Translate: Busy as hell
Said: oh-p-taht sohm hell-vet-eh
I've been trying to wake up earlier, but my body just isn't allowing me. I woke up with a massive headache this morning. I only woke myself up twenty minutes earlier than normal. And I went to sleep earlier last night. Like before midnight, which is big news for me. So, why is waking up (by only twenty minutes) early such a big deal? I mean, the headache did sorta go away, but the computer screen and florescent lights in my office do not help.
I called my mom on Sunday. I hadn't said hi in a while and it was a Sunday, a good day to call. Good thing I did too - she reminded me it was Mother's Day. I played it off like - I knew I was supposed to call you today, but couldn't think why.... I don't think she bought it. She's pretty clever. But I doubt she cares. Why? Because I actually called her. Mostly to talk about my SFSU payments, but you take what you can get, right?
Working on the travel at work is becoming cumbersome. Most of it is going fine. Write an email to the travel agents, maybe call if it's complex or there are optinos I can choose from, get a reservation, even book the flight if needed. Venezuela. Land of... stupid inbound coordinators apparently. Here's the story:
I write to Kilroy (travel agency) and ask to change the return date on the Venezuela flight. We book it the year prior, so the return date is somewhere in March, but it needs to be in June/July. Kilroy says that they can't do it anymore, the airline has to be called in Venezuela. (Not only was this process for Venezuela, but Brazil, Ecuador, Chile and Australia. Brazil called the airline and emailed me back with the new return date and everything within a week.) Venezuela (and Australia actually) was adamant that Norway has to re-book the return since the tickets were issued here. I write back and tell Venezuela what Kilroy told me, blah blah blah. Venezuela is bitching (although cordially) and finally relents to fixing the date. They ask for the ticket info (weird, because the original tickets are in Venezuela anyways), but I'm nice enough to email that to her since we have copies of the tickets. Around this time, one of the mothers calls me about Hans, who is in Venezuela now. She says: Hans is going on a class trip until the 6th of August, can you make sure he travels back to Norway after that date? Yes we can. I relay this info to Venezuela, who has not yet re-booked the flights. Venezuela writes back with a booking code for two students and a separate booking code for Hans. But says that the students will fly back on the 3rd. That last email was April 5th.
Monday. I get a call from the same mother - of Hans. I tell her I'll look into the return flight again - which I'm doing now anyway (I just sent out about fifty envelopes to families about the return of their kids). I email Venezuela asking for the full flight info for the students coming back to Venezuela, since I need to send out a letter to parents and all I have is a booking code. Also, asking about Hans' return flight date - he's on a class trip, etc. Venezuela writes back this:
Dear Elizabeth,
Hmo (host mother) contacted us some days ago requesting a change of date for Hans Urbye. Apparently he cannot change his return date because he has some limitations in his flight ticket. Hmo is willing to pay the difference if it's possible a change of status so Hans can stay for his graduation trip.
Could you pls check with Kilroy Travel if this is possible? I can't make such a change locally with Air France because they didn't issue the ticket here.
What the fuck?!
Of course he has limitations on his ticket! The return date has been changed already! And what was this whole thing about Kilroy not being able to do anything from here?! I feel like I'm back at square one with all this!
But I'm a nice person and I emailed Kilroy - Hild is my contact and she's really nice - for any help they can give me. Haven't heard back yet. And I haven't heard back with the other two students in Venezuela - what's their flight information???!!!!! Jesus...
It's not that hard.
I think my headache is coming back.... I don't think my sleeping habits are weird because of this, because other than this work is fine. Lots to do, but no big upsetting things. Venezuela is the only one.
So, for today, I'm done with travel. Not doing anymore. I'm doing research now for some volunteers. Totally not work work stuff... if you know what I mean.
Oh yeah baby - and tonight is LOST! Although, it's the last episode I saw before I came here. The one where the boar destroys Sawyer's stuff and he goes to kill it, but in the end can't. And I kinda cheated. I went on the ABC site and looked up all the episodes. So, I know about the brother's death and the relationship between the sister and Sayid and the numbers. I really want to see that episode. That one sounds good. I bet they'll bring the brother back for some episodes though - dream sequences, etc. Dude - the island is already weird. Wouldn't be too weird for a dead person to be seen. And I mean, seen not hallucinated. That's already happened before.
Ok, done.