I went to Michigan last weekend for several reasons:
1) to visit family,
2) to visit U Mich's Ford School and speak with a Graduate Advisor, and
3) to be away from California.
The experience was a mix of wonderful and what may be considered quite frustrating to many...
My delayed flight arrived Friday morning at 1:00am to find no hotel shuttle. I'd tried calling the Rodeway Inn (fancy establishment) all day (aside from when I was flying) to let them know I'd be a late arrival and to not give up my room, knowing that of course, everyone else in the world would be trying to take it, but got a busy signal every time. I was forced to just wing it and see what happened when I got there. Now the cabbies at Detroit Metropolitan Airport charge $22 to take you ONE mile to the hotel strip, so a luxury car driver offered to charge the same (it was very nice).
Come to find out, the power was out along the entire strip of hotels near the airport, and had been since about 4:30pm that afternoon (which would explain the busy phone lines and no shuttles running, since the gas station across the street had no power, either). Well, lucky for me I had my confirmation printed out and was still able to have a bed to sleep in. The hotel employee showed me to my room and gave me a candle, with a goodnight message of, "I don't know how you'll manage, ma'am." I told him, "I'll figure it out, thank you and goodnight." I put my lone 12" candle in a plastic cup and surrounded it with a washcloth to keep it standing, washed my face with the unheated running water, blew out the candle and went to bed.
Four hours later, I awoke to find the power still out, the shower quite cold, and my way back to the airport to pick up my rental car. Since the shuttle was not running, still, they were nice enough to give me a ride back in their personal car, and wouldn't take a tip. So, with a pleasant greeting and bottle of water from the nice folks at Enterprise, off to Ann Arbor I went.
Now, I was rather surprised by how beautiful I found Michigan to be. There was NO TRAFFIC, trees everywhere, and the whole place was just green. The people were nice and I found my way into Ann Arbor, no problem. Following my handy-dandy campus map, I made my way over to the Ford School of Public Policy and got to sit and wait a little longer. The Advisor I was scheduled to meet with was caught up in a seminar and would be a little late. The nice Registrar lady took me in to answer any burning questions I may have had, the front-desk man took me on a tour of the building, and I happily sat and read my book until Scott (the advisor) arrived an hour later.
Well, the visit was nothing short of a success. I am excited, confident, and motivated to take that next step, two years from now. WOO HOO! Also, a bit of symbolic reassurance: I walked toward the student Union to get a bite to eat before heading to Grand Rapids to visit my family and saw right outside the door a plaque that said that was the very spot JFK announced the conception of the Peace Corps in 1960, before it was officially signed into action in 1961. As I stood there taking a picture with my Peace Corps bag on arm, a nice group of people walked up to acknowledge the plaque, and then my bag, and asked how I was affiliated - I got to share with them my excitement about going to Guatemala and all just seemed right at that moment in time.
Ahh, sweet opportunity.
Oh, the drive to Grand Rapids was just beautiful, easy, and pleasant, and into my family's arms I ran. My cousin Peter, also born on April 7th, though some years ahead of me, has the most beautiful family. He married a gorgeous and sweet, sweet wife, Sherri, and now has three perfect kids; Tristan (13), Taylor (11), and Turner (7). I had the best time, and am so happy to have had the opportunity to get to know all of them just a little bit better. We spent lots of time outside at baseball games and Grand Haven beach, and playing games and drinking mojitos and just enjoying the splendor of fabulous family. OH! I saw my first fireflies!!! It was an exciting moment, for sure.
Well, as pleasant as the weekend was, my patience and acceptance were truly tried on Monday, as I made my way back to Sacramento. Let's just say visiting 5 different states in one day isn't the most pleasant adventure, and then dealing with lost luggage at the end of all of it (all of it = taking off finally, two hours late at 3:40pm EDT and landing at 10:30pm PDT) truly iced the cake. But, I must say, the whole adventure was just a sweet reminder of all the upheaval and emotional rollercoasters I will be experiencing in the two years to come. I handled myself rather well, and didn't even get irritated until the last moment, when they insisted I wait for all the luggage of all the recently-landed flights to go around the carousels before letting me file a report saying I needed them to call me the next day when my luggage finally arrives (which I knew would be the case, so the extra waiting at the end of an especially long day was just unnecessary cruelty).
But I'm only stronger because of it, right? And the weekend in Michigan was well worth the trouble.
All will be as it will be and I will learn to live through it, acceptingly. :)
