Departure date set for November 27
Well, I finally have something else to post to
this blog. Actually, since I began it back in June, there's been plenty I
could/should have written about. I'd love nothing more than for India to be the
top priority in my life right now. But it's not. There's the planning for the
addition to our house, construction of which will commence while we're in India
(fortunately Marion's handled 95% of that stress), classes began at the end of
August, I'm trying to wrap up a research project on public involvement in forest
management in the national forests of the Sierra Nevada, and of course there's
the distraction of two little ones (joys though they are) placing all sorts of
demands on us.
Enough with the excuse.
I finally approached my associate dean about missing the last three classes of
the semester so that we could leave in late November or early December. He was
quite understanding, so once I got the go-ahead, I began looking into the
possibility of using our frequent flyer miles to get us Business Class tickets
to India. Unfortunately, there were a number of road blocks to using our
miles--some coming from the airlines and others from the Fulbright office in
India that usually likes to book travel for its Fulbrighters. In the end, we are
having the India Fulbright office, which I will henceforth refer to as the
United States Educational Foundation in India (USEFI), book our travel. I've
specified that we would like to leave on November 27, the Sunday after
Thanksgiving.
All I know for sure is
that we'll be flying coach on a U.S.-based airline like United, Continental,
Northwest, or American. This I know because the Congressionally appropriated
funds for Fulbrighters require that all travel adhere to the Fly America Act,
which I guess specifies that citizens traveling on the government's dime (which
is really our own dimes, in part, right?) patronize U.S.-based companies. That
means no Lufthansa, no British Airways, and no Cathay Pacific. It also probably
means we'll be flying across the Atlantic to get there instead of the Pacific.
More importantly, setting the
departure date has set in motion other important steps like packing, and
scheduling movers. Setting a date also makes the whole thing seem not just
closer, but more real also. Not that I had doubts we'd actually be going, but
it's hard to grasp what we're doing, never having been to India myself.
Posted: Fri - September 30, 2005 at 11:42 AM