Back to school. Friday August 26th, 2011

Back to school in the United States is an annual ritual. The list of supplies needed arrives and off we trot to the stationery store and load up. Each year there is a new back pack and lunch box to be bought. In fact, if l had kept all the lunch boxes over the years, there would be a chronology of life as seen through Disney Princesses, Thomas the Tank Engine, Super heroes and finally the non descript generic type that are indistinguishable from everyone else’s.

Now it is different. University for Charles and boarding school for Emma. These days, we order on line and, as much as possible we have everything sent so that we don’t have to move everything from one continent to the other.

Last Monday evening we left Brazil to start our 2 week trip to the United States. The day before, we had had a fabulous afternoon at the horse racing in Sao Paulo, but sadly the oysters that were consumed in great numbers by the other members of the Merrick family decided to make reappearance and the children started being sick on the flight. There is not a lot that you can do when someone is being sick around you, so I’m afraid I was the heartless mother and left them to it. Even the ginger ale that they drank to try and quell their discomfort had no effect and I pity the poor cleaners that had to go in a face the mess – ugh.

But the good news was, on arriving in Princeton at around 9 am, the hotel let us check in and I was able to leave the children to sleep off their discomfort, whilst I ran around town at the usual doctors, dentists, hairdressers and opticians.

I think New Jersey was trying to tell me that I wasn't welcome, because on our first afternoon as I was sitting in the chair at the opticians, we had an earthquake. Now it has to be said that it was nothing on the scale of the earthquake in Turkey, but enough to shake the building and make the doors swing open, and earthquakes are not an everyday occurrence in New Jersey so it was pretty big news.

The next day, the children felt better and we were able to resume our schedule of shopping and organizing and getting ready for back to school. Did you know that after Christmas, back to school shopping is the biggest boost to the retail economy? I suppose it doesn’t surprise me and I certainly felt as though I has added several percentage points to America’s GDP.

On Thursday we were on the road, heading down to Washington DC. The plan was to check into the hotel, unload everything not belonging to Charles, then take him to University and unload his things. He had arranged with a friend to store a bunch of things at a lock up storage unit in Virginia. To save money they had found one about 25 miles away. Half way there, they came to the conclusion that next year they will find one closer to the university, even if it does mean they have to pay an extra $10 each. This place was miles away. An hour’s drive there and back plus the best part of an hour to load up – we could have done without that. But we managed. We hit Washington DC during the rush hour – another note to self.

The next part of our plan was for Emma and I to go to visit a friend in Virginia, leaving Washington on Friday morning and leaving Virginia on Sunday morning. After that, the plan was to fly out to Nova Scotia for a few days before heading back to New Jersey in time to put Emma into school next weekend. But, looming over us was the little matter of Hurricane Irene coming up from the south and heading for the eastern coast of the US over a period of several days. Heading south to Virginia didn’t seem like a good idea. I thought about going to Virginia as planned on Friday and leaving early on Saturday, but by Friday morning the predictions were pretty dire so I decided to abandon Virginia and leave Friday morning for New Jersey.

I had called of time and made a reservation at a hotel and checked in around 1.30pm. I called the airline and changed my Monday morning flight to Canada to Saturday morning, and, thinking that we had a leisurely afternoon ahead, Emma and I wandered into Princeton, had lunch, a manicure and a spot of shopping before heading back to the hotel around 5.30pm.

I check my emails and to my horror, there was one from the airline to say that my flight was cancelled and I needed to call the airline. I knew that the airport was due to be closed on Saturday afternoon but I thought that we would be okay to leave Saturday morning –no such luck. Of course the world and his wife were trying to get through to the help desk but after what seemed like an inordinate amount of time I managed to speak to a human being. Dilemma explained and the only solution was to try and make a flight leaving in 3 hours and 10 minutes. I looked at Emma. Can we make this? “Yes,” she said.

I had planned that Friday evening would be spent repacking suitcases, organizing ourselves, having a leisurely dinner and an early night. No chance. Packing, clearing the room, depositing one suitcase and checking out – 10 minutes. Route 1 north in the rush hour (normal time 25 minutes) – 45 minutes. New Jersey Turnpike (normal time 20 – 25 minutes) – 14 minutes. Don’t ask what speed I was going. I hope there were no speed cameras. Refueling and returning rental car – 12 minutes. Argument with rental car agent about being charged for 2 days unused rental – not worth dealing with.

Elite check in? Not worth the “Elite” label. Today the check in area was a complete zoo. There were people getting so frustrated it was unbelievable. You would think the world was coming to an end. Flights were being cancelled all over the place and the inadequacy of the staff to be able to handle the overwhelming volume of queries, cancellations, rebookings and irate customers was unbelievable.

Emma and I were very lucky. When a kiosk was free, we were able to log in, check in, print boarding cards and luggage labels very quickly. Getting a member of the ground staff to put said labels on the bags, not so easy. Then they just sat on the scales. I would have moved them myself but a burly porter came up to move some bags from one trolley to the belt and a few dollars changing hands meant that my bags also made it onto the belt.

One quick look at the boarding passes made me realize that we were in the wrong terminal. The gate had been changed and we were 2 terminals away. Okay, time to catch the air train. Terminal C here we come.

As I have mentioned before, I have an artificial hip so airport security is always a nightmare for me. The new full body scanners that are causing so much controversy at the security checks are a bonus for me. No need for the full body pat downs. No such luck today. The machines were being “upgraded” and therefore not in use. Back to the full body pat down.

Emma and I now have this routine down to a science. I stand and wait and she loads everything back into bags. Only this time a present we had bought for our hostess, had caused the alarm bells to go off and she was distracted trying to find out what in her back pack was causing so much interest. Time was ticking – about 15 minutes to be precise.

But we made it to the gate by 8.15. Boarding time 8.20 – phew. We were able to contact our hostess and miraculously she was there to meet us. It was midnight when we landed, 2.30 am by the time we made it to her cottage and about 3 am by the time we flopped into bed.

Having woken up this morning in Washington DC thinking about heading south to Virginia, we found ourselves about a thousand miles further north. Sad not to be in Virginia but happy to be missing Irene.

One child down and one to go.