There were three flights to get to Santiago. The first was in nearly 30 minutes early. The second was in to Atlanta - also about 30 minutes early. Could this string of great fortune continue? I turned on my phone and in came a text from Lauri about a message from Delta. Nope. Flight delayed 14 hours. At least it was a mechanical, so Delta put us up and gave us vouchers for food. We didn't use the full voucher amount on the first purchase, so either Delta only gives you use once vouchers (such as purchase a bottle of water and the remaining $50 balance is revoked) or the waitress got herself a $32 tip.
The flight from Atlanta to Santiago is looong! It seems so much further than flying to Europe. Going over the Andes in Peru was quite bumpy and the meal was served about an hour before landing. By that time I had such a migraine from not eating (had a fruit cup at the airport for breakfast and the fruit was spoiled) and the food was the worst I've had on my many flights. I was not feeling too well when we landed and the address I had for the apartment was incomplete. Erin knew enough Spanish and was resourceful enough that she figured out through contacts and help from a security guard where we needed to be.
The apartment was much nicer than it looked on the web. Small, but clean and in a quiet area leading to a dead end street. I had two main requirements for an apartment - 1) no smoking, and 2) no barking dogs. As soon as the elevator doors opened...bark, bark. There was a golden retriever. Oh well, 1 for 2. After two days the dog issue really hasn't been too bad and the location is proving to be quite good.
We got the Internet going and communication started flowing back and forth from the States. Somehow it already seems like I've been gone a long time even though I've only been here a couple days. I know the same strange feeling will occur when I get home - Chile will soon seem like a distant memory. But right now there are three months from that place.
There are many strange feelings in taking on a 3 month Fulbright Scholarship teaching and research engagement. You hope to keep the wheels on your personal life as you think about your family constantly. There are the things back at Ferris State University. Then there are the things at the University of Chile. All of these are compounded by being a profound introvert working in a field where you can't really talk. I'm not referring to the classes that I teach; rather, the work that enables what I teach.
There are too many potential security risks, legal and ethical issues, and a number of other things that by gosh you have to have introverted tendencies or you are going to potentially negatively impact many people. But all this introversion makes you sure that you come off as distant to most as people don't understand what they don't know and how if affects you. There are many conversations you'd like to have that need to occur only in your head. People that have found themselves in this space know what I'm talking about.
For me Digital Forensics is something that I'm at the forefront of - creating the techniques and strategies and developing the basis for what I teach. I don't read a few books on something and then teach what I read. I teach what I learn by initial discovery and in this case write the book. This isn't to slam other fields that are more established - they have their challenges too. But for me Digital Forensics isn't read chapter 1, do the questions in the back of the book, and then go on to the next chapter. The field changes so quickly and the element I hope to equip an army of former students against is formidable.
I'll give you much more on Chile and the Fulbright in the future, but I wanted to lay a little ground work to provide context for this whole ordeal.
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