AKL-MEL-SYD-SFO-ORD-MDW-IAD-IAD-MDW-ORD-SFO-SYD-MEL-AKL

I got back to Auckland on Thursday, around 7 pm local time – it’s been quite a trip.

April 1st: AKL-MEL
I’d initially booked an 8:30 flight, but the airline changed the schedule to 7:30– so, to catch the airport shuttle I had to get up at 3:45 am – ouch! I wasn’t getting much sleep the week before, either, since I had to prepare my presentation ahead of leaving - my paper was scheduled for the first day – at the same time I was trying to meet a publication deadline.

When we got to Melbourne I was a zombie, but took only a quick nap before heading out with Susan, one of my colleagues from the Commercial Law Dept. It was a gorgeous day and we had lunch in a café by the Yarra River, where Susan pointed out that it’s customary for visiting Kiwis to scoff at “that muddy creek they’re so proud of.”

The conference was reasonably interesting, with a good mix of people from all over the world. My paper was well received enough that afterwards, the conference chair (a Kiwi ex-pat who runs the law school at LaTrobe) assured me he would publish it. That was another surprise - not all papers presented would be included in the conference proceedings; I got lucky.

Over the four days we were there, I had a great time. Just walking around the city was delightful, and one day we even took a tram out to the “famous” beach at St. Kilda’s. Melbourne is a nice mix of interesting new buildings, old colonial monuments, big (but desperately thirsty) parks, and tons of public art. It looks a bit as if someone built a nice European city in the middle of Southern California.

I also enjoyed meeting new people, and getting to know Susan better. We taught Investment Law together last semester, and I'd even briefly met her teen-aged daughters, one of whom has Down's Syndrome. But I'd had no idea she was a single mum, divorced since the girls were babies. No wonder she wasn't always available - the miracle was how much she was.

April 5th: MEL-SYD-SFO-ORD
After the conference I got a head start on mid-term break, and headed back to Chicago. Everything went well until I got to San Francisco, where equipment delays turned my reasonable two hour layover into a miserable four and a half hour wait. I didn't get to Chicago until after 10:30 pm; Ali met me at the airport. I snuck up and tackled him by the baggage claim. We were both exhausted, but it was so good to be home.

April 6th - April 8th: MDW-IAD/ IAD-MDW
Part of the reason I made the trip (besides not wanting to go four months without seeing Ali) was that Armaz’s mother and father, Afsar and Ashrafi, were coming from Cologne for Easter. It was also Afsar’s birthday, and Ali and I wanted to surprise her. We did.

Armaz and Antonia live in a lovely wooded part of Rockville, just a few Metro stops from NIH (which, according to Armaz, stands for Nerds In Heaven). The woods were especially lovely Saturday morning, with the fresh blanket of snow. The freakishly cold weather made it less than pleasant to walk around the last of the Cherry Blossom Festival, however, so we headed for the Mall where we could pop in and out of museums to keep warm. It was great to see everyone, especially Antonia, who was so big (and could now scream so loud) that I wondered what they’d done with the sweet little baby Armaz and Angelique used to have in NZ.

Back in Chicago I needed to prepare for the three weeks of lectures I’d be doing when classes resumed. I woke up bright and early with Ali on Monday, but then promptly fell back to sleep - for most of the next two days. Eventually I managed to prepare my first week’s lectures and tutorial questions, and I even got to see a couple of old friends, but the week went by much too fast.

The weather finally warmed up enough that on Sunday, my last day, Ali & I took a walk from Navy Pier to the totem pole, up the lakefront and back through Lincoln Park. We stopped at favorite spots like magical water squirts in the Crystal Palace, and the Palm House near the zoo. The late cold snap had kept all but the earliest flowers from opening so the best garden spots were mostly bare, accentuating the bittersweetness of the day.

April 16th - ORD-SFO

I headed downtown with Ali as far as the Thompson Center subway stop; took the Blue Line to O’Hare and landed in San Francisco before 1 pm. I heard the news about the shootings at Virginia Tech in a SuperShuttle van, on my way to see Anjali and Ashish. Their daughter, Mira, had also grown since I saw her in January. Life changes so quickly, how can anyone not appreciate how precious and short our time here is?

April 17th – 19th SFO-SYD-MEL-AKL
Ashish was kind enough to drive me to the airport for my 10:45 pm flight. It was our second trip to SFO that day, as his parents had been visiting from Calcutta and earlier we’d all gone to the airport to see them off. (Without going into details, the poor treatment they received from Lufthansa was scandalous. It’s an airline to avoid. Period.)

I slept reasonably well on the long flight to Sydney, and had only a quick layover before the short flight to Melbourne. I was anticipating a horrible nine hour layover and a late flight which would get me back to Auckland well after midnight, since I was using the ticket originally booked back in November - when I thought Ali and I were going to travel around Australia together after the conference (the best laid plans, etc.).

Luckily, however, I managed to get the very last seat available on the only earlier flight. And that’s how I got back to Auckland on Thursday, around 7 pm local time.

As I said, it was quite a trip.

Cheers,

Sandie