flight update

international interaction can be so interesting. the Younger Son spent the night in boston, then went to alitalia for the (postponed) second leg of his trip. they still had not found his luggage. oh, did i forget to tell you about that? his luggage has disappeared. united says it isn't in rochester, alitalia says it never arrived for them to load. luckily his camera, phone, and presentation are in his carry-on luggage, plus he's wearing his presentation clothes. unluckily he will have worn them for four days by the time he presents -- unless he's lucky enough to have time to shop first. ahhh ... the challenges of life.

the last time we looked his flight was only thirty minutes late in departing. i'm afraid to look again; he might still be on the ground.

he asked us to e-mail the italian hotel to tell them he wasn't going to be there tonight. that e-mail went through just fine.

he asked us to e-mail the program organizers to let them know he and jc would be a day late. that e-mail came back two times for the husband and once for me. dangit! so i surfed around trying to find an alternate e-mail address. i don't know italian, but i finally found two e-mail addresses i hoped would get to the right person -- that bounced back, too. so i called a phone number and as i was trying to get the international calling code right, the italian code right, and the phone number right, it occurred to me that it was 7:xx pm there. dangit! but a gal answered and i tried to slowly explain what i wanted to tell her. she said just a minute and about five minutes later was back on the phone. she tried to give me the cell number of a gal who would handle things; the ensuing conversation went like this:

her: (heavy italian accent) so you call 0-0-3-9-T-T-T-8-7-1-8-3-7-4 and talk to gabrayla.
me: 0-0-3-9-T-T-T-8-7-1-8-3-7-4?
her: yes, 0-0-3-9-T-T-T-8-7-1-8-3-7-4.
me: (wondering why i'd use TTT instead of 888) well, T means 8 on the phone so it's 8-8-8-8-7-1-8-3-7-4?
her: (louder) no, why do you keep saying T? it's T. T! T! 1-2-T!
me: (trying to keep from laughing) oh, okay. i've got it. 3-3-3-8-7-1-8-3-7-4. i'll call her. thank you very much.

so i called gabriella (who answered immediately) and slowly explained the situation. i spoke slowly figuring if i was having a hard time understanding her accent, she'd have a hard time understanding mine therefore talking at my normal speed would be unhelpful. we communicated fairly well while she got out her attendance list.

her: his name?
me: yirak, y-i-r-a-k.
her: mmphftftffph (i never understood what she was saying)
me: (raising my voice thinking if i spoke louder all would be made clear) yirak. y-i-r-a-k. yirak. with a 'y' as in ... (total void in the brain) ... in ... (figured i couldn't use the air traffic word 'yankee' since she probably wouldn't know that word) ... in 'yippee' ... *shakes head, feeling like an idiot*.
her: oh, here it is.
me: (finally looking on their online posted attendance list) yes, number 88.
her: and the other one?
me: carroll, c-a-r-r-o-l-l, number 16.
her: mmphftftffph? mmphftftffph?
me: number 16.
her: mmphftftffph?
me: 16. (louder, so she'll understand) 16!
her: oh, here it is, cawro, number 16.

both of us said thank yous and goodbyes amid spontaneous bursts of giggles, feeling the camaraderie that comes with successfully meeting a challenge.