I'm sitting here stranded having an adventure in the Washington D.C. airport in the middle of a huge winter snowstorm. :) If I wanted snow for Christmas I sure got plenty of it!
Dane is lying in front of me on one of the baggage carousels asleep, and she is such a cute shminkus. We spent a great night with a wonderful family in Sarajevo - classic Bosnian hospitality, with kava and caj. Then in the morning they drove us to the airport, first the Dutchies for their early flight, and then Dane and I at seven to catch our connecting flight from Sarajevo to Vienna. The airport in Sarajevo was operating, but we were nervous flights would be canceled due to the snow there as well as the fog, but we made it into the air and on our way to Austria safely and on time. Thank goodness! It was beautiful seeing all the mountains from above with snow covered peaks.
I started reading my first book of the trip, "The Bridge Over the Dhrina" and after living in BiH it gives a very interesting, more ancient, historical perspective to the conflicts and divisions within the Balkans. The author Ivo Andrić won a nobel prize in literature for this book. Just in case you wanted to know ;) Anyways, it was a 10 hour flight from Vienna to Washington D.C. and it went well until we got to the Eastern seaboard where it is currently a raging snowstorm, which is dumping maybe a foot or two of fresh powder snow all over the city. I sat next to a really interesting guy who is building the new US embassy in Sarajevo. He told me lots of stories of his travels around the world first with the navy, and now as a private government contractor. Besides a lot of experience traveling all over the world, he told me a lot about the fraud and waste involved in government projects that are not properly managed. This starts a complete conversation about governments, corruption, and then of course the next question - how can we solve it? The same principles apply to any project, if it is well organized and managed a project is more bound to be successful than one that is thrown together, especially if each person knows what they should do, and what is expected of them. This applys to UWCs, to NGOs, to governments, to everything. One lesson that I am debating in my head is what Barbara told me right before I left for Kosova, "Don't be a candle that burns at both ends." What is the tipping point between excelling and doing a lot of things and doing too much! It is easy to want to do more than is possible at UWCiM because there is so much potential and passion.
Back on topic, we were barely able to land in D.C. because the snow was falling thickly and the wind was blowing quite hard. The scrapers and trucks and workers couldn't keep the runways clean and the planes de-iced. I found out later that our flight was actually not supposed to leave from Vienna, but I am glad that it did - even though I am not home to Portland, I am at least back in the US and across the Atlantic Ocean. We landed, but weren't able to escape the plane for an hour, and when we finally did we had to wait for our baggage for an hour to an hour and a half. Well, when we finally got that we had a mini celebration, then went to brave the news about our flights to Oregon and Michigan. Turns out all the flights for the rest of the night were canceled and the airport was officially closed but all the people who are stranded are allowed to spend the night here. It is quite a nice environment, everybody is really friendly.
I got REALLY lucky! I have a guardian angel, because I went to reschedule my flight for as soon as possible, and originally the guy said unfortunately the soonest he could get me a flight would be on Wednesday the 23rd. I was close to losing hope, but he kept on looking and I was praying and crossing my fingers and he really wanted to help me get a flight sooner. Thank goodness he kept looking, because he somehow found me the last ticket for a flight to San Francisco at 6:45 Sunday (this) morning and then FINALLY a flight to Portland at 10 AM (but you need to take into account the time difference.) So since about 7 this evening I've been hanging out in the airport. Everybody is really friendly here, because we all a common bond - we're all trapped here trying to get planes to where we need to go. There are lots of international travelers trying to get to foreign countries. Right now its just a little past midnight, and I am sitting with a group of students studying at universities in the US, but originally from Qatar, and I also had a conversation with several guys from Mumbai who are trying to get home to the sunshine. A girl named Zainab And several young guys in the navy who don't have very much experience. Ratatoui is playing on a laptop. Christmas jazz music is playing in the background.
So many questions are running through my mind right now, as I go through this transition back home I'm really reflecting on the past five months. I'm noticing many differences between the US and Bosnia, and Europe. Things that I wasn't even conscience of before. I need to think about this a little more and then I will add it :)
Now I need to sleep myself on the carousal, pray that I can leave in the morning as well as Dane!
Love,
Hilary
good luck Hilary!! :) At least it is a good story, hope you get home soon....
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