New York, New York

As much as my job sometimes put me in rather complicated situations, I have also been very fortunate: I got two internal grants that fit very well together, a grant for a teaching free semester (this is a lot since my normal teaching load is around two courses per semester) and a grant for travel and accommodation for a research project, four weeks in total. I will be working with a colleague at Cornell University, upstate New York for two weeks and then go down to New York city to collect data for another two weeks. I am planning to go to New York in August because that fitted the schedule of my colleague. Obviously I have to bring Zoe but I'm used to travel with her for work by now so I'm arranging for her to go to a daycare there for a week and I'm hoping to find a babysitter for New York city. Her dad will also be there to look after her for five days while I am at a committee meeting. I don't expect to be able to work full time for the whole month but I hope to be able to collect a lot of data and have interesting meetings with colleagues. And then I look forward to pretending to live in New York city for almost two weeks, something I still dream of.

I am very used to arranging these things and I'm also prepared for bumps along the road. My first bump was when the daycare who agreed to take Zoe in, needed a medical and vaccine record that included a vaccine against chicken pox. This vaccine is not given here in Sweden (and most of Europe) but it is required in the US. My doctor friend tells me it is because it is not 100% and that chicken pox is not deadly or even as dangerous as many of the other deceases that children are vaccinated against. But because we moved from the US when Zoe was 18 months, she doesn't have it. Luckily she is going for her last round of MMR in two weeks time and I can ask to have the chicken pox vaccine too. Then I have daycare.

I go her plane ticket on my miles, which means she won't make silver next year again, but I will not be financially ruined. I was lucky to get the only available flight in August to Newark on the 7th, ironically from Copenhagen via Stockholm. It would have been nice with the direct flight but saving 9000 SKr (~1300$) is even nicer.

I am hugely excited about the prospect of being in New York for two weeks where I can pretend that we live there. I hope to see friends, colleagues and spend time just living there with Zoe. Maybe one day it will be real.

Those boring old hotels

Back when Zoe still thought minibars were exciting

When I was putting Zoe to sleep we talked about how today had been ("Zoe thinking that it was a good day") and what activities are coming up next. I reminded her that this week she will go to an English nursery for two days while I work in Manchester and then we will take the train to visit one of our friends who used to live in Stockholm. One that Zoe likes very much and got excited talking about. "But first we have to stay in a hotel for three days", I said, thinking she would also be a bit excited about that. But no. "Oh, that's a long, long time", she said in a tone of dislike. I asked her if she didn't like hotels and she thought about it for a bit. "Hotels boring", she then said and there I had it: My 3 year old has stayed so many times in hotels that she now thinks it is uneventful. She knows the little wrapped soaps. She knows there is never Pocoyo on TV in hotels. She has fallen down the hotel beds more than what's good for her (why are they always so bloody high?). Even the minibar has lost its glory. But our friend's apartment, she mused about for a while. Did it have stairs or an elevator? Could she walk up the stairs while I took the elevator? Would there be a balcony like we have? I didn't know but we will soon find out.

This is our next trip coming up. Due to practicalities such as my teaching obligations at the moment and timing of planes, it was impossible for me to drop Zoe off in Copenhagen for this three day trip to Manchester. Instead I managed to get a nursery to take her for two days, a private babysitter for the evening of the dinner and I got her plane ticket on my miles. All in all it will cost me around 200 dollars for the babysitting, which is much cheaper than any other option I could think of, and we get to make a trip out of it. Too bad Zoe thinks hotels are so boring, I'll try my best to spice it up a bit next time.

Gold treatment

Flying home to Stockholm from Easter holiday with family in Copenhagen was Zoe's and my first flight as gold. I hadn't received my card yet, or even been updated in the system, obviously, since the journey that made me gold (and Zoe silver) was the flight there four days earlier. But as I approached the counter I explained the situation simply. The check-in attendant (I had a small suitcase to check in since I was bringing back liquids) called up the frequent flyer service and confirmed that I had indeed made gold a couple of days before. From then on she made sure everything was in finest order, wrote a note on the boarding pass so we could go through fast track, called the lounge to tell them we were on our way (which meant I barely had to flash my boarding pass to get in, because how many single moms with 2 year olds go to the lounge anyway?). All in all the experience was contrasting our previous experience of the very same people snootingly sending me away, despite me having a baby on my back and the economy check-in line being miles long. Now we finally belong to the exclusive club worthy of American style friendliness. In the lounge Zoe made herself at home in the play area and I had a glass of chilled white wine. Arh, the jet-setting life.

45 miles from gold

My last trip to Manchester (dropping Zoe off in Copenhagen on the way) let me to the status of almost gold. It is almost unfair but also ironic that I'm so close, yet have to fly another journey (anywhere. I don't think any flights give less than 500 miles anyway) to qualify. But I'm going to Copenhagen for easter so I'm sorted. Zoe will make silver on the same trip. 

Despite my many years of frequent travel (10 years+) I have only been gold once before which comes down to my relationship: Zoe's dad and I travelled a lot together and we tended to use our miles for private travel; not only because it was cheaper but also because it enabled us to travel business class. At one point I traveled more business and first class than economy and I still remember being confused that I had to pay for a glass of wine on a cross Atlantic flight on a US carrier: "oh, we changed that a few years ago", the nice flight attendant said and I snobbishly replied "but I'm not used to be down here". In fact Zoe's very first flight was in first class, upstairs in a Boing 747-400. I learned to breastfeed her lying down in the lie-flat bed. But the flying on miles meant that I just didn't qualify for gold. Silver always but gold only one year. It didn't matter much because Mark was always gold and we went to the lounge together. I still remember the Virgin Atlantic lounge in Heathrow where they bring you whatever warm meal you want from the menu, the champagne was cold and they come down to get you after everybody else has boarded.  

There are two things I'm looking forward to when I get my card in a month. The special security queue in Copenhagen, which is much closer to the actual entrance and saves you 500 meters' walking, something quite useful when having to drag a 2 year old sobbing girl: "Zoe sad, Zoe had to say bye bye to grandma". And the lounges. The Copenhagen lounge has a special kids area which Zoe loves and they serve meatballs and olives, both Zoe's favorite easy snacks. And I presume they keep the champagne cold.

10 questions about Zoe and Louise's travels

I have collected a set of questions that one who enters this blog might ask. It also contains hidden advise if you travel with a baby or toddler yourself.

1. Do we travel alone?
Well, no we travel with each other. But yes, not only since I split from Zoe's dad, but also before this: When we lived in the US I frequently took Zoe to work meetings and occasionally overseas travel. Her and I also didn't always go back from holiday in Europe at the same time as her dad.

2. What is the best tool for traveling?
The baby carrier, hands down. I have a Beco Gemini and it has saved me millions of times during short layovers, long walks (now that she can walk) and for having her sleep in.

3. Why do we travel so much?
Apart from living in a completely different country from 1. where I am from, 2. where Zoe was born, 3. where her dad is from and 4. where all of my close family lives (none of these countries being the same), I travel a lot for work. A lot is about 6-10 times per year. Add to that family visits.

4. Does Zoe have her own frequent flier card?
Yes, Euro bonus on Scandinavian because this is the main airline we fly between Stockholm and Copenhagen where most of our family lives.

5. Has Zoe ever been in the cockpit?
No, but if the door is open when we enter she waves at the pilots. When we leave she always says "bye bye airplane" and waves back at it.

6. Does Zoe walk through the security metal detector herself?
Yes, and she has done that since she was about 20 months old. I taught her to wait until I turn around and ask her to come through. She always wants to be 'touched' too and we often have to ask the nice security lady to do a little pat down for Zoe.

7. Does Zoe misbehave when flying?
Generally no, but once as we were boarding the plane, she walked straight over to the air bridge control panel and grabbed the joy stick to the surprise of me and several other passengers. Turns out the controls are on and working when you board. Who should have known? Nobody got hurt. Other people's kids open the car door by accident while driving. My kid moves the air bridge.

8. Worst plane trip memory?
A recent one where Zoe ran away as we were checking in our luggage. I caught her but was so upset that I shook her and yelled at her until she started wailing and we sat down on the floor in the middle of the airport and both cried and hugged for 5 minutes. Not my proudest moment.

9. Best plane trip memory?
All the trips where Zoe, straight after take off, leans against me and falls asleep.

10. Crazy coordination memory?
When I bought an actual plane ticket for my mom so she could come through security to pick up Zoe in Copenhagen airport where I had a very short layover on my way from Stockholm to Munich. Zoe's dad was away too and this was our only option for 3 days' babysitting. Problem is that now Zoe looks for grandma every time we disembark in Copenhagen. 

Baby's first miles

Zoe earned her first frequent flier miles on Monday, 500 for a short trip from Stockholm to Denmark. I have (for complicated reasons that are uninteresting to my readers) had to change frequent flyer and signed Zoe up for the same: Scandinavian Airlines' EuroBonus. Since it is difficult for us to get anywhere out of Stockholm without flying with SAS, this was the obvious choice. I have no expectations that she will make gold any time soon but the miles, or 'bonus points' as SAS calls them, will come in handy for upgrading on occasion and for buying tickets when I bring Zoe on work trips. Since she turned two in May she is now almost a full fare and I stare in disbelief at the double numbers when I make reservations for us. But here we go, Zoe is growing up. One plane ride at a time.