I have arrived...

So, I finally made it here (well, I've been here for a few days) and boy was it an ordeal getting here. First of all I woke up nice and early in the morning with plenty of time to get to the Buffalo airport, like 2 1/2 hours early. However, that was not to be. I arrived at the border and was told that I had to go to this little building off to the side of the parking lot. There I waiting in a little room where they announced your name before you could come into another little room. I waited for about 20 minutes before they called my name. I went in and was quickly told that I could not enter the country, on my letter explaining what was going on there was written that one of my qualifications for my employment was my bachelors degree in zoology, and they wanted to see proof. This proof had to be an original letter with the handwritten signature of the dean, or the actual diploma itself. Of course I didn't prepare for this because thats insane. So I sat there, I couldn't leave before my rejection forms were filled out and of course, that day, the computers were down. So I sat there, for over 90 minutes, complaining and stressing out to my family about it, and watching the clock tick down until the time my plane left. They must have listened to all my stressing because at 45 minutes before my plane left they said that they would accept a fax from my school. I frantically called the guidance department and got a letter written up extremely quickly and sent along. Unfortunately it took about 15 minutes to come through (and people there were not willing to check the fax machine because it was soooooo busy - who then promptly went and sat down to eat and talk with his friends). So I had my passport quickly stamped and I was sent along, with 30 minutes to get to the airport, through everything and onto the plane. We sped along, ran into the airport only to find that the plane was delayed for 90 minutes. So I had plenty of time to make it through, sit down and relax. Unfortunately because of the delay I missed my connecting flight because apparently the La Guiardia in New York has more than 1 building that you need to catch a bus to get to. So I arrived only to find that my seat had been sold, although the plane was still sitting in the terminal (and stayed there for about 20 more minutes). I was given a new plan, instead of going from Buffalo to New York to Denver to Medford, I was now going from Buffalo to New York to Chicago to Portland to Medford. I was lucky not to miss another flight however each one required sprinting from plane to plane and just sneaking onboard. I arrived an hour later than planned and unfortunately without my luggage, which also didn't make my first connection and was now in California some where. But it all worked out in the end, I got my luggage 4 days later and have spent a few days out in the field setting up different sites. Tomorrow I actually start banding (I think) and will keep you posted on that once I determine if I can use this computer to put my pictures up. Until then...