Thursday, June 9, 2005
School of Pharmacy Staff Appreciation Day: SF Giants baseball game at SBC Park. Joel, Ena, James, Melissa, Cindy. The Giants won 9 to 7 over the Kansas City Royals. I think they hadn't won a game recently so people were happy and relieved. The school bought us free tickets in the nosebleed seats and gave us fun candy gift packages and Nalgene water bottles and $15 in Giants Bucks. They held a raffle and I won a grey Giants jersey which said SCHMIDT across the back. Melissa won an orange Giants t-shirt. I gave the jersey to Ena because neither Patrick nor I were baseball fans. For lunch I had a turkey burger and garlic fries (about $12). I drank a bottle of home tap water I brought with me. Melissa and I walked to the Ferry Building evening market. We tasted lots of summer fruits: apricots, cherries, strawberries, peaches. We didn't buy anything. There were no booths set up outside—everything was indoors, and, ultimately, disappointing because it was so scaled down from the Saturday market. Nap. Late dinner at home by myself: shrimp-flavored ramen noodles with mushroom and egg. Picked up Sam and Patrick at the airport. They both survived. Sam got his research he needed and Patrick took 9 rolls of film. Patrick says he'll never return. When I picked them up at San Francisco International Airport, what a mess! Their flight 8317 was due to come in at 11 PM following a layover in Toronto. I checked the Austrian Air website at 10 PM which said the flight was on time and due in at 11 PM. When driving in to the airport, one must choose between domestic and international to park. Patrick and Sam were flying Austrian Air. And I remembered seeing "operated by Air Canada" on their flight details, so I thought—maybe—that meant I should go to Air Canada instead of looking for Austrian Airlines. Well, that's still international, right? As I pull in to the international garage I see signs listing airlines but I don't see Air Canada or Austrian Air listed anywhere, and it just doesn't feel right, so I stop in front of one of the signs and wonder why this is so hard. Fortunately, no one is waiting behind me. I find the closest space and decide I'll just make my way to the terminal on foot. Somewhere along the way to the AirTrain terminal with the help of some maps and the flight details I had printed out I figure out the problem: Air Canada is in Terminal 1—a domestic terminal—not the international terminal. Somewhere (I can't remember now) something I see confirms it for me: "Domestic/Canadian." Why couldn't Austrian Air's flight details have said "Terminal 1 (Domestic)"? Why couldn't the freeway sign have said "Domestic/Canadian" or, even more amusingly, "Domestic/Canadian/Austrian" instead of "Domestic"? Or why couldn't SFO just put Canada/Austria where it should've been in the first place—in the international terminal? So frustrating! When I arrive at Terminal 1, passengers are slowly streaming out of one terminal gate, but it's not clear what airline and what flight is coming out. Monitors nearby are labeled Continental and the flight info doesn't match what I have, so I go looking for Air Canada's monitors. A few minutes of walking and I find the Air Canada ticket counter. It's entirely closed and has been so for over an hour. The area is dark, and no agents are around at all. There's some flight info on the non-digital board behind the counter but it's small type from this distance and I can't read it, so I duck under rows and rows and rows of queue management cordoning. The info matches what I had printed out earlier, except the flight number doesn't match and it says the flight is delayed by 20 minutes. While I'm spending a few minutes figuring this out, a woman comes over and appears to be doing the same figuring out I'm doing. I chat with her a few minutes—she had exactly the same problem I did and parked in the international garage. She's obviously looking for the same flight, as I see now on the board there aren't others this late for Air Canada. I have a gate number now, which turns out to be the same place I was a few minutes ago. It takes a few minutes for me to walk back. I wait a few minutes as more people come out but Patrick and Sam still don't show up. I fear that I'm too late and decide to go downstairs to check the baggage claim area. I go down and there seems to be only two flights there which aren't right—a different airline is designated. I go back up. I wait. And wait. It's hopeless waiting since I have nothing concrete to go on. I was unable to confirm that their flight arrived because the flight number on the board didn't match what I had printed out. For the same reason, I can't be sure I'm even at the right gate. I can't ask any Air Canada or Austrian Air official what's going on because they don't exist at this hour. Eventually I spot Sam and Patrick coming through the exit, and all is well. SFO has never disappointed me so much until today. I think I'll send my suggestion to the freeway sign people: Please change "International" to say 'International Except Canada and Austria."