Aubrey Arrived

From 2009-12

It's with great relief that I report the arrival of Aubrey Rose Benson to the Czech Republic.

For months now we, especially Lucy, have been looking forward to Aubrey spending Christmas break with us.  She grew up in the Mankato area and we know her from church.  Now, she studies cello at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.

On Wednesday she boarded a Swiss Airlines plane in Manchester to fly to Zurich.  From Zurich she would go to Prague, where Kristine would be waiting to take her and her cello to a hotel.  After stowing their gear, they would go see a performance of the Talich (String) Quartet  at the Rudolfinium in Prague.  The next day, after roaming around Prague in the morning, they would take the train to České Budejovice.

Well, so much for plans.  It seems the Swiss have trouble telling time.  Her flight to Zurich was 40 minutes late.  So she missed the flight to Prague.

When the very last passengers off the 2:00 flight from Zurich had disembarked, Kristine got worried.  She looked all over the place, but there was no sign of her.  Kristine asked at the Swiss Air desk if Aubrey was on the flight, but they would not say.

She called me to see if I had heard anything.  Nope.

What followed was a wonder of technology.

Using our computer and Skype, I called Aubrey's mother in Minnesota to get her cell phone number in England.  She gave it to me, I called Kristine, Kristine called Aubrey.  Unfortunately, a message said that the number was no longer valid because of renumbering.

I called her mom again to see if there was another number.  She had left home already.  So, I put out an APB on Facebook and sent Aubrey an email with Yahoo Mail.  I then went online to Google and Switchboard.com to find phone numbers for her sisters in Utah.  No luck there, maybe they have cell phones.  Maybe somebody from our congregation in Mankato would have her sisters' numbers.  I was having trouble finding any numbers online.

Kristine and I talked again, she remembered our Bishop's home phone number (she used to be Relief Society President and had him on mental speed dial).  I called there.  So, while I was using my computer to talk to their land line, Sister Cragun was calling people on her cell phone to get the numbers.  Finally, she got them.

So, I called Aubrey's sisters.  Both had the same number that her mom had given me.  I tried calling her from Skype.  I got the same message.  Then I tried again, telling Skype the country not dialing the country code.  I got through...to an answering machine.

Meanwhile, Kristine travels around Prague.  At one intersection, when the walk sign came up everybody started walking.  Problem was that someone in a big SUV wanted to go through that intersection.  They barreled through, missing the lead ped by six inches.  Later, at the same intersection, there was a man standing by a car yelling at the occupant.  He started pounding on the passenger door until he busted out the window.  He turned and ran to a parked car and took off.  Kristine's feeling a bit frazzled at this point.

It's now 5:45 p.m. The next flight from Zurich comes in at 6:45.  Kristine needs to take a bus at 6:00 to get to the airport.  If she goes and Aubrey's not on that flight, she'll have missed the first half of the concert needlessly.  If she doesn't go and Aubrey is on the 6:45, she'd be sitting for a long time. 

So, I make a call to Swiss Airlines HQ in Zurich.  I was a little slow in pressing three for English, so a nice woman said hello in German.  I could understand her and, although I should have been able to get the point across, all I could think of were the Czech words.  Finally, she asked if I spoke English.  I told her our sad story and how my wife doesn't know if she should make the trip to the airport again and is there any way we can know if she is on that flight.  She looked it up.  Yep, she's on the 6:45 flight. Kristine has hope that they can take the 25 minute taxi ride and still make it nip and tuck for the concert.

I called Kristine, she took the bus, and promised to call when she had Aubrey safely in a taxi.  A little before 7:00 I got a text, flight 20 minutes late.  At about 7:20 she called.  I heard Aubrey's Minnesota accent with a British lilt in the background.

They missed the Mendelssohn and the Golijov, but made it to the Shostakovich after intermission.

I then proceeded to send emails, make phone calls, and post Facebook messages to alleviate the worry I had been causing.

Thursday they took the train to České Budejovice and is safe and sound here in our little home.

She received the unofficial calling of Branch Cellist - our Branch President (the leader of our congregation) asked if she would play at church each Sunday and on Christmas.  Right now, she and Caleb are practicing the piece they will play tomorrow.

In other quick news...Caleb has the flu.  Where once it was just an illness, it now seems the equivalent of announcing that he has the plague. 

We had our church Christmas party on Friday.  We ate pizza, sang the 12 Days of Christmas in English, and played the White Elephant (Bily Slon) gift game.  Weather has been chilly with some snow.  It's beautiful, but likely to melt.  We got a package in the mail from some folks back home.  Instead of packing peanuts or bubble wrap, they put Coco Pebbles and Cheese Puffs in ziplocs.  Ingenious.  Tasty.

Looking forward to Christmas carp.

Peter