Sunday – Day 12
Posted on 10th January 2014
Four hours later I woke up, just before my alarm was due to go off. After a few minutes groaning I bed, I decided that I needed to get up as I would not be catching a taxi to JFK. It didn’t take me long to get ready, but I put off my trip through the icy streets for as long as possible. Finally I dragged myself and my accoutrements down the stairs, and head out into pre-dawn Brooklyn. Once I reached the subway, I accidentally caught the one-per-half-hour train in the wrong direction and was terrified I’d miss my flight. I was to be flying on JetBlue, a low cost US carrier, so I had little faith that they’d wait for me. After another three transfers, I finally made the terminal, an hour and three quarters after leaving.
The terminal was in chaos and I couldn’t understand why. Luckily I had my boarding pass printed and just needed to join the hour long bag drop queue rather than the three hour ticket service line. As I stood I glanced at the departures/arrivals screen and noticed a great deal many cancelled and delayed flights. My own was delayed a good half hour so I needn’t have worried about being late. Evidently the snow storm had caused and was continuing to cause a bit of a ruckus. I made it through security fine, and was waiting at the gate when suddenly the flight next to me was cancelled. Announcements were being made through the terminal letting passengers know that there was no flight availability for three days should their flight have been cancelled. My flight still was listed with the same delay. However, soon I heard whisperings: “a plane slid off the runway” and “I hear the airport is cancelling all flights”, followed by an announcement over the loudspeaker that no more flights were being allowed in or out of JFK due to ice on the runways.
Two hours later and the airport was still closed, with many people already having had to come back after mass cancellations on Friday and Saturday. I hung around trying to catch to scattered Stanford students around the place but none were in the mood. Finally, at around twelve, the airport was reopened. I emailed Facebook to let them know I was on track to make it in and then boarded the plane. About thirty min after boarding an announcement was made that the plane had a broken air vent and that we’d need to wait for repairs. Thus I disembarked and walked around the terminal for another forty minutes before I was finally able to reboard. Twenty minutes later I breathed a sigh of relief as we took off to sunny California!
The staff on the flight were really friendly and informal, the entertainment was good and the snacks were yummy! Despite the delays I’d actually give a pretty good score to JetBlue for everything other than the terrible check-in process.
We landed smoothly late in the afternoon in San Francisco and I immediately caught a cab to Mountain View, thankfully not off my own pocket. After getting to my apartment, I went to the front desk of the complex, picked up my keys and settled in. My place was beautiful. Paintings on the walls, fully furnished with a big double bed, a table set for two complete with wine glasses, a kitchen with a blender, microwave, oven and even a separate dressing room connected to a bathroom with an actual bath! There was a grand piano in the lobby and a pool, spa and gym for all the residents. What a place!
After I got set up in my room I went to buy a laundry card and ran into some nvidia interns on my way. They seemed friendly enough so I went with them to go downtown, searching for food for dinner. After our meal together I was too exhausted to do much more than crash in the double bed, only just remembering in time to set my alarm for my first day…