Phase one: The Honeymoon
Online check in to be sure to have a good seat. My luggage full of everything I need (and not only) ready on my bed. Everything is perfect. I am super excited to leave for this great trip together with my new friends.
4 weeks in India, wow. A never-ending smile on my face for the last few days. :-)
And then my Italian friends who came to my place to say goodbye to me. Together we have a hot tea and last cheat chat :-) Love them.
And then by car to Milano Centrale and on Malpensa Shuttle to Malpensa airport.
No traffic jam. No snow storm. No delay. I am at the check-in perfectly on time: 7.30pm. I am alone, but happy. I am looking forward to arriving in Delhi and meet Shawna, Varun and all the other crazy people of Business School. Life is good.
Check in: done. Ya men. No problem.
Security control: done. Ya men. No problem.
Comfortable chair at the gate: done. Ya men. No problem.
9pm: we board, and the crew is super nice. We have a seat, the commander says hello to everyone and a nice hostess gives me hot towels to refresh my hands.
Pay attention….this is the end of the honeymoon…
Chapter two: The Shock
9.30pm: the commander says that due to a technical problem we need to wait a few minutes before leaving. Fine. No problem.
10.00pm: the technical problem is still to be fixed, and we are still on the plane. In the meantime, I have watched first 30minutes of Inception.
10.15pm: announcement: “Bad news, I am sorry to tell you that we need to let you leave the plane because we were not able to fix the problem.” WHAT??? And after that we de-board (is it correct?)
11.30pm: announcement: “We have contacted the Sheraton Hotel closed by Malpensa in case we’ll not be able to fix the problem to host you for the night.
12.30pm: announcement: “We have contacted the Sheraton Hotel closed by Malpensa in case we’ll not be able to fix the problem to host you for the night.
1am: announcement: “We have contacted the Sheraton Hotel closed by Malpensa in case we’ll not be able to fix the problem to host you for the night.
These hours at the airport waiting are horrible. Everyone is angry for the delay, but first of all for the connections. A lot of people will loose theirs.
In this hectic and chaotic situation the good news is that I meet and get to know amazing people! I meet first of all Justine, who is going to visit his boyfriend that is temporarily studying in India. Then I meet Roberta, a crazy woman who is going to visit some friends. After a while a met Giovanna Reds, an English professor who decides to spend the waiting time by doing the English assignments she gave her students. All of them are amazing people and I am so glad to have met them! Hopefully I’ll see them again.
But this is not the end… at the airport I meet Davide A. who is here because his girlfriend is leaving for… don’t remember… and on my flight there is also a well known man I met last month in NY: Marinoni!!! Yes.
Thanks to all these people my waiting time was definitely entertaining.
1.30am: announcement: “The flight is not cancelled. The flight is postponed to tomorrow morning 10am. Please, collect you checked baggage. Check in will open tomorrow morning at 7am. Jet airways is taking care of your accommodation at Sheraton hotel.”
2.00am: 220 people are in line waiting to check in at the Sheraton hotel that of course has capacity in terms of rooms availability…but not in terms of personnel.
3.00am: Stefania is eventually laying on her beautiful bed at Sheraton, dreaming of India.
p.s. NO DINNER
7.00am: someone calls me in my room, because I overslept! Ya men. No problem. Very fast breakfast, check out from the hotel and run to the check in.
7.45am: I read on the board “The flight for Delhi will leave at noon”. Shit.
10.00am: I read on the board “The flight for Delhi will probably leave at noon”.
11.00am: I read on the board “We’ll let you know at noon if the flight for Delhi will leave at 2pm”.
11.30am: The check in opens!!!! Yuppy!!!! We check in and receive together with the boarding card a coupon to have a delicious lunch at MyChef…slurp.
Noon. Ready at the gate, eventually no more hungry.
Chapter three: The Happy ending
Thanks God this was not the only story. While waiting for our flight to leave Milan, I did the security control and passport control with the whole Milan AC team (including the coach and other staff members). Wow! Gattuso is the best, Ibra is dressed like an idiot and there is a very friendly and short typical Italian “tamarro” that says Hello to everyone. Cassano. I took tons of pictures! They are leaving for Dubai, to practice. Yes, Milan it’s too cold, so they need to expatriate to practice! Poor guys…
After Milan AC I meet and take a picture with Jonathan (GF number…who knows). He is super friendly too and when I ask “When did you decide to become a soccer player? (He is right after the Milan team) he replies: “I am not a player, I am the cheerleader!”.
End of the story
Eventually, after almost 20 ours, at 4.30pm we leave!
I arrive in Delhi at 5am on Dec 28th and in my hotel room at 7am. Shower, breakfast, and ready for my first day in India!!
Namaste
* this quotation is for my Italian friends and for nani :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment