Travelling FUN!

Oh, what joy today has been! Seriously!
Life can become so boring and stagnant sometimes. Even though nothing terribly exciting happened, I had LIFE EXPERIENCES today! That doesn't happen very often anymore due to the duldrums of everyday life. So, here's how my day went.

-I woke up this morning and had a nice refreshing shower and shave, got dressed and finished packing.
-I got ride from Trisha to the airport. Since Trisha has been sick for the past 4 days or so, it was really hard to go. Last time I went on a business trip she was sick too. It was hard to say goodbye. I feel bad leaving her in that condition. :(
-I checked my bags, got my boarding pass and passed through security without a hitch and proceeded to wait for the plane.
-I boarded with first class. Even though this is nothing actually special, especially since I didn't even sit in first class, I did feel special being able to board early. It's nice not having to wait for the idiot(s) in front of you trying to figure out how to find their seat and fit their ginormous carry on bag into the tiny space above their seat.
-I was seated on an exit row (REALLY nice extra space in front.). I have never sat on the exit row before, but I can vouch for how nice the extra space is. It makes stretching your legs MUCH easier. Also, there was and empty space between me and the other person on my row/side.
-I had a great flight watching several episodes of Arrested Development.
-When we landed in Dallas, I went to the Admirals Club! Yes. Another AWESOME life experience. I've always wanted to see what it's like in there. Oh man. Amazingly comfortable chairs, free soft drinks (and a voucher for a free alcoholic drink (that I gave to Fernando)), decent food, free internet, places to plug in laptops... It was great. Even though we were only in there for an hour or so. It beats the PANTS off of trying to find a seat at the gate. The chair I sat in was leather, it reclined, and had an ottoman. Nice.
-Then we left the admirals club and immediately boarded the airplane (again with first class).
-I had another good seat with no one sitting next to me so I could stretch out a bit.
-I watched The Dark Knight on the flight. It was awesome.
-Another one of those lame life experiences that really is insignificant, but I find cool: I had a meal served to me on a flight. When I was 5 year old (or so) I went to Hawaii with my family. My grandpa paid to have us all go. I had breakfast on that flight then, but I don't think that counts. They gave me the option of pancakes or and omelette. I didn't know what an omelette was at that age, so i tried it. It was gross. The food on this flight wasn't anything to sing about either, but, especially since the food flights are becoming more rare, it was cool. I got the beef dish which was kind of a roast beef in some sauce with mashed potatoes and veggies. I didn't eat the mashed potatoes or veggies. It also had a salad, a roll and a dessert. I didn't eat the roll or dessert, just the salad and beef.
-When I got off the flight the humidity hit me like a ton of bricks. And I hadn't even hit the real stuff yet. It was the humidity after air conditioning that I was feeling.
-I went through customs and waited for my baggage with Fernando. Fernando got his bag early and decided to go outside without me to call his sister (who lives nearby and was thinking of going to dinner with him tonight).
-I finally got my bag and went outside to find Fernando. I was surrounded by 100+ cabbies (not exaggerating) that wanted to take me to my hotel. This reminded me of an experience I had on my last cruise. I went to a flea market in Jamaica. We were acosted by many people asking if we would go to their store and buy stuff. Crazy. Annoying. Scary? Yeah a bit. Anyway.. Same thing here.
-I found Fernando a few minutes later, and he decided to go with his family to dinner. No invitation. Whatever. That's ok.. At that point I was anxious to get to the hotel and get to my room so I could call Trisha.
-I go back into the airport to use their "official" taxi service. 22 bucks to get me to my hotel. They take me to a "certified/licensed" taxi driver. He starts driving. As we left, he asked me if I was going to the Holiday Inn. I told him no, and it took a minute or so to break the language barrier so he knew where I was headed.
-At this point, I was mildly anxious. I'm in a country in Central America (not the "safest" of places on Earth for inexperienced travelers). I don't speak Spanish. It's already dark out (around 9:30 or 10 PM). I'm by myself. But it doesn't really bother me. Until...
-The cabbie continues to drive away from the airport. We weren't on what I would consider a "main thoroughfare." In fact, the path seems to be getting darker, and less "modern." The lines painted on the road disappear (at least it was paved). The street lights stop. I glance down at my phone. Whew. There were 3 bars of service. At that exact moment, the service bars drop down to 2. 15 seconds later, 1 bar. Then no service. I glance up at where we're going. It's almost like a neighborhood. I see homes on either side of the road. We pass a car that's going slower than us and nearly run into some pedestrians. The cabbie barely swerves out of the way of an oncoming car. At this point I had a funny thought. "Even though the next few hours might suck, it would be a really cool life experience to say to someone that you got mugged by a cab driver in a foreign country." I'd be left without any money, identification, cell phone, luggage. I'd try to find my way to a house or business and break through the language barrier to make some phone calls and get everything straightened out. Then it struck me that the cabbie could just mug me and then kill me. That wouldn't be a very fun life experience. Shortly after these thoughts passed through my mind we turned a corner and I saw a Pizza Hut. We immediately entered a more pubic/city type setting. My mind was put at ease.
-I wanted to make sure the cabbie took me to the right place, so I (knowing that it would be expensive) used my phone to look up the address of the hotel I was staying in just to make sure we were going to the right place.
-We got stuck behing a really slow Toyota Tercel. I was getting annoyed with how slow it was, but couldn't voice my opinion in such a way as to make the driver understand. I remembered that I downloaded a translation app on my iphone a few days earlier. I looked up the word "slow" in spanish (lento). I said to the driver, "Aye yi yi! Tercel es Lento." The driver laughed and passed the Tercel at the next available opportunity. A few minutes later we pulled up to the Quality Inn (the right place).
-I tipped the guy and went in the hotel to check in. I had to fill out a form because I'm not a local, and then they ran my Visa credit card. Declined. "Hrmm.. That's weird.. There's plenty of money in there," I thought. So I gave them my AMEX. Declined. The knot that was present in my stomach when we were driving through the dark suburbs returned. Apparently, my bank requires some advance notification of international travel (especailly with the amount to be charged to my card.) So, I had to make some phone calls to get that straightened out. Called my bank and transfered extra money from savings into checking. Then i called AMEX to make a payment over the phone. They don't accept toll-free calls from places outside of the US, so it took me a few minutes and a few calls to get the international toll free number for Costa Rica. I track that down and call them and make a payment large enough to have the hotel charge it to that. The card went though. Whew.
- I went up to my room and unpacked and attempted to call Trisha. My softphone on my computer (that allows me to call her for free) wasn't working. After 20 minutes of fiddling with it, I realized that I had the wrong version of the software installed. I tracked down someone at my work that was on IM who gave me the link to the right version. When I started downloading my connection speed was at 3.5 KB/s. That is essentially the same as dial up. It took 40 minutes to download, but finally I got it installed. While it was downloading I looked up the cost of international calls. It took me around 12 minutes to get the whole money situation figured out so I could get into my room. It's $2.29 per minute for roaming plus $.80 per minute for the international call. Oh man, I'm grateful that I can get reimbursed for that.
-While waiting for the software to download I ordered some room service. The restaurant in the lobby closed sometime in between the time that I arrived at the hotel and the time I got checked into my room. There are a couple of restaurants within walking distance that I could go to, but because of the hassle, I decided room service was in. I ordered some broccoli soup and some Salmon (with veggies and sauted mushrooms). I have to say... Even though this is a chain hotel where I didn't even expect room service to be available. The food was pretty effing good. Especially the salmon and mushrooms. I also had 2 Diet Cokes which they refer to as Coca-Cola Light. They come in old-school glass bottles! Effing awesome.
-I finally was able to make a call to Trisha, but since the internet connection here sucks, it was a bit choppy. We were able to talk for 30 minutes or so though. It was good to hear from her. I miss her already!

Well. That was my day. I'm now going to try to get to bed so I can get up in 6 hours and the "real" fun begins.