May 1st - Still in the air...

Buongiorno Family and Friends!
We are in the final hours of our flight before arriving in Venice and we are all trying to stifle our excitement by getting a little sleep. I, of course, cannot convince myself that it is suppose to be 7am-May 2, and not 10pm-May 1st!
While we were able to confirm Kendy's RESERVATION on our Seattle to Atlanta flight, the Delta counter agent George, could not confirm that she was issued a ticket. Apparently there is a difference?? Wouldn't that be like bringing your own silverware to a restaurant that's expecting you at 7pm and has the table pre-set?? Well the ticketing "glitches" followed us to Atlanta also. We arrived on time and hurried to our next gate so we would have time to correct Linda’s lack of reservation – you know, the one she needed to fly from Atlanta to Milan to Venice? George had suggested we take care of this when we arrived in Atlanta. Apparently George was tired of our whining in Seattle. Actually, Delta Airlines had Linda booked to fly from Milan to Venice, but apparently thought she had rented a car to get from Atlanta to Milan?! As we are standing at the counter making the necessary changes, Jenn yelled, "LOOK! There's a Rotary Wheel!" At that moment I was facing the opposite direction and assumed she had spotted a plaque on the wall announcing that the local Atlanta Rotary Club volunteers to wipe down the seating area and empty the garbage each week - or some other recognition posted somewhere giving mention to a local Atlanta Rotary Club. But when I turned around, I saw that she was pointing to a group of people coming at us, all wearing Polo Shirts with an embroidered Rotary Wheel and Group Study Exchange insignia. What a small world!! This particular GSE Team was representing District 7890, Connecticut, WA-USA and heading to the southern area of Italy. They immediately asked if we were from Ohio. It was apparently obvious we'd had a rough morning, but was it fair to assume, based on our disheveled appearance that we were from OHIO?? No, there's ANOTHER GSE Team currently visiting Ohio and GSE-Connecticut had seen their blog and thought we might be that team! Our time to visit with GSE-District 7890 was limited as they were about to board their flight (which was originally OUR flight - but since George hadn't issued Linda a ticket and I wasn't about to split up my group - we agreed to be bumped... ... more on that later!) We did, however, enjoy the few minutes we had with them sharing our excitement, anxiety, hopes, fears, pins, brochures, business cards, hugs, and well-wishes. In fact, we threw a camera to a man who looked bored and asked him to take this picture.


Here's wishing our fellow-Rotary GSE Travellers from District 7890 a life-enhancing experience. It was truly a pleasure meeting you all.
The recognition of Rotary wasn't limited to just us GSE folk at an airline gate either. As I was ordering my dinner, the little gal serving me noticed my shirt and asked, "Are you IN Rotary?" with eyes as wide as the hem on your bell-bottom pants. "Yes!" I told her. She then briefly shared her Rotary experience with me as an Exchange Student. I only had time to tell her, "Stay involved, there are more opportunities for you around the corner!"

Volunteering to bump off a Delta flight going 'to Milan to Venice' is not such a bad deal. Instead of leaving at 5:30pm, we were now GUARANTEED to leave at 8:30pm. We were each given $10 food vouchers to purchase a meal while we waited. We were also each given $400 flight vouchers to be used on any future Delta travel. And best of all, our flight was now DIRECT to Venice and we would be arriving only 45 minutes later than originally scheduled. We will arrive on Flight #162 at 11:45am, May 2. This gave us the time to sit down as a team and enjoy a meal, relax and catch our breath, stake our claim on a scares electrical outlet to recharge some batteries, make a phone call or two... ahhhhh. According to our proposed agenda, it might be a while before we get that sort of 'down-time' again. Besides the perks mentioned above, they also gave us some AWESOME seats on this flight and we've got the legroom only an NBA star would require!!

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures from GSE-Italy, 2007. We haven't even touched down yet - and it's been an adventure to remember.

a presto!
Amy Black, Team Leader