As I write this note, I am stationed at the 31st floor of the famous Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. CEC 2007 kicks off here this afternoon.
I was hoping to write about my journey from Bangalore to Las Vegas during my flight stoppages at London and Chicago, but the slight delays in the aircrafts gave me no room for a relaxed session at the airport. Never mind, here are my recollections: Boarded the British Airways flight from Bangalore at around 6:30 A.M IST, which landed in London at around 13:30 local time. It took quite a while before we could disembark from the flight at London and thereafter there was a marathon towards the security area to board the connecting flight to Chicago. Back home, I knew my people would be wanting to hear from me. My boss had kindly advised to pick an Airtel world calling card, which I did and it worked magically (of course it was expected to work). The process to call home was simple: Dial a toll free number (specific for the country as mentioned in a supplementary catalog that comes with the card), dial the World Calling Card No.(need to scratch the card to get this) and finally dial the number in India. The connectivity was fast and it was clear! Trust me, it isn’t a bad idea to pick up those on a travel like this.
The flight to Chicago from London took around 7 hours and 45 minutes and landed in Chicago at 18:45 local time. The immigration process took very little time and I found myself seated in the Chicago domestic airport to board a flight to Las Vegas at 21:15 local time. The flight to Vegasf took just o’er 3 hours, which meant when we landed at Vegas the clocks displayed 00:15 local time. The weather then was 68° F (I felt cold).
All said and done, when you travel miles away from your home town, there is always a bit of worry in the back of your mind until you reach the destination safely. At Las Vegas airport, we were informed earlier that we could spot Sun Volunteers with the placard “CEC 2007.” But looking at the clock while at the Vegas airport, I thought I would end up hiring a taxi to my hotel. At the baggage claim area, a gentleman wearing a red T Shirt, bearing a placard that displayed “CEC 2007” brought immense calmness to the otherwise wandering mind of mine. And then I spot a few other volunteers wearing this uniform. I knew then, that I had no problems to sort out.
 |
I must congratulate the organizers of the CEC 2007 for the Herculean task they have done in ensuring a smooth process to be in place, even in the minute aspects like picking up the attendees from the airports in a thoroughly disciplined fashion. A shuttle (this is how my mobile camera saw this shuttle) took us from the Vegas airport at around 01:20 local time to the Bally’s and the Paris hotel.
There was a slight bit of confusion at the reservation deck for assigning me a room and finally I landed in a Presidential suite because of the unavailability of standard rooms in the hotel. Well, who’s going to complain about this
suncec2007