One of these things is not like the other...

Well, here is the first official "picture of the day" post...on the second day of my Fulbright experience.  That probably isn't a fair statment as the Fulbright experience hasn't officially began because weather delays and other unstated issues caused my arrival in New Brunswick, NJ to be 28 hours later than anticipated.  Can you tell which boarding pass(es) were actually used?

I actually left Minneapolis on an earlier flight than anticipated Wednesday, June 23 and landed in Chicago with the reminants of sprinkles on the windows.  As I got off the plane I immediately saw that my connecting flight to Newark had been canceled.  Really???  It looked darn nice outside to me.  I've been on delayed flight a million times, but never actually had a flight straight out canceled.  The earliest available flight out was 6:30 pm, but when I plead my case about needing to meet up with four people I had never actually met in person before, for this flight, I was put on standby for the 12:30.  Within ten minutes 12:30 was canceled and I was put on standby for 2:30.  With all the last minute preparation and confusion no one had really thought to exchange cell phone numbers beforehand and just figured we'd all meet up together in NJ!  After some round-about phone exchanges, I finally connected with 3 other people stuck in Chicago by phone and met up with Karen B. at gate K3.  Let me just say, Karen B. is my new best friend! ;-)

When the 6:30 pm flight was canceled and the 2:30 was repeatedly delayed and delayed, I was rebooked for 12:30 pm on Thursday and Karen decided to give up on the 2:30 as well and rebook on the same flight as me.  We called Huang (who lives outside of Chicago and had already brought Carridy and Karen K. home with her) and got directions to her house.  Huang and her mother graciously put up four "strangers" in their home for the night and made us a wonderful dinner, as the weather raged outside.  The anticipated front came through around 5pm.

Huang, Carridy and Karen K. flew out of Chicago at 6:30am this morning and Karen B. and I arrived back at the airport ~8am for our 12:30 flight.  As the fates would have it, 12:30 was pushed back to 1:30 and with bated breath we pulled away from the gate...to then park on the tarmac for roughly another hour!  Touch down in Newark actually happened at 5:15pm, with our luggage arriving approximately twelve hours before us and finally arriving at the Hyatt at 6:30 pm...only 28 hours later than anticipated.  We've missed the first day and a half of orientation, but I think we're smart enough to catch up.

Susan - your "airport security approved travel toiletries" kit was a life saver!!
Susie - the travel treats were a godsend...you two really could have given me a heads up because obviously you both had an inkling!