Nothing too terrible, thanks to the guys at Fulbright the process is relatively simple, although you still need to wait some time for all the bureaucratic requirements, plus the variance in the timing that in this dates is somewhat high. So we enjoyed the Chilean summer, while in New York my friends had to deal with a large blizzard (sorry guys), spent some time with our folks, celebrate Christmas, and all that. If I have time I'll write a post later about it, with some of the places we visited.
Now back to the main story of this post. Since Dani needed to be in Ghana on the 3rd, and thus fly from New York on the 2nd, we needed to be here on the 1st, and that meant spending New Year's Eve on the airplane. I did that once before with my parents like 10 years ago, so it wasn't a big deal, plus I'm not very attached to this specific point of the earth's orbit, so I had no problems flying that day. It became a little complicated in terms of logistic, as the US Embassy was closed on the 31st, and until the 30th at 4:00 pm we still did not have our visas ready... quite an experience, but thankfully everything worked fine: we got our visas and were ready to board our plane on the 31st.
The last bad experience of 2010 was that our plane was delayed. The airplane we were supposed to board had some sort of problem, and they changed us to another plane 2 minutes before boarding time. The problem was that the new airplane needed to be checked and cleaned, and that meant that we had to wait for another hour to board. Considering that the plane was scheduled to leave at 10:45 pm, that meant that there was a high probability of spending new year stuck in an airport... but here is where the bad things stop.
So, what are the good parts of the story? First, we were upgraded to Business, so that meant real champagne, nice food, and sleeping flat on our way to New York. It also meant that we spent the waiting time on the VIP lounge, which is not much better to be honest, but at least you have free food and free Internet.
Finally we boarded the plane around 11:30 pm, and the captain was so cool, that he decided to do a small detour and fly over Valparaiso's Bay. Now for all my non-Chilean friends: Valparaiso is a large city to the coast of Santiago, where very new year they do a huge fireworks show. Of course the place is packed with people so it is almost impossible to go, and if you dare to go it is kind of hard to find a spot unless you start preparing with enough time... just like those crazy guys that want to buy the new iPhone on the release date. I have never gone there to see them... until now, and from a completely different perspective. Have you ever looked down to see fireworks? Well here it is:
That is Valparaiso's Bay with a couple of red and blue fireballs near the coast. The previous time I flew on this date I think we were around the Atacama Desert when the new year arrived, and not too lizards over there celebrate the festivity, so no big firework shows. Plus when you are in Business you have like 3 windows for yourself to choose from, so it is easier to find a nice spot to take pictures.
Another view of the "bay area". plus a small spot to the right side which I think is Laguna Verde. And at the back, on the upper left of the picture you see the huge monster that is Santiago... well at least you see the north-west part of it. We were sitting on the other side of the plane, so I have to thank Dani for talking to the couple that was sitting at the other side and that allowed me to shoot a couple of pictures... with a couple meaning like50. Hey... its free!
What else? Well, as I said before, nice food, wine, champagne, and most importantly, a nice bed. There is nothing like sleeping flat while on a plane, so that was the best part for me at least. I woke up like 7 hours later, somewhere in Florida (above... I was still on the plane of course), when the sun was just starting to show, which is one of the great moments to take pictures, together with sunset. So here are a couple of shots I took:
After breakfast, we were above the coast of North Carolina, and the sun was a little over the horizon already. The low (for the plane) clouds made a nice cushion, so it was a very nice sight.
Finally we were already arriving to New York, so we had to close the tables, turn off all our stuff, but Dani convinced me to keep the camera around, just in case the landing was interesting. We flew over Fire Island, where we have gone during the summer to "enjoy" the weather, and then landed with a really nice view of New York between the clouds. So thanks to Dani again...
But the good things don't end there! When we arrived there was almost no one on the airport, so we were able to go through customs really quick, get out suitcases, and then go back home. Luckily the express E train went by a couple of minutes after we got to the station and the weather was quite mild compared to the previous weeks, so it was actually nice to walk back home through Columbia as always.
And that was the new year's story. As someone in Chile would say "reguleque" (long story). So happy new year! and have a great 2011!