Frankfurt

With a bit of delay I made it to Frankfurt last night but it seems I was just too late to be let on to the connecting flight to Toronto.  After some puppy dog eyes and an attempt at a Christmas lie by telling the agent I was going home for the first time in 2 years and hadn't seen my children in just as long I realized there was nothing they could do.  It could have been my poor acting or that I went a bit too far in my lie but the agent did not seem overly sympathetic.  Many people missed that same connection so we all had to give up and start making our plan B.

I was re-booked on the exact same flight 24 hours later.  I could have gotten to Toronto sooner the next day but there were no other options for the flight to Regina so I had to choose between staying longer in a hotel in Germany or in the Pearson Airport.  I decided on the hotel where I could get a night's rest, a few free meals and a shower.

Now, some 18 hours later I'm getting ready to check out and get back to the second half of the trip (even though I'm still not even technically halfway).   The weather is promising in Frankfurt so I shouldn't have any issues getting out of here but, as if I was waiting on federal election results back home, my fate lies with Toronto.

Frankfurt from the sky

Tyumen to Moscow

Outside of Tyumen Airport

First leg of the trip is done. I made to Domodedovo international airport in Moscow. The flight was fine overall but since that one awful flight over the summer a slight uneasiness during flying has been reintroduced into my life that I haven't had since my very first flight as a child.

I always find myself in an epic, flight long, battle over the armrests. I was unlucky and got placed in the middle seat. Window and aisle get at least 1 armrest and then I have to fight for the ones on either side of me. Unless my neighbors are kids it's pretty much guaranteed that the passengers are wider than me so they naturally take up more room and figure theydeserve the armrest. Any chance I get to take back some of that neutral territory I have to plant in my elbows and hold my ground. After a certain point it becomes so uncomfortable and actually hurts my elbows but I'll never give up that space. It usually wants I've made one or two more enemies by the end of the trip.

In Russia they take their airplane meals very seriously. Great thing is every flight has a meal on it. I personally love airplane food so it's mostly good news for me. The problem comes when it's 6am and to you're trying to sleep. The flights attendants will always wake you up to see if you want food. The top favorite things in my life are sleep and food but sleep trumps food everytime so I don't really appreciate this. anyways, now that they've woken me up I figure i could use some breakfast. I take the meal tray and, at 6am, they serve me a rice and chicken dinner with a piece of bread. Definitely not breakfast food and not worth waking up for.

The concept of staying seated and belted in when taking off and landing is means nothing to them. While landing they like to prepare for deplaning. Many time I've seen little (not actual little but Russian little) old ladies standing up to walk to the bathroom and/or to put on their coats the second the wheels touch the ground.

During the 20 minute final descent I was going in and out of consciousness but had 4 individual dreams of the plane crashing each in its own unique scenario. Couldn't have been a good sign but despite all that, some fog and heavy snowfall we still landed and I'm one step closer to being back in Canada.

Exponential growth of the problem

Moscow: The problem

Tyumen airport

To achieve this efficient 30 hour travel time one has to leave Tyumen early in the morning so you can make the connections is Moscow. With little sleep last night, and the last two weeks really, I wasn't starting this trip very fresh but still excited to get home.

At the entrance to the airport everyone has to go through an initial metal detector, even if not flying. A good safety measure I suppose but probably just used as a way to add more Russian jobs. A couple of my students were travelling the same day as me ad I saw one of them, from Iraq, holding up the security screening. He noticed me further back in the line, came over to say hi and said he had a bit of a problem.

'I forgot to get rid of my room key from the training center'
'ok, I can take it. No problem.'
'no, you don't understand. I had lost my actual room key a while ago so I've been using a knife to get in. '
- now the security delay makes sense. Probably not good for anyone to get caught with a knife but if someone were to add a stereotype, it would be worse for an Iraqi.
'ok, got it. Just step outside and discreetly drop it in the garbage'
- even when I try, I can't stop teaching.

The way home

My first class finished a couple of days ago and the students, and more importantly, I managed to survive. On the last day the lead instructor announced that I would be taking lead on the next class. I received some applause and congratulations from the class. On the inside I was saying 'shit' but took it in stride. The great thing about being 2nd instructor is you can pass all the decisions and blame back to the lead. It had to happen sometime so I'll tackle that in the new year.

The course went well overall, I made some improvements on my teaching but still have more to learn. In the end, my biggest mistake was to grant the students Facebook access while the course was still going on. Having not cleaned up my pictures in 6 years they got a peak at events from my life that people who are supposed to respect and fear you shouldn't. lesson learnt.

Now I'm starting my 8000 km journey back home for the holidays. It will take about 30 hours to get home as long as all goes smoothly. Here's hoping.