leaving work!

I am still not in india. The name of the blog remains a complete lie.

I am, however, leaving San Francisco tomorrow (Sunday) to get back home to Kalamazoo by tomorrow night. And because I worked all this weekend (and last) I'm getting monday through wednesday off this next week, so I can finally have some time to PACK! And... SLEEP!

Currently I'm not only on Pacific time, but Consistently-At-Work-Until-3-AM pacific time, so I'm guessing the time zone shift will be pretty dramatic. But I'm also guessing I'll probably spend 80% of the flight time asleep, so it won't actually be that bad.

Just so you my flight schedule: leave Detroit around 9pm on Wednesday the 12th, connect in Paris, then Dubai (where we'll meet Christoph), then finally get to Chennai at 8:20am on the Friday the 14th. Then (theoretically) return on New Years Day, leaving Chennai at 3:30am and get into Detroit at 5:05pm.

Aren't timezones weird that way? 2 extra calendar days to get there, no extra days at all to get back. (but still 22+ hours of flying each way).

And guess how many frequent-flyer miles I'll make just from the detroit-paris legs?

That's right, you guessed it: 17,829 miles, just for those legs alone. Not that I'm going that far physically, but that's nearly enough frequent-flyer miles for a whole free ticket anywhere in the US right there. I'm "platinum elite" for that airline, see?

I'm only "premier" with an airline partner of the other two legs, so those numbers aren't as special (but it's a farther actual distance when combined - by quite a bit).

Want to know how many frequent-flyer miles I have total, pre-trip? Well you're gonna find out: 358,386. All pretty much just from the last year and a half with my job. That's enough for me to take 9 friends to Ecuador and back. (Not that anything like that's being planned, now.) So yeah, Lots. I've been wondering for a while what exactly I should use them on... especially because I have 99% no free time at all with my job, and when I get free time I really just like to spend it at home (for once).. or at least asleep, lately.

With that number of frequent-flyer miles I could also take 6 friends with me to istanbul, or nearly 3 people (back) to india (later), assuming the dates work out.

So anyway. This blog will stop being boring soon, I promise. I'll have real stories and news when: I Am (Actually) In India.