They let me fly last Thanksgiving with an old student ID - with a bright orange sticker on it announcing that it expired in 1992.

I remember travelling into the US, fumbling for my drivers license and the impatient US Customs officer jsut grabbed the first picture ID that appeared, which was my three year since expired student ID. Then he didn't know what Archives were, so I had to explain that...

I'm working out Nilly's itinerary and health insurance, today.

Question for Nilly's New York hosts: She'll be flying from San Fran to New York for the last week of her trip. JFK or La Guardia?

Is Nilly only doing a week on the East Coast?

She said a week and hopefully more. We have to hammer it all out, and it depends on the length of her tourist visa, I would think, and who will be hosting her in New York.

Who is hosting Nilly in New York? I'll need to be in toouch with the person responsible for picking her up from the airport and taking her back so I can make sure they have a copy of her itinerary. I'm not sure if she'll need it for her ticket, but also a name, aaddress, and phone number for her New York host for emergency contact info, and for the airline (in case there's a change in the flight, they'll need to contact her).

I'm also starting her health insurance paperwork (she needs it for her stay), and usually just get the Blue Cross short term plan.

Blue Cross is in NY, right?

I ask because the DCistas really want her to come down, and I have enough volunteers to pay for her ticket, and several hosting offers. I'm happy to coordinate the DC leg of her trip, if that's an issue. Or I can just give you the info that I have.

The NYC host is Trudy, I believe. Blue Cross is indeed in NY. (Or, at least, I'm 99% sure it is.) If Nilly will be in DC after my exams (which looks likely -- they end on August 27 or maybe 26), my offer to host still stands.

Looks like yes, she's planning a few days in DC.

We;re trying to work out whether we'll have her travel agent work out her itinerary and fax me the bill, or whether I'll do it all here and she can pick up her tickets at the counter. The trip looks complex enough that it'd be better to have her travel agent do it all for her.

Are we still doing okay money-wise, Allyson, or is it still too early to tell?

Another option is for Nilly to fly from the West Coast into Boston and leave for Israel from DC. I've offered to host her in Boston and drive her from Boston to NYC; I'm pretty sure others have offered to get her from NYC to DC.

If I'm only complicating things, Allyson, just tell me to shut up.

The other amusing discovery - if they took your nail clippers away at security so that you couldn't, you know, hijack the plane? Not to worry, you can buy a new pair at the gift shop inside the security area at LaGuardia.

At Incheon (Korea), they don't allow batteries on the planes for some reason (I guess you could make a tiny bomb out of one, but wouldn't you need a bunch of other, more illegal stuff to make it work?), and none of the gift shops sell them either. Luckily, when they scanned my bag, they didn't actually find my batteries, so I ended up having enough to power the Game Boy for the whole flight.

Blue Cross is national, I believe. And LaGuardia is probably the more convenient airport, but not by so much that it should the the primary ticket-buying consideration.