So the flight I'm booked on has a connection in Dusseldorf, which I wasn't too stressed about, even though it adds extra time. Until British Airways failed miserably at customer service.
The first flight is with Airberlin. I asked them about extra baggage (comes with moving countries) and they said there wouldn't be an issue, just book it and pay. But the issue was that they had no idea if this would go through in the connection. No idea.
Great. And British Airways? Won't answers questions through email and as an alternative only leave an automated phone service. Get some sense of whose paying your salaries, guys! It comes from the customers on the flights. Customer service therefore? Not a bad idea.
So I'm sat waiting for the laundry man and the delivery guy (it's raining: for once I have an excuse) and to pass the time I'm watching one of my favorite channels. Sad but true, as much as I like the Bravo, Chiller, TBS type channels (and I definitely do), I much prefer the Discovery Channel and the History Channel. Today, it is the latter and a show called 'Decoding The Past' is on, with the particular episode being based on The Bermuda Triangle.
Now I hate to admit it but I have a vague obsession with the Bermuda Triangle. I'd love to know what the deal is. In 1945, six planes went entirely missing (Flight 19). Literally, they just disappeared. At first they blamed Taylor, the captain, but then revoked this erroneous blame later. Flight 19 has never been solved. Nobody knows where it went. 27 men were lost. The wreckage remains unfound.
Something is awry in this area. Maybe it's just the weather but what happens to the wrecks in this case? Maybe its something to do with the water acidity, in which case why do planes crash/disappear in the first place. There's of course the supernatural explanations: Atlantis, aliens, time passages. As much as I'm not so egotistical to believe humans are the only intelligent life in the cosmos I'm not sure I can pin this one on aliens.Then again, what could it be?
The show suggests Flight 19 was victim to another problem: Captain Taylor didn't want to fly that day, as he felt unwell. Flight 19 was practicing low level bombing. They were using dead reckoning flight navigation in the training exercise, which did not rely on ground navigation. The wind could therefore push them off of their estimates.
During the exercise, Taylor believed they had taken a wrong turn. His compasses had then gone out. They were over land but it was broken. Taylor was extraordinarily disorientated. He believed they were over Florida Keys. In fact, contemporary reports suggest they were flying over the Bahamas. At this point he also began to refer to himself as MT-28 instead of his actual title FT-28. This suggests mental incapacity on the day, supported by the sickness he had earlier claimed.The show then suggests that the students would have followed his directions.
This is the only thing I have a major problem with. Why would 5 other fairly experienced students follow someone in a nose dive. Obviously this is not right. The show suggests they all decided to land together and that this is how it would work in formation flying in the military.I know the military is very strict and from the military people I've met, I can see the evidence that they often blindly follow orders but really, into the ocean? That seems suspicious to me. I will be interested to see if the Bermuda Triangle mysteries are ever solved to everyone's satisfaction but for now, I don't think I'll be jumping to get on any boats or planes in that area.
My flight is booked July 3rd. My electricity and gas get turned off the 1st, and everything gets removed the 30th. I get home on the 4th & ohmygod this is going so quickly. Oh, and now my rat has a new 'home' too (or at least a shelter to get her one without snakes).
Let's pause for a second.
OHMYGOD!
So after 4 years living in New York city and some of the stupidest, wildest, most fun, scariest experiences of my life, and I'm moving back home. I came to do what I set out to do: I made an amazing set of friends and got an honors degree from a top US university. I will never forget these years and they have made me ridiculously and overly strong and determined.
But alas, I miss home. I miss Heinz spaghetti bol, I miss calling umbrellas brollies and alleyways ginnels. I miss tea whenever anything goes wrong (oh, you're dying. I'll get you a cuppa sweet tea!), and I miss just sitting in a local pub on a Sunday without tourists taking pictures nearby. So in 3 weeks time I'm moving back.
I had my cat adopted yesterday and my rat will be adopted in next week. My gas company settles up on 15th and I'm arranging cable and electric next week. I have to close my bank account, ship anything I can, pack my suitcases, give away any good furniture in my apt and trash anything bad. And then I need to fly home.
This is a large reason why I made this site: keeping in touch with NY friends beyond facebook status updates. Of course, there will be phone calls and hopefully visits both ways, but this is a nice way to tell everyone what's happening all at once.
-Emily
