P2P Day 18: Turns Out London Was a Thriller! Moonwalking the West End

See Katie? She's auditioning for a zombie movie.
Good acting.

As I write this they are already at Heathrow. People to People has this grueling rule about getting their early (see "I will never again complain about this rule" here).

Anyway, it's 4am and they are there. I suspect it's because the Casper, Wyoming folks need to get an earlier flight to Chicago because the LA gang doesn't leave for like six hours. That's a LONG morning but nearly guarantees sleep on the plane.

They did a ton today - from Parliament to the Tower of London to cruising on the Thames and ending in the West End at Thriller Live! The show gets great reviews and I have to say, it's kind of a brilliant choice because there wasn't much that was going to keep them awake at this point - except maybe some Michael Jackson music.

Of course, Katie doesn't know any of the music.

Well, time to scramble to bed. Big day tomorrow - here's to safe travels for them all! Happy homecoming!

From the People to People Itinerary

One of the privileges of traveling as a Student Ambassador is gaining access to people and places you would otherwise not have the opportunity to on your own. Today you will take part in an exclusive access meeting with a current or former Member of Parliament. This unique opportunity explores the British Constitution and discusses the respective roles of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Monarch, and England's long standing political relationship with the US - a true honor for Student Ambassadors.

Explore the must-see Tower of London and make sure you visit the Crown Jewels where over 23,000 gems make up the collection. As a prison, it confined such famous prisoners as Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh. You may wish to download the free iPhone and iPod Touch app from the iTunes store called "Escape from the Tower". You can `help four worthy prisoners escape from the Tower by re-enacting their real-life events'. Do you know how many of King Henry VIII's six wives were imprisoned and executed at the Tower of London?

Also during your visit to the Tower of London you may meet the Yeoman Warders, or "Beefeaters'', who guard the tower and are caretakers of the mysterious ravens. Legend has it that if the ravens ever leave the Tower, the Kingdom will fall!

Cruise the River Thames taking in many of the city's famous sights. It is here on the River Thames that the beautiful Tower Bridge is located. You may remember during the London Olympics, the Olympic rings hung on this bridge making this iconic beauty even more spectacular. Unfortunately for us the rings no longer hang on the bridge, however the beauty of Tower Bridge remains.

Spend an evening experiencing the glitz and glamour of London's world famous theatre scene, attending a performance of one of the capital's most popular shows.

P2P Day 1: An Open Letter to United Airlines

After the drama. Whew.

Dear United Airlines:

You have a hero among you. Today all hell broke loose. I thought we were sunk. And then Landry Stewart stepped in and saved the day. She handled it like a boss. But let me explain. Because it was quite a morning. One I may not soon forget.

We left Santa Cruz at 4:30 this morning for an 8am flight. Katie was finally heading to the UK with the People to People program. First leg: SFO to Chicago. We got to the airport at 5:45 as Katie asked, "Why are we here so darn early?" We entered the terminal to check in.

By 6am we discovered we had a big problem. Apparently a person flying to Scotland - via Chicago - needs to have her passport. Only People to People requires we surrender her
passport to her delegation leader who keeps all the kids' passports together so no one is lost. That would be fine except her delegation manager was in Los Angeles with the rest of her delegation. Katie was to join them in Chicago. Bottomline: no passport.

Check-in sent us to ticketing where we waited in what had to be the slowest line in history. If you want to know where to put resources, add them to ticketing. After 20 minutes, we finally got to a representative who tried to explain Katie could not fly to Chicago on her ticket without a passport. So we thought fine, we'll buy another ticket to Chicago and get her going. No seats were available (at this moment, my daughter lost her innocence as she actually tried to explain yes, there was a seat, it was hers, the one she wasn't using and the representative kept saying, nope, you can't have that one, yes, it will go empty, and so on). No seats were available on any of the next three flights either.

He also explained that the minute she didn't board her ticketed flight, she'd also lose her flight to Scotland and her return flight (what the heck? how did we let things get so insane?) so we were basically stuck. Inexplicably, insanely stuck.

This is where our hero enters the story.

While I was frantically trying to call her delegation leader in Los Angeles (ring no answer for about a half hour) and then work with the travel contact from People to People, Landry had a plan. If I could get a United Representative to call her on the company phone and relay Katie's passport information, they could get her on the plane and just ask to verify the passport in Chicago before she got on board the International flight.

The hunt was on. We scrambled to reach her leader (which we finally did) and the ticketing person in LA said Landry had to call him (whatever). She did so graciously and got the information we needed to get Katie on the plane.

Now this all seems simple enough, but what's missing here is a clock counting down (this took us until about 7:25am), the pressure of a line that was growing by the minute and frankly becoming rather crazed and so much noise and confusion and chaos. Within that tableau, she handled our crisis, still took people in line while we worked on the sideline, managed the crowd and got Katie ticketed and on her way. She even got me a gate pass so I could make sure Katie got on the plane.

I can't imagine working in those conditions. It takes a very special kind of person. Landry should be the ombudsman who expedites people in the line and tells the counter representatives what to do. She needs a company cell phone with access to everyone and I'm convinced, she could single-handedly clear that line!

Katie landed in Chicago with no problem, met up with her delegation and is halfway to Scotland as I write this. While I am finally recovering from my adrenaline-filled morning, there's one more piece to the story I need to share. Because it speaks to the character of Landry.

As she was finishing everything up she waved me in and said to me quietly, "I want to thank you for something you did this morning."

"Me?" I asked, incredulously. "What did I do?"

"You stayed calm," she said. "You didn't get loud, you didn't yell at me, you calmly stayed with me as I tried to figure things out. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that. It makes a huge difference. People don't understand that when they start yelling, we kind of short-circuit - it's upsetting. So thank you for staying calm and working it out."

I was totally blown away. Not only did she save the day, but she was together enough to reward my behavior!

So thank you Landry! You were great this morning. You saw me shaking. You knew I was on the edge and how important this was to my daughter. You saved the day and you did it like a boss.

Sincerely,

Jen Carole

NEXT UP: Day 2 in Scotland!

Leg one from SF to Chi, leg two from Chi to Edinburgh.

P2P Celtic Cultures - Please Help Me Get Through the Next 24 Hours

Is this half done or half un-done?

This is always the worst time. This is why Xanax was made. This is how you separate the wheat from the chaff. See - I'm already using metaphors that make no sense. That's how fragile I am.

We have to leave this house at 4:30 tomorrow morning to drive 90 minutes to San Francisco, find airport parking, check her in (checked bag required), get her through security and then I start praying. Praying she doesn't diddle around at the gate and miss the flight to Chicago where she meets up with the Ventura/Santa Barbara delegation and the Wyoming delegation. In Chicago she becomes Ray's problem (her Leader) and I can start breathing again.

Seriously? I ate Taco Bell!

But, back the truck up because it's just 2:56pm the day before and she's having her last lunch with her good friend Ariana. They are dining at a restaurant my brain says I can't afford. Hmmm, how did that happen? Then she has to come home and finish packing. Despite what she thinks, I will be supervising because I let go last year and well this happened (see last paragraph).

I live in fear of what she might forget this year.

My other favorite part of today is getting everything ready for me - because I'll be stopping at a client on the way back home and putting in a full work day tomorrow - so I need to get everything done right now so I'm good to go.

Oh god, there's no telling how great I'm going to look early tomorrow morning. Let's just say, it won't be pretty.

And you know how sleep will go tonight. Just like it does before tests and interviews: you really don't sleep, you kind of twilight yourself through the hours, checking and rechecking the clock convinced you will oversleep and miss the plane. Ug! One time we actually just stayed up all night. They wanted us at the airport at 4am (a joke, there's no one there, it was WAY too early) yet we play by the People to People rules. At least she's on her own for this leg of the flight so if I get there a little late, I won't be shamed.

I'll begin trip blogging tomorrow. The itinerary looks so cool. Their first stop: Scotland!

Day 16: Planes, Planes and More Planes - The Long Journey Home

Froggy has been waiting for Katie
to come home for weeks now.

If I have done my calculations correctly, as I publish this blog at 9am Pacific Time, they will be dragging their bodies out of bed (if they even went to bed) to get packed and make their way to the airport in Cairns. It will be 2am in Australia. 

Their flight from Cairns to Brisbane (Qantas 799) is scheduled to depart at 5:30am, but People to People always likes their delegates to be there three hours before a flight. They fly one hour and forty-five minutes to Brisbane and then have a three hour layover before their next flight to Los Angeles (Qantas 015). Flight 0150 is a nearly 13 hour flight. 

They arrive in LA at 6:30 am (now your brain has to do some work - they arrive here before they left in the international dateline time/space continuum). They proceed through their Groundhog Day experience catching a plane in LA at 12:05pm (that's a horrible five hour layover) to arrive in SF at 1:20pm on the very same day (or tomorrow for us). 

I expect texting (if she's conscious) while at the airports. Could start really early tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I need to go buy some groceries - especially fresh fruit - that's always what's she's craving after these trips.

Here's to a safe trip home for the kidlets and a weekend full of wonderful stories.

UPDATE: Here they come!

From the People to People Itinerary:

• Say farewell to beautiful Australia and board the motorcoach to the airport for your return flight to the United States.
• Be prepared to declare! You will need to declare your farm stay on your arrival card. This is an important precautionary measure to prevent the spread of disease and pests.
• On your flight home, reflect on your journey, your new understanding of New Zealand and Australian culture, and expanded horizons as a Student Ambassador. Welcome home!

Destination: Chicago 2012 Global Youth Forum

She's off again. This time a much shorter trip and she's staying kind of local. Katie's hitting Chicago the day after our President was re-elected. She's hoping she will see him at the airport!

Katie is participating in the People to People 2012 Global Youth Forum aimed at teaching the kids about the leadership skills needed to create change in the world. Katie was a political junkie in the last few weeks, devouring information about the candidates, having a friend over for every debate, and watching the Daily Show and The Colbert Report to help her understand how the machine really worked.

Now I'm hoping she'll learn how to collaborate with people that don't necessarily share her point of view. GYF says there will be 125 students attending the conference, representing 11 different countries including Russia, South Africa, Palestine and all over the United States.

She tends to approach the world like a scientist with an overdose of logic and absolution. But as we did the homework this weekend - go learn about Romania and their social issues and come up with solutions - we were quickly met with the reality of problem solving. The answers aren't black and white.They are context-driven. I thought her head would explode.

Here's an example of a Romanian challenge:

In Romania, when Ceausescu took over, unwanted children have been given to orphanages. This was the result of extreme poverty and abortions being deemed illegal. But when Ceausescu was removed in late 1989, the culture had accepted this behavior and it continues today. Unwanted children are still - to this day - given to orphanages or live on the street. This blew Katie's mind. Her simple solution: birth control. Immediately for everyone. Except looking a little closer, you learn the church is extremely powerful in Romania and health care is also not that accessible. It turns out they also have a great divide between those who are educated and those who are not. So solving the problem needs to work within those parameters. (Interested in learning more about Romania? Read this great blog by a guy who taught there for a year.)

Katie let out a heavy sigh and decided there was no way to solve the problem. But I assured her there was, it was just harder than a simple answer. That's why she was going to the GYF to learn how to approach problem solving in context. My fingers are crossed that she will get great ideas and inspiration that she can bring back and share with her friends and classmates.

I got a pleasant surprise at the airport.

We were completely prepared for me to say goodbye at the security line and I had rehearsed Katie in how to get through security and get to her gate since she is making this trip alone. But when we checked in her bag ($25 please - ug), the agent gave me a pass to get through security too! Since Katie's 13, I guess they do that sort so the kid isn't un-escorted. So I got to have an early breakfast with Katie and watch her do everything we talked about with me as backup.

She could have totally handled it. But I am glad I was there because she was in a bit of a coma from being up so late to watch Obama's speech last night and then up so early to catch the flight (we were up at 5am). She texted me from the plane; apparently she was the last person to sit down because she walked past row 10 to row 30 and had to back all the way up against the stream of one-way people!

Been a long time since I could see the plane with my loved one ON it.

I said I bet she'll never make that mistake again. She assured me, "No way."

Cool Find: did you know you can track flights real-time using FlightAware.com? I am loving it this morning as I watch her plane buzz over Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa. 

Day 19: They All Fly Home!

They fly American from Paris.

"It's everything I expected and more," Katie said today clearly enchanted with Paris. 

I have to say, after all the saving and planning and drama, I can't image anything she could say that would have sounded any better. With those few words, I knew is was all worth it.

She saw the Mona Lisa and other artwork that captured her imagination. She and Mariah ended up having an adventure of their very own when they accidentally got separated from the group. A few minutes fantasy for two school girls on their own in Paris.

Katie's text at 11:35pm our time.

Awesome.

They head for the airport tomorrow morning. They have a long ride home in two shifts. Part one from Paris to Chicago and then a layover and part two Chicago to San Francisco. I can hardly wait! More when I see her. May time past swiftly and safely.

Here are a few interesting stats from their trip:

• To fly from San Francisco to Rome: it took 12:31 minutes (but really longer because of the bad weather and their emergency stop in Peoria).
• Once they made it "across the pond", they traveled 2454 KM or 1,525 miles by coach. That's about 25 hours of driving.
• They went to six countries: Italy, Austria, Switzerland and France and then they just drove through the corners of Lichtenstein and Germany.
• They stayed in nine different hotels (and four nights with their Italian families).
• They ate at least 57 meals that we did not have to prepare!
• The hottest day was 97 degrees in Vatican City and the coldest was 61 degrees in Salzburg, Austria.
• The flight home from Paris to San Francisco is about 12:40 minutes (with a five hour layover in Chicago).

American Airlines	041	Paris	Chicago	7/17/12    12:15:00 PM (Paris Time)	7/17/12    2:25:00 PM (Chicago Time)	8 hrs, 10mins
American Airlines	2427	Chicago	San Francisco	7/17/12    7:00:00 PM (Chicago Time)	7/17/12    9:30:00 PM (San Francisco Time)	4 hrs, 30mins

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People to People Itinerary: TUESDAY, JULY 17 Depart from Paris for the United States

• Say goodbye to Europe! Have a nice flight back home!

From Italy to Austria to Switzerland to France. Booyah!

Day 1: Getting There!

Oh thank god, she's in the air!

We had to leave at 2:30am to get to San Francisco airport in time for the 4am round-up and check-in. Translated: we barely slept. Well, she finally zonked but I stayed in a twilight "rest" state until we had to leave. I was so anxious realizing one misstep on my part and she'd miss the whole trip!

The drive up was effortless (albeit still nerve-wracking because I fear animals on Highway 17 at night AND I drove over my first orange cone - they were doing early morning construction and they shoved us way too far into the rebar - sheesh!). We arrived at the International Terminal early and ready to go. Only no one was there.

I forgot one small detail.

We left early!

That's because they had to take a domestic flight first to Chicago and then on to Rome. So we had to hoof it over to the domestic terminal and arrived at the American Airlines check-in where there were no shortage of humans arriving with loads of luggage. We met up with the gang and the unrested, over-excited kids all smiled at each other and quietly waited in a 30 minute line to check in.

With that, we grabbed a group shot of our delegates from the Monterey Bay and they marched off to security and our of our lives for the next 19 days. At the gate, they met up with a delegation from the Central Valley (around Fresno) and I believe they connected with one more delegation from the Midwest (South Dakota and Nebraska). They will all travel in a pack around Europe together.

Our awesome Monterey Bay Delegation! Go kids!

Turns out, that flight to Chicago, not all that great.

I came home and fell into a coma-induced sleep. Woke up at 11am and got a text from Katie about an hour later. They had finally arrived in Chicago but it was the "worst flight of my life. I nearly threw up and the guy next to me actually did. So much turbulence."

According to Katie, there was a "lightening storm. Had to emergency land in a town 85 miles further than Chicago [Peoria]." They stayed on the tarmac and had to fly back. It took about an extra 45 minutes.

Dang! I looked it up and while the airline didn't describe why, it did detail the detour.

At Chicago O'Hare pre-board.

All's well that ends well. Right? 

About two hours later, just before they boarded for Rome, she sent one more quick text (and photo): "You'll be happy to know I really like everyone in my delegation." I believe we are off to a great - albeit bumpy - start!

They arrive in Rome at 9am Rome time, midnight California time. It will be Saturday morning there. Shortly I will post the itinerary for tomorrow!


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People to People Itinerary:FRIDAY, JUNE 29: Depart for Rome
Meet your delegation and board your international overnight flight to Europe.