Living several hours by plane away from my family has made me pretty adept at packing at the last minute. I know I'm pretty excited about a trip when I start thinking about packing a few weeks in advance!
Granted, this trip was different. This trip was to somewhere that was likely going to feel more foreign than anywhere else I'd ever been. I was going somewhere where I couldn't even read the signs! For some of my coworkers, the foreignness of Russia was terrifying. For me, it was exhilarating.
Being the compulsive researcher that I am, I had been diligently Rosetta Stone-ing Russian for several months and had a pretty good grasp on my basic phrases. Everyone at work teased me for it. "It's the Olympics!" everyone said, "Everyone will speak English!" Still, any excuse to dabble in a foreign language is an excuse I'm going to take.
The morning started out simply enough. My friend Katie was kind enough to wake up bright and early to drive me to the airport in Salt Lake City. I had quite a lot of luggage as I was taking along a lot of items for people who had already made the hop around the world, so I wanted to make sure I arrived early to avoid any problems. And this is coming from the person who generally thinks 30 minutes before your flight is the perfect time to arrive at the airport.
Everything went beyond smoothly at the Delta counter. My bags were slightly overweight, but an excited conversation with the gate agent about my destination - "I'm going to the Olympics!" "Oh my goodness! Are you an athlete?" "Nope, just working. But still! I'm going to the Olympics!" - prompted a smile and a wave of the hand at the slightly-higher-than-50-pounds number on the scale.
Elated and feeling much lighter after ridding myself of the massive bags, I collected my passport, ticket and backpack and began making my way to the gate. On the way, I passed a few coworkers who seemed more weary of the early morning than excited about the prospect of 24 hours of travel (yes, I was excited about traveling for 24 hours. I'm weird and don't mind those long plane rides as long as there are good movies!).
Flight #1. SLC to JFK. I was fortunate enough to be sitting near the front of the cabin (not fortunate to have made it into first or Economy Comfort, but oh well!), so upon arriving, I was able to make a quick exit. According to my ticket, I had a little over an hour to kill at JFK. I quickly realized, though, that this was not the case.
After settling down for a last American meal of Shake Shack with the CMO and CEO of the USSA, they began boarding the plane! We slammed down our burgers and I carried my chocolately-truffley-ice-cream-goodness (I don't remember the actual name...so yeah, this is its name now) on with me. After settling into my seat, I chatted with our CEO for a few minutes. Turns out, he had spoken with the flight attendants and the plane had already boarded everyone! And there were empty seats all over the mini front economy cabin we were in! And I had a row of three seats all to myself!
I shot off a few last minute texts to my family and friends, promising to call or email or Facebook or whatever I was able to do once I was in Russia. The door to the plane shut and I curled up in my luxurious three-seats for the 11ish hour flight to Moscow. Turns out, there weren't many good movies on this flight, but the three seats to myself more than made up for it and I was able to sleep most of the way there.
In Moscow, I made my way through customs and felt pretty special when I was able to walk through the credentialed line (even though it wasn't any shorter than the regular line). I spent a few hours enjoying some free wifi in the Sheremetyevo domestic terminal, catching up on all of the news that had happened during my lengthy flight.
Finally, it was boarding time for flight #3. Moscow to Sochi. Aeroflot Russian Airlines.
The plane was nice and new and every seat had some Olympic swag on it. Most of the plane was speaking American-accented English and I quickly learned from conversations that a large contingent of NBC staff were flying with me.
The flight was only a little over two hours, which was fortunate since Aeroflot isn't exactly generous in the leg room department (and I'm 5'4"...poor tall people!). I had to put my backpack in the overhead bin because it was too wide to fit between the front of my seat and the back of the seat in front of me.
It was also fortunate because the in-flight meal was some sort of raw fish and mayonnaise concoction that made the whole plane smell like a fish market. I wasn't even sure how exactly the food was supposed to be eaten until I watched the Russian lady next to me put hers together. My stomach was a little weak after eating airplane food for about 15 hours, so I gifted her my raw fish plate, which she was very happy about.
Finally, touchdown in Sochi. The flight in was gorgeous. We saw the whole Black Sea coastline and could make out Olympic Park.
After all the months working like crazy, I was finally there. Finally in Sochi.
I collected my bags and, after speaking with a handful of brightly-outfitted volunteers, found my bus to the mountains. A little over an hour later, I was happily ensconced in my hotel room (which was absolutely gorgeous, by the way), waiting on Sarah, my Sochi roommate, to arrive so we could explore.
I successfully staved off jet lag for a few hours to enjoy a dinner with my colleagues already on the ground and get up to speed on everything going on so far. We all raised our glasses and said our cheers to being in Russia. We talked for hours. Everyone's excitement was contagious.
Finally, it was bedtime. I sank into my bed and couldn't help but smile at the prospect of the 17 days ahead of me. Yes, I knew it was going to be insane. Yes, I knew I was going to be pulling all nighters and dealing with all kinds of unforeseen issues. But I was prepared.
Let the Games begin.
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