Apparently I still haven’t completely adjusted to Mountain time. I was convinced all day yesterday that today was the 13th and we’d be heading to Calgary this morning. I guess I should pay more attention to the time zone I’m looking at on my watch.

It’s Remembrance Day and Drew is headed out for a memorial service at a local cenotaph. It was 0 dark 30 when he left to join up with the other members of his squadron and I’ll be driving out to the cenotaph later to watch the ceremony. There’s no way I’m getting out of bed before 8am if I don’t have to!

After the service, we headed to our Legion hall.

We headed out to a South Indian restaurant for dinner tonight and I was mildly disappointed. The food was ‘North Americanized’ versions of dishes I had enjoyed immensely while in Bangalore. Drew didn’t notice the difference and loved all of the things I ordered, but I spent most of the meal thinking that the office cafeteria served better food.

I guess you can’t have everything. I’m glad I brought some cookbooks home with me.

On the bright side, a few days ago I found a few local Indian grocers who carry Punjabi and Masala papadams. They’re great roasted in the toaster oven and I’m in snack heaven.

I am back to Mountain time, however, I’ve left the 2nd time zone setting on my watch set to IST. Anyone taking a quick glace at the watch would be thoroughly confused. The main section of the face displays CST and the digital readout at the bottom displays IST. I live in MST.

After 7 weeks in India you can’t imagine how wonderful it is to drive on a Canadian road with normal traffic patterns, lights and signals. Well, I’m sure Bill and Linda can. After all, they also survived the trip to Mysore.

I popped into work today to run a few errands. My desk has not moved during my absence and my security pass still works. I take these as good signs.

After work, I headed to the Canex to get a new coat. The one we purchased 2 years ago is falling apart, seams ripped, zipper broken, etc. They sure don’t make cheap no name stuff like they used to. I don’t usually make the drive to base to shop at the Canex, but there’s a sale on Columbia jackets (40% off) so I headed off to pick out one that will be warm enough to get me through the long winter.

Have I mentioned how much I dislike women’s winter coats? They have little or no pockets and come in a wide arrange of ugly colours.. lavender, white, pale yellow… UGH! Needless to say, I bought a men’s parka.

It was easier to enter the US on my way to India than it was on the return trip to Canada. I don’t think the immigration officer was too impressed with my glazed stare – I’ve had less than 4 hours sleep in the last 32 hours – when he asked the purpose of my trip to the US. You’d think that the response “I’m just here to catch a flight home to Edmonton, it was cheaper to fly North West than Air Canada” would merit some bonus points. After all, the immigration officers are always so concerned with citizens of other countries ‘stealing’ their jobs…and as a Canadian traveling on a US airline I’m sure my actions can’t be construed as removing anything from the US economy. Eventually, he must have gotten tired of giving me a hard time. He let me pass and I headed off to grab my luggage and re-check it for the next flight.

After clearing US Customs, my 4 hour layover has been reduced to 2.5 hours. I found my gate, a working electrical outlet, and plopped down to work on the journal.

Boarding has begun and I watch row after row of US hunters trudge down the gateway. Apparently when I left Edmonton, it was ‘bow’ season and now it’s ‘rifle’ season. The ticketing agent announces that we’ve been assigned a bigger plane, but that all the seats are full. We’re not to sit in any seat other than the one assigned on the boarding pass. Over 130 people embarked… 3 women (not including myself) and 2 men in suits…the rest are anxious hunters wearing too much camouflage and swapping pictures of past trophies.

This flight seems longer than the others. It’s only 2.25 hours, but the time seems to drag on. Soon I will be touching down at Edmonton International Airport and will see Drew again. Time slows down to a crawl.

Disembarkation.

It’s cold outside. I can see snow through the windows. There is ice on the ground.

The Canada immigration agent welcomes me home and quickly passes back my passport. Only a few minutes left while I wait for my luggage, then I can see Drew again.

Duties and Taxes wasn’t half as bad as I thought it would be. Despite being 200$ over the exemption limit, I paid only 14$. While I know that this is the standard 7% tax rate, I still consider myself extremely lucky not to have been subject to any special import taxes or duties.

Have I mentioned lately that Drew is wonderful? Unlike my trip to Jax last December, he remembered to bring a winter coat (his, mine died a horrible death last winter) for me to wear now that I’ve returned to the great white north.

Once again, Northwest has oversold their flight. Despite having checked in hours ago and having pre-confirmed seats, I am being bumped from Northwest to Swiss Air. I know little about Swiss Air and am not comforted by what I do know. Like many Maritimers, Swiss Air is permanently associated with Flight 111 and faulty capcon wiring in the fancy electronics systems. I am not relieved to see small TV screens built into the backs of every chair on the plane.

On the bright side, the Northwest agent did confirm that they Amsterdam – Minneapolis segment of my ticket was not oversold and I will be able to continue to my flight back to North America on the originally scheduled flight.

Now, instead of a direct flight to Amsterdam, I am being routed through Zurich and then transferring to another flight which will land me in Amsterdam. Despite the extra flight and time in transit, I will still arrive in time to connect to my Amsterdam – Minneapolis flight and will arrive in Edmonton on time. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an opportunity to view Zurich or Amsterdam or tour their respective airports. My layover in Zurich was approximately 20 minutes – barely providing enough time to move from one gate to another – and I had less than 30 minutes to find my gate in Amsterdam.

My Amex will love me. I had no opportunity to visit a Duty Free shop.

Mumbai to Amsterdam was an experience. I was seated next to Mr. Stinky – granted, I’m sure I’m not so fresh smelling myself anymore, but at least I’ve made an effort to brush my teeth repeatedly since leaving the hotel – who snored like a foghorn. I have been awake since 10:30 am (IST) on Friday and have no idea when I’ll finally have an opportunity to sleep.

I wasn’t able to get my passport stamped upon arrival to Zurich. The immigration official explained that Canadians are allowed a 3 month entry into Switzerland before a Visa is required and as such, no passport stamps will be issued for anyone passing through the airport and traveling on a Canadian passport.

Zurich to Amsterdam was a better flight. Granted, I don’t remember any of it because I fell asleep shortly after take off and awoke minutes before landing. It’s a shame the flight was only 1.25 hours long, as I’m sure I could have slept for hours on this plane.

While I’m upset about being bumped off of the Northwest flight – mainly due to the inconvenience and stress of trying to run through the Mumbai airport with only 20 minutes to boarding time – I can’t fault Swiss Air for their service. They were absolutely wonderful to myself and the other displaced passengers from NW flight 41.

In Amsterdam the security officer was more interested in Winnipeg (the city where my passport was issued) than in anything I was carrying or my reason for travel. Apparently, a number of his friends have immigrated to Canada and settled in Winnipeg.

Airport security seemed non-existent compared to my flights back in September. No one pawed through my pockets or luggage in Mumbai, I wasn’t groped in Amsterdam, and the Zurich immigration official barely looked at my passport.

As with the flight to Amsterdam, I managed to sleep fitfully on the flight to Minneapolis. For the first 4 hours I was wide awake but somewhere in the 5th hour I nodded off and grabbed 40 winks.

While it is only 2:30 pm (CST), it is now 2:00 am IST and my body is still working on India time. With that in mind, I’ve decided to continue the remaining section of my journal entry for today under Sunday on the voyage home…