonderful hosts. Ol'ka befriended their father on the flight from Milan. We had rather extanded discussions about politics, religions, arts, history, and anything else dear to our hearts and worth being discussed. At 1:30am I was ready to sleep and they dropped us off at our hotel. It is great to have there hospitality, since Ol'ka and I are staying in not-so-nice of a town - Fuengerola - which is surrounded by much nicer areas, such as Marbella, and the town we visited yesterday (I will find out the name). Fuengerola's beach is nice, but this is where it ends. I slept great and woke up ready to enjoy life at 10am. No jetleg, ladies and gentlemen!
Today we spent morning on the beach (mommy, yes I did stay in the shade). The see is kinda chilly, but very refreshing! Now I am stuck working - writing 10Q, so I better get back to that so that I can go back to beach within a couple of hours.
The horror trip was worth it.
I miss you guys!
Natasha
At 10:30, we were picked up by two brothers of our age, whoc drove us to a nearby twon 30 mins away for dinner. They are super nice and intelligent and truly wonderful hosts. Ol'ka befriended their father on the flight from Milan. We had rather extanded discussions about politics, religions, arts, history, and anything else dear to our hearts and worth being discussed. At 1:30am I was ready to sleep and they dropped us off at our hotel. It is great to have there hospitality, since Ol'ka and I are staying in not-so-nice of a town - Fuengerola - which is surrounded by much nicer areas, such as Marbella, and the town we visited yesterday (I will find out the name). Fuengerola's beach is nice, but this is where it ends. I slept great and woke up ready to enjoy life at 10am. No jetleg, ladies and gentlemen!
Today we spent morning on the beach (mommy, yes I did stay in the shade). The see is kinda chilly, but very refreshing! Now I am stuck working - writing 10Q, so I better get back to that so that I can go back to beach within a couple of hours.
The horror trip was worth it.
I miss you guys!
Natasha
Finally in Spain!
I am now on the train from Malaga Airport to Fuengerola where Olka is impatiently waiting for me after a night of wild dancing. I am still baggageless and exhausted beyond anything I have experienced before. I am barely capable to move my legs and use my brain.
The plane ride from NYC to Madrid was very nice. I was fortunate to get a volunteer firefighter neighbor who was a great conversational companion and also helped me a lot when my nervous system finally gave in. Thank you, dear firefighter!
In Madrid I had extra 20 mins before my flight to Malaga and I used them to find out a great piece of information – my suitcase made it to Spain and had chances of being on a flight with me! With one small caviat of course… the flight from Chicago that it took was delayed, thus its chances of making the connection were slim. Of course, it did not make the connection and after waiting for the last suitcase on the carousel I had to file a “missing suitcase” claim. Where do I file a “missing vacation day and thousands of nervous cells claim”?
Oh! I now see the ocean through the train window!!! Well… hopefully the most difficult and ridiculous part of my trip is over… I am pretty sure tomorrow will be a great day, and maybe even today! :)
The plane ride from NYC to Madrid was very nice. I was fortunate to get a volunteer firefighter neighbor who was a great conversational companion and also helped me a lot when my nervous system finally gave in. Thank you, dear firefighter!
In Madrid I had extra 20 mins before my flight to Malaga and I used them to find out a great piece of information – my suitcase made it to Spain and had chances of being on a flight with me! With one small caviat of course… the flight from Chicago that it took was delayed, thus its chances of making the connection were slim. Of course, it did not make the connection and after waiting for the last suitcase on the carousel I had to file a “missing suitcase” claim. Where do I file a “missing vacation day and thousands of nervous cells claim”?
Oh! I now see the ocean through the train window!!! Well… hopefully the most difficult and ridiculous part of my trip is over… I am pretty sure tomorrow will be a great day, and maybe even today! :)
Saturday, July 19, 2008
SFO - Chicago flight expirience
Well... I got a newly acquired taste for life, realized that I am yet to find my G-d, and lost quit a few of my nerve cells.
My pre-MBA vacation has (or had) the following itinerary:
Malaga, Spain July 19- July 26
Moscow July 26 - July 29
Piter July 29 - August 3
Budapest August 3 - August 5
Montenegro/Croatia August 5 - August 13
July 17th was my last workday at the office and was sad, but rather uneventful - just the way I wanted it to be (well, except for maybe unclosed books for June portion). On the eraly morning of July 18th I was to head to Spain and start living my MBA life. Since my trip was to have numerous destination, I tighly packed my red 1/2 my hight suitcase and happily headed towards SFO at 8am. I had a long way ahead of me - 2 plane changes to get me to Malaga when I would meet my friend Ol'ka, who was flying in from St Petersburg.
My first flight San Fran - Chicago was to depart on time. All passengers boarded the plane, but then some "minor technical difficulty" came up and we were sitting on the ground for extra 30 mins "addressing the issue". We took off a bit behind the schedule, but on target to land safely and on-time. About an hour into our flight the airplane made some funky noises, which might not even be related to what happenned next. We were flying above some mountains when the airplane started quickly loosing altitude. As my ears started popping and it became very hot in the plane, I thought we were crashing. Not the best feeling in the world. Shortly, the announcement followed: "we have some minor technical issues in the cockpit here and will have to divert to Salk Lake City airport for precautionary landing". HOLLY SMOKES! I am only 28 and I do not want to die on my first day of pre-MBA life! I mean, I just don't want to crash at all!!! My neightbor was amazing! He was calming me down, chatting with me and trying to get my mind of the fact that me might be crashng as his hands were violetly shaking when he was passing his glass to a flight attendant.
In about 10 mins another announcement aired: "We lost our ability to pressurize the cabin - please prepare for landing". Somehow it sounded much scarier on the plane than when I am typing it up now. By then the flight attendants were running around collecting everything they had in sight and making everyone get ready for landing. Passengers with eyes wide open were sweating and looked very worried. Maybe I looked a bit more worried than others, but one of the flight attendants asked me if I am scared. I told her that I was very scared - isn't she. She said she was not scared, and yes, we were having a technical difficulty, but that if it would be emergency, she owuld be preparing us differently. That was the best piece of news! Thank you, dear flight attendant!!!
30 mins after the sudden drop in altitude and when the salon air was getting pretty thin and damn hot, we landed in SLC. They let us off the plane and asked to stay in the gate area. It was announced that SLC airport is not used to getting aircrafts that large and that they have no way of unloading our luggage off the plane. 2+ hours after the landing it was announced that the plane will have ot be chartered to get fixed and that passengers need to make arrangements for reaching their final destinations. Suitcases? Bah-bye red 1/2 my hight tightly packed friend!
In ~2 hours I managed to book a Delta NYC-bound flight that was to land at 11:31pm in JFK. I had to overcome some routine Delta/American ticket swap and 20 mins befor ethe take-off I finally got my boarding pass to fly to NYC. My beloved in-laws live in NYC and were happy to see me. Minor problem was that when they picked me up there car was not just low on gas, I think it was running on vapor... After a 75-minute traffic jam on the way out of the airport we made it to a gas station and so far it was the last of my misfortunes...
I am leaving for JFK in 20 mins and will hop on a plane to Madrid and then Malaga where I will land exactly 24 hours later than originally intended. My friend from Russia is already at our hotel, which she was nto deeply impressed with.
All in all, I am happy to be alive and hopefull about my next flights.
When I thought I was crashing, I was thinking that I enjoyed every moment of my life, except for the flight 1612 that was bound for Chicago and landed in SLC; I would like you to know that too. Life is beautiful!
Love,
Natalie/Natasha
My pre-MBA vacation has (or had) the following itinerary:
Malaga, Spain July 19- July 26
Moscow July 26 - July 29
Piter July 29 - August 3
Budapest August 3 - August 5
Montenegro/Croatia August 5 - August 13
July 17th was my last workday at the office and was sad, but rather uneventful - just the way I wanted it to be (well, except for maybe unclosed books for June portion). On the eraly morning of July 18th I was to head to Spain and start living my MBA life. Since my trip was to have numerous destination, I tighly packed my red 1/2 my hight suitcase and happily headed towards SFO at 8am. I had a long way ahead of me - 2 plane changes to get me to Malaga when I would meet my friend Ol'ka, who was flying in from St Petersburg.
My first flight San Fran - Chicago was to depart on time. All passengers boarded the plane, but then some "minor technical difficulty" came up and we were sitting on the ground for extra 30 mins "addressing the issue". We took off a bit behind the schedule, but on target to land safely and on-time. About an hour into our flight the airplane made some funky noises, which might not even be related to what happenned next. We were flying above some mountains when the airplane started quickly loosing altitude. As my ears started popping and it became very hot in the plane, I thought we were crashing. Not the best feeling in the world. Shortly, the announcement followed: "we have some minor technical issues in the cockpit here and will have to divert to Salk Lake City airport for precautionary landing". HOLLY SMOKES! I am only 28 and I do not want to die on my first day of pre-MBA life! I mean, I just don't want to crash at all!!! My neightbor was amazing! He was calming me down, chatting with me and trying to get my mind of the fact that me might be crashng as his hands were violetly shaking when he was passing his glass to a flight attendant.
In about 10 mins another announcement aired: "We lost our ability to pressurize the cabin - please prepare for landing". Somehow it sounded much scarier on the plane than when I am typing it up now. By then the flight attendants were running around collecting everything they had in sight and making everyone get ready for landing. Passengers with eyes wide open were sweating and looked very worried. Maybe I looked a bit more worried than others, but one of the flight attendants asked me if I am scared. I told her that I was very scared - isn't she. She said she was not scared, and yes, we were having a technical difficulty, but that if it would be emergency, she owuld be preparing us differently. That was the best piece of news! Thank you, dear flight attendant!!!
30 mins after the sudden drop in altitude and when the salon air was getting pretty thin and damn hot, we landed in SLC. They let us off the plane and asked to stay in the gate area. It was announced that SLC airport is not used to getting aircrafts that large and that they have no way of unloading our luggage off the plane. 2+ hours after the landing it was announced that the plane will have ot be chartered to get fixed and that passengers need to make arrangements for reaching their final destinations. Suitcases? Bah-bye red 1/2 my hight tightly packed friend!
In ~2 hours I managed to book a Delta NYC-bound flight that was to land at 11:31pm in JFK. I had to overcome some routine Delta/American ticket swap and 20 mins befor ethe take-off I finally got my boarding pass to fly to NYC. My beloved in-laws live in NYC and were happy to see me. Minor problem was that when they picked me up there car was not just low on gas, I think it was running on vapor... After a 75-minute traffic jam on the way out of the airport we made it to a gas station and so far it was the last of my misfortunes...
I am leaving for JFK in 20 mins and will hop on a plane to Madrid and then Malaga where I will land exactly 24 hours later than originally intended. My friend from Russia is already at our hotel, which she was nto deeply impressed with.
All in all, I am happy to be alive and hopefull about my next flights.
When I thought I was crashing, I was thinking that I enjoyed every moment of my life, except for the flight 1612 that was bound for Chicago and landed in SLC; I would like you to know that too. Life is beautiful!
Love,
Natalie/Natasha
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
First Blogging Expirience Ever
I have never blogged before, so I am not sure where to begin. The idea of blogging first came when I was getting ready to apply to Business Schools. In the process of applying, I found other students' and applicants' bloggs very interesting and helpful. I enjoyed reading those and I hope someone will enjoy and benefit from mine.
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