If you read the saga of my ¡Avolar! ticket purchase you'll love to hear Kelly's experience: she used frequent flier miles, bought a ticket, she leaves from LA, she's traveling for free. That, of course, bugs me to no end because of course my pre-flight experience as a multi-cultural-pain-in-the-butt and hers was hassle-free-click-click-print. Hopefully that's how her whole Mexico experience will go.
It will be sad to leave her on Feb. 29th, bu luckily her spring break is only two weeks after that so we won't be apart for long. Kelly is finishing up her senior year at Chapman University in Orange, CA; she wants to be a writer and an elementary school teacher and I could not be more proud of everything she has accomplished and aspires to be. I will be returning home at the end of April for her May graduation; if all goes according to plan she'll come down to the Mexican OC (well more the OX) and teach English while I finish my work with ProWorld through August.
I think this sums up all of the pre-trip hiccups and jitters, more later from the other side.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Looking to Point B, Waiting at Point A...
So it's official, the tickets are purchased, the rooms are rented and I'm ready set sail (so to say) on this grand voyage. I am entering my last week at Adventure 16, the finest outdoor retailer in all the land, and I am getting really excited because we're a mere two weeks away from blast off.
The most eventful part of the pre-trip experience has definitely been trying to find a reasonably price ticket that doesn't require an 8 hour lay-over in Timbuktu-um...I mean Dallas. Luckily I'm going to work for a bunch of gringos that have faced the same problemos so they pointed me in the right direction. Of course cheap doesn't always mean that its the easiest thing to navigate; ¡Avolar! airline (and yes it is a registered trademark with the exclamation marks) has found a way to get me from Tijuana to Oaxaca directly for pesos on the dollar.
I tried to order my tickets online last Monday because all of the prices are in pesos and the exchange rate was particularly favorable that day. Of course the credit card didn't work online so I had to call them. Now I think at this point it's important to make clear that my Spanish is pretty coversational, that is I can speak relatively completely to somebody if they're standing right in front of me but I have a ton of trouble understanding people on the phone. So I was not looking forward to trying to navigate the Mexican airline system if ours is any indication of how the whole thing might go.
I called them up and a recorded woman's voice came on:
"Gracias por llamado a Avolar! For English press 2." My first thought was, "so this is what it's like," but that was quickly replaced by "this just got so much easier." I pressed 2.
"Please holding while we find your call, your call might be recording for happiness guarantee purporses." Ooookay; I would understand if I was calling Air Japan where there were huge structural, phonetic, and inflective cultural differences between the languages, but what you're telling me is that nobody at ¡Avolar! knows anybody that speaks English? nobody has a cousin? not even to proofread the recorded script? I knew then that I was in for it.
A man answered:
"Gracias por llamado ¡Avolar!, me llamo Emanuel, puedo ayudarte?" Or at least I think that's what he said; as previously stated: I'm not so good on the phone.
"Um...hi...yeah...hola, quiero comprar un bolleto para Oaxaca por Tijuana." I'm all jumpy at this point because I haven't really spoken Spanish in a while.
"I speak English sir."
"Sweet."
"So you are going to Oaxaca?"
"Yes from Tijuana on February 28th."
"Okay hold on let me check on that for you, i need to put you on hold."
"Sounds great." Elevator music with a mariachi feel started to play. I was excited to have gotten through this all seemed like it was getting easier. I mean why would I be so worried about buying tickets i've bought them -CLICK and dial tone.
"Oh he hung up!" I called back, pressed 2 and received the same greeting from a different voice.
"Puedo hablar con Emanuel?" May I speak with Emanuel?
"No hay nadie aqui que se llama Emanuel." There's nobody here named Emanuel.
"Crap."
I was about to give up on the good people at ¡Avolar! but gave the website one more shot and it worked.
So like I said, my tickets are purchased, the room is rented, and I'm ready to set sail; it's just...well, I think I'm gonna need a bigger boat.
The most eventful part of the pre-trip experience has definitely been trying to find a reasonably price ticket that doesn't require an 8 hour lay-over in Timbuktu-um...I mean Dallas. Luckily I'm going to work for a bunch of gringos that have faced the same problemos so they pointed me in the right direction. Of course cheap doesn't always mean that its the easiest thing to navigate; ¡Avolar! airline (and yes it is a registered trademark with the exclamation marks) has found a way to get me from Tijuana to Oaxaca directly for pesos on the dollar.
I tried to order my tickets online last Monday because all of the prices are in pesos and the exchange rate was particularly favorable that day. Of course the credit card didn't work online so I had to call them. Now I think at this point it's important to make clear that my Spanish is pretty coversational, that is I can speak relatively completely to somebody if they're standing right in front of me but I have a ton of trouble understanding people on the phone. So I was not looking forward to trying to navigate the Mexican airline system if ours is any indication of how the whole thing might go.
I called them up and a recorded woman's voice came on:
"Gracias por llamado a Avolar! For English press 2." My first thought was, "so this is what it's like," but that was quickly replaced by "this just got so much easier." I pressed 2.
"Please holding while we find your call, your call might be recording for happiness guarantee purporses." Ooookay; I would understand if I was calling Air Japan where there were huge structural, phonetic, and inflective cultural differences between the languages, but what you're telling me is that nobody at ¡Avolar! knows anybody that speaks English? nobody has a cousin? not even to proofread the recorded script? I knew then that I was in for it.
A man answered:
"Gracias por llamado ¡Avolar!, me llamo Emanuel, puedo ayudarte?" Or at least I think that's what he said; as previously stated: I'm not so good on the phone.
"Um...hi...yeah...hola, quiero comprar un bolleto para Oaxaca por Tijuana." I'm all jumpy at this point because I haven't really spoken Spanish in a while.
"I speak English sir."
"Sweet."
"So you are going to Oaxaca?"
"Yes from Tijuana on February 28th."
"Okay hold on let me check on that for you, i need to put you on hold."
"Sounds great." Elevator music with a mariachi feel started to play. I was excited to have gotten through this all seemed like it was getting easier. I mean why would I be so worried about buying tickets i've bought them -CLICK and dial tone.
"Oh he hung up!" I called back, pressed 2 and received the same greeting from a different voice.
"Puedo hablar con Emanuel?" May I speak with Emanuel?
"No hay nadie aqui que se llama Emanuel." There's nobody here named Emanuel.
"Crap."
I was about to give up on the good people at ¡Avolar! but gave the website one more shot and it worked.
So like I said, my tickets are purchased, the room is rented, and I'm ready to set sail; it's just...well, I think I'm gonna need a bigger boat.
Jim's Great Adventure
Jimmy will be traveling back to Oaxaca, Mexico at the end of February to continue his public service work with ProWorld and to find the few bottles of slow cooked mescal he left behind after his last trip. Please check in on his progress using this blog. Jim will be posting his adventures and hopefully no war stories.
We will be keeping a light on in the window and a little dog poop in the yard until he returns.
Much love to all,
Debbie, Ella and Layla
We will be keeping a light on in the window and a little dog poop in the yard until he returns.
Much love to all,
Debbie, Ella and Layla
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